Top Gun: Maverick

Year:  2022

Director:  Joseph Kosinski

Screenplay:  Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks

Starring:  Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer

Running Time:  131 minutes

Genre:  Action, drama

US Navy test pilot, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) is ordered to return to the elite fighter training school known as "Top Gun" train some of the best Top Gun graduates for a seemingly impossible mission.  To complicate matters, one of Maverick's students, Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller), is the son of Maverick's former co-pilot and close friend Goose, who was killed in an accident during their time at Top Gun in the 1980s.

Top Gun (1986) is possibly one of the most beloved films of the 1980s, and it is extremely risky to return to such a popular film over thirty years later.  Top Gun: Maverick opens with a virtually shot-for-shot remake of the opening of the original Top Gun, the same music, the same opening text explaining what Top Gun is, the same scenes of fighter jets lifting off of aircraft carriers to the strains of Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and even the same typeface for the credits.  After this, Top Gun: Maverick settles down to it's own thing, while still delivering enough call backs and references to the original to satisfy nostalgic '80s kids. Maverick follows the same basic plot structure as the original but, in the original, the goal for the pilots is to win the Top Gun Trophy, in this film the goal is to complete this almost impossible mission and return alive, immediately raising the stakes.  While the first Top Gun is bookended by aerial scraps against the enemy (who are not identified in either film, but you can probably guess who they are supposed to be) they almost seem like add ons to provide some drama and action.  In both films the enemy pilots are completely dehumanised, rendered faceless by the black visors and full face masks.  Tom Cruise, reprising his star making role, does what he does best, with his mega-watt smile and movie star charisma undimmed despite the passage of years.  Miles Teller is good as Rooster, the son of Maverick's best friend Goose, who dies in the first film.  Rooster hates Maverick, blaming him not only for his father's death, but also for apparently sabotaging his career.  Jennifer Connelly does what she can with a fairly underwritten role as bar-owner Penny, Maverick's love interest.  As with the first film, women don't have much to do, however at least here there are a couple of female pilots.  The film is tense, and has some real excitement in the aviation sequences.  It has humour, drama and some emotion.  While the film is as pro-military as the first, and will doubtless cause applications to the US Navy to climb higher and faster than one of Maverick's jets, it is most of all a perfect example of a real summer blockbuster.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick