While Top Gun: Maverick’s Penny/Maverick relationship learned a lot from the unnecessary subplot. The late, great Top Gun director Tony Scott knew how to frame a memorably beautiful image better than most filmmakers. As a result, it is sometimes easy to forget how underwhelming the writing in the 1986 cult classic is when faced with fond memories of Top Gun’s many unforgettably glamorous images. This is what leads many viewers to skim over how weak Maverick and Charlie’s Top Gun relationship is.
While Top Gun: Maverick’s streaming release proved the sequel works as well on the small screen as the big screen, Top Gun’s bombastic story needed a forgiving theater audience. Upon a re-watch, the relationship between Charlie and Maverick is a distraction from the rest of Top Gun’s plot that could be excised without affecting the story. Maverick’s final reunion with Charlie doesn’t even fit in Top Gun’s story, with the wordless bar-set kiss instead taking place after the finale wraps up the rest of the plot. In contrast, Penny and Maverick’s story makes sense as part of Top Gun: Maverick’s plot, something that can’t be said for Charlie and Maverick’s romance.
Top Gun 2’s Love Story Wasn’t A Last Minute Addition (Unlike Charlie's Story)
To give Maverick’s story the perfect ending, Top Gun: Maverick thought of everything. The sequel brought back Goose’s son so that Maverick could make up for his worst mistake, reunited Maverick with Iceman so that the pair’s friendship could be re-cemented in cinema history, and even added in a romance with Penny so that Maverick’s days as a responsibility-shirking wanderer could come to a close. In contrast, while Charlie’s romance with Maverick always existed in the script for Top Gun, the hastily shot (and infamously bad) sex scenes between them were last-minute additions added after re-shoots, and it shows in the finished film.
Charlie is scarcely integrated into the plot of Top Gun. Part of this is due to the military-industrial complex’s role in the making of Top Gun, with Pentagon notes insisting that she be a civilian to discourage depictions of office romance. However, the primary problem with the Charlie/Maverick relationship is that the subplot feels unrelated to the main story of Top Gun, which isn’t helped by the fact that Charlie’s initial interest in Maverick comes down to his encounter with a MiG-28.
Penny and Maverick Have A History In Top Gun 2
As evidenced by her listing off all of his deployments and his fond reminiscence of taking her on a joyride in an F-18, Penny and Maverick have a tangible history in Top Gun: Maverick. Although Penny only takes a moment to talk about all the real-life wars Maverick fought in, this still provides a more personal connection between the pair than Charlie and Maverick ever boasted in the original movie. Furthermore, it is this sense of shared history that gives their romance more stakes, where Charlie and Maverick’s connection is new and tenuous (and, therefore, its potential failure has few stakes).
Penny and Maverick Benefit From Top Gun 2’s Biggest Change
When Penny’s daughter warns Maverick not to break her mother’s heart again, the comment wipes a cheeky grin off the face of Tom Cruise’s lovable antihero. It is one of the few times that the interpersonal effects of Maverick’s volatile nature are addressed outside of his work in either Top Gun movie, and the moment humanizes the character more than any of his interactions with Charlie in Top Gun. Much like Iceman’s perfect Top Gun: Maverick cameo, the scene proves that Maverick is no longer a feckless young firebrand, and has instead become a mentor despite himself.
Similarly, Maverick’s relationship with his old flame Penny is no longer a fling but rather a real, substantial romance that gives his life-risking decision to lead the mission higher stakes. Even though Goose dies early on in the original Top Gun, few viewers reached the end of the movie afraid that Cruise’s charismatic, unstoppable renegade would die before the closing credits. However, thanks to Cruise’s convincing performance, that feels like a real possibility in Top Gun: Maverick, and as a result, the Top Gun sequel manages to make Penny and Maverick’s love story more convincing and impactful than his romance with Charlie.
