My youngest has a hockey camp this week, and on the way back from dropping him off I had to stop off at the local Fleet Farm to pick up a bag of pig food for our two friends out in the back pasture who are on the final homestretch. I had ordered the final couple feed bags from the local feed store which get in later tonight, hoping that what they had out there was going to see them through until then. But, they are huge and eating a ton, and I went out there last night to check on them, and sure enough the pig feeder was empty and tossed on its side. So, I stopped to get them a bag to tide them over until the real stuff comes tomorrow.
I was already on a bit of an alert, because as I was walking to the register after picking up the food, I passed a large sign with a Cardinal on it. That name, Cardinal, along with the sight of a large Red Bird, had me stop and look for a moment. But, I am not going to get into that sign here.
Out in the truck , I turned the car on. Spotify launched and began playing a suggested playlist, and surprisingly a picture of Tom Cruise comes up on my dash, with the cover art or movie poster for Top Gun: Maverick. Very first song out of the parking lot. Later, I tried to figure out how it dished up Top Gun. A couple days ago a Lady Gaga song popped onto the running playlist for the first time ever (I had never heard the song before) called "Hold My Hand", and that is a song from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack.
So, it must now view the complete soundtrack as fair game, because rather than pull that song up again, it was the opening theme song for the movie, and thus just an instrumental. In looking at the title that was displayed on the screen, it was truncated to simply show: "You've been called back...". Here is a picture of what I saw on my display (I went back to recreate this later - I didn't take a picture right there).
You've been called back.
That phrase caught my attention just given the other story elements. I mean, I've written about a character I've used the actor Tom Cruise to be an analogy for in thinking through his return through Space to an "alien" planet, and that part of this involves a "Call" received through Stones. And here we had Tom standing next to a jet and the words "You've been called back" (it turns out the phrase is truncated for "You've been called back to Top Gun", by the way).
I can't remember exactly if on the way home I flipped to the rest of the soundtrack, or that was later when I was at home (I think then in the car, though), but at some point I pulled up the soundtrack and flipped through it. The third song is simply called "Darkstar", and that caught me eye for a few reasons that should be apparent to readers of this blog.
Based on that - the title I saw and the mention of a Darkstar - I decided to pull up the scene that the Darkstar song is referencing. At the very beginning of the movie, we are introduced to Captain Pete Mitchell (I will get to names at the end) or "Maverick", who is played by Tom Cruise. He is leading a Navy program flying an experimental aircraft called Darkstar. On the day of his next test flight and milestone (to reach Mach 9), he learns that his program is being cut and he will be "grounded". Rather than accept the news, he takes Darkstar out for a final flight, thinking that if he can reach Mach 10, then the program can be saved. Mach 10 is the overall program and mission objective in terms of speed.
Here is the scene from where he is just taking off from the runway on his test flight. It is a bit longer at 8 minutes, but some of the quotes I will pull out here start at around the 5 minute mark if you want to skip ahead for timesake:
As so often happens, it is the dialogue that stood out to me, so let me walk through a little of what I heard and how my brain is working here.
"He's the fastest man alive"
A big theme of this blog in relation to the identity of Faramir and other characters that symbolically represent him is Speed. "Faster than a speeding bullet" (Kal-El), a "swift messenger" (Jah ni hah), Lightning McQueen ("I am speed"), Gordon Mackenzie ("the Eagle turned as quick as light"), and other including recently The Flash, I guess. All of these characters have been tied to the Faramir character for other reasons than just speed, also have this one common element as well. And here we have Tom Cruise ("The Twin to Sail Across") also being called "the fastest man alive". There is something to this, I think, and obviously gets back to Stones, for me in my story. Which then further reminds my of my dream of the "Car" (representing a Stone), where I sat inside it was thinking of the possibilities of what could be done with it.
But he has to go faster than this. Mach 9 is great, but it is only Mach 10 that saves everybody. As Maverick mentions at the beginning of his flight when he has a chance to turn back, he knows what will happen to everybody if he doesn't go through with this. We will get to Mach 10 and its potential meaning in just a moment.
This is, by the way, the second time this week where one of the characters listed above, who is already fast, must find a way to go faster. My children have been watching "The Flash", but I haven't really had a chance to sit down and see any of it lately (after watching the first couple episodes), and so I have no idea what is going on with that whole thing. I did step down a couple nights ago, though, as they were watching one episode, and the scene I walked in on involved The Flash needing to find or unlock the secret for how to go faster - whatever he was doing wasn't enough, and I guess he had travelled back in time to get the answer. I don't know what else was going on with the plot, because again, it was all over the place. I tried to ask a few questions, but my daughter was in no mood to fill me in - this is an example of how that conversation went:
Me: So that dude is a good guy again? He was bad, right? Or, wait, this is back in time, so this was before he was bad?Her: No, Dad, this is the Dr. Harry Wells from Earth 2 - the other dimension - you are thinking of Dr. Wells from Earth 1. He isn't around anymore. These are stupid questions.Me: Well, I am just trying to figure out what is going on - you ask stupid questions, too, sometimes, that I am nice enough to answer.Her: Not as stupid as these ones.
