The walls vibrate as screaming jets shoot by the screen, popping off flares, with explosions happening left and right as pilots fight for their lives. 

All this can be seen in one movie- “Top Gun: Maverick.”

“Top Gun: Maverick” is the action thrills sequel to the 1986 film “Top Gun” with a total running time of 2 hours 11 minutes.  The movie is rated PG-13 and rightfully so with various incidents of violence and language.

Joseph Kosinki was chosen to be the director of this film, along with lead actors Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly and Monica Barbaro.  A small cameo was made by Val Kilmer to quickly play Lieutenant Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky. The script was expertly crafted with snappy remarks, high ego’s, clever jokes, and real naval terminology like “Smoke in the air” and “Knock it off”.

The film opens up with a faithful recreation to the original movie, featuring the songs  “Top Gun Anthem” and “Danger Zone.” After the opening credits, the shot cuts to our main character Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, played by Tom Cruise, in his aircraft hanger preparing to ride to a naval testing facility for the Mach 9 flight of the hypersonic aircraft named “Darkstar.” Upon arriving, he soon finds out that the hypersonic program has been canceled by a character named Admiral Cain, and in typical Maverick fashion, he simply replies, “Well, he’s not here yet.” This turns into a shot by shot montage of what preparation looks like for hypersonic flight, including vitals and oxygen. The contract given was for a Mach 10 hypersonic aircraft. After reaching Mach 10, Maverick proceeds to push the limits of the aircraft by pushing past mach 10 to mach 10.3 before the Darkstar explodes. After a discussion with the admiral, he discovers that he is being sent back to Top Gun, the Navy’s school for their top 1%.

The enemy in this movie is unnamed; however, context clues with the landscape, the unnamed fifth generation fighter, appearing to be Russia’s new SU-57, and the usage of an F-14 has shown that the country is most likely Iran as they were given F-14’s by the United States and have ties with Russia.

“Top Gun: Maverick” ended up having a budget of $170 million and surpassed $1.4 billion in the box office, making it the 11 highest grossing film ever, according to Box Office Mojo. 

The movie utilizes real F/A-18’s with six specially installed VENICE cameras being in the cockpits, four of which focus on the actors and two look forward.  Three single seat and two twin seat jets are also used in the filming of the movie. Almost all flight scenes were real, with exceptions for those that require flying together with less than 5 feet of clearance and scenes where jets are no longer airworthy are used.

Overall, “Top Gun: Maverick” is a fantastic movie, filled with action and thrills. It is the perfect sequel and was laid out perfectly with an amazing script.  Each actor manages to fit their role perfectly, whether it be an egotistical cocky pilot or an introverted weapon systems officer. 

Even if the viewer has not watched the original, the plot is still easy to understand with flashbacks to the original to fill in plot holes.