"Top Gun: Maverick" review — Tom Cruise-led blockbuster delivers on top-tier action and nostalgia

“The Navy needs Maverick.”

Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the naval aviator melodrama Top Gun (1986) directed by Tony Scott, doesn’t begin in the way you might think. While the familiar glamorous sunset shots of planes being slingshotted off of aircraft carriers accompanied by the sounds of Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” do return in this film, and appear quite early in the film’s runtime, they are far from the first thing we see. In fact, the first images on the screen are not even the studio logos. Instead, the audience is greeted with a message from the legend himself, Tom Cruise. He welcomes you back to the theatres with an intimate, eyes-down-the-barrel-of-the-lens speech. He promises that what you are about to witness was done practically because there is no way else to capture it on camera. Then, and only then, you are prepared to enter Cruise’s world.

In many ways, the character of Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick parallels Cruise’s status as an actor in 2022. Cruise is the last of a dying breed of actors. Having prolonged his career as one of Hollywood’s top leading stars for over three decades, with the original Top Gun being an important early work, Tom Cruise is trapped in a perpetual youth. Although about a month shy of his sixtieth birthday, Cruise still throws himself from airplanes, takes the real G-force of an F-18, and performs all of the Mission: Impossible franchise’s ridiculous stunts himself. But there aren’t many like him anymore. There aren’t as many ready to throw their bodies and minds the way he does into extreme stress for blockbuster filmmaking. That’s also where we find Maverick at the start of the film.

Despite three decades in the Navy and a career of distinguishment, Maverick has never ascended past the rank of captain. “You should at least be a 2-star admiral by now,” Ed Harris’ Rear Admiral “Hammer” Cain says towards the beginning of the film chiding Maverick for his recent aerial stunt. He also informs him that the days of pilots like him are almost up. Eventually, all of the fighter planes will be operated by a computer. But Maverick is not dead yet. In fact, there’s one more mission he’s needed for. And no matter how reluctant people like Cain or Jon Hamm’s Admiral “Cyclone” Simpson are to admit it, Maverick is still the best around. The computers can’t replace the old-timer just yet.

Miles Teller as Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick. Photo: Paramount.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick is a long time coming. First announced back in 2010, the film faced a myriad of production delays, including the death of the original director, Tony Scot, to whom the sequel is dedicated, before finally beginning principal photography in May 2018, four years ago. The cast underwent a three-month training bootcamp to prepare their bodies for the stress of shooting in real fighter jets. Much of the filming had to be done by the cast themselves because there was no room for crew in the cockpits of the jets performing real aerial maneuvers. The film was initially planned for a summer 2019 release and then delayed to summer 2020 due to shooting complications and then delayed further until 2022 because of a few other minor issues.

Finally, after years of development, the film, and Tom Cruise, has premiered in theatres in all of its glory. Thankfully, the cast and crew’s hard work paid off and Top Gun: Maverick is a high-flying success. The film delivers on the promise of its thrilling, practically-shot action scenes with some phenomenal flight sequences, Tom Cruise’s performance as Maverick is absolutely magnetic, and the film uses its nostalgia to find some genuinely emotional beats along the way.

The film begins with Maverick being ordered back to TOPGUN, the elite school for the top one percent of naval aviators, to teach a select group of graduates everything they need to complete one of the Navy’s most risky aerial plans in years. The mission requires speed, risky flying, precision, and the ability to withstand some 10 Gs of force. Not many people are cut out for this line of work. The film’s sprawling ensemble cast — from the group of pilots working with Maverick, to the various Navy admirals, as well as the non-military characters — is excellent. Jennifer Connelly is a great addition to the cast as Maverick’s new love interest, Penny. Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, and Lewis Pullman stand strong as aviators Hangman, Phoenix, and Bob respectively. The dynamics between the aviators are quite enjoyable to witness. The comradery is authentic and detailed with each character adding a unique flavour to the team’s dynamics.

The two heavy-hitters on the cast, besides Cruise, are Miles Teller and Val Kilmer. Teller plays Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Goose, Maverick’s best friend and WSO who met a tragic end in the original film. Rooster is brimming with unkempt energy undercut with total insecurity and fear. His relationship with Maverick is one of the film’s strongest elements and is a fitting continuation of the story of the original film. Kilmer, despite his complicated health, reprises his role as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, now a four-star admiral. Kilmer’s work is incredibly bittersweet with elements of Kilmer’s own health journey seamlessly incorporated into the film’s story. Kilmer and Teller’s performances in the film provide a strong emotional foundation much deeper and richer than a project like this needs or seems to deserve.

Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. Photo: Paramount.

That is another I cannot help but notice: Top Gun: Maverick is way better than it should be. The original film is a definitive example of 80s kitsch. It’s overly melodramatic, the visuals are a little too saturated, there’s a “Danger Zone” needle drop about four times in the movie, and the performances are as big as the hair — it feels like a parody of 1980s filmmaking. The sequel, thirty-six years later, is a really solid action flick that comes with a surprising amount of nuance, restraint, and an incredibly well-executed third act. Cruise is right, the energy of practical filmmaking cannot be beaten. The flight sequences are roaring with the stress and strain of the stunts. The film looks incredible thanks to cinematographer Claudio Miranda. The direction is kinetic and palpable, yet the film remains fiercely story- and dialogue-driven and never compromises the story at its core.

Of course, the beating heart of the film is Tom Cruise, both in his performance as Maverick and in the context of his status as a real-world icon. Knowing Tom Cruise’s reputation in Hollywood and his seeming one-man war to keep an old-school way of movie-making alive, no contemporary Cruise project can really be viewed outside of a metatextual lens. The original Top Gun is where Cruise became a star. And now, Maverick might be the first film in Cruise’s filmography to acknowledge that he’s getting older. But he’s got a few tricks up his sleeve before he goes. And, boy, do those tricks make for a compelling blockbuster.

In an outburst against crewmembers for not following COVID precautions on the set of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023), Cruise said in an attempt to stress the importance of their work, “[t]hey’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us [...] they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies!” Like Maverick, Cruise is fiercely protective of his way of doing things. In a world of soulless blockbusters, director Kosinski, Cruise, and the rest of the film’s creatives offer an excellent alternative. With Top Gun: Maverick, Kosinski and Cruise seem to be on a quest to save the soul of the movies. And I could not be happier to witness it.

Top Gun: Maverick is now playing in theatres.

Top Gun: Maverick information
Directed by Joseph Kosinski
Written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie
Starring Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, with Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer
Released 27 May 2022
131 minutes