Top Gun: Maverick Brings the High Flying and the Nostalgia

Despite the fact that the favored aesthetic throughout most of filmmaking history has long emphasized dynamic visuals, the list of great movies centering around aviation number less than a full score. This has partially been due to the technical barriers to making air combat sequences feel exciting but also understandable for audiences, not to mention the practical hurdles of filming aircraft in previous eras of bulky camera equipment. Recent tech has improved the possibilities, but not so much the films, sad to say. (Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk stands out as a recent exception.)

The original Top Gun (1986) didn’t just raise the bar for air combat cinematography; it redefined it. It also had Tom Cruise—a charismatic star in his ascendency—as well as a great supporting cast and a passable plot about alpha-male rivalry, brotherhood, and romance. Which is all well and good, but the real engine of the property was the amazeballs flight sequences and unprecedented access to naval aviation. (Okay, the soundtrack had its merits, too!) Was Top Gun a recruitment film made in the last gasp of Cold War I? Yes, it was! Was Top Gun also the best thing to happen for airplane nerds and youngsters who had Skywalker-esque dreams of “kicking the tires and lighting the fires”? Yes, it was!

Monica Barbaro (Natasha “Phoenix” Trace) and Tom Cruise (Pete “Maverick Mitchell”) on the set of Top Gun: Maverick. Scott Garfield/© 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

Thirty-six years later we have a sequel, perhaps inexplicably, which features the same pilot at the heart of Top Gun. Pete Mitchell (Cruise) has continued his “maverick” ways and has not turned into the career airman that nobody thought he would become. As it happens with sequels, duty calls, and Maverick once again finds himself among the ranks of a fresh crop of the best of the best in naval aviation. To the production’s credit, this crop is considerably more reflective of the American population than the WASP frat vibe of the original film. They are all supporting players, of course, but they are present and have important roles as Maverick has a reckoning with his past and his own choices.

It would be pretentious to say Top Gun: Maverick is a deconstruction of Top Gun, but there is a lot in the film that reconsiders the original themes. Director Joseph Kosinski and cinematographer Claudio Miranda directly reference many of the iconic moments and images of the previous Tony Scott/Jeffrey L. Kimball motion picture. There are cameos, callbacks, and Easter eggs for fans and the nostalgic, and even some “Where are they now?” plot points for the sake of continuity and long-arc storytelling. There is also some reflection on the recruitment aspect of the first film: Maverick and others reflect on those lost during their careers, and our protagonist is particularly aware of the potential human toll of the mission he is tasked with leading. I also couldn’t help but seeing some commentary on sociopathic MAGA types in the military in the next-gen Iceman character, Hangman (Glen Powell), but your mileage may vary.

It is clear that real thought was put into making this movie more than the cash grab the people in the offices intended it to be. (Yes, I am speculating. I don’t know these people in the offices.)

Tom Cruise in a real F/A-18, flying inverted over a real mountain. Scott Garfield/© 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.

Airplane nerds will not be disappointed, either. While many of us will find note the many, many ridiculous moments in the film, the less nitpicky will no doubt appreciate the evolution of Top Gun‘s groundbreaking aerial cinematography into something at once modern, classic, and comprehensible by general audiences. I won’t take up time and space delineating all of the foolishness, but I did find it particularly interesting how Hollywood-ish the creators were in cherrypicking where and what they would be accurate with. “Based on real aviation” could be a useful subheadline.

Another point that airplane geeks may note is how similar key parts of the story line are to missions in the very popular video game Ace Combat, which I don’t think is a coincidence—it’s so obvious that it has to be a reference and not just cribbing. Honestly, the whole idea of an F/A-18 facing off against mythical fifth-generation aircraft feels totally Ace Combat to begin with, and this seems worth mentioning while I am on the topic.

In summary, if you’re a Top Gun fan, whatever reason you love it for, you’re going to see this movie and you will enjoy most of it. It’s not great art or great cinema, but it is a very good Top Gun movie and a very good airplane movie. If you’re looking for a classic summer roller-coaster flick, this is a solid excuse to make it back to a movie theater.

Scott Garfield/© 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.