Director: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: You know full well who stars in it
7/10
This much-awaited sequel opens with Maverick (Tom Cruise) working on the engine of a P-51 Mustang – a venerable airplane which no longer has military use but which enjoys a mythic status. Cruise is involved in an advanced fighter project but the navy brass decide to scrap it. The future, they insist, is pilotless planes. Generations conflict. Egos too.
Maverick is on the way out of the service but is bailed out by Iceman (Val Kilmer), his rival-cum-buddy in Top Gun, who is now an admiral and terminally-ill. Maverick is assigned to train a team of pilots to attack a uranium-enrichment plant in an unnamed country. So, the aging pilot has one more mission, which places him in conflict with superiors and pupils who are deeply skeptical, often hostile, and always younger.
The segments of the young aviators in training are filled with jocular camaraderie and fierce rivalries – so much that it’s annoying. One of the pilots is Rooster, the son of Maverick’s crew member who was killed in a training accident in the first film. Rooster’s resentment toward Maverick flares intermittently (but naturally it’s resolved before the credits roll).
Allusions to the first film abound, from the hectic flight deck opening (complete with “Danger Zone”) to the post-mission exuberance. A romantic interest is tacked on, though a much smaller one than Kelly McGillis played. Less might have been more here.
The film doesn’t get going until the details of the mission are presented and the planes launch for the strike. The planes must fly at dangerously high speeds down long narrow canyons, hit the nuclear site, climb steep mountain slopes, and contend with enemy missiles and fighters. So Maverick puts his pupils through a tough training regimen. As it turns out, Maverick, despite his age and superiors’ misgivings, must lead his pupils on the mission.
The harrowing flight through the canyons and fast-paced combat scenes are well done and compensate for repetitive unengaging training scenes. Maverick is shot down – and so is Rooster as he tries to come to his assistance. They sneak onto an enemy airfield and hijack a jet which is conveniently fueled, armed, and unguarded. Off they go to try for their aircraft carrier. By chance, the enemy plane is an F-14 Tomcat – the aircraft type that Maverick flies in the first film, the aircraft type Rooster’s father was killed in.
Though the enemy goes unnamed, the enrichment site near a mountain might remind some of the Fordo plant in Iran, which by the way continues to use F-14 Tomcats.
Cruise delivers a fine performance as the aging, often weary fighter pilot who knows his day is coming to a close. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is less compelling, perhaps because the script only gives them occasional quips. All in all, I enjoyed the first film more than the sequel. Top Gun moved along more crisply and had a mythic feel.
©2023 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to fellow Hoya Susan Ganosellis.