8 Problems With Top Gun 2’s “Maverick Was Dead All Along” Theory

A popular theory posits that Tom Cruise’s character is actually dead in Top Gun: Maverick. However, this idea raises eight major problems.

Summary

• Maverick Is Secretly Dead in Top Gun: Maverick undermines the impact and meaning of Iceman’s cameo and his powerful pep talk to Maverick.

• Maverick dying in mid-air is too predictable and lacks the kind of twist ending that the fan theory suggests.

• If Maverick were truly dead, it would complicate any potential for a Top Gun 3 and leave too many unanswered questions in the story.

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A fan theory suggests that Maverick is actually dead in Top Gun: Maverick, but there are numerous holes in this idea. Tom Cruise’s return as noted pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell led to Top Gun: Maverick becoming one of the biggest box office hits of 2022. Superior weapon: DissidentThe incredible aerial stunts also made the film one of the most acclaimed action films of the decade and took Tom Cruise’s reputation for doing his own stunts and action scenes into the stratosphere.

With Top Gun: Maverick Being so full of death-defying stunts, it has also led to the emergence of a very unusual theory among fans that Maverick himself is secretly dead in the film. It is based on the idea that Tom Cruise’s character died during the Mach 10 test at the beginning of the film, and that everything that happened afterward was a long dream experienced in his final moments. However, there are eight major problems with this theory, which help prove that Maverick is actually alive in Top Gun: Maverick.

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8 Maverick’s Death Hurts Top Gun: Maverick’s Iceman Scene And Death

Top Gun: Maverick includes a touching reunion of Maverick and his former rival turned best friend, Tom Kazansky, aka Iceman (Val Kilmer), who is suffering from terminal throat cancer (which largely prevents Iceman from speaking in the film). Despite this, Iceman gives Maverick a powerful boost. he speaks to help guide his young Top Gun recruits on his harrowing mission, before passing away later in the film. The fact that Maverick is secretly dead undermines the power of Iceman’s cameo in many ways.

For starters, remove the impact of Iceman accepting his mortality on Dissident, which runs parallel to Maverick’s own understanding of his aging. The fact that Iceman is so optimistic and encouraging in the face of his own death is what helps Maverick find his own determination as Top Gun’s trainer. Also, he steals Dissident of the emotional impact of Iceman’s cameo and that’s it, since Iceman’s death has little meaning to the story if Maverick is already dead.

7 Maverick Dying is too obvious an ending for Tom Cruise’s character

Maverick earns a reputation as the ultimate daredevil pilot in the original. Top gundistinction that transfers to Top Gun: Maverick. While Maverick may seem like the type of thrill-seeking protagonist to die on an air mission, such a scenario lacks the kind of resonance it would have for another character. Simply put, Maverick dying in mid-air is too predictable.

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The essence of Maverick is that he’s a man who cheats death with such ease and regularity that he’s exactly the kind of protagonist who won’t be careless in the cockpit. A heroic sacrifice would certainly be appropriate for Maverick’s military valor. However, the notion of Maverick finally dying in the heavens would have been too expected an outcome for him to be the kind of twisted ending the fan theory posits.

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6 Maverick being dead all the time causes problems in Top Gun 3

On a more commercial level, Maverick’s death complicates any potential for Top Gun 3, if not making it absolutely impossible. Despite its numerous release date delays and its arrival 36 years after its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick surpassed the billion-dollar mark to become the biggest hit of Tom Cruise’s career. Business-wise, no studio wants to ignore that kind of commercial success, and the Maverick death theory would be a big obstacle to that.

Furthermore, the enormously positive reception from the public Top Gun: Maverick It makes it prudent to see if Maverick has at least one more adventure ahead of him. Theoretically, Top Gun 3 I could accept the idea of ​​making a surprise reveal that Maverick has been dead all along, but making that work on a narrative level would be a challenge, to say the least. For Top Gun 3 For it to be a possibility, Maverick simply still has to be among the living.

