Podcast: Top Gun Maverick Double Feature

Why these two films?

1. The combination of the massive hit that was Maverick combined with the nostalgia film that came out in May of my freshman year of high school.
2. Tell the story of the move to Winamac, of going to the ISIS theater pretty much once a week for two years.
3. The story of seeing Maverick, with a welcome from Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, before the movie started in an ATL theater.
4. I stopped going to movies a long time ago and Covid really solidified that.

Top Gun / Maverick Internet Research:

1. Released May 16, 1986 / May 27, 2022 (36 years!)
2. Budget of 15 million and box office of $357 million / budget 175 million box office 1.4 billion.
3. based on a California magazine article. click here.
4. Top Gun soundtrack 9x platinum.
5. Cruise doesn’t want #s in the title.
6. Suicide of Tony Scott original director. Brain tumor.
7. Cruise 12-14 million for Maverick, over 100 million after film release.

Tik Tok Breakout Scenes. My favorite scenes to watch:

1. Maverick does the course for the 1st time. Maverick being relieved of his duties and the scene is the next day when he does the course with 15 seconds to spare on what they’d been trying to do.
2. TG1 first class session. Mav talks to Kelly in TG1. Goose changes Mav’s sentence to “we” about the MIG.

Cinematography Great Shots:

1. In Mav, planes on the river and in the canyon on the mission to blow up the plant.
2. Aerial shot down on helicopter with Goose dead in water.
3. Sailing with Penny.
4. TG1 the kiss on the motorcycle with boats going by.
5. Upside down Bird polaroid in 1.
6. Ed Harris when the roof blows off as Mav takes off.
7. Anti missile fireworks.
8. Jon Hamm standing in a line of planes while football being played.
9. Poof of the Mach 10 plane going by.

Connections between the original TG and Maverick:

1. Harold Faltermeyer music opens both!
2. Danger Zone song for take offs from battleships.
3. Same black card explaining Fightertown / Weapons Schools / Top Gun
4. An event before school starts: TG has the pilot losing it and Mav has him going Mach 10.
5. I’ve gotta send you to Top Gun! Chew out scenes.
6. Bar incidents: hitting on Charlie in TG1 and throwing Mav out in two that come back to first class scenes.
7. Accidents: jet wash in 1 that causes Goose’s death and birds in two where they lose a plane.
8. Cheering on a battleship near the end.

Steal the show:

1. Meg Ryan
2. Ed Harris
3. Hondo. “It was all fun and games with that selfie.”
4. Bald guy smoker butt chewer:
5. Viper – Tom Sherrif

Observations:

1. Maverick better with higher stakes training for the mission. Addresses subject of drones.
2. I cared about the “other’ pilots a lot more in Maverick. Guess Ice is an exception.

Golden Lines:

1. Ice – It’s time to let go.
2. Not an easy choice. Penny has a choice and so does Mav.
3. “I don’t like that look.” Mav, “It’s the only one I’ve got.”
4. Maybe so Sir,” to Ed Harris. “but not today.”
5. Who in the hell are they going to get to teach us?
6. I want some butts! the traffic controller in TG1 about fly by.
7. Goose: maybe I can learn to drive a truck.
8. Don’t think; just do – sounds like Yoda
9. It’s what my dad would have done. -Rooster

Emotional Moments:

1. To Mav near end: You are where you belong.
2. Penny leans on the wall in her house after sailing with Mav.
3. Penny’s daughter: just don’t break her heart again.
4. In Mav, “I know what happens to everyone else if I don’t.”
5. “I just don’t want everyone to know I’ve fallen for you.”
6. God he loved flying with you, Maverick.

Tom Cruise (born 1962) filmography:

• 1983: Outsiders, Risky Business, All the Right Moves
• 1986: Top Gun, The Color of Money
• 1988: Cocktail and Rain Man
• 2018: Mission Impossible-Fallout
• 2022: Maverick
• 2023: Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning.

Kelly McGillis (born 1957) filmography:

• 1985: Witness
• 1986: Top Gun
• 1988: The Accused
• Also, living near Asheville, teaching at NYS3

If you’ve got a suggestion for a film we ought to watch and discuss, let us know.

Thanks for listening to the podcast!