The Fake Plane Made Up For 'Top Gun: Maverick' Fooled The Chinese, Producer Says

While there are plenty of real planes in Top Gun: Maverick, one of the central plot points surrounds Darkstar — a plane made up solely for the movie. Set designers created a full-sized mockup of the plane.

"The Navy told us that a Chinese satellite turned and headed on a different route to photograph that plane. They thought it was real. That’s how real it looks," Bruckheimer told Sandboxx News

It's similar in design to the SR-72 — part of the SR-71 Blackbird family — seen here. Bruckheimer says the movie took guidance from engineers at Lockheed Martin's legendary Skunk Works division, which has worked on a wide range of secret projects over the years.

Darkstar may not be a real plane. But when we're talking about a full-sized mockup of a plane designed by engineers known for creating secretive, cutting-edge planes, it's totally understandable that a spy satellite might want to take a closer look.

All directors want to make their movies feel real and lived-in. To have China take an interest in a movie prop because they believed it was a new top-secret aircraft is a pretty big win for the prop designers.

The trend may have started with 1997's Titanic, a movie that used at least some of its $200 million budget on scale models of the doomed ship, some of which were almost as large as the ship itself.

The original Top Gun didn't always come off as particularly realistic, but its long-awaited sequel is a bit different. In fact, the movie's stars actually experienced extreme g-forces while training in real military aircraft.

Thirty-six years after the original, Top Gun: Maverick will be released later this month. At that time, audiences can decide for themselves whether the fictitious aircraft is convincing enough to fool spy agencies.