Still Flying After Decades, an Ace Pilot Teaches New Recruits

Tom Cruise in "Top Gun: Maverick"
Photo Credit: RottenTomatoes.com

In 1986, the late director Tony Scott gave audiences “Top Gun,” an entertaining film about elite Navy pilots who are given the chance to display their talents as the best of the best.  Between a charismatic and star-making performance from Tom Cruise, thrilling flight sequences, and one of the most famous movie themes of all time, Scott’s film became an iconic piece of ‘80s pop culture.

Now, we have director Joseph Kosinski’s exhilarating sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick.”  With this film, he not only delivers one of the best movies of the year so far, but also a sequel that surpasses the original in pretty much every way.

Thirty-six years after the events of the first film, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise) is asked to return to the United States Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (also known as “Top Gun”) to train a new group of young pilots, among whom is Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of Pete’s deceased best friend, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.  With a dangerous mission laid out, Maverick and his pilots have to put together a plan for success and determine which of them will be chosen to carry it out.

Cruise, who starred in Kosinski’s 2013 sci-fi film “Oblivion,” continues to prove that there isn’t anyone working like him in film today.  As you watch his performance, you feel the gravity of the movie stardom that Cruise has built over the last four decades and see that he never lost the magic.  Although we all marvel at the commitment that Cruise brings to his big-budget movies by doing his own stunts, you also have to commend the dedication that he brings to those movies in terms of genuine emotion.  The poignancy that he brings is on the same level with what he delivered in his dramatic fare like “Born on the Fourth of July,” “A Few Good Men,” and “Magnolia.”  Cruise brings his famous character back as someone who still has the confidence of a knowledgeable fighter pilot, but is also hindered by the loss that still haunts him.  He shows a memorable growth to his character, someone who’s more in-tune with the dangers of his profession, and the way in which he exhibits how much he cares for his students adds another layer to the emotional evolution of his character.

Teller, who stared in Kosinski’s 2017 biographical drama, “Only the Brave,” displays the anger and grief of having lost his father, while also trying to prove that he deserves to be considered for the mission.  He has an attitude of someone who’s unstoppable in working to be one of the best, exhibiting the confidence that Maverick did when we were introduced to him in the original film.  Besides his character’s emotional angles, Teller also brings out an energy and determination of a young pilot who’s excited to get in the air and show everyone what he can do, and we feel the same as we zip through the skies with him.

Connelly, another star of Kosinski’s “Only the Brave,” has wonderful romantic chemistry with Cruise as his former girlfriend, Penny Benjamin.  When it comes to watching Cruise and Connelly together on screen, you’re more invested in this relationship than the one between Cruise and Kelly McGillis in the first movie.  Given how Penny was only mentioned a couple of times in passing in the original film, Cruise and Connelly do a remarkable job in building on those fleeting mentions and making you believe that they actually had a past.  Also, their relationship is strong enough to the point where it doesn’t feel like and empty, Hollywood blockbuster romance, but a relationship where you see that the two characters truly understand each other, even after being separated for so long.

Meanwhile, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Monica Barbaro all provide distinct and fun personalities as fellow pilots in the “Top Gun” program.  They each have their own bits of memorable dialogue and are a lot of fun to watch as they traverse through the rigorous training that comes their way.

The screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer (a cowriter for “Only the Brave”), and Christopher McQuarrie (who directed Cruise for the last two “Mission: Impossible” movies) has just the right amount of callbacks to the original, but doesn’t let itself go overboard.  Instead, it focuses on the characters, their connections, and their mission.  There are some great emotional moments that are allowed to play out so you feel the weight of the bonds between the characters, and the screenwriters do a superb job in building those characters, particularly when it comes to the connections between Maverick and Penny, and Maverick and Rooster.  This is a mainstream action film that focuses as much on its central plot as it does its characters, making this a legacy sequel that doesn’t feel like it was made for nostalgic purposes, but for the purpose of delivering a faced-paced story that still feels fleshed out.

Kosinski reunites with cinematographer Claudio Miranda, who provided the camerawork for all of Kosinski’s films (“Tron: Legacy, “Oblivion,” and “Only the Brave”), giving us breathtaking shots from inside and outside of the cockpits.  We soar above the sky and feel its openness around us, as well as the exhilaration go being in the pilot’s seat.  One of the best shots from the film is when we’re inside the cockpit with Maverick as he takes off from the aircraft carrier towards the climatic mission.  However, this movie tells you that you’re in for something special right from the opening sequence, in which Maverick flies a prototype of a new plane to thrilling speeds.  Between the beauty of the skies, a powerful score, and Maverick marveling at what unfolds before his cockpit window, this is one of many sequences that implores you to experience this movie on a big screen.  

It’s admirable how Kosinski doesn’t just do the bare minimum and cash in on people’s nostalgia with a sequel that’s merely serviceable, but instead does so much more; he delivers a sequel that provides a deeper story and a complex main character.  It’s clear from the start that Kosinski and his team had set out to make a great movie.  Given how Kosinski’s two other big-budget films, “Tron: Legacy” and “Oblivion,” were much more effects-heavy than “Maverick,", it’s impressive to see how much of the action was accomplished in-camera for this movie.  This is a level of commitment that’s hard to come by in massive productions such as this, and you can see from scene to scene that Kosinski and Cruise put every ounce of their filmmaking abilities into making you feel that you’re right there in the middle of the action.

While an announcement of a “Top Gun” sequel might have caused you to roll your eyes at first (I know I did), it’s an immense joy to say that this sequel soars higher than anyone could have expected.

Grade: A