This is a really curious development, especially since the target/enemy that the big USA military mission is centered around in this movie isn't even named. It was like they deliberately didn't identify which country the USA air strike was being planned against. Based on the particulars of the target (enemy) country being described as "having nuclear weapon capabilities within 3 weeks" (thus the urgent need for the air strike), it made me think of Iran - not China or a Communist country. Even when the USA Naval strike team was inside an enemy base near the site of the air strike, there were no identifying markings and people walking around the base were obscured by dust/smoke. And when you see the enemy fighters from the window of their aircraft, their faces were completely covered with helmets on too. My friend and I both left the theater still wondering who America was supposedly fighting in the movie. That aside, we were both really surprised at how good this movie was - we thought it was much better than the original. We thought it had a great plot (focused on training the top fighter pilots for a specific, near-impossible air strike mission) with lots of exciting moments and action scenes that were well executed. I don't go see that many Tom Cruise movies, but my friend wanted to go and I was in a huge need of a diversion after having a terribly stressful day. And I was pleasantly surprised by this movie.