Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of Top Gun: Maverick, became a living embodiment of the “Consume Product” meme while promoting the upcoming film.
For those unfamiliar with the meme, Know Your Meme explains it gained popularity after Red Letter Media host Jay Bauman responded to co-host Rich Evans’ questioning the casting of Ben Affleck playing Joker after recently playing Batman.
Bauman told Evans, “Don’t ask questions just consume product and then get excited for next products.”
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Bruckheimer became the living embodiment of the meme while promoting Top Gun: Maverick with The United Kingdom’s The Times.
When asked about the film’s controversy surrounding Maverick’s jacket replacing both the Japanese flags and Taiwanese flags, Bruckheimer responded, “Just enjoy the movie.”
He added, “We make movies that entertain people. Don’t worry about all that stuff.”
The jacket has been changed in Top Gun: Maverick with not only the the removal of both the Japanese and Taiwanese flags, but also the removal of Far East Cruise 63-4 above the flags and USS Galveston below the flags. The original patch commemorated a “real-life US battleship’s tour of Japan, Taiwain, and the Western Pacific” reported Military.com.
Instead the jacket now reads Indian Ocean Cruise 85-86 above the flags and United States Navy below the flags. It’s unclear what the patches are that replaced the Japanese and Taiwanese flags.
Ironically, earlier in the interview, Bruckheimer admitted that he makes movies so as not to offend any potential movie markets.
He said, “You don’t want to shut off markets. When you make an expensive movie you want to give the studio the best opportunity to make money. It has got harder. You have to figure out a way to create a villain who is multinational or doesn’t have a home.”
The film’s writer Christopher McQuarrie previously claimed that Maverick’s bomber jacket was the biggest creative challenge for the film’s star Tom Cruise.
He told Empire, “The biggest thing was the jacket. Tom was really struggling with the jacket.”
He explained, “The jacket was a huge deal to a lot of people. Everybody was saying, ‘It’s a big part of who Maverick is!’ I thought, ‘I could barely describe the jacket to you.’ It’s not Indiana Jones’ hat. It’s not Superman’s cape. It’s an aviator jacket.”
Cruise, who reprises his role as Maverick, claimed he didn’t want the jacket to return, “I was like, ‘This is ridiculous. I’m not going to wear this!’”
However, he also noted, “It was part of the legacy of the first one. How do you know what to leave out and what to add in?”
As for exactly why the jacket returns, Cruise explained, “We finally figured out how to put it in. It’s a lucky jacket.”
McQuarrie elaborated, “Now, we have him open a closet and go into the back and pull the thing out and wear it for a special occasion. I said to Tom, ‘You wear the jacket, the jacket doesn’t wear you.’ Maverick is still Maverick, but he’s not stuck in the past.”
What do you make of Bruckheimer becoming the living embodiment of the consume product meme?