Top Gun: Maverick spoiler-free review: A worthy return to the danger zone

As I walked out of my review screening of Top Gun: Maverick, coming down from its adrenaline-filled finale, a small part of my brain began looking for dents in the film's armor. Maybe it's the critic in me, but my thoughts didn't need long to land on stuff from the original film—a plot point, a stylistic choice, a particular character—that didn't return this time. I chewed on those thoughts for a second, but before I could lose myself in cataloging them at length, a sensation came over me. It landed like a massive G-force blast, as if I were a jet fighter pilot attempting a seemingly impossible climb: one of great satisfaction with this sequel and admiration that this film pulled off the impossible feat of adhering to the old while doing something new.

The series' predilection for steering military theater toward Hollywood-style silliness is arguably more tolerable, as tempered by a savvy script and cutting-edge stunt work. The character development hits important notes for both Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and the people in his high-speed orbit, and the film's focused supporting cast mostly hits the mark. Perhaps most important of all, an aging-yet-excited Tom Cruise never steps beyond his pay grade. The Top Gun star of roughly 35 years ago ruled movie theaters for different reasons than the man he is today, yet this film never sees his character Maverick betray his beloved traits or feel like an old man faking like a 20-something hotshot. A few of the series' moving parts have been jettisoned so many years later, and lifetime fans of the film will definitely notice them. But Top Gun's core tenets—incredible fighter-jet combat, enjoyable cheese, and the big-grin smile of Cruise—have returned in arguably finer form than the original.

“Don’t think, just do”

Top Gun: Maverick has the added benefit of looking incredible on a large screen, and it's perhaps the best IMAX format showcase of the past five years. Cruise and co. were clearly eager to take cinematic air combat to the next level, and there's no getting around it: If you have to stitch three hospital-grade masks together or rent out a private room to feel comfortable in a public movie theater in 2022, you should consider doing so for this film. Every major flight scene includes per-cockpit camera rigs that emphasize the added height of IMAX's 16:10 ratio, and in these moments, flying is choreographed to let this camera angle showcase Top Gun-caliber stuff. You might see another plane in view, or vapor trails, or dumped flares dancing and billowing smoke, or a glancing shadow of the jet against the Earth's surface because the F/A-18 Hornet is actually flying that freaking low in real life. In these moments, the actors don't hesitate to explode with emotion, whether shrinking back or splashing their palms on the cockpit glass that extends across the entire IMAX screen.

Top Gun: Maverick spends a lot of time in this perspective, so it's good to see the stunt teams and cinematographers repeatedly strike a hot beach volleyball high-five over this collaboration. Yet the crew also makes up for lost time since the first film was made by letting external cameras, including expertly staged drones, linger over death-defying flight sequences or use wide-angle shots to show how foolishly close its stunt flyers zip past each other. The 1986 style of hard camera cuts to stitch together a shot-down bogey are done. This time, we get to watch full dogfights that lead up to each climactic kaboom. Really, the lengths to which this film goes to favor real-life stunts over green-screen trickery is incredible. Everyone will have a different favorite on this front, but mine is a dramatic fly-by somewhat early in the film that I won't spoil for you, except to say that it was reportedly filmed with actors taking the real-life brunt of its buzz. You'll know it (and feel it) when you see it. My only shoulder-shrug about the air-combat content comes from a few CGI-filled briefings. In each of these, commanding officers point at holograms and break down each step of a mission or exercise—as if Cruise insisted that this film resemble the Mission: Impossible series in one way or another. While these moments are tolerable, I felt they were explanation overkill that took time away from getting the film's cameras up into the danged skies.

