Lucy In The Sky With F-14s . . . Or, Top Gun Reboot

Recently, I got to thinking about what would make an interesting film.  Ideally, it would be engaging, decently plotted, fast paced and fun. 

Let me back up a bit.  Me and my buddy were hanging out and I said something like, "Even though I thought it was a terrible movie, I really want to see Pacific Rim."  Something about the swaggering ridiculousness of that movie appealed to me. 

But then he commented that all the bad parts would still be bad, but wouldn't be moderated by being unexpected.  I'd know when to cringe and when to sigh.  All I really wanted was to have fun.

So I said something like, "You know what would be fun?" 

That's the idea I want to talk about for a second.

What if we remade Top Gun?  Yep, bring back Maverick and Goose and Iceman and Joker and all the rest.  Exact same story, exact same script.  Update it just a bit by putting them in F-22s and make the MiGs Chinese planes. 

Except instead of this . . .

The only difference is that Maverick is a woman.

Think about it for a second.  Charlie is still a woman.  Goose is still a dude.  The love story remains unchanged except that in the new world where "Don't ask, don't tell" has been repealed, this kind of story makes sense.  (I'd even keep the music.)  But instead of a testosterone fueled romp, it takes on a whole new meaning and there's no inherent reason to even change the dialogue.  (Except for a few pronouns here and there.)

We get this.

It's still a great movie.  It is still full of great action, cheesy dialogue, intense rivalry and random volleyball game in the middle of the movie.  And lest you concern yourself that much of the narrative occurs in the men's locker room--easy fix!  Instead they banter in the gym (or if you want to go CRAAAZY just make it coed). 

So here's your homework for the weekend.  What's your favorite action movie and how does it change (or better yet, how does it remain the same) if you make your protagonist a woman?