“Top Gun: Maverick” has only been out two weeks, and it’s already the highest-grossing domestic release of Tom Cruise’s career. But actors aren’t the only ones cashing in on the runaway success of the sequel to the popular 1986 film "Top Gun." The US military is too–and as was the case with the original, they say they expect a big boost in recruitment to result.
“We think "Top Gun: Maverick" will certainly raise awareness and should positively contribute to individual decisions to serve in the Navy,” US Navy spokesman Dave Benham reportedly told FLYING magazine. And all across the country, recruiters are actively working to ensure that’s the case.
Photos posted across social media platforms show recruiters in Michigan, Arizona, Texas, and South Dakota have been setting up shop in theaters showing the new film in an effort to coax impressionable teens into pursuing military careers.
The US military has struggled to hit its recruitment targets in recent years, with a RAND Corporation study finding that enlistment contracts have decreased across all four branches throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this month, NBC News reported the number of sailors who deserted the Navy doubled between 2019 and 2021, and 5 of the 2,500 sailors on board the USS George Washington committed suicide in the last year alone.
In a leaked memo from January, Air Force Recruiting Service commander Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas wrote that "not two years into a pandemic, and we have warning lights flashing" in terms of recruitment numbers. That same month, the Army seriously boosted its financial incentive to join, offering bonuses of up to $50,000. In April, the Air Force followed suit, and now the Navy has upped its offer to $25,000 for those who say they’ll ship out immediately.
Commander Rick Dorsey, executive officer of the Navy Talent Acquisition Group Red River in Irving, Texas, told NBC Dallas-Forth Worth last week that the first Top Gun "basically opened up [the previous] generations' eyes to naval aviation and what the Navy can do, and we're hoping this film can do exactly the same thing for this generation." In a reference to the movie’s main characters, Dorsey reportedly went on to claim that "those folks who start here–ground level–are going to be the next Maverick, they're going to be the next Rooster," though according to military outlet SOFREP, “for every 1,000 applicants” to the US Naval Academy, just “3 will become a fighter pilot.”
Interest in joining the US military plummeted in the wake of the massively unpopular Vietnam War, and "Top Gun" was widely credited with restoring the reputation of not just the US Navy, but other military branches as well. But while the Navy claimed to receive a 500% boost in interest among potential recruits following the release of the original film, a newly published article from the US Naval Institute chalked it up to a sharp increase in military advertising budgets, conceding that “if history is any guide, the sequel to the naval aviation blockbuster might not do much to bring in new recruits.”