Say what you will about the fantastic score, amazing sound quality, excellent cinematography, adrenaline-inducing fighter jet sequences, or the terrific cast and performances led by Tom Cruise. But what really makes Top Gun: Maverick such a good movie and a worthy sequel is it's an intimate study of its title character, not just a cinematic love letter to aviation. It certainly is a cinematic love letter to aviation, as TC has said.

Maverick has been a beloved character in pop culture ever since he graced the silverscreen in 1986 with the original Top Gun. But how does a sequel set 30 years after the events of the first film provide such an intimate analysis of its main character?

Well, part of the answer is the fact that Top Gun: Maverick takes place thirty years after the events of the original film. This passage of time places Maverick in his fifties. And as such, he's no longer a self-assured fighter pilot in his twenties. So the Maverick we see in Top Gun: Maverick is not the innocent Maverick we saw in the first Top Gun.

In other words, a sequel featuring a middle-aged Maverick was the perfect way to tell more of his story and study him up close.