A fan theory suggests that Maverick is actually dead in Top Gun: Maverick, but there are numerous holes in this idea. Tom Cruise’s return as hotshot pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell led to Top Gun: Maverick becoming one of the biggest box office hits of 2022. Top Gun: Maverick‘s amazing aerial stunts also made the film one of the most acclaimed action movies of the decade, and pushed Tom Cruise’s own reputation for doing his own stunts and action scenes into the stratosphere.
With Top Gun: Maverick being so packed with death-defying stunts, it has also led to the emergence of a very unusual fan theory that Maverick himself is secretly dead in the movie. It’s based on the idea that Tom Cruise’s character died during the Mach 10 trial at the beginning of the film, with everything that happened afterward being one long dream experienced in his dying moments. However, there are eight big problems with this theory, which help show that Maverick is indeed alive in Top Gun: Maverick.
8Maverick Being Dead Hurts Top Gun: Maverick’s Iceman Scene & Death
Top Gun: Maverick includes a heartwarming reunion of Maverick and his old rival turned best friend Tom Kazansky a.k.a. Iceman (Val Kilmer), who is suffering from terminal throat cancer (which largely prevents Iceman from speaking in the movie.) Despite this, Iceman gives Maverick a powerful pep talk to help him guide his young Top Gun recruits for their harrowing mission, before passing away later on in the movie. Maverick being secretly dead undermines the power of Iceman’s cameo in numerous ways.
To begin with, it takes away the impact of Iceman coming to terms with his mortality in Maverick, which runs parallel to Maverick’s own realization of his aging. Iceman being so upbeat and encouraging in the face of his own death is what helps Maverick find his own resolve as a Top Gun trainer. Additionally, it robs Maverick of the emotional impact of Iceman’s cameo full stop, since Iceman dying has little meaning for the story if Maverick is already dead himself.
7Maverick Dying Is Too Obvious An Ending For Tom Cruise’s Character
Maverick develops a reputation as the ultimate daredevil pilot in the original Top Gun, a distinction that he carries over into Top Gun: Maverick. While Maverick might seem like just the kind of thrill seeking protagonist to die in an airborne mission, such a scenario lacks the kind of resonance that it would for another character. Simply put, Maverick dying in the air is much too predictable.
The essence of Maverick is that he is a man who cheats death with such ease and regularity that he is exactly the kind of protagonist not to get sloppy in the cockpit. A heroic sacrifice would certainly be fitting for Maverick’s military valor. However, the notion of Maverick finally dying in the skies would have been far too expected an outcome for him to be the kind of twist ending that the fan theory posits.
6Maverick Being Dead All Along Causes Problems For Top Gun 3
On a more commercial level, Maverick being dead complicates any potential for Top Gun 3, if not making it outright impossible. Despite its numerous release date delays and its arrival 36 years after its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick soared past the $1 billion mark to become the biggest hit of Tom Cruise’s career. Business-wise, no studio wants to ignore that kind of commercial success, and the theory of Maverick’s death would be a huge blockade to that.
Moreover, the hugely positive audience reception to Top Gun: Maverick makes it prudent to see if Maverick has at least one more adventure ahead of him. Theoretically, Top Gun 3 could roll with the notion of making a surprise reveal that Maverick has been dead all along, but making that work on a narrative level would be a challenge, to say the least. For Top Gun 3 to be at all a possibility, Maverick, quite simply, still has to be among the living.
5If Maverick Had Died, Top Gun 2 Would’ve Had To Show It
Another major hole in the theory of Maverick being dead is the fact that Top Gun: Maverick would have been obligated to show his demise to the world. Withholding something as narratively crucial as a major character’s death can certainly work well if the reveal is finally made by the end, as seen in The Sixth Sense‘s famous twist ending. In the case of Top Gun: Maverick, this theory is predicated on Maverick’s death being inferred rather than actually revealed.
Top Gun itself presents the death of Goose (Anthony Edwards) as a major tragedy that hits Maverick hard. Top Gun: Maverick also places an equal degree of significance upon the death of Iceman. Both Top Gun films clearly show they hold enough respect and reverence for Maverick that his own death would never happen without the Top Gun franchise paying its proper respects to him.
4Maverick Being Dead Means A Goose Cameo Should’ve Happened
In the event that Maverick had actually been dead all along in Top Gun: Maverick, the movie would have had no justification to not bring Goose back for at least a cameo. Goose’s death in action in Top Gun forms the foundation of Top Gun: Maverick, specifically in his tense relationship with Goose’s embittered son Rooster (Miles Teller). Maverick even includes archive footage of Goose in flashbacks to the original movie, showing how important he is to the Top Gun movies even posthumously.
Top Gun: Maverick revealing that its titular pilot is dead would have made a Goose cameo very easy to facilitate. Indeed, it could have possibly involved Goose’s spirit arriving at the end of the movie to guide Maverick into the afterlife to give both pilots an emotional send-off. To do otherwise would be to do Goose a great disservice, considering he’s Maverick’s best friend and someone he could finally have a chance to see again.
3Maverick Being Dead Leaves Open Too Many Unanswered Questions After Top Gun
As a corollary to Top Gun: Maverick needing to actually show how Maverick died, it would still come with an abundance of questions the movie would have little time to answer. The movie would’ve struggle to explain how Maverick could dream up an entire movie’s worth of events in the brief moment before his death. With Maverick’s death the kind of plot point that would likely only be revealed at the very end of the film, such a twist would have burdened Top Gun: Maverick to pull off a very tidy explanation for the rest of the movie. In doing so, the twist would have also opened Maverick up to being full of plot holes not accounted for by the movie’s ending. All of that just makes it for the best that Maverick is alive and well in Top Gun: Maverick.
2Maverick’s Death Would Have Left A Way Bigger Legacy In Top Gun 2
As Top Gun: Maverick opens, Maverick is regarded with a mix of scorn and respect by Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain. As Cain notes, Maverick “can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die.” With Maverick’s reputation preceding himself within the Navy to that great of an extent, his death would have simply made him more legendary.
Maverick being an ace pilot who flies mainly out of joy, he would be the kind of pilot whom Naval Aviation officers like Cain would speak of as a cautionary tale. To the rank and file Naval Aviators, Maverick’s skill and drive would likely make him into an aspirational legend. Top Gun: Maverick keeps Maverick’s myth in check just enough to make clear that he is still accumulating admirers and detractors alike – a feat Maverick could only accomplish while alive.
1Maverick Mentoring Younger Pilots Loses All Impact If He’s Dead
Top Gun: Maverick places Tom Cruise’s veteran pilot in the position of both leader and mentor to the new pilot trainees of the Navy’s Top Gun program. Maverick recognizes both his own youthful arrogance and unbridled determination in his new recruits, with Top Gun: Maverick building up to him leading them into battle on the most daring mission of his and their lives. Maverick being secretly dead the whole time completely nullifies the significance of all of that.
Maverick’s mentorship of the new Top Gun pilots is a big deal for him and them because of the level of risk involved in their mission, and their likelihood of success being deemed slim from the outset. Without that degree of danger, Top Gun: Maverick‘s climactic aerial mission would be little more than a fancy stunt show. Fortunately, the stakes are never in doubt in Top Gun: Maverick, with the very much alive Maverick leading his recruits to victory.
