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As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taugh... Read all As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom. As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.

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• 11 wins & 9 nominations total

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Who Was Almost Cast in 'Top Gun'?

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• Trivia Stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed during the production of the movie, aged 54. He died when his Pitts S-2 camera plane failed to recover from a flat spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. Scholl's last words over the radio were "I have a problem - I have a real problem." The exact cause of the crash was never determined, and neither the aircraft nor Scholl's body were ever recovered. The film is dedicated to him.
• Goofs The term "bogey" is misused throughout the movie. A bogey is an unidentified aircraft. Once identified, it is referred to as a "friendly" (for friendly aircraft), "bandit" (for non-friendly aircraft) or "hostile" (for non-friendly aircraft that may be fired at). In USN terminology, a non-friendly surface radar contact is a "skunk".

Iceman : You! You are still dangerous. But you can be my wingman any time.

Maverick : Bullshit! You can be mine.

• Crazy credits The opening credits sequence features a history of the Top Gun program before the title of the film appears on screen, with the remainder of the opening credits devoted to footage of planes being launched from and landing on an aircraft carrier.
• Alternate versions The version of the film shown on the Paramount Network has nearly all of the profane language intact (basically everything but the word "shit"). However, this version also randomly cuts out several scenes and parts of scenes, presumably to fit in the network time slot allotted. Scenes missing altogether include (but are certainly not limited to) Maverick and Goose conversing in their housing regarding whether or not they'll graduate, and Jester and Viper conversing, with Viper revealing hew knew Maverick's "old man." The latter is especially surprising considering this plot point plays a major role in a later scene.
• Connections Edited into MacGyver: GX-1 (1987)
• Soundtracks Danger Zone Written by Giorgio Moroder & Tom Whitlock Performed by Kenny Loggins Produced by Giorgio Moroder Kenny Loggins courtesy of CBS Records

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• hitchcockthelegend
• Apr 23, 2009

Everything New on Prime Video in April

• How long is Top Gun? Powered by Alexa
• What military conflict is going on in the movie? Is there an actual war, or just one isolated incident against Soviet fighter planes for some reason?
• What is Top Gun about?
• The soundtrack has a song called "Through The Fire" but does that song actually appear in the movie?
• May 16, 1986 (United States)
• United States
• 102 Pacific Street, Oceanside, California, USA (Charlie's house)
• Paramount Pictures
• Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $15,000,000 (estimated)
• $180,258,178
• May 18, 1986
• $357,288,178

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Stereo
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital EX
• Dolby Atmos

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Top Gun: Maverick review – irresistible Tom Cruise soars in a blockbuster sequel

Cinema’s favourite ageless fighter pilot returns with all the nail-biting aeronautics and emotional sucker punches that made the original an 80s-defining hit

A nd we’re back. A full 36 years (including some Covid-related runway delays) after Tony Scott’s big-screen recruitment advert for US naval aviators became an epoch-defining cinema hit, Tom Cruise is back doing what he does best – flashing his cute/crazy superstar smile and flexing his bizarrely ageless body in an eye-popping blockbuster that, for all its daft macho contrivances, still manages to take your breath away, dammit.

From the burnished opening shots of planes waltzing off an aircraft carrier to the strains of Kenny Loggins’s Danger Zone , little has changed in the world of Top Gun – least of all Cruise. Maverick may be testing jets out in the Mojave desert, but he’s still got the jacket, the bike(s), the aviator shades and (most importantly) the “need for speed” that made him a hit back in 1986. He also has the machine-tooled rebellious streak that has prevented him rising above the level of captain – showcased in an opening Mach 10 sequence that doesn’t so much tip its hat to Philip Kaufman’s The Right Stuff as fly straight past it with a super-smug popcorn-eating grin. See ya, serious movie suckers!

“Your kind is headed for extinction,” growls Ed Harris’s forward-looking rear admiral (nicknamed the “Drone Ranger”) before admitting through gritted teeth that Maverick has in fact been called back to the Top Gun programme – not to fly, but to teach the “best of the best” how to blow up a uranium enrichment plant at face-melting velocity, a mission that will require not one but “ two consecutive miracles”. “I’m not a teacher,” Maverick insists, “I’m a fighter pilot.” But, of course, he can be both.

True to form, Maverick promptly throws the rulebook in the bin ( literally – the metaphors are not subtle) and tells his team of fresh-faced hopefuls that the only thing that matters is “your limits; I intend to find them, and test them”. Cue dog-fight training sequences played out to classic jukebox cuts, while thrusting young guns do 200 push-ups on the runway. In the local bar, an underused Jennifer Connelly serves up drinks and love-interest sass (Kelly McGillis was apparently not invited to this party) while Miles Teller ’s Rooster bangs out Great Balls of Fire on the piano, prompting a flashback to Maverick cradling Anthony Edwards’s Goose, who got famously cooked in the first film.

And therein lies what passes for the heart of the piece; because Rooster is Goose’s son, and Maverick (who still blames himself) doesn’t want to be responsible for history repeating itself. “If I send him on this mission,” Cruise emotes, “he might not come back; if I don’t send him, he’ll never forgive me. Either way I could lose him for ever.” Tough call, bro.

Cruise has described making a Top Gun sequel as being like trying to hit a bullet with a bullet – which is exactly the kind of thing that Maverick would say. Yet working with director Joseph Kosinski (with whom Cruise made Oblivion ) and scriptwriters including regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, he has done just that. For all its nostalgic, Miller Time sequences of shirtless beach sports and oddly touching character callbacks (a cameo from Val Kilmer ’s Iceman proves unexpectedly affecting), Top Gun: Maverick offers exactly the kind of air-punching spectacle that reminds people why a trip to the cinema beats staying at home and watching Netflix.

