WHAT: Top Gun became a global phenomenon in the summer of 1986. Raking in over $356m at the box office, it led to the largest uptick in recruits to the US navy since the Second World War and also boosted the sales of Ray-Ban aviator shades. The movie was actually inspired by an article about fighter pilots titled Top Guns published in California magazine in 1983. At the time Top Gun was praised for its action sequences, aerial stunts and acting performances, especially by Tom Cruise and Kelly McGillis. The film also starred Val Kilmer, Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan; its titular song Take My Breath Away performed by Berlin won an Academy Award for Best Original Song. So clearly, there was a lot of pressure riding on the reboot, Top Gun: Maverick.

WHO: Starring Jennifer Connolly, Miles Teller and Tom Cruise, the reboot was written by Christopher McQuarrie, directed by Joseph Kosinski and largely filmed in San Diego. The official synopsis: “After more than 30 years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete Mitchell is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him.” Translated to the big screen that also means there are golden sunsets, perfectly crisp white T-shirts, exquisitely coiffed hair, and long-held flames of romance. Like the original, there are immersive aerial combat scenes and pilots with callsigns like Coyote, Payback, Phoenix and Hangman.

HOW: It was produced by Hollywood uber producer Jerry Bruckheimer, whose credits include the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise to Flashdance. Bruckheimer was asked if it was possible to imagine making the new Top Gun without Tom Cruise. “No, you couldn’t,” he said. “Tom is Maverick and Maverick is Top Gun. Maverick carries on a legacy and Tom Cruise carries on a legacy.” The film was Tom Cruise’s talismanic movie – it defined him and made him in the role of military pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. (After this role he went on to be Oscar-nominated three times for Born on the Fourth of July, Jerry Maguire and Magnolia).

Not everyone is a fan of Cruise’s method acting and his seemingly formulaic roles, which the critic David Denby, writing in the New York magazine, summed up as follows: “He is Cute and he’s Great at Something. But he’s also Cocky and he Shows Off. He is Reckless, Callow, Stupid. He is Out for Himself and he Goes Too Far. He must Mature …. There is a Crisis. He is Alone, Confused, Crestfallen. He seeks a Father Figure.” Top Gun: Maverick hits all of these beats but also has an unexpected emotional depth. In one of the film’s most moving scenes with his old frenemy Iceman (played by Val Kilmer) asks him to let go of the past, Maverick replies with tears in his eyes, “I don’t know how.”

Cruise testified that making the movie was also emotional. “It’s a legacy movie for me, For us, me and Jerry. You know, it’s 36 years later. I knew we had the story, I knew it was in the palm of our hand. But the emotion of it? Making this movie has been everything you can imagine.”

WHEN: Top Gun: Maverick is released on May 27.