Top Gun: Maverick Glossary & Key Terms Guide
There is ample military terminology used in Top Gun: Maverick, but fortunately, the Navy’s glossary is easy to break down. Top Gun: Maverick’s stellar reviews prove the movie is a worthy follow-up to 1986’s cult classic original. However, the long-awaited sequel shares one problem with Top Gun.
Despite being a relatively light-hearted blockbuster, Top Gun used many potentially confusing military terminology in its screenplay. Top Gun: Maverick continues this trend, with characters referring to “wingmen” and “fifth-generation fighters” without explaining these phrases. Luckily, a glossary can be provided for those unable to differentiate a Rear Admiral from a Vice Admiral.
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One of the most important points to clarify is that Top Gun: Maverick centers on the Navy, not the Air Force. As a result, all of the terminology used in the sequel refers to ranks, technology, and slang that will be familiar to members of the Navy, even though the movie’s high-flying action is almost entirely airborne. In fact, Tom Cruise’s Maverick gets some shtick for this when his love interest mocks him for not knowing the first thing about sailing despite serving in the Navy for decades. Here's Top Gun: Maverick's key terms and relevant Navy glossary excerpts explained.
First off, ‘Mach’ refers to an object’s relative speed in ratio to the speed of sound. Mach 1 is the speed of sound, Mach 2 is twice that, and so on. The (fictional) aircraft that Maverick takes to Mach 10 in the opening scene of Top Gun: Maverick is traveling at 10X the speed of sound. When it comes to plane models, the “Super Hornets” that Maverick recommends for the movie’s pivotal mission are a pair of Boeing
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