Marauder Blue 6 said:
It's like Top Gun had a baby and Star Wars, The Right Stuff, Iron Eagle, and Behind Enemy Lines are all the father.
I would like to add The Saint with Val Kilmer to the list of fathers to this movie. I saw it for the third time today and it dawned on me that they were talking about Miracle #1 (the low level flight and dropping the bomb on target) and Miracle #2 (egressing the valley). In The Saint, Kilmer talks about the three miracles needed for sainthood and counts them off as the movie progress. The Saint is one of my all time favorite movies and I'm ashamed I didn't make the connection until today.
I also found something to nitpick. I noticed the first two times I saw it but finally figured it out today. At the end of the football scene, as Cyclone walks away from Maverick the shadow on Maverick's face and the shadow on Cyclone are on opposite sides thus they were filmed at two different times and combined together. It's a small detail but definitely something I noticed as being off.