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Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Lewis Pullman
OUR RATING: ★★★★☆
Story:
Action drama sequel directed by Joseph Kosinski. Set in a world of drone technology and fifth generation fighters along with exploring the end of the era of dogfighting, Top Gun: Maverick (2022) follows Captain Peter “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) as the new flight instructor of Top Gun, in which he guides Bradley (Miles Teller), Goose’s son, who seeks to become an aviator much as his father was.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'Trust your instincts. Don't think. Just do.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Hondo: Admiral Cain. The Drone Ranger. He wants our budget for his unmanned program.
Meek Engineer: He’s on his way to kill the test and shut us down personally.
Maverick: Well, he isn’t here yet. They want Mach 10, let’s give them Mach 10.
Hondo: Now remember, the contract threshold is Mach 10. Not 10.1. Not 10.2. Mach 10. That should keep the program alive. I don’t like that look, Mav.
Maverick: It’s the only one I got.
Hondo: It’s not too late to stop, buddy. You know what happens to you if you go through with this.
Maverick: I know what happens to everyone else if I don’t.
Hondo: [referring to Maverick] He’s the fastest man alive.
'The future is coming, and you're not in it.' - Cain (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Maverick: Talk to me, Goose.
Meek Engineer: [as Maverick reaches Mach 10] Put that in your Pentagon budget!
Cain: [to Maverick] Now you got some balls, stick jockey. I’ll give you that.
Maverick: [after crashing Darkstar and walking into a diner] Where am I?
Boy in Diner: Earth.
'You should be at least a two-star admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are, Captain. Why is that?' - Cain 'It's one of life's mysteries, sir.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Cain: Maverick. Thirty-plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations. Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last forty years. “Distinguished. Distinguished. Distinguished.” Yet you can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are, Captain. Why is that?
Maverick: It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir.
Maverick: I’m where I belong, sir.
Cain: Well, the navy doesn’t see it that way. Not anymore.
Cain: [to Maverick] These planes you’ve been testing, Captain, one day, sooner than later, they won’t need pilots at all. Pilots that need to sleep, eat, take a pi**. Pilots that disobey orders. All you did was buy some time for those men out there. The future is coming, and you’re not in it.
Cain: [to Maverick] Call came in with impeccable timing, right as I was driving here to ground your a** once and for all. It galls me to say it, but for reasons known only to the Almighty and your guardian angel, you’ve been called back to TOPGUN.
'I don't like that look, Mav.' - Hondo 'It's the only one I got.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Cain: The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
Maverick: Maybe so, sir. But not today.
Cyclone: Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. Your reputation precedes you.
Maverick: Thank you, sir.
Cyclone: Wasn’t a compliment.
Maverick: Must admit, I wasn’t expecting an invitation back.
Warlock: They’re called orders, Maverick.
Warlock: You two have something in common. Cyclone here was first in his class back in ’88.
Maverick: Actually, sir, I finished second. Just want to manage expectations.
'The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.' - Cain 'Maybe so, sir. But not today.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Maverick: That is one hell of a steep climb out of there, exposing you to all the surface-to-air missiles. If you survive that, it’s a dogfight all the way home.
Warlock: All requirements for which you have real-world experience.
Maverick: Not in the same mission, sir. No. No, someone’s not coming back from this.
Maverick: Well, it’s been a while since I’ve flown an F-18, and I’m not sure who I’d trust to fly the other three. But I’ll find a way to make it work.
Warlock: I think you misunderstand, Captain.
Maverick: Sir?
Cyclone: We don’t want you to fly it. We want you to teach it.
Maverick: Teach, sir?
Cyclone: Bradley Bradshaw, aka “Rooster”. I understand you used to fly with his old man. What was his call sign?
Maverick: “Goose”, sir.
Cyclone: Tragic what happened.
Warlock: Captain Mitchell was cleared of any wrongdoing. Goose’s death was an accident.
Cyclone: Is that how you see it, Captain? Is that how Goose’s son sees it?
Maverick: With all due respect, sir, I’m not a teacher.
Cyclone: You were a TOPGUN instructor before.
Maverick: That was almost thirty years ago, and I lasted two months. It’s not where I belong.
Cyclone: Then let me be perfectly blunt. You were not my first choice. In fact, you weren’t even on the list. You are here at the request of Admiral Kazansky. Now, Iceman happens to be a man I deeply admire, and he seems to think that you have something left to offer the navy. What that is, I can’t imagine.
'I am good. I'm very good. In fact, I am too good to be true.' - Hangman (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Cyclone: [to Maverick] You don’t have to take this job. But let me be clear. This will be your last post, Captain. You fly for TOPGUN, or you don’t fly for the navy ever again.
Maverick: [texting] The Kid’s not ready for this mission.
Iceman: No one is. That’s why you’re here.
Maverick: You could have warned me.
Iceman: Would you have come?
Penny: Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me. Pete.
Maverick: Penny? What are you doing here?
Penny: I should ask you the same thing.
Maverick: Well, that’s a long story.
Penny: I doubt that. Who did you pi** off this time?
Maverick: Another admiral.
Penny: Exactly.
Maverick: How long you been here?
Penny: Bought this place about three years ago.
Maverick: Three years?
Penny: Yeah. Not long after you got shipped off to the desert for pi**ing off that other admiral.
Maverick: That was three years ago?
'Evil be gone. Hangman's coming.' - Hangman (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Penny: You must be in a lot of trouble. No way you’d come back here willingly. Well, you’ll sort it out.
Maverick: No. I think this is it.
Penny: You get yourself in trouble, Iceman makes a call, and you’re back in the air.