The plot trajectory may be predictable to the point of ridicule (like Richard Gere in An Officer and a Gentleman , Tom is going up where he belongs) but the emotional beats are as finely choreographed as the stunts. As for the “don’t think, just do” mantra (a cheeky rehash of Star Wars ’s “Use the force, Luke”), it’s as much an instruction to the audience as to the pilots.

Personally, I found myself powerless to resist; overawed by the ‘“real flight” aeronautics and nail-biting sky dances, bludgeoned by the sugar-frosted glow of Cruise’s mercilessly engaging facial muscles, and shamefully brought to tears by moments of hate-yourself-for-going-with-it manipulation. In the immortal words of Abba’s Waterloo, “I was defeated, you won the war”. I give up.

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Top Gun: Maverick’s director explains how he convinced Tom Cruise to come back

“I had 30 minutes to pitch this film. When I got there, I found Tom really didn’t want to make another Top Gun .”

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Nearly 40 years ago, Top Gun made moviegoers feel a small fraction of the thrill that comes with being a fighter pilot — in part thanks to Kenny Loggins’ anthem “Danger Zone,” but also largely due to the talents of the cast and crew, under the direction of the late Tony Scott. Arriving in theaters decades later, Top Gun: Maverick has to do right not just by the fans, but by the first film’s creators. How do you make audiences accustomed to the casual magic of CGI feel like they’re in the cockpit with these pilots in 2022 the way Top Gun did in 1986? For director Joe Kosinski, the answer was: You do it for real.

As his previous films Tron: Legacy and Oblivion prove, Kosinski is accomplished at both making unlikely sequels to decades-old films and delivering blockbuster action starring Tom Cruise. Top Gun: Maverick shows the director combining these talents for a throwback summer blockbuster that feels real in a way big-budget movies haven’t in some time.

In a call with Polygon, Kosinski dove into the way Top Gun: Maverick makes viewers feel like they’re in those jets, how he convinced Tom Cruise to star, and how the right villain for a Top Gun movie might just be no one.

Polygon: Let’s start with your connection to Top Gun . What was your experience like with the first movie?

Joseph Kosinski: I saw the movie for the first time as a 12-year-old kid, and for me, it was the prototype for the ultimate summer movie. It made Tom Cruise a superstar, and [producer Jerry] Bruckheimer and [producer Don] Simpson had done Beverly Hills Cop and Flashdance at that point. When you saw that dual lightning strike at the beginning of a movie, it meant you were gonna have a good time.

But otherwise, it was not necessarily a movie that I had revisited a lot, until Jerry sent over an early version of a script in 2017 that he wanted me to take a look at. I’d made [ Oblivion ] with Tom at that point, and obviously had an incredible experience doing that.

Was everyone on board for Maverick from the start?

So I read the script, I had some ideas, and Jerry liked those ideas. He said, “You know what, you gotta go pitch this to Tom directly.” So we flew to Paris, where Tom was shooting Mission: Impossible , we got about a half hour of his time between setups. And I basically had 30 minutes to pitch this film, which I didn’t realize when we were flying over. But when I got there, I found that Tom really didn’t want to make another Top Gun .

It’s one of those moments as a director, you have one on every film, where you’re on the spot to make a case for why this movie should be made. I had 30 minutes to do it. And at the end of the pitch, he picked up the phone, he called the head of Paramount Pictures and said, “We’re making another Top Gun .” It’s pretty impressive to see the power of a real movie star in that moment.

How did you pitch it to Tom Cruise? Did he tell you what convinced him?

Well, I worked with Tom, and I knew to start with character and emotion. I just pitched this idea of Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller) growing up to become a naval aviator, and him and Maverick having this fractured relationship that had never been repaired. With Maverick getting called back to train this group of students to go on a mission that he knows is very, very dangerous.

The conflict [is about] the difference between being an aviator who goes in and risks his own life, and someone who’s in a more senior position that has to send others in to risk their lives. I talked to some Navy admirals who talked about that difference. It’s a different sort of pressure, it’s almost harder to send others in rather than go yourself. And to me, it felt like that leveraged the emotion of the past film and those relationships that we all love, but took it in a new direction. So that’s where I started.

I think that was honestly the element that really grabbed Tom, because it gave him an emotional reason to return to this character. The second thing was, what’s Maverick been doing? You know, where do we find him? And this is kind of my own passion, you know, coming through and pitching the Darkstar sequence [in the beginning], just being someone who has always loved airplanes and aerospace and studied aerospace engineering and mechanical engineering and loved The Right Stuff . So the idea of finding him as a test pilot on the bleeding edge of what’s possible seemed to me like the perfect way to find him, and Tom loved that.

He also must’ve loved how you planned to shoot this.

I showed him some videos of Navy pilots who put GoPros in their cockpits, and I said, “You know, this is out on the internet for free. If we can’t beat this, there’s no point in making this.” And he agreed. And then finally, I just had the title, you know, which I think kind of summed it all up. “We aren’t going to call it Top Gun 2 , we’re going to call it Top Gun: Maverick .” It’s a character-driven story, a drama with this giant action film around it. And that to me was what a Top Gun movie is.

Let’s talk a little bit about that Darkstar sequence. Jerry Bruckheimer says you were heavily involved in its conception.

Yeah, I mean, it was my dream. Skunk Works is this division of Lockheed that makes these planes that are top secret. They fly at night, no one knows they exist. We find out about them 20, 30 years after they fly.

