Top Gun: Maverick is eerily similar to Star Wars and you totally missed it

Historically, sequels don’t always perform as well as the originals. Both Star Wars and Top Gun: Maverick are exceptions to this rule of course, with the latter quickly becoming one of the most successful films of all time. These two stories, it turns out, are a lot more in sync than you may have thought.

Leave it to Star Wars Explained to point out the subtle-until-you-notice-them similarities between the 2022 film and A New Hope. (I won’t lie, I didn’t even make the trench run connection until this video. I must be a fake fan.)

It’s right there once you see it. The entire premise of Maverick is that a small group of pilots have to destroy an extremely small target by flying quickly through a narrow, basically impossible path. In both movies, turrets either have to be dodged or destroyed. The flight path and targets are so precise that if the missile misses, it’s game over.

And — spoilers — the moment another pilot swoops in to save the hero at the last moment also happens in both movies. They’re two completely different stories that exist independently of one another, but isn’t it fascinating to look at how modern films continue to draw inspiration from their classic predecessors?

If you like stories about very good pilots going up against all odds to take on a faceless enemy and save the day, it turns out both of these movies are right up your alley.

If anything, this is all the proof we need that Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron film could easily just be the OG Top Gun in space and that would only make it better.

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