Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, arrived in movie theatres this week with impeccable geopolitical timing. President Joe Biden met leaders from Australia, Japan and India in Tokyo on Tuesday, having earlier visited South Korea. The US president aimed to reassure partners about his nation’s commitment to their region, even as US attention is drawn ever more towards a bloody and lengthening war in Ukraine.
What better moment, therefore, for a display of vulgar American soft power to roll into global multiplexes, offering a clear vision of the longevity and vitality of US military prowess?
The original Top Gun, released in 1986, was both a box-office smash and a Reagan-era hymn to American aerial and naval might. Directed by Tony Scott, it became both the highest-grossing movie of that year and at the time among the highest in history. Its famous catchphrases — from “You can be my wingman any time” to “Negative, Ghost Rider, the pattern is full” — entrenched themselves in popular culture. And it turned Cruise into one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars, a position he has held on to doggedly pretty much ever since.