There’s one important story that Top Gun: Maverick failed to tackle. Joseph Kosinski’s Top Gun follow-up sees the return of Tom Cruise’s daredevil pilot, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell more than 30 years since he was introduced. In Top Gun: Maverick, however, he’s stuck in the past; despite all the changes around him, he refuses to get in on with the times. Kosinski’s Top Gun sequel also introduces a string of new Top Gun characters that are meant to eventually take over the franchise, including Top Gun 2’s CWO4 Bernie “Hondo” Coleman. Maverick clearly knows Hondo from his previous job, functioning as his assistant instructor. Maverick and Hondo don’t share a lot of scenes together, but it’s clear that they have a great friendship. The fact that Hondo pretty much backs Maverick in all his ridiculous decisions proves his loyalty to him.
However, Top Gun: Maverick doesn’t reveal exactly how Maverick met Hondo. Hondo wasn’t in the original Top Gun film making it more curious how he first came across Mitchell. While it prominently features neophyte pilots such as Jake “Hangman” Seresin (Glen Powell), Natasha “Phoenix” Trace (Monica Barbaro), and Bradley “Goose” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) — the son of Mitchell’s fallen RIO, Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), Top Gun: Maverick remains focused on Maverick’s story as he struggles to let go of the past and move forward in his life. Ultimately he learns his lesson after what very well could be his final mission, with the film leaving him at a much better place both professionally and personally than when it started. Hondo’s role in this story is one of the more understated parts of the narrative.
How Hondo And Maverick Became Friends Is A Mystery
Considering how Kosinski’s film paints Maverick as someone who’s unable to maintain any personal relationships, it’s curious why he is able to do so with his co-worker Hondo from Top Gun: Maverick. It would have been great to see how his friendship with Hondo began. Based on their limited interactions in the now billion-dollar earner, Top Gun: Maverick, it’s suggested that they have been through quite a lot. The sequel film certainly had an opportunity to expand on Maverick’s friendship with Hondo, perhaps through a flashback scene, but it chooses to leave this a mystery along with much of what Maverick was up to during the decades between his stints at TOPGUN.
Mitchell’s ties to Goose and Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) are revisited as part of its exploration of the daredevil’s history in Top Gun: Maverick. With both of his closest TOPGUN friends no longer around, Top Gun 2’s Hondo Coleman is Maverick’s dearest and most loyal ally when the events of the Top Gun sequel begin. Despite Hondo and Maverick being so close, however, there’s no grand backstory detailing how they meet.
Hondo And Maverick’s Mundane Backstory Is Realistic
At the moment, it seems as though how Maverick met Hondo is fairly mundane: they’re just two men who met through work and became buds. This connects to Top Gun: Maverick’s greater realism, replacing the macho turmoil of Maverick’s relationships with Maverick and Goose with more mature and grounded characterization. Both Top Gun movies rely on fairly simple characterization, and this is especially true in the case of Hondo in Maverick. He doesn’t need to be anything more than an old friend who is loyal to Maverick — while it seems contradictory to the high-flying action of the Top Gun franchise, not every character needs a larger-than-life reason to share the screen with Tom Cruise.
Still, some viewers left theatres wishing they knew more about Bashir Salahuddin’s Top Gun character. Following Top Gun: Maverick’s huge box office success, a potential Top Gun 3 could explore Maverick and Hondo’s relationship more, as well as Maverick’s military history. But Top Gun has never been a series that requires elaborate backstory and lore. This is a series, after all, that doesn’t even name the villains Maverick and his squad are up against. Having Hondo and Maverick have a more low-key friendship is a perfect fit for the franchise and Hondo’s supporting role in Top Gun: Maverick.
Heavy Exposition Of Hondo’s Backstory Wouldn’t Have Improved Top Gun 2
For a movie containing high-octane jet fight chases and fictitious futuristic aircraft like the Darkstar, Top Gun: Maverick has an incredible hidden strength — subtlety. Its larger-than-life action moments are counterbalanced by the nuanced relationships between its characters. Nothing is heavy-handed, and all the exposition is handled incredibly well. For the same reasons Top Gun: Maverick didn’t need an intricate backstory for how Hondo and Maverick met, there’s an argument that exploring Hondo’s history with Maverick would have actively detracted from the movie. There may well be a thrilling story behind Hondo and Maverick’s friendship, but Top Gun 2 wasn’t the place for it.
Many action films have been criticized for heavy-handed exposition in their dialogue. There was no point in Top Gun: Maverick wherein Hondo or Maverick could explain or discuss their history, to others or each other, without it coming across as incredibly unnatural “clearly written for a movie” dialogue. While some viewers may be curious, these are questions that should be left to a future Top Gun movie or spinoff. It’s obvious in the movie that Maverick and Hondo share loyalty and respect, something Top Gun: Maverick manages to make clear without relying on deliberate exposition, flashbacks, or other oft-bemoaned action movie tropes.