In Top Gun: Maverick, the title character’s old friend Iceman outranks him by quite a stretch, prompting some fans to wonder how this came to be after the ending of Top Gun. The original 1986 cult classic Top Gun pitted Tom Cruise’s feckless, hot-headed Maverick against Val Kilmer’s stern, sensible Iceman. The ensuing rivalry between the duo accounted for most of the movie’s driving conflict, and their eventual bromantic reconciliation at the end of Top Gun was, according to some fans, the original movie’s most triumphant moment.
However, despite Iceman and Maverick remaining firm friends between the original movie’s action and the events of its sequel, their professional standing has changed significantly. It is no surprise that Iceman is now a Vice Admiral in Top Gun: Maverick since the character has been employed by the Navy for decades. However, Maverick himself is still just a Captain, a development that has led some fans to question how such a sizeable professional disparity opened up between the two close friends.
Despite their professional rivalry seeing the duo start from similar points, Top Gun: Maverick’s returning Iceman has progressed much further than Maverick. For comparison, Iceman’s Vice Admiral rank puts him three classes above Maverick’s Captain position. While Captain is a sought-after role, it ranks beneath both the one-star Rear Admiral Lower Half and the two-star Rear Admiral Upper Half, both of which rank below Iceman’s three-star Vice Admiral role in Top Gun: Maverick. So, what does this disparity say not only about Maverick but also about Iceman? The answer is that Maverick’s impressive acumen as a test pilot was always going to limit his professional ambition, as more impressive promotions would take him progressively further from his love of flying. In contrast, the more levelheaded and (literally and figuratively) grounded Iceman was a prime candidate for a more senior position.
Part of the reason Top Gun: Maverick is so highly hyped is because the sequel needs to recapture the sense of freewheeling fun that the original cult hit had in spades, and this appeal was almost entirely down to the boyish recklessness of Cruise’s character. Making Maverick a Vice Admiral would betray the wild heart that defined his character throughout the original movie. In contrast, it is perfectly fitting for Iceman to now be in an impressive but less involved role, as the character was always more wont to worry about keeping things safe and sticking to the status quo.
The reason that Maverick and Iceman butted heads so much was the same reason they eventually earned one another’s begrudging respect. Iceman was seen as a fundamentally cautious, reserved character, whereas Maverick was the wild card. This makes Top Gun: Maverick’s Iceman perfectly suited to promotion to Vice Admiral. He is the sort of strategic mind that the institution’s upper echelons need, whereas the movie’s roguish hero is more suited to active service. If anything, it is somewhat surprising that Maverick even progressed past Commander status in Top Gun: Maverick, since the Top Gun hero never showed much interest in the bureaucratic, desk-bound side of his Navy career.
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