Perhaps nothing builds as much tension of a whimsical love than an 80s ballad, its swooping choruses and endearing devotions are marked in our society as some of the grandest displays of love we’ve ever seen, which is why a lot were attached to films.
Warning ** slight spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick ahead But just like the first, Top Gun: Maverick’s soundtrack is its best element, and we unpack some of the power behind it below. It’s grand, it’s heart wrenching, it’s emotional and dramatic, and its successor follows admirably in suit. Top Gun is, in all accounts of the word, a movie. It’s described by the cast as a “welcome back to the movies”, and the sentiment couldn’t be more accurate. Top Gun: Maverick sees the return of all things we loved from the original. Sure, we all love a bit of Tom Cruise on a motorbike, or a group of shirtless hunks on the beach, but nothing from the film compares to the absolute thrill we get (towards aircraft, of all things) as soon as those opening chords of Kenny Loggins’ ‘Danger Zone’ begins. It’s why people were a little apprehensive about a sequel arriving 36 years later, but why it was so damn important to nail that soundtrack. The iconic film hangs like a backdrop of the best parts of the 80s overzealous, cocky pilots in aviators and bomber jackets, burnt orange sunsets and gooey romance, and kick-ass rock and guitar riffs.įor all its grandiose, Top Gun is a film that has stayed so perfectly intact all these years for good reason, like an artefact to admire in a museum of Top (ha!) Things We Will Always Get Nostalgic For. Few movies have solidified their status through both their storytelling and their soundtrack like Top Gun has.