Miles Teller explains the origin of his Rooster call sign in Top Gun 2. Over 30 years after soaring to new box office heights in the original action classic, Tom Cruise returns to the pilot’s seat as Pete Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick. He’s joined in the highly-anticipated sequel by Teller as Bradley Bradshaw, a young pilot trainee in search of a mentor.
But of course this Bradley Bradshaw isn’t any ordinary young pilot with a need for speed. Teller’s character is in fact the son of Nick Bradshaw aka Goose, Maverick’s old radar intercept officer and best friend. As all Top Gun fans remember, the loveable Goose perished in the original film in a tragic ejection mishap, leaving behind a widow and young child. Now the Top Gun sequel sees Maverick facing his own past when he meets Goose’s grown-up son, who a trainee pilot who goes by the call sign Rooster.
That Rooster call sign of course sounds like a direct homage by Bradley Bradshaw to his late father, who also chose a bird-related name. As it turns out, Top Gun: Maverick star Teller was given the task of coming up with his own call sign for the movie, and absolutely had the bird theme on his mind when he decided to go by Rooster. When asked how he came up with the nickname on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Teller gave the concise and fairly obvious reply, “I thought it was in the family of like Goose.”
The call signs from the original Top Gun of course were more than just fun nicknames but served as brief summaries of each character’s personality. Maverick was obviously the perfect name for Cruise’s Mitchell, a hot-shot who can’t play by the rules. Then there was Val Kilmer’s cold-blooded Tom Kazanski, perfectly summed-up by the call sign Iceman. The Goose call sign also proved perfect for Anthony Edwards’ mustache-wearing Nick Bradshaw, as it captured the character’s oddball personality and gawky physical carriage.
It remains to be seen if the call sign Rooster ultimately fits the character of Bradley Bradshaw as well as those iconic Top Gun names fit their characters. By the sound of it, Teller didn’t actually put a lot of thought into coming up with the name Rooster, beyond deciding that his character should have a bird-related name like his father’s. Perhaps the choice of a bird-related name can be seen as a sign that the son is trying to live up to the legacy of the father. But of course Rooster could also point to other character traits, like a certain masculine confidence and a need to crow. No doubt there will be more than a little drama between Rooster and Maverick when the two meet up, with the ghost of Goose hovering over them, in the long-awaited Top Gun 2.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live!/YouTube
