4 ms·

In the movie it's hand-waved away with one line about GPS jamming making the F-35 unusable for the mission. It doesn't make any sense, but I was fine with it. I

by chroma 4y ago

In the movie it's hand-waved away with one line about GPS jamming making the F-35 unusable for the mission. It doesn't make any sense, but I was fine with it. It's not like the original was realistic. As for why they didn't film with F-35s: others have already mentioned that the F-35's single seat makes it impossible to put actors in the cockpit. Other issues are that the F-35 has a lower thrust-to-weight ratio than the F-18, so maneuvers wouldn't look quite as cool. Also the F-35 costs much more to run per hour of flight time, and I'm guessing there are issues with having so many civilians and cameras around the latest generation fighter plane. The chance of some classified information leaking is high. When the one pilot asked, "Why not use F-35s for the mission?", I would have been fine with Jon Hamm looking directly at the camera and saying, "Because this movie is better with F-18s." The choice of fighter plane doesn't really affect the plot. If anything, using older planes improved the movie by raising the stakes when they went up against the Su-57s.

elcritch 4y ago
> Other issues are that the F-35 has a lower thrust-to-weight ratio than the F-18, so maneuvers wouldn't look quite as cool. The scenario setup in the movie at least made this detail seem important. It's plausible to me that the F-18's higher thrust-to-weight ratio could've been critical in the canyon scene while navigating tight turns. Of course, that could be ballocks and the main limitation would be pilot response times, etc. Still it feels plausible.
baud147258 4y ago
> If anything, using older planes improved the movie by raising the stakes when they went up against the Su-57s. Though it made that scene where the characters are in an outdated and badly maintained F-14 slightly less believable. Like in the briefings, going up against the Su-57 with F-18 was seen as a dubious proposition, so with the F-14, the only way they'd survive was with their super-power of being main characters in a modern movie.

by chroma 4y ago

elcritch 4y ago

> Other issues are that the F-35 has a lower thrust-to-weight ratio than the F-18, so maneuvers wouldn't look quite as cool. The scenario setup in the movie at least made this detail seem important. It's plausible to me that the F-18's higher thrust-to-weight ratio could've been critical in the canyon scene while navigating tight turns. Of course, that could be ballocks and the main limitation would be pilot response times, etc. Still it feels plausible.

baud147258 4y ago

> If anything, using older planes improved the movie by raising the stakes when they went up against the Su-57s. Though it made that scene where the characters are in an outdated and badly maintained F-14 slightly less believable. Like in the briefings, going up against the Su-57 with F-18 was seen as a dubious proposition, so with the F-14, the only way they'd survive was with their super-power of being main characters in a modern movie.