Top Gun Maverick should have won the Oscar for Best Picture of the year.
The story of an older man, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a US Air Force fight pilot living in an increasingly technologically-driven world that threatens to make him obsolete. He’s bet his whole life on his military career honing his skills and living his principles even when they cost him advancement in his professional career, and the most important relationships in his personal life. Now working as a test pilot flying the fastest aircraft known to man, this is Maverick’s final assignment.
Outside of his life as a pilot in the Navy he has nothing else in his life. He’s not married. Has no loves in his life besides flying. And the surrogate son from whom he is estranged, a young pilot himself who is the son of Maverick’s best friend and navigator, “Goose,” who died in a plane Maverick was piloting. Maverick blames himself for his death, as does Goose’s son, who has avoided having anything to do with Maverick for several years. Maverick’s future is bleak and at the start of the movie it feels like the end for him.
But, like the wily, courageous, insubordinate pilot he is Maverick pulls off one more successful mission and proves the worth of the experimental high speed plane he is flying, and his worth as a pilot. Avoiding what seems to be the end of his career with high flying bravado, Maverick finds himself with one more mission.
He is to return to the place where his career began. Fighter Town USA, and the Top Gun school. Maverick has been assigned to teach a team of young untested pilots how to pull off a dangerous mission.
From the moment he arrives Maverick is confronted with the ghosts of his past, many of who still reside in Fighter Town USA, (San Diego). Old girlfriend Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly). Former wingman now Admiral of the Navy, Tom “IceMan” Kazansky, (Val Kilmer), plus a new commander, in the character of Jon Hamm, who does not think much of Maverick’s and what he sees as his antiquated antics.
The reason I believe Top Gun: Maverick is the best picture of the year is because it manages to pack so much of what makes a great story and a great movie into a single film. To begin with, it transcends its legacy as a sequel as does Tom Cruise in his second performance playing “Maverick.” It is reminiscent of Paul Newman reprising his iconic role as “Fast” Eddie Felson in “The Color of Money,” an amazing movie that also surpasses its original film, “The Hustler.” Like The Color of Money “Top Gun Maverick” taken on its own merit is a superb movie. Had there never been a first “Top Gun,” “Maverick” on its own succeeds as a standalone movie.
First and foremost it is a compelling character study of a man contending with the challenges of growing older, professionally and personally.
Secondly, there is an aspect of the movie “Maverick” as a modern fable. The legend of John Henry versus the steam engine. Much like that legend, Maverick’s final mission in the movie sets him up for the ultimate man vs machine showdown. His commanders want to go with drones. Maverick must prove that only skilled pilots such as he and the other Top Gun graduates can pull off this dangerous mission. Complicating thing is that among this squadron of pilots is his One of those pilots is his surrogate son, Rooster, (Miles Teller).
Already bearing the pressure of training men and women for a mission they may not return from, now looming over him is the fear of past tragedy repeating itself. Will Maverick’s actions get Rooster killed the way Maverick still believes they got Goose killed in the past? This infuses the story with so much more stakes than if his responsibility was simply the lives of the other ten pilots.
Maverick must also navigate his rekindled relationship with an old flame, this time learning to check som of his youthful antics in order to make way for a meaningful, connective, relationship with a beautiful woman who’s also been around the block of life enough to know what she wants, and to not waste time on men with whom she has no future. Will Maverick rise to the challenge?
Without giving away too much of the movie — SPOILER ALERT — the movie answers that question with the right mix of charm and thoughtfulness.
As for his final dangerous mission, Maverick and the other pilots pull it off in a nail-biting sequence that doesn’t simply finish with a final decisive victory. Rather, Maverick must make the decision to sacrifice his own life for that of his “son.”
However, as this is a Hollywood movie doing what they do best, Maverick’s still has one life left. Rooster swoops in, and returning the favor, saves Mav. So, the father saves the son and then the son saves the father. And all is forgiven. Unfortunately, their rekindled relationship looks to be short-lived as they’re both stuck behind enemy lines and about to die.
Which sets up the final act of the movie, in which the father and son, old and young, must work together to make a daring escape. The cherry on top is that they do so in one of the now utterly antiquated F-14 fighter planes that Maverick first flew when he was in Top Gun as a student, and his whole life was a ahead of him. The symbolism in this is rich. But, more than that, because this is after all a movie, the final act is a kick ass cinematic thrill ride that sees the good guys win and Maverick and his son, Rooster, win the day.
Everything Everywhere All At Once, is a wonderful delightful movie. “I put my mom in the Matrix” as one of its writer-directors, remarked last night from the podium at the Academy Awards. No doubt, making for a great movie with superb performances and incredible visuals. However, Top Gun Maverick is stuff Hollywood is made of. Not only is it the biggest blockbuster of the year, and a testament to both the appeal of the last true movie star in Tom Cruise, but also to the joy of experiencing a movie in an actual theater.
Modern fable
Compelling character study
Father-son drama
High-octane action thriller
Hollywood blockbuster
Best movie of the year.