The feature film “Top Gun: Maverick” is currently a hit in cinemas. The opportunity to give you the meaning of the famous term Maverick, the code name of the pilot embodied by Tom Cruise.
Top Gun: Maverick, in theaters now, reunites Tom Cruise with his cult character Pete Mitchell, now tasked with training a new generation to accomplish a very special mission. If he is no longer a pilot but an instructor, Mitchell nevertheless retains his famous code name: Maverick. But actually, what does that mean?
The English term Maverick can be translated into French in different ways, but the meaning is basically the same. Thus, a “maverick” person is someone independent, non-conformist, rebellious, maverick… In short, who acts outside the rules.
It’s obvious: the word Maverick therefore corresponds perfectly to the dissident personality of Pete Mitchell. A hothead in his early days as a fighter pilot, who barely calmed down with age by becoming a test pilot and then an instructor.
According to Robert’s definition, a maverick (a Maverick, therefore) is, figuratively speaking, “a Pperson who carries out an independent action, does not observe the discipline of a group”. Doesn’t that remind you of a certain pilot skimming the control tower in Top Gun or trying to reach Mach 10 in Top Gun: Maverick, each time against the advice of his superiors?
Finally, we take this opportunity to reveal to you here the meaning of Goose, the code name of Nick Bradshaw, Maverick’s navigator in the first Top Gun. According to Anthony Edwards, who played him on screen in 1986, a real pilot, who inspired the one in the film, was given this nickname because he had rushed a plane into the water. “We called him Goose because he screwed up everything”said the actor at the microphone of People. “It was a stupid goose.”
Tom Cruise’s masterclass at the last Cannes Film Festival: