Top Gun: Maverick 2022

 

• Over three decades after his time at TOPGUN, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is serving as a U.S. Navy test pilot. As Rear Admiral Chester "Hammer" Cain approaches to shut down the hypersonic "Darkstar" scramjet program and redirect the funds to drone programs, Maverick flies the prototype to its speed objective, then pushes further into high-hypersonic speed, destroying it. Cain wants to ground Maverick for his recklessness but instead sends him to NAS North Island as a TOPGUN instructor under the orders of Maverick's friend and former rival, Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet.
  
  Maverick is ordered to train an elite group of F/A-18E/F Super Hornet pilots assembled by Vice Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson and Rear Admiral Solomon "Warlock" Bates for an urgent mission: to bomb a foreign country's unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant. The plant sits in a deep depression at the end of a canyon and is defended by surface-to-air missiles and fifth-generation Su-57 fighters operating from a nearby air base. Maverick plans an attack with two pairs of Super Hornets, which will fly through a canyon and destroy the plant. The pilots initially rebuff Maverick, particularly Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin and Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Maverick's late best friend and RIO Nick "Goose" Bradshaw.
  
  As the pilots train for the mission, friction develops between Hangman and Rooster, who resents Hangman's cavalier attitude towards his wingmen, while Hangman criticizes Rooster's caution. As the pilots observe Maverick, they reassess and coalesce around him. Maverick also reunites with former girlfriend Penny Benjamin, to whom he reveals that Rooster's now-dead mother made him promise to keep her son from flying, and blocked Rooster's application to the Naval Academy, setting back his career. Maverick later meets with Iceman, who has throat cancer and primarily communicates by typing on a computer. Reassuring Maverick about teaching the team, he passes away days later, and Maverick along with the pilots, attend his funeral where a missing man formation is observed. With Iceman dead, Cyclone removes Maverick as mission trainer and sets new parameters that are less risky on approach but riskier on exit. However, Maverick makes an unauthorized flight of the simulated course with the original parameters, proving that it could be done. Cyclone is convinced and reluctantly appoints Maverick as strike leader.
  
  Maverick chooses the mission team and pairs himself with Phoenix and her WSO Bob, while Rooster is paired with Payback and his WSO Fanboy. Hangman and the remaining pilots are put on standby. The team launches from the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt while the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf fires Tomahawk cruise missiles to destroy the air base near the plant. The team reaches the plant and destroys it, but is attacked by surface-to-air missiles and a pair of patrolling Su-57 Felons. When Rooster runs out of countermeasures, Maverick sacrifices his jet to protect him and ejects. Believing Maverick to be killed in action, the remaining aircraft return to the carrier. Against orders, Rooster turns back and saves Maverick from a Mi-24 helicopter gunship, but is shot down by another surface-to-air missile and ejects nearby. The two reunite and head towards the destroyed airbase, where they steal an F-14 Tomcat and head back to the carrier. Maverick and Rooster shoot down two intercepting Su-57s, but a third arrives as they run out of ammunition and countermeasures. Hangman arrives from standby to shoot down the Su-57, and the planes return to cheer on the carrier, where Maverick and Rooster reconcile.
  
  Some time after the mission, Maverick and Rooster work together on a P-51 Mustang at a hangar near the test facility where Maverick was previously stationed. Penny arrives with her daughter Amelia, and Maverick takes her for a ride in the P-51. Rooster walks to a photo board and acknowledges a photo of their mission's success, alongside a photo of his late father and a younger Maverick.