Top Gun: Maverick is a rare case where a classic film receives a sequel decades later to not only meet audience expectations – but actually surpass the original.
It maintains the spirit of the first film without being a 100% repeat. At the movie’s heart, it is a simple story about a class of fighter pilots and how they prepare for the mission by building up their teamwork. It also addresses the training of fighter pilots today – since there has been no real dogfighting involving Americans since the first Gulf War.
One element that should be discussed is who the nameless country Maverick and his pilots are tasked to blow up. One spiritual element that has carried over to the second film was the namelessness of the “antagonists”. The beautiful simplicity of Top Gun was that it was never a deep study allegory of America’s foes – it’s just a day-in-the-life look at fighter pilots as competitive comrades. The identity of the “rogue nation” they fight was never important – the core of Top Gun was always the characters and the action.
Warning: light spoilers ahead for Top Gun: Maverick
The Mission
Unlike the previous film, Maverick has a detailed and elaborate mission involving a destruction and uranium enrichment site.
The facility was built inside the mouth of an extinct volcano. The site is surrounded by surface-to-air missiles that dot the whole area. The only way to get through and avoid being detected is to fly low through a canyon network flying at near-supersonic speeds.
So yeah this whole mission is a real-life Death Star mission – from the canyon “trench run” down to shooting a tiny hole.
Historical Reference: Operation Opera
In fairness, there was a real-life mission that was very similar. That mission was called Operation Opera conducted by the Israelis in 1981 against an Iraqi nuclear reactor at the height of Saddam Hussein’s rule amidst the Iran-Iraq War. That mission also involved flying nearly 1000 miles at treetop level, even navigating through a canyon.
So Who Are We Bombing Today?
While the identity of this “rogue nation” is unnecessary for the film, the probable answer is both obvious and fascinating nonetheless: The most likely culprit is that this was a secret joint Iranian-Russian airbase.
For obvious reasons, America has had a contentious relationship with those countries for decades. What is clearly evidence was in the “rogues” hardware.
The Hardware
The reason the Russians would theoretically be involved would be some of the fighters used “5th generation fighters” that were used in the movie. Aesthetically, they resemble the Russian-built Su-57.
First unveiled to the public in 2010, It was heavily promoted by Russian broadcasters as their answer to America’s 5th generation F-22 and F-35 fighters. Unfortunately, they have not been able to reach mass production at the time of this article. There are only a dozen airframes that are being used, mostly for testing. Only 2 are flying in operational squadrons.
Another fighter aircraft used at the enemy base is an old American classic the F-14 Tomcat. Viewers might be wondering “how on earth did they get these iconic American war birds?”. The answer is bad timing: Before the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1978 the Iranian airforce acquired 70 Tomcats, becoming the only export customer of this aircraft. To this day the Iranians still fly these iconic fighters alongside their own Russian-built MiGs.
The Mountain Range
It’s also important to discuss the geography that Maverick’s mission flew in. Many believe that it was Russia solely because of the landscape. While it is easy for Americans to view Iran as a desert like other Middle-Eastern nations, in truth much of the northern and eastern parts of Iran are very mountainous and lush with Taiga forests. There are plenty of regions in the area that can be confused for the rookies. It’s only when you see the locals that you realize you are not in Colorado anymore.
With our media these days becoming more politicized to the point where every film has to preach some kind of vague message about diversity or deconstruct the original’s themes, this film did non of those tropes. Indeed Top Gun: Maverick was a refreshing bit of escapism from the cynical media landscape of the past decade. Maybe no Russians, but it’s always fun to speculate.
