“Top Gun: Maverick” came as a very late sequel to the 1986 film and contains several references to “Top Gun”.
Despite receiving praise for not getting too fixated on the previous film and succeeding in bringing generations together to watch the new film, “Top Gun: Maverick” still contains numerous references to the 1986 original.
With that in mind, we bring you a complete list with references to the first film made in the second, prepared by CBR.com.
opening credits
From the beginning, “Maverick” has already started with references to “Running Aces”, with the opening title sequence as a recreation of the 1986 film’s opening scene. There we see similar scenes, the same character in the lyrics and the same. music. , which was from Harold Faltermeyer’s theme song and moved to Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone”.
The opening also featured the Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer Films lightning bolt logo as a tribute to the production of the first “Top Gun” and a tribute to Don Simpson, who died in 1996.
Maverick’s costume
Another point of the opening transition was Tom Cruise’s costume as Maverick, in which he appears wearing everything exactly as he did in the 1986 film. This includes aviator sunglasses, jacket and Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle, worn without a helmet to show that, even years later, the character is not very good at following the rules.
The admiral’s daughter
With the return of Pete “Maverick” to the Los Angeles Top Gun show, he has a new love interest: Penny, played by Jennifer Connelly. However, Penny is also a reference to “Top Gun”. At one point in the film, Goose teases Maverick, speaking of “a story of high-speed passes over five air control towers and the daughter of an admiral”.
hums the tower
Something Maverick did in the first film was “buzz the turret”, which is when the plane passed very close to the command tower, usually for visual inspections at low speed. However, he enjoyed doing it at high speed to annoy air command officials and even his own superiors.
In “Top Gun: Maverick,” he returns to “buzz the tower” in a sequel, leaving Admiral Cyclone, played by Jon Hamm, angry that Pete “Maverick” isn’t mature yet.
The ghost of the goose

Goose’s death continues to haunt Maverick in the sequel, with footage of the incident resurfacing in the new film, as well as him singing Jerry Lee Lewis’ “Great Balls of Fire” to Pete and his family in a bar. Similarly, Goose’s son Rooster, played by Miles Teller, sits at the bar piano and sang the same song in the sequel.
Aside from that, Rooster is always seen seeing pictures of Goose and Pete and their mom, wearing a mustache like his dad and he and Maverick talked to Goose after his death to find inspiration. Finally, Pete relives the pain of Goose’s cause of death.
Ice Man

The first film is set against the backdrop of the battle between Pete and Iceman, the character of Val Kilmer. The sequel has several photos and flashbacks of the two, but returns in the sequel as a mentor, inspiring Pete to train new pilots. Iceman died in the movie out of the movie and paid homage to Kilmer’s battle with cancer, which caused him to lose his voice and use artificial intelligence to recreate it.
teachers at the bar
If in “Running Aces” Maverick hit Charlie at the bar without knowing she was going to be his teacher and embarrassing him the next day, the sequel made reference to it. The recruits Maverick allegedly trained kicked him out of the bar because he didn’t pay his bill, not realizing he was going to be their mentor the next day. What a situation!
low altitude
Something that was mentioned a lot in the first movie was the minimum limit that pilots could fly for missions, something that Pete broke several times and got into trouble for it. The concept reappears later, but in a positive light: Maverick flew up to 300 feet, all to show Cyclone and trainers how low they would have to go down in terms of altitude to bomb enemy installations, proving that the mission was possible to fulfill.
sports
If in the 1986 film the cadets played volleyball, in “Top Gun: Maverick” the new generation of pilots also creates bonds through sport. Only this time the sport of choice was “combat football” on the sand. The activity angered Admiral Cyclone, but Maverick, looking back on his days as a cadet, approved of the action, saying it would make the team a family.
The right hand rule
In air combat, it’s imperative that you don’t abandon your partner, and that was something Pete had a hard time absorbing in the first film. However, in the second, he not only believes in the rule, but also imposes it on his subordinates. In fact, Maverick excludes Hangman from the mission when he realizes that he would have made the same mistakes he has made in the past.
“Do not think”
In teaching his men lessons, Maverick uses the maxim “don’t think, just do” in the new film. This is reminiscent of his own dialogue in the first “Top Gun”, which says, “You don’t have time to think up there. If you think about it, you are dead. “
When Pete and Rooster were shot down behind enemy lines and stole an F-14 to escape, Rooster claimed the jet was a relic, but Pete pointed out, “I dropped three MiGs on one of these!” Referring to his heroic deed. at the end of “Top Gun – Aces Indomitable”. Finally, the F-14 in question had a button to change the missiles and weapons that the first film also had, but which does not exist on this jet in the real version.
enemy without a name
As with the first film, “Top Gun: Maverick” does not reveal which nation or organization the United States is fighting in a war. Enemies are simply referred to as “enemies” and “MiG”. Enemy planes are called “fifth generation fighters,” to help keep things rather vague.
“Let’s warm up!”
Another line repeated from the original film is “Warm up!”, Or “Let’s turn and burn!” in English. The phrase was said by Maverick in the first film and repeated by Payback in the final mission of the new film, giving a sense of urgency to Maverick’s team.
If you want to check out all those references, “Top Gun: Maverick” is still available in theaters.
The “Top Gun” post: See all references cited in the film that first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital

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