Who doesn’t love impossible missions? Well, maybe not in real life, but in films they are quite enjoyable. Witnessing characters succeed against all odds is exceedingly satisfactory.
For today’s deconstruction, I thought we could explore the elements that turn a mission into an impossible one and Top Gun: Maverick written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie (story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks) seems like the perfect screenplay to delve into.
In this post, we will consider three Elements of Impossibility and their Exacerbators. Although these are not official screenwriting jargon, I thought they fitted nicely into the context of an impossible mission.
The Elements of Impossibility & Their Exacerbators
An Element of Impossibility is a story component that greatly diminishes the feasibility and successful achievement of our characters’ main objective. In this case, we will examine the use of a Ticking Clock, a Fierce Opponent, and One Humanly Impossible Option.
As for Exacerbators, their aim is to reduce even further the probability that our characters will end triumphantly.
The Deconstruction
A Ticking Clock
Ticking clocks are a regular fixture in screenplays. Adding a ticking clock is a simple but powerful tool to not only raise tension, but in the case of Top Gun: Maverick it can turn a mission into an impossible one. That’s our first Element of Impossibility.
| By page 25, we learn that the team has three weeks to complete their mission.
WARLOCK
The target is an unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant, constructed in violation of a unilateral NATO treaty. The uranium produced there represents a direct threat to our allies in the region. The Pentagon has tasked us with assembling a strike team and taking it out before it becomes fully operational.
[…]
MAVERICK
How soon until the plant becomes operational?
WARLOCK
Three weeks. Maybe less.
Then, as if that short time frame to get it done was not enough to cast heavy doubts on the achievability of this mission, the allotted time is further reduced. That’s the Exacerbator.
WARLOCK (PRELAP)
Morning… The uranium enrichment plant that is your target will be operational earlier than expected. Raw uranium will be delivered to the plant in ten days time.
INT. TACTICAL AUDITORIUM – DAY
Warlock addresses the class. Maverick is off to one side.
WARLOCK
To avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation, your mission has been moved up one week.
Reactions from the class. This is bad.
COYOTE
Sir, no one here has successfully flown the low level course.
WARLOCK
Nevertheless, you have been ordered to move on. Captain.
As the class absorbs this, Warlock nods to Maverick.
MAVERICK
We have one week left to focus on phase two – the most difficult stage of the mission: a pop-up strike with a steep dive requiring nothing less than two consecutive miracles.
A Fierce Opponent
Our second Element of Impossibility is having a fierce opponent. If our characters had the upperhand in this battle, the mission would be anything but impossible. Instead, they have one fierce opponent in front of them. They may be the top Top Gun graduates, but the enemy has the technological advance with their new fifth generation fighters, for which they have little information about. On the other hand, the opponent knows everything there is to know about the aircraft our characters will use. It’s going to be an uphill battle.
WARLOCK
Good morning. Take your seats.
(they do)
I’m Admiral Bates, NAWDC Commander. Welcome to your special training detachment. You’re all Top Gun graduates, the elite, best of the best. That was yesterday. You’ve all spent your careers flying close air support for troops on the ground with little to no air-to-air threat.
Rooster and Phoenix share a look and sit up as Warlock reveals the image of a new enemy fighter.
WARLOCK
The enemy’s new fifth generation fighter has leveled the playing field. Details are few, but you can be sure we no longer possess the technological advantage. Success, now more than ever, comes down to the man or woman in the box.
Warlock says it best: “Success, now more than ever, comes down to the man or woman in the box.” This brings us to our Exacerbator for this Element of Impossibility. If the difference in the accomplishment of this mission lies in the person flying the aircraft, then any weight of past history and personal demons can only aggravate the impossibility of the mission. The difficult relationship between Maverick and Goose will come into play not only as they prepare for the mission, but also as they fly it.
Warlock hits a button and TWELVE PILOT I.D. PHOTOS appear:
CYCLONE
We’ve recalled twelve Top Gun graduates from their squadrons, all top of their class. You will narrow this pool down to six – the best of the best. They will fly the mission.
Maverick’s eyes lock on one face in particular. The stoic face of BRADLEY “ROOSTER” BRADSHAW.
CYCLONE (CONT’D)
Is there a problem, Captain?
MAVERICK
You know there is… sir.
CYCLONE
(glances at screen)
Bradley Bradshaw. AKA Rooster. I understand you flew with his old man… What was his call sign?
MAVERICK
Goose. Sir.
CYCLONE
Tragic what happened.
Warlock is uncomfortable with this:
WARLOCK
Captain Mitchell was cleared of any wrongdoing. Goose’s death was an accident.
CYCLONE
That how you see it, Captain?
(points to Bradshaw)
Is that how Goose’s son sees it?
INT. ROOSTER AND MAV’S F18S INTERCUT – SORTIE 4
The verbal altimeter is calling out the altitude as they plummet.
