While the fan theory that Top Gun: Maverick is a dying dream makes sense from a plot point of view, this idea misunderstands the premise of the most high-flown franchise. Both “The Best Shooter” and its long—awaited sequel “The Best Shooter: Maverick” are fundamentally unrealistic films. In addition to the debate about the physics of the maneuvers performed by Maverick, Iceman, Rooster and company, the portrayal of Navy life in both films is intentionally exaggerated and embellished, as it is more related to sports films than to the real military. provision of services.
Like its predecessor, “The Best Shooter: Maverick” is not a war film, but a triumphant story of a loser, which takes place in an official military institution. The specific geopolitics of the story is so irrelevant that, as in the original Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick does not even name the country from which its villainous fighters come. As a result of this key disconnect from reality, one popular theory of Top Gun: Maverick is not suitable for everyone familiar with the series.
The fan theory, which has gained fame on the Internet, claims that Maverick never survived his test run at Mach 10 in the first scene of Top Gun: Maverick, which turns the rest of the film into a fantasy in the style of “The Incident in Owl Creek”, which comforts Maverick when he burns in the fire. burn. It’s a fun theory, but it doesn’t fit the purpose of the Top Gun franchise. As the incredible events in the sequel’s finale show (for example, Maverick completes a trial run, but Cyclone does not notice, and Rooster and Bagman arrive just at the right second to save their comrades), the series has always been about an overblown, escapist fantasy.
It’s more thematically appropriate for Maverick to somehow avoid death again and again, despite the incredible odds, than for a sequel showing his dying dream. After all, the prospect of Maverick dying in combat itself contradicts the central ideal of the franchise. Although Iceman may die in Top Gun: Maverick, his untimely death is not caused by Maverick’s risky flight or his insatiable thirst for speed. The sequel to Top Gun will never be able to punish Maverick with death for recklessness after the original movie killed the Goose, as the series wants Maverick to appear older and wiser, and this idea will be ruined if he burns up in the prototype cockpit due to his hot-tempered antics. .
No movie with a beach soccer scene Top Gun: Maverick could dramatically show that the whole action of the sequel was the fantasy of its doomed hero. The tonal incongruity would be too comically obvious, and the twist too dark to match the romantic, absurdly idealistic tone of the Top Gun franchise. There are many films about the war (for example, the Vietnamese classic “Jacob’s Ladder”) that could carry out this mind-blowing existential turn, but these are films that directly face the shortcomings of their heroes and subject them to a psychological squeeze before a big exposure. While Top Gun: Maverick has subjected his titular hero to many physical endurance tests, Maverick has never had to challenge his love of reckless high-speed flying, which means that this fan theory is not true.
