The Perfect Top Gun 3 Storyline Was Set Up In Maverick

Top Gun: Maverick teased Top Gun 3's perfect plot. The 1986 film Top Gun popularized Tom Cruise. Top Gun was 1986's highest-grossing film and an 80s classic despite mixed reviews. 

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Tom Cruise's Pete “Maverick” Mitchell sequel arrived 30 years later.The Joseph Kosinski film Top Gun: Maverick reunites viewers with Maverick as he trains new pilots for a dangerous mission. 

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After Goose's death in Top Gun, Maverick feels responsible for his new pilot son, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller). Following Pete's perfect ending in Top Gun: Maverick, a third film with the best plot is announced.

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Top Gun: Maverick begins with Pete testing the hypersonic “Darkstar” scramjet program Rear Admiral Chester “Hammer” Cain (Ed Harris) plans to cancel. Pete the tireless pilot disproves Cain's claim that the program hasn't reached Mach 10. 

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The prototype is destroyed by Pete at Mach 10. Cain says the planes "sooner than later, [they] won't need pilots" before Iceman (Val Kilmer) sends Maverick to Top Gun.

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Top Gun 3 can return to Cain's words after Maverick discusses Pete's arrival and pilot training. If Pete, Rooster, Hangman (Glen Powell), and others are replaced by technology, Cain's “the future is coming” may foreshadow Top Gun 3. 

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Pete would have to retire, but it could force him and the others to prove they're indispensable and can do things pilotless aircraft can't.

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The perfect ending of Maverick reunited Pete with Rooster and his former lover Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly).  After Pete retires in Top Gun 3, Rooster and Hangman can continue Top Gun, but saving the division is better.

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Pete's fight to save Iceman and the other pilots was more emotional and symbolic after its death. Legendary Top Gun Pete acts recklessly and makes mistakes. 

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Saving the Top Gun division lets Pete retire and pass the torch to Rooster, a better story than retiring or repeating the movies' dangerous mission model.

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