Top Gun: Maverick poster
Top Gun: Maverick

Picking Nits

The convenient escape, lack of casualties and impossible crash

In the discussion (12)
Approx. transcript time · 01:33:05Read transcript
  • Cyclone’s decisions are jokingly suspected of sabotage
  • Rooster’s age and delayed training are worked through
  • The younger pilots seem to have almost no personal lives
  • The two downed pilots land conveniently close to each other and a usable airstrip
  • An operational familiar F-14 makes their escape convenient
  • Maverick dying while saving Rooster might have supplied a powerful ending
  • The forest escape feels like a tonal shift
  • The hosts argue for at least one meaningful pilot death, proposing Phoenix and Bob
  • Maverick’s age as an active pilot is questioned
  • Opening-flight survival and lack of medical aftermath are criticized
  • Rooster returning safely through the defended valley is unexplained
  • The final hangar scene raises a question about Rooster living with Maverick