The Tom Cruise starrer Top Gun: Maverick is soaring high at the box office worldwide. The film has managed to rake in $127 million over the three-day weekend domestically, and the international markets have contributed $124 million to the film’s box office. It also became Cruise’s first $100 million opening weekend film ever.
While the film’s box office is something everyone has their eyes on, there’s another pressing issue that’s being discussed on the internet. The issue involves a Taiwanese flag and a possible way of angering China; and it all started with a jacket.
For anyone who is still clueless, let us tell you that we are talking about the bomber jacket that Cruise’s character wears in the sequel. In the original 1986 masterpiece, Lieutenant Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell wears the jacket that had patches on the back, as a tribute to his father’s battleship tours to Japan and Taiwan between 1963 to 1964.
The jacket had the Taiwan and Japan flags on it, but they were replaced by random symbols in the sequel’s trailer. When fans noticed the same, many expressed their displeasure. People speculated that the makers might have succumbed to China’s alterations request amid political issues so that the film gets a screening in China theatres. For the uninitiated, China does not recognise Taiwan as an autonomous nation and inclusion of the flag would be seen as a challenge to China’s rule.
However, the flags seems to have made it to the film with a few close-up shots of the jacket confirming that the makers are okay to anger China at this point of time. Hollywood has had a convention of bending to pressure from Chinese censors. We have seen filmmakers removing pictures, dialogues and altering scenes that might be considered offensive in President Xi Jinping’s ruling, but it looks like executives of Top Gun might be going for a new approach.
People flocked to Twitter to show their support:
Earlier, Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. backed out from the $170 million Paramount Pictures production because of the fact that they are associated with a film celebrating the US military might upset the ruling Communist Party. Top Gun: Maverick has not yet been released in China.
Top Gun: Maverick also stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris in key roles. The Paramount Pictures movie is exclusively distributed in India by Viacom18 Studios.
(Featured Image Credits: Paramount Pictures)
