In the movie "Top Gun" starring Tom Cruise, the aircraft carrier is located in the Indian Ocean.
The carrier is identified in the story as the USS Enterprise, where Lieutenant Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and the other naval aviators fly F-14A Tomcats during patrol and combat missions. The film places the carrier near the Persian Gulf, helping create an intentionally tense Cold War setting without naming the opposing country.
The ship seen in many carrier sequences was actually the USS Ranger, a real U.S. Navy aircraft carrier used during filming. The Ranger stood in for the fictional Enterprise, while the movie’s aerial sequences featured real Navy aircraft and personnel. The carrier’s Indian Ocean setting is also why the climactic encounter with the enemy MiG-28s is framed as a distant overseas mission rather than an exercise near the Top Gun school in California.
A common mix-up is confusing the movie’s location with the Pacific Ocean, because the USS Ranger operated extensively in the Pacific and the film was made largely around California. The story itself, however, places the carrier in the Indian Ocean.