Where the Hero Cycle Begins
If WW3 were to happen right now and you were drafted, would you want to fight as an individual or as a team? Teamwork is a valuable skill, perhaps even more important than individual technical skill. Top Gun shows the development of a fighter pilot as he makes this realization. Fighter pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is one of the best at what he does, flying jets. Correspondingly, he has a big ego, disrespect for rules and authority, and extreme cockiness. These faults cause him to question what other people have to say about him. In return, he pushes other people away to make himself feel better and fit his ego. Because of this and how he tends to act, he can be considered an introvert. This combination makes him a dangerous partner. However, partially out of luck, he and his copilot Nick "Goose" Bradshaw are given the chance to go to Top Gun, a six week training program for the top 1% of fighter pilots. While there, Maverick is no longer the best - he has to prove his worth, by winning the Top Gun trophy. In the midst of the competition, Maverick and Goose lose control of their plane, resulting in an accident, killing Goose. Maverick then is forced to change his ways, and work for the greater good. This story is a classical example of the monomyth, with Maverick as its hero and Goose as his mentor. We claim that the critical piece of the hero’s cycle is at the beginning - in the transition from the known realm to the unknown - and that all of the subsequent steps were largely inevitable. By passing from the familiar world where Maverick is the best pilot to the unknown world where Maverick is only one of many, he learns what he could not in the familiar – the value of teamwork.
A Jungian term that can easily be applied to the movie Top Gun is the Heaven/Hell symbol. Flying at 30,000 feet there is only you, your copilot, and your enemy. Up there, nothing can get in your way of completing your goal. Your the one making the decisions up there, whether you make the right one or not. If you make the right decision, you and your copilot get to come home safely. If you make the wrong decision, then there is the possibility to come home in a pine box. You have the power of life and death. One could say that while you are up in the air, you get to play god. Entering Top Gun enabled Maverick to realize his own faults. Conversely, had Maverick not entered Top Gun, he likely would never have changed. Thus, the passageway from the known to the unknown realm is an integral part of the hero’s cycle. To show this we will consider two scenarios. In the first, we will show how Maverick would have developed without Top Gun and will prove that Maverick would never have reached his potential. Secondly, we will follow Maverick’s actions through the movie, and show how the result - Maverick’s change of character - was an inevitable result of his entrance into Top Gun.
Top Gun without Top Gun
Prior to Top Gun, Maverick was never punished for his recklessness and was therefore condemned to a cycle of progress and regression. Without motivation to become the ‘best’, in terms of skill, strategy, and attitude, he was able to go through life without sincerely testing himself. Without competition, Maverick was unable to change. Although there were certainly rewards for behaving well, Maverick never saw his job as a competition, perhaps rather as a game. From his technical skill of being able to fly upside down over a MiG, it is clear that Maverick has the capability to be the best. He is fearless and seems to take pleasure in such risks. However, what prevents Maverick from attaining the top spot is his behavior. Maverick is governed primarily by his intuitive function when flying, since according to him, “You don’t have time to think up there.” However, while that may be the case for fliers in general, Maverick seems to make deliberately foolish decisions, such as abandoning his wing-man and making high speed passes. He seems to use his thinking function far less than other pilots, considering only himself. Due to this lack of consideration for others, Maverick has been punished multiple times before the movie begins, having lost his qualifications as section leader three times. Yet Maverick seems to care very little about this. Evidently, since he is now number two, he has been able to rebound from these punishments. These punishments seem to have had very little effect on him. If they had, he would not have made the same mistake three times. Maverick does not treat this situation seriously. He is aware that he is the best pilot and is needed, so he knows that whatever punishment he receives, he will be able to rise to the top again. Maverick isn’t competing - he is just playing the system. Maverick was set into a pattern dooming him to mediocrity before he was sent to Top Gun. Although it is not explicitly mentioned in the movie, the viewer can assume that Maverick has been demoted and promoted several times, before the movie begins. The reasons for each of the demotions may have differed, but it is clear that Maverick never learned to avoid these mistakes he made. Since he has lost his qualifications three times, it seems that he has no intention of changing his ways. Had nothing changed (i.e. Top Gun), Maverick would likely remain in this cycle of demotion and promotion, never falling too low because of his technical skill, but never rising too high because of his ego. Thus, without a change in the situation, Maverick likely never would have changed. Without the incentive to succeed, Maverick never truly pushed himself. True, he flew well, but he flew solitarily. Top Gun provided the impetus for this change from isolation to team work, by providing him with additional incentives, opportunities, and resources.

Top Gun, Competition and Goose’s Death
Maverick went to Top Gun to win the competition, but came out of it with a better understanding of who he was and his role as a fighter pilot. The events that took place at Top Gun made him a better pilot, although in ways that Maverick would not have anticipated prior to the program. Maverick went into the program assuming that the program would teach him technical skill and strategy. While he may have learned these, in the end, it was the attitude change that was the most valuable. The competition, Goose’s death, and his loss in the competition lead him to realize that even though he had the skills needed to be a good pilot, he couldn’t do it by himself.
