17 Times "Top Gun: Maverick" References "Top Gun"
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Top Gun: Maverick is finally in theaters, and that calls for high fives all around.
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It's a sequel that continues the story from Top Gun, but it's more than 30 years later...so things look a little different. That said, it's still full of nostalgic callbacks to the original movie, so here they all are, just in case you're curious:
This post contains plot spoilers for both Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick.
1.Tom Cruise's return as Maverick, obviously
The helmet! The jacket! THE SUNGLASSES. It's all here, and seeing Tom Cruise reinhabit one of his most famous roles might blow your mind a little bit.
2.Val Kilmer's emotional return as Iceman
Val Kilmer only appears in one scene in Top Gun: Maverick, but Iceman has a major role in the story.
3.Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) didn't appear in the original movie, but she was mentioned as an ex-girlfriend of Maverick's.
4.The movie's biggest connection to the events of the original is that Maverick is still grieving Goose (Anthony Edwards) and seems to have lingering guilt about his death.
5.Both movies open in the exact same way: with a black title card describing the Top Gun school followed by a montage of Navy flight deck operations.
One notable difference is that the new movie's title card says "the handful of men and women." Yay!
6.Rooster (Miles Teller) is Goose's son, who appeared in Top Gun as a baby.
Rooster and Maverick's estranged relationship is a major plot point in the movie.
7.Rooster plays and sings "Great Balls of Fire," just like Goose did in the original movie.
8.It wouldn't be a Top Gun movie without "Danger Zone," so you'll be relieved to hear that this movie uses it twice.
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9.Maverick's arrival to the Top Gun facility is an exact mirror of his entrance in the original movie, complete with "Danger Zone" playing in the background.
10.Once again, Maverick bumps heads with his Top Gun supervisor. In 1986, it was Viper (Tom Skeritt); in 2022, it's Cyclone (Jon Hamm). In both cases, Maverick wins their begrudging respect by the end.
11.Ed Harris's appearance as Rear Admiral Cain mirrors the scene in the original movie when Goose and Maverick are first sent to Top Gun despite not following orders.
It's very funny that both movies start with Maverick making a superior angry and then being rewarded by being sent to Top Gun. Look at their faces! They find him so annoying.
12.Hangman (Glen Powell) is pretty antagonistic toward Rooster throughout the movie, but ends up saving his life and embracing him as a teammate. This is very similar to the dynamic between Iceman and Maverick in the original.
13.A lot of Maverick's lessons as a Top Gun instructor are reflective of his own experiences in the first movie.
For example:
— He chastises Hangman for abandoning his wingman during a training exercise, something he himself did.
— He suggests lowering the hard deck for training purposes, which is a reminder that he frequently ignored that rule as a pilot.
— He emphasizes that the pilots will have to explain any deaths to their teammates' families, which we know is what he had to do when Goose died.
14.The football scene in Top Gun: Maverick is a clear homage to the volleyball scene in Top Gun.
15.During the film's climax, Maverick and Rooster escape in an F-14 Tomcat, which is the exact plane Maverick flew with Goose.
16.Maverick rides a Kawasaki bike in this movie, just like he did in the original.
It's a new model, though.
17.And finally, the tiniest of Easter eggs: When Hangman picks a song on the jukebox early in the movie, he punches numbers 8 and 6. The OG Top Gun came out in 1986.
Paramount Pictures
