Soucheray: With all those plaudits, would new ‘Top Gun’ be a disappointment?

Joe Soucheray, Pioneer Press
·3 min read
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So many people recommended seeing “Top Gun: Maverick” that it was best seen before the plaudits overwhelmed what just as likely might have been a disappointment.

It was not.

It’s as though a filmmaker stumbled upon an ensemble of actors, producers, writers, directors, grips, stage hands and one high-priced superstar, none of whom had any idea what has taken place in the United State since 1986, the year of the first “Top Gun.” They apparently didn’t read newspapers or watch CNN or attend any of our many failed universities.

Yes, it is a sequel. The plot is as predictable as a fifth-grade play; at one point, I asked the CP if she wanted to know the ending. The dialogue nicely rides along with the predictable plot.

But then g-forces press you back into your seat. What comes roaring out of the sky is at its heart the story of long-lost American exceptionalism garnished with the most incredible and nimble of our flying machines, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. Excuse me while I get the shivers.

The director is a guy named Joseph Kosinski. Maybe the film gets its Americana vibe from him. He was raised in Marshalltown, Iowa. Somehow, I think that’s important. Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is ordered to North Island Naval Base to train an already elite group of Top Gun Navy pilots for an urgent mission, to take out an unnamed foreign country’s unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant.

The enrichment plant is in a box canyon protected above by surface-to-air missiles. Those F-18s will be screaming through the eyes of needles.

To paraphrase, Maverick tells them “you are the best of the best. Now I need to discover the best of you.”

Nobody is going to get a participation trophy. They are in this for the competition. They are patriotic. They are resolute, determined, respectful of authority, highly competitive, organized and brave. They are black and white, male and female. They slug each other on the arm and love to give the needle to each other at the island bar. Their colors are the colors of the Navy and the American flag, seen flying not infrequently.

They would never leave anybody behind.

Nobody needs a timeout room. Nobody needs a special pronoun. No cuddly animals are brought to the base to pet away anxiety. These are adult men and women protecting a country they are thankful for. Those who don’t make the team are crestfallen.

That this came out of Hollywood is so astonishing it might have been released in 1950, when our moral compass was never in doubt. The mission is harrowing and the probability of success is less than encouraging. But they are the good guys. The bad guys want to kill us. Let’s go. There is nothing we can’t do.

And because it is now, and not 1950, we see F-18s put through maneuvers probably never before seen on film.

As of June 15, “Top Gun: Maverick” had made $401 million domestically and $755 million worldwide. That should open some eyes. We are exhausted from the burden of believing we should always be damning ourselves. This was a celebration of excellence.

When was the last time you were in a theater and the audience cheered?

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