Name: This Top Gun: Maverick Scene Is Action Perfection
Uploaded: 2026-01-20T17:25:41.000Z
Duration: 8 min 52 s
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Relative clauses (Restrictive vs. nonrestrictive)

If you enjoy these videos, I'm pretty confident you'll also enjoy my first book of essays called Escape into Meaning, which is available now in hardcover, ebook and audiobook, which I read personally.

You can find the links for those in the description below.

Thank you to everybody who's already got the book.

Watching Top Maverick earlier this year, I realized something.

Great action sequences in movies are a lot like great pop songs.

I am an unashamed lover of pop music, from the Beatles to Beyonce, ABBA to Ariana Grande, and

what I love about pop music is how it moves me physically.

Pop songs can be lyrically nuanced, of course, but they don't have to be.

We often come to pop music for its melodrama, its universality.

Most of all, we come to it for the expert craft of the music, music which is highly structured.

The fact that we know the structure doesn't make the music any less thrilling.

In fact, the best practitioners of pop music use its formulas to make it more so.

What is why all that I just said goes for action sequences too, and specifically this action sequence.

The stakes in this scene are as clear as day.

The contract threshold is Mach 10 and repeated a number of times so that there's not even a shred of confusion crowding the viewer's mind.

Tom Cruise has to go Mach 10 faster than any pilot in history to save this program and all its jobs.

The contract threshold is Mach 10, not 10.1.

This clear expectation of an ending to the sequence is what gives it structure.

We know the problem and we know the solution.

The question for Cruise and director Joseph Kaczynski is what is the most invigorating route to get there?

This is where the techniques of pop music come in handy.

That's what makes a pop song or a concerto or an opera dynamic and interesting.

There are lots of ways to create and release tension.

You can do it harmonically, melodically, with rhythm or volume, repetition or syncopation or whatever method.

The music has to go through some kind of change, some kind of transformation.

The Mach 10 sequence is one of increasing intensity as Cruise makes it to his target, speed and beyond.

But that line from silence to crescendo isn't a straight one.

Kaczynski builds tension only to release it at key points, which keeps you engaged in the same way that a pop song keeps you engaged by transitioning from verse to chorus, back to verse again.

This sequence is actually remarkably similar to the classic pop song formula of intro, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, verse, chorus, outro.

Let's take a closer look at each of these sections.

First is the intro, which we've already discussed.

Cruz learns about the cancellation of the program and decides to go for Mach 10 anyway.

Then the first verse, which is the buildup.

A montage of Cruise suiting up, getting in the plane, taxiing the Runway while the control room people are getting into position as well.

And just before takeoff, Cruz considers his decision one last time.

I know what happens to everyone else if I don't.

So he reaffirms his choice, which launches us into the second verse, the second buildup, as Cruz takes off and buzzes Admiral Kane in this outstanding shot.

You know, often what separates bad pop music from good pop music is the quality of the musicianship, or simply the decision to draw on the mastery of live musicians.

This movie's stunning in camera shots are the equivalent of.

After the second buildup, Kaczynski releases the tension again as Kane bursts into the control room.

And rather than diminishing our anticipation, this somewhat comedic respite only heightens it.

A continuous raising of intensity would quickly become exhausting or boring.

Instead, we get to go on this much more interesting rollercoaster.

Which brings me to my favorite part of this sequence.

In pop music, a bridge is used to provide a contrast to the rest of the song.

Another chance for change, a new perspective.

In this section of the Mach 10 sequence, we are rather suddenly hit with new emotions.

We're invited to step outside the narrow frame of this struggle between Admiral Kane and the Mach 10 team and witness human beings exceeding their limitations.

It's unexpected in a way that really grabs you.

We've made it to the final verse, the final push to Mach 10.

In the first verses, the score was used to build tension.

This time, the sudden absence of music has the same effect.

What's so cool about this section is that with all the groundwork laid, Kaczynski is able to build ma maximum tension with two simple shots.

A close up of Cruise and the speedometer.

We don't need all the bells and whistles.

At this point in the theater, I was white knuckling the armrests.

They solved the problem laid out so clearly seven minutes ago.

You know, one thing I love about the Beatles is their outros.

They often give you a little something extra at the end of their songs that leaves you smiling.

This push behind Mach 10 is just icing on the cake.

You're instantly worried as soon as the music cuts out again.

It makes sense that these two genres might inform and resemble each other.

They're both underappreciated siblings to more quote unquote sophisticated genres.

Their formalism and emotional bigness are strengths when done right.

Of course, because of their commercial nature, pop music and action cinema are often not done right.

And we get a lot of bad or mediocre work making people dance or white knuckle their armrests.

It's not easy, but when it hits, it really, really hits.

Hey everybody, thank you so much for watching.

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This Top Gun: Maverick Scene Is Action Perfection

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