CHASING SUNSETS: TOP GUN AND UNCERTAINTY REDUCTION THEORY

Communication 300 Introduction to Communication Theory, The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, Spring 2017

The 1986 military romance film, Top Gun, gave movie audiences a glimpse into the high octane life of a naval aviator at the height of the Cold War. Audiences were also treated to a sub plot romance between the lead characters, Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Charlotte “Charlie” Blackwood. This paper will examine Maverick and Charlie’s relationship through the lens of the Uncertainty Reduction Theory.

Description : Maverick and Charlie

Audiences meet Maverick in the skies above the USS Enterprise, a United States Navy Aircraft Carrier, conducting routine arial patrols in the waters of the Indian Ocean. The opening flight sequence of Maverick flying inverted over a Soviet fighter jet establish that he is an arrogant and reckless but talented pilot. It is this headstrong piloting (and fortuitous circumstance) that Maverick is selected to attend the advanced air-to-air combat school known as Top Gun. The movie begins to reveal more about Maverick once he arrives at Top Gun. Culturally and socially, Maverick is an established navy pilot who comes from a family tradition of navy pilots. It is this tradition that drives Maverick’s obsession with pushing the limits of his aircraft. Maverick’s father was killed while flying in the Vietnam War. The mysterious circumstances of his father’s disappearance lead Maverick to “push the envelope” in regard to flying his aircraft.

Maverick introduces the audience to Charlie through song at a dive bar. Charlie is initially portrayed as just another bar patron whom Maverick is trying to take home. Unbeknownst to Maverick, Charlie was a civilian Top Gun instructor. The audience would learn that Charlie is a respected aeronautical engineer and dedicated much of her professional career to studying Maverick’s exploits. As the movie progresses, Charlie publicly distanced herself in professional settings from Maverick; calling his piloting skills reckless despite admitting to a deep admiration of those skills (and Maverick) in private.

Theoretical Analysis

As one of the bedrock interpersonal communication theories, uncertainty reduction theory (URT) was developed by Charles Berger in the 1970s and 80s. URT’s cornerstone idea is comprehending how uncertainty directs communication in a dyad (Floyd, et all, 2016). URT has three assumptions; people want to eliminate uncertainty in their lives, people will eliminate uncertainty faster when properly motivated (i.e. when a potential mate is involved), and violations of normal behavior perks curiosity which in tern motivates a person to learn more (Floyd, et all. 2016). Axioms, (Appendix 1, Table 1 on page 10) play a large part of the third URT assumption. These seven (an eighth was added in subsequent research by Parks and Adelman) work to explain in possible, non-testable terms how ideas within URT can conjoin to lead to other theories based on an initial interpersonal communication within a dyad. (Floyd, et all. 2016).

URT defines the concept of uncertainty as a “lack of knowledge about the inevitable” (Berger, 1979) and operates on the idea that uncertainty and possibility are positively correlated. If someone has a cognitive uncertainty, it refers to uncertainty about beliefs of themselves and others while behavioral uncertainty speaks to uncertainty of actions. (Floyd, et all).

Finally, URT makes three claims correlating communication with uncertainty. Communication has the potential to be a result of uncertainty or foster uncertainty. Second, individuals must be able to communicate in the face of uncertainty, and individuals with uncertainty cope with through passive, active, and interactive strategies. The coping strategies work to allow a person to engage another through various forms of contact. Passive refers to gathering information from a distance through observation or on social media. Passive is the least effective in learning about the other individual but provides the most protection against embarrassment. Active strategy describes actions that collect information about the other person without directly contacting them such as talking to a common friend about the person. Active strategies are more effective at learning information about someone but also exposes information seeker to a higher level of embarrassment potential. Finally, interactive strategies are when someone speaks directly with the person they are interested in. While interactive strategies are the most effective at collecting information, they have the highest potential to result in embarrassment of the person seeking to know the other person better (Tusing, 2017).

URT helps explain how Charlie and Maverick broke down uncertainty to form an intimate relationship. Their relationship was formed by about halfway through the movie and had two key communications that contributed to this. While Maverick and Charlie’s love story continued after these two communication scenes, URT contributed in establishing the relationship.

The first contact between Charlie and Maverick was in a dance club frequented by military and civilians alike. In a bet with a friend, Maverick approached Charlie at the club’s bar and serenaded her with “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin'” (Righteous Brothers, 1964). By the time the chorus was sung, nearly every naval officer in the club was singing to Charlie. After which, Charlie invites Maverick to sit down with her at the bar. This interaction would be short lived; Charlie does not finish her drink and excused herself when her date arrived at the club. Down but not out, Maverick drowns his sorrows in a beer and then proceeds to follow Charlie into the women’s restroom where he is once again deflected by Charlie. Maverick was presented with the URT’s second claim (he had to cope with uncertainty and find a message to do so) and URT’s second assumption (he was eager to reduce this uncertainty as his ego and $20.00 was on the line) as did so using an interactive strategy by communicating directly to her. True to the method, this posed the greatest risk of embarrassment to Maverick.

Unfortunately the extravagance of the interactive strategy negated any information he could have learned from Charlie.

