Cruise Control
Against the odds and defying any kind of logic, Tom Cruise cements his legacy with a 35-years-later sequel that tops the original.
top gun: maverick
Director: Joseph Kosinski • Writers: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie
Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, Bashir Salahuddin, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer
USA! USA! USA! • 2hrs 11mins
Opens Hong Kong May 26 • IIA
Grade: A-
It might be the popcorn.
Hong Kong cinemas have been given the green light to serve food and drinks again, and the timing couldn’t be better. Summer is practically here and that means one thing: Popcorn entertainment.
To whit. The sequel to the most ’80s movie to ever ’80s, comes a full 36 years (probably 34 if COVID hadn’t hit) after the first film. Top Gun was Tony Scott’s military adventure/Navy recruitment ad, starring then-emergent Tom Cruise as a rule-breaking, no-shits-giving, ultra-talented chick magnet, aptly named Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. It was 1986, halfway through a retrograde Ronald Reagan-led Red Scare and the Moog ruled. Americans loved the film; everyone else pointed and laughed and/or rolled their eyes. Berlin won an Oscar and Kenny Loggins was dubbed king of the soundtrack.
But a funny thing happened on the way to part two. The world turned into a vastly different place (kind of). This OTT, rah-rah America mythmaking (or perpetuating) has since been lampooned by stuff like Team America, and attitudes have, ahem, been reconsidered. So star/producer Cruise had some fancy footwork to do to make Top Gun relevant. And guess what? Top Gun: Maverick pulled a Blade Runner: 2049: It’s better than the original.
Look! Black and brown people, and girls. Progress!
The irony is not lost that in a movie largely about obsolescence, director Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion, the forthcoming Spiderhead) and his crew of writers marching to the beat of Cruise’s drum have managed to cleave closely to the tone and overall vibe of the original film while injecting that (now retro) vibe with fresh energy. It’s an amazing feat, and an incredibly entertaining one from the second “Danger Zone” fires up. Oh yeah. That’s here.
Story? Who gives a shit, but if we must: Maverick is still a Captain, living a military industrial bo-ho life in an old Navy hangar (?) and testing the next, and possibly last, generation of fighter jets. With cranky Admiral Cole (Ed Harris, serving weathered Navy manliness) on the way to the base to shut down the testing programme, Maverick defies orders (because of course he does) and takes the new jet out for the Mach-10 flight that should save it. His, erm, maverick behaviour gets him busted down to teaching at the very school that made him famous. Guess who’s there? Of course Goose’s son Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Platonic ideal of the douchebro, Miles Teller), who’s pissed that Maverick stalled his Naval career. Maverick is at Top Gun to whip six pilots into shape for a tricky mission to bomb an “enemy” uranium lab. He has three weeks.
The story is mostly just window dressing, there to remind us just how awesome Maverick/Cruise is. Maverick is a film of fist pump moments (so many fist pumps) thanks to Maverick’s preternatural flying skills. His romantic interest this time is an admiral’s daughter, Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly, utterly radiant), who somehow affords a sailboat and a classic Porsche as a bar owner but who Just. Can’t. Resist. Maverick. He wins over hard-ass Admiral Beau “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Hamm). And he still rides that motorbike like a badass.
He does not tower over her, bless him
But really, it’s in the title, and to think that Maverick would be anything less than a paean to Cruise’s signature role is delusional. That said, unlike Hollywood’s other great egoist (Vin Diesel) Cruise has never been less than committed to his work, and he does spread the love a little bit (look what happened to poor John Cena when he dared co-star in F9). Val Kilmer makes an appearance as Iceman, now an Admiral in charge of the Pacific Fleet and Maverick’s sole ally at Naval command. Kilmer’s real life cancer has made headlines (and underpins a great doc about his career) and the film leans into that, writing Iceman as ill, and making the rivals’ scene bittersweet. However, Meg Ryan, who played Goose’s widow Carole, and Kelly McGillis’s academy instructor Charlie Blackwood get massively short shrift. WTF, Tom? No love for the old gals who were… checks notes… major parts of the first plot?
Even still Top Gun: Maverick checks most of its important boxes: Hangman (Glen Powell) is The Cocky One who gets his redemption, Phoenix (Monica Barbaro) is The Girl (it’s 2022, c’mon people), Payback and Fanboy (Jay Ellis and Danny Ramirez) are The Black/Brown Ones (ditto). That’s the extent of their characters. And the film really delivers the goods where it counts: A beachside game (football this time) where the key is requirement is “glistening,” white knuckle aerial dog fights, and hagiographically photographed jets (by cinematographer Claudio Miranda). No, Lady Gaga’s “Hold My Hand”, bombastic as it is, doesn’t stick as much as Berlin did, but yeah. This is immersive, exciting ’80s-style action that Scott would be proud of. Then again, it could have been the popcorn. DEK