Tools of Characterization

Characterization in Top Gun

Clothing

Top Gun is about Navy pilots, and in just about every scene somebody is wearing some type of military issue clothing—most of the time it's flight suits. Even when the boys are in class, such as the famous scene where Maverick realizes that the girl he was hitting on the previous night is his teacher, they're often wearing flight suits.

Now, if the guys aren't wearing flight suits, they can be seen wearing slightly dressier uniforms, and then during the really important events (Top Gun graduation, the hearing during which the review clears Maverick, and the famous nightclub) the guys wear these super slick dress white outfits, just because they're feelin' fancy (and, okay, because Navy regs require it).

But what about the rest of the time? Well, even then the boys are usually wearing stuff that signifies their naval status. Maverick, for example, often wears a bomber jacket.

The fact that these guys are always wearing Navy gear doesn't just make it clear that they're in the Navy. We already know that. The Navy gear shows up all the time because these guys love the Navy—they eat, sleep, and breathe United States Navy, even when they're not technically on duty. Right, Viper?

Family Life

Maverick's loner status is nowhere better indicated than in his lack of family life. We know from his date with Charlie that his father disappeared in 1965, and that his mother died shortly after that. We're already prepared for this stunning revelation, however, by something Maverick says to Goose late one night: "You're the only family I've got."

Maverick has no family, none, zilch, nada: Goose is it. This explains a little bit why the way he is. For one thing, he's kind of selfish. That makes sense. Everything is really about Maverick because, well, there isn't anybody else.

By the same token, the mysterious circumstances surrounding his dead father's disappearances explain a lot. Goose understands that part of the reason Maverick flies so erratically and strangely is because he's competing with the "ghost" of his father, and that makes Goose "nervous."

Goose, unlike Maverick, has a wife and child, and while he loves a good time just like Maverick, he's got a family to worry about. He's more careful than Maverick, and he cares more about not getting in trouble than Maverick precisely because Top Gun is his best way of making a better life for them, as he tells Maverick one night: "I got a family to think about. I can't afford to blow this."

Direct Characterization and Actions

Maverick is a maverick if there ever was one, and everything he says and does proves it. His flying is definitely unorthodox, but it works. His trademark phrase, which he drops during the film's initial sequence, during their first hop against Jester, and during the film's final dogfight: "I'm gonna hit the breaks, and he'll fly right by." Nobody else in the movie even thinks about trying this move (probably because it's dangerous and hard to pull off).

Maverick also has a knack for bailing when it most counts, for doing whatever Maverick wants. During the first scenes, he is supposed to land his plane, but instead goes back up to save Cougar. When he discovers that Viper is taking part in hop 19, he says, "Hollywood, you're looking good," and then proceeds to leave him because, in his words, "I want Viper." During the final fight scene he won't "engage" the enemy because "it's no good," some Maverick lingo that is code for: I don't feel like doing it because I still haven't got my edge back. He quickly regains that edge, but still, Maverick is always doing things that are about Maverick.