MAVERICK
What are you gonna do Rooster? What’s your move?
ROOSTER
What does it matter? You’re gonna wash me out anyhow.
MAVERICK
Washing out is entirely up to you.
ROOSTER
That wasn’t always the case, though, was it, Sir?.
MAVERICK
What’s past is past, Rooster. Focus on the enemy up here.
ROOSTER
You are the enemy.
They strain as they plummet and spiral.
MAVERICK
Well, the enemy’s about to run you into the ground.
MAVERICK’S POV – the Earth is coming up fast.
EXT. TARMAC – ELSEWHERE – DUSK
Close on Rooster, sweating and furious as he does push-ups on the tarmac, punishing himself.
[…]
PHOENIX
What is going on with you? You trying to get kicked out? Breaking the hard deck. Insubordination. That wasn’t you up there. Talk to me. What’s up?
ROOSTER
Don’t worry about it.
PHOENIX
I’m going on this mission. But if you get kicked out, you could leave us flying with Hangman. So what the hell was that-
ROOSTER
HE PULLED MY PAPERS.
PHOENIX
What? Who?
ROOSTER
Maverick. He pulled my application to the Naval academy. He set me back four years.
One Humanly Impossible Option
For any mission to be successful, there has to be a plan to bring it to fruition. But what if there is only one way to get it done, and that one way is humanly inconceivable? Now we’re talking! That’s an impossible mission. And our third Element of Impossibility.
In Top Gun: Maverick, our main character believes there is only one option to fly this mission. They have to fly through a narrow canyon at a drastically low altitude at an absurd speed to manage to reach the target in enough time to avoid a head-to-head with the enemy, all while facing a force of gravity never experienced before. Not only is this the only way you to get the mission done, it also has never been done before. We are in unknown territory.
Should they fail at flying under one hundred feet, they are dead. Should they fly at a lower speed and miss their target time, they are dead. Should their bodies fail in fighting the effects of the force of gravity, they lose consciousness and they die.
INT. TACTICAL AUDITORIUM – DAY
CLOSE ON: The main screen, pulling back from a rapidly ticking timer, counting backwards toward zero…
Looming larger on the screen are schematics of:
MAVERICK
Phase one of the mission will be a low-level ingress, attacking in two-plane teams. You’ll fly along this narrow canyon to your target. Radar guided surface-to-air missiles defend the area.
On screen, a schematic of a radar-guided missile array.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
These SAMs are lethal, but they were designed to protect the skies above. Not the ground… Not the canyon below.
ROOSTER
That’s because the enemy knows no one is insane enough to navigate that low at high speed.
MAVERICK
And that’s exactly what I’m gonna train you to do.
ON HANGMAN who smiles. This is gonna be intense.
Overhead animation of two planes zig-zagging through a narrow valley.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
Your altitude on the day will be one hundred feet… Maximum.
Reactions from the pilots.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
Exceed this altitude… Radar will spot you – And you’re dead.
As the planes on screen bank, one goes too high… A missile fires and destroys the high plane.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
Speed on the day…860 knots. Minimum. Time to target, two and a half minutes.
More reactions from the pilots.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
(pointing)
That’s because these Fifth generation fighters are waiting at an airbase nearby…
One screen, schematics of the lethal looking next-gen aircraft.
Beside this, animation shows a Tomahawk Missile launch from a destroyer in a carrier group at sea as”
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
Simultaneous to your ingress, a carrier-based strike will take out this airfield, but if any of these planes are airborne before that, they’ll anticipate your target and immediately move to defend it. In a head-to-head with these planes in your F18s… you’re dead.
(more reactions)
You want to get in, hit your target and be gone before these planes even have a chance of catching you. This makes time your greatest adversary.
The canyon, the missiles and the fifth gen planes share the screen now.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
The faster you navigate this canyon, the harder it will be to stay under the radar of these enemy SAMs. The deeper you are in the canyon, the less margin for error there will be. The tighter the turns, the more intensely the force of gravity on your body multiplies.
Maverick points to various turns on the canyon map.
MAVERICK (CONT’D)
You’ve all faced sustained Gs before. But this… This will take you and your aircraft to the breaking point.
Reactions from the class. Holy shit.
[…]
Our Exacerbator in this third Element of Impossibility is the fact that our Top Guns have never been able to achieve the requirements to successfully fly this mission during practice. They will have to move forward without the certainty that they possess the abilities required to come back alive.
WARLOCK
To avoid contaminating the target valley with radiation, your mission has been moved up one week.
Reactions from the class. This is bad.
COYOTE
Sir, no one here has successfully flown the low level course.
WARLOCK
Nevertheless, you have been ordered to move on. Captain.
***
Deconstructing Top Gun: Maverick to decipher which story components and devices can turn a mission into an impossible one was quite satisfying to say the least. Moreover it has inspired me to widen the search for additional elements to add to this list. Stay tuned.