I had just done a movie that was financed by Fred Smith, who is the founder of FedEx. And he told me he had a contact at Lockheed. He had just done a tour there — it helps to have friends in high places. He set up a meeting between Jerry, I, and Skunk Works, and we drove out into the middle of Palmdale and met with their senior staff. And I just said, “Listen, I want to put an airplane in this film that does this , this , and this . I know you guys have some experience in that area. We’re gonna give people a glimpse of something they’ve never seen before.”

And they said yes. I think the real reason they helped us was so we could make it as real as possible, but not too real, you know? We changed a couple of details so we’re not giving any secrets away, but it has a lot of features and details for people who really are into this world. I think they’ll get a kick out of it.

How do you get people excited about these pilots and the planes? Like other people I’ve talked to about it, I had an experience watching this, like, “Apparently I really like planes. Have I always been this way?”

Our approach is a classic movie approach. The only thing they could do in the ’80s was capture this stuff, at least the exterior shots, for real. You just can’t fake what it feels like to be in one of these jets, the forces, the way the light changes, the vibration, the sense of speed, all of that. There’s just no replacement for that.

I’ve noticed that people see this movie, and they just keep saying the same thing over and over: “It just feels so real.” And it’s funny, because maybe we’ve lost track of that a little bit with fantasy films or superhero films, where they’re creating images that you can’t capture for real. So you rely on CGI. But there’s just something different about capturing it for real. And for this film, we found a way to do it. And it just feels different.

In the original Top Gun , the villains aren’t really named. In Maverick , the pilots are training for a mission against a vague “shadow state.” What went into that decision?

It was specifically designed to be a faceless, nameless enemy, just like the first film. You know, this is a movie about friendship and sacrifice and teamwork and competition, just like the first film. It’s not a movie about geopolitics. We didn’t want it to be. So we designed it that way — the jets are fictional, they’re faceless enemies. The mission itself is about keeping the world safe.

And that was all by design, just because we wanted the focus to be on on the Maverick story, and his relationship with these characters. We made the movie in 2018. We started filming in 2018. And, you know, the world changes constantly. It’s really hard to make something that feels relevant, because the world is always changing.

'Top Gun: Maverick' Cast & Character Guide: Who's Who in the Legacy Sequel

Meet the daring pilots joining Maverick in the Danger Zone!

Top Gun: Maverick is one of the biggest blockbusters since the 2020 pandemic. The film sees Pete "Maverick" Mitchell ( Tom Cruise ) return to the esteemed school, Top Gun, to lead a group of young aviators on a near-impossible mission. Seeing Tom Cruise return to Top Gun over 30 years later was a memorable sight. Top Gun: Maverick features familiar faces, new characters, and even appearances of characters who were only mentioned by name. This is a complete character guide for Top Gun: Maverick. Now that the biggest film of the year is available to stream exclusively on Paramount+, we’ve got you covered on who's who.

Related: When Will ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Be Available To Stream?

Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell

The main character of both Top Gun films is Maverick himself, Pete Mitchell, played by the legendary Tom Cruise. Maverick started as a loose cannon who marched at the beat of his own drum. After the death of his best friend, Goose ( Anthony Edwards ), Maverick learned to grow up and become one of the best aviators in the Navy. When we meet Maverick in the Top Gun sequel, he is still as stubborn as ever, but now he’s often fighting for others. Once he’s tasked with returning to Top Gun, Maverick’s number one priority is making sure the pilots return home from their mission with zero casualties.

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest stars on the planet. You can see him in Edge of Tomorrow , the Mission Impossible series, and American Made ; his upcoming films include Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Parts 1 and 2), with both Luna Park and Edge of Tomorrow 2 in development.

Val Kilmer as Adm. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky

Top Gun: Maverick went so far as to make Kilmer’s real-life battle with cancer a part of Iceman’s character. The Iceman graduated Top Gun alongside Maverick. The two didn’t see eye-to-eye at first, but they became best friends by the end of the first film. Val Kilmer delivers a terrific performance as Ice, and Top Gun: Maverick allowed the actor to return to the role. Kilmer had to retire from acting due to throat cancer so the film might be Kilmer’s last role, making it all the more touching.

Val Kilmer has a stellar filmography. Some of his most iconic work includes Tombstone , Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , and Heat . He’s also known for starring in Joel Schumacher’s cult classic, Batman Forever .

Miles Teller as Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Miles Teller stars as Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. The son of Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) and Carole Bradshaw ( Meg Ryan ), Rooster and Maverick’s relationship is one of the film's most significant sources of tension. After the death of Goose in the first film, Maverick feels guilt but also a duty to take care of Carole and Bradley. This leads to friction between Bradley and Maverick since Carole doesn’t want Bradley to be an aviator and get killed like his father. As a favor to Carole, Maverick sets Rooster back three years.

This doesn’t stop Rooster, and he becomes a solid naval aviator. Good enough to be invited back to Top Gun, where Maverick confronts him. The two have a unique relationship, and Rooster is one of the standout characters. Miles Teller is best known for his performances in Whiplash , War Dogs , and Fantastic Four (2015). His most recent film is Spiderhead , and his upcoming projects are The Ark and the Aardvark , The Fence , and The Gorge where he'll star alongside Anya Taylor-Joy .

