"Top Gun: Maverick" came as a very late sequel to the 1986 film, and it contains several references to "Top Gun".
Despite receiving praise for not being too fixated on the previous film and finding success in uniting generations to see the new film, “Top Gun: Maverick” still contains several references to the 1986 original.
Thinking about it, we bring a complete list of references to the first film made in the second, prepared by CBR..
Obviously, we are going to quote several moments from the film, the text below may contain spoilers for “Top Gun: Maverick”.
opening credits
From the beginning, “Maverick” already started references to “Fight Aces”, the opening title sequence or a recreation of the opening scene of the 1986 film. There we see similar scenes, the same font in the lyrics and the same music, which went from the Harold Faltermeyer theme song and carried over to Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone".
In addition, the opening also featured the Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films lightning bolt logo, a tribute to the production of the first "Top Gun" and a tribute to Don Simpson, who died in 1996.
Maverick's Costume
Another point of the opening transition was Tom Cruise the Maverick's costume, in which he appears wearing everything exactly as he did in the 1986 film. This includes the aviator sunglasses, jacket and Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle, used without a helmet to show that even years later, the character is not much of a rule-follower.
The Admiral's Daughter
Pete “Maverick” returns to Top Gun in Los Angeles, he has a new love interest: Penny, played by Jennifer Connelly. However, Penny is also a reference to "Top Gun - Aces Raging". At one point in the film, Goose taunts Maverick, talking about "a story of high-speed passes about five air control towers and an admiral's daughter."
Buzz to Tower
Something that Maverick used to do in the first film is "buzz the tower", that is, when passing the aircraft very close to the flying tower, usually for visual inspections at low speed. However, he liked to do this at high speeds in order to annoy airline officials and even his own superiors.
In “Top Gun: Maverick”, he returns to “buzz the tower” in a sequence, leaving Admiral Cyclone, played by Jon Hamm, irritated that Pete “Maverick” remains without maturing.
The Ghost of Goose
Goose's death continues to haunt Maverick in the sequel, footage of the event resurfacing in the new film, as well as him singing Jerry Lee Lewis' "Great Balls of Fire" to Pete and family in a bar. Likewise, Goose's son Rooster, played by Miles Teller, sits at a bar piano and sings the same song in the sequence.
Other than that, Rooster is often shown seeing pictures of Goose and Pete and his mother, wears a mustache just like his father's, and he and Maverick talked to Goose after his death for inspiration. To plead, Pete mourns the cause of Goose's death.
Iceman
The first film had the backdrop of the battle between Pete and Iceman, Val Kilmer's character. The sequence has several photos and flashbacks of the two, but a mentor returns in the sequence, who inspires Pete to train new pilots. Iceman died in the film off-screen, and paid homage to Kilmer's battle with cancer, which caused him to lose his voice and use artificial intelligence to recreate it.
teachers at the bar
If in “Indomitable Aces” Maverick hit on Charlie at the bar without knowing that she would be his teacher and leaving him embarrassed the next day, the sequence made a reference to this. The recruits Maverick would be training kicked him out of the bar because he didn't pay the tab, not realizing that he would be mentoring him the next day. What a situation!
low altitude
Something mentioned a lot in the first film was the minimum limit that pilots could fly for missions, something that Pete flouted several times, and got into trouble for it. The concept reappears in the sequel, but in a positive light: Maverick flew as low as 300 feet, all to show Cyclone and the trainers how low they would have to go in terms of altitude to bomb enemy installations, proving that the mission was possible to be fulfilled.
Sports
If in the 1986 film the cadets played volleyball, in “Top Gun: Maverick” the new generation of pilots also bonds through sport. Only this time, the chosen sport was “soccer of bats” in the sand. The activity angered Admiral Cyclone, but Maverick, recalling his own cadet days, approved of the action, saying it would make the team a family.
The right hand rule
In the air dash, it's crucial not to abandon your partner, and this was something that Pete struggled to absorb in the first film. However, in the second he not only believes in the rule, he imposes it on his walks. Including, Maverick cuts Hangman from the mission when he realizes that he would make the same mistakes he made in the past.
"Do not think"
When teaching his walks lessons, Maverick uses the "don't think, just do" maxim in the new film. This is reminiscent of his own dialogue in the first "Top Gun", which says, "You don't have time to think up there. If you think, you are dead”.
When Pete and Rooster were shot down behind enemy lines and stole an F-14 to escape, Rooster claimed the jet was a relic, but Pete pointed out, "I shot down three MiGs in one of those things!", referencing his heroic act. at the end of "Top Gun - Aces Indomitable". For good measure, the F-14 in question had a button to change missiles and weapons that the first film also had, but which does not exist on this jet in the real-life version.
nameless enemy
Like the first film, "Top Gun: Maverick" does not reveal which nation or organization the United States is waging war on. Enemies are just referred to as "enemies" and "MiGs". Enemy planes are called "fifth generation fighters", to help keep things pretty vague.
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“Let's warm up!”
Another repeated line from the original film is “Let's heat up!”, or “Let's turn and burn!” in English. The phrase was said by Maverick in the first film and repeated by Payback in the final mission of the new film, putting a sense of urgency in Maverick's team.
If you want to check out all those references, “Top Gun: Maverick” is still available in theaters.
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