Arguably, no one goes to a bar knowing that a jukebox and microphone would be available and that an entire class of naval pilots would be there to sing backup. Thus, planning had to have played a part in Maverick’s uncertainty reduction approach. This also created an opportunity for him to sit down and learn her name When Maverick talks to Charlie he uses a cheap pick up line and wit to disarm her. This is an example of hedging in that he was attempting to collect more information from her without sacrificing his public face.

URT’s third assumption is explained from Charlie’s standpoint. Maverick created curiosity by engaging in actions that did not fit in Charlie’s expectations. Additionally, Maverick’s singing would have increased behavioral uncertainty for Charlie. When Charlie rejects Maverick, he would have experienced some degree of cognitive uncertainty as well.

A second communication scene between Maverick and Charlie takes place at her house over dinner. After arriving late for dinner, they discuss flying, Soviet fighter planes, and participate in self-disclosure by revealing information about themselves. By the end of the date the two kiss and begin dating despite Charlie’s reservations about dating students.

URT’s axioms work to reduce certainty and establish an intimate relationship between Charlie and Maverick in this scene. The scene implies that the two talked for hours about their interests and each other. By using verbal communication and non-verbal cues between each other (starting at eye contact and body position, ending with a warm embrace and kiss) uncertainty is reduced between them using Axiom’s 1 and 2. As they were asking questions of each other the third axiom construed to foster their relationship (information seeking behavior). At one point Maverick reveals to Charlie why he flies at the “edge of the envelope”; his father died in Vietnam and he felt compelled to clear the Mitchell family name. This was an example of Axiom 4, self-disclosure. Charlie reciprocated this by revealing her drive to further her career by studying Maverick’s interaction with the Soviet fighter plane. By reciprocating self-disclosure the fifth axiom was present. A love of aviation created similarity between the two (Axiom 6) and considering the two of them are both involved in naval aviation, Axiom 8 (shared communication networks) was also present. By the end of the date Axiom 7 had manifested in the form of physical love (kissing).

Strangely, it seemed as if the scene was written with URT’s axioms in mind. When Maverick arrived for dinner a significant amount of uncertainty about their relationship existed between the two main characters. By the end of the evening, every axiom with the exception of eight, had been touched upon in numerical order. As Maverick left Charlie’s house, very little uncertainty existed between the two of them and they had entered into a dating relationship.

Future Speculation/Conclusion

After a brief separation (and a climatic air-to-air combat scene), Maverick returns to Top Gun as an instructor. The movie concludes by showing Charlie surprising Maverick at a restaurant by playing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” on the jukebox. After repeating a few of the cliche pick up lines from the first communication scene the movie concludes with Maverick and Charlie together.

Charlie and Maverick are in a good place to start their relationship and have eliminated the initial uncertainty between them to focus on the future. I believe that this relationship has a good chance to succeed in the near term because of their similarity and shared communication networks expressed by Axioms 6 and 8. Beyond the first three to six months however it is

difficult to make an accurate prediction using the URT as it strictly deals with forming of relationships and does not provide a direct means to determine where the relationship is headed.

While URT does not provide a direct means to tell the future of the relationship, implications using URT could assist in forecasting where the relationship is headed in the short term. The axioms can give a general idea about the couple in terms of uncertainty. For example if they had nothing in common (other than flying) or perhaps showed no reciprocation of self disclosure (in future communication) one could make the inference that uncertainty would increase in the relationship. If uncertainty increases in an established relationship, URT could imply that cognitive and behavioral uncertainty would increase resulting in difficulty (arguing, trust problems) in the relationship.

One obvious obstacle ahead of Maverick and Charlie derives from their similarity; Maverick and Charlie work for the Department of Defense which requires a lot of travel. If they are unable to spend time with one another the relationship could deteriorate. URT does not explain this but, an inference could be made to Axiom 7. If the two are unable to kindle liking between themselves because of time apart then the relationship will develop uncertainty and could fail.

While URT cannot directly explain where Maverick and Charlie’s relationship is heading, it did effectively explain how they began a relationship by eliminating uncertainty between them. This could be attributed to URT’s axioms, concepts, and claims through which the characters demonstrated during communication in the movie. Despite URT’s shortcomings in foretelling the future, Maverick and Charlie are certain of each other’s love and the power of the Righteous Brothers.

References

Floyd, K., Schrodt, P., Erbert, L., & Trethewey, A. (2016). Chapter 8 Communication in Developing Relationships. In Exploring Communication Theory: Making Sense of Us (pp. 238-249). North Charleston, SC: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

Righteous Brothers. (1964, November) You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’. Hollywood, CA: Gold Star Studios

Scott, T. (Director). (1986). Top Gun [Motion picture]. United States of America: Paramount Pictures.

Tusing, K. (2017). Relational development. Lecture.

Appendix 1, Table 1

Uncertainty Reduction Theory Axioms

Axiom Description

Axiom 1 Uncertainty is negatively associated with verbal communication

Axiom 2 Uncertainty is negatively associated with nonverbal affiliative expressiveness (i.e. non-verbal communication)

Axiom 3 Uncertainty is positively associated with information seeking behavior

Axiom 4 Uncertainty is negatively associated with the intimacy of communication content

Axiom 5 Uncertainty is positively associated with reciprocity rate

Axiom 6 Uncertainty is negatively associated the degree of similarity between partners

Axiom 7 Uncertainty is negatively associated with liking

Axiom 8 Uncertainty is negatively associated with shared communication networks between partners

Table notes: Floyd, et all. 2016

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