Jennifer Connelly as Penny Benjamin

Penny is a character that was referenced in the original Top Gun but didn’t make an appearance until Top Gun Maverick . Penny and Maverick have had an on-again-off-again relationship for years, and we see their latest encounter in Top Gun: Maverick . Penny has a daughter named Amelia and owns a bar near Top Gun. Jennifer Connelly brings Penny Benjamin to life. Penny and Mav rekindle their relationship during his time back, and hopefully, it will last. She might be Maverick’s oldest and closest friend, making their bond all the more important to him. Connelly’s notable works include A Beautiful Mind , Requiem For a Dream , and Labyrinth . Connelly will next be seen in Alice Englert 's feature directorial debut Bad Behavior , where she'll star opposite Ben Whishaw .

Lyliana Wray as Amelia Benjamin

Amelia Benjamin is Penny’s daughter. She loves her mother and has a good rapport with Maverick. With the stranger nature of Penny and Maverick’s relationship, Amelia simply wants what’s best for her mother. Lyliana Wray has guest-starred on Black-ish , The Night Shift , and Strange Angel .

Glen Powell as Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin

Lt. Jake Seresin is one of the best pilots in Top Gun, but he’s reckless and leaves his fellow aviators hanging, hence the name. Ironically, Hangman isn’t so different from Maverick during his first stint at Top Gun. In a way, Hangman and Rooster mirror Maverick and Iceman. Glen Powell ’s charisma is on full display as Hangman. The actor initially auditioned for the role of Rooster but later took on the part of Hangman after a conversation with Tom Cruise . Glen Powell previously starred in Set It Up , Scream Queens , and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . He most recently starred in another aviation-themed film, Devotion , where he starred opposite Jonathan Majors . Powell's career has exploded since the release of Top Gun: Maverick landing leading roles in high-profile projects like Richard Linklater 's action-comedy Hitman , the Kat Coiro -directed buddy-comedy Foreign Relations where he'll play opposite Nick Jonas , and the big-budget Prime Video original series Butch & Sundance which also stars Regé-Jean Page and is a reboot of the classic film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid .

Monica Barbaro as Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

Phoenix is one of two female pilots invited to Top Gun. She is often at odds with Hangman and a friend to Rooster and the rest of the aviators. Monica Barbaro is best known for her time on Chicago Justice , The Good Cop , and Splitting Up Togethe r. Her next projects will be a voice-role in the Netflix anime series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas and playing the co-lead in the Arnold Schwarzenegger -led Netflix series Utap .

Related: 'Top Gun: Maverick': Watch Miles Teller Rock Out to "Great Balls of Fire" in New Video

Lewis Pullman as Lt. Robert "Bob" Floyd

Bob becomes Phoenix's second seat and a trusted friend. His name is Bob, and his call sign is Bob, making for pretty funny banter between him and his fellow pilots. Lewis Pullman has previously appeared in Bad Times at the El Royale , Catch-22 , and Them That Follow . His subsequent appearances are in Thelma , Auxiliary Man , Salem’s Lot , and the Brie Larson -led Apple series Lessons in Chemistry .

Jay Ellis as Lt. Reuben "Payback" Fitch

Payback and his partner Fanboy prove to be terrific pilots under Maverick’s teachings. So much so that they are chosen as major players in the upcoming mission. Jay Ellis starred as Payback and was previously seen in Insecure , Mrs. America , and Masters of Sex . His next role is in the forthcoming film, Someone I Used to Know from director Dave Franco .

Danny Ramirez as Lt. Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia

Fanboy is Payback’s flight partner and operates the backseat controls. He serves the same role Bob does for Pheonix or what Goose did for Maverick. Danny Ramirez most recently appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Assassination Nation , and No Exit . His upcoming projects are Plus/Minus , Chestnut , and Captain America: New World Order .

Bashir Salahuddin as Wo-1. Bernie "Hondo" Coleman

Bernie is a Warrant Officer Rank 1 and is working on a program that Maverick is test-piloting. When Maverick gets called back to Top Gun, Hondo goes with him and becomes his assistant coach. Bashir Salahuddin is the writer and star of Sherman’s Showcase , where he plays Sherman McDaniels. He has also appeared in Robot Chicken , The Dropout , and has an upcoming project titled Paradise .

Jon Hamm as Adm. Beau "Cyclone" Simpson

Admiral Simpson is tasked with overseeing Maverick’s mission. He doesn’t tolerate Maverick’s shenanigans and doesn’t think he’s the man for the job. Cyclone is very strict and has a no-nonsense attitude, making him the perfect foil for Maverick. Jon Ham is best known as Don Draper from Mad Men. He has also appeared in Tag , Baby Driver , The Town , and he most recently starred in the title role in Confess, Fletch . 2023 looks to be a huge year for Hamm, he'll be reprising his role as Gabriel in Season 2 of Good Omens , will be joining the cast of Season 3 of the Apple original series The Morning Show , will play one of the leads in Season 5 of Fargo , he'll lend his voice to the animated comedy series Grimsburg, and will star in John Slattery 's directorial debut Maggie Moore(s) .

Charles Parnell as Adm. Solomon "Warlock" Bates

Admiral Bates is much more forgiving of Maverick’s past and wants to support him. Warlock works alongside Cyclone and offers a less-strict approach to the situation at hand. Charles Parnell has starred in many projects, including, The Last Ship , The Venture Bros. , and T ransformers: Age of Extinction . He most recently appeared in the FX series Kindred . He is slated to appear in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One and David Fincher 's action-noir film The Killer .

Ed Harris as Rear Admiral Chaster "Hammer" Cain

Ed Harris has a brief appearance in Top Gun: Maverick , but his presence is felt. We meet Hammer when Maverick is attempting to push his plane to Mach 10 to save the program he’s currently test-piloting for. Hammer arrives to shut down the program in person, and Maverick is flying overhead as he comes. Hammer later informs Maverick that Iceman wants him to report to Top Gun. Ed Harris is known for his roles in The Truman Show , Apollo 13 , Westworld , and Pollock . His upcoming projects include Love Lies Bleeding , Downtown Owl , and Get Away If You Can .

