Top Gun: Maverickwas a certified hit when it was released last year. Not only did the film succeed at the box office, but it also became something of a critical darling and fan favorite film. One scene that particularly captured the audience’s attention was a sequence in which the characters play a game of beachside football, and Paramount appears to have taken notice of that.
Top Gun: Maverickis the sequel to 1986’sTop Gun.Though it was released 26 years after the first film,Top Gun: Maverickbroke many recordsand included numerous callbacks to the original film.
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TheTop Gun: Maverickfootball scene is one of those callbacks. It’s a nod to the volleyball sequence from the first film, which has been called homoerotic and included plenty of male fan service that was unusual for that era of film. Paramount posted a new version ofTop Gun: Maverick’s beach scene on their Paramount Plus YouTube account. Though the sequence is only about a minute long, the edit loops the video so that it’s 3 hours long. Fans can now enjoy the scene as a film of its own.
The memetic move is a testament to the film’s success. The edit isn’t the only thing Paramount did to promote the film, asTop Gun: Maverickwas also re-releasedin theaters in December. To date, the film has made nearly $1.5 billion at the box office, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of 2022.
The cheek behind the move is also obvious.Top Gun: Maverick, whichtook longer to come out than evenAvatar 2,leaned into just enough nostalgia to capture the audience’s attention but not so much that it forgot to tell a story on its own. The football sequence in this film calls the volleyball scene from the original film to mind, complete with plenty of lingering shots of shirtless men.
For a time, it seemed thatTop Gun: Maverickwas unstoppable. It took down the likes ofAvengers: Infinity War, but it does appear thatAvatar: The Way of Wateris on track to take its crown. It looks like nostalgia is back in theaters.
