Summary
AlthoughTop Gun: Maverickdidn’t draw attention to one striking similarity between Maverick and his protégé,Top Gun 3can capitalize on a wasted Rooster subplot. While Tom Cruise’s Maverick is unmistakably the main character ofTop Gun: Maverick, Miles Teller’s Rooster still plays a pivotal supporting role in the sequel. Rooster, the son of Maverick’s late wingman Goose, is the source ofTop Gun: Maverick’s central conflict. He struggles to overcome his caution when flying and butts heads with his instructor. InTop Gun: Maverick’s triumphant ending, Rooster finally conquers his fear and helps Maverick save the day.
AlthoughTop Gun 3’s storyseems like it would be perfectly positioned to move on from the pair, this isn’t necessarily the case.Top Gun: Maverick’s plot primarily focused on Maverick’s grief and guilt over Goose’s death as his interactions with Rooster helped him work through this. However, the sequel largely ignored one surprising similarity between the two characters. As Maverick was busy saying goodbye to Iceman and reigniting a romance with his old flamePenny Benjamin inTop Gun: Maverick, the movie never addressed his starkest connection with Rooster. Namely, the two share the same formative wound.
What Every New Call Sign In Top Gun 2 Means
Top Gun: Maverick introduced a new band of pilots with their own call signs like Rooster, Phoenix, Hangman, and Bob. Here’s what they mean.
Top Gun 3 Can Address Rooster and Maverick’s Shared Story
Top Gun: Maverick Missed Out On This Character Similarity
Both Maverick and Rooster both had heroic fighter pilot fathers who they wanted to emulate, even if it doomed them. Surprisingly, Maverick never pointed this similarity out while he was trying to empathize with his student. InTop Gun 3, they must discuss this and address how much it has shaped their respective journeys. Rooster will likely return in the sequel since, although Glen Powell’s Hangman and Monica Barbaro’s Phoenix were popular breakout supporting stars, Teller’s brooding antihero was the deuteragonist ofTop Gun: Maverick. Rooster got more story focus than the rest of the new generation of recruits.
Rooster’s presence connected Maverick’s storyline to the original movie, ensuring that he was constantly reminded of his greatest mistake while trying to prepare for his riskiest mission ever.
This was a canny decision since Rooster and Maverick had a personal connection thatPowell’sTop Gun: Maverickcharacterlacked. Rooster’s presence connected Maverick’s storyline to the original movie, ensuring that he was constantly reminded of his greatest mistake while trying to prepare for his riskiest mission ever. That said,it was strange that Maverick and Rooster didn’t bode over their shared past. It was after Goose died in the original movie that Maverick admitted how much he wanted to live up to his father’s legacy, which is exactly what Rooster felt about his father decades later.
Rooster Relived Maverick’s Original Top Gun Plot In Top Gun: Maverick
Miles Teller’s Hero Struggles With His Father’s Tragic Legacy
Rooster and Hangman almost come to blows when Hangman discovers that Goose and Maverick flew together years earlier, but Maverick’s father is never even mentioned.
As Maverick’s late wingman, Goose was an accomplished pilot whose untimely death was a tragedy. Although Maverick never makes the comparison in the sequel, he struggled with his own father’s celebrated and legendarily risky flying inTop Gun. Maverick even arguably contributed to Goose’s demise by trying to emulate his father’s flying prowess, much like Rooster ended up endangering his fellow pilots with his overly cautious approach.Both Maverick and Rooster learned from theirs father but felt crushed by their respective legacies, which made it striking when neither character acknowledged this unlikely connection throughout the sequel.
If anything, Rooster and Maverick effectively hide the fact throughoutTop Gun: Maverick’s story. Rooster and Hangman almost come to blows when Hangman discovers that Goose and Maverick flew together years earlier, but Maverick’s father is never even mentioned.Top Gun 3’s storynow needs to fix this by giving Rooster and Maverick a chance to point out just how much they have in common. This will be a lot easier now that, like Iceman and Maverick at the end ofTop Gun, they are friends and no longer enemies.
Top Gun 3’s Maverick/Rooster Connection Sets Up The Franchise’s Best Future
Miles Teller’s Top Gun: Maverick Hero Can Eventually Replace Maverick
If Maverick and Rooster highlighted their similarities, Rooster could go on to replace Maverick in his test pilot role while Maverick remains an instructor in TOPGUN. Maverick should retire inTop Gun 3sinceTop Gun: Maverickalready established a perfect ending for the character and Rooster is an ideal replacement for him. Admittedly, it would be tricky for Teller to fill Cruise’s shoes.Cruise’s earlier movie franchises never replacedthe actor, but Rooster does have a backstory that makes him uniquely suited to becoming the franchise’s new protagonist.
If Maverick were to highlight how much he and Rooster have in common while he trained Rooster as his replacement, this could be a fun way to bring the characters closer. The plot would also allow both characters to acknowledge how much the ghosts of their fathers still haunt them, something that is implicit in both movies but not addressed inTop Gun: Maverick. Thus, the plot ofTop Gun 3could effectively linkTop Gun: Maverick’s themes to the original movie even more.
