Is Tom Cruise's iconic Top Gun character, Maverick, actually a good pilot in real terms? In director Tony Scott's 1986 classic action film, Maverick enters the Navy's Top Gun program as a cavalier, arrogant, and reckless young officer. Despite his disdain for authority, however, he is depicted in the film as a highly skilled pilot who even manages to best one of his instructors early in the program, albeit by defying orders.
Throughout the film, Maverick also undergoes a number of character changes, mostly as a result of his relationship with Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and the death of his best friend and partner in the sky, Goose (Anthony Edwards). In fact, Goose becomes one of Top Gun's most important characters because his death is the shock that Maverick needs to really mature and move past his youthful arrogance. By the end of the movie, Maverick has overcome his feud with Iceman (Val Kilmer), and applies his significant abilities as a pilot to cooperate with his team and fly a successful mission.
Top Gun makes it quite clear that Maverick is incredibly talented in the cockpit, but his early antics mean he would not have been a very good Navy pilot. His self-centered disregard for authority in real life would have put himself, Goose, and anyone flying as his wingman at risk. By the end of the movie, however, Maverick has matured significantly and becomes both a skilled flyer and a good Navy pilot.
Top Gun's Maverick is bad news for the instructors from the time he walks through the door, but his flying abilities are beyond question. In addition to his being accepted into the Top Gun program—given that it's only open to the most skilled pilots the Navy has to offer—one of the first scenes in the movie shows him inverting his F-14 Tomcat just a couple of meters above a Russian MiG-28 for the purpose of giving the enemy pilot the middle finger. His fearless and daring nature contributes to his willingness to push a fighter jet to the fullest extent of its capabilities, but this same nature also makes him entirely unsuitable to be a Navy officer.
The Navy, like any branch of the armed forces, relies on strict discipline and chain of command to be effective. Despite his skills in the cockpit, Maverick is completely undisciplined until Goose's death in Top Gun. He defies orders, ignores his wing man, and performs childish flybys that jar the officers in the flight tower. His actions regularly put himself and everyone around him at unnecessary risk. In real life, this would likely mean that someone of Maverick's temperament would never have become a Navy officer, much less be given the chance to join Top Gun. By the end of the movie, however, Maverick has learned to follow orders and work as a team, and is therefore an ideal fighter pilot for the Navy.
Maverick's transition from arrogant bad boy to controlled team player shows an alternate version of how the Top Gun flight school works. Rather than taking a good pilot and officer and teaching him skills to become a great pilot, Maverick's case saw the school take an amazing pilot and terrible officer and teach him discipline. While it may not be entirely true to the nature of the Navy's real-life program, Maverick's subversive track makes for a much more interesting Top Gun movie.