I will note that I left them to it as The Flash was running fast around a particle accelerator in order to generate enough speed to hop into a miniature Black Hole that appeared for him to return to his own time in the future, for reasons that I guess will remain a mystery to me since I don't want to be accused of too many dumb questions.
And actually, one other note on speed I just though of now. Recall what Willy Wonka was concerned about as he, Charlie, and Grandpa Joe were using the Wonkavator at the of the movie to break through the glass and ascend to the sky? It was speed. He was concerned they weren't going fast enough. He said "Faster, faster. If we don't pick up enough speed, we'll never get through!" We also have them literally piercing through a barrier. My sense it that is another tie-in here.
Again, something with this notion of Speed.
"Talk to me, Goose"
Just a few seconds after being called the fastest man alive, he looks at the Sun that is just rising and says the iconic Top Gun phrase "Talk to me, Goose". When he said it, I thought what the heck, let's look up the meaning of Goose. Maybe we have something here?
Sure do, I think. Goose obviously in the movie is Maverick's old wingman who died in the first film. For our purposes we are going to transform him into a female Swan, because we can. In looking up Goose on Etymonline, I noted that it can come from a root word which also includes "Swan" as its meaning. For example, the old Irish (Gaelic again?) geiss means Swan. In a previous post, I gave my guess that Eowyn is Earwen, the Swan Lady. So, here we have Faramir asking for Eowyn to speak to him. Without Eowyn 'speaking' through these Stones, Faramir won't have what he needs to reach "Mach 10" (may take on this immediately below). You have to have what is on the Ithil Stone joined with what is on the Rose Stone.
There is also the common phrase about a Goose that lays a Golden Egg, a potential allusion to the Rose Stone. To "Lay" something can mean to set it down, but it is also a noun which means "a song or story". Songs and stories are, of course, exactly what I think are on these Golden Eggs, and that will in some way enable Faramir to go where he needs to. Geese laying golden eggs came up in Willy Wonka, too.
And actually (partially just to document how my mind is working with this in assembling pieces together), I just remembered that it is Maverick and Goose that sing "Great Balls of Fire", which is another memorable Top Gun scene, and which is actually reprised by Goose's son in the second movie. Great Balls of Fire. Stones? I think I've mentioned that one of the Elvish roots for Fire and Stories or Tales (to Tell) is the same: NAR. Fire and Stories on these Great Balls?
Mach 10
This term or goal in this analogy stood out to me sufficiently that I thought there must be some way (even if very creatively) to make sense of this overriding objective in light of all of this. There is! Though it took me a bit of thinking to get there.
I actually had the idea to take Mach 10 and create an Elvish word for it: Mak ten, or Makten. I don't know - seemed like a clever solution to what they are saying, and why it is so important for Maverick to reach this milestone.
So what does Makten mean in Elvish? Something like "Sword cut straight to arrive-come". My story involves the Brittany Spears piercing or cutting through some barrier or wall:
That is where the Spears come in, and my current guess is that these would be rather strange Spears indeed since they aren't likely to be very sharp in a physical sense. Far from it - round, like a globe. It is the stories and power that is pulled out of them that will do the piercing, like a sharp sword or spear. . . These would be the Spears that pierce whatever darkness, veil, or obstacle that exists, I guess.
Anyway, who knows if that is actually what we can do with Mach 10 here, but when I saw that Makten translated so nicely into something, and there have been so many other word games, I liked it.
Recall that Mak and Mac are part of the name for both the Sword in the story of Izilba and Zhera' (Eowyn and Faramir), called Makmahod, but also the Swordsman of the Sky, Menelmacar. The Sky Walk that the Swordsman goes on also involves piercing or penetrating through something in order to reach his destination.
"You've got balls, stick jockey"
Ed Harris remarks that Maverick has balls once he gets to Mach 10 (and begins pushing the envelope too much afterward). Well, of course he does!.. In order to Makten, Balls are a pre-requisite. Both for him, and I think any other Being that will be making the trip (as Joseph Smith taught, you need a Stone to enter the Celestial Kingdom, or Aman). No ball-less dicks are going to be able to make that journey. As Wormtongue Seth Rollins asked the Gim G's (the Rock and Roman Reigns) in WWE: "Who's got the balls?"
Stick Jockey, was an interesting phrase, and opened up an idea for me, maybe one of the more interesting "New" ideas that I had in thinking about this. Which is good, I am not trying to see these symbols and interpret them in an effort to just support what I already think (though some reconfirmation is appreciated!), but to open up new thoughts. Of everything I thought through, this is what I am most interested to dig into a bit more.
