Top Gun: Maverick a nostalgic flight back to 1986

If there's one thing I wasn't expecting to happen this week, as I attended a screening of Top Gun: Maverick, was that while I sat there revelling in the sheer joy of it all, I was also internalising themes of what it means to find purpose and how, at a certain age (Maverick is 57 in this film, Cruise is 59 in real life), you spend a lot of time thinking about your place in a world that is rapidly changing around you. Or maybe that's just me. Some days I feel as lost as Maverick did when he walked into the bar in the first half hour, only to be reminded by a young boy that he was indeed still here on Earth. (Apologies here too, for the occasional spoiler.)

Before I get all nostalgic and melancholy, let me just say this is the most fabulous film I have seen in decades. Sure it's pure entertainment, a roller-coaster ride that you want to get on again as soon as it's stopped, full of corny one liners, the Harold Faltermeyer score, Cruise on his motorbike wearing Ray Bans, a new and vibrant young cast. I'm lining up to see it again as soon as possible. If you pay attention to one thing I write this year let it be this: go see this film.

And maybe, if you're of my generation, you might walk out feeling like I did. Without sounding like a complete schmuck, this film moved me. I cried, I laughed, I whooped (if that's what I did) in exhilaration and cheered out loud. I cried some more.

For while Maverick contemplated what place he might have in this brave new world, I admitted to myself that I also harbour such thoughts. Sure, we're not flying million-dollar fighter jets here at The Canberra Times, but I wonder where this old-school pilot fits in the future. I know I can fly planes (write) but I watch all the young kids talk about digital journalism and the like and I know why I'm still at the rank of captain. I like to think, every now and again, that perhaps I might have something to teach them. But are they interested?

It's more than that though. It made me wonder where those 36 years have gone. What have I done, what have I achieved? In many ways, it was a reminder of how young and vibrant we were the first time around. How we would have jumped up and played beach volleyball, slathered in oil, glistening in the sun, high-fiving our teammates. I was rushed straight back there during the beach football scene, such a display of youthful exuberance and toned muscle, but would I have lasted the whole session? Unlikely.

I just loved the nods to the original film. The opening title card, when Cruise raced his motorbike along the highway, helmetless because he's never one to follow the rules, the tower buzz, the flashback scenes (and, yes, I was bawling like a baby during the scenes of Goose's death), the fact that Jennifer Connolly played Penny Benjamin who was actually mentioned in the original.

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Was I sad Kelly McGillis was not in this one? Kind of. Let's face it, Maverick and Charlie were never going to last. I was always surprised no one had an issue with the fact she was his teacher, as such, in the original. A relationship built on a one-off connection. "I have to warn you, I've heard relationships based on intense experiences never work," someone said. (Hang on, that's a quote from Speed, with Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, another film which exhilarated me in 1994, but you get my point.) McGillis has been quoted as saying, "I'm old and I'm fat, and I look age-appropriate for what my age is. And that is not what that whole scene is about." I hear you, Charlie.

But I love the idea that Penny Benjamin is both the past and the future. They already know each other but have time now to discover things all over again.

Perhaps I have been flying at too high an altitude and my brain is a little mushy from the G forces or something. But I challenge any Gen X-er who was there when Maverick first took off to walk out of this film without feeling a little nostalgic.

There's a line where the Ed Harris character tells Maverick "the end is inevitable ... Your kind is destined for extinction" and Mav goes, "Maybe so, sir. But not today." Maybe that needs to be my new motto.