To begin with, Cruise has grown up and is became an influential star in Hollywood. He produced the film himself and fought against everyone to get it out only in cinemas, resisting the sirens of streaming platforms, as he stressed several times at the Cannes Film Festival, collecting his surprise honorary Palme d'Or.
Returning to the film, we find on time the orgies of roaring engines, the macho races to determine who is the best driver and that atmosphere of bibs, blue jeans and testosteroni that has permeated the entire first film and that returns here, because in Top Gun: Maverick it all comes back.
The nostalgia effect starts from the opening titles, absolutely identical to the original, as well as the first sequences on the aircraft carrier on the legendary notes of Danger Zone. The epic tone pervades the whole film, not without doses of irony and self-irony, as in the first film. We meet Captain Pete Mitchell in the Mojave Desert in California. He pulls his character's legendary leather jacket and unmistakable goggles out of a locker in a scene that looks a lot like dressing up a superhero - in fact this is Maverick, the fastest pilot in the world ready to break all records in flight - for then whiz aboard his motorcycle. When we see him wearing the uniform complete with a "Maverick" helmet, chills and the dejavù are just beginning.
"Talk to me, Goose" he will repeat several times in the film, referring to Nick Bradshaw, his best friend and late flight companion who tragically passed away during an exercise. After all, for those who do their job The end is inevitable ”, the superior interpreted by Ed Harris will laconically sentence. “Maybe, sir. But not today ", Maverick replies, riding the catchphrase of that not today that crosses with emphasis the great contemporary narratives, from The Lord of the Rings to The Throne of Swords.
Even the game with music is all a reference to the first Top Gun, from Danger Zone to Great Balls of Fire, the song by Maverick and Goose, this time played by Goose's son (Miles Teller) on the piano in the bar. We find the woman in the bar (this time it is Jennifer Connelly who plays her), we return to the world of exercises - Maverick is a teacher, no longer a student -, the risky maneuvers, the rivalries between pilots (Rooster vs Hangman, who will win?). The same jokes are a continuous and wanted to wink at the cult-film: "Give up your wingman, it's something I haven't seen for a while".
Even the shirtless game on the beach is back (this time we play to football, however) and above all returns one of the most beloved characters of Top Gun, the alter ego of Maverick, Iceman Kazansky. The meeting between the two and their embrace is perhaps the most moving scene ever, but don't worry, the rhetoric is elsewhere and the humor is around the corner: "Who is the best driver, you or me ? ". "Let's not spoil this beautiful moment".
Even the credits are identical to the first Top Gun, with the same theme and an emotion perhaps doubled in considering the worthy end of a myth that has taught a lot, all 'America and beyond. It showed that a talented boy can get where he wants, Maverick like Tom Cruise, and that you have to let go of the past to discover that, perhaps, it is the past that returns to save our lives.