Sequels to box office hits are often inevitable but most don’t occur thirty-six years later.  This belated sequel, however, benefits from that immense time lag to infuse its lead character with experience and maturity and wisdom while still allowing his natural arrogance and charm and humanity to shine through.  I remember liking the original Top Gun, although I found it rather shrill and bombastic.  This update to the story is better.

Joseph Kosinski’s film follows test pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) from San Diego to the California desert where he is tasked with training a dozen of the most elite young Naval aviators on a secret mission to eliminate a uranium enrichment facility about to go active in some unspecified country.  The mission will be incredibly difficult, and teaching the pilots is complicated by Maverick’s natural antagonism to authority and specifically to his problematic relationship with Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his former wingman Goose, who died in the first film on a mission with Maverick.  But the mission has to be done, and it is.  Spectacularly, and with ramifications and action afterward.

This movie succeeds because it remains true to the original (Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan are seen in photos and brief clips, while Val Kilmer as “Iceman” has a significant role as well) yet it moves Maverick’s personal story forward realistically and convincingly.  His relationship with Penny (Jennifer Connelly) feels exactly right, and well-deserved.  His status as a dinosaur of the modern moving-to-pilotless Naval Air Force is reinforced through tense encounters with superior officers (Ed Harris, Jon Hamm).  And yet his exploits as a pilot are unsurpassed, filmed with clarity and distinction, and put us right there in the cockpit of fighter jets with him.  Visually this movie is an absolute treat.

Dramatically it is just as good.  The camaraderie and rivalries between the young pilots is absolutely convincing.  The personal conflict between Maverick and Rooster is handled deftly, especially later in the story, and resolves to a highly satisfying conclusion.  Most everything about this movie, from Harold Faltermeyer’s music (updated by Hans Zimmer and with a Lady Gaga ballad thrown in for good measure) to the incredible flying sequences, is first rate.  I heard sniffles in the theater as it ended, not to mention cheers.  I wish the mission had been more country-specific and politically timely, but that’s my only real quibble.  This is a darn good movie.  ☆ ☆ ☆ 1/2.  7 July 2022.