Released in 2022, Top Gun: Maverick has been routinely praised for its technical achievements. But the movie’s long-running success stems not only from its jaw-dropping camera and stuntwork, but also from the shifting relationship between its leads, Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Lieutenant Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw. Set up by the original Top Gun from legendary director Tony Scott, Top Gun: Maverick builds its conflict, and emotional resolution, off of the ever-changing connection between Maverick and Rooster.
The Original Film
While a young Rooster features only briefly in the Tony Scott-directed film, his presence sets up the perfect runway for the sequel to take off from. Goose’s Son is uncredited in the film, but was played by twin actors Aaron and Adam Weis. He arrives along with Meg Ryan’s Carole to visit Goose about midway through the film, and while his loving relationship with his dad is notable, what’s even more important are his brief interactions with Maverick.
When Carole and Young Rooster are visited on the runway by Goose, he gives them roses and a toy jet, and he hugs Carole. But in the next shot, Maverick is the one carrying the boy, clearly friendly and comfortable with each other. At this point, the movie has already established Maverick and Goose’s close friendship, but this moment highlights that Maverick is practically part of Goose’s family. In their next scene together, where Rooster sits on the piano as his Dad plays “Great Balls of Fire”, Maverick approaches Rooster to sing with first. Whereas the introduction of Goose’s child at all is already enough to deepen the impact of his death, these specific interactions between Maverick and Rooster refocuses the tragedy back on the film’s lead, as Maverick feels like he personally failed Carole and Rooster. This perfectly sets up Rooster and Maverick’s relationship in the following film, Top Gun: Maverick.
Combatants to Co-Pilots
Top Gun: Maverick picks up decades after the original, finding Maverick ordered back to the titular flight school in order to train a group of greener pilots for a seemingly-impossible mission. While that’s the set-up for the plot of the film, the movie’s story follows the shifting relationship between Maverick and an adult Rooster, played by Miles Teller. Where Maverick is named after his rogue tendencies, Rooster contrasts with too much care for the safety of his team, which leads to indecisiveness. When Rooster is selected to be part of the group of pilots Maverick is training, Maverick is admittedly apprehensive, as he still carries guilt over Goose’s death. Rooster, in return, resents Maverick for road-blocking his application to the naval academy, setting his career back years. This tension creates a sort of rivalry between both pilots, as well as challenging Maverick with his own disobedient student.
As the film enters its final act and Maverick joins the mission himself, Maverick and Rooster finally reconnect through their roles as wingmen, and then co-pilots. Rooster becomes more decisive, and stops thinking, while Maverick lets himself trust his wingman. When Maverick’s plane goes down behind enemy lines, Rooster disobeys orders and rescues him, also crashing in the process. They sneak into an enemy base and steal a jet, with Rooster assuming his father’s place as Maverick’s weapons. This completes the duo’s feature-length journey from Estrangement, to Begrudging Teacher/Student, to Mentor/Mentee, to Wingmen, to Co-Pilots.
The Heart of The Sequel
Top Gun: Maverick’s emotional core is its dynamic between Rooster and Maverick. The original film takes a multi-pronged approach to its drama, as Maverick juggles a rivalry with Iceman, a complicated romance, and then the death of his best friend and co-pilot. Where that film continues to throw new problems at Maverick to knock him off-balance, the very existence of Rooster in the sequel is enough to put Maverick in a wholly new position, as he may care more for someone than the mission he’s flying, or more than flying at all. Coming off of multiple death-defying Mission Impossible movies, among others, and Tom Cruise’s characters begin to feel almost invincible. So flying alongside someone he would readily die for, then, increases the unknowingness from the audience. It is paid off, then, when both pilots not only attempt to die for each other, but also then fly in the same plane, truly coming together. While there are other conflicts and characters in Top Gun: Maverick, the film breathes because of the way Maverick and Rooster move away, and then towards each other.
This dramatic tension is only possible thanks to the complicated dynamics that are established by the first movie. The close relationship between Maverick and the Younger Rooster is so important that Top Gun: Maverick even flashes back to the Original's scene with Maverick, Young Rooster, and Goose singing together. Even Young Rooster’s absence in later scenes after his father’s death establishes an immediate estrangement between Maverick and the boy, as well as Maverick’s own personal guilt.
There would be no Top Gun: Maverick without the central relationship between Rooster and Maverick. Director Joseph Kosinski has even said that what finally made Tom Cruise commit to the sequel was Kosinski’s pitch to include Goose’s son. The Maverick/Rooster dynamic parallels Maverick’s shifting connections in the first top gun. It shifts from an Iceman-like rivalry, to a Goose-style partnership and friendship. It not only encapsulates the central themes of the sequel, but the entire attitude of the Top Gun series, combining heightened drama with the styling of a sports-action spectacle.