TOP GUN MAVERICK (2022) | KAIROS GLOBAL | JUNE 2024

Author: Joseph Anthraper

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1). The Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts ‘the right to the exercise of freedom as an inalienable requirement to the dignity of man’ (CCC 1743); a freedom that is rooted in man's reason and will (CCC 1731). Hence in order for human beings to grow into and achieve more freedom, he/she has the duty and responsibility to form his/her conscience – i.e. to train his/her reason and will to choose good over evil; and hard as it may be, practise it often enough that when the hour comes calling for one to take that seemingly difficult moral decision, he/she can do that with a clear conscience, knowing, willing, and choosing the good without the clouds of uncertainty hanging over.

Top Gun Maverick is a sequel to the original Top Gun movie released in 1986. Not being a huge fan of the original movie (though well aware of the cult following it has generated over the years), admittedly I was quite apprehensive about the sequel. But I must confess that after watching it, the sequel seems to trump the original – credit to director Joseph Kosinski for this amazing feat!

More than 30 years have passed since Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell graduated from Top Gun, though nothing much has changed about him. It seems the passing years has neither made Maverick any wiser, nor blunted his sharp edges – he is still his old-self – an extremely talented and distinguished pilot, though reckless, and insubordinate as ever to his superiors. His rival-turned-friend in the original movie, Admiral Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky is now the highly decorated commander of the US Pacific Fleet, and it is Iceman who usually gets Maverick off the hook from every trouble he gets into.

After he destroys the hypersonic ‘Darkstar’ fighter aircraft prototype by flying it beyond its limits (obviously contrary to orders from his superiors), at Iceman's behest, Maverick is reassigned to Top Gun Academy for a unique mission. The navy has orders to destroy an unsanctioned uranium enrichment facility in enemy territory but the location of the facility makes it an extremely dangerous mission. The plant sits at an underground bunker at the end of a valley, surrounded on all sides by steep mountains, and well defended and protected by surface-to-air missiles, fifth generation fighters, and with GPS jamming. Maverick comes up with a plan to bomb the facilities using four F-18s flying in pairs. However, instead of leading the mission, he is instructed to teach a group of former Top Gun graduates – the best of the best, so that they, instead of him, would be the ones flying this mission.

The group includes Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw, the son of ‘Goose’, who used to be Maverick's friend and wingman, and who tragically died when Maverick and Goose got into an accident in the original movie. There is a lot of history between Maverick and Rooster that is still raw for both men – and with both not willing to let go of the past, it seems foolish to Maverick to take up the assignment as he is certain that it would further antagonise their already fragile relationship. As he is contemplating quitting, Maverick meets his old love interest, Penny, and both Penny and Iceman convince Maverick to stay and teach the graduates for the mission.

So begins Maverick's unconventional teaching for this seemingly impossible mission in three weeks’ time – often having run-ins with his superiors as well as students over his methods, yet once he has bought into the idea, Maverick is clear about the goal: he wants his officers to come back from the mission, alive. So he pushes his students, often to the point of breakdown, both physical and psychological, yet he can't get them to achieve the test missions within the stipulated time window. And to complicate matters, Iceman, who had been battling cancer for a while now, passes away, which gives Maverick's commanders enough and more freedom to take him off the mission and to rework the strategy that Maverick had made for the mission.

For once, it seems like time has finally caught up with him. With no help on the horizon, and with Iceman out of the picture, Maverick feels that it is curtains for him. It takes a lot of effort from Penny to motivate him back to take the situation into his own hands – as recklessly as he has so often done in the past and to save his career and reputation as well as the lives of his officers. Even the great Maverick needs the help of normal people around him in difficult times – whether it be Iceman or Penny. The rest of the movie is about how Maverick tries to achieve the impossible and, in the process, whether he is able to finally mend the broken relationship with Rooster?

With very little CGI and breathtaking manual stunts, the action sequences are well captured and do make the viewer feel part of the many flying sequences and manoeuvres. The story itself is quite simple and straight-forward, with no outlandish plots or twists, which is expected for a Top Gun sequel. But even the simplicity of the story works to its benefit, as the director is able to maintain a lively pace and flow. Don't think, just act, is a constant buzzword in the movie; in a normal scenario, that is very bad advice but when you have practised and perfected your art as the fighter pilots in the movie, it makes sense. For all the hours and hours of practising they have done, they ought to make those ‘right and proper’ decisions without thinking.

For us in our spiritual and moral life also this serves a good reminder, that only the practice of virtue can make it easier to choose right over wrong in those decisive moments, when there is little time nor any help to give pointers; yet choose we must! Though the past weighs heavily for many of us, as Christians, we also know that Jesus is the Lord of the past and our God is a God who can write straight even through crooked lines – such a relief for us who believe in the Lordship of Christ. All in all, Top Gun Maverick is a wonderful cinematic experience for the whole family!

Joseph Anthraper lives in Southampton, UK with his wife Mahima and their four children.