I’m sure you’ve already seen it, and loved it.
I watched it a couple of times at the cinema, and it’s just dropped on Netflix so I gave it a third watch today. There are so many lessons to take out of what appears to be a simple action movie, all of which are specifically for young men. So zip up your flight suit, clip on your oxygen mask and let’s dive in…
Get Arrogant, Get Aggressive
TGM is a movie not just about Maverick, but about a bunch of hotshot young pilots. Supremely confident, they walk with a swagger. They’re constantly jockeying for position, always watching each other to see who’s better, always trying to be better than yesterday. Trying to channel the incredible energy and ambition of youth.
That’s how it’s supposed to be. That’s how it’s always been.
But we live in a world now that tells you that’s bad. That competition is bad. That you always need to be nice. Inclusive. Just the idea of the military is enough to make plenty of people offended. I look at the young guns in the movie and those I know in real life, and I look back with regret on my wasted 20s. I had little direction, and instead of my young, masculine energy being poured into something worthwhile, it was wasted on gaming and reclusiveness.
What might have been if I had the right guidance and ambition back then.
If you’re still in your twenties, don’t waste all that testosterone. Find something worthy of pouring all that energy into. Otherwise, you’ll look back on that decade with regret too.
Competence is Awesome
Think about any guy’s favourite characters: James Bond, Jason Bourne, John Wick, Maverick, Magneto, Aragorn, Harvey Specter and so on. We think we like them because they’re cool, but what it really is is that they’re incredibly competent. Hyper-competent. They’re the best. And if you want to break TGM down to its essence, it’s a movie about a bunch of incredibly competent, driven young pilots who are being tested to their limits for a mission where they might die.
Notice when they get to the final briefing and Maverick is picking his team, they actually all want to be picked? Even though it’s practically a suicide mission and someone - maybe all of them, aren’t coming home. That’s what it’s like at the elite level in anything: the risk is worth it to test yourself. You want to see if you’ve got what it takes.
Tell me, how many times have you wished you could be like one of these characters in the movies? I guarantee when you did, it wasn’t because they were bedding the hot women or making big cash or whatever, it was because you wanted to be as good as them.
You can be. You should be. So stop living through characters. Go out there and be your own character.
Take Accountability
When they’re training to do the mission run, Maverick puts it to them hard when they fail. There are no excuses here: when someone dies in the training run, he’s not looking to reassure them. Instead, he says “don’t tell it to me, tell it to the dead aviator’s family.”
The military is a high accountability workplace. Probably the highest accountability. No one gives a shit about your excuses, because mistakes get people killed. And the best way to grow both in your profession and as a person, is when you’re challenged for doing a shitty job or making a mistake…
Shut the fuck up, accept the fault and vow to do better next time. Better yet, plan for how you’re going to do better next time.
Take the Lessons from Those Better Than You
Speaking of that above scene, notice that none of them even begin to even try making an excuse? They know Maverick is far better than them, they know he’s there to help them, to improve them, to push them to their limits. So when he holds them accountable, when he tries to teach them, they shut their traps and take the lesson.
Now, imagine that same scene if it was played out on Twitter.
The young hotshots would cope and seethe, saying that if Maverick was really that good he wouldn’t still be just a captain. That they shouldn’t be listening to him because he didn’t even graduate top of his class. They’d find all manner of ways to discount him and his effort to make themselves better. They’d be trying to make the most biting, snarky comeback, directing all their energy in the wrong direction.
And as a result, they’d all get themselves killed.
But that’s what most people are doing every day. People won’t admit when someone is better than them at something, much less take any kind of lesson they have to give. Don’t be that asshole. One of the great cheat codes as a young guy is to be open to being coached and taught. Older guys like me want to teach you. We want you to succeed.
We’ll even accept a level of cockiness and challenge, because we know what it was like to be that young. But what will turn us off from ever helping is you acting like you know everything and not being open to learning.
Do Things With Sincerity
This is more of a meta point and nothing to do with the movie. But think about TGM in terms of the wider movie landscape right now. It’s loved by literally everyone - I don’t know a single person: man, woman, boy, girl, who didn’t absolutely love it. Hell, I took my wife and 9 year old daughter to see it, and my daughter begged me to take her a second time.
It’s a military themed movie with an old flame love story, a happy ending and even a soaring Lady Gaga ballad to top it off.
And yet no one called it cheesy. That’s because in the current world of smugness, snark and sarcasm, people are aching for something that isn’t a big joke. That isn’t all about stupid quips and meta references. That sort of content is like fast food - it tastes good for a second, but isn’t remotely satisfying.
Tom Cruise may be the last guy in Hollywood that actually gets it. He doesn’t play smug, or snarky. He doesn’t deconstruct characters, or try to take them down a peg. He plays it straight whether it’s TGM or the MI series.
To echo Jack’s excellently succinct post above: fuck the people that want to be clever and mock everything. Leave them to their miserable lives. You’ll gain a far better friendship group in life from doing things with sincerity, because the people you attract will be sincere as well.
After all, who wants to spend their time with people who just want to comment on everything and act like they know better, but never actually do anything?
There’s Space for Everyone to Have a Story
Do you notice that while TGM is obviously about Maverick, everyone gets a chance to shine? When you earn your place at the top and work with like minded people, there’s plenty of glory to go around. Rooster is Maverick’s wingman, but he gets to save Maverick’s life and ends up with an incredible tale to tell. Hangman gets to save both of them, even though he was “just” a reserve for the mission.
The entire team gets to walk away having accomplished the impossible.
But the cliche of the hero’s journey is that it’s not inclusive (god, I’m sick of that word). That only one person gets to be the hero. Look at any big accomplishment in the world today and you’ll find a team of people that worked on it, who all get their piece of the glory.
If you want that, find something you care enough about and get to work helping to make it happen with people who you want to do it with. The rest is just minor details.