You’re sitting in the theater, the floor is literally vibrating from the roar of a GE F110 engine, and Tom Cruise is pulling 9Gs until his face looks like melting wax. It’s intense. It feels dangerous. But if you glance at the ticket stub, you’ll see those four familiar letters: PG-13. The Top Gun film rating has always been a point of fascination for parents and cinema buffs alike, mostly because the franchise manages to feel incredibly "adult" without actually crossing the line into R-rated territory.
It's a delicate dance.
The original 1986 Top Gun was a product of a different era of the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America). Back then, the PG-13 rating was still in its infancy—it had only been around for a couple of years after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom traumatized enough kids to force a middle-ground category. When Tony Scott unleashed Maverick and Iceman on the world, the rating was largely about the "vibe." You had some sweating, some swearing, and that one very backlit, very 80s love scene.
Fast forward to 2022 with Top Gun: Maverick. The stakes were higher. The planes were realer. Yet, the Top Gun film rating remained exactly where it needed to be. Why? Because honestly, you don't need "F-bombs" when you have the sound of an afterburner.
Understanding the Top Gun Film Rating Criteria
The MPAA doesn't just throw darts at a board. Well, sometimes it feels like they do, but there is a logic. For Top Gun: Maverick, the official designation was "Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense action, and some strong language."
Let’s talk about that "intense action" bit. In the world of film ratings, there is a massive gulf between "action" and "violence." Top Gun lives in the action. It’s mechanical. It’s fast. It’s stressful. But it isn't gory. You aren't seeing blood-spattered cockpits or visceral trauma. When a plane goes down, it’s a ball of fire and a parachute. This allows the film to maintain a high-octane pulse while staying accessible to the 12-year-old kid who just wants to see a Darkstar jet break the sound barrier.
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Language is the other big hurdle. The MPAA has a notorious "one F-word" rule for PG-13 movies. Use it twice in a sexual context, and you’re R-rated. Use it as an exclamation, and you might get away with two if the board is feeling generous that day. Maverick keeps it pretty clean. There’s enough "military talk" to feel authentic—lots of "damns" and "hells"—but it never veers into the locker room profanity that would alienate the family audience. It’s "tough" without being "crude."
Why the PG-13 Rating Was a Billion-Dollar Decision
If Top Gun: Maverick had been rated R, it wouldn't have made $1.5 billion. It’s that simple.
The Top Gun film rating is a financial engine. By hitting the PG-13 sweet spot, Paramount was able to capture three distinct generations. You had the grandparents who saw the original in '86, the parents who grew up with it on VHS, and the kids who only knew Tom Cruise as the guy who jumps off motorcycles for fun.
If you look at the box office data from 2022, a huge chunk of the "repeat viewing" audience came from families. It became the "safe" choice for Father's Day or a weekend out with the kids. But "safe" doesn't mean "boring." Director Joseph Kosinski talked extensively about how they wanted the audience to feel the physical toll of flying. They used Sony Venice 6K cameras inside the cockpits. They forced the actors to endure actual G-forces.
The intensity comes from the realism, not from R-rated tropes.
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Comparing the 1986 Original vs. Maverick
It’s actually pretty funny to look back at the 1986 Top Gun film rating compared to today. The original movie feels a bit "dirtier" in some ways. There’s a bit more bravado, more locker room tension, and that volleyball scene—which, let’s be real, is more iconic than half the dogfights.
- The Language: The original has a bit more "bite" in its dialogue. It feels like a movie made for 20-somethings in the 80s.
- The Romance: The scene between Maverick and Charlie (Kelly McGillis) is classic 80s cheese, but it pushes the PG-13 boundary with its suggestive nature. Maverick, by contrast, handles the romance with Penny Benjamin (Jennifer Connelly) much more maturely and subtly.
- The Stakes: In 1986, the "enemy" was a nameless, faceless MiG pilot. In 2022, the enemy was still nameless, but the mission felt like a high-stakes heist.
The transition from the 80s rating style to the modern one shows a shift in what we find "acceptable." We are way more okay with explosions today, but much more sensitive to how people talk to each other on screen.
What Parents Should Actually Know
Is it okay for your 10-year-old? Honestly, yeah. Probably.
If your kid can handle the tension of a ticking clock and the loud noise of a jet engine, they’ll be fine. There is one specific scene in Maverick involving an ejection and a subsequent rescue that might make younger kids a bit anxious. It’s loud. It’s chaotic. But again, it’s not "scary" in the traditional sense.
The biggest thing to watch out for isn't the violence, it’s the emotional weight. The movie deals with grief, particularly the death of Goose from the first film. Watching Miles Teller (Rooster) navigate the anger he feels toward Maverick is heavy stuff. It’s a "dad movie" in the best way possible. It deals with legacy, mistakes, and getting older.
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The Technicality of the "Intense Action"
Let's get nerdy for a second. The MPAA "intense action" label is often a catch-all for "this is going to be loud and people might get stressed out."
In Top Gun: Maverick, the action is sustained. This isn't a five-minute climax. The entire third act is essentially one long, high-speed flight through a canyon. From a psychological perspective, this hits differently than a superhero movie. In a Marvel flick, everything is CGI, so your brain knows it’s fake. In Top Gun, because the actors are actually in the planes, your brain registers the physical distress on their faces. That’s what earns the Top Gun film rating its "intense" descriptor.
The Global Perspective on Ratings
It's interesting to see how the Top Gun film rating shifted across borders.
- In the UK, the BBFC gave it a 12A.
- In Canada, it mostly landed a PG rating (which is roughly equivalent to our PG-13 depending on the province).
- In Australia, it was rated M (Recommended for mature audiences, but not restricted).
The consensus globally was that this is a film for "everyone," but maybe not "little everyone." It’s the quintessential "big screen" experience that reminds us why movie theaters exist in the first place. It doesn't rely on shock value. It relies on craft.
Final Insights for the Viewer
When you look at the Top Gun film rating, don't see it as a limitation. See it as a testament to Tom Cruise’s ability to create a "four-quadrant" blockbuster. He knows exactly how to walk the line between grit and accessibility.
If you're planning a viewing, keep these three things in mind:
- Check the Sound System: This is a PG-13 movie that sounds like an R-rated war zone. If you're watching at home, give your neighbors a heads-up or wear good headphones.
- Context Matters: If you’re watching with someone who hasn’t seen the 1986 original, maybe give them a quick primer on who Goose was. The emotional payoff of the PG-13 rating depends entirely on that backstory.
- Focus on the Craft: Notice how the film avoids "cheap" R-rated thrills. There are no unnecessary F-bombs just to sound "edgy." Every choice is about the mission and the pilots.
The brilliance of the Top Gun franchise is that it feels like a high-stakes, adult drama while remaining something you can share with your teenager. It’s a rare breed of filmmaking that values "cool" over "crude," proving that you don't need to break the rules of a PG-13 rating to break records at the box office. If you want to dive deeper into the technical side of how they filmed those cockpit scenes, look for the "behind the scenes" featurettes—they're just as intense as the movie itself.