He took off on an unsanctioned sortie in a prototype of a new Stealth, aiming to hit Mach 10, Mach being the speed of sound ie 1225 km per hour , and become the fastest man alive ,leaving whirls of dust coupled with the shock wave on the Admiral who is bent upon stopping him and the Government’s programme of fighter planes in favour of Unmanned Air Vehicles .Maverick looks back at the Admiral and the sound track, largely copied from ‘Top Gun’ , the first part , embedded in deep recesses of my mind , kicks in and I feel the hair on my hand and back of neck stand up .
‘Maverick ‘, the second part of cult classic Top Gun , had me glued to the IMAX screen, which puts one in middle of the action , for next two hours , like a child in a candy store . What it did to me was quite similar, though much better what Top Gun did to me in 1990 , when I first saw it in National Defence Academy , NDA . After two hours I knew I had to see it again soon , as once in 4-5 years there comes a movie which presents a lifetime opportunity to see it on big screen of cinema halls to savour it fully , and within a week I saw it again on big screen .
In 1990 , I was a 19 year old boy struggling to find a place in world and had completed just about a year at NDA , this time around there was nothing much to find at fifty ,with having already lived more than a life .
The movie ‘Top Gun ‘ was released in 1986 but I guess it was one of those movies which were frequently shown to cadets in Military Academies all over the world ,including NDA .Growing up in a small town , Dehradun , we had little access to Hollywood movies with only one cinema hall playing them . I don’t even remember whether Top Gun came to Dehradun but we sure did hear a lot about it .
It was a movie which fueled the desire of a generation of kids , from bigger cities , to join Air force or Army and own Ray Ban aviators , which was one of the first things I bought after getting commissioned in 1993 with my first salary .Even the Top Gun jackets had a decent craze for them ,remember Salman Khan’s jacket in’ Maine Pyar Kia’.
After seeing the movie , way back in 1990 , I understood the craze behind it . But since in NDA every minute is about survival of the smartest , I could not allow myself to bask in the craze .As we grew senior we were allowed to play music in our cabins , small joys of NDA , called the privileges . Life revolves around privileges in NDA . A 4th termer ( cadet in 4th semester ) can play music in his cabin but sound should not be heard in the corridor , a 5th termer can play music , the sound can come out of his cabin to corridor but not till flanks , where the Gods , 6th termers live . Breaking the hierarchy of privileges calls for immediate retribution . It was at that time that the sound track of Top Gun was very popular with us ‘,Flying into the Danger zone’ , ‘Playing with the Boys ‘still reverberate in my ears. And who can forget ‘ Take my breath away ‘
For those who love movies and understand them ,the movie , Maverick , is a technological marvel to be enjoyed on big screen .
Capt Pete Mitchell , a U S Naval Aviator, call sign Maverick, played by Tom Cruise , is still a Captain, a test pilot, and flying even after 30 years since he apparently wants to stay where he belongs .Everyone wants that but only he manages . After his successful misadventure with Stealth prototype he is called back to Top Gun , a naval fighter pilot school training Pilots in Dog fights ,making them best of the best.He is to teach a team of fighter pilots to undertake a doubly miraculous operation to take out a uranium enriched plant in an enemy state . Doubly because it involves executing two miracles in succession and an inevitable dog fight, way back home , to be successful.
The storyline , acting , no larger than life depiction here ,the overall treatment including the technological is top notch . Fighter pilots inside real fighter planes , shot from cameras inside the planes ,experiencing increased G (gravity) force at higher Mach and tights turns is a treat to watch.
There is nothing lacking but of course the Director has taken few creative liberties , the way it was done in Top Gun too. I was also happy that Tom Cruise did not get to give much of his famous puzzled look .
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The movie , I would say is about three miracles , the third and most important being how Tom Cruise , now around 60 ,pulls off being Maverick that too with elan, which includes playing with the boys some 36 years after the first movie when he was 24 years old , and produce a sequel no less than the first part .
I guess that would stay as one of life’s greatest mysteries .
Written : 2022, After watching it twice in IMAX Lucknow and later I watched it again in Srinagar
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