Watch The Music Video For Lady Gaga's Top Gun: Maverick Theme Song
When "Top Gun" arrived in 1986, it came with one of the most popular movie soundtracks to date, boasting the Oscar-winning single "Take My Breath Away" as performed by the new wave band Berlin, and two absolute bangers by Kenny Loggins, "Playing with the Boys" and "Danger Zone." The "Top Gun" soundtrack hit number one in the U.S. charts for five non consecutive weeks in 1986, was the best selling soundtrack of 1986, and is still largely considered to be one of the best movie soundtracks ever crafted. There were humongous musical shoes to fill for the sequel "Top Gun: Maverick," and there was no one other than Lady Gaga fit to fill them. During a visit to "The Late Late Show," Tom Cruise praised Gaga's song "Hold My Hand" as a worthy successor to the memorable music of the original.
"There was a sound we were looking for ... she presented her song to us and it just opened up the whole movie," he said to James Corden. Cruise said that the song opened the doors to "the emotional core of the film" and that once the song started playing, everything came together. "The song she'd written just fell right in and became, really, the underlying score and the heartbeat of our film."
Today, Lady Gaga has released a moving music video for "Hold My Hand" highlighting the new film, as well as honoring one of the most emotional scenes of the original film. Strap in pilots, we're gonna watch Goose die again and cry a bunch.
Lady Gaga - Hold My Hand
The music video comes from "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski, showcasing Gaga singing her face off on the airfield in the middle of the desert. The video alternates between striking shadows in black-and-white and the sunlit vibrant colors of flight. Tom Cruise, as Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is seen looking mighty sentimental over moments from Tony Scott's original film, especially when it comes to Anthony Edwards' character Goose. Watching Maverick hold a dying Goose in his arms only to cut to a much older Maverick working on a jet while admiring a collage of photos of Goose and his family is enough to put a teary lump in your throat.
Gaga previously took to Instagram, calling the song a "love letter to the world." She captioned a preview image for the song by confessing when she had written the song, she "didn't even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film's heart, [her] own psyche, and the nature of the world we've been living in." Gaga said she'd been working on the song for years, trying to perfect it, wanting to make music "into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life's heroes."
The video is as moving as the song, and while the soundtrack to "Top Gun: Maverick" may not reach the heights of the original soundtrack, Gaga has more than provided a worthy successor.
"Top Gun: Maverick" flies into theaters May 27, 2022.