TOP GUN: MAVERICK ’S COOLEST CALLSIGNS
EMPIRE RANKS THE NEW RECRUITS’ FLYEST MONIKERS
‘HANGMAN’ (GLEN POWELL)
A killer callsign for the squadron’s most cold-blooded pilot. Also suggests he might be good at that game where you have to guess all the letters in a word before you get bumped off.
‘COYOTE’ (GREG TARZAN DAVIES)
Coyote is a sleek, stealthy and deadly nom de plume. Or it could be a tribute to the actor Peter Coyote, aka Keys from E.T., which is somehow even better. This may be the only time, though, where the actor’s name is cooler than their character’s callsign. Can you imagine Tarzan flying into the fray, battle cry at the ready? Make it happen.
‘PHOENIX’ (MONICA BARBARO)
Now this is a cool name. Dramatic, powerful, graceful. But yes, it does conjure up images of rising from the flames, which is not the sort of thing you want to be thinking about when flying a plane that could interface with the ground at 600mph.
‘PAYBACK’ (JAY ELLIS)
Sharing a name with a Mel Gibson movie may once have been the height of cool, but not now. Still, Payback could have had it worse — he could have been called The Man Without A Face, Chicken Run or, worst of all, The Beaver.
‘BOB’ (LEWIS PULLMAN)
Poor Bob. A nondescript name would seem to suggest a nondescript aviator. But don’t underestimate him. There are some very cool Bobs — De Niro, Monkhouse, that bloke who terrified us all in Twin Peaks. So it might just be a damn fine callsign, after all.
‘ROOSTER’ (MILES TELLER)
Let’s be honest: if you’re the son of a lame duck like Goose, you want to go for something that will strike fear into the hearts of your friends and enemies alike. Rooster is not that name. Although he’ll be a dab hand at wake-up calls.
‘FANBOY’ (DANNY RAMIREZ)
Never mind Bob, this is easily the worst callsign in this group. Suggests the kind of guy who’s always late for missions because he was up late the night before, slagging off The Last Jedi on 4Chan.