“You can’t get a promotion, you won’t retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die,” growls a commanding officer played by Ed Harris (a veteran movie aviator from his 1983 role as John Glenn in “The Right Stuff”). “You should at least be a two-star admiral by now, yet here you are, Captain. Why is that?”

“It’s one of life’s mysteries, sir,” Maverick coolly responds. Maybe it has something to do with his continuing penchant for leather jackets, sunglasses and racing airplanes with his motorcycle?