In Top Gun (1986), Tom Cruise played Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, a talented but reckless naval aviator sent to the Navy’s Fighter Weapons School. Directed by Tony Scott, the film follows Maverick as he competes with fellow pilots, falls for civilian instructor Charlie Blackwood, played by Kelly McGillis, and learns to balance daring with discipline after the death of his friend Goose, played by Anthony Edwards.
Cruise made Maverick an icon. He was cocky and vulnerable in turn, and his grin, his flight suit and his need for speed became part of popular culture. The film was the highest-grossing film of 1986 in the United States and made Cruise a major star.
Top Gun remains a signature Cruise role because Maverick was the perfect match for his screen energy: a hero who had to grow up, and a character audiences would follow for more than three decades, to Top Gun: Maverick (2022).