An audience in a darkened theater reads white text over a black screen relating the history of the United States Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School. The screen transitions to a sepia tone scene of the crew of an aircraft carrier preparing fighter jets for launch as a synth rock anthem begins to play. Just as the first jet launches the intensity of the music cranks up as Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” begins to play and the energy of the montage kicks into overdrive. You might think that I am describing the 1986 opening of Tony Scott’s Top Gun but you would be wrong, because I am in fact describing the 2022 opening of Joseph Kosinki and Tom Cruise’s long gestating sequel to the film, Top Gun: Maverick.
Unwieldy title notwithstanding, Top Gun: Maverick, is a true masterwork of modern pop action cinema, a film that not only pays loving homage to the original and the mastermind behind it, the late Tony Scott, but also pushes forward to tell its own story, one centered around the twilight of the careers of the main character and the hollywood icon that plays him, as they pass the torch on to the next generation. With a charmingly old school (and frankly very Tom Cruise) dedication to practical effects and doing as much as they possibly can in camera, the film manages to recall the intense action of its predecessor while still managing to up the stakes in every imaginable way. This is Top Gun bigger, faster, louder, and more intense than ever before.
The story of Top Gun: Maverick is, much like the original, fairly simple. Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell finds himself at the end of his Naval career working as a test pilot, when orders come in for him to return to the site of the most significant events of his career: Top Gun. He’s tasked with training a crop of recent Top Gun graduates in the particulars of a highly dangerous mission to stop a rogue state from developing nuclear weapons. The one hitch? Among the pilots is the son of his late radar intercept officer Goose, who resents Maverick for attempting to prevent him from joining the Navy and following in his father’s footsteps. While there he also discovers an old flame from his past, with whom it turns out not all the sparks have died. The plot as follows is at its core fairly by the numbers, but that is not a negative. By keeping its plot simple, the film is able to focus on the two things its predecessor was known for, character and high octane thrills.
With his return to the character of Maverick, Tom Cruise gives us one of his most emotionally vulnerable performances in years. Cruise actively displays his range as he fully slips back into one of his most iconic characters. Miles Teller brings some necessary emotional conflict into the story with his strong performance as Bradley “Rooster” Bradford, Goose’s son, who is so haunted by his father’s death that he can never seem to engage and take the risks necessary for his job. Monica Barbaro does amazing work as Phoenix, an elite pilot and the voice of reason for the next generation Top Gun crew, not afraid to speak the hard truths for the other pilots. Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as Penny Benjamin, a former love of Maverick’s mentioned only in passing in the first film, and the core love interest of this one. Jon Hamm fills the role of the necessary antagonist, Maverick’s superior officer Cyclone, the obstacle that Maverick must overcome to teach the pilots to fly the mission his way and get them home safe. And Glen Powell puts in a star turn in the supporting role of Hangman, a pilot that is too Maverick for Maverick, who can never seem to grasp that he is part of a team.
Next to the characters the other stars of the film are the planes and the real fighter pilots brought in to make them do truly extraordinary things for the cameras. It wouldn’t be right to try and make a sequel to the original without bringing actual Naval aviators on board to pull off some insane stunts for the cameras and this film goes above and beyond the standard of the original. The stunts in this film are something that must be seen to be believed and they should most certainly be seen on the largest screen possible. This is truly the type of film for which a theatrical experience is a must. When the film reaches its thrilling climax and they finally pull out all the stops, you’ll be glad you chose to experience it in all of its glory.
The most interesting thematic throughline of the film by far is its pondering of Maverick’s (and by extension Tom Cruise’s) legacy. This is a film that is actively engaging with the mortality of its main character and by proxy its star. It features a deeply self-aware Cruise acknowledging that we are much closer to the end of his career than we are the beginning, and that the age of the movie star, the age in which he came up, is rapidly drawing to a close.
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When the film posits that fighter pilots will not continue to fly military missions for much longer, you can sense that they aren’t just talking about fighter pilots. And when Maverick states that the age of the pilot isn’t done quite yet, you can sense that it is also Cruise openly stating that he hopes to stretch the age of the movie star, and the power that position entails, out as long as he can. But even as he makes this promise, you can tell he knows that he is running out of time. Perhaps the weirdest part of it all is that by the end of the film, you can almost get the sense that he is at peace with it.
In many ways, Top Gun: Maverick is an oddity. It feels like someone attempted to synthesize an 80s action movie in a lab, down to the most minute of details.
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The nods to the original are plentiful, and every step of the way you are constantly reminded that we don’t really make movies like this that often anymore. It is a rare piece of cinema, one in which every part is working in synergy.
The end result is a film that is more than the sum of its parts, a summer action movie the likes of which we have not seen in years, and perhaps may not soon see again. Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters now, go see it while you can.