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Why does Tom Cruise do his own stunts? ‘No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’’

Cruise spoke at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick.”

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By Kyle Buchanan

• May 18, 2022

CANNES, France — It has been 30 years since Tom Cruise attended the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s evident the festival would like to make up for lost time.

Perhaps that’s why, in advance of a conversation with the actor billed as a “Rendezvous with Tom Cruise” — which was itself happening in advance of the evening premiere of Cruise’s sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” — the festival played a nearly 15-minute-long clip reel of Cruise’s filmography, hyperbolically scored to Richard Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra.” As the actor and audience watched from their seats, the reel touched on Cruise the action star, Cruise the dramatic thespian and Cruise the romantic, though the latter section, which featured him pitching woo at a bevy of leading ladies, notably left out Cruise’s ex-wife and three-time co-star Nicole Kidman.

“It’s wild seeing this reel,” Cruise said after taking the stage. “It’s like your life in ten minutes — very trippy.”

Cruise was speaking in front of a mostly unmasked crowd in the Salle Claude Debussy, which included hundreds of journalists and a team from Cruise’s agent, CAA. “After everything we’ve been through, it’s such a privilege to see your faces,” he said. He noted that “Top Gun: Maverick” had been held for two years because of the pandemic, though he refused to show it on a streaming service in the meantime. “Not gonna happen!” Cruise said to applause.

The 59-year-old star is insistent that his movies receive a lengthy theatrical window, a mandate that has sometimes put him in conflict with studio heads, who are eager to fill their streaming services with star-driven content. And in an era where big names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Sandra Bullock have no problem appearing in films for Netflix, Cruise remains a rare holdout.

“There’s a very specific way to make a movie for cinema, and I make movies for the big screen,” said Cruise. “I know where they go after that and that’s fine.” He said he even called theater owners during the pandemic to reassure them: “Just know we are making ‘Mission: Impossible.’ ‘Top Gun’ is coming out.”

Cruise is a discursive speaker who will leap out of one anecdote before it’s done to land in another, then another. (Perhaps that would make for an esoteric set piece in one of his action films?) But it was striking how often he returned to his formative experience shooting the 1981 movie “Taps,” in which he acted opposite George C. Scott and found himself fascinated by the way the filmmaking worked. Cruise said that while shooting, he thought, “Please, if I could just do this for the rest of my life, I will never take it for granted.”

And in the absence of any challenging questions from his interlocutor, the French journalist Didier Allouch — who was mostly content to burble blandishments like “You're absolutely extraordinary” to his interview subject — Cruise had the freedom to basically spin his own narrative of being a determined student of cinema and his fellow man. (And “Taps,” of course.)

“I was the kind of kid who always wrote goals on the wall of what kind of movies I liked or what I wanted my life to be, and I worked toward those goals,” Cruise said.

Though the conversation increasingly leaned toward bland generalities — “I’m interested in people, cultures, and adventure,” Cruise said more than once — it did provide one major laugh line when Allouch asked why he was so determined to do his own stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” movies, which will soon be receiving seventh and eighth installments shot back-to-back.

“No one asked Gene Kelly ‘Why do you dance?’” replied the star.

Kyle Buchanan , a Los Angeles-based pop culture reporter, writes The Projectionist column. He was previously a senior editor at Vulture, New York Magazine's entertainment website, where he covered the movie industry. More about Kyle Buchanan

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Tom Cruise’s 20 Best Performances, from ‘Top Gun’ to ‘Mission: Impossible’ to ‘Magnolia’

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In February, a clip went viral of Steven Spielberg telling Tom Cruise at an Oscars luncheon that he “saved Hollywood’s ass.” Spielberg was referring to the explosive success of Cruise’s return to the pilot seat in “ Top Gun: Maverick .” Released in May 2022, the long-awaited sequel was the top earner at the domestic box office last year, raking in over $700 million in the United States. It was the shot in the arm that cinemas needed after the pandemic, and proof positive of Cruise’s enduring appeal as both a marquee movie star and skilled actor — two bona fides not always packaged together so successfully.

While some may say that Cruise’s sculpted movie star image lacks a certain vulnerability, many of the films below showcase his gifts for dramatic acting, proving him more than just a deft maneuverer of box office and death-defying stunts — though he is, of course, all those things.

Cruise may in fact be the Last Movie Star in a time where such a nomenclature doesn’t really mean much anymore. He’s worked with smart directors — from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Stanley Kubrick — often chasing them down himself with a wicked idea or hopes for a collaboration. He’s thrived and held his own alongside iconic movie stars in classics, from Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men” to Paul Newman in “The Color of Money,” and even in duds alongside the likes of Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (“Lions for Lambs,” anyone?).

As we saw from the way he stood up against COVID rule-breakers on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7,” he cares about his collaborators and the work. And with “Dead Reckoning Part One” heading to theaters this week, Cruise has a brand new chance to showcase his charisma and talent for pulling off death-defying stunts onscreen.

Samantha Bergeson, Christian Blauvelt, and Kate Erbland also contributed to this story.

