Talk to me, Goose

Essentially no one talked about it or advertised it, but Paramount silently re-released both Top Gun and Top Gun Maverick to movie theaters (in IMAX) for the 40th anniversary of the first film. The re-release came complete with souvenir popcorn buckets and cups and posters for those who bought tickets. Again, almost no one heard about this before they hit theaters again this past week.

We happily went to screenings of both films (my third time seeing Maverick in the theater), and man alive do these films both hold up as the pinnacle of fun, pristine popcorn films. Seeing them both on the big screen on subsequent days really unlocked a lot of thoughts.(Beyond the standard “holy hell are these movies great” thoughts.)

1. These are some of the most gleefully sweaty and gay movies ever put on celluloid. These are movies about how men love and depend on men and how important it is to stand nose to nose with another guy in a locker room and/or just pop your tarp off and play sports at a moment’s notice. You drive a big vehicle and you need a big guy behind you helping you drive it.
2. The jingoistic nature of the movies is overt; it’s right on the tin. The movies couldn’t have been made without the support and approval of the United States military, so people write them off as pure propaganda. But a reading that’s every bit as valid as “this is a commercial for the Navy” is that these are movies about how the military absolutely destroys people, mind, body and soul. The very first act of the first Top Gun is about a pilot getting so traumatized by an enemy encounter and the possibility of orphaning his child he’s never met that he quits, opening the door for Maverick and Goose to attend Top Gun in the first place. PTSD is the inciting incident of Top Gun. This continues on through both movies; Maverick is so haunted by the death of Goose (a death he blames himself for) that he never, ever gets over it. It ruins his relationship with everyone in his life, and nearly causes him to ruin the life of Goose’s son, Rooster. Maverick is a man who has a huge problem with authority (which tends to be a problem for a career-plus Navy man), but it’s the loss of his best friend —a loss caused by military competition, not even combat —that defines his entire life.
3. These movies are about the stranglehold that the military has on generations of families and generations of men. Maverick chases the ghost of his father, who he never learned was a hero in Vietnam because the military wasn’t allowed to disclose the nature of his death. Maverick attempts to keep Rooster from following in Goose’s footsteps and break free from the military cycle by pulling Rooster’s academy papers, but that only makes Rooster more determined. What’s more, in sabotaging the two men’s relationship in the spirit of keeping Rooster alive, Maverick inadvertently fills Rooster with self doubt and resentment, which puts him in further danger. Both men are locked into an endless chain of families who will be fed to the machine of the armed forces, and neither can imagine a world where their lives turn out any differently.
4. Boy does the original Top Gun not explain a THING at any point. I’ve seen the movie so many times since I was in grade school that the story beats and details are imprinted on my brain, but I never really clocked that the movie just zips along without really explaining terms or what anything means. "Hard deck?" sure, whatever. Why is a fly-by bad? because it wastes coffee, probably. The final mission is basically explained in two sentences and then guys are in the air blowing up MIGs. The story is that guys compete to see who’s the best pilot and then they go blow up some Russians, because that’s what we did at the time. It all made perfect sense. Still does.
5. Yes, the story in Maverick is even sillier because of the refusal or identify what country the main characters are bombing, but it’s pretty in line with the first film. The important thing isn’t the where or who, the important thing is pushing the limits of what pilots are capable of in the spirit of being the best. Both movies are closer to sports movies than war movies, and the mission is secondary to making it home alive with bragging rights.
6. Seeing these movies back to back and seeing 40 years pass while Maverick is still just as harrowed by the loss of Goose really hammers home that, beyond traumatizing a generation of moviegoers, Goose’s death may be the most impactful and long-lasting character death in cinematic history. God bless you, Anthony “Dr. Greene” Edwards.
7. We are all still in love with Tom Cruise’s commitment to attempting to perish on film, and the ultimate magic trick of Maverick is that Tom Cruise has strapped his ass into fighter jets in real life and is acting at however many thousand feet. Unbelievably exhilarating shit, every time.
8. There will never be another movie star like Tom Cruise. To the extent that, prior to these movies, a trailer began playing that we assumed was simply a Tom Cruise retrospective, but turned out to be a career-long sizzle reel to hype up Cruise’s possible last stab at an in-competition Oscar for playing the lead in Alejandro Iñárritu’s Digger. Yes, part of the marketing campaign for Digger involves them licensing about THIRTY Tom Cruise movies. Absolutely bonkers stuff, and absolutely phenomenal. Watching his movies roll by, you are just repeatedly hit with, “oh yeah, this guy’s movies are basically just The Movies and always have been.”
9. I still adore that Maverick gets the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer credit, despite Simpson being dead for about 30 years. Also love that Maverick is dedicated to Tony Scott, the talented brother.
10. What a perfect and heartbreaking farewell to Val Kilmer Maverick was. Good for everyone involved there.