Top gun: maverick

Reviewing Top Gun: Maverick at this point is probably an exercise in futility.  Anyone who’s going to see it has seen it—it continues to break box office records and at the time of this writing, it’s grossed $763,086,652, per Box Office Mojo. And it’s won the hearts and minds of filmgoers everywhere.  Even Jezebel—Jezebel!—had kind words for this sequel to one of the most ridiculously macho movies of all time. But let’s take a look at this Joseph Kosinksi-directed follow-up anyway.  Why? Because it’s a fun exercise. And because the movie is good. Damn good.

The movie picks up 36 years after the original entry. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise, obviously), who should be a “2-star Admiral” by now, is still a Captain with the U.S. Navy, having refused any and all promotions, much to the consternation of his superiors. As the film opens, he’s working for the “Darkstar” stealth program.  Maverick being Maverick, he pisses off his boss, Admiral Cain (Ed Harris, fine in a brief role), who promptly ships him back to Top Gun, where he’s needed as an instructor. It turns out that a pointedly unnamed foreign country (gone are the days of fighting Communists in movies) has an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant that could use some redecorating (read: bombing), and they need Maverick to train an elite group of aviators for what’s possibly a suicide mission. Though he bristles at being an instructor, Maverick nevertheless takes to the assignment and adds his own mission objective—everyone gets out alive.  One of the aviators is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Maverick’s late wingman Goose, who’s, y’know, still dead (spoilers!).  Rooster blames Maverick for the death of his father, and their fractured relationship serves as the emotional core of the film.

This is a movie that very savvily acknowledges its debt to the past while also acknowledging reality and taking its characters to new and (mostly) satisfying places. It starts with some fan service that will make audience members of a certain age squeal with glee.  The opening credits use the same font as the original movie, and the movie again starts with the dramatic, self-important on-screen text regarding the origins of the Top Gun school. Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” then immediately proceeds to rock your face off.  Despite this nod to the fans, though, the film largely avoids the pitfalls of certain belated sequels (ahem, The Force Awakens) which have too much fan service and not enough originality. The callbacks throughout the film are cleverly employed in such a way that they tell you more about the characters. When Maverick softly says to himself, “Talk to me, Goose,” you get a sense of how haunted and almost broken this character is.  And when Rooster says, “Talk to me, Dad,” it’s both heartbreaking and inspiring. It’s also a perfect example of the film’s synthesis of the old and the new.

This movie’s Maverick is a much different character than the man we met in 1986.  He’s still a cocky renegade, but he’s noticeably wiser and more generous, dedicated to saving lives at all costs. The entire reason he goes rogue with the “Darkstar” project in the film’s opening is because he’s trying to keep the project alive to ensure that his fellow servicemen still have jobs. This is clearly a character haunted by the loss he experienced in the previous movie.  Seeing Rooster perform “Great Balls of Fire” on piano at the local bar (another clever callback that moves the story forward), Maverick is stunned. He stands on the outside of the bar looking in, eventually staggering away through the sand, a man alone.

To this point, the beloved Iceman (Val Kilmer) shows up in a brief but pivotal role.  Kilmer, having battled throat cancer in recent years, is no longer able to speak, with his voice digitally recreated here.  His one scene here, opposite Cruise, is heartbreaking. With only his body language, Kilmer conveys such warmth toward Cruise and their decades-long shared history is evident on his face. The scene is beautifully done, and elicits arguably Cruise’s strongest acting in the film. The screenwriters smartly incorporated Kilmer’s health issues into the script, and when Maverick looks at Iceman, one really gets the sense that Cruise is looking at Kilmer with empathy and concern.

(On a side note, the exclusion of Kelly McGillis is unfortunate. She made for a great foil to Cruise in the first film, and it would’ve been interesting to see where the two characters ended up.  McGillis has said in interviews that she was not invited back because her appearance is age appropriate.  Jennifer Connelly is clearly the stand-in for McGillis here, and she’s more than up to the task.  But McGillis is missed. Same goes for Meg Ryan, on a smaller scale.  It’s mentioned off-hand that her character died at some point between films.  Again, unfortunate.)

Given the ginormous budget, it’s no surprise that the film excels on a technical level.  The score, which shares some DNA with the original movie’s music, is rousing and amps up the tension in the excellent dogfighting scenes.  Which, it is impossible to understate how wonderful the air combat scenes are.  Granted, the nature of aerial combat makes it a little hard to fully make out what’s happening at all times, but holy shit, this has to be as good as it gets. The cinematography is crisp and the tension is ratcheted up by the masterful editing; the audience has a grasp of which character is in which plane, their sight lines, and so on. This is head and shoulders above the action scenes in the original, which even then was ahead of the times. While much of the dogfighting scenes are CGI, they’re accentuated with in-cockpit shots of the actors as they react to the action around them and are flung around inside their planes like rag dolls. The action here is stunning and thrilling, and the entire final sequence is a masterclass in controlled chaos. I’ve never seen anything like it.

Just as important as the action is the interpersonal drama, which is far better than it has a right to be.  Teller is a terrific actor (with luck, this role will launch him into the stratosphere) and his scenes opposite cruise crackle with wounded anger and melancholy.  It’s an exciting dynamic to watch, and a savvy move on the filmmakers’ part, to carry Goose’s legacy forward without feeling like purposeless fan service.  Their interactions are given more dramatic heft by the very real possibility of death associated with the mission. Maverick wants to be a father figure to Rooster, and is deathly afraid to lose him, again. They’re supported by welcome additions to the cast, such as Jon Hamm as Vice Admiral “Cyclone” Simpson and Glen Powell as Lieutenant Jake “Hangman” Seresin. Both are excellent at portraying men who are outwardly abrasive but ultimately have their hearts in the right place.

Special points go to the filmmaking team for making this go-round much more progressive, at least by summer tentpole standards.  The squad of aviators is much more inclusive, with different genders and ethnicities.  And the homoerotic flavor of the first movie is almost entirely gone, for better or for worse—there’s plenty of macho posturing here, but no talk of hard-ons or butts this time around. But for those who are concerned that liberal snowflakes are coming for their movies, don’t worry—there’s a sweaty beach football scene here for people who miss the campy glory of the first film.

This is an impossible movie to not recommend.  Yes, Tom Cruise is likely a sociopath who eats babies, and the jingoistic bent of the movie can be disconcerting. But if you put those admittedly significant concerns aside, this is as exciting as cinema gets, with its rousing action scenes, moving drama, and canny blend of the old and the new.  They really don’t make movies like this anymore.