5 If Maverick had died, Top Gun 2 would have had to show him

Another major hole in the theory that Maverick is dead is the fact that Top Gun: Maverick He would have been forced to show his disappearance to the world. Holding back something as narratively crucial as the death of a main character can certainly work well if the reveal is finally made at the end, as seen in The sixth SenseThe famous twisted ending. In the case of Top Gun: Maverickthis theory is based on Maverick’s death being inferred rather than actually revealed.

Top gun In itself it presents the death of Goose (Anthony Edwards) as a great tragedy that hits Maverick hard. Top Gun: Maverick he also places an equal degree of importance on Iceman’s death. Both Top gun The films clearly show that they have enough respect and reverence for Maverick that his own death would never have occurred without him. Top gun franchise paying their due respects.

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4 Maverick’s death means a goose cameo should have happened

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In the event that Maverick had been dead the entire time in Top Gun: Maverick, the movie would have had no justification not to bring Goose back for at least a cameo. Goose’s death in action in Top gun forms the basis of Top Gun: Maverickspecifically in his strained relationship with Goose’s bitter son, Rooster (Miles Teller). Dissident It even includes archival footage of Goose in flashbacks from the original film, showing how important he is to the Top gun movies even posthumously.

Top Gun: Maverick Revealing that their titular pilot is dead would have made a Goose cameo very easy to facilitate. In fact, it could have possibly involved Goose’s spirit arriving at the end of the film to guide Maverick to the afterlife and give both pilots an emotional farewell. To do otherwise would be doing Goose a disservice, considering he is Maverick’s best friend and someone he might finally have the chance to see again.

3 Maverick’s death leaves too many unanswered questions open after Top Gun

As a corollary of Top Gun: Maverick By needing to actually show how Maverick died, it would still come with a lot of questions that the film would have little time to answer. The movie would have struggled to explain how Maverick was able to imagine an entire movie’s worth of events in the brief moment before his death. Since Maverick’s death is the kind of plot that would probably only be revealed at the end of the film, such a twist would have overwhelmed Top Gun: Maverick to achieve a very tidy explanation for the rest of the film. By doing so, the gyre would also have opened Dissident until it is full of plot holes that are not taken into account in the end of the film. All of that makes it better that Maverick is alive and well in Top Gun: Maverick.

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2 Maverick’s death would have left a much greater legacy in Top Gun 2

As Top Gun: Maverick As we begin, Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain looks at Maverick with a mix of contempt and respect. As Cain points out, Maverick “You can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.“With Maverick’s reputation preceding him within the Navy to a large extent, his death would simply have made him more legendary.

Since Maverick is a star pilot who flies primarily for joy, he would be the type of pilot that Naval Aviation officers like Cain would speak of as a warning. To rank-and-file naval aviators, Maverick’s skill and drive would likely make him an aspirational legend. Top Gun: Maverick keeps the Maverick myth in check long enough to make it clear that he’s still amassing fans and detractors alike, a feat Maverick was only able to accomplish in his lifetime.

1 Maverick, mentor to younger drivers, loses all impact if he’s dead

Top Gun: Maverick places Tom Cruise’s veteran pilot in the position of leader and mentor to new pilots in training for the Navy’s Top Gun program. Maverick recognizes both his own youthful arrogance and his unbridled determination in his new recruits, with Top Gun: Maverick preparing for it and leading them into battle on the most daring mission of his and their lives. The fact that Maverick is secretly dead the entire time completely negates the meaning of all that.

Maverick’s mentoring of the new Top Gun pilots is very important to him and them due to the level of risk involved in their mission as their chances of success are considered slim from the start. Without that degree of danger, Top Gun: MaverickThe climactic aerial mission would be little more than an elegant stunt show. Fortunately, what is at stake is never in doubt in Top Gun: Maverickwith the very lively Maverick leading his recruits to victory.

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