While Top Gun: Maverick may not be able to bring Goose back from the dead, the Top Gun character will still be one of the sequel’s most important players. Released in 1986, Top Gun was a huge hit upon release. Making a star of leading man Tom Cruise and an action cinema legend of director Tony Scott, Top Gun combined compelling (if uneven) character drama with fast-paced action and famously dangerous stunts to great effect.
However, despite being a beloved cult classic, it has taken no less than thirty-five years for the long-awaited Top Gun: Maverick to reach audiences. Myriad delays and the tragically early death of Scott were large contributing factors, but another major problem with following up Top Gun is that the original movie’s unique tone was hard to replicate. Despite being a breezy, fun summer blockbuster, Top Gun did feature some moments of real tragedy among its high-flying antics and beach volleyball.
Chief among Top Gun’s surprisingly sad moments is the death of Goose, one of antihero Maverick’s colleagues who perishes in an avoidable accident. The death of Goose affects Maverick deeply, but the character is seemingly back to his cocky self by the end of Top Gun despite his soul-searching. However, although the character died in the original movie, the opening footage from Top Gun: Maverick (previewed at CinemaCon) proves that Goose will be a major player in the sequel, and Maverick’s grappling with his lost comrade may not be at an end yet.
Maverick Never Got Over Goose’s Top Gun Fate
Seen in the brief bit of footage shared during CinemaCon, Maverick’s muttered “talk to me, Goose” proves he never got over the death of his colleague in the years since the original Top Gun took place. This could account for Maverick and Charlie’s offscreen breakup, as well as the unusual career choice of remaining a test pilot while his former rival/friend Iceman has gone on to become an admiral. The fate of Goose clearly casts a long shadow over Maverick’s life even after the triumphant ending of Top Gun, and this suggest that Top Gun 2 will be no victory lap for Maverick thanks to Goose haunting his memories. Goose’s death is the sort of trauma that would realistically croup up throughout the rest of the character’s life, despite his relative stability at the end of Top Gun. Meanwhile, since the sequel has promised to explore Maverick’s darker side, the formative tragedy is certain to play a part in his subsequent career path, relationship choices, and lingering, reckless need for speed.
Rooster’s Casting Proves He’s A Major Character
The casting of rising star Miles Teller as Goose’s son Rooster further reinforces that Goose will play a big role in the sequel, as Teller is one of the bigger names on the cast list. This was even more true when Top Gun: Maverick was originally filmed and Teller was going from strength to strength at the multiplex (outside of a few flops like Fant4stic), often playing the sort of cocky, soon-to-be-humbled antiheroes that mirror Cruise's Maverick in the original movie. As if to reinforce this, the fact that the actor already played a young loose cannon in an earlier movie from Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski further reaffirms that Rooster will be a thorn in the side of Maverick.
This could be because Rooster reminds Maverick of his late father Goose, but, given the charming cocksure antiheroes Teller tends to play, Rooster could as easily remind the aging pilot of his younger, less self-aware self: the reckless young pilot who was involved in Goose's untimely death. In either case, the fact that the creators invested in a big name for the role prove Rooster, and by extension Goose, will have a meaningful part to play in Maverick’s character evolution, whether it is by forcing him to confront the worst aspects of his younger self or by reminding him of a friend lost thanks to his arrogance and over-confident flying.
Goose Lets Top Gun 2 Explore Maverick’s Dark Side
The original Top Gun’s reviews were mixed with many critics praising the action sequences alone but having few kind words to say about the movie’s human drama. Indeed, upon a rewatch it is striking to see that Maverick does not need a long time to get over Goose’s death in Top Gun, and the conflict is tossed aside quickly when the dramatic finale calls for him to return to flying. It is an understandable storytelling decision in a fast-paced, high-octane blockbuster, but also one that makes a surprising amount of sense in terms of character. In the original Top Gun, Maverick is a young recruit and unaware of the impact that such trauma will have over coming decades. In contrast, Top Gun: Maverick can use the death of Goose to show how the loss has impacted the rest of Maverick’s life between movies, allowing Cruise to offer a more rounded, layered performance as the character this time around.
Circa Top Gun, Maverick is a somewhat uncaring character because he has not yet reached an age where he fully comprehends the reality of losing a friend and feeling responsible for their death, and this is exactly the sort of tricky, introspective drama that the seasoned star has proven he can bring to life onscreen in the year since the original movie was released. Scott’s movie may not be the most emotionally resonant of Cruise’s movies, but Maverick is a believable and lovable character, and Top Gun: Maverick can illustrate the cost that years of living at top speed have had on the character in the intervening time without losing any of that original charm and charisma. Top Gun: Maverick could see Cruise transition into less of an action star part and more of a mentor role in coming sequels. Focusing on the impact that losing Goose and on Maverick’s personal life is just the sort of built-in internal conflict that could make Cruise’s character a deeper, more realistic version of the original Top Gun hero.
