Summary
Goose and Maverick approach the woman at the bar and engage in some comic antics, when suddenly Maverick pulls out a microphone and begins singing “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” to her. Goose sings along with him, as the entire bar joins in for the chorus. The woman laughs and invites Maverick to sit down as the crowd cheers for his success. “I love that song. I’ve never seen that approach,” she says, before introducing herself as Charlotte Blackwood. Maverick tells her he’s a pilot, which gets her attention, but quickly she spots a friend that she’s meeting and tells Maverick she needs to go.
Before she leaves, Charlotte asks Maverick if he’s a good pilot, to which he responds, “I can hold my own.” Charlotte smiles and says, “Great, then I won’t have to worry about you making your living as a singer.” She goes to sit with her friend, but when she gets up later to go to the restroom, Maverick follows her into the ladies’ room. She coyly asks if he wants to seduce her in the bathroom, but he tells her, “I actually want to save you from making a big mistake with that older guy.” She tells him she has to get up early for work, then goes back into the bar.
The next day, a teacher called Jester introducing a civilian who will brief them on their enemies. Her callsign is “Charlie,” she has a Ph.D. in astrophysics, and she often works closely with the Pentagon. The civilian is, of course, Charlotte, and as she begins lecturing, Maverick puts on his sunglasses. As Goose and Maverick begin to whisper, Charlotte asks what they’re talking about, and Maverick tells her that the information she’s teaching about MiG-28s is wrong, because he’s seen a MiG-28 up close. “Lieutenant, I have top secret clearance, the Pentagon sees to it that I know more than you,” says Charlotte, but Maverick tells her about his and Goose’s run-in with the MiG. He tells the class that he was inverted, meaning he had his plane upside down, at which point Iceman pretends to sneeze, saying, “Bullshit.” Charlotte can hardly believe it and asks what Maverick was doing. Maverick tells her he was giving the MiG pilot the middle finger.
“So you’re the one,” Charlotte says, smiling at Maverick, as class is dismissed. Later in the hall, Charlotte calls to Maverick and wants to speak to him. “Lieutenant, why didn’t you tell me that you were a famous MiG insulter?” she asks him, and he keeps walking down the hall. When she tells him she wants to hear more about it, he tells her that since she has security clearance, she can read about it whenever she wants. Elsewhere, Iceman comes up to Maverick and asks him, “Who was covering Cougar when you were showboating with this MiG?” Maverick tells him, “Cougar was doing just fine.”
We see Maverick and Goose doing some training maneuvers. They fly above the desert chased by a MiG carrying Jester. Just as Jester gets closer to Goose and Maverick, they slam on the brakes and lose him. They turn their plane around and head back to the base, still pursued by Jester. Before landing, Maverick flies dangerously close to the tower, causing one of their superiors to spill his coffee.
In the locker room, the boys swap stories about their maneuvers. Iceman brags that he won, and when Maverick says that they won too, that they got Jester, Iceman simply says, “That’s not what I heard.” When Maverick asks him what his problem is, Iceman gets hostile, saying, “You’re everyone’s problem. That’s because every time you go up in the air, you’re unsafe. I don’t like you because you’re dangerous.” Maverick simply smiles and says, “That’s right, Iceman, I am dangerous.” Suddenly, Goose and Maverick get called up to Viper’s office.
In his office, Viper scolds them for going against the rules on their first day. Maverick tries to explain himself, but Viper gets angry and tells him he broke a number of rules. “Either obey them or you’re history, is that clear?” Viper says. Maverick agrees and Viper dismisses them. In the hall, Goose complains about feeling humiliated by their superior, but Maverick has spotted Charlotte and goes to talk to her.
In Viper’s office, Viper and Jester talk about the fact that Maverick is a wild card, and Viper mentions the fact that he flew with Maverick’s father, before asking Jester, “If you were going into battle would you want him with you?” “I just don’t know,” replies Jester, and Viper looks conflicted.
