When it comes to Hollywood legends, names don't get much bigger than Tom Cruise's. As an award winning actor and stunt man extraordinaire, most of his movies pack some punch, but I needed to find out whether 'Top Gun - Maverick' could really deliver excitement and thrills to the standard of the 80’s original?
Hell yes!
Not only did it deliver on the heavy thrusts of those engines, powered jets, and some eye candy, but it hit all the right spots when it came to referencing the original. HOWEVER.... I was rather confused by Cruise’s love interest, and found myself googling ‘where is Kelly Mc Gillis now’? Give it a Google… and you too will understand!
So how did this subject make it into my blog? Well, nostalgia of course! Watching a movie like that with so many signposts and ‘real feels’ like the original can only conjure a cornucopia of memories that flood my vision and take me way back when. This refreshing dive into high powered jets, flying suits, leather jackets and high fives left me reminiscent of feelings of freedom, and feeling that anything was possible.
Rewind my life twenty years or more and we arrive at a time when my next adventure would simply be wherever I fancied. Having left the throbbing metropolis of a Midlands town at 19 to escape onto the seas was both terrifying and exhilarating. Armed with a 45kg bag and a shed load of naivety I ventured off to Miami, then on to Houston and finally to Acapulco to meet my first love… The MV Zenith. Needless to say I missed my first flight, melted in Miami and ran through Houston’s gigantic airport in a uniform not dissimilar to that of cabin crew! My stiletto heels didn’t thank me as I clip clopped rapidly over the concourse to my boarding gate, only to be welcomed onto my final flight by a round of applause from the rest of the passengers.... I was 19, and mortified.
Working on Cruise ships was my dream come true. That sheer exhilaration of the moment you are ‘getting your details‘, when the company surprises you and tells you where you’re going to be for the next 8 months is like a stupendous lucky dip, first time around anyway!. After surviving boot camp living in the YMCA, and competing with some of the most talented people in the industry just made me keep on pushing. My first contract I extended, and stayed onboard the same vessel for a whole 12 months. The world became a lot smaller and way more accessible.
I spent 4 years working on cruise ships initially as a therapist, later as a manager and it was life changing. Although I started out in '98, a decade after the original Top Gun, it was already a culture classic and the movie's legacy still lived strong. As I watched the sequel, the feelings of being young and free fired up my cylinders and made me realise that I’ll never have that feeling of reckless abandon again, that kind of decision making when you don’t think anything through and to hell with the consequences!
From the age of 19 to about 28 I was in my element. I made gut decisions within the blink of a hungover eye. I did what I wanted when I wanted and thought nothing of it. I was free, and although I’ve always seemed to put myself in the way of completely letting go, I somehow managed to move myself from place to place for work, or to friends that were scattered all over this amazing world.
So who’s in my 'Top Gun'? There are some originals that simply can’t be replaced, but just like 'Top Gun - Maverick,' there are some new additions. I find the benefit of growing older is that you don’t care as much about what others think and coupled with a new lease on life that has anxiety under control, I find myself trying things I've never tried before. I’d love to be able to wax lyrical about my 40 something reckless abandon, but alas I’m not anywhere near achieving that yet, however much I’d love to be! ‘Organised’ can 'do one'!, Break out those impromptu ‘let’s do this’ moments, and as long as it doesn’t involve heights or spiders, let’s have some bloody fun! That’s what my head says when I’m not knackered from working or those times when the anxiety thief arrives.
Treading the path of adventure for me depends on how I’m feeling. The want is there but the mind is cautious. Transport me back to when my arse fitted into Roxy Daisy Dukes and I fearlessly rode in doorless VW Beetles in Acapulco! Those moments of broken down jet skis surrounded by sharks and frozen margaritas on 'sail away.' To all night parties in places without roofs and watching the sun come up. Was that me? It was indeed! I remember those morning breakfast beers in St Thomas and the long distance phone calls home from call centres. I recall biting down onto my first American club sandwich and not removing the bloody toothpick that held it all together ( that was one lesson I didn’t forget). The black beaches of Costa Rica and the taste of Imperial beer washing down a local delicacy whilst watching the sunset. The multi coloured buildings of Curacao in the Dutch Caribbean and swimming with sharks. Oh and Key West, the sound of blues played on the piano, and the colourful drunken characters you’d meet in the sawdust bars. Take me back to way back when.
I’m never going to get that back though, and I’m never going to have that much time to make hundreds of mistakes with boys and money again. I can no longer make decisions without considering the consequences, and I definitely can’t fit this arse into Daisy Dukes!
I’m no Maverick, but I do happen to know one, with a spirit I wish I had, that sense of adventure and ‘what’s next’, the fun finder. I’m more of a ‘wing man’ now, or should say ‘wing woman’? But hey, every Maverick needs their Goose right? Someone who throws some glitter into the pot, and as we all know, that stuff gets everywhere!
*5 star edit credit-SD
So, if you’d like to watch a feel good movie, with some ‘great balls of fire’ then by now I’m certain that you can stream it anywhere you bloody well like! Get some snacks, tune out of where you’re at and fasten your seatbelt as you go back to ‘Top Gun’.
No tights this time, not even Daisy Dukes.