--- title: "The real reason Maverick is still a captain 30 years after ‘Top Gun,’ according to this hilariously accurate alternate trailer" description: "How the hell is Pete \"Maverick\" Mitchell still flying combat missions as a captain after more than 30 years of Navy service?" date: "2019-07-30" modified: "2019-07-30" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/culture/top-gun-maverick-alternate-trailer/" categories: - "Aircraft" - "Culture" - "Entertainment" - "Fighter Aircraft" - "Mandatory Fun" - "Tech & Tactics" --- # The real reason Maverick is still a captain 30 years after ‘Top Gun,’ according to this hilariously accurate alternate trailer ![]() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01FkOyjC_y8 Ever since the first full trailer for *Top Gun: Maverick* dropped in mid-July, we've been consumed by a single burning question: how the hell is Pete "Maverick" Mitchell still flying combat missions as a captain after more than 30 years of Navy service? "Thirty-plus years of service. Combat medals, citations, the only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last 40 years. Yet you can't get a promotion, you won't retire, and despite your best efforts you refuse to die," snarls Ed Harris' unnamed rear admiral in the trailer. "You should be at least a two-star admiral by now. Yet here you are. Captain. Why is that?" Sure, Navy Personnel Command offered up a handful of explanations for why Old Man Maverick is still rocking a F/A-18 Super Hornet more than three decades after *Top Gun* premiered in 1986: previous enlisted experience, a break in service, or even the possibility that Maverick was retired and retained. But I prefer the simpler explanation offered by an eerily accurate and deeply hilarious 'alternate trailer' published to YouTube by Jonathan Hilaire on Monday: Maverick just feels the need for speed — and the need to express it as inappropriately as possible. Watch the video above to see what I mean. How Maverick ended up dodging a post-service career [hauling rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong]() after these hijinks is beyond me. *Top Gun: Maverick* stars Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, and Ed Harris. The sequel will blast into theaters on June 26, 2020. ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()