When the original Top Gun was released in 1986, the Cold War was still raging and the United States Navy was very much in the business of winning it. The film, which starred Tom Cruise as a hotshot pilot named Maverick, was an unabashedly patriotic ode to the Navy’s fighter pilot program. It was also a huge box office hit, grossing more than $350 million worldwide.
Now, 36 years later, the Cold War is long over and the Navy’s focus has shifted from winning wars to protecting America’s interests around the world. But Cruise is back as Maverick in Top Gun: Maverick, and this time he’s joined by a new generation of pilots who are facing challenges that their predecessors could never have imagined.
The film picks up more than three decades after the original. Maverick is now a flight instructor at the Top Gun school, where he is charged with training the next generation of pilots. But he soon finds himself at odds with his superiors, who want him to conform to the Navy’s new rules and regulations.
Maverick is a man who lives by his own rules, and he’s not about to change now. He’s still the best pilot in the Navy, and he’s determined to prove it.
