Truth & Lies - Lies Booklet

The O has lympu cap s Tri p ture d it 35 all

Lens Cap, Goose

A simple mistake that cost the Trip 35’s moment.

Trip 35’s Cold War

Bringing Secrets over from the Iron Curtain.

LIES TRUTH

A simple mistake that cost the Trip 35’s moment.

I

n the film Top Gun (1986), the humble Olympus Trip 35 is seen in the Watch the Birdie Scene where Goose, played

by Anthony Edwards takes a picture of an enemy fighter pilot while Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, flies upside down above the enemy fighter.

2

TRUTH LIES

Unfortunately, during the filming for this scene, Edwards forgot to take off the lens cap off the camera.

This error wasn’t Edwards & Cruise notice until the main film editor The pilot accepted the was editing this scene, camera, but he was not immediately the editor much of a photographer, informed Tony Scott, the so he gave the camera to director who ordered to one of his navy friends, reshoot the scenes with the who used the camera to camera. document his time in the US Navy.

While planning the re-shoot the Trip 35 was nowhere But for the new Watch the to be found, as the camera Birdie Scene, the Trip 35 was given to the navy pilot camera was replaced by a who flew the F-16 fighter jet Polaroid camera and Tony during the Watch the Birdie Scott made sure that the Scene. lens cap was off during the reshoot.

The original take

The re-shoot

3

Trip 35’s War

Cold

LIES TRUTH

Bringing Secrets over from the Iron Curtain

T

hroughout the Cold War, there were operations from both sides of the Iron Curtain to obtain information on each other. While most operations are still classified, one operation has recently been partly declassified.

This newly declassified information involves a humble Olympus Trip 35 and the Moscow 1980 Olympics games.

Prior to the 1980 Olympics Summer Games in Moscow, America’s Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had many

6

Misha the mascot of the Moscow Olympics

operations to uncover Soviet secrets, this newly declassified operation reveals how CIA agents were trying to uncover secret Soviet weapon development plans.

CIA agents prior the Moscow Olympics, uncovered and took pictures of the blueprints for a new Soviet state of the art fighter jet, but the agents had a problem how to get the film across the Iron Curtain.

But the agents were in luck, the Olympics were starting in Moscow, where many non-Soviet citizens would be in Moscow but, the

TRUTH LIES Americans boycotted the games, so the agents took inspiration from operation Argo, where CIA agents pretended to be Canadians during the Iranian hostage crisis of 1979, but Canada also boycotted the games, so this time the agents pretended to be British spectators.

The agents stole an Olympus Trip 35 from an unfortunate person who travelled to see the games, the agents placed the film which contained the blueprints, inside a film canister and placed the canister into the Trip 35 like normal.

Counties that boycotted the Moscow Olympics games. (shown in blue)

7

LIES TRUTH They waited until the games were over, so they could leave with the rest of the spectators, the agents passed through Soviet security without any hassle.

The agents took a flight to London, so they could hand over the film to the CIA office in the US Embassy, but when they opened the canister the film of the blueprints wasn’t there.

It turns out in newly declassified information from the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), formally called the KGB, were watching the CIA

agents before they obtained the blueprints and were aware they hid the film inside the canister.

The KGB agents switch the film canister prior the CIA agent’s flight.

The images of the blueprints were placed inside the film canister.

8