What links Top Gun: Maverick to Dennis Rodman and The Outsiders?

Wingman: anytime

With Top Gun: Maverick in cinemas and two Missions: Impossible in the works, it’s a busy time for Tom: Cruise. Jumping on from Tony Scott’s 1986 blockbuster, the sequel finds Maverick still writing cheques his body can’t cash: Cruise pilot is training Top Gun graduates. Among his charges is Miles Teller playing Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, son of one Nick “Goose” Bradshaw.

In the Top Gun sequel, Tom Cruise trains Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw, son of ‘Goose’ … Photograph: AP

Target-rich environment

Spoiler: in the original, when father Goose was Maverick’s flight partner, he died tragically. Maverick blamed himself. Goose was played by Anthony Edwards, best known as Dr Mark Greene in medical drama ER, set in Chicago. In the 90s the second city had a pop cultural moment, from Oprah’s empire to the rise of post-rock and the dominance of basketball team the Chicago Bulls.

… played by Anthony Edwards, who was also in ER, set in Chicago … Photograph: AP

Dance moves

The early stages of the pandemic were confusing: who knew so many non-basketball fans would be enthralled by Netflix’s docuseries The Last Dance, chronicling Michael Jordan and the Bulls’ NBA dominance. Basketball expert or not, we all now understand Phil Jackson’s groundbreaking “triangle offense”.

… whose basketball team, the Bulls, were the subject of a docuseries featuring Michael Jordan … Photograph: Getty Images

Team work

A key supporting act was Dennis Rodman: a high-performing player with a taste for the high life and high drama. Off-court interests would later take him to North Korea. Inevitably, they also led to Hollywood. In 1997, he starred in Double Team alongside Jean-Claude Van Damme and Mickey Rourke. “One of the most preposterous action films ever made,” wrote Roger Ebert.

… and Dennis Rodman, who also appeared in Double Team, with Mickey Rourke … Photograph: Getty Images

Running man

In the early 80s, Rourke honed his Brando-isms in Rumble Fish, based on the SE Hinton novel. Director Francis Ford Coppola was on a Hinton jag: he also adapted her classic teen gang tale The Outsiders. Matt Dillon was in both, with the latter featuring numerous fledgling actors – Patrick Swayze, Rob Lowe, Ralph Macchio, Emilio Estevez and … Tom Cruise. It wasn’t clear who would be the biggest star, but with Risky Business and Top Gun to follow, Cruise was to outrun them all.

… whose other films include Rumble Fish, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, who also adapted The Outsiders, featuring Tom Cruise. Photograph: Shutterstock

Pairing notes

Listen Made at the tail end of the cold war, Top Gun avoids much direct reference to it. The Unclear and Present Danger podcast explores 80s and 90s cinema that does engage with the era’s geopolitics.

Drink It’s back to basics in Top Gun world: in a busy bar scene, Goose and Maverick chug bottles of Bud, while Val Kilmer’s Iceman sips a glass of ice-cold water. Can’t get cooler than that.

Illustration: Guardian Design