Tom Cruise is 60 years old and kicking Father Time in the shins. Why his birthday is a triumph for lovers of ‘Top Gun.’

Tom Cruise, happy birthday. This July 3, the big 6-0. I can’t believe we got this far.
 
Yes, Tom Cruise, “we” succeeded. Many of us have been along for the trip since you took the audacious choice to bring a second chapter of “Top Gun” to the big screen 36 years after the original in 1986.
 
Sequels to beloved films may be dangerous. We all want to relive the pleasure of the original, and, if you think about it, that point in our life. But, time and again, it’s impossible to catch the same lightning in a sequel bottle.
 
Of course, the portion 36 years later was much terrifying. This was a visceral reminder for those of us who were alive in 1986 that we are all perilously close to four decades older.
 
“Top Gun: Maverick” was intensely personal. Tom Cruise wanted to win not simply for the sake of the history of “Top Gun,” Goose, or A-list movie star viability. But not for us, not for me. “Maverick” had to establish that 36 years isn’t a huge issue, that it’s just a number, and that everything else we tell ourselves about getting older isn’t true (er). And Cruise was at the helm of the charge.
 
Sure enough, the first “Maverick” video was released, and Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell looked like he was riding a Kawasaki Ninja straight out of the Reagan administration, with the wind in his hair and enormous fangs shining.