To quote a few real life pilots about Top Gun 2's plot, here is the realistic rewritten of the story:

- Maverick died 5min into the movie at march 10. *('cause only in Holywood someone would survive that).
- Scene skip to the destroyer launch a bunch of cruise missile and destroy the target without the need of any planes. 'Cause that exactly how the Pentagon would handle that mission in real life.
- The end.

But then, that kind of realism doesn't make a movie.


About the sunder scene: it's called stage play, and the one saw is a well executed one. You definitely won't pull off something like that without some professional training. Does that mean everyone like it? Of course not. But at the same time I don't think "realism" is a valid criticism either. You can compare two plays and debate which one is better. But for example, saying a play is better made into a movie isn't a valid comparison. After all, a Shakespeare play doesn't share the same goal as a Hollywood action flick.



And the last part about why the Ancient doesn't fight. They always say you need both a will and a mean. At the on set, the Ancient lacked both. I don't think reaching Endsinger is an issue, but even if they face her ... then what? While it's true the sundering thin out the aether, I would think the main, or at least the other half of the reason was to train the mentality that can accept suffering. The former is the "mean", the latter is the "will". It is within reason to say they can get around the "mean" part given how advance and powerful the ancient were, but they would never achieve the "will" due to the nature of their society. It's a battle they certainly could have fought, and one that they would definitely lose.