A Dude Who’s Seen Top Gun 300 Times Breaks Down the Top Gun: Maverick Trailer

Tom Cruise dropping the first trailer for Top Gun: Maverick at day one of Comic-Con was a bigger surprise than an unauthorized F-14 Tomcat buzzing the tower at over 400 knots.

In an age where a hotly anticipated trailer is hyped so much that you find yourself willingly watching Good Morning America just to see it two minutes before it’s on every corner of the internet, the Top Gun: Maverick trailer was an ice cold reminder that you don’t need pre-trailer teasers and corporate synergy when you have a nest full of F/A-18 Hornets and Tom Cruise behind the stick.

Before we go any further, I have a confession and a quick story.

That 300 in the headline that may have enticed you to click this piece?

It’s a low estimate. Low enough that it’s the equivalent of bidding one dollar on The Price is Right.

When Top Gun made its debut in the summer of 1986, it hit me harder than Cougar trying to deal with ramifications of losing the edge.

To put it another way, Top Gun was my Star Wars.

I was a huge Star Wars fan as a kid (and still am) but was too young to truly appreciate watching the original trilogy unfold on the big screen.

All that changed in ’86. I was nine-years-old and Top Gun had a plot I could wrap my head around and action that made my jaw hit the sticky theatre floor.

I was hooked.

The rest of that summer went like this: Mow lawn. Get money. Watch Top Gun.

(And since this is the ’80s we’re talking about, watching Top Gun meant turning and burning all the way across town on my BMX bike to see it at the mall by myself. A perfectly normal thing for a nine-year-old to do back then.)

Months later when it was released on VHS, I skipped catechism (sorry Jesus) to go to Video Kingdom to pick up the pre-order we made weeks earlier. With an MSRP of $20, Top Gun was one of the first video tapes intended to be purchased by consumers. Up until then, VHS movies cost $100 and you guarded that rental copy of Ghostbusters with your life.

So, here’s how watching The Greatest Movie Ever Made 300 times becomes feasible.

Theatrical release: +/-10 times
VHS tape: Wore out.
College: Weekly.
Cable: Whenever it’s on.
DVD/Streaming: Monthly. At least.

Now factor in the part where those events above have transpired over 33 years and suddenly 300 viewings seems like very a low number.

Now lets get to the reason why we’re here and break this sucker down.

Opening sequence. Desert. As an F/A-18 Hornet hugs the ground as it scorches across a barren landscape at near supersonic speed, a voiceover that we quickly realize is Ed Harris rattles off a long but distinguished list of accolades that can only belong to one Naval Aviator- Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

This cutaway to a countdown timer in the F/A-18’s cockpit is a good sign that this flight is a test run for something very specific.

After an establishing shot of an aircraft carrier, we meet our narrator Ed Harris, who plays a two star admiral who is not impressed with Maverick’s career and tells him,“You should be at least a two star admiral by now. Yet, here you are, ‘Captain.’”

[Based on the Navy’s org structure, Admiral Ed is right. If you’re a captain 30 years in, it’s either get promoted or get mandatory retirement. Or, you could be a wild card like Maverick and figure out a way to keep doing what you love.]

Boom. The shot we’ve been waiting for. Our first look at Maverick after all these years. His expression is a little weary but then again, he’s getting chewed out by another angry bald superior officer. In response to his dressing down he says, “It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.”

The mystery is solved in the very next sequence. You mean if Maverick doesn’t take a desk job he can keep flying at mach 2 with his hair on fire? Just spitballing here but my guess is every time he was up for a promotion, he busted out another circus stunt in order to stay right where he is. [Quick side note to apply my film studies minor: The underlying theme about Maverick’s irresponsible career is going to spawn a million think pieces about how Top Gun: Maverick is ultimately a sad love letter to slacker boys who refuse to grow up.]

Then we cut to a magic hour shot of the San Diego coastline and Maverick’s world.

We next see Maverick in front of a locker putting on a leather jacket. But it just isn’t any jacket. It’s THE jacket. In the background we see a large workshop area and motorcycles on display. Could Maverick’s ultimate bachelor pad be an airplane hangar?

This big patch says ‘Indian Ocean Cruise ’85–86.’ Last we saw Maverick, he splashed three MiGs into the Indian ocean.

Then we see a pair of aviators hanging on an award plaque. The inscription is hard to make out but the words ‘Test Pilot’ are there. Is this how Maverick has managed to keep flying all these years?

There she is. Maverick’s Kawasaki Ninja. The triad is now complete. The jacket, the glasses, the motorcycle.

But in the very next shot, Mav is wearing a different jacket and he’s riding a different motorcycle. My guess is he busted out the jacket and dusted off the Ninja for a Top Gun reunion/old-timer’s day where we find out Iceman and the gang have all retired.

A wonderful tribute to Top Gun director Tony Scott.

Then it’s montage time.

Maverick is about to do some of that (test) pilot shit.

Oh look. It’s Jon Hamm. He’s playing a three star admiral who I bet doesn’t like Maverick.

Is this Iceman’s son?

Or maybe he’s Slider’s kid.

Jennifer Connelly with the hair flip but will we find out what happened between Maverick and Charlie? Did his inherent immaturity cause their relationship to crash and burn or did they give her the ol’ Maude Flanders?

GOODNESS GRACIOUS, GREAT BALLS OF FIRE! It’s Miles Teller as Goose’s son!

And it looks like he might be a little sensitive about his pops.

Maverick’s at an airport. He must have a big decision to make.

Now he’s in full dress at a funeral. Sure, it’d be easy to speculate that Viper flew off into the great beyond but I’m calling my shot: His father’s remains were found across enemy lines and Duke Mitchell finally gets his recognition that was long overdue.

But we don’t have time to dwell on that when it’s time to end the trailer with what the people want.

Maverick leads a tight formation of low flying F/A-18s.

Is this the mission he was rehearsing in the desert?

He’s inverted! (Note his weapons array. A pair of sidewinders and smart bombs. Could they be on a low level bombing run?)

Now back to Admiral Ed who says “The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.” (Really, could there better think piece chum than referring to a white dude in his late 50s as “your kind”?)

Maverick seems to accept his fate. In his second line of the trailer he says “Maybe so, sir. But not today.”

This exchange is a continuation of the scene we saw earlier. Note how Maverick is dressed. It looks like he’s about to embark on the test flight we saw him suited up for and the background suggests this scene takes place in an office on dry land, not below deck on an aircraft carrier.

Cue the title card and a slow piano version of the “The Top Gun Anthem”

Finally, out of nowhere comes the money shot of the whole trailer…

AN F-MOTHERFUCKING-14 TOMCAT!!!

The mountains and river sure look familiar don’t they? Didn’t we just see Maverick and his squad flying over that terrain? And now there’s an F-14, an aircraft the US Navy retired from service in 2006. However, the Tomcat is still the pride of Iran’s Air Force. (Back in the 1970s, the US sold F-14s to Iran and even set up a flight school to train Iranian pilots and that’s a story in itself.)

Oh boy, did the plot of this film ever thicken.

Out of respect for spoilers, I won’t say anything further but if you poke around the internet a bit you can probably get an idea of what might be afoot with this shot.

Googling it should be just as easy as looking up the number for Truckmaster.