Top Gun: Maverick Review

 

Tom Cruise was just a boy when he made the original Top Gun and now in this decades-later sequel, he is a man fully embodying the more seasoned and mature character of Maverick or to go by his official title Captain Pete Mitchell that drives this ambitious and adrenaline-filled character drama. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, this state-of-the-art picture only exists in the first place because Kosinski approached Cruise in Paris during the filming of Mission Impossible: Fallout (2018) and pitched him on his vision for a Top Gun sequel. When he got to Paris he only had 30 minutes to convince the star that they should make this film a reality. He told him he wanted the emotional core of the film to be the relationship between Maverick and Goose’s son and also told him he wanted to put all the actors up in the jets for real. By that point, Cruise was sold, and he called up the head of Paramount Studios and told him, “We’re making another Top Gun.” Kosinski remarked, “It’s pretty impressive to see the power of a real movie star in that moment.” Cruise has said on multiple occasions that people all around the world have begged him to make a Top Gun sequel for decades but it always came down to a matter of story: if the story wasn’t right he just wasn’t going to make it. Which makes sense as ever since Cruise was four years old his dream was to make movies, fly airplanes, and go to outer space. He does two out of the three here and quite well I might add. 

 

 

SPOILER ALERT: RUN OUT AND WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST!!!

 

Perhaps one of the most delightful aspects of Top Gun: Maverick is its opening sequence. In the opening few minutes, they directly mirror the opening of the original Top Gun with the opening credits and the classic Danger Zone score. I can tell you I was grinning ear to ear when I first saw this play out onscreen. It brought back the excitement and joy of the original Top Gun into my heart following Cruise’s special message to movie theater goers assuring them that he makes movies for the big screen and that this decades-in-the-making sequel is all for us. Kosinski even iterated in an EW interview that they wanted to assure the audience that they were in good hands, saying: "I wanted that first few minutes to just tell you, this is a Top Gun movie, we love it as much you do," he said. "From there, our story goes in a very different direction, but I wanted the first few minutes to let the audience know: Don't worry, we love it too, this is going to be a Top Gun movie."

 

 

Beyond that magical opening sequence, we FADE TO BLACK. And then we are taken into Maverick’s present-day world where he is on the bleeding edge of what’s possible in aviation with him working as a test pilot on the Darkstar. We find Maverick who even though he is a much more mature and seasoned character by this point is still a rebel and a risk-taker as he goes rogue when he doesn’t listen to Ed Harris’s character’s orders to stand down on the Darkstar mission in which he has to go to Mach 10 to save everyone’s jobs in the program. In many ways, this exemplifies the theme of drones vs. pilots and old vs. new showcasing how Maverick is holding on to the old ways just as Tom Cruise is holding on to making movies practically versus with green-screen effects. Naturally, afterwards Maverick finds himself in hot water with the Ed Harris character, who prompts Maverick asking him why of all things after his long and legendary career as a naval aviator is he still a Captain? When he should at least be a two-star Admiral by now or even a Senator. Maverick responds in true form saying “I am where I need to be.” So whereas we find Maverick in a very different situation in his life than he was in the original movie at this point things come full-circle as Maverick who following his Darkstar-stunt is about to be permanently grounded is summoned by Iceman (Val Kilmer) who is now the Commander of the Pacific Fleet to return to Top Gun. And in that moment we hear the old familiar gong, signaling this really is Top Gun. As Maverick returns to Dogfighting Town, USA we see him on his motorcycle and in his old aviator jacket taking in the sight of those jets again while beaming with joy. In that moment he truly is reliving his glory days to the fullest. However, things start to go awry when he learns about a dangerous mission that Maverick will be teaching not flying. And to top things off one of the former Top Gun pilots he will be training is his old wingman Goose’s son, Rooster (Miles Teller). 

 

 

 

This is really where we start to get into the differences between the original film and its follow-up as whereas the original while being a rich coming-of-age film was still very much an 80s film from its music to its tone Top Gun: Maverick contrasts quite a bit as even though it does have great moments of humor is much more focused on a being a character drama of the highest caliber. A great example of this is when Maverick goes to a bar following his mission orders at Top Gun and is reacquainted with his old on-again / off-again flame Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly). Die-hard fans of the original film will remember her as the same character mentioned as the Admiral’s daughter that Maverick had hooked up with in that 80s time period. We get the picture that these two have moved in and out of each other’s lives a number of times over the decades but here she insists she doesn’t want to tempt fate again. Upon being thrown out of the bar quite ironically and humorously by one of his future trainees Hangman (Glen Powell), Maverick overhears Goose's son, Rooster, inside singing “Great balls of fire” to a captive audience. This causes Maverick to flashback to the events of the original film where he and Goose sang the very same song in a very light-hearted moment followed by further flashbacks of Goose dying in Maverick’s arms following a freak accident. So quite surprisingly this turns what was a very fun moment in the original into a very painful and poignant memory in Top Gun: Maverick. The style of flashbacks they used reminded me of NCIS as they often utilize quick and brief but poignant flashbacks to service the drama of the story and they certainly did that to tremendous effect here. 