Goose visits Maverick at his house that night, unable to sleep. Goose tells him that he was hoping to get a trophy when they first got to Top Gun, but now he’s just focused on graduating. “I got a family to think about. I can’t afford to blow this,” Goose says. He then alludes to the fact that Maverick lives in his father’s shadow and reputation, before saying, “But every time you go up there it’s like you’re flying against a ghost.” Maverick looks at him stoically, before saying, “You’re the only family I’ve got. I’m not gonna let you down. I promise.” They smile at each other and Goose leaves.
The next day Charlotte approaches Maverick at his desk and tells him that a maneuver he’s planning is “a little bit too aggressive.” He responds, “Yeah, I guess when I see something I go right after it.” When he confronts her about not telling him her true identity the other night, she tells him that he didn’t give her a chance. “I don’t date students,” she says, but he retorts, “I can see it’s dangerous for you, but if the government trusts me, maybe you could.” She denies him again and hands him a graded paper. When Maverick looks at it, he sees that Charlotte has written him an invitation to dinner at 5:30 that evening. Slider makes fun of him for not getting a date with Charlotte, and Maverick tells him he stinks.
We see the boys playing beach volleyball outside, Goose and Maverick against Iceman and Slider. The competition is fierce and Maverick and Goose end up winning, but when Iceman and Slider challenge them to another game, Maverick has to leave to make it to Charlotte’s on time. Maverick rides away on his motorcycle.
Analysis
Maverick demonstrates the same foolhardy and aggressive attitude that he has in his flying in his pursuit of Charlotte at the bar, even going so far as to follow her into the restroom. He is an arrogant suitor, but still his sweetness shines through and Charlotte cannot help but be a little endeared to him. The more humiliating revelation comes the day after his failed wooing, when he comes into class and finds out that Charlotte is a Ph.D. astrophysicist who works closely with the Pentagon and teaches at Top Gun. What Maverick thought was a quick fling turns into a more complicated dynamic.
As it turns out, the classroom dynamic is an all-the-more fruitful place for sexual tension to grow between Maverick and Charlotte. When she lectures the group on MiGs, Maverick speaks up and debunks one of her statements, citing his personal experience with the MiG in the Persian Gulf. Maverick’s challenging of Charlotte, his superior, is at once insubordinate and attractive to the beautiful astrophysicist. She cannot help but be impressed, and Maverick’s practical knowledge of flying, his reckless and brave approach to his craft, makes him all the more intriguing. Not only are they attracted to one another, but they are in the same line of work and they each have expertise to offer the other.
The qualities that Charlotte is attracted to in Maverick are exactly the qualities that Maverick’s rival, Iceman, despises. Iceman doesn’t like Maverick because he’s a cowboy and because he doesn’t play by the rules. He explicitly says to Maverick, “I don’t like you because you’re dangerous.” While the two men smile at one another throughout their locker room exchange, the smiles are menacing, and they resent one another for their completely polar outlooks. Where Iceman is precise, objective, and unfeeling in his aviation, a true representation of his nickname, Maverick represents a more spontaneous and messier approach, if no less competent. Maverick is threatening to Iceman because of the risks he takes, and he lets Maverick know this whenever he gets a chance.
The film lets the viewer in on a little more of Maverick’s backstory, which gives more context for his reckless ways. Viper alludes to the fact that he flew in the war with Maverick’s father, but his attitude about it is somewhat ambiguous. Then later, when Goose visits Maverick’s house late at night, we learn that Maverick’s father is dead, and that Maverick often feels as though he is living in his shadow. Goose intimates that this is part of the reason that Maverick takes so many risks as a pilot, and that this history leads him into trouble. While we do not learn the precise details of Maverick’s father’s death or their relationship, from the look on Maverick’s face, his father has had a profound impact on his life and outlook.
The stakes of Maverick and Goose’s friendship are heightened by this revelation that Maverick doesn’t have any family. In their late-night conversation, Goose confronts Maverick about the fact that he doesn’t want Maverick’s recklessness to compromise their position at Top Gun. Maverick promises him that he’ll try and behave less wildly, and tells Goose that he’s his only family. The bond between the two friends is strong and trusting, and Maverick considers his friend the closest thing to a family member that he has.
