Film

Top Gun: Maverick

Name: Top Gun: Maverick
Genre: Action, Drama
Released: 2022
Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Bashir Salahuddin, Jon Hamm

A blockbuster built on practical thrill and unashamed sincerity — Tom Cruise strapping himself and his co-stars into real fighter jets for genuine G-force footage, wrapped around a legacy-sequel story about mortality, mentorship and letting go. It's big, loud, unabashedly emotional filmmaking, engineered for the biggest screen and sound system you can find, and a rare case of a decades-later sequel earning every bit of its nostalgia.

TMDb rating

8.2

If you liked this

Top Gun1986

Before Maverick got wiser, he was pure ego and volleyball montages. Tony Scott's original is glossier, shallower, and endlessly rewatchable — the training-wheels version of everything the sequel does better, but with its own irresistible neon-lit swagger.

But The plot is thin, the politics are dated, and Maverick's charm now reads more callow than charismatic.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout2018

Cruise doing his own death-defying stunts again, this time strapped to a helicopter above a mountain range. If you want the same commitment to practical spectacle and real bodily risk, this is the purest hit outside the cockpit.

But It's a spy thriller with a plot you'll need a flowchart for, not a character study.

Creed2015

A legacy sequel that does exactly what Maverick does — an aging legend passing the torch to a younger version of himself, wrapped in genuine emotion rather than nostalgia for its own sake.

But Boxing instead of flying, and if you've had enough Rocky sequels this might feel like more of the same machine.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Days of Thunder1990

Same director, Tony Scott, and same star, playing a near-identical hotshot mentored by a grizzled veteran and pursued by a rival-turned-love-interest — just with stock cars instead of F-18s.

It's the movie Top Gun would make if it lost its mind slightly — same DNA, same swagger, dialed up into gloriously trashy melodrama with race cars instead of jets.

But It's genuinely a worse film — thinner story, sillier romance — and it knows it, which is either charming or exhausting depending on your mood.

Crimson Tide1995

Two alpha males locked in a metal tube arguing about duty and chain of command — all the tension of military hierarchy Maverick only flirts with, cranked up to a nuclear standoff.

But It's claustrophobic and dialogue-heavy where Maverick is airborne and kinetic — no dogfights, just a submarine full of shouting.

The Hunt for Red October1990

Cold War tension executed with the same old-fashioned confidence in professionalism and craft — men doing their jobs extremely well under enormous pressure, no irony required.

But It's slower and talkier, more submarine chess than aerial thrill ride, so patience is required.

Sully2016

Same reverence for competence under pressure, but grounded and true — an ordinary pilot doing something extraordinary, and Eastwood's restraint makes it hit harder than any explosion could.

But It's quiet and procedural where you might be craving speed and noise; there's no dogfight here, just a river landing.

Twister1996no page yet

Same era, same Bruckheimer-adjacent adrenaline: big analog effects, a rivalry-turned-romance, and the pure physical pleasure of watching people chase something enormous and dangerous for a living.

But It's about tornadoes, not planes, and the science is nonsense even by blockbuster standards.

Behind Enemy Lines2001no page yet

If you want the survival-and-rescue tension of Maverick's mission without the training-montage build-up, this throws its pilot straight into hostile territory and keeps the pressure on.

But It's scrappier and less polished, closer to a solid Friday-night action film than a prestige blockbuster.

Independence Day1996

For pure aerial-combat spectacle and a rousing get-in-the-cockpit-and-save-the-day climax, this delivers the dogfight-against-impossible-odds high that Maverick built its finale around.

But It's broader, cheesier, and about alien invasion rather than any real-world stakes — comfort food, not craft.

The Blue Angels2024no page yet

It's the nonfiction version of the exact sensation Maverick is chasing — real F-18s, real Gs, actual Navy pilots, filmed with IMAX cameras rigged inside the cockpits.

No script, no romance, just the terrifying beauty of real formation flying shot from inside the aircraft — it makes Maverick's effects look like a rough draft of reality.

But There's no plot and barely any characters — it's spectacle and craft, not story, so it can feel thin stretched to feature length.

The Bridges at Toko-Ri1954no page yet

The film that essentially invented Maverick's world — carrier launches, dread before a mission, the particular loneliness of a pilot who knows the odds — made when the Korean War was still current events.

This is where the aircraft-carrier mission movie started: quiet, grim, unglamorous, and far more interested in fear and duty than in swagger. It's the sober ancestor of everything Maverick borrows.

But It's slow, black-and-white in spirit even in color, and ends without the triumphant catharsis modern blockbusters guarantee.