Top Gun: Maverick

Starring: Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller

Directed: Joseph Kosinski

Released: 2022

Genre: Action/Drama

Box Office: $1.488 Billion

One of the most iconic films of the 1980’s finally got its long awaited sequel. Top Gun: Maverick released in May 2022, has become a worldwide phenomenon reaching over $1 billion at the worldwide box office (also making it the highest grossing film of Cruise’s career). 

The film follows Mavericks life thirty years after we last seen him. It picks up with Maverick as part of a team testing out a new military jet and no surprisingly even after being told the projected was being scrapped and he was to stop, he keeps going. So clearly after thirty years Maverick hasn’t learnt how to take an order. After this ordeal he is ordered that he is to go back to Top Gun and help train a team for a very intense mission. 

The team we are introduced to are a large mixture of characters played by a brilliant cast including Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro and Jay Ellis. Other supporting actors consist of Jennifer Connelly, John Hamm, Charles Parnell and to the joy of many fans (myself included) Val Kilmer. I think the cast gel together perfectly and make it still feel like a Top Gun movie without it feeling like an exact replicate of the original. 

Speaking of the original, there are plenty of references to the 1986 classic without it being too overbearing and pushing on the audience. These include the iconic ‘Danger Zone’ by Kenny Loggins being played over the opening sequence, images of Maverick and Goose being displayed in Mavericks workshop, other songs and characters being brought back from the originals and a reappearance from the main planes used in the original. 

I’m sure just like many people, I was nervous as to whether this film would make or break the franchise but I can confirm that it was perfectly made and did feel like I was just watching ‘Tom Cruise fly a plane thirty years later’. Top Gun Maverick is available to buy or rent on Amazon Prime now.