When Top Gun Maverick hit theaters last year, we did not expect to be talking about the film

during Oscar season, but here we are.

The movie has earned six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay,

and Original Song.

We really like the film, and you can catch up with it on Paramount Plus.

So we thought now would be the perfect time to revisit our conversation about it.

I'm Aisha Harris.

I'm Stephen Thompson. Today we are talking about Top Gun Maverick on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.

Here with Aisha and me is Morning Edition Producer, Mark River is welcome back, Mark.

Thank you for having me on this most important episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

And also here is Daisy Rosario. She's a podcast producer and storyteller you may have heard

on the Moth Radio Hour. Welcome back Daisy.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Always a pleasure. So in case you haven't seen the original Top Gun, there is one 36-year-old spoiler

you need to know. In that film, Tom Cruise plays Hot Shot Navy Pilot Pete Maverick Mitchell,

who flies a training mission in which his friend Goose is killed, leaving behind a wife and young son.

In Top Gun Maverick, we pick up the story decades later. Maverick is working as a test pilot,

but he hasn't risen far up the military ranks, partially because of his hot shot ways,

and partially because he still wants to fly. Soon he's enlisted to train a new batch of young pilots

for a seemingly impossible, extremely dangerous, high stakes mission. Those young pilots all have

lessons to learn, but so does Maverick himself, as he must figure out what to do about one of those

young pilots, Bradley Rooster, Bradshaw, Goose's now adult son, played by Miles Teller. Along the way,

...