Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

The team destroy the processing plant, but Maverick is shot down when he puts his plane in the path of a SAM destined for Rooster. Believing him killed, the team are ordered back to the carrier. Having ejected, Maverick is approached by a helicopter which fires on him, but just as the killing shot is lined up the chopper explodes, shot down by Rooster who returned against orders, who is himself then shot down and ejects to safety. They approach the nearby destroyed airbase and discover an intact F-14, manage to get it airborne amid the chaos, albeit destroying their front landing gear in the process, and start to fly back to the carrier.

Two enemy fighters approach them, not initially realising who the pilots are. Maverick uses the element of surprise to destroy one, and after a protracted low-level dogfight shoots down the other. En route to the carrier a third fighter appears - Maverick evades as best he can but with no flares and no ammunition left, and with the ejection handles not working, they both seem doomed until Hangman arrives in the nick of time and shoots down the fighter. They land/crash on the carrier, and celebrate their victory, with Maverick and Rooster clearing the air. We later see them both working on Maverick's P51 together before Penny appears, and she and Maverick fly off into the sunset together.

Jon Sandys ★