Why Top Gun won the Oscar for sound
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Published 2023-03-10
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One of the most exciting things about Top Gun: Maverick is their emphasis on practical effects. Most times, when you see the film’s actors struggling against high-level g-forces, that struggle is real. The actors spent months training to be in planes doing their own stunts, and the whole film feels grounded because of it.
Most times these sequences were shot practically … but not every time. In the film's incredible seven-minute opener (also known as the Darkstar sequence), nearly everything we see is completely fake. The plane used to go Mach 10 doesn’t really exist yet. It’s a prototype for a plane that will exist in the future, built by Lockheed Martin. While a prototype of that plane was used for taxiing around the runway, anytime we see the plane in the air it’s entirely VFX — impeccable VFX. But beyond the VFX, the thing that makes it feel so real is the sound design.
In this video, Top Gun: Mavericks supervising sound producer Al Nelson breaks down the Darkstar sequence. He explains how his team made a plane that doesn’t exist sound real, and, more importantly, how they leveraged the sound design to be just as emotionally impactful as a piece of orchestrated music.
Note: The headline on this piece has been updated.
Previous headline: How Top Gun made a fake plane sound real
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All Comments (21)
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Al Nelson worked on Top Gun: Maverick’s sound design at Skywalker Sound. Their website has a bunch of info about other projects they’ve worked on, like Avatar and Andor: www.skysound.com/
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The sound design blew me away. Watching this at the movies was just something else.
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Tom Cruise clearly understands all aspects of film making.
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Ed Harris is the definition of professionalism, how did he manage to stay both feet on the ground is a mystery. BTY, this dark star scene is so perfectly done, one of the best movie productions of all time.
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I went to IMAX twice ^^ And sound was 70% of the reason why - it's just something really hard recreate at home cinema :)
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The fact that they didn't put any sort of music during the actual bombing run scene was amazing to see and hear in the theatres, I was on the edge of my seat during that whole sequence. That was the "this is going to get an Oscar" moment for me.
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8:30 the fact Ed basically stood still against an F-18 😂
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I watched this movie on a plane. I started watching before takeoff and as we started taxiing to the runway for takeoff this scene starts to get going, then literally as the pilot slams the throttle forward the plane in the movie started approaching Mach 10 and I'm there in my seat getting shaken around and pushed back in my seat. It was one of the most surreal movie experiences like I was in a simulator experiencing the movie!
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I regret not seeing this film on IMAX. Hands down, the best movie of 2022!
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The sounds of this movie in the cinema were absolutely mind blowing. A big part of why this movie had to be experienced in cinema
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Tell me why discovering that they use elephants to make those Tie fighters sounds in Stars Wars made me giggle so hard. Wow! 😂
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The Darkstar rear-facing scramjet sound is my second-favorite film sound effect. Number one is Star Wars Episode 2's seismic charge detonations, of course.
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The fact that in this scene this all sounds super elegant and really adds to it, then later during the F14-SU57 dogfight scene, they give the jets guns the same sound from a regular machine gun.
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Everything in this film is oscar-worthy, the entire movie is an utter masterwork
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I usually never see films more than once in the theaters but the sound design was one of the reasons I saw this film 3 times in IMAX. Masterfully done.
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I wonder if there were any 'reality is unrealistic' issues in the film. I find it interesting when sound designers (and directors) try to create things that feel real, but given audiences may have no experience with what is being depicted, except generally from other films who face the same dilemma, they have to purposefully distort reality to make things not seem jarring.
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As a sound designer this was perfect.
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I went to watch this movie in 4DX and the kickback you get everytime that plane takes off from the runaway coupled with such an amazing sound design convinced me that cinemas aren't going anywhere but are rather here to stay.
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The sounds were so good that I could feel the sounds next to me because I watched this movie on a plane.
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Wow! The more I watch these films where the directors pour their heart and soul into the projects, the more I appreciate the value of sound design. As an aspiring, student filmmaker, I’ve really tried to capture this type of sound in my new 2-minute horror short film on my channel, but let me tell you, it’s no easy feat 😂. Hats off to those who pull this off, and thank you Vox for such an awesome video!!
