Chinese CCTV Broadcaster Uses 'Top Gun' Footage In Military Drill (VIDEO)

Broadcast by China Central Television, the footage was said to have been passed off as an air force training drill showing a Chinese J-10 fighter plane firing a missile and destroying a rival aircraft.

As the Guardian reports, however, eagle-eyed movie buffs were reportedly able to detect distinct similarities between the aired footage and the climactic aerial combat sequence of Top Gun, the 1986 blockbuster which helped launch Tom Cruise to stardom.

Though the aforementioned footage has been distributed around the blogosphere, it has since been removed from CCTV, and the Wall Street Journal notes no mention of an air force training story exists. If the story is legitimate, it wouldn't be the first time Chinese media have re-purposed Hollywood-produced material without authorization for use in a news broadcast. In 2007, the state-run Xinhua news agency reportedly used an X-ray image of Homer Simpson's head to illustrate a story about the genetic link to multiple sclerosis.

Watch comparison footage of the Chinese broadcast with the final Top Gun scene here, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal:

Comments

[Paul The Octopus]

01:25 AM on 02/04/2011

So?

[JacklynD]

06:16 PM on 02/03/2011

Wow, I didn't realize Fox News broadcasts in China too.

[StringHerBell]

09:55 AM on 02/03/2011

Great. Can't wait unitl China officially rules the world.

[patrickmcdougal]

05:49 PM on 02/03/2011

Don't hold your breath, I'm still waiting for the Soviet Union and Japan global domination.

[liquidskycaptain]

05:15 PM on 02/02/2011

I feel the need for dim sum.

[StringHerBell]

09:55 AM on 02/03/2011

racist.

[patrickmcdougal]

05:50 PM on 02/03/2011

Chinese food is a race?

[JacklynD]

06:15 PM on 02/03/2011

I love dim sum

[sunmocker1970]

08:14 AM on 02/02/2011

If they start talking about Army drills, look for the t-800 terminators in the next to last frame....

[iconoclast6]

12:05 AM on 02/02/2011

They must have taken "journalism" classes from the gang at PHOCKS.

[MrSimythe]

11:30 PM on 02/01/2011

FOX News...I mean CCTV should be ashamed...

[CyberJoe]

06:08 PM on 02/01/2011

Sounds like Fox News has set up operations in China.

[picaman]

04:21 PM on 02/01/2011

Oh Crap! You know what this means? They have figured out how to clone Tom Cruise!

[TitaniumAvatar]

03:27 PM on 02/01/2011

This will give the GOP the idea to use the Volleyball scene as part of some post-DADT nightmare to scare their constituents.

[tweeksmom]

10:14 AM on 02/01/2011

There is nothing, and I do mean nothing, that the Chinese won't try to rip off....

[TYRANNASAURUS]

10:01 AM on 02/01/2011

The inscrutable Chinese are still inscrutable.

[javajava]

02:16 PM on 01/31/2011

Wow.., the Chinese taking license with American products. earth shaking..

[Cranmer1549]

01:55 PM on 01/31/2011

Whoa, somebody is going to be executed for this.

[kemah]

11:59 AM on 01/31/2011

For those who complain about cheap Chinese goods:
It is the wholesale buyers who dictate the quality of the goods to be bought and sold to us.
What Wal Mart and the rest of the big box stores want cheap stuff to sell to us at ten times the cost. It is called planned obsolence. They would rather buy and buy for $3 pair of tennis shoes to sell to us for $30, which only last 3 months. This way the sell us shoes 4 times per year. I know because I have worked in China and have seen the quality of goods produced for home consumption vs the export stuff.
Cheap goods are what Wal Mart and the rest dictate the Chinese manufacturer to produce for a greater profit for Wal Mart.

[ChicagoBob]

04:18 AM on 02/01/2011

You are correct.

F. & F.

[angrymanspokane]

11:24 AM on 02/01/2011

Sadly, you are absolutely correct. We are doing this to ourselves.