As one of the finest blockbusters of the modern era, one of the year’s best-reviewed movies, surely a shoo-in for a Best Picture nomination at the Academy Awards, and the 11th highest-grossing film in the history of cinema, it’s fair to say that almost everyone instantly fell in love with Top Gun: Maverick.
Director Joseph Kosinski and star Tom Cruise combined to deliver an airborne epic for the ages, one that still won’t disappear from the box office charts, having spent over four months residing in the domestic Top 10. And yet, proving that not even universally-acclaimed escapades are immune from some form of criticism, Neil deGrasse Tyson has decided to try and suck the fun out of the Top Gun sequel.
To be fair, he is one of the world’s most famous scientists that knows what he’s talking about, but did Tyson really need to make a point of breaking down the inaccuracies of Maverick? Nobody goes to see a Cruise caper for realism or 100 percent accuracy, and based on how hard he’s being roasted, it would appear that fans will not stand for any sort of slander.
Everything about Top Gun: Maverick takes place in a heightened reality, even if a lot of the story is grounded in real-world elements, so nobody was really asking for Tyson to come along and break down the mechanics of why it was so unfeasible. Besides, it’s clear from the replies and roastings that suspension of disbelief remains alive and well, with the majority of commenters making the entirely valid point that Cruise has a habit of doing things that would comfortably kill anyone else.