Tom Cruise really is apparently going ahead with his threatened “Top Gun” sequel, ignoring our arguments that a Reagan-era-style gung-ho propaganda campfest wouldn’t make much sense in Trump’s America. It now even has a title: “Top Gun: Maverick.” Speaking during press duties for “The Mummy,” the actor has said he wanted to avoid the usual title-and-number deal, though no one really does that anymore anyway. (If you have trouble remembering one “Thor” or “Captain America” entry from the other, you have to remember the usually forgettable subtitle as well.)
Cruise has adapted to the times better than most actors of his ilk. Defying his age, he’s made almost nothing but big action movies for the last decade; when he’s done comedies or musicals (“Tropic Thunder,” “Rock of Ages”), he’s brought the same scary thousand-points-of-light commitment he does to jumping on planes as they’re taking off. Remember when he was a serious, Oscar-nominated actor in dramas?
It was only a matter of time before Cruise dusted off one of his earliest blockbusters — though we’d prefer a “Risky Business” sequel, in which we learn that rich kid-turned-brothel king got indicted at Goldman Sachs. Or maybe a “Color of Money” follow-up to see cocky pool shark Vincent Lauria now older and sadder, mentoring a kid (Alden Ehrenreich) as Paul Newman’s Fast Eddie Felson once did to him.
But action movies are this AARP-aged legend’s bread and butter now, so we’ll be getting a 30-plus-years-later jaunt that we’re assuming won’t find Maverick hanging in the control tower, but jetting around fighting faceless “bogies.” After all, he’s only two years older than Wilford Brimley was when he made the first “Cocoon.”
Details do remain fuzzy, though: Original composer Harold Faltermeyer is on tap to bust out another rah-rah score, but that’s it. Not even Val Kilmer — who played frenemy Iceman — has officially signed on yet. All we know is it has a name and it starts shooting next year. Here’s hoping the sequel will address Quentin Tarantino’s classic reading of “Top Gun” as a stealth gay classic, which you can watch below:
