Top Gun: Maverick secretly left Rooster and Maverick’s feud unresolved and, in the process, set up a perfect Top Gun 3 death for Tom Cruise’s hero.
While Top Gun: Maverick resisted the allure of killing off Maverick himself, one detail of Rooster’s sequel story makes Top Gun 3’s Maverick death much more likely. It was a crowd-pleasing surprise when Top Gun: Maverick didn’t kill off Top Gun’s original hero Maverick. In recent years, everyone from Luke Skywalker to James Bond has been killed off in major blockbusters. As such, there was no reason for viewers to relive that Tom Cruise’s infamously reckless Maverick would be any different. By the end of Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick had repaired his relationship with Goose’s orphaned son Rooster and said his goodbyes to his late friend Iceman.
Despite this setup, Top Gun: Maverick’s saddest scene turned out to be an audacious misdirect. When it looked like Maverick was definitively done for, Hangman returned and pulled off an unlikely maneuver that managed to save both Rooster and Maverick from certain death. This might have made some viewers assume that Maverick would be safe in Top Gun 3, but this could not be further from the truth. Now that both Goose and Iceman are dead, it is all the more likely that Top Gun 3 will kill off Cruise’s restless antihero. Not only that but Top Gun: Maverick even included a clue as to why Maverick will likely die.
Rooster Knowing The Truth Only Makes Sense If Top Gun 3 Kills Maverick
During their tense confrontation in Top Gun: Maverick, Maverick never tells Rooster the truth about why he pulled his application to the Navy. In reality, the reason is that Rooster’s mother asked Maverick to pull the application, but Rooster assumes Maverick was acting on his own intuition. If Top Gun 3’s story pits Rooster and Maverick against each other again, this elision could set up a moment where Rooster finally discovers the truth. Since Maverick and Rooster were already on better terms when Top Gun: Maverick ended, this revelation then seemed a little anticlimactic and a bit unnecessary.
However, Rooster learning his entire reason for hating Maverick was unjustified would be a real emotional stinger if it happened after Maverick died. This would require Top Gun 3 to reignite the feud between Maverick and Rooster, but it would not be too tough for the franchise to achieve this aim. After all, both Maverick and Rooster remain hot-headed egotists by the end of the sequel and their camaraderie could be jeopardized by any number of conflicts. While Top Gun: Maverick proved Iceman and Maverick held on to their truce throughout the decades between movies, there was no generation gap and no historical family loss making their friendship harder.
Rooster’s Application Secret Would Make Maverick’s Top Gun 3 Death Better
If Maverick were to die in Top Gun 3 before Rooster learned the truth about his application, this could be a devastating twist for the sequel. It is seemingly tough to make Maverick’s death poignant after Top Gun: Maverick. By the end of the sequel, Maverick has achieved everything he set out to do. He has buried the hatchet with Rooster, reignited his relationship with Penny, and even said goodbye to one of his oldest friends before they passed away. As such, Maverick is now at peace, which means his death would be less tragic.
However, if Rooster were to once again butt heads with Maverick, this could give the character a more meaningful death in Top Gun 3’s story. Maverick is unlikely to blurt out the truth about Rooster’s application, meaning he is unlikely to disabuse Rooster of the notion that Maverick alone held his career back. While there is an argument to be made that Rooster’s struggles throughout Top Gun: Maverick prove that his mother was right to pull his application, this argument is not likely to move the braggadocios, pugnacious Rooster.
Why Top Gun 3 Really Could Kill Off Maverick
Top Gun 3 could kill off Maverick because his death would have stakes after another fight with Rooster. If all of Maverick’s work redeeming himself in the eyes of Goose’s son was imperiled, then his death could become a legitimately tragic moment for the franchise. Not only that but, if Maverick were to die while saving Rooster (as he seemed set to do in Top Gun: Maverick’s finale), this would prove to Rooster that he really was looking out for him. This would be a rare selfless moment for the Top Gun: Maverick hero, making his Top Gun 3 self-sacrifice all the more meaningful when Rooster learns the truth.