“Risky Business” (1983)

Few actors embodied the ‘80s as a time of simultaneous repression and entitlement like Tom Cruise in “Risky Business.” Paul Brickman’s capitalist satire, with its silky Tangerine Dream score and night cinematography by Bruce Surtees and Reynaldo Villalobos worthy of a Wong Kar-Wai movie, finds Cruise’s high school senior Joel having sex with a call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) on a dare and getting entangled in her orbit until he’s running a brothel from his house. He certainly expresses both an attraction and terror about losing his virginity, but morality or prudishness about profiting from sex workers? Hardly, despite the white-collar suburban setting. That is, after all, a world of materialism, of transactions, and running a brothel out of one’s home isn’t transgressive — it’s entrepreneurship. Or “human fulfillment,” the corporate buzzword label Joel gives it.

Cruise, just 20 at the time, effortlessly rocked those Ray-Bans and button-down shirts, and had as iconic a “star-making” moment as any ever, when he lipsyncs Bob Seger’s “Old Time Rock & Roll” in his underwear. But the central tension of his career was there from the start: in this story about sex and rebellion being appropriated by capitalism, as they always are, Cruise established his appeal not as an outsider, but as the ultimate insider. Nevertheless, no one has ever made hegemony look cooler than Cruise. —CB

“Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick” (1986, 2022)

“The Color of Money” (1986)

While 1986 might be best remembered in the annals of Tom Cruise lore as the year that gave us “Top Gun,” serious fans will be quick to remember that it was also the year that gave us the first — and so far, only — Martin Scorsese and Cruise joint. Scorsese hired Cruise for a demanding role: the hotshot (OK, maybe that part was easy) pool player protégé of Fast Eddie Felson (Paul Newman, returning to his “Hustler” role more than two decades after it notched him an Oscar nom).

All you need to know about Cruise’s performance as Vincent — beyond the fact that he’s the kind of character who, totally unironically, wears a T-shirt printed up with just his name in massive letters across the chest —  is contained in the iconic “Werewolves of London” sequence . Vince faces off against a fierce competitor just for kicks, displaying wild cockiness, total resilience, and a major panache for pool-playing that shouldn’t surprise anyone up to snuff on his dedication to practical stunts. The actor practiced for months on end and ultimately completed nearly every one of Vince’s trick shots on his own, but that’s not even the marquee attraction here: instead, it’s Cruise’s full-force charm. “Top Gun” made the initial case, but “The Color of Money” sealed it. — KE

“Rain Man” (1988)

“Born on the Fourth of July” (1989)

Based on Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic’s autobiography, “Born on the Fourth of July” starred Tom Cruise as an anti-war activist grappling with PTSD after being paralyzed in military service. Kovic’s life is depicted over the course of two decades onscreen; fellow Vietnam vet Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic and directed the Oscar-winning film. Despite Al Pacino originally being attached to the lead role, Cruise carved out his iconic performance and received his first Academy Award nomination. Stone went on to win for Best Director, with the film also taking home Best Editing.

Ron (Cruise) was a Marine sergeant deployed to Vietnam who led his unit to mistakenly kill villagers instead of enemy combatants upon his second tour of duty in 1967. Ron also accidentally kills a young private in his platoon but is advised to cover up the murder. The following year, Ron is discharged after being paralyzed from the waist down in battle. Suffering from guilt, trauma, and depression, Ron finds himself on a road to redemption and sets out to end the war. Willem Dafoe, Kyra Sedgwick, and real-life veterans and anti-war protesters starred in the film, which culminates in Ron’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in 1976, on the 200th anniversary year of the country’s founding and one of Cruise’s most rousing moments. — SB

“Days of Thunder” (1990)

A sweat-soaked hotshot with a devil-may-care attitude and a taste for speed, danger, and zero gets handed a plum assignment that feeds all those desires and more. His love interest is smarter than him (and knows it). He rubs everyone the wrong way (including the similarly hotshot-y dudes also jockeying for a spot). He begrudgingly accepts a stately mentor. His unlikely best pal is grievously injured while on the clock. The soundtrack is a banger. Tony Scott directs.

And though “Days of Thunder” is a totally expected follow-up to “Top Gun” — complete with an early go-for-broke performance from Cruise that accurately predicted his dedication to practical stunts whole decades ago — his work on the film boasts one key difference: to date, it’s the only film Cruise has a screenwriting credit on. It’s shared, but that only makes “Days of Thunder” feel like more of a must-see curiosity, because Cruise’s co-writer is so very unexpected: Robert Towne. Now that’s different. — KE

“A Few Good Men” (1992)

“The Firm” meets “Top Gun” is probably the simplest way to explain Aaron Sorkin’s complicated legal drama starring Tom Cruise and directed for the screen by Rob Reiner.

Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a military attorney who is assigned a murder case involving three Marines. Demi Moore is Kaffee’s fellow lawyer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway who questions Kaffee’s motives and approach to the case.

The duo question officers at Guantanamo Bay as they uncover a conspiracy involving corrupt witness accounts and bogus testimony.

Jack Nicholson stars as Colonel Nathan Jessup, who defends the practices of his Marine unit, and Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, and Cuba Gooding Jr. round out the ensemble cast.

