Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski opens up about why he never saw the sequel as an action movie. Top Gun: Maverick put Tom Cruise back in the cockpit as Captain Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, reprising his role from 1986’s original film. Picking up 30 years later, the movie follows Maverick as he is tasked with training a team of young pilots for an impossible mission. The film connected with audiences and critics alike, earning almost $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office while also garnering an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture.
While speaking with Vulture, Kosinski talked about how he never saw Top Gun: Maverick as an action movie. Despite being marketed as a big-budget action film featuring the stunts that have become expected from Cruise, the director focused on storytelling, ensuring that the action served the characters. While Top Gun: Maverick easily falls into the action genre, Kosinski put emotion first, which he believes helped the movie connect on such a grand scale. Check out Kosinski’s comments on Top Gun: Maverick below:
I still stand by the original intent of film, which was to tell an emotional, relatable story about a guy going through a rite of passage at a later point in his life. The first film, I always said, was a drama wrapped in an action film. And that’s why when I heard we’d won Best Action Film, Best Stunts, I thought, ‘Would I ever describe it that way?’ Did I ever think of it as an action film when I was making it? I didn’t. The drama was always at the forefront. The execution of the flying sequences was in support of that. Every action sequence, we’re always telling a story, pushing the narrative forward, learning something about the character’s state of mind. We tried to do that not only in every sequence but every shot of every sequence. So, sure, it’s the action that got people in to see it the first time, but it was the emotion that brought them back for viewings two, three, four. Some guy came up to me other night, said he had seen it 32 times! It’s the emotion that brings people back. And that’s, I think, the key to giant hits. I don’t know if you saw Avatar 2, but I felt like that with that film, the spectacle was one part of it, but there was a real emotional through line that got me. So emotion is key, but you need to make something that the audience knows they have to see on the big screen to get the full experience.
How Top Gun: Maverick Succeeds Beyond Its Action
Top Gun: Maverick features some of the most unique action ever put to film, with high-flying aerial acrobatics captured through practical means. Other films have utilized practicality to capture unbelievable moments, like Christopher Nolan dropping an entire plane out of the sky for The Dark Knight Rises or recreating a nuclear blast for Oppenheimer with an actual explosion. Yet Top Gun: Maverick had unprecedented access to military equipment, allowing Kosinski to film actors performing aerial stunts for real, presenting a distinct experience.
However, beyond the stellar action sequences on display in Top Gun: Maverick, the story is driven by characters and emotional beats. The sequel sees Maverick rekindling a relationship with Jennifer Connelly’s Penny. Penny acts as Maverick’s love interest, building stakes and giving him a reason to want to come home. And while Kelly McGillis played a similar character in the original film, Maverick has matured emotionally over the years, offering a new vulnerability that Penny helps to bring out. Top Gun: Maverick also offers an emotional reunion with Val Kilmer’s Iceman, which helps humble Maverick.
Furthermore, Top Gun: Maverick sees Maverick as a pseudo-father to Rooster, the son of Anthony Edwards’ Goose from the first movie. The story between Maverick and Rooster serves as the film’s emotional core, showing how the two are at odds. While Maverick has only sought to protect Rooster, hoping to keep him from a tragic fate like his father, Rooster sees his actions as damaging to his career. Through their struggle, Maverick learns how capable Rooster is while Rooster grows into the pilot he was always meant to be. So while Top Gun: Maverick is an action movie, it continues to garner attention through impactful emotional stakes.