The Top Gun school is where the top 1 percent of all naval aviators go to learn about the proper techniques on how to dogfight. Everyday, the pilots go out and put to practice what they have learned the day before. They are tested and then evaluated on how well they did. Everything they do is part of the Top Gun competition. The Top Gun trophy is awarded to the pilot and navigator who win the competition. However, even though the competition is a main part of the program, it is not the main reason why the pilots are there. They are there to learn and understand the skills on how to work as a team and how to properly engage the enemy without getting themselves killed. Maverick sees Top Gun only as the competition, not as a training program. When he first arrives, his first comment is “Just wondering who’s the best.” His mindset is to win the competition. Interestingly, Maverick seems more interested in having his name on the plaque than being a consistently excellent flier in the number one spot. The plaque represents permanence, a irrefutable record of his excellence. While his ranking may fluctuate, the plaque is set in stone. This fits into his disuse of his thinking function. In reality, the plaque is no more important than rank - it just seems more satisfying to Maverick. He is a very skilled pilot, but he is only using one side of his skill. What he could be doing is using his skill and knowledge that he has to better himself as a pilot.
Another perspective not shown in the film, but equally important, is the way other pilots view Top Gun. To many of them, Top Gun was a chance to better their skills as fighter pilots. Winning the Top Gun trophy was just an added bonus. Each had skills and flaws, but through cooperation, they could succeed. With Mavericks attitude of “I am going to win” instead of “helping myself to help others,” he changes the way that the other pilots look at Top Gun. He is a good pilot, but by not teaching others what he knows, he is making them hostile towards him.
The Top Gun competition pits Maverick and Goose against the very best of all the naval aviators. It forces Maverick to look at his own flying skills and evaluate what is more important, working as a team or winning the Top Gun trophy. It is evident that in the beginning Maverick still relies on his flying and his abilities to work solo. Because of this, he fails to see how his actions hurt other people. For example, a little after they get to Top Gun, Maverick goes and buzzes the control tower. In doing so, he puts himself and Goose on the chopping block. Even after Gooses expresses his concern that they might not graduate, Maverick still does not get the message. The only way for Maverick to understand that he can no longer fly solo is for him to see the consequences of his actions. He sees that all too clear when Goose dies.
It’s Maverick’s fault that Goose died. He got in Iceman’s jet stream, screwing up the plane. He wanted the Top Gun trophy and he didn’t think about the consequences that his actions would have. That’s how the situation ended, but more important are the events leading up to Goose’s death. We will start with the competition. Maverick is behind Iceman by two points. Iceman does not want to give up his lead and possibly let Maverick take the trophy and win the competition.
Iceman and Maverick are on the tail of an “enemy” Mig. Maverick is flying behind Iceman. Now, since the Mig is smaller and faster then the F-14A’s that Iceman and Maverick are flying, Iceman has to stay on his tail to get a clean shot. Maverick’s job was to stay behind and make sure that there were no other enemy aircraft in the area. Since Iceman was having trouble getting a missile lock on the enemy, Maverick decided to move and try to get the kill. Iceman did not want to let Maverick in because he thought that he still had a shot and he did not want Maverick to take the lead. Maverick, seeing a chance to take the lead, went in behind Iceman and got caught in his jet stream. This caused his fighter to go into a death spin in which Maverick could not pull out of. The only option was to eject. When Goose pulled the ejection handle, he hit the glass canopy basically killing him instantly. Later, we see Maverick standing at a court hearing where the judge finds Maverick no guilty and wipes his record clean. Even though legally it wasn’t his fault, Maverick got Goose killed. After all this time, it takes the death of his closest friend to make him realize that he is not the only pilot in the sky, and that teamwork is the way to win battles. This becomes clear when he and Iceman fight Migs for real.
Maverick’s going to Top Gun made him a better pilot even if that was not what he wanted to accomplish. His actions caused consequences that he will never be able to change. Those consequences however changed Maverick for the better. Even though he went in to Top Gun with the thought process of winning, he came out of the program with the understanding of how a team works and how that is better then just going in head first without looking.

Maverick’s Evolution through the Top Gun Program
One could argue that neither results explained above were actually inevitable. That is, Maverick could have realized his faults, and thus reach his potential, without Top Gun; and also, Top Gun didn’t necessarily have to allow Maverick to reach his potential. As rationale for the first argument, Maverick was infamously “dangerous,” between his reckless flying and indifference towards authority. This combination would have inevitably lead to Maverick’s realization that his strategy was not successful. For the second point, since Top Gun is inherently a competition, had Maverick won the top award, he would have been even more incentivized to be solitary and reckless, never realizing that steady teamwork is a more effective strategy. However, while some of the movie elements were contrived to allow Maverick to reach his ‘goal,’ the flow was still inevitable.