The film was applauded by critics upon release in 1992, with its acclaim marking the Cruise star vehicle as the “anti-‘Top Gun.’” “A Few Good Men” was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. — SB

“The Firm” (1993)

Gene Hackman plays Mitch’s boss Avery, while Ed Harris is an FBI agent using Cruise to expose the Firm’s corrupt offshore dealings and Chicago mob ties. Mitch’s legal prowess leads him to a private investigator (Gary Busey) and an ingenious secretary (Holly Hunter, who landed an Oscar nomination for the role) but leaves countless bodies in his wake. The cat and mouse thriller is anchored by Cruise’s signature smile and innate ability to build tension through his typically fierce determination to prove the truth. Call it Cruise’s good guy version of “American Psycho,” if you will, because you’ll never look at a lawyer the same way again. — SB

“Interview With the Vampire” (1994)

On paper, Cruise is an odd fit for the role of Lestat in 1994’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s classic vampire romance novel. A preening, aristocratic vampire, Lestat has a completely different presence than the hypermasculine heroes that have defined Cruise’s career. Even the long blonde ponytail he sports in the movie feels like a bizarro world version of the short dark trim that defines his public image. But perhaps getting cast against type is precisely what the often stoic Cruise needed to cut loose onscreen, because the actor has never been more fun to watch than he is in “Interview With the Vampire.” He plays Lestat like a predator constantly on the prowl, menacing and cold with an acidic wit, and develops a delicious rapport with Kirsten Dunst as his vampire daughter Claudia. The performance is everything people accuse Cruise of not being — relaxed, funny, alluring, sexy — which is why it’s one of his best. —WC

“Mission: Impossible” (1996 and onward)

While the first film was undoubtedly an updated ode to the television series, the subsequent films helmed by John Woo, J.J. Abrams, Brad Bird, and now helmed by Christopher McQuarrie since 2015, became synonymous with boundary-pushing stunts that redefined the genre. And, of course, Cruise was the one really climbing record-high skyscrapers and jumping out of airplanes as Hunt. Cruise has been a producer on the franchise since its inception and flexes his vision for the ultimate action sequences possible. Nothing is too “Impossible” for Cruise, and as the franchise eyes its conclusion with the two-parter “Dead Reckoning” films, slated for 2023 and 2024 releases, Cruise will no doubt conclude his career-making turn as Hunt spectacularly. — SB

“Jerry Maguire” (1996)

For years, conceiving a great Tom Cruise role was as simple as coming up with a cool job that lots of men wanted. Fighter pilot? Check. Pool hustler? Cruise played one. Hot bartender? Ditto. So it was almost inevitable that he would play a sports agent at some point, and Cameron Crowe gave him a beautiful vehicle to do just that in “Jerry Maguire.” While the idea of a rom-com set in the world of sports may be the greatest marketing ploy of all time, the endlessly quotable film is elevated by a thoughtful script and great performances from Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger. But it’s Cruise’s singular charm that ties the movie together, seamlessly alternating between alpha-male swagger and sentimental romance without ever missing a beat. It’s the kind of performance that reminds cinephiles what a real movie star is. — CZ

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)

Kubrick stops short of stripping him down to that degree, but the filmmaker disarms Cruise into giving one of his most exposed turns. (Recall an earlier scene in the film, when a marauding pack of frat boys flings gay slurs at Dr. Bill, a moment that calls the character’s, and by extension the actor’s, masculinity into question.) When the masquerade is over, and he finally heads back to a sleeping Alice, only to see the Venetian mask he wore to the orgy displayed on the pillow next to her, he breaks down. “I’ll tell you everything,” he weeps. Kubrick doesn’t show what happens then, instead cutting to an emptied-out Alice smoking blankly, having now absorbed his confession. No matter, as Cruise’s sometimes arch but inevitably denuded performance up to here tells us what we need to know about this offscreen moment. And then, of course, there’s that one thing Bill and Alice need to do as soon as possible. — RL

“Magnolia” (1999)

Skeptics may accuse Tom Cruise of lacking in vulnerability, his marquee-ready looks and demeanor always coiffed into place. But look to his two films from 1999 to easily waive that charge. The actor must have been in a particularly vulnerable place at that time, as the “Boogie Nights” fan phoned up director Paul Thomas Anderson while on Stanley Kubrick’s endless “Eyes Wide Shut” production, looking for a collaboration.

“Vanilla Sky” (2001)

Tom Cruise and producing partner Paula Wagner snapped up the remake rights for Alejandro Amenábar’s “Open Your Eyes” at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, luring Cameron Crowe to reimagine this twisty and erotic lucid dream. Responses were wildly mixed at the time, though the film now has the cult following it so deserves. Tom Cruise charts the ego death of David Aames, a narcissistic playboy publishing magnate who comes unhinged in the arms of, first, Cameron Diaz, as needy paramour Julie Gianni, and then Penélope Cruz as wilting flower Sofia. An accident with the former leaves David disfigured, and unable to soberly pursue his relationship with the latter — while the disfiguration gives Cruise the chance to de-glam, even when behind a white mask. (“Vanilla Sky” is also notably the last time we saw Cruise in a sex scene or being sexualized by a filmmaker in any way.)

Despite the movie’s constantly shifting timeline, Cruise conveys a compelling and coherent emotional arc, whether withdrawing into depression or huffing the fumes of his megalomania. With “Magnolia” and “Eyes Wide Shut” before it, “Vanilla Sky” capped a period of Cruise opening himself up emotionally to audiences. No other actor could better sell the wincingly cheesy line, with David tipping over a Manhattan high-rise ledge at the end (or beginning?) of his life, “I’ll see you in another life when we are both cats.” — RL

“Minority Report” (2002)

“Collateral” (2004)

When Tom Cruise gives that unblinking, intense eye contact — come on, you know you’ve seen it in interviews as well as in movies — you can either think this is the most committed, fully realized performer (or, maybe, human?) in existence, or that he’s an “American Psycho” type come to life. So of course he had to play a serial killer at least once. Not just any serial killer, though. One who is a professional and demonstrates the level of professionalism Cruise brings to everything he does himself. His Vincent in Michael Mann’s “Collateral” is meticulous, and he comes up with a unique plan. He’ll hire an ordinary Los Angeles cabbie, Max (Jamie Foxx), to drive him around the City of Angels to carry out his hits in the course of one night. Cruise has been able to do something the past couple of decades that few others have managed: to make action thrillers that are also character studies, and “Collateral” is the ne plus ultra of that combination. His character’s shock of silver hair notwithstanding, this unexpectedly haunting movie is pure gold. — CB

