I’ll be honest here, I’m a child of the ‘80s, and Top Gun was one of those movies that everyone had seen, so when I tell you that the nostalgia hit hard during the opening credits of Top Gun: Maverick, I need you to understand my full meaning. It was the same music from the original movie. You know the music I am referring to:

Pure gold, and no one can forget DANGER ZONE!

This movie was a long time coming. We first heard whispers in 2010 that Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer would reprise their roles in a sequel. Then there was a series of unfortunate events where the original director Tony Scott passed on, and the script was re-written. The actual shooting occurred in 2018 and 2019, and then COVID happened, but we FINALLY got word that it would be released in 2022 after a two-year delay. Holy crap!

While the first film had cheesy tropes and was fun for what it was, the new movie can be seen as one of the most epic action movies in a very long time. The action is fantastic, the feels are real, and we are genuinely concerned for our pilots. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the entire movie. No Joke. 

Maverick is forced to head back to Top Gun to teach the best of the graduates how to complete a mission that, by all accounts, is a suicide mission. He has to overcome his own hangups and inability to “let go” and trust Goose’s son Rooster to do what he needs to do to be a great pilot. Tom Cruise does an amazing job in his return as the unruly ace pilot Pete Mitchell, who follows his own idea of what rules should be followed. But he is caught in an impossible situation when it comes to these young pilots. How does he teach them and make sure they all come home? 

I love how they wrote in Val Kilmer’s character (Iceman) to account for his difficulty speaking due to the actor’s throat cancer struggles. The interaction between Maverick and Iceman is genuinely heartwarming.

The camera work on the flying is phenomenal, and I feel like this would be absolutely amazing in IMAX. The main mission sequence is one for the record books. Maneuvering through a narrow canyon, a small chance of success, an even smaller target, and the target is hit by Rooster even when the targeting laser malfunctions? I mean…that’s impossible, right?

Oh shit, wrong clip. 

You get the idea, though. Although Top Gun: Maverick is basically a Star Wars movie, I have to admit that it is incredible. It’s probably one of the best movies I have seen in a very long time, so the question remains, was it worth the wait? To answer that, I will leave you with one final clip:

What did you think of the movie? Let us know in the comments!