Soon enough, Pete is called back to the Top Gun aviator school in San Diego, where he’s tasked with teaching a new class of elite pilots to fly a tactically impossible mission. Navy, working as a test pilot and, in a beautifully staged prelude of things to come, zooming into the stratosphere to stave off obsolescence at the hands of remote-flying drones. In the first movie, Pete was working out some daddy issues while he learned to shoot down Soviet MiGs 30 years later, he’s still a captain in the U.S. That “Top Gun: Maverick” works so well can surely be attributed to Tom Cruise, who created the title character, rule-floutin’, death-cheatin’ and heart-breakin’ pilot Pete Mitchell (call sign Maverick). Like the hyper-competent aces at the story’s core, this is a movie that defines its lane early and sticks to it with finesse, unfussy style and more than a few sneak attacks of emotion.

Replaying the prologue of its predecessor nearly beat for beat – that adrenaline-pumping music taking us into the danger zone those sleek, vaguely phallic fighter jets taking off and landing on a huge aircraft carrier while cool-looking guys gesticulate in cool-looking semaphore all of it drenched in a romantic, magic-hour glow – “Top Gun: Maverick” knows exactly what it’s doing and how to execute the plan. From the first dulcet tones of its synthesized score to the Univers Ultra Condensed font used in its opening credits, “Top Gun: Maverick” announces in no uncertain terms that it feels the need … the need to wring every nostalgic smile, cheer and teardrop it can from fans of the 1986 original.

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