The phrase is slang for a pilot or navigator, but I had to come up with something more meaningful for this as well, given the context. I think I landed on something, but it will take another post sometime to fully explore and see if it works. I will just summarize very briefly the initial bud of a thought in my mind.
Faramir, I have guessed, is this Seer from Joseph's prophecy captured in 2 Nephi 3. Mormons are generally familiar with certain aspects of that chapter because it is commonly used to justify the existence of the Book of Mormon. In Joseph's prophecy, it is stated that two difference records or writings would be joined together: the writings of Judah and Joseph, or more specifically, the fruit of their loins.
As a Mormon missionary, I was taught to take that concept and scripture and cross-reference it with Ezekiel 37, which also mentions two writings belonging to Judah and to Joseph. The writing was said to be on Sticks, and that these Sticks would be joined together in one. Mormons have traditionally interpreted these records or writings as the Book of Mormon (stick of Joseph) and the Bible (stick of Judah). I definitely don't, although I don't know for sure if I have said what they might be instead.
I don't know, actually, and the thought in my head already has some problems I will need to think through, but this mention of the Stick Jockey, in light of Faramir-Tom Cruise being called this aboard a Darkstar after he was already said to have Balls, has me thinking that the Sticks in question are the Ithil and Rose Stones. I have already compared them to Spears that will pierce something, with the Words on them being the thing that does the piercing. A Stick is a Spear. Further, I have suggested that Eowyn is the Jew that is mentioned out of whose mouth (Talk to me, Goose) the Book of the Lamb will come and be joined with the sayings of Joseph that are found on the Rose Stone.
Meaning, to put it more specifically, the Sticks of Judah and Joseph are the Brittany Spears, or Ithil and Rose Stones.
I will need to think through that more - it makes sense a great deal of sense in several ways, but like I said, seems like it could problematic for other reasons that I can point to right off the bat. At the very least, that is where my mind went after hearing Ed Harris say that to Maverick, so it's worth checking into.
Twos-day the 22nd.
Ok, last little symbol before we close out with some fun name games. Not included in the clip above is a small little detail that I took note of.
Before Maverick drives to the hanger where Darkstar is kept, he is shown in, what I guess, is his own little hangar working on an airplane. As he gets ready to head over to Darkstar, we get a shot of the calendar. The date for the test flight is circled with "Mach 9" written, since that was the original test goal before it was changed to Mach 10. So, we know what date it is that Maverick is taking this flight.
That date? You guessed it: Tuesday (Twos-day) the 22nd. 22.
On to names!
Maverick
We've already covered Tom Cruise earlier in looking at Mission Impossible, so let's look at his character, starting with his callsign, and working back to his character name.
I did not know that Maverick was originally intended to refer to a young calf that is found without an owner's brand. That is per Etymonline. Remember that a big part of this story involves Beings being able to "go forth and grow up as calves in the stall", per Jesus' words in Bountiful from 3 Nephi, as part of this Sun/ Son of Righteousness rising up with "healing in his wings".
A calf without an owner or brand might be another way of describing something that is "Free", and that concept is important in that it has come up with Faramir specifically (as Finarfin, and thus not under any Ban or Doom).
But Maverick's real name illustrates that some of these symbols are not likely limited just to Faramir. I have noted in the past that there seems to be a blending or crossover between the symbols and stories surrounding Faramir and Peter, including their names or titles. They are the Gim G's after all - Gim Guru and Gim Githil, so perhaps we should expect that? It just seems the more I look at the symbols and stories, the more you can really interchange them depending on perspective and the narrative.
Maverick is actually Pete Mitchell. Pete is an obvious tie to Peter. Too easy. Mitchell is another form of the name Michael, and I have, strangely, tagged Michael as another name or title for Faramir in several posts, including such fan favorites as Michael Jackson.
Therefore, we have both of the Gim G's represented in the name of Pete Mitchell, or Maverick, and I think this underscores earlier what I wrote about both of them needing the other to accomplish whatever it is that allows the prisoners from this pit to go free. It is a team deal.
By the way, how Theodore (the 3rd Chipmunk or Wiseman) fits into all of this, I have no idea. I didn't have any thoughts regarding Peter-Pharazon-Gim Githil until a few months ago, though, so maybe their story starts to take shape at some point in the future as well. As of right now, I don't think I have any great answers to that mystery.
So, there you go. There are a few other little things I am sure I can pull out of this movie, but you get my point and I was able to identify a new thing I want to look into, which is the possibility that the Ithil and Rose Stones represent what are commonly referred to as the Sticks of Judah and Joseph. Could be a promising path, either to confirm that guess, or to better understand how those writings would interact with what is on these Stones.
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