Things In The Top Gun Movies That Make No Sense

The most confusing aspect in both "Top Gun" movies is the relationship between order and chaos: how does our hero Pete "Maverick" Mitchell keep getting away with being such a, well, maverick within the confines of the Navy? The military is famously an institution exclusively based on following orders, emphasizing the life or death importance of the chain of command. Maverick routinely violates orders by going rogue: in each film he violates the law by flying under the "hard deck," the minimum altitude for training exercises for the protection of civilian life below. His recklessness gets his best friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw killed, although he's cleared of wrongdoing.

More than three decades later, in "Top Gun: Maverick," he's no better: he wrecks an experimental supersonic jet and defies the commanders at TOPGUN with uncleared teaching methods. It's implied that his friend Tom "Iceman" Kazansky has been intervening on his behalf, but it beggars belief that this attitude would last more than a week in the actual Navy. So in the military of the movies' world, are orders a good thing or a bad thing? In "Top Gun" Maverick ultimately is rewarded for his talent in spite of his recklessness. In "Top Gun: Maverick," he's the one giving orders and the movie seems to agree that the younger pilots should follow them ... except when Goose's son Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Miles Teller) defies them to save his life. It adds up to a strange sort of controlled chaos that doesn't reward critical thought.

The most cognitively dissonant part of the first "Top Gun" is the relationship between our protagonist Maverick and his arch-rival, Iceman. If you just read the dialogue in their scenes, you might assume Iceman is actually the lead role, because every single thing he sneers at his reckless nemesis is actually just a very sensible thing to point out. Iceman is described as a talented and polished pilot, and he points out multiple times that Maverick acts irresponsibly by defying protocol and taking needless risks. The way the scenes are acted, and the tension that Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise capably bring to their roles, make you more likely to root for Maverick just out of movie-watching habit. Why is this blond jerk being so snide to our hero?

The thing is, Iceman is right: Maverick is talented but pure chaos, and even his superiors admit they have grave doubts about how his attitude will translate to combat. Maverick even indirectly gets Goose killed, and Iceman takes the high road and offers his sympathy instead of saying "I told you so." At the end of "Top Gun," Maverick saves Iceman's life in combat and they become lifelong friends, so all's well that ends well. But no one brings up that Maverick learned nothing: he ignored Iceman's level-headed and reasonable advice, and it all just kind of worked out for the best in spite of him.

Maverick's appeal in both "Top Gun" movies is a self-fulfilling paradox. He's the main character — surely that means he's brave and not reckless? Also, beautiful women are drawn to him, so presumably he must be charming. But that doesn't hold up when you watch his actual interactions with Charlie Blackwood (Kelly McGillis) in "Top Gun." First, after a mildly amusing but also embarrassing impromptu karaoke session, he follows into the women's bathroom to make a fool of himself and aggressively hit on her. 

Instead of being even momentarily cowed or apologetic when he realizes she's actually a TOPGUN instructor, Maverick interrupts her presentation and embarrasses her again in front of all the other recruits. There's some vague pillow talk about how she's impressed by his flying skills, and wants to hear more about the inverted maneuver with an enemy MiG he pulls off in the beginning of the movie, but their romance largely unfolds with a dreamlike inevitability. It's almost as if they conclude that they should fall in love just because they both look like very attractive movie stars.

Early in "Top Gun" it's insinuated that Maverick has succeeded in spite of the reputation of his late father, himself a pilot who died during the Vietnam War under mysterious circumstances. Much like how he would later work against Rooster in "Top Gun: Maverick," Maverick is denied entry to the naval academy because of Duke Mitchell's negative reputation, implying that the military holds grudges for more than a generation.

Eventually, Commander Mike "Viper" Mitchell reveals to Maverick that his father died a hero: "His F-4 was hit. He was wounded but he could have made it back. He stayed in it. Saved three planes before he bought it." This quick explanation raises a multitude of questions that Maverick doesn't bother to ask. How does a wounded man in a damaged plane save three other planes? Viper says it was all covered up because it happened on the wrong side of a border, but doesn't explain why the elder Mitchell ended up being blamed for his own death instead of lauded as a life-saving hero. Maverick's surface-level acceptance of a secret he's waited his entire life to learn just makes it all the more confusing.

Ultimately neither "Top Gun" movie can afford to identify the enemy nation involved, because to do so would risk inflaming international tensions in the actual world and raise impossible questions to answer in their fictional one. Namely, wouldn't the climax of both movies rise to the level of an incident that could incite World War III? In "Top Gun," set in the waning days of the Cold War, shooting down a few MiG fighters could perhaps be reasonably settled with whatever country they came from without further escalation.

It's "Top Gun: Maverick" that truly makes no sense. The nation that America is so keen to prevent from enriching uranium may not have nuclear capability just yet, but it has sophisticated surface-to-air missiles, and 5th generation fighter planes that are superior to what Maverick and co. are flying. Such a nation would definitely have long-range missiles that would lay waste to our heroes' entire aircraft carrier more or less immediately after the mission, and presumably incite all-out war from there.

"Top Gun: Maverick" trades the shallow, glossy romance of the first movie for a deeper, more lived-in love story as he reconnects with Penny Benjamin, played by Jennifer Connelly. Penny Benjamin is referenced in "Top Gun" as the "admiral's daughter" that Maverick had a dalliance with, among his many other insubordinations. It adds an element of nostalgic sweetness as the characters bond over paternal struggles: Penny with her teenage daughter, Maverick with Goose's son Rooster.

Bit by bit, it's revealed or implied that Penny and Maverick have gotten together and split up several times over the years. Indeed, if they first became involved before the events shown in "Top Gun," by the time "Top Gun: Maverick" takes place they've been on again, off again for nearly four decades. Penny's daughter even somewhat coldly warns Maverick not to break her mother's heart again. Though the actors have chemistry, the vague references they make to a shared past don't really seem to reflect the actual amount of time that the characters have known one another. They pick up where they left off entirely too easily, and never have to hash out what drove them apart in the past at any length or in any depth.