Cob's Blog: There’s Two O’s in Talking about Top Gun

Goose. Everybody liked him. A true statement, and the point where Iceman’s character softens up and stops being such a jerk. Saying it may have even saved his life. Anyway, it’s a given that everybody likes Goose, but why?

First off, Goose is just so happy that you can’t help but like him. His attitude does so much to lighten the movie. More than just the comic relief, Goose is really what makes Maverick likeable too. Without his RIO around Mav would just be a cocky jerk. Watch the I was inverted scene and imagine it without Goose’s lines. It would be a dude bragging about how great he is in a totally not fun manner. It doesn’t help that he makes the “If I told you I’d have to kill you” joke either. Maybe it wasn’t so worn out in 1986, but still. Folding down your middle finger and saying “I hate it when it does that” is always gold though.

Without Goose people might realize that they actually hate Maverick. People do plea for God to damn him what I counted as seven times during the movie. Two of those damning occur immediately after he does something against Goose’s advice. Buzzing the tower and leaving Hollywood’s wing were Maverick’s two big screw-ups, and they could have easily been avoided had he just listened to Goose. For the record, the flat spin doesn’t count as a screw up because it was proven by a board of inquiry that Maverick wasn’t at fault, but it could possibly be argued that singing “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling” was a bad idea (she only let him sit down because everybody was watching).

Goose is also clearly the better singer

In the end it all balances out, because Maverick and Goose make a perfect team. Maverick has all the raw flying talent, and Goose is the brains of the operation. In the movie RIO’s don’t do much more than call out radar contacts and crane their necks looking for bogeys, but they actually have a lot to do back there. A RIO (as in Radar Intercept Officer, and not rear as I thought for way too long) is in charge of navigation, communications, radar, additional weapons systems, and they have to look around for bogeys. Drivers get most of the glory, but the RIO’s are doing all the real work (flying a plane and shooting missiles is just having fun).

They’re good together in a plane, but what I admire most about the Goose/Maverick team is how they behave on the ground, because Goose is the ultimate friend. He affirms the cool stuff Mav's done so he can stay modest (“It was a really great move. He was inverted”), picks up on Maverick’s jokes and runs with them (“Keeping up foreign relations”), and he call Mav out when he steps over the line (“I don’t think that’s such a good idea Mav”). Even when he advises against something, Goose will still play along and cover Maverick’s back. That’s a true fiend.

That's what Goose was providing for Maverick, but what is Goose getting out of the friendship? Goose gets fun out of the relationship. He loves flying with Maverick, and he has fun hanging out with him. He doesn’t need anything else. Maverick has something to prove and is struggling to not screw up what he does have. Not Goose though. He’s just a guy looking out for his family, who's happy to even be in Top Gun. His wife (Carole) and kid (unnamed) can also give him all the love and support he needs. Speaking of Carole.

Carole is just the best. She’s just so bubbly, honest, and adorable. How she wiggles around in Goose’s lap when they’re singing at the piano together! And that voice she gets when she says “Hey Goose, you big stud”!! She steals every scene she’s in, and she’s only in three scenes. Plus, two of those scenes were more than likely shot to be a single scene, since the costumes don’t change. It was probably split it in editing because they realized that Carole should be in a wider chunk of the movie. Her limited screen time doesn’t give me a lot to work with, but I know that I’m completely in love with her.

Similar taste in women isn’t the only thing that Goose and I have in common. One of the things that endears me most to the character is the fact that I am a Goose. And it goes beyond our shared love of Hawaiian shirts and refusals to wear pants while playing volleyball. Stuff like striving to be funny rather than cool, along with an air of unapologetic dorkiness. Then, when he's left alone in the bar he just sits by himself and reads the label on his beer. That is exactly the sort of thing I would do. When I wear my aviators, people who know me don’t call me Maverick. They call me Goose.

I’m still working on being able to play the piano and pull off a mustache. That mustache is indubitably great. It’s not showy or silly. It just works in a subtle but effective way. I would put it in my top five moustaches of the 80’s (That list being: Tom Selleck, John Oates, Hulk Hogan, Goose, and Freddie Mercury). Not to say that there aren’t other good flavor savers in the film:

Okay, I’ve been stalling. It’s time to buck up and get on with it. Goose dies. And no cinematic death has ever had such an impact on me. Not even Old Yeller or Bubba Blue. It all just happened so fast. One moment Goose is the big hero for reaching the ejection handle while they're in the flat spin, then Maverick yells “Watch the canopy” (which bothers me because it makes it seem like Goose could have avoided it), and then bam (literally), Goose is dead. The last we get to see of Goose is just a limp body being lifted into a helicopter. There’s no hospital room scene where he gives some bathos inducing speech from his death bed. Goose is gone before we have a chance to process it.

At least he doesn’t die in vain. This isn’t just something thrown into the script to jerk tears, establish stakes, or inspire the main characters to start taking things seriously. I already mentioned the effect Goose’s death has on the plot earlier, but I feel the significance should be emphasized. The way the entire plot shifts is still amazing to me. That’s not an easy thing to pull off as flawlessly as Top Gun does it, and it wouldn’t be possible if Goose wasn’t such a lovable character.

While I’m on the subject, I want to bring up my theory about how death by dropping is the best way to kill a villain (like how Hans Gruber dropped Dumbledore of the 30^th floor of the Nakatomi School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). By the law of opposites, being rocketed at high speed upwards into something is the most heroic death possible. Also, seeing Goose’s empty locker on the aircraft carrier is very emotional for me, and I’m still mad about Mav throwing the dog tags into the ocean.

Well, I think that does it for talking about Top Gun. I set out to write the definitive work on the subject, but I would settle for at least two people being able to read this whole thing. Hopefully I did Maverick and Goose justice, because this movie has had a massive impact on my life. I compulsively drop quotes into conversations, and get unreasonably happy just to hear a simple “Talk to me Goose”. I’ve had friendships that have started with discussions of this movie, and ended with a thumbs up and salute. Once a man borrowed my sunglasses and serenaded his wife with “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feeling”, and all the other men present joined in. I may never pay for a pair of sunglasses that aren’t mirrored aviators. At least until they stop triggering Top Gun references. I’m fairly certain that wearing them inspires people to like me, or at the very least talk to me. Top Gun helps me connect with people. That’s not an easy thing for me, so I will always love this movie if only for that. This essay also produced plenty of evidence for a best of all possible universes, so that was neat. I’ll end with some extra picture and my alternate titles, because I had way too much fun writing them.