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Commander John
Storm just wants to be left alone to complete his DNA collection, and
explore the uncharted regions on planet earth. But he always seems to be
in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Top Gun: Maverick is a 2022 American action drama film directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie, from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks. In this sequel to the 1986 film
Top
Gun, Tom Cruise reprises his starring role as the naval aviator Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. The ensemble cast also features Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer (in his final film role). The story involves Maverick confronting his past while training a group of younger Top Gun graduates, including the son of his deceased best friend, for a dangerous mission.
Development of a Top Gun sequel was announced in 2010 by Paramount
Pictures. Cruise, along with co-producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott, were asked to return. Craig wrote a draft of the screenplay in 2012, but the project stalled when Scott died later that year. Top Gun: Maverick was later dedicated to Scott's memory. Production resumed in 2017, after Kosinski was hired to direct. Principal photography, which involved the use of IMAX-certified 6K full-frame cameras, took place from May 2018 to April 2019 in
California,
Washington, and Maryland. The film's complex action sequences—and later the COVID-19 pandemic—delayed its release, which was initially scheduled for July 12, 2019. During the pandemic, several streaming companies attempted to purchase the streaming rights to the film from Paramount, but all offers were declined on the orders of Cruise, who insisted that it should be released exclusively in theaters.
Top Gun: Maverick premiered at CinemaCon on April 28, 2022, and was theatrically released in the
United States on May 27. The film was widely praised by critics, with many deeming it superior to its
predecessor. It was named one of the top ten films of 2022 by the American Film Institute and nominated for six awards at the 95th Academy Awards (including Best Picture), winning Best Sound. Top Gun: Maverick grossed $1.496 billion worldwide, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 and the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career. A sequel is in development.
PLOT
More than 30 years after graduating from the Top Gun training
school, United States Navy Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is a decorated test pilot whose insubordination has kept him from flag
rank. When Rear Admiral Chester "Hammer" Cain plans to cancel Maverick's "Darkstar" scramjet-powered hypersonic aircraft program, Maverick manages to reach the final target speed, but the prototype is destroyed when he cannot resist pushing beyond Mach 10. Cain tells Maverick that Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, Maverick's friend and former Top Gun rival, now commander of U.S.
Pacific Fleet, has had Maverick assigned to the Top Gun school at NAS North Island, keeping his career alive for now.
The Navy has been ordered to destroy an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant in an unnamed foreign country before it becomes operational. The plant, located in an underground bunker at the end of a canyon, is defended by surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), GPS jammers, fifth-generation Su-57 fighters, and F-14 Tomcats. With the GPS spoofing making an attack by the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II unfeasible, Maverick devises a plan employing two pairs of F/A-18E/F Super Hornets armed with laser-guided bombs. However, instead of participating in and leading the mission himself, Maverick is ordered to train elite Top Gun graduates who will complete the mission, assembled by Air Boss Vice Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson, who barely tolerates Maverick's presence in deference to Iceman.
Maverick dogfights with his skeptical students, winning their respect, while talented but cocky and rude Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin clashes with likable but cautious Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw—son of Maverick's deceased best friend and radar intercept officer Nick "Goose" Bradshaw. Maverick reunites with former girlfriend Penny Benjamin and reveals his promise to Rooster's dying mother that Rooster would not become an aviator. Rooster, unaware of this, resents Maverick for blocking his Naval Academy application and blames him for Goose's death. Faced with selecting Rooster for the mission, Maverick confides in Iceman, who tells him, "It's time to let go" and reassures him that both the Navy and Rooster need Maverick.
Iceman soon dies from terminal cancer, and Cyclone removes Maverick as instructor. Believing Maverick's plan is impossible to execute, Cyclone relaxes the mission parameters, allowing for theoretically easier execution but predictably resulting in the pilots' deaths. During Cyclone's announcement, Maverick makes an unauthorized flight through the course, completing it in less time than stated in his original mission parameters, proving it can be done. Cyclone reluctantly appoints him as team leader.
Maverick flies the lead F/A-18E, accompanied by a buddy-lasing F/A-18 flown by Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace and weapon systems officer Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Floyd. Rooster leads the second strike pair, which includes Lieutenant Reuben "Payback" Fitch and WSO Lieutenant Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia. The four jets launch from an aircraft carrier, and
Tomahawk cruise missiles destroy the enemy air base. The teams destroy the plant, but the
SAMs open fire during their escape. Rooster runs out of countermeasures, and Maverick sacrifices his plane to protect him. Believing Maverick dead, all jets are ordered back to the carrier, but Rooster disobeys and returns to find Maverick on the ground being pursued by an Mi-24 attack helicopter. After destroying the gunship, Rooster is shot down by a SAM and ejects. The two rendezvous and commandeer an F-14 from the damaged air base. Maverick and Rooster destroy two intercepting Su-57s, but a third attacks as they run out of ammunition and countermeasures. Hangman, who was the mission's emergency action pilot, unexpectedly arrives in time to shoot it down, and the planes return safely to a jubilant flight deck.
