AFGM pt 8: Top Gun (1986)

Maverick, Iceman, and Goose, oh my!

Welcome back to A Few Good Movies: My journey to watch every Tom Cruise movie between 12/15/24 and 2/14/25. I have to be honest, this journey is simply so much harder than I ever anticipated. It is simply a lot of Cruise.

When we last spoke, I had just had my will to live ripped out by Born on the Fourth of July so as a little treat to myself I watched Top Gun.

Where we last found Tom he had just lost that loving feeling, literally and now he is back to take our breath away. So let’s get into it!

Show me the data!

I know I have been slacking on the data updates but I promise it will pay off eventually. Now that it’s the holidays I have more time to work on the Tableau component.

Pre-viewing thoughts:

I saw this movie for the first time when I was 26, it was 4th of July, 2017. I was living in what I can only describe as a terrible-except-for-exposed-brick 6-floor walkup in Yorkville on the UES of Manhattan. The night before I had gone to the ballet with two of my closest friends Haleigh and Sarah and somehow we ended up at the like bar where everyone from DTUT would go to after close and a splendid time was had indeed. Until of course I realized at around 6am that I had to still meet those friends at Syndicate in Brooklyn for an 11am showing of Top gun on our Nation (and Ron Kovic’s) birthday. I think I slapped on a Zara dress, fell into a cab and somehow ended up making it there just in time for Kenny Loggins to bang through the speakers. In my defense, I was a different person then, I had not yet discovered the downsides to having a deviated septum, the joys of an Olipop with small ice cubes, the benefits of sleep, or just general self-worth. But most importantly, until that moment, I had never seen Top Gun and boy did that change things.

Look - say what you will about the flaws of the film but from an empirical standpoint, it is a good movie. Plot, actors, music, suspense, emotion, characters. It’s good. I previously had avoided it because my mother’s best friend said that it was sexist and I can understand that criticism to an extent however, as a woman that has spent my career in predominantly male dominated roles I actually just think it is pretty true to life but more on that in my review. Anyway, I was excited to watch it again.

Synopsis:

So we takeoff on a great start. Danger Zone is playing and we know we are going right into it, not to be confused with “Intuit Dangerzone” also known as the days leading up to April 15th. BOOM! Great tax accounting joke.

Anyway back to the plot - Maverick (Cruise) and Goose (Anthony Edwards) are cruising in the plane side by side with Cougar, their wingman. They are out to get some MiG-28’s (the fictional aircraft we care about in the TG universe). When their wingman freezes he leaves the program which positions Mav and Goose to attend Top Gun school in his place.

There he meets Ice Man (Kilmer) who is actually just a pragmatic guy trying to get through school and be the best but is the villain in this movie. All the bros go out that night to the local Indian Ocean hot spot and Cruise aims to prove that not having 2 front teeth and instead a 3rd middle tooth is not a roadblock to seduction. And thus begins a scene of cinematic iconography. Cruise & Co select Charlotte (Kelly McGillis) and preform “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” to her and its great. She renegs him but only after a tete-a-tete in the restroom.

The next day at Soarin’ Skool a new instructor, an astrophysicist, is brought in to teach the boys, Charlie. Its Charlotte from the bar!

Will Tom take her breath away? Will he get Top Gun? Will he make out with Iceman during beach volleyball? Will he quench his thirst for the need for speed?

MK’s Post Viewing Review:

I love this movie. It’s a bisquick mix pancake, reliable, not perfect, not super intriguing but on a day when you really need something comforting, it’s exactly what you need. I dare any TG hater to debate me on this. That being said I have some notes:

you’ve lost that lovin’ feelin’

Was there an intimacy coordinator in the house? Like someone who could teach Tom and Kelly what intimacy should maybe look and feel like? Why did their scenes together to “Take My Breath Away” feel like they were filmed Parent Trap style where like each actor was swapped out for a carboard body double and they were film separately? I blame Mimi Rogers. She ruined EVERYTHING. If TC never wins an Oscar it’s because of her. She famously introduced him to the church of Scientology* and allegedly after seeing the more “romantic” scenes in Cocktail, cracked down on his on screen persona. If you were lucky enough to see the masterpiece that is Cocktail you would know that the scenes between Elizabeth Shue and TC in the waterfalls are just so viscerally great that like someone clearly intervened in his future movies. (See below for a message from the Bicuspid Queen Gina Gershon on her experiences on the set of Cocktail)

*I fully support the freedom of religion and withhold all judgement when it comes to which spiritual path someone chooses. I cannot however support an organization that is a tax sham with many documented human rights violations. Also where is Shelly?

We should all be a Miranda Ice Man

Much like how years later many fans of SATC realized that being “a Miranda” was one of the only logical ways to view the legacy of the show, the same can be said of Ice Man. This poor guy is allegedly the villain but he is the only person with even a remote sense of pragmatism in this whole film.

Kelly McGillis Style Icon:

Give me every single one of her outfits in this movie. Rewatching this has changed me. I am wearing loose trouser-cut pants and a semi-sheer tee with a jacket today because she looked INSANE (in a good way) wearing that in the movie. Like THIS is the aesthetic I didn’t know I needed. The sheer white tee, pencil skirt and blazer ARE YOU KIDDING ME. The bomber jacket and the baseball hat COME ON. Kelly I would die for you and this archive and your Naples, Fl looking condo in the movie. She gives significant TA in your women’s studies class who is mean to you all semester vibes at your New England private liberal arts college in the best way possible.

Coconut Cake Award: Meg Ryan - just so perfect in her brief role

Crystal Eggs: 4/5