Tom Cruise credited as playing...
Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell
- Rear Admiral: Maverick. Thirty-plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations. Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last 40 years.
- [Cain looks through pages of Maverick's records]
- Rear Admiral: 'Distinguished.' 'Distinguished.' 'Distinguished.' Yet you can't get a promotion, you won't retire, and, despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are: Captain. Why is that?
- Maverick: It's one of life's mysteries, sir.
- Rear Admiral: This isn't a joke. I asked you a question.
- Maverick: I'm where I belong, sir.
- Rear Admiral: Well, the navy doesn't see it that way. Not anymore.
- [pause]
- Rear Admiral: These planes you've been testing, Captain, one day, sooner or later, they won't need pilots at all. Pilots that need to sleep, eat, take a piss. Pilots that disobey orders. All you did was buy some time for those men out there. The future is coming, and you're not in it.
- [Cain faces the officer by the door]
- Rear Admiral: Escort this man off the base. Take him to his quarters. Wait with him while he packs his gear. I want him on the road to North Island within the hour.
- [surprised look on Maverick's face]
- Maverick: North Island, sir?
- Rear Admiral: Call came in with impeccable timing, right as I was driving here to ground your ass once and for all. It galls me to say it, but... for reasons known only to the Almighty and your guardian angel, you've been called back to Top Gun.
- Maverick: Sir?
- Rear Admiral: You are dismissed, Captain.
- [Maverick proceeds to leave Cain's office]
- Rear Admiral: The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.
- [Maverick turns around]
- Maverick: Maybe so, sir. But not today.
- Adm. Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky: The Navy needs Maverick. The kid needs Maverick. That's why I fought for you. That's why you're still here.
- Maverick: Thank you, Ice, for everything.
- Adm. Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky: One last thing, who's the better pilot, you or me?
- Maverick: This is a nice moment, let's not ruin it.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: [closing his eyes after left engine sputters out] Please don't tell me we lost an engine.
- Maverick: Alright, I won't tell you that.
- [after crashing the Darkstar, Maverick walks into a small town diner and is given a glass of water]
- Maverick: Thank you. Where am I?
- Kid in Truck Stop: [staring at Maverick] Earth?
- Maverick: [At the beginning of a training mission] Good morning, aviators. This is your captain speaking. Welcome to Basic Fighter Maneuvers, As briefed, today's exercise is dog-fighting, guns only, no missiles. We do not go below the hard deck of 5,000 ft. Working as team you have to shoot me down or else...
- Payback: ...or else what, sir?
- Maverick: ...or else I shoot back. If I shoot either one of you down, you both lose.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: This guy needs an ego check.
- Lt. Brigham 'Harvard' Lennox: We'll see to that!
- Payback: Sir, what say we put some skin in the game?
- Maverick: What do you have in mind?
- Payback: Whoever gets shot down first has to do 200 push-ups.
- Maverick: Guys, that's a lot of push-ups.
- Fanboy: Ah well, they don't call it an exercise for nothing, sir.
- Maverick: You got yourself a deal, gentlemen. Fight's on. Let's turn and burn!
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Fanboy, you see him?
- Fanboy: Not beyond the radar up ahead. He must be somewhere behind us.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: [Maverick got ready and from below them, swooshed past between their jets upwards] Damn it!
- Fanboy: What the hell?
- Payback: Oh shit!
- Maverick: Easy, Maverick. Let's try not to get fired on the first day.
- Adm. Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson: Your reputation precedes you.
- Maverick: Thank you, Sir.
- Adm. Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson: It wasn't a compliment.
- Maverick: I have to admit I wasn't expecting an invitation back.
- Adm. Solomon 'Warlock' Bates: They're called *orders*, Maverick.
- Adm. Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson: You have put me in a difficult position, Captain. On the one hand, you have demonstrated that this mission can be flown, perhaps the only way it can be survived. On the other hand, you did it by stealing a multi-million dollar military aircraft and flying it in such a manner that it may never be airworthy again. Iceman is no longer here to protect you. I have everything I need to have you court-martialed and dishonorably discharged. So what do I do? Risk the lives of my pilots, and perhaps the success of this mission, or risk my career by appointing you team leader?
- Maverick: Sir...
- Adm. Solomon 'Warlock' Bates: I think the Admiral is asking a rhetorical question, Captain.
- Wo-1. Bernie 'Hondo' Coleman: Maverick, Maverick. Hey, you with me? I don't like that look, Mav.
- Maverick: It's the only one I got. Thank you. If I don't see you again, Hondo, thank you.
