Tom Cruise Takes Flight in “Top Gun: Maverick” Trailer

As someone who always found Top Gun to be slick, jingoistic garbage, I scoffed at the prospect of a decades-later sequel, with Tom Cruise's hot-shot pilot still feeling the need for speed, this time with his dead partner's son. So color me surprised that this trailer absolutely rules.

While the music cues and shots of Cruise on a motorcycle is pure nostalgia for the people who loved the original (so, not me), I'm absolutely in awe of some of these shots, like the one of the jets descending, revealing Cruise standing below. Plus, you've got Ed Harris in stern old man mode; Glen Powell oiled up on a beach; Jennifer Connelly, with one brief second of screen time, extending her decades-long reign as one of my top celebrity crushes; Jon Hamm in Aviators; and Miles Teller, with a mustache, piss drunk, wailing on a piano.

And of course there's the main attraction: Cruise telling the god of death "Not today" by doing his own flying stunts, breaking the sound barrier and flying upside down in a jet. They even put a camera in the cockpit so you'd know it's really him. All it was really missing was "Danger Zone." I haven't loved any of director Joseph Kosinski's movies yet, but he sure makes them look pretty.

Top Gun: Maverick opens in June 2020. Until then, I'll be rewatching this trailer and feeling nostalgic for this long-gone ride from Six Flags.

About Kip Mooney

Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.