This week my wife, Megan, and I had a rare day to ourselves, with all our children staying with grandparents overnight. We took advantage of the opportunity to do something we almost never do—see a movie in the theater. Beyond the prohibitive cost of seeing films in this way, we just do not find many new movies very appealing. Hollywood’s general lack of imagination coupled with its clearly articulated social aims that contradict Christian principles make setting aside two-to-three hours for a movie hard to justify in our family.
However, the recent release of Top Gun: Maverick has received such an outpouring of positive reviews from nearly everyone that we decided it was probably worth the time and money. We were not disappointed. This film was fantastic!
Plot
(Readers are forewarned that this review contains spoilers.)
Top Gun: Maverick tells the continuing story of Navy fighter-pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), roughly thirty years after the events of Top Gun, released in 1986. Maverick, now in his fifties, finds his career in the Navy in jeopardy despite the protection of high-ranking old friends like Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer). As a result, Maverick is given orders to train a group of young elite fighter pilots to carry out a nearly impossible mission against an enemy facility.
As Maverick begins training, we learn that he has been watching over, from afar, the development of Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the orphaned son of his close friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) from Top Gun, who died in a freak training accident three decades earlier. However, Maverick’s relationship with Rooster is strained and adds tension to the already complex training task in which they are engaged.
Maverick’s love interest in the film is a divorced mother and small business owner Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly). The two have known each other for decades; their relationship was even referenced, though never explained, in the 1986 film. Now the two are mature adults who are cautiously looking for a lasting relationship based on friendship and mutual respect rather than youthful passion and indiscretion.
The film concludes with the well-prepared fighter pilots carrying out their mission and overcoming unexpected developments along the way. In the process, Maverick and Rooster heal their fractured relationship and begin to build a tight bond. In addition, Maverick begins to accept his limitations, especially those that come with age, looking to build a more realistic and settled life with Penny and her daughter.
General Analysis
For some, no doubt, part of the appeal for this film is nostalgia for Top Gun. But, in my case, even though I was born in the mid-1980s, I somehow never saw the original film until a few days before we watched the sequel. In my assessment, the 1986 film has many good qualities, but Top Gun: Maverick is better. The themes are deeper and truer, and the characters are more complex.
As others, like Ben Shapiro, have pointed out, this film has many good qualities. It is unapologetically patriotic without being sentimental. Members of the military are depicted as brave, attractive young people who are glad to serve their country at the risk of their own lives. It wrestles with the limitations that age imposes on us all without denigrating either old age or youth. In fact, it highlights the benefits that both ends of the aging process bring to a healthy community. The technical aspects of the filming are also astounding, making worthwhile the experience of watching it in a theater. Director John Kosinski deserves every bit of praise he receives for this work.
Beyond these features, which many have rightly celebrated, I found another theme of the movie particularly moving—the importance of intergenerational faithfulness. The flashy action narrative about training for and carrying out the bombing run serves as a light and tasty froth on top of this richer storyline that bubbles under the surface.
A Friend in Deed
Of all the themes that connect Top Gun: Maverick to the 1986 film, friendship may be the most important. Maverick and his friend Goose flew together in an F-14. When they were not in a plane, they were just as inseparable. But Goose died, leaving behind a young widow (Meg Ryan) and a very young son. Now, nearly thirty years later, his son, Rooster, is a grown man very like the father he never really knew. He dresses like Goose, has the same mustache, and even plays the piano while singing the 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis hit, “Great Balls of Fire.”
The first time that Rooster appears in the movie, Maverick is deeply shaken when he sees, from across a crowded room, the young man in the prime of life manifesting so many characteristics of his long-lost friend. This scene gets at several deep truths.
First, so much of who we are comes from our ancestors. Sure, nurture plays an important role, but something deeper is going on. Genetics does not explain it all either. The way in which we take on the characteristics of our forebears is an almost magical experience of God’s abundant wisdom and beauty.
A few years ago, I met an elderly aunt for lunch. When I arrived at the restaurant and took a seat, I was deeply gratified by her exclamation that, when she saw me walking in the door, she believed she was seeing her father’s (my grandfather) walk. I was so excited by this remark because I never met my grandfather (he died when my father was only five years old). I have often thought about this man, of whom my father has almost no memory, and wondered what he was like and what he would think of me. Somehow, I carry around in my body and personality the characteristics of my grandfather who built houses, laid brick, and preached in small North Alabama Free Will Baptist churches. I am made not only in the image of my Father but also of Ocie Kyle Morgan, and, through him, our first father, Adam. This intergenerational connection is a mystery, and it is beautiful in my eyes.
Second, as Maverick silently watches Rooster interact with friends, we see on his face the long pain of loss. Too often, we adopt a materialist way of seeing the world and act as if death is the end. But this is not so. As C. S. Lewis points out, we “have never met a mere mortal.”[1] Rather, everyone we have ever known will exist for all eternity. Long after we have buried loved ones, we are reminded of Lewis’s observation as we feel their presence in our hearts. At the oddest moments, we are moved to bittersweet tears by an almost visceral memory of their smile or voice. We carry them with us wherever we go and long to see the redeemed in the new heavens and the new earth. I can even eagerly anticipate seeing the man that I have never met but who gave me my stride.
Third, friendship is powerful. Pitifully, our culture emphasizes sexual relationships to the denigration of all others. Even within our Christian context, we tend to spend our time talking about our relationships with God and family, rarely mentioning friends. But few gifts are as wonderful as good friends.
In Deuteronomy, God notes that a friend can be so close to you that he is “as your own soul” (Deut. 13:6, NASB). The trials of Job are made much worse by the lack of comfort that his friends bring to him in his despair. They do not “love at all times,” as Solomon says friends ought (Prov. 17:17). In fact, a true friend should “stick closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24).
Maverick’s faithfulness to his friend has extended beyond their time together. As the movie unfolds, we find out that, until her death, Maverick stayed in touch with Goose’s widow and tried to help her care for her son. Along the way, he made mistakes, as even the best parents and friends do, but his errors were inspired by selfless love for Goose and his family. Throughout the film, Maverick’s imperfect but sacrificial love for Rooster is held up as a symbol of virtue.
The two most moving scenes for me involve the relationship between Maverick and Rooster—and thus Goose. Without giving away too much about the plot, at one point, Maverick and Rooster end up in an old F-14 together, recalling all those times that Maverick flew with Goose. At one point, Maverick even responds to a question from Rooster about the controls in the back seat by saying that he does not know how to answer because that was always his father, Goose’s, responsibility. This exploration is beautiful in the way it demonstrates how the bond of friendship extends beyond a single generation and how relationships with our friend’s children magnify the original connection.
Further, though their relationship has been fractured by Maverick’s imperfect attempts to protect Rooster, the young man comes to realize that his father’s friend has been acting only out of love and duty. Maverick loves Goose and thus Rooster. His attention to the boy’s development was an act of love for his friend. It was also inspired by a sense of duty to perform the responsibilities of friendship even after his friend was gone. Maverick understands that some part of his friend has been cast forward into this young man, and he would be breaking faith with Goose if he failed to care for him. Eventually, Rooster understands this connection as well. By accepting Maverick’s love, he garners a little more connection to the father he never really knew.
Conclusion
I cannot emphasize enough how much I enjoyed this film. The acting, directing, and filmography are delightful. The action scenes are eye-popping. And the heart of the film is pure. Most of all, it deepened my appreciation for the good friends that God has given me.
[1] C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory and Other Addresses, rev. ed. (New York: Harper One, 1980), 46.
March 30, 2024
Excellent review and insights. Thank you.