AFTER more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete Mitchell, call sign Maverick (Tom Cruise), is still where he belongs, forging ahead as a risk-taking test pilot and dodging all rank promotions that would ground him.
When he finds himself training a troop of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer, Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka Goose.
As Maverick faces the uncertain future and confronts the ghosts of his past, the captain is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Granted, I wasn’t even alive when the first Top Gun movie was released in theatres, but the trailer for the new movie definitely caught my attention.
The running theme for movies out in 2022 seems to be centred on family and reunion, clearly a reflection of how the pandemic and lockdown brought families back together. This legacy sequel could have easily been nothing more than unnecessary nostalgia bait, but Top Gun: Maverick has come up on the top of my list as an old-school action blockbuster that Hollywood no longer makes.
As if chiselled from stone, Maverick, like Cruise, remains a timeless entity. Cruise manages to do an impressive amount of character work snapped into a fighter pilot helmet and remains committed to the reflexible playfulness and sombre interiority of Maverick. The scene with him was both thrilling and laced with emotion.
Director Joe Kosinski and writers were careful to keep the balance between Maverick’s personal drama and the flying adventures intact. That would be a daunting prospect for any director, but Kosinski likely knew he was creating something special for Top Gun: Maverick. It also probably helped that Cruise, a notorious perfectionist, had a hand in things too.
The movie’s practical flying stunt scenes were shot with the help of actual aviators from the United States Navy, and in Kosinski’s words: “Once they pulled away, I didn’t see them until they came back an hour later. The biggest challenge is not being there to give feedback. So you’re putting a lot of responsibility and trust in our cast, but they’re incredible people.”
On top of that, Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga and Hans Zimmer managed to resurrect the classic 80s rock anthem for Top Gun: Maverick.
If you could overlook the main mission in the film going above to bomb a nameless enemy country’s nuclear enhancement facility and its vague motivation, Top Gun: Maverick is a definite must-watch with breathtaking action sequences, and perhaps like most flight landings, you might also give a round of applause at the end.
Top Gun: Maverick is in theatres now.
