Top Gun: Maverick is the Perfect Legacy Sequel

Top Gun: Maverick both reinvigorates the nostalgia of the original movie and improves on it in every conceivable way. From the opening scenes set on an aircraft carrier and directly mirroring Tom Cruise's classic, to the many different references taped and pinned to Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's locker, to another shot of Cruise riding his motorcycle next to a jet flying down the runway, this is a relatively risk-averse sequel that mostly exists to remind us of all the things we loved from the old Top Gun. It takes Pete and turns him from the student he was then into the teacher he is today, tasking him with training graduates of the Top Gun pilot program to destroy a practically impenetrable uranium enrichment plant somewhere in the world; it doesn't specify where because it wants to make a billion dollars at the box office without offending a sovereign nation. Because this movie doesn’t do anything particularly new, its merit - or lack thereof - rests on the execution and enhancement of old ideas, and Maverick delivers the payload and then some. It is meant to challenge Pete for his actions in the original movie, and when one of the young pilots you're teaching is the son of a man who died flying with you, a level of animosity is inescapable. 

Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, a young pilot in the Top Gun program, has a bone to pick with Maverick. That's where the majority of this movie's moral and interpersonal weight lies, and even though it isn't exactly revolutionary, it doesn't always take the easy way out, either; the tension is palpable whenever the two men are in the same room. The evolution of their relationship is the film's main tension, and their attitudes change over time, flowing naturally from animosity into something that feels more like an acceptance of the past and a desire to move forward. As for Pete, he's going to have to face some of his own demons from his flying days, and Rooster never lets him just ignore issues and walk away from the things that happened to others under his command. 

Pete is still roughly the same man he was in the original film, a thrill-seeking pilot who would rather fly planes at multiple times the speed of sound than accept a promotion. Maverick is not the most ambitious sequel, and it's not trying to be. What it's trying to do is thrill you in the theater, and judging from the money it made, it did just that and then some. The dogfighting scenes in this movie could be the best I've ever seen, and they need to be; they're what's selling its tickets. They're unpredictable, well-paced, and even a little funny with the pilot banter mixed in. Their sound design is some of the most assertive I've ever heard, an explosion of whooshing jet engines and whizzing bullets I can still feel pounded into my subconscious by that theater surround sound, all those years ago. 

These fights are brilliantly layered as well, with so many distinct and well-paced elements thrown in to enhance them. One climactic example features some of our low-flying pilots, missile emplacements on mountain peaks that they're flying barely under detection by, Tomahawk missiles fired from friendly warships about to fly over their heads in a few seconds, and superior enemy aircraft flying nearby that will intercept as soon as those missiles hit. It's a brilliantly overwhelming situation, and because we've seen how hard it's been for Maverick to teach his pilots to fly this mission, the idea of how difficult the real thing will be is hard to stomach. 

The difficulty of this mission, which the Air Force wants Maverick to teach and then fly, is repeatedly pounded home. Maverick feels important, not because its stakes are end-of-the-world high, but because they just seem so dang impossible. The movie's editing is great at conveying all this information, cramming it into bursts of exposition that repeatedly accomplish so much before our very eyes. Multiple times, I watched this movie deal with the little things and thought, oh, that was smart. Luckily, it doesn't get lost in the details, crafting us dynamic, lively supporting characters. Take Glen Powell's Hangman, for instance. He's an incredible antihero, a cocky and arrogant bad boy of a pilot who somehow manages to be incredibly likable simply because Powell is so charismatic. The rest of the students in the Top Gun program also develop their own distinct roles on the team, and each feels they really bring something new to the table, especially Hangman and Rooster. 

Aiding all of this, Hans Zimmer's score is absolutely majestic. At its best, it captures a strange peace amidst the high-octane, a heavenly drone complementing the movie's more thrilling parts with a serene variety. OneRepublic's I Ain't Worried was a perfect addition, carving out a legacy both as this generation's Danger Zone and as a true earworm that also chooses to do things its own way. The music perfectly complements the whirlwind of emotions this sequel aims to evoke, and the movie's emotional arc is phenomenal. Once Maverick and Rooster’s conflict has begun to sputter out, it settles into a confident resignation that understands that sometimes bad things happen and that we don't need to carry what isn't our fault on our shoulders. It's practically whispering and screaming at Maverick the entire movie; let go. 

Top Gun: Maverick is infused with that they don't make them like they used to energy, but because it sticks to simpler, more universal themes and actually cares about conveying them in an emotionally honest way, it works. It is very much like classic action movies, but it also effectively demonstrates that we make movies in a way we weren't able to yesterday. The special effects are vastly superior to the original, and because both movies are trying to do roughly the same thing, Maverick comes out on top by quite a margin. This is one of the greatest legacy sequels ever made, and that's because it's willing to both love and challenge the movie it's built upon. This is a true roller coaster of a movie, one that I imagine left many of us whooping and hollering like kids again as the credits rolled. 

Top Gun: Maverick - 10/10

Matthew 18:21-35