FLASHBACK (quick cut): His father, Hollywood, sobbing at a dining table, 1995. "Maverick left me hanging. He broke high aspect. I took the fault. I took everything ."
Maverick's engine seizes. He ejects at 300 feet. Parachute just opens before he slams into a pine forest. EXT. MOUNTAIN HOSPITAL - NIGHT
Training is brutal. Maverick pushes Jake into unrecoverable scenarios—engine flameouts, flat spins, head-on merges. During one mock dogfight, Jake gets a missile lock on Maverick but refuses to fire, screaming, "I won't be you!"
The mission: "Operation Afterburn."
Then he hears Maverick, calm as stone: "I never left your father, Jake. He left himself. Now break— break right —and end this."
The last drone locks onto a civilian dam. Maverick has no missiles left. He orders Jake: "Boresight merge. Guns only. I'll draw his fire."