“I’ll have four more on the old-timer”

If you're savvy about the real-life version of the military training exercises that Top Gun is based on—the one that's technically spelled "TOPGUN" in the US Navy—you'll notice that the sequel writes its way out of mischaracterizing the program. (Rewind to this 2019 podcast for a lengthy explanation from members of the TOPGUN program, should you wish to hear how in-fighting concepts like "there are no points for second place" don't fly in the real school.) Maverick's return to the series isn't an entirely realistic version of military theater, but the breakdown and explanation for his return certainly sound like it got some sort of US military once-over. In particular, the story finds ways to neatly build intrigue out of internal military politics—including Maverick's timeless ability to continue pushing boundaries—while also creating organic in-fighting between younger pilots with something to prove. The script's best stuff shines when Maverick can't simply lean on decades of flashy piloting skills to overcome a challenge. These moments see Cruise channel a confused or even terrified version of a younger Maverick trapped inside an older, wearier man, and it's remarkably good acting inside of a film that also has, you know, beach sports and overzealous high-fiving.

When Maverick isn't behind the stick of an F/A-18 Hornet, he's contending with old demons—and the script makes tough decisions to decide which old ghosts linger, and which ones don't. Rather than spoil those for anyone who hasn't seen the trailers, I'll clarify that this is not a cameo-loaded film. Top Gun: Maverick brings back a few familiar faces, always to successful dramatic effect. (One sequence, in particular, is not only emotionally charged but is handled with incredible dignity—an odd adjective if you haven't seen the scene yet, but it will click once you have.)

Maverick above all else, for better and for worse

While the dialogue meaningfully touches on a couple of relevant characters who didn't return, others have been wholly jettisoned. I may go into this article's comments with a spoiler tag to offer my thoughts on certain characters' omissions once Ars readers have had time to see the film. For now, I will admit that I would like to have seen a few characters at least get more lip service—and I feel like one character would have been perfect to reference at length as Maverick contends with the film's core conflict.

Really, signs of sacrifices can be found all over the film if you look hard enough. A new cast of flyboys (and flygirls) is smartly pared down to a select few faces at a very early point in the film. Yet, while their bravado and intensity are often at the film's forefront, none receives screentime that resembles the Goose-and-Mav camaraderie of old. Maverick's "new" romantic interest (played by Jennifer Connelly) isn't really new in the character's life, but the film skips a scene or two in establishing how the duo reckons with over a decade of longstanding issues. The word "Maverick" in the film's title should be taken seriously before stepping into theaters because this is his character's film more than anyone else's—even if the cast drives substantial drama, tension, and fun along the way. (While Connelly is done dirty as a Bechdel-failing romantic lead who only exists for Maverick's sake, she certainly brings her A-game to a reduced role.) I wonder if a longer original script filled in some of those gaps, only for the filmmakers to step back, look at the runtime, and make decisions that cut the film down to an exact two-hour mark. The harshest criticism I can offer is that Top Gun: Maverick's soundtrack simply doesn't cut it. I can forgive the fact that we didn't get another compressed-as-hell guitar-and-synth '80s rock-o-rama, and I appreciated it when the film's original theme emerged during crucial scenes. But the original Top Gun's music was a noticeable and significant cast member, while the new film's music blends in like so much average, dramatic orchestral stuff.

Dreaming of a “Mid-Life Maverick” TV series

Additionally, I know that Skydance Productions is in charge of this film, as opposed to it being run by one of many theater-and-streaming duos like Disney or Paramount, but this film opens with a dangling tease of an amazing prequel TV series. What has Maverick been up to professionally over the past few decades? We get an answer in the film's first 20 minutes, and the killer scene in question makes me want to watch at least two seasons of "Mid-Life Maverick"—especially if it connects dots to plot points that didn't make Top Gun: Maverick's final cut.

All in all, I love that this feels like a Top Gun film that turns its Top Gun-ness on its head. The original film dynamic of a hotshot student blowing up the classic order appears in small doses, but Top Gun: Maverick more often reckons with its standout hotshot doubling as a role model and leader—and the cast and script alike lap this uneasy balance up. Plus, again, F/A-18 stunts and combat have never looked better—and the film does a great job squeezing old-school, high-stakes flights into a military sphere of largely automated combat. At one point, Top Gun: Maverick makes a pointed reference to how the Top Gun stylings of old aren't compatible with modern times. This moment forces Maverick—and, honestly, Tom Cruise—to look directly into the camera and admit that his old status quo may soon expire. "But not today," he says with a hint of his telltale smirk, and gosh, am I glad he went into the air for one more ride.