Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

★★★½
Top Gun (1986) was about the brotherhood, the camaraderie, the personal challenges. Top Gun: Maverick is about those things too, but it takes all that and gives them purpose and direction. Tom Cruise returns to one of his signature roles after so many years away from it and delivers a knockout performance. Once the student, he is now the teacher as he trains a new generation of Navy pilots for a mission behind enemy lines. This movie isn't just another entry in Cruise's impressively expanding list of quality action pictures. It is recognition that our time in the spotlight is limited, and that eventually it will be time to step aside to let others take the reins. I did that recently, having left my employer of 21 years because the rules required it. I received a nice sendoff, and my retirement will be sweet once I can start to collect, but I feel I could have done more, and I would have been in position to continue if I had made different decisions years ago. Cruise's Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell sees the end. As his commander tells him, his kind is headed for extinction. Maverick defiantly responds, "maybe so sir, but not today." He has some gas left in the tank, and he intends to get all the mileage out of it as possible before flying into the sunset. We all want to be useful; it's a strong motivator.

Maverick is now a captain and doing test flights for a new supersonic jet capable of speeds over Mach 10. Rear Admiral Cain (Ed Harris) is on his way to the test facility to inform Maverick of the program's shutdown due to funding reallocation. Maverick, true to his call sign, goes ahead with the flight and surpasses the goals set for the day, much to the Admiral's chagrin. Back on the ground, Maverick meets with RADM Cain to receive his next assignment. He's returning to TOPGUN (the Navy's Fighter Weapons School) as an instructor for a special mission. Surprised, Maverick heads to San Diego (the real school is in Fallon, Nevada, but San Diego is more appealing as a shooting location) to receive his briefing and meet his students, who are twelve of the best that the Navy has to offer. An unnamed hostile country will be bringing a uranium plant online within a month, so Maverick's job is to train his team to fly over and through very rough terrain and blow up the plant, which is located inside a steep crater. It's like the Death Star mission from Star Wars, with the realities of aerodynamics thrown in to make things more complicated. One of Maverick's students is Lieutenant Brad "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his old friend Goose (played by Anthony Edwards in the original), who died in an accident.

Their dynamic forms much of the conflict in the movie. Goose and Maverick were in the jet together when the accident occurred, but Rooster's animosity largely stems from Maverick's decision not to endorse his application to the U.S. Naval Academy. Rooster harbors a lot of anger, which he brings into the classroom and to their interactions. The other eleven students are a varied bunch. There is hotshot Jake "Hangman" Seresin (Glen Powell, who I mistook for Channing Tatum), who's vying for the mission commander position. There is Natasha "Phoenix" Trace (Monica Barbaro), a skilled pilot who's confident in her abilities. There is the unassuming Robert Floyd (Lewis Pullman), whose call sign is, amusingly, Bob. Maverick's job is to formulate the mission and develop the training requirements to simulate the terrain, which is guarded by antiaircraft missiles and advanced enemy fighter jets capable of giving the Navy's F/A-18s a difficult time. While in town, Maverick meets up with Penny (Jennifer Connelly), a former girlfriend who owns a bar frequented by pilots. It's in this bar that he gets another dose of his fading glory. No longer the young buck in the room, Maverick feels the youthful energy buzzing around him. That used to be me, he thinks. He and his friends serenaded Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis in the original) many years prior, and now he's the one watching the next generation flaunt its bravado in the same manner. He's not just an observer, though. He must pass on his knowledge gained over a 30+ year career, making him a participant in his own slow march to retirement.

This assignment was the only thing offered to him. His former rival and now friend Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer) is the Pacific Fleet Commander. He's been protecting Maverick for years, ensuring that his service continues despite a spotty record—a record that has prevented Maverick from making Admiral himself. Their scene together is the most touching in the movie, and I'm glad that the producers secured his participation and worked his condition into the story. I knew that Kilmer had an illness, but I never followed his progress. Seeing him here, summoning the strength to act through his disability, is encouraging. When he stands, it isn't just for us to watch his body defy its limitations, but to provide Maverick the push he needs to overcome his own doubts. Iceman knows that Maverick, as the only person to have shot down three enemy fighters in the last several decades, still has a lot to offer, and he kept him around for as long as possible in case a threat emerged that would require his knowledge of aerial combat to face it. This final posting isn't Maverick's swan song. It's his opportunity to solidify the house that he helped build.

If this is indeed Maverick's last mission, then he needs something to which to look forward in the future. His fire still burns bright, but he needs to channel it in a new direction. Penny could give him that. His career, filled with highs and lows, has given him plenty of baggage to carry around. He has the memory of many important missions swirling in his head. He's a risktaker, sometimes (oftentimes?) recklessly. He still rides his motorcycle without a helmet. As played by the excellent Jennifer Connelly, Penny is the perfect partner for him, and the movie demonstrates this by showing her ride his motorcycle with him without a helmet. The visual is a metaphor. She is his equal. She complements him. His budding romance with Penny is given more gravitas than we might expect. This isn't a throwaway romantic sublot. Maverick's tryst with Charlie in 1986 was a typical elongated 1980s love scene set to slow music. If this sequel had never been made, then we would conclude that Maverick and Charlie lived happily ever after. Years later, they are no longer together, yet their breakup doesn't betray anything about how their relationship began or where it went in the course of that movie. Penny's daughter Amelia (Lyliana Wray) provides an anchor to ensure the longevity of her mother's happiness. Amelia faces him when he jumps out of her mother's window. He better not break her heart again. We get the idea that he won't.

The training scenes are spectacular. We get thrilling simulated dogfights while learning about the stresses imposed on the pilots' bodies. The mission requires flying through a tight gorge with constant course corrections while maintaining a high rate of speed in order to reach the target. The script explains everything clearly, so we get an idea of the challenges, the requirements and the consequences of failure. In the earlier picture, Iceman accused Maverick of being dangerous. He was the cocky pilot who fed off the need for speed. That dynamic has already been explored, so the sequel doesn't rehash it in the same way. Rooster has a lot to prove, and he's singularly focused on convincing Maverick that it was a mistake not to endorse him for Academy enrollment. He plays a game of chicken with Maverick to see who will cave first. Rooster doesn't need the thrill gained from speed. He cranks up his speed to show that he belongs. When the climactic mission arrives, there is real tension due to several factors. The cinematography is breathtaking. Using practical effects and little C.G.I., the movie gives us tremendous flight sequences that move swiftly and are edited masterfully. The training scenes were done so well that we can easily digest what's happening during the actual event. Everything was covered. Most importantly, the relationships between the students and the teacher are solidified. There are no unnecessary distractions due to inflated egos or jealousy. Only the mission matters at this point.

Director Joseph Kosinski directed a sound and light show that is about as exciting as anything Tom Cruise has done. The twists and turns and corkscrews performed by the pilots are filmed and edited together with such precision that we never get lost. In lesser hands, this could have been a mess. With Kosinski at the helm, the movie captures every angle necessary to tell the story. The script—by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie—is nostalgic in all the right ways, honoring the past while respecting our expectations. The movie doesn't change Maverick. He knows the Navy is moving beyond him, but he isn't a brooding figure who's bitter about his role. When it's time to get down to business, he does his job. For dramatic purposes, the movie is flexible with rules and regulations, especially when Maverick tries the simulation himself to prove it can be done, but we accept it because we've come to know him. Top Gun: Maverick is thrilling and heart-pounding. If that praise sounds clichéd, then maybe it is, but it's still accurate.

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