Tom Cruise was very concerned about being able to sit on a real fighter jet. He insisted on adding two guarantee clauses to his contract.
First, I must have actual shots of myself riding in a Navy fighter jet. Second, these shots must appear in the final film.
Ronald only has the right to edit, and Paramount has the final power to decide the length of the film. So Ronald's agreement was not enough, so the two producers submitted Tom Cruise's request to Paramount for review.
Soon, Paramount agreed to Cruise's request and signed a film contract with him.
Ronald felt that the reason why Paramount agreed so simply was because they did not agree on how many seconds of live footage Tom Cruise needed to appear in the fighter jet.
The original intention of Tom Cruise in adding this clause may be that he wanted to take the opportunity to satisfy himself more and enjoy his time on the fighter jet.
Soon, in the "Hollywood Report", Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer appeared in the preview column of new projects to be filmed. They vaguely mentioned that new projects are being prepared. And Ronald
Li is expected to serve as director.
Ronald did not accept the newspaper's request for an interview or comment on this. Preparations have just begun. The first issues are to solve the script review and the shooting method of the air battle.
The producers hired two screenwriters, Jim Cash and Jack Epps, to flesh out the script.
Ronald went to see "Long Legs" Christy Fox to discuss how to shoot fighter planes and fights in the air.
"Long Legs" Fox is a true aerodynamic selection expert. She works as a researcher at Miramar Naval Air Base, providing technical analysis support to the Navy.
Every Wednesday and Saturday, the bar in the base is crowded with pilots who come to drink and have fun.
Ronald met "Long Legs" Fox here, and the two could hardly communicate amidst the noise. Long Legs took him to his apartment.
"Long Legs" also has a handsome boyfriend, and today's young people are really useless." An older pilot drank beer and hated those young people.
"Ignore them, young men use these to vent their excess energy." Long Legs was a bit manly, and immediately pointed at the pilots who were about to come up, warning them not to cause trouble.
"It seems you are very popular here." Ronald smiled.
"I will rate their flight performance." Long Legs opened the door to his apartment.
"These are models of two naval fighter jets currently in service. This is Grumman's F-14 Tomcat fighter, and this is McDonnell Douglas's F/A-18 Hornet fighter attack aircraft." She took two large ones.
airplane model and handed it to Ronald.
Ronald didn't really know much about fighter jets, so he took two models and started playing with them.
"This wing can move." Ronald held a delta-wing aircraft, found a switch, and pulled it back. The front half of the delta wing unfolded forward like a big bird, turning into an open
wing.
"That's a Tomcat. It opens up when taking off and landing at low speeds to obtain greater lift. When it breaks through the sound barrier, it sweeps back into a delta wing to reduce drag."
"Oh, that's right." Ronald liked this aircraft at first sight. It looked better than the other boring Hornet.
"The vision is very good, and pilots also like Tomcat. It can mount multiple Sidewinder air-to-air combat missiles and Vulcan 20mm cannon. The improved model can also mount bombs for ground attack."
"So, what kind of opponents will the F-14 Tomcat encounter on the ocean from the Soviet Union?"
"There are two main ones. The first is their MiG-21 fighter jet." Long-legged Christie took two more models from the cabinet. They were not products from a toy company, but they looked like models she made out of wood herself.
The long legs held up a small airplane with a nose and a cone and said,
"The MiG-21 supersonic fighter. Most of the alliance's fighter jets take off from shore bases to harass and conduct inspections on our aircraft carrier formations. They have a 30mm cannon and can also be equipped with radar or infrared guided missiles."
"What about this one?" Ronald pointed to the big plane.
"This is the Tu-22m Backfire supersonic bomber, which can be equipped with anti-ship missiles. Our F-14 Tomcat has the task of fighting it and protecting the aircraft carrier formation."
"How can we fight such a big plane?" Ronald looked at the size of the bomber. It was so big.
"This is a military secret. I can't tell you. If you want to know, you can join the navy."
"Hahaha..." Seeing that military secrets were involved, Ronald stopped asking.
He took a fancy to the F-14 Tomcat fighter jet. This aircraft is very beautiful in appearance and has variable wings. It is more likely to take wonderful shots in aerial combat.
As for his two main opponents, Ronald still prefers the MiG-21. That Backfire is too big and it is probably difficult to find an aircraft to take actual photos of it.
They are the only two, and they happen to be the real good and bad guys in the movie.
"By the way, our American Navy has MiG-21s, right?" Ronald wanted to ask the Navy to borrow a few of them to serve as enemy aircraft.
"Who told you?" Long Legs' expression suddenly became nervous.
"No one? If not, we would still have to build a model and use other aircraft to simulate the MiG-21? Which aircraft do you think is closer to simulating the MiG?"
"The MiG-21 is a single-seat, single-engine light fighter. Our Navy's F-5 Freedom Fighters are relatively close to it." Long Legs saw that Ronald did not bother with the Pentagon's top secret, the MiG-21 imaginary enemy squadron. I thought of him.
The film director may not know this clearly, he may just say it casually.
"Well, okay", Ronald wrote down the aircraft model in his notebook, "Why does this F-14 Tomcat have two seats in the cockpit, one in front and one in the back?"
"This is a two-seat, twin-engine heavy fighter. The front is the pilot's seat, and the back is the radar weapon officer, responsible for detecting and identifying enemy aircraft and issuing attack instructions."
"I want to shoot the kind of dogfighting scenes in air combat, just like the feeling of X-wings fighting TIE fighters in Star Wars. Is there any way you can think of?" Ronald couldn't put it down because of the F-14 model, so he simulated it with his hands.
