What is it like to land a $36-billion F-14 Tomcat on a carrier in the middle of the ocean? What does it feel like to fly these planes — to zoom, dip, and zip around in the wild blue yonder? What kinds of individuals make the best pilots in this high-tech age?
Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, who produced Flashdance and Beverly Hills Cop, believe that today's youth want to know the answers to these questions, and so they have served up a patriotic, exhilarating, and dramatically pumped-up military flick.
Tom Cruise is Maverick, a cocky pilot who along with his radar intercept officer Goose (Anthony Edwards) is chosen to attend the Navy's elite Fighter Weapons School. The flyboys compete with each other to become "top gun." Maverick's toughest competition comes from Iceman (Val Kilmer), a cool and efficient pilot who takes an immediate dislike to this newcomer whom he views as "dangerous." Maverick also frightens Goose and the flight school commanding officer (Tom Skerritt) because of his reckless hotdogging stunts. Problem is that Maverick's deceased father, a Vietnam pilot, had gotten a bad rep in the military and was branded a coward.
Director Tony Scott and Gary Gutierrez, supervisor of special photographic effects, have put on the screen some razzle-dazzle aerial sequences that are incredibly exciting. Although the story focuses on the machismo posturing of the flyboys and the joys of male camaraderie, Maverick, true to his nickname, goes his own way in a love affair with Charlie (Kelly McGillis), a civilian aeronautics expert who teaches at the pilots' school.
When Maverick's confidence is dented by an accident, Charlie tries to convince him he still has the right stuff. The story's improbable finale shows Maverick coming through with flying colors in real combat with the enemy over the Indian Ocean. But then probability is not the drawing card of this flashy film. The look, the sound, and the feel of flying is what Top Gun is all about. That — and being a winner.