Top Gun: Maverick (2022) Trivia Quiz

Answer: Mach 10

"Top Gun: Maverick" opens in the Mojave Desert in California. Maverick works as a test pilot for a Naval project that is about to be scrapped because it did not reach its intended goal of having a human reach Mach 10 in the stealth plane. Maverick reaches a speed of Mach 10.4 before the plane catches fire and Maverick has to eject. Admiral Kane reprimands Maverick for not stopping at Mach 10 as he was supposed to.

Mach is equal to the speed of sound which varies with altitude and temperature. At sea level Mach 1 is equal to 760 miles per hour whereas at 30,000 feet it is 677 miles per hour. At the time of the release of the film "Top Gun: Maverick", the fastest speed reached by a manned aircraft in Earth's atmosphere was around Mach 6.7, well below the Mach 10.4 reached by Maverick in the film.

Answer: Captain

In the 1986 film "Top Gun", Maverick has a rank of lieutenant and more than 30 years later in "Top Gun: Maverick" he has the rank of Captain. Maverick's girlfriend Penny, Admiral Simpson and Admiral Kane all comment that Maverick should have been ranked an Admiral with his stellar record and abilities.

However, his lack of attention to protocol has caused him to not move up the ladder as he should have.

Answer: Goose

In "Top Gun" (1986) Maverick and Nick 'Goose' Bradshaw are best friends and are on the same team/plane while they are at the Top Gun facility in 'Fightertown' San Diego. Goose dies in an aerial training session and Maverick is devastated. Goose's son, Bradley, is a young kid at the time of his father's death.

Fast forward 36 years later to the film "Top Gun: Maverick" and Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw is a Top Gun graduate who resents Maverick because of how his father died. His father, call sign Goose, is mentioned numerous times in "Top Gun: Maverick" and both Maverick and Rooster struggle to move on from his death decades earlier.

Answer: Uranium

In a mission brief it is explained that there is a uranium enrichment facility that will be operational in less than a month. The facility is breaking international sanctions and it puts allies of the United States in danger as nuclear weapons can be made through this enrichment. It is never explained in the film where, exactly, on Earth this uranium enrichment facility is located.

Answer: Do 200 push-ups

Maverick tells the 12 mission candidates that their first mission is designed to test their abilities in close combat and that missiles are not allowed and guns must be used. The winner is the pilot who is able to target lock their guns on another pilot's aircraft.

The cocky candidates ask Maverick if they can have the loser do 200 push-ups thinking that they could best Maverick. However, Maverick is able to target lock his guns on all 12 of the candidates and they are all seen doing push-ups when they land.

Answer: Hard deck

In the initial training missions there is a hard deck established at 5,000 feet that the pilots are not supposed to go below. Rooster and Maverick tailspin in a dogfight well below the hard deck set at 5,000 feet and they are reprimanded by Admiral 'Cyclone' Simpson.

In later training missions Maverick has the pilots training for the bombing mission to have a goal of flying at a maximum altitude of 100 feet at a speed of 600 knots.

Answer: Dogfight football

Maverick has the 12 pilots who are candidates for the upcoming mission play dogfight football on the beach. Dogfight football has teams playing both offense and defense at the same time. Admiral 'Cyclone' Simpson asks Maverick which team is winning and he is told that they stopped keeping score because they were having so much fun.

Answer: Deadeye

Maverick is grounded by Admiral 'Cyclone' Simpson after the Naval Pacific Fleet Admiral, Tom 'Iceman' Kazansky, dies. Iceman had been friends with Maverick for over 30 years and he was the one who got Maverick the position to train the pilots for the mission to destroy the uranium enrichment facility. Cyclone believes that the mission should have a 4:00 window but Maverick steals a plane and through a training simulation shows that the mission can be completed in 2:15 and he makes a deadeye shot by hitting the ground target without a spotter. Cyclone knows that Maverick is the best pilot for the mission so he makes Maverick the mission leader in spite of their different personalities and adherence to protocol. During the actual bombing mission Rooster makes a deadeye shot when his spotter is unable to target lock the uranium facility.

Answer: F-14 Tomcat

The F-14 Tomcat was used as the primary fighter plane in the film "Top Gun" (1986). In "Top Gun: Maverick" (2022), the U.S. Navy utilizes four F-18 Hornets on the mission to bomb the uranium enrichment facility. Both Maverick's and Rooster's F-18 gets shot down and they decide that their only means of escape is to steal an F-14 Tomcat, an inferior plane, from the enemy and try to either dogfight their way out or secretly get away.

Answer: Hangman

Jake 'Hangman' Seresin is an extremely cocky pilot who is seemingly the best of the 12 candidates for the mission to destroy the uranium enrichment facility. However, Hangman is not picked by Maverick as one of the three pilots to undertake the mission with him. Hangman is the first alternate if needed and, after Maverick and Rooster get shot down, he requests to Admiral 'Cyclone' Simpson to be allowed to try and rescue them.

His request is declined but eventually Hangman saves the day when he shoots down the enemy plane that had missile locked the F-14 that Maverick and Rooster were in.