Spoiler warning…
I don't usually take movies literally but more into a drunken metaphorical view of them. But then the ideas about Maverick being dead after the Mach 10 test flight and the rest of the movies were just his post-death dream has been making rounds and I can't really stop knocking my heads on the wall and cursing how could I missed that big ass hint!
The biggest hint for me that this could be true is during viewing, the scene of Maverick fixing the North American P-51 Mustang in a garage in a white t-shirt happened twice in the movie.
One is in the very beginning. And the other one is at the very end. And the one at the end is exactly the same shot, except this time Rooster got into the frame and help him out!
If this is not an Inception-level cue, I don't know what is! But during the viewing, I just said to myself “Neahhhhhh” and went on and write a literal, logical review of it all.
Having believed that it is now in a metaphorical sphere, oh my goodness me, isn’t this the most brilliant thing on many levels already?
During the part when Maverick got shot down after covering Rooster, I said to myself “If that were the last Maverick moment, why don't they do a ‘Bruce-Willis-Armageddon’ death-life flashbacks? Wouldn’t that be epic?
But hey, that is exactly what the parts after the Mach 10 crash are all about!
Maverick is mending up the errors in his life and settles down a happy ending through the golden sunset, flying the North American P-51 Mustang he’s been mending from the start!
They say, in heaven you will be with the one you love, doing the things you like.
Another hint was the impossibility of the mission. I told myself during viewing, “Isn’t this 1977 Star Wars Death Star Rebel attack?”
Complete with and near-impossible target and escape! It is Maverick going through the phase to go one level higher. Up onto the spiritual self. Like Luke, he has to overcome his own doubts, in Maverick's case, his past guilt.
In my previous review I did question the logic of some parts of the movie but somehow have totally forgotten that those can be answered metaphorically…(questions such as, why they didn't just send a B2 Stealth Bomber for the mission?)
The Mach 10 (he went over that, and there is no more view of him in the cockpit, nor the SR-7 exploding) is a hint that it is beyond human and the character Maverick has transcended high above the normal Hollywood sphere.
And Goose was indeed has been talking to him. Rooster is Goose. Rooster is the representation of Maverick’s guilt he still has all over the years. When Rooster has said that it is ok, it is Goose saying so.. And that has finally made Maverick lay in peace, finally.
Like Iceman said “It is time to let go”
No. I don’t think there will be the third installment. Tom Cruise has buried it here quite nicely. Any attempt to do so will look utterly stupid. There will be no Top Gun without Maverick.
Or is it perhaps an ’Inception-like’ limbo where Maverick is yet to be sure if the ‘totem’ he spun will stop spinning…or not?
It is indeed ultimately about, like my previous writing about Bruce Lee, the immortality of Hollywood’s classic protagonist and Tom Cruise wants Maverick to be there…a level higher than the Walk Of Fame. Untouchable.
And to top it all, this marks the end of the 'macho - gungho' era in Hollywood movie history. Just look at the new, cringe-worthy ones they have been churning out.
