Spoiler alert: Goose dies when his head hits the F-14's canopy. Maverick survives and is recovered from the ocean. The real tragedy surrounding that scene is that another pilot, the one filming the scene, entered the same flat spin, and also could not escape.
This resulted in his aircraft suffering a flameout of both engines, ending in a fatal flat spin. While Maverick was able to safely eject, Goose didn't; he hit the canopy on his way out with the intense impact causing his death.
Maverick blamed himself, as he shouldn't have been as close as he was to Iceman. Although a trial soon determined that Maverick was not to blame for the accident as he couldn't have possibly regained control of the jet.
But as Iceman breaks off, Maverick and Goose are caught in his "jet wash," causing them to lose power to both engines and spin out of control as pilot and co-pilot opt to engage the fatal ejection.
Originally, Maverick's friend Goose died in a more spectacular midair collision that left flaming wreckage burning aboard an aircraft carrier, but the Navy censored this draft of the death. The Navy noted that two pilots careening into each other...
Spoiler alert: Goose dies when his head hits the F-14's canopy. Maverick survives and is recovered from the ocean. The real tragedy surrounding that scene is that another pilot, the one filming the scene, entered the same flat spin, and also could not escape.
An article by ScreenRant explains that the circumstances of Goose's death were based on real problems with the F-14, embedding the film's pivotal moment in grisly, tragic reality. In Top Gun, Maverick piloted the F-14 with Goose in the backseat as his trusty radar intercept officer (RIO) during a training exercise.
The movie then shows both Goose and Maverick ejecting at the same time, but in reality, there is a 0.4-second delay between the front and rear seat ejections to prevent the seats from colliding. As Goose ejects, it shows the back of his seat hitting into the canopy above him, ultimately causing his death.
Top Gun Top Gun
The reason behind Maverick's reckless flying is because of the death of his father, Duke Mitchell, on November 5, 1965, when his plane was shot down in a dogfight during the Vietnam War. Mavericks F-18.
Marcus “Sundown” Williams
Sundown is thrust into a no-win situation when he becomes Maverick's new RIO right after Goose dies.
Just when Hangman thinks that the day can't get any worse, he finds out that his father died. His father, Admiral Tom "Iceman" Kazansky. And he doesn't take it well. Luckily, Sarah Kazansky and Maverick are there to help.
Top Gun visually represented this by having him throw Goose's dog tags into the ocean at the end of the film, indicating that he's let go of the guilt that he felt towards the accident (in reality, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Val Kilmer) is primarily to blame for the incident anyways).
“Talk to me Goose,” he still repeats in the cockpit, knowing that his best friend, Lt. Nick “Goose” Bradshaw is no longer sitting behind him. Though he was killed in a training accident in the original film, the beloved character of Goose is ever-present throughout Top Gun 2.
Goose struggles to reach it, but finally manages to pull it and both men are ejected from the jet. However, because the F-14 is still in a spin, the canopy is not blown far enough away from the plane and Goose's ejection seat fires him head first into the ejected canopy, breaking his neck and killing him instantly.
"Talk to Me, Goose"
Goose, played by Anthony Edwards, was Maverick's best friend and Radar Intercept Officer (RIO), meaning that he flew with him in the same plane every time.
Tragically, Iceman died of throat cancer in Top Gun: Maverick, and the film wove in Val Kilmer's real-life battle with the disease, although the actor is now cancer-free after a six-year fight.
Meg Ryan's Carole also mentions the incident later in the film, teasing Maverick about the time he went "ballistic" with Penny Benjamin, the admiral's daughter.
Duke Mitchell was a U.S. naval aviator who was killed-in-action during the Vietnam War. He is the father of Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
It was revealed that Carole had passed away in the intermediary time between movies and that Maverick had promised her he would keep Rooster from flying. Maverick tried to honor his promise by pulling Rooster's application to the Naval Academy. In doing so, Rooster was ultimately set back four years.
Ejecting at Mach 10 would likely obliterate Maverick instead of leaving Top Gun: Maverick's hero with some superficial cuts and a bruised ego. Since Top Gun: Maverick is a Tom Cruise vehicle, few viewers were shocked when the actor's character didn't die in the opening sequence.
The same reason why maverick couldn't reach the ejection handles above his head. The rotation would have been creating an "outward" force on the canopy while it was spinning with the aircraft. So when the canopy was jettisoned, that momentum would have carried through and pushed the canopy off the nose of the aircraft.
Is Penny Benjamin in the Original "Top Gun"? Penny, played by Jennifer Connelly, is not physically in the first "Top Gun" movie, but she does exist in it, though only mentioned in passing. She is never actually seen on screen.
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-28 (МиГ-28 in Cyrillic script) is a twin-engine, single or two-seat fighter jet operated by the air forces of an unknown (likely communist) country.
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell's radar intercept officer (RIO), Nick "Goose" Bradshaw, dies in a training flight accident. The pair are in an F-14 when the plane goes into a flat spin.
The experienced aviator's death was eerily similar to the on-screen death of Goose - Maverick's wingman in the movie - who also died after failing to recover from a flat spin. Neither Art's plane or his body were ever recovered - and the death sent shockwaves across the movie industry at the time.