Later, Rooster helps Maverick work on his P-51 Mustang. Afterward, Rooster looks at a photo of their mission's success, pinned alongside a photo of his late father and a young Maverick, as Penny and Maverick fly off in the P-51.
CAST
- Tom Cruise (Hollywood
actor) as Maverick
BOX OFFICER & CRITICS
Top Gun: Maverick grossed $718.7 million in the United States and Canada, and $777 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $1.496 billion. The film became the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career on June 17, 2022, after crossing $800 million worldwide. On June 26, the film crossed $1 billion, becoming the second film to do so during the pandemic era. It is the second-highest-grossing film released in 2022 (behind Avatar: The Way of Water). Sonny Bunch, writing for The Washington Post, argued that the film's financial success along with that of Spider-Man: No Way Home demonstrates that securing a theatrical release in China is not mandatory for a Hollywood film to be profitable. Deadline Hollywood calculated the film's net profit as $391.1 million, accounting for production budgets, marketing, talent participations, and other costs; box office grosses and home media revenues placed it second on their list of 2022's "Most Valuable Blockbusters".
In the United States and Canada, Top Gun: Maverick was the highest-grossing film released in 2022. It grossed $126.7 million in its opening three-day weekend and $160.5 million over the four-day Memorial Day weekend, finishing first at the box office and nearly doubling Cruise's previous career best. The film also had the largest Memorial Day four-day opening weekend. Its Memorial Day weekend record was later broken in 2025 by Lilo & Stitch ($183 million). In its second weekend, it grossed $90 million; the 29% drop was the smallest ever for a film that had an opening of over $100 million, surpassing Shrek 2 (33% drop in its second weekend from a $108 million debut in May 2004). The film was dethroned by newcomer Jurassic World Dominion in its third weekend, but still grossed $51.9 million. The film remained in the top five at the box office throughout its first ten weeks of
release. The film finally dropped out of the top five at the box office in its 11th weekend, finishing sixth with $7 million. In its 12th weekend, the film was re-released in over 400 theaters and made $7.1 million, returning to second place.[ In its 15th weekend, the film made $6 million (and a total of $7.9 million over the four-day Labor Day frame), returning to the top of the box office. Box office analysts attributed the film's longevity at the box office to positive critical reviews and word of mouth.
Outside the US and Canada, the film grossed $124 million from 62 markets in its opening weekend. It was Cruise's biggest opening ever in 32 of those markets and Paramount's best opening for a live-action film in 18 of them. The largest markets in its opening weekend were the United Kingdom ($19.4 million), France ($11.7 million), Australia ($10.7 million), Japan ($9.7 million), and Germany ($6.5 million). The film had the best debut of Cruise's career in the Middle East ($6.3 million), Brazil ($5.3 million), the Netherlands ($2.4 million), Sweden ($2.2 million), Belgium ($1.7 million), New Zealand ($1.4 million), Poland ($1.2 million), Argentina ($1.2 million), Finland ($1.1 million) and Portugal ($770,000). IMAX accounted for $10.4 million of its opening weekend outside the US and Canada.[185] The following weekend, it made $85.8 million, a mere 16% drop that included $18.5 million from IMAX screenings.[186] As of May 1, 2024, the top markets are the United Kingdom ($103.4 million), Japan ($101.7 million), South Korea ($67.2 million), Australia ($64.3 million) and France ($59.8 million).
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 476 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The website's consensus reads: "Top Gun: Maverick pulls off a feat even trickier than a 4G inverted dive, delivering a long-belated sequel that surpasses its predecessor in wildly entertaining style." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100, based on 63 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film a rare "A+" grade on an A+ to F scale, while PostTrak reported 96% of audience members gave it a positive score, with 84% saying they would definitely recommend it.
Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood thought Maverick was better than the first film. The New York Times-based critic A. O. Scott called it a "thin, over-strenuous and sometimes very enjoyable movie" and "an earnest statement of the thesis that movies can and should be great." Peter Bradshaw wrote in The Guardian that "Cruise presides over some surprising differences from his first outing as the navy pilot hotshot in a film that's missing the homoerotic tensions of the 80s original." Alonso Duralde of TheWrap opined that the film "counts as a worthy sequel in that it succeeds and fails in many of the same ways as the original." Mark Kermode, writing in The Guardian, saw the film as an "eye-popping blockbuster" which "manages to take your breath away".
