Upon its release, Top Gun was a sensation. The highest-grossing film of the year, it sold 47m cinema tickets in America alone – enough to keep it playing on more than a thousand screens nationwide for five straight months – and shattered home media records. The film was instantly iconic, both for its aerial sequences and for the parts that Pauline Kael called “a shiny homoerotic commercial”. If you ever want to watch the precise moment where Tom Cruise became Tom Cruise, you watch Top Gun.
But that was 36 years ago, and much has changed since then. Tony Scott, the movie’s director, died a decade ago. Tom Cruise became a megastar, lost it all in a bout of silliness then clawed his way back to the top. Top Gun as an entity has plummeted in relevance, too; overtaken by decades of bigger and flashier movies.
And yet here we are. In a few short weeks, Top Gun: Maverick will finally hit our screens. It’s been a long time coming; first derailed by Scott’s death and then, multiple times, by Covid. But now its release looks immovable, so only one question remains. Does anyone actually care?
You have to be honest, it doesn’t exactly look this way. A Top Gun sequel looks destined to struggle to find a place within a release schedule studded with superhero movies and other ongoing franchises. The original isn’t well remembered enough to make a dent with the kids, and the people who did love it can’t see any justification for a new one. It would be a gamble at any time but, post-Covid when not even Steven Spielberg remaking a beloved musical can get bums on seats, it seems hellishly risky.
The thing that has me really worried, though, is the newest Top Gun: Maverick trailer. See the moment where Miles Teller reveals that he’s actually Goose’s son? See the moment where everything cuts away to a photo of Val Kilmer on the wall? Doesn’t it feel like the film is busting an absolute gut to tie itself to the original? Honestly, who wants to see that?
My theory is that, if Top Gun: Maverick is a flop, it’s because it doesn’t realise the true strength of Tom Cruise. At this point in his life, Tom Cruise transcends plot. It doesn’t matter what film you put him in, he’s Tom Cruise. This is the reason why, a few years ago, someone on Wikipedia changed the name of most characters he had ever played to “Jack” and it took a while for people to actually notice. And if Tom Cruise can transcend plot, then he definitely transcends this sort of needless fan service. People aren’t going to watch Top Gun: Maverick to see how it ties into the broader Top Gun universe. They’re going to watch it because it’s a Tom Cruise film.
At this point I have to hop off the fence for a moment. I’m going to watch Top Gun: Maverick. This is because, in part, it offers the precise thing that I want from a Tom Cruise movie in 2022, which is Tom Cruise being flung around all over the place like a rag doll.
This, after all, is the real reason why anyone is invested in the Mission: Impossible franchise. The plots of those films are hammy and labyrinthine, but they’re redeemed by Cruise’s total, planet-destroying dedication to pushing himself to the limits of human endurance. Tom Cruise sees a building, Tom Cruise wants to climb up the side of it. Tom Cruise sees a helicopter, Tom Cruise pilots the damn helicopter himself. Tom Cruise sees a plane, Tom Cruise dangles off the side of it by his fingertips.
And this spirit of reckless adventure looks set to continue in Top Gun: Maverick. The most compelling scenes shown in any of the trailers so far are the ones where Cruise gets whipped around in a succession of blazingly fast jet fighters. In fact, I’d argue that the few people who are excited about Top Gun: Maverick don’t actually want there to be a plot at all. They’d just be happy with two hours of Go-Pro footage of Tom Cruise smooshed into the back of his seat, getting his face mangled beyond all recognition by G-force. Tom, if you’re reading, there’s still time to edit out everything that isn’t this.
Top Gun: Maverick is released on 27 May
