China's military left red-faced as footage of fighter jets bears an uncanny resemblance to cult classic Top Gun



Chinese government officials were left red-faced after a television broadcast purporting to show their crack fighter pilots gunning down another jet was accused of being faked.

The footage of a jet whistling a missile into another plane, causing it to explode in a dramatic fiery fashion, looks remarkably similar to the classic 1986 Hollywood film top Gun, which helped launch the career of 25-year-old Tom Cruise, who played lead character Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell.

State-sponsored China Central Television (CCTV) aired the video last week as part of its main evening broadcast and claimed that the film showed one of the country's new Chinese J-10 fighter jets shooting the missile at an enemy plane in a training exercise.



Scroll down to watch the original broadcast

Spot the difference: The footage from the broadcast (right) looks remarkably similar to Top Gun's final fight scene

Maverick: A young Tom Cruise starred in 1986 film Top Gun - and the Chinese military have ripped off scenes and passed it off as their own

The training exercise by the People's Liberation Army Air Force was shown on January 23 and it didn't take long before one movie buff spied a clip where the enemy plane is blown up rather closely matched a key snippet of action from Top Gun's final fight scene.

If this is the case, it's a pretty big gaffe to make, especially when you consider that the film remains a cult classic, and has grossed over £220million at the box office.



The Wall Street Journal has since created a video which compares the news clip with the famous film scene... and there are uncanny similarities.

Look familiar? When the plane is blown up in the CCTV broadcast (right) it appears to be exactly the same as in the 1986 film

Popular: Cruise as Maverick in the cult film, which has grossed over £220million at the box office

The original footage has been pulled from CCTV in an attempt to avoid further embarrassment, but bloggers have already grabbed what they need and have heaped scorn on the China for allegedly trying to pass off the action as their own.

If the story is found to be legitimate it would not be the first time Chinese media have lifted material for a news broadcast from Hollywood without adhering to copyright laws.

Four years ago Xinhua - another state-run station - reportedly used an X-ray image of Homer Simpson's head to illustrate a story about the genetic link to multiple sclerosis.



D'oh, indeed.



