Stryder50
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Welcome to Tom Cruiseās Flight School for āTop Gun: Maverickā
If there was to be a sequel to the ā80s classic āTop Gun,ā it was going to need to be even better than the originalāand way more realistic. Before the movie hits theaters, the cast of āMaverickā explains what it took to become on-screen pilots....
In the middle of shooting Top Gun, producer Jerry Bruckheimer realized he had a huge problem: With the exception of Tom Cruise, all the actors playing Navy pilots kept vomiting in the cockpit. āTheir heads were down, and when they got their heads up, their eyes were rolling back,ā Bruckheimer says. āIt was terrible. They were all sick.ā
On a scrappy budget with clunky 1980s technology, an untrained cast, and new studio leadership, filming eventually moved to an L.A. soundstage, where those actors could settle their stomachs while pretending to fly on a gimbal instead. The disrupted, piecemealed experience stuck with Cruise long afterādespite the movieās eventual massive box office success and canonization as a modern classic, the A-list actor had little desire to revive Pete āMaverickā Mitchell. āOriginally, I wasnāt interested in doing a sequel,ā he told Total Film magazine, at least not until technologyāand his castmatesācould āput the audience inside that F-18.ā
Three decades later, Bruckheimer and director Joseph Kosinski flew to Paris to convince him they could. During a 20-minute break on the set of Mission: ImpossibleāFallout, Kosinski pitched a sequel centered on Cruiseās aging fighter pilot and his strained relationship with his best friend Gooseās son. āI wanted it to be a rite-of-passage story for Maverick,ā says Kosinski, who tried appealing to his starās extremist sensibilities by promising to shoot everything practically. The director had seen Navy pilots use GoPros on their flights, documenting a first-person experience above the clouds that was ābetter than any aerial footage Iād seen from any movie,ā he says. āI showed that to [Tom] and said this is available for free on the internet. If we canāt beat this, thereās no point in making this movieāand he agreed.ā
Over the next 15 months, Kosinski collaborated with naval advisers and aerospace corporations, building six specialized IMAX cameras for an F-18 cockpit, mapping out highwire action sequences through tight canyons, and developing a specialized āCineJetā with aerial coordinator Kevin LaRosa II to capture it all from the air. āA lot of what we did was cutting-edge,ā LaRosa says. āThat technology came to fruition as the story came to fruition, and Top Gun: Maverick became a real thing.ā At the same time, Cruise started his own preparations, vetting a cast of young pilotsāMiles Teller, Glen Powell, Jay Ellis, Monica Barbaro, Greg Tarzan Davis, Lewis Pullman, and Danny Ramirezābefore developing a specialized flight training gauntlet so that everyone could conquer the sky. āHe knew the goal was to not only get his footage in the plane, but to get them all in the planes,ā Kosinski says. āHe just wanted them to be prepared, and he knew exactly what it was going to take.ā
Leaning on years of his own piloting experience, Cruise put together a detailed aviation curriculum, connecting actors with trusted flight instructors, building up their G-force tolerance to unthinkable levels, and readying their transition into the F-18 cockpit. The result is breathtaking, a collage of immersive, madcap flying sequences and high-octane performancesāa testament to Cruiseās unrelenting drive to pack as much thrill-seeking euphoria into Top Gun: Maverick as humanly possible. āHe will do whatever it takes to give audiences the ride of a lifetime,ā Powell says. āItās so infectious to be a part of.ā
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Welcome to Tom Cruiseās Flight School for āTop Gun: Maverickā
If there was to be a sequel to the ā80s classic āTop Gun,ā it was going to need to be even better than the originalāand way more realistic. Before the movie hits theaters, the cast of āMaverickā explains what it took to become on-screen pilots.
www.theringer.com
