Protagonist

Character Role Analysis

Maverick

There's no question: this is Maverick's movie. Okay so "Top Gun" refers to the elite fighter pilot school that Maverick and co. attend in Miramar (outside San Diego, CA), but it also describes the competition between the pilots to see who is the top gun. And Maverick is definitely the top gun, although it takes a while for that become super obvious.

Anyway, this is definitely a movie about Maverick's journey from the cocky, self-assured, borderline-arrogant but still likable guy to more solemn, wiser man. The only real emotional and existential struggles in the film are Maverick's (he struggles with his past, he blames himself for Goose's death, he has a problem with authority), and the only romantic relationship that we really watch through all of its stages (courtship, first kiss, fighting, separation, reunion) is Maverick's. He is the protagonist, the hero, the guy we most identify with, and the movie is about his trials and tribulations.

The Navy

Besides Maverick, the United States Navy is also a protagonist. This film isn't just about Maverick vs. Iceman, it's also about the United States and the United States Navy vs. an Unnamed Communist country (the red star on the MiG's tail is the dead giveaway here), or even capitalism vs. communism. Granted, Top Gun is really about the pilots, their competition against each other, and Maverick's own struggles, but at the end of the day, the movie also quietly displays the triumph of the US Navy and western capitalism over the seemingly evil, despotic, communism of the MiG-28s and their nondescript homeland.