In defense of the first, consider the scenario had Maverick not been sent to Top Gun and be adequately tested. As stated before, Maverick was in a pattern of demotion and promotion, relying on his technical skill to remain as a naval aviator. He would likely remain in the cycle he was in before, oscillating between success and demotion. If at some point he made a grave error, allowing his ego to surpass his skill, something his supervisors could not overlook, Maverick would not have been given a chance to learn from his mistakes. It seems that only a highly traumatic event can genuinely change Maverick (such as Goose’s death), since he has been punished multiple times in the past. Maverick has been given a second chance, a third chance, and at this point, he has no more chances left. Maverick’s incident in Top Gun was unique because although technically he was not at fault, the proximal causes for the incident itself were his fault. As a result, he was able to make a mistake without suffering the punishment of expulsion, as he would have without Top Gun. Without the competition that Top Gun offered, Maverick would never have reached his true potential to become the best of the best, which in this case is not defined by individual achievement, but team cohesion and efficiency. Maverick came to Top Gun doing flyby’s next to control towers and even an Admiral’s daughter. Cocky, arrogant, and a danger to his wing men, Maverick is stuck in a cycle of doing thing’s the way he sees they should be done, with little care for authority figures or reprimands. This lack of respect towards his commanders and authority figures is dangerous for not only Maverick, but those who are around him as well. Goose’s death was a result of Mavericks need be number one. A key part in any hero’s journey, the death of a close mentor or friend is inevitable, especially with Maverick’s risky choices and need to be number one. Maverick’s attitude may have worked in simulations where he could fly over an enemy and shoo them away with his middle finger, but in a real combat scenario this kind of behavior proved to have harsh consequences. When confronted with an actual challenge, like flying against Jester or Ice Man, he loses skillful composure and breaks under the pressure of real competition, which he had yet to experience. These challenging experiences pushed Maverick outside of his comfort zone, forcing him to realize that maybe his fighting style is no longer applicable to situations where he must work with his wing man. Without the challenges that Top Gun offered (working as a team, with Ice Man, Viper, and Jester) Maverick would have likely been content to remain a self proclaimed unrivaled champion, which in Maverick’s case would terribly boost his already larger-than-life ego and self perception that plagued him earlier in the movie. There is very good reason to believe that if Maverick had indeed won Top Gun, and had been officially crowned number one, then he would have left Top Gun learning nothing. It is in not earning the title of Top Gun that he reaches his true potential. It is not a far stretch to assume that the egotistical Maverick we met at the beginning of the movie would lead a squadron into battle with no intentions of working with his wing men, threatening the lives of himself and those he commands. Without the challenges of implementing real teamwork Maverick would have never seen the advantages and importance of working with his wing men.
Conclusion
Top Gun is not unique in the importance of its transition - the passage to an unknown is essential in nearly all heroic cycles. Often in romantic stories, the hero begins in a world without challenge and without resources to rise above his surroundings. Before the cycle begins, the hero waits for the opportunity to rise above his environment. When the opportunity does arrive, the hero has no preconceived notion about what the journey will entail. The hero may have some idea of what skills are necessary to succeed, but quite often, this is not the case. Maverick assumed that Top Gun would teach him the skills of becoming the best pilot. While this may have been the goal of Top Gun, these were not the skills that he needed; teamwork is far more valuable. Another example of this discrepancy between the hero’s idea of success before and after the cycle is in the story of Spiderman. Peter Parker begins playing his role as Spiderman as the ‘ideal’ hero, saving lives and thwarting crime. However, Peter eventually realize that being heroic is more than just having skills and simply being a vigilante. It also requires strategy and strong morals. However, in any hero cycle, the transition is the most critical piece of the story.
So what can we learn from Maverick’s experiences as it relates to the hero’s journey? Mavericks experiences highlight the ideology that heroes are not born, they are made. We know that heroes need to go through a complete loop of the experiences that bring them from being reckless unknown individuals with great potential to leaders able to make selfless decisions for the good of the team or mission at hand. In Maverick’s case, he evolved from a self-assured pilot, who had no respect for authority or had ever been faced with true competition, to becoming an integral part of the team, setting aside the need for individual recognition to serve a purpose greater than himself. The key challenges that bring Maverick through this journey were first when he arrives at Top Gun and is faced for the first time with real competition, and the death of Goose forces him to not only consider his own mortality but also the responsibility he has to his team. Finally when Maverick comes to the realization that providing assistance to a team member is just as important as taking the lead on a mission. However, all of these steps rely on the first - the transition from the known to the unknown. After this initial step, the rest logically follow, leading to his realization of his values, the essence of the heroic cycle. It is when Maverick puts the needs of others in front of his own that he cements his position as a real hero.