While 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick improved on Top Gun’s story, its plot also proved that the original movie’s ending was more than a little ludicrous. Top Gun is a silly movie. From its campy beach volleyball sequence to the decision to keep the nationality of its faceless enemy combatants a mystery, the Navy drama does not ask to be taken seriously. Star Tom Cruise’s breakout movie is a cheesy cult classic, the sort of corny ‘80s movie that is enjoyable precisely because of how silly it is. However, Top Gun: Maverick’s returning heroes made the original movie darker in retrospect.

Top Gun’s ending portrayed Maverick as a victorious hero who won the day and got the girl, but 2022’s long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick complicated this depiction. The movie introduced a downtrodden Maverick who never overcame his distaste for authority, languishing as a test pilot while his old friend Iceman rose through the ranks. Although Top Gun: Maverick’s ending redeemed Maverick and gave him a chance to forgive himself for Goose’s death, the sequel proved it wasn’t all smooth sailing after the original movie’s ending. This made one element of Top Gun’s sunny optimistic ending particularly ridiculous upon a re-watch.

Top Gun: Maverick Highlights The Big Problem With Top Gun’s Ending

The Original Movie Ended With Maverick Becoming An Instructor

After the events of Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick deciding to become a TOPGUN instructor in Top Gun’s ending seems bizarrely misguided. When given his choice of assignments, Maverick opts to stay at his school and teach new recruits the ropes. At the time, this looked like just another uplifting part of his story. Not only did Maverick get the girl and end up fire-forged friends with his old rival Iceman, but he also heroically saved the day, got over his guilt around Goose’s death, and became one of the very teachers he spent the preceding movie arguing with and ignoring.

This was all too good to be true, and Top Gun: Maverick made Top Gun’s ending terrible upon a re-watch as soon as the sequel made it clear that Maverick and Charlie didn’t last. The follow-up doubled down on this sad surprise by revealing that Maverick didn’t make it as a TOPGUN instructor, presumably due to his dangerously unconventional flying and his hair-trigger temper. Although his choice of assignments made his reticence to working as an instructor in Top Gun: Maverick ironic, this detail was also believable. Maverick’s uncertainty underlined how much he had changed since Top Gun.

Why Top Gun: Maverick Was Right To Ignore Maverick’s Top Gun Ending

Tom Cruise’s Character Seemed Ready To Work As An Instructor

It was sad that, over three decades after taking on the role of TOPGUN instructor, Maverick was an insecure teacher in Top Gun: Maverick. However, this just proves that the sequel was right to ignore the original movie’s ending. Top Gun: Maverick’s story showed that Maverick struggled to teach recruits decades later, meaning he was certainly too young and inexperienced for the job at the end of Top Gun. It is only after Iceman’s Top Gun: Maverick death that he can truly embrace his mentor role, allowing Top Gun: Maverick to give Top Gun’s hero the ending he always deserved.

Released 36 years after Top Gun , Top Gun: Maverick earned just under $1.5 billion at the box office.