 

 

As the story kicks into gear the focus of the drama is on the relationship between Maverick and Rooster as they prepare for a very dangerous mission in which in all likelihood somebody will end up not coming home. This makes the stakes very high with life and death being on the table and to provide relief from that we get the romantic subplot between Maverick and Penny in which they re-spark their old relationship once again. Penny is the mother of a teenager now so she has a lot to consider before just letting anyone back into her life. However, she ultimately succumbs to Maverick’s charms when he offers to help her out with a mechanical problem out at sea on her boat. This provides a great moment from the film when Maverick, out of his element on the rocky boat is told by Penny, “You’re supposed to be in the Navy?” To which he replies “I don’t sail boats Penny, I land on them!” 

 

 

 

 

When he returns her to her beautiful palm-tree-side home on his motorcycle he eyes her as she goes inside and before departing hears the sounds of Penny with her daughter. In that moment you can see it in the look Maverick gives that he realizes that’s what he is missing out on. For a character who has been single his whole life and committed to his life in the Navy, the question of whether he wants to be a family man and commit to one woman for the rest of his life is a very deep one that they explore in this chapter of Maverick’s life. The one way I’ll say I think this romance storyline is inferior to the one between Maverick and Kelly McGillis’s character in the first one is the lack of tension between the characters. For sure there is emotional depth and nuance to it with the Pete and Penny figuring out where they fit into each other’s lives and Penny counseling him on what to do regarding Rooster and this dangerous mission he is about to embark on but the original film really had a strong focus on the heat and romance between Maverick and his love interest which I feel like they could have leaned into a lot more in this one. I suppose it would have been too on the nose for them to recreate the “take me to bed or lose me forever” sequence as well but still, yet it would have been even better if they had utilized the phenomenal and ever-tantalizing Jennifer Connelly in that sort of way but what they did here was still great and is for sure relatable to a lot of people in that middle-life age range. And in the absence of Kelly McGillis in the sequel, the pairing of Cruise and Connelly together is actually pretty perfect as she was a mega-star herself in that era with hit films such as The Rocketeer (1991) and Career Opportunities not to mention later films of hers like A Beautiful Mind (2001). 

 

 

The payoff for this film though really lies in its aerial sequences that surround all the great character drama that fuels this picture. Kosinski and Cruise were adamant about having all the actors learn to withstand the G-forces so they could be in the jets for real during the filming which allows for a level of credibility and verisimilitude which is sorely lacking from many blockbusters that come out today. The stunts they pull off are truly incredible and for sure help paint the picture of Maverick as an Alpha-level pilot who by this film’s conclusion becomes an “Ace” having struck down five enemy planes. The tension really goes into high gear in the third act though as the characters embark on the dangerous mission they have spent most of the film preparing for and the danger is certainly real on multiple levels. You can feel it in your bones as the things that go down truly keep you on the edge-of-your-seat and in suspense at all times. And in that surprise twist ending when Maverick makes the heroic sacrifice to save Rooster and gets struck down, he faces combatant enemy fire on the ground prompting a signature Tom Cruise run. Though in an emotionally satisfying beat, Rooster comes to save him, his plane also being destroyed. Both of them on the ground, they must fight to get back up in the air and return home in one piece. At this point it feels like Top Gun: Maverick has morphed a bit into Mission: Impossible and I half-expected Maverick to take on the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat but as cool as that would have been instead we got to see Maverick and Rooster rush to get an old F-14 (the jet they flew in the original) into the air and face a deadly dogfight with the terrifying shadow state’s fighter pilots.  The way everything climaxes is so well-crafted and executed that it without a shadow of a doubt makes this sequel far superior to the original when it comes to the aerial sequences. 

 

 

As the plot winds to a close we find Maverick and Rooster closer than ever with Maverick taking on a true father-figure role to him while Maverick also reunites with Penny and her daughter making the family complete. The film’s ending mirrors the original’s ending with the ending credits showcasing the main stars of the film in incredibly satisfying movie-star fashion. 

 

 

So in conclusion Top Gun: Maverick certainly exceeds the original in numerous ways but at the same time, the original still does some things better in terms of its soundtrack and romantic storyline overall. And I can’t end this review without mentioning how amazing Val Kilmer was in this film as the veteran actor reprises his role as Iceman to perfection. The harsh reality is that Kilmer has suffered from throat cancer in the past which has left him without the ability to speak and they reflected that in the story as Iceman’s wife tells Maverick upon his visit that “even speaking is painful now.” However, surprisingly at the end of the duo’s heartfelt conversation Iceman… speaks. Upon watching this in the theater I just thought that Kilmer was really speaking and pushing through the pain in order to pay service to that character which he made iconic 36 years ago but I later learned that they actually had to re-create Kilmer’s iconic-sounding voice via the use of AI. I have to say I think they did a pretty good job as I was certainly convinced he was speaking for real. Looking ahead Tom Cruise has Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Parts 1 and 2 coming, but could a Top Gun 3 be in the cards? On the one hand, I’m not sure I believe that Cruise would want to return to this world yet again after knocking it out the park a second time in a row and they may just want to let it be. However, you should never say never though, and if another great story is cracked for a trilogy-ender of sorts as there is potentially a great rich tapestry of story to be mined out of Maverick’s third act. Let’s just hope if Top Gun 3 is destined to be it doesn’t take another 36 years to materialize. Yet as Cruise jokingly surmised in a recent interview he’ll still be here and game for it should that time come. At this rate, the gracefully aging star probably won’t gray up till his late 70s/early 80s giving us another two decades before we get films with an even more distinguished version of Cruise onscreen in the vein of old Hollywood classics such as Paul Newman and as some claim his 80s lookalike Mark Harmon.