- Wo-1. Bernie 'Hondo' Coleman: It's been an honor, Captain.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Then it's a dog fight.
- Maverick: An F-14 against 5th-Gen fighters?
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: It's not the plane. It's the pilot.
- Maverick: Exactly!
- Penny Benjamin: [to Maverick as he watches her enter her house after taking her home] Don't give me that look.
- Maverick: What look?
- Penny Benjamin: That one.
- Adm. Beau 'Cyclone' Simpson: [while Cyclone is giving the pilots new instructions on the mission, the screen shows a plane is about to run the course] Who the hell is that?
- Maverick: Maverick to Range Control. Entering Point Alpha, confirm Green Range.
- Mission Controller: Maverick, Range Control. Green Range is confirmed. I don't see an event scheduled for you, sir.
- Maverick: Well, I'm going anyway.
- Lt. Natasha 'Phoenix' Trace: Nice.
- Maverick: Set the time to target, 2 minutes 15 seconds.
- Payback: 2:15? That's impossible!
- Maverick: File attack point, Maverick's inbound.
- [Maverick runs the course and gets to the target]
- Maverick: Bomb's away!
- Lt. Robert 'Bob' Floyd: [after Maverick ran the training course in 2:14.84 and destroyed the target] Bullseye, holy shit!
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: Damn!
- Penny Benjamin: [They are out sailing] Little rougher than I was expecting.
- Maverick: You don't say!
- Penny Benjamin: Pull on the backstay. We'll de-power the sails.
- Maverick: OK. What does that mean?
- Penny Benjamin: You're supposed to be in the Navy!
- Maverick: I don't sail boats, Penny, I land on them!
- Penny Benjamin: [after teaching Maverick how to handle the sails, she pats his shoulder] Now you're in the Navy!
- Maverick: [Repeated line, whenever someone tells him they don't like the look he's making] It's the only one I've got.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: There's more than one way to fly this mission.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: You really don't get it. On this mission, a man flies like Maverick here, or a man does not come back. No offense intended.
- Lt. Robert 'Bob' Floyd: And somehow, you always manage.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: Hey, I don't mean to criticize, you're conservative, that's all.
- Maverick: Lieutenant...
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: We're going into combat, son, on a level no living pilot's ever seen.
- [referring to Maverick]
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: Not even him. There's no time to be thinking about the past.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: What's that supposed to mean?
- Maverick: Rooster...
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: I can't be the only one that knows that Maverick flew with his old man.
- Maverick: That's enough.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: That Maverick was flying with his old man...
- Maverick: Lieutenant, that's enough.
- [the other pilots hold Rooster back from attacking Hangman]
- Maverick: That's enough!
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: You son of a bitch!
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: Hey, I'm cool, I'm cool. Hey.
- Maverick: That's enough.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: He's not cut out for this mission.
- Maverick: That's enough.
- Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin: You know it. You know I'm right.
- Maverick: You're all dismissed.
- [the pilots leave the room]
- Maverick: [Once airborne in F-14 Tomcat] Okay, Rooster, get us in touch with the boat.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Working on it. Radio's out, no radar, everything's dead back here, what do I do? Talk me through it.
- Maverick: Okay, first the radio. Throw the UHF-2 circuit breaker, try that.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: There's 300 breakers back here, anything more specific?
- Maverick: I don't know, that was your dad's department.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: I'll figure it out.
- [Looking below at 5 Gen fighters]
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Mav, tally two, five o'clock low! What do we do?
- Maverick: Okay, listen. Just be cool. If they knew who we were, we'd be dead already.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: [Watching fighters increase altitude] Well, here they come. What's your plan?
- Maverick: Just put your mask on. Remember, we're on the same team. Just waive and smile. Just waive and smile.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: [Watching Fifth Gen fighter pilot's hand signals] What's that signal, what's he saying?
- Maverick: No idea. I have no idea what he's saying.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: What about that one, any idea?
- Maverick: Nope, never seen that one either. Shit. His wingman is moving into weapons envelope. Alright, listen up. When I tell you, you grab those rigs above your head. That's the ejection handle.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Mav, can we outrun these guys?
- Maverick: Not their missiles and guns.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: Then it's a dogfight.
- Maverick: An F-14 against 5th Gen fighters?
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: It's not the plane, it's the pilot. You'd go after them if I wasn't here.
- Maverick: But you are here.
- Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw: C'mon, Mav. Don't think, just do.
- [Mav pulls right and the dogfight begins]