Iceman’s Top Gun 2 Role Supports Theories About Who Really Killed Goose

Tom “Iceman” Kazansky’s role in Top Gun: Maverick supports the idea that he is partly to blame for Nick “Goose” Bradley’s (Anthony Edwards) death in the original Top Gun. Director Joseph Kosinski didn’t bring back a lot of characters from the 1986 Tony Scott cult-classic blockbuster for his follow-up. Aside from Tom Cruise reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, however, Top Gun: Maverick also sees the return of Val Kilmer as Iceman, who has a small but impactful role in the film.

While Paramount didn’t hide Kilmer’s involvement in Top Gun: Maverick, marketing for the film barely featured him. In fact, Iceman never physically appeared in any of the trailers, although it was eventually confirmed how he fit into its story. While Maverick remains a Navy Captain and never ascended beyond that rank in the many years that have passed since the events of Top Gun, his wingman has successfully climbed the ranks to become an Admiral. Over the years, every single time Maverick gets in trouble, Iceman is there to back him up, vouching for him and his capabilities. This saved Mitchell so many times from being permanently grounded.

In Top Gun: Maverick, Iceman saves Maverick one last time as he personally chooses him to train a new crop of fighter pilots at TOPGUN fighter academy for a very important and highly dangerous mission. Iceman’s devotion to Maverick is ironic considering their intense rivalry during their own training days. They ultimately became friends, as seen at the end of Top Gun where they became flying partners. That should be enough reason for Iceman to keep an eye on Maverick, but there might be another explanation for this loyalty. Perhaps Kilmer’s Iceman knows that he is partly to blame for Goose’s Top Gun death, not Maverick. While the incident was ultimately ruled an accident, there’s an argument that Kazansky’s stubbornness was what caused the tragedy. Seeing how the older Bradshaw’s demise deeply affected Mitchell, Iceman may have taken it upon himself to always be there for him.

Goose’s death is an integral part of Top Gun: Maverick‘s story. It’s the film’s emotional core as both Maverick and Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) still grapple with the tragedy. While Iceman is somehow connected to it being the only other character in the sequel who was there when the accident happened, he’s relatively removed from this particular plot point in Top Gun: Maverick. He doesn’t get any kind of interaction with the younger Bradley, although Rooster did attend Iceman’s eventual funeral, however. Kazansky also never directly mentions Goose, although he and Maverick talk about his son. It’s also worth noting that Iceman is well-aware of Maverick pulling Rooster’s applications from the Naval Academy.

It would have been great to see Rooster have some interactions with Iceman, as it could have revealed whether or not Kazansky actually harbors some guilt over what happened to Goose. Given what happens to Iceman by the end of Top Gun: Maverick, there is a slim chance that the franchise can definitively address this argument in the future. In any case, Top Gun: Maverick has also seemingly wrapped up all loose narrative ends regarding the accident with Maverick and Rooster’s reconciliation.  Moving forward, Top Gun 3 needs to tackle an entirely new story that will set up its future beyond Cruise’s daredevil pilot.

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