Perform various actions.
"You have three options." Long Legs picked up another plane and signaled.
"First, you install a camera on the F-14, so that you can simulate the pilot's perspective and take various first-person perspective pictures from inside the cabin to the outside.
Second, you can install a camera on his wingman, which can simulate aircraft approaching, air combat, dog fighting, etc. The audience will feel like they are watching the aircraft fighting at close range.
Third, you can use another aircraft to shoot next to the two fighting aircraft, which can reflect the relative positions and attack tactics of the several aircraft."
"Wow, you also have a very deep understanding of photography." Ronald couldn't help but sigh, Long Legs is not only an official researcher of the Navy, but how come he knows so much about photography?
"I was written about in that issue of California magazine. The protagonist photographer was my partner, and we discussed a lot of shooting methods." Christy Fox laughed.
"I'm so lucky." Ronald looked at Long Legs. This turned out to be the prototype of the heroine in the script who fell in love with the hero played by Tom Cruise.
"So, I wonder if it would be an honor to invite Miss Long Legs to dinner?" Ronald also wanted to talk more about photography with this female expert.
"My pleasure." Long-legged Christy adjusted her old-fashioned black-rimmed glasses and agreed to Ronald.
The two found a Japanese restaurant. Ronald ordered the most expensive items on the menu, and then asked Long Legs what he wanted to drink.
“Their sake is pretty good.”
The two of them had a great time eating sushi and sashimi with yellow mustard and sake. Ronald deliberately flattered her and asked her to serve as the film's technical consultant. Long Legs also thought that making movies was a very interesting thing, so he agreed.
"Does the F-14 have any special stunts? We wanted to make the movie like a Western from the 1980s, but instead of using revolvers, cowboys fight with advanced fighter jets."
"That being said, the F-14 can actually do a very interesting action." Long Legs stretched out his hands, simulating a dogfight between two fighter jets.
"The one in front is an F-14, and the one behind is a MiG-21. The meaning of dog fighting is that the two sides are fighting to get behind each other, just like two dogs biting each other on the ground."
Ronald took out his notebook again and wrote down.
"The aircraft's cannon fires forward, and air-to-air missiles can only be fired at targets at a certain angle in front. So whoever occupies the six o'clock position behind the opponent can shoot down the opponent."
Ronald thought that the name of this dog fight was really appropriate. Thinking back to his ancestors, who flew fighter jets with only cannons, they must have been dog fighting like this in the air.
"Now the F-14 in front can suddenly pull up the nose and reduce the engine output." The hand in front of the long legs suddenly raised its head and flew towards the high altitude.
"In this case, the speed of the F-14 will slow down and maintain a combat posture with a large angle of attack." The long-legged hand was raised upward, as if a fighter jet had exposed its belly.
"And the speed of the MiG-21 behind it remains at the original speed of tracking the front aircraft, and it will rush..." The other hand of the long-legged man quickly moved forward, rushed over the head, and reached the other hand's
Front.
"Will he rush in front of the F-14 Tomcat?" Ronald showed an expression of sudden realization. In this way, the F-14 Tomcat in front turned into the tail of the MiG-21 and was hunted in one movement.
Became a predator.
"Yes, you understood quickly, so that the tomcat could appear in the attacking position." Changjiao retracted his hands.
"What if the MiG-21 also comes here?" Ronald had doubts again.
"That's impossible," Long-Legged Christie laughed. "Such a high-angle-of-attack combat maneuver is like suddenly braking in the air. Only a twin-engine heavy fighter can do it. The MiG-21 was caught by the Tomcat like this. I'm afraid
It’s impossible to escape.”
"Yeah," Ronald wrote it down again. This meal was a very good deal. This kind of detail can be included in the script, and the audience will enjoy it. Technically, it is basically in line with the capabilities of the F-14.
"But not everyone can do this kind of maneuver. Only ace pilots with many years of flying experience can do it."
"Why? Isn't this very simple?" Ronald made the same movement as pulling the handbrake on a car, "Isn't this like air braking?"
"First of all, your action is very correct. The aircraft's engine throttle decreases backward and increases forward. But this action is very dangerous." Longjie stretched out his hand to simulate a fighter jet.
"When pulling up the nose of the plane, reduce the engine output at the same time. In this way, a slight swing of the nose can easily cause stalling and horizontal spiral."
"Horizontal spiral?" Ronald asked.
"A stall means that the plane has no forward speed and no longer flies forward. The nose of the plane starts to rotate in one direction. The whole plane is like a top, spinning on the horizontal plane. Soon you will crash."
"So scary?"
"Yes, in fact, there were similar accidents with early models of the F-14." Long Legs chose something that could be discussed publicly and told Ronald.
"Great, these are all good materials that can be used in movie stories." Ronald asked the boss to bring hot soup and then settled the bill.
"By the way, if we need to install cameras on the aircraft, which department of the Navy should we contact for this matter?"
"You shouldn't go to the Navy, you should go to the manufacturer of the F-14, Grumman. They'll be interested."
"Really? They're going to help me put cameras on the plane and test them?"
"Yes, believe me, they will definitely help, maybe for free." Long Legs finished drinking the hot soup, stood up with Ronald, and prepared to return to the base.
Grumman's expensive new order has been questioned within the Navy. As long as this movie can be made and the Tomcat's elegance and lethality are shown in front of the American people, he will definitely be able to get subsequent orders.