Despite how much mockery Top Gun: Maverick, acknowledged this silliness as early as the movie’s trailers, which featured Monica Barbaro's young recruit Phoenix mocking the idea of being known only by a call sign.
However, beneath the uniquely 80s excesses of the original Top Gun, there is a surprisingly smart movie. The goofy sex scenes might be indefensible, but one of Top Gun’s most infamously over-the-top moments has a completely understandable in-universe justification. What’s more, Top Gun: Maverick allows its title character to explain the import of the sequence.
The beach volleyball in Top Gun is often mocked for its loving focus on the semi-naked stars of the movie and their frolicking horseplay. In all the ink spilled over Top Gun’s gay subtext, the beach volleyball scene is often cited as one of the movie’s most high-camp moments. However, this doesn’t mean that the sequence serves no purpose. Top Gun: Maverick’s beach football scene sees Maverick explain to Cyclone that, if he wants to build an effective team unit, a team sport is the simplest and most obvious way to achieve that dynamic. Not only that, but the scene proves Maverick’s point by including character development for Miles Teller’s Rooster, who subtly decides he can work with Maverick when he helps him up after a tackle.
It’s not overwrought, but this Top Gun: Maverick scene proves that the original Top Gun’s most infamously goofy moment makes perfect sense in context. Jon Hamm’s Top Gun: Maverick character could almost be acting as an insert for the original movie’s critics when he complains that Maverick is prioritizing shirtless beach sports over rigorous training despite the stakes of their mission. As such, Maverick pointing out the effectiveness of team-building exercises proves that the scenes serve a plot purpose in both movies.
In this regard, the swift and efficient visual storytelling of the scene is vital to its effectiveness. The character dynamics between the team explain how Rooster warmed to Maverick and how the group came to accept the mild-mannered Bob into their largely macho fold, both of which will become vital plot points later on. However, Top Gun: Maverick's Joseph Kosinski proves himself a worthy successor to original Top Gun director Tony Scott by not pointing out these details or dwelling on them. Top Gun: Maverick expects viewers to see why the beach football scene (and by extension, Top Gun’s beach volleyball scene) serves a purpose by using the sequence to illustrate shifting character dynamics. Then, Top Gun: Maverick takes things a step further by having Cruise’s character cheekily point out the purpose of both scenes to another character (and, by proxy, the original critics of Top Gun).