Maverick: Penny, this is different.
Penny: Pete, trust me, as improbable as it seems right now, somehow you’ll be back in a fighter plane with your tail on fire.
Maverick: Penny…
Penny: Too late.
Maverick: What?
Penny: You were about to ask me what time I get off. Don’t give me that look.
Maverick: I’m not giving you any look. I swear.
Penny: It always ends the same with us, Pete. Let’s not start this time.
Hangman: What do we have here? If it ain’t Phoenix! And here I thought we were special, Coyote. Turns out the invite went to anyone.
Phoenix: Fellas, this here’s Bagman.
Hangman: Hangman.
Phoenix: Whatever.
'You're supposed to be in the navy!' - Penny 'I don't sail boats, Penny. I land on them.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Coyote: When did you get in?
Bob: Oh, I’ve been here the whole time.
Hangman: The man’s a stealth pilot.
Coyote: Literally.
Bob: Weapons systems officer actually.
Hangman: With no sense of humor.
Phoenix: What do they call you?
Bob: Bob.
Payback: No, your call sign.
Bob: Uh, Bob.
Hangman: Bradshaw. As I live and breathe.
Rooster: Hangman. You look good.
Hangman: Well, I am good, Rooster. I’m very good. In fact, I am too good to be true.
Hangman: What I want to know, who’s going to be team leader? And which one of y’all has what it takes to follow me?
Rooster: Hangman, the only place you’ll lead anyone is an early grave.
Hangman: Well, anyone who follows you is just going to run out of fuel. But that’s just you, ain’t it, Rooster? You’re snug on that perch, waiting for just the right moment that never comes.
'It's not the plane. It's the pilot.' - Rooster (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Fanboy: What the hell kind of mission is this?
Phoenix: That’s not the question we should be asking. Everyone here is the best there is. Who the hell are they going to get to teach us?
Carole: [flashback, referring to Goose] God, he loved flying with you, Maverick.
Warlock: You’re all TOPGUN graduates. The elite. The best of the best. That was yesterday. The enemy’s new fifth-generation fighter has leveled the playing field.
Warlock: Success, now more than ever, comes down to the man or woman in the box. Half of you will make the cut. One of you will be named mission leader. The other half will remain in reserve. Your instructor is a TOPGUN graduate with real-world experience in every mission aspect you will be expected to master. His exploits are legendary. And he’s considered to be one of the finest pilots this program has ever produced. What he has to teach you may very well mean the difference between life and death. I give you Captain Pete Mitchell. Call sign “Maverick”.
'It's time to let go.' - Iceman (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Maverick: I’m assuming you know the book inside and out.
Payback: Damn right.
Hangman: Damn straight.
Maverick: [tosses the book into the trash can] So does your enemy.
Hondo: And we’re off.
Maverick: But what the enemy doesn’t know is your limits. I intend to find them, test them, push beyond. Today we’ll start with what you only think you know. You show me what you’re made of.
Maverick: Let’s not do it like this.
Rooster: You going to wash me out?
Maverick: That’ll be up to you, not me.
Rooster: Am I dismissed?
Maverick: Good morning, aviators. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to basic fighter maneuvers. As briefed, today’s exercise is dog fighting. Guns only, no missiles.
Maverick: Working as a team, you have to shoot me down, or else.
Payback: Or else what, sir?
Maverick: Or else I shoot back. If I shoot either one of you down, you both lose.
Hangman: This guy needs an ego check.
'I'm a fighter pilot. A naval aviator. It's not what I am. It's who I am.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Payback: What say we put some skin in the game?
Maverick: What do you have in mind?
Payback: Whoever gets shot down first has to do two hundred push-ups.
Maverick: Guys, that’s a lot of push-ups.
Fanboy: Well, they don’t call it an exercise for nothing, sir.
Maverick: You got yourself a deal, gentlemen. Fight’s on. Let’s turn and burn.
Maverick: [to himself] Easy, Maverick. Let’s try not to get fired on the first day.
Maverick: Rooster just saved your life, fellas. But it’s going to cost him.
Rooster: Not this time, old man.
Maverick: Don’t let him get to you, Maverick.
Hangman: How’s about we tell everybody “Bob” stands for something? Other than Robert, I mean.
Phoenix: Don’t take the bait, Bob. Want to know why we call him Hangman?
Hangman: I got it. “Baby On Board”.
'The navy needs Maverick. The kid needs Maverick. That's why I fought for you. That's why you're still here.' - Iceman (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Bob: Where’s he going?
Phoenix: That’s why we call him Hangman. He’ll always hang you out to dry.
Maverick: Leaving your wingman. There’s a strategy I haven’t seen in a while.
Hangman: He called you a man, Phoenix. You going to take that?
Phoenix: So long as he doesn’t call you a man.
Hangman: For all you folks at home, this is how you bury a fossil.
Maverick: Alright, Hangman. Time to teach you a lesson.
Hangman: Let’s go, Mav. Let’s see what you got. Come get me. Evil be gone. Hangman’s coming.
'You think up there, you're dead. Believe me.' - Maverick (Top Gun: Maverick) Click To Tweet
Hangman: [referring to Maverick] Phoenix, I can’t see him. How close am I? Phoenix?
Phoenix: I’m dead, d**khead.
Bob: See you in the afterlife, Bagman.
Hangman: So, Rooster, mind if I ask you a personal question?
Rooster: Would it matter if I did?
Hangman: So what’s the story with you and Maverick? It seems like he’s got you rattled.
Rooster: That’s none of your business.
Trailer: