Top Gun VS Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun is considered a classic which captured the excitement and imagination of future fighter pilots. 36 years later the sequel has finally released. Did it capture the same excitement and imagination to inspire another generation of fighter pilots or did it crash and burn into the danger zone?
Top Gun
The year was 1986. GI Joe, Transformers, and He-Man ruled the TV airwaves. Top Gun was the beginning of a blockbuster movie season, and it caught the imagination and excitement that we all imagined being a fighter pilot was supposed to be like.
For some people Top Gun is a classic 80’s military propaganda film designed to encourage recruitment for the Navy, for others its a great representation of the rivalry and camaraderie found in military squads and teams. At its heart though it was a movie about a man understanding his limits and dealing with survivors guilt, ultimately to overcome his guilt, believe in himself, and put aside his ambition to be the best to save his fellow pilots.
Top Gun has all the classic 80 tropes. Our free spirited hero, who will break the rules to do the right thing and to just have some good fun. Our classic 80’s antagonist: Blond hair, blue eyes, devilishly handsome with his own entourage of cronies backing every joke and insult. And a kickass soundtrack!
Maverick and Iceman start out as rivals but end up best of friends. The funny thing is that Iceman who is characterized as the villain is 100% correct about Maverick. Maverick’s free spirited fun loving, “I’m the best there ever was” attitude is extremely dangerous in their line of work. Not to mention all the Naval regulation that Maverick violates throughout the movie to do what he thinks is right or have a good laugh at a commanding officers expense.
In the end it take the death of the only character to have a life out side of being a Naval fighter pilot to make Maverick realize that lives are at stake and showboating and breaking the rules puts lives in danger. What hurts most is that Goose is the most loveable character in the movie, has a great wife and child that loves him, but end up dead due to a mechanical accident.
Top Gun had the action dog fighting exercises and aerial combat filmed the only way they could back in the 80’s when the military was not going to let anyone actually fly a real fighter jet. Using models on sticks and homemade drill widget to create the shaky cam effect of action. But ultimately the movie wasn’t about being a fighter pilot executing a dangerous mission it was a character study about pilot understanding what it means to be a team player.
Top Gun Maverick
36 years later the film makers took the time to correct their technical mistakes and add some purpose to the story other than a life lesson at the cost of good character’s life. The only still outstanding issue is that Maverick is still in the Navy. In Top Gun, Maverick should have been kicked out for all the violation he committed from the beginning of the movie. In this sequel he should have been retired out just on the fact that he was passed up for promotion multiple times. Doesn’t matter how many high ranking admirals you know, you get passed over for promotion multiple times you get kicked out of the Navy.
Tom Cruise feeling the G’s
Other than that there are no other really glaring issues like having a photo of your family taped over your altimeter, but that is most likely because they actually filmed the cockpit scenes in actual fighter jets. With the huge budget $170 million vs the $15 million they had for the first film. All the actors including Tom Cruise had to act while feeling the real G’s of a fighter jet in action. This little fact changed the entire tone of the action sequences. This really put the audience into experience and bring up the tension.
Top Gun Maverick give our hero another chance at being a Top Gun fighter pilot school instructor. Instead of being about a friendly competition to see who the best of the best is, this training is for a specific mission. One that can’t be done by a drone and has a high success rate at the cost of the pilot life. Maverick’s focus is to train the pilots not only to execute the mission by doing a Star Wars trench run but to also survive. This kind of puts Maverick at odds with his commanding officers who’s only focus is to complete the mission and seems to disregard the fact the pilots would die in process.
Focusing this movie around a mission is a great boom for it since it adds purpose to what’s going on. There is personal conflict that has to be over come between Maverick and Goose’s only son now being forced to take his instructions, as well another cocky pilot that hasn’t learned the life lessons that Maverick has. But those side plots don’t hold a candle to watching Maverick pull off this crazy trench run and prove to both his students and commanding officers that the mission can be completed in under 2min 30 seconds before the enemy can scramble 5th generation fighters against them.
And just when you think you are watching a Top Gun movie that doesn’t have any dog fights in it you get one of the best displays of cinematic dogfighting you have ever seen. F-18s duking it out against 5th generation technically advance fighter jets and a good old blast from the past of an F-14 Tomcat duking it out proving its the pilot not the plane that makes the winner.
Verdict
Top Gun is a time capsule of the 80’s life style. Where everyone’s goal is to prove they are best of the best. Where everyone wants to be the rule breaking hero that Maverick was. Top Gun Maverick bring a bit more reality to the situation. Understanding that lives are at stake and that our military leaders will have to make decisions where there is a high likely hood they are sending troop to their deaths. The magic of Top Gun Maverick though is that once it gets past the serious message it jumps back into the excitement that was in the original. Pitting the underdog against a greater foe to come out on top. Where the skill of the man out weighs the tech in the machine.
Overall I still love the original Top Gun but I enjoyed Top Gun Maverick even more. It delivers on what few sequels ever do which is give you the warm feelings of the original but pushes the envelope even more to deliver you heart pounding action and excitement. If you were ever a fan of the original Top Gun then you will be a fan of Top Gun: Maverick.
Tell us what you thought of the movie in the comments below.