While Top Gun: Maverick outperformed the original Top Gun at the box office, it is debatable how much of the blockbuster’s success was due to its status as a sequel. Top Gun: Maverick was one of the most delayed sequels in Hollywood history. The original Top Gun was released to critical indifference and massive box office success back in 1986 and its sequel didn’t reach cinemas until 2022. While the COVID-19 pandemic’s theater closures did account for the final two years of these delays, a tortured production process caused the other 34 years of waiting.
However, despite Top Gun: Maverick’s problems, the sequel was worth the wait. Top Gun: Maverick far surpassed the original and could be watched in isolation as a standalone movie without losing its appeal. This inevitably leads to the question of how successful Top Gun: Maverick would have been if it were an original movie. If the backstory from Top Gun was filled in through expository dialogue and the original movie never existed, Top Gun: Maverick would be Tom Cruise’s first appearance as Maverick. There’s no denying Top Gun: Maverick is great but what’s less clear is how much its sequel status contributed to its critical and commercial success.
Top Gun: Maverick’s 1980s Roots Let Audiences Overlook Plot Flaws
Much like the original Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick is not a war movie. Both the original movie and its sequel borrow the “plucky underdog rises to success” formula of successful sports movies and apply it to an elite team of test pilots. There are training montages, rivalries, and a shady set of villains who only exist as a foil to the heroes. However, it would have been trickier for Top Gun: Maverick to pull off this approach without Top Gun setting the stage. An original movie would be criticized for the anonymous, nation-less enemy shtick, but it works in Top Gun: Maverick since Top Gun pioneered this escapist approach.
Top Gun: Maverick As An Original Movie Places More Emphasis On The Stunt Narrative
If Top Gun: Maverick wasn’t a sequel, there would undoubtedly have been more focus on the groundbreaking filming techniques and aerial stunts rather than on Cruise’s return to a classic role. This would have helped sell the movie since Top Gun: Maverick’s aerial acrobatics and the technology used to capture them are incredibly impressive. However, this could also have led viewers to dismiss Top Gun: Maverick as an Avatar-esque technological marvel that skimps on story. Top Gun: Maverick couldn’t replicate the original movie’s soundtrack success, but the sequel was more emotionally resonant than the earlier movie, and this would likely have been missed if viewers focused on its technical aspects rather than the wider significance of the sequel.
Maverick’s Character Development Still Works (But Is Less Impressive)
If viewers met Maverick for the first time in Top Gun: Maverick, they would only know Cruise’s character as a former ace stuck in the past and dealing with his demons. His connection with Rooster would still be moving, but the context of remembering Maverick’s cocksure younger self added another layer of poignancy to their interplay. The similarities between Maverick in Top Gun and Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick, from their obstinacy to their eventual bravery, are pivotal to the success of the movie’s story. As such, losing Top Gun makes Maverick’s character development less impressive and negatively impacts the entire movie.
Rooster’s Top Gun: Maverick Character Becomes Less Important Without The Original Movie
Speaking of the connection between Rooster and Maverick, this tumultuous relationship means more because audiences know and have met Rooster’s late father Goose. If Top Gun: Maverick was an original film and “Goose” was just Rooster’s dad mentioned through dialogue, viewers would have little reason to care about Miles Teller’s character. Top Gun: Maverick’s original sequel plans would have made Maverick a minor supporting character, which would have left more room to flesh out Rooster. However, without any context for Maverick and Rooster’s relationship, Top Gun: Maverick focusing on Rooster over Hangman and Phoenix would be harder to justify.
Similarly, Maverick’s tear-jerking reunion with Iceman wouldn’t mean anything to viewers if Top Gun: Maverick was an original movie. Despite the movie’s many impressive action sequences, this quiet moment is arguably the strongest scene in the entire franchise. While Kilmer and Cruises have undeniable chemistry, the history between their characters is what makes the reunion compelling. Iceman and Maverick were once enemies, something Top Gun: Maverick couldn’t convey alone. As such, rendering Maverick and Iceman’s reunion less impactful would have been a major loss for Top Gun: Maverick.
Top Gun: Maverick Is A Less Intelligent Movie Without Its Predecessor
From Penny Benjamin being the admiral’s daughter whom Maverick made a “high-speed pass” over to the beach volleyball scene, many of Top Gun: Maverick’s cleverest scenes come from the sequel playing with elements established in the original movie’s story. These in-jokes and plays on the past would look like generic movie tropes without the original Top Gun’s unique context. Without Top Gun, Penny loses her history with Maverick, and their on-again, off-again relationship is just a cliché. Similarly, Top Gun: Maverick’s goofy beach football scene looks odd and forced without the context of Top Gun’s infamous earlier sequence.
Top Gun: Maverick Would Still Succeed As An Original Movie (But Not As Greatly)
‘Ultimately, there is no denying that nostalgia and familiarity helped sell Top Gun: Maverick to casual audiences. The quality of the movie would have shone through regardless, but it is hard to see the sequel scoring $1.5 billion without the original movie’s legacy playing a major role in its success. Although it is easy to dismiss Top Gun as a dated cult classic, it can be equally easy to forget just how influential the 1986 movie was. Director Tony Scott’s blue and orange signed visual palette went on to define the action genre throughout the ‘90s and even the early ‘00s, while the role of Maverick made Cruise an A-list superstar.
Even without Top Gun’s secret weapon Tony Scott, Top Gun: Maverick relied on a lot of elements established by the original movie from a subtle nod to Maverick’s earlier affair with Penny to a more obvious reunion between Iceman and his former nemesis. Top Gun: Maverick’s older, dissatisfied version of Maverick wouldn’t have been anywhere near as poignant if viewers hadn’t seen the character emerge triumphant in Top Gun’s ending. Cruise’s character has it all at the end of Top Gun, which makes his fall from grace sadder in Top Gun: Maverick. Thus, Top Gun: Maverick’s comeback story wouldn’t have been as moving if viewers didn’t know Top Gun’s hero.