Entertainment.ie's Brian Lloyd's 4-star review said the film "exceeds with flying colours" and "exists in a world that is all of its own making. There are golden sunsets, perfectly crisp white t-shirts, exquisitely coiffed hair, and long-held flames of romance that make it all impossible to
resist." Clarrise Loughery, chief editor of The Independent, wrote that the film is "as thrilling as blockbusters get. It's the kind of edge-of-your-seat, fist-pumping spectacular that can unite an entire room full of strangers sitting in the dark and leave them with a wistful tear in their
eye." Richard Brody of The New Yorker characterized it as more of a reimagining than a direct sequel, integrating contemporary political themes into the aerial combat drama of the 1986 film. Tomris Laffly of RogerEbert.com highlighted its emotional depth, emphasizing its unexpectedly powerful impact on audiences.
In June 2025, IndieWire ranked the film at number 7 on its list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 2020s (So Far)."
Industry response
On August 3, 2022, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino called Top Gun: Maverick "fantastic", as the film, alongside Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, "provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I'd almost thought that I wasn't going to see anymore." As a long-time admirer of the original Top Gun director, the late
Tony
Scott, he added: "There was just this lovely, lovely aspect because I love both Tony Scott's cinema so much, and I love Tony so much that that's as close as we're ever going to get to seeing one more Tony Scott movie ... The respect and the love of Tony was in every frame. It was almost in every decision. It was consciously right there, but in this really cool way that was really respectful." Spielberg himself also praised the film as having "saved the entire theatrical industry”.
Ridley Scott, Tony's older brother with whom Cruise worked on the 1985 film Legend, was given a private screening for Maverick. Bruckheimer stated, "One of the most heartwarming things I experienced is when we showed the movie to Tony's brother, Ridley. He was laudatory in his praise for the film and the kind of care that Tom took to honor Tony throughout the movie. That was foremost in everybody's mind." However, Fede Álvarez, director of Alien: Romulus (produced by Scott), later stated that Scott had more negative feelings on Maverick. Álvarez stated "I asked him about the new Top Gun and he's like 'meh.' I'm like, 'What are you talking about?' And he was like, 'My brother's was original and this is like eh.' He really respected it, but you could see how tough he was." The film was dedicated to Scott's memory.
Role of the U.S. military
The film was actively supported and influenced by the United States Department of Defense and the United States Navy to present the U.S. military in a positive light and aid in recruitment and retention. The U.S. Air Force also ran recruitment ads before the film's screenings. This led some to criticize the film as propaganda.
PICTURES
A - Z
1. Crimson Tide (1995) - 116 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
2. The Sum of All Fears (2002) - 124 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
3. Planet of the Apes (1968) - 112 min | Adventure, Sci-Fi
4. Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - 137 min | Action, Adventure,
Sci-Fi
5. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018)
6. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb (1964) - 95 min | Comedy, War
7. Unthinkable (2010) - 18 | 97 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
8.
Tomorrow
Never Dies (1997) - 119 min | Spy, Action, Thriller
9.
Goldfinger
(1964) - Blockbuster | Spy, Action
10.
Lord
of War (2005) - Crime | Drama
11.
War
Games - (1983) - Techno-Thriller
12.
Olympus
Has Fallen (2013) - Political, Thriller
13.
White House Down (2013) - Political, Thriller
14.
Die Hard 4 (2007) Cyber, Action, Thriller [Live Free or Die Hard]
15.
SALT, (2010) - Spy, Action, Thriller
16.
From
Russia With Love - (1963) Blockbuster | Spy, action
17.
The
Dambuster - (1955) WWII docudrama 617 Squadron, bouncing bomb
18.
Top
Gun: Maverick - (2022) Naval aviation sequel starring Tom Cruise
The devastating impact of nuclear war has inspired filmmakers to craft powerful stories that confront this dire subject. The best nuclear war movies not only visualize the devastating aftermath of such catastrophic events but also delve into the psychological, political, and emotional consequences faced by characters in these harrowing scenarios. Audiences are captivated by the powerful storytelling and dramatic tension that set apart this genre of cinema.
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You can find exceptional portrayals of nuclear conflict in films such as Fail Safe, Threads, and Fat Man and Little Boy, each weaving compelling narratives. Fail Safe presents an intense and suspenseful depiction of Cold War-era politics, centering on a malfunction that could lead to full-scale nuclear conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Threads, on the other hand, takes a more visceral approach by portraying the gritty reality of everyday life, as survivors struggle to cope in the devastating aftermath of a nuclear strike. Similarly, Fat Man and Little Boy delves into the historical roots of nuclear weaponry, chronicling the moral dilemmas and ethical quandaries faced by the scientists who developed the atomic bomb. These films represent just a few of the many fine examples of great movies about nuclear war.
Beyond their compelling narratives, these films offer a perspective on the dangers of nuclear war, emphasizing the importance of understanding the potential consequences of cataclysmic conflict. They allow audiences to gain a deeper understanding of the potential horrors of nuclear conflict, and serve as cautionary tales that emphasize the need for diplomacy and peace in our increasingly interconnected world. Watchers are left with both a heightened awareness of the grave consequences that could result from nuclear war.
CHAPTERS
| CHARACTERS
| MEDIA
|
MOVIE REF |
SCREENPLAYS
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