Top Gun: Maverick

The original Top Gun has been criticized by many for being military propaganda; a claim that has some credibility considering the influx of young men who applied to be ‘fly boys’ after seeing this movie in 1986. Considering the current political climate, and the similarity between now and the cold-war-filled 80s, the need for a Top Gun movie has never been stronger.

It would’ve made sense for a Top Gun sequel to come out two or three years after the first one. Well, in reality, there was a tentative plan to create a Top Gun sequel in the 80s, however, the lead actor, Tom Cruise, did not want to be stuck in the typecast of ‘Maverick’. This is ironic now because he has been playing the same character in the Mission Impossible movies for about 30 years. Since Goose's story is over, there is no need to continue the Top Gun story, right?

However, this movie, Top Gun: Maverick, is triumphant, in the sense that it takes an original movie and improves upon it. The story of Rooster and Maverick is frankly more compelling than the story of Goose and Maverick, but there needed to be the base of Goose and Maverick for Rooster's character to come to full fruition.

This summer has truly been a resurgence of an 80s-like culture and aesthetic. With the unexpected charting of Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up that Hill’ because of Stranger Things Season 4’s release in July. Maybe this has something to do with the success of the second Top Gun movie.

Top Gun: Maverick was scheduled to come out a couple of years ago during the height of covid, but due to the pandemic, it was pushed back until this summer. Coincidentally at the same time as there was a bubbling of conflict between America and Russia, just like in the 80s. One could consider the villains in Top Gun: Maverick, a sort of Russian figure but of course, they have no faces or names or anything to prove that they are of any different country or nationality.

The new batch of students at Top Gun Academy consists of Rooster, Hangman, Phoenix, Yale, Harvard, and Bob, who’s nomenclature I do not understand even though I have watched the movie twice. They are a more community-based group, unlike the first movie, where it was sort of Goose and Maverick versus Iceman and his posse.

At the end of the first movie, Maverick was at the top of his game. He could’ve chosen any path in the future for him, but he chose to be an instructor at Top Gun. Since the events of the first movie, he has become a test pilot for a plane called ‘Darkstar’, the use of which is unexplained in the movie. He returns to Top Gun, however, to teach this new batch of students about how to defeat the faceless terrorist group that is supposedly attacking the US.

Throughout the movie, there is a sense of mutual hatred between Rooster and Maverick, which is not what one would expect. As in his life, Goose and Maverick were the best of friends. I originally interpreted this as a sort of blaming of Goose‘s death on Maverick from Rooster. For those unaware, Goose died in an accident, where he had to be ejected from a plane, but his head slammed into the cover of the cockpit and killed him on impact.

Some could say that this is because of Maverick's foolhardiness leading him to do a risky maneuver that resulted in Goose's death. That is what I originally interpreted the animosity between Rooster and Maverick as being. However, this is not true at all. Rooster does not like Maverick purely because Rooster wants to be a flyboy, and Maverick thinks it’s unsafe. It is perfectly reasonable for Maverick to believe that it isn’t safe to be a flyboy because Rooster's father and Maverick’s best friend died as a flyboy.

Overall, this movie was a well-needed action comedy that didn’t feel like a remake or a direct sequel. The term ‘reboot’ does not describe this movie, because it doesn’t feel like an unnecessary rehashing of the original. This feels more like a reflection of Top Gun; a ‘refresh’ of the film, perhaps. If you enjoy 80s music, shots of planes, Miles Teller’s shirtless dance, or if you have a deep love of ‘Merica, you will enjoy this movie.