“War of the Worlds” (2005)

“Tropic Thunder” (2008)

Tom Cruise may have spent much of the 21st century cementing his status as the world’s greatest action star, but his surprise cameo in “Tropic Thunder” proved he can do comedy with the best of them. Cruise donned a fat suit and prosthetics to play studio executive Les Grossman, delivering a masterclass in the creative use of profanity (in addition to some legendary dancing to Flo Rida). Considering how carefully Cruise guards his image, seeing the movie star randomly pop up in a comedy and cut loose with an unhinged performance is a singular cinematic treat. — CZ

“Oblivion” (2013)

Before Joseph Kosinski brought “Top Gun” into the 21st century, he and Cruise first teamed together for “Oblivion”: an uneven but fascinating sci-fi flick from 2014. Cruise plays Jack, a technician surveying a ruined Earth in 2077 — preparing to finish his work and leave for Saturn, before a chance encounter with another survivor leads him to question his mission. At first glance, the stoic role is one that Cruise could play in his sleep, and that’s not a wholly inaccurate assumption; it’s the type of part he’s played often, and he hits every note as perfectly as he always does. But there’s a tenderness and sadness to Jack – whose had his memories wiped but dreams of a life from before the war that destroyed his world — which makes the part stand out from Cruise’s other action work. —WC

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)

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The behind-the-scenes story of shooting those crazy Top Gun: Maverick flying sequences

Tom Cruise insisted that his costars be filmed in actual flying jets.

Senior Writer

How do you convincingly shoot scenes in which actors look like they are flying in jets with extreme G-forces contorting their facial features as the planes perform extreme aeronautical maneuvers? You get the actors to do it for real. That, at least, was the conclusion of Tom Cruise when he began to think about how to shoot Top Gun: Maverick (out May 27), the action sequel in which his titular flying ace must prep a younger generation of pilots for a highly dangerous mission.

"It's the craziest idea," says Glen Powell , who plays one of the pilots Maverick trains in the film. "You kind of don't believe it. It was like: Okay, this is a really cool idea but it's never going to work."

Yet work it did, with Cruise, Powell, and other cast members believably looking in the film like they are really in the skies because they really were in the skies.

"It was a lot of work," admits Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski . "It was very tedious and difficult at times, but the footage speaks for itself."

When filmmaker Tony Scott directed the original 1986 Top Gun , he too had hopes of shooting actors in the air but was thwarted when cast members began throwing up whenever they were taken for a ride. "Though I was never really doing it, I learned the mechanics of operating the plane," Top Gun star Val Kilmer recalled in his 2020 memoir I'm Your Huckleberry . "We went up in the jets several times and... I have to report that I was the only one who didn't regurgitate, which, given the gut-wrenching drops and spins of those ferocious flights, was no mean feat."

In the years after Top Gun made him a global star, Cruise became a pilot himself thanks to Sydney Pollack, who directed him in 1993's The Firm and gave the actor flying lessons as a present. Cruise was determined to depict the aerial sequences in Top Gun: Maverick as realistically as possible, an ambition shared by Kosinski.

"I've always loved aviation, I was making model airplanes from a young kid and studied aerospace in school," says the director. "Every movie's a challenge, you know. I love that. If you don't have butterflies going into a project, it's probably not the right thing. I always want to look for something new to try and, yeah, this was a tough one but I had Jerry [Bruckheimer, the film's producer]. I had Tom, I had a great cast, and a story that we really believed in. So we gave it our best shot."

Cruise had played a military-school student in the 1981 film Taps and, together with costars Sean Penn and Timothy Hutton, attended a training boot camp ahead of the shoot. Inspired by that experience, the actor decided to put his fellow cast members through a training regimen which would allow them to be filmed in flying jets looking like actual, non-vomiting pilots.

"That was Tom's expertise," says Kosinski about Cruise's insistence that the actors be properly prepared for the shoot. "He's a pilot, and he's done aerobatics, and he was in the first Top Gun . He knew that they wouldn't be able to get in the plane and hold their lunch down and be able to do these scenes, so he created a training program that they all went through."

The actors began the schedule flying in single-engine Cessna 172 Skyhawks before moving on to the Extra 300, which is capable of more acrobatic maneuvers, finally graduating to L-39 Albatross single-engine high performance jets, which prepped them for the F/A-18s in which they would be filmed during the shoot.

"Tom used part of the budget of this movie in order to ensure that we were comfortable and able to emulate a real-life fighter pilot," says Powell. "There's no way without that regimen — a thing that he didn't have on the first movie — that we would be able to pull off these performances. There's full scenes up in the air and we would have been passed-out bodies just going for a ride."

Did Powell throw up over his plane? "Not on the plane," says the actor. "You've got bags obviously. I never missed a shot in the bag."

While the pilots were preparing to act like real pilots, Kosinski was figuring out how to shoot them doing so. "[That] took a lot of preparation," says the director. "We had to work for about 15 months with the navy to figure out how to get cameras in the cockpit. We ended up getting IMAX-quality cameras into the cockpit with the pilots and the actor."

During the shoot itself, Kosinski had the strange experience of "directing" actors who were many miles away during the actual filming.

"I'm there, with the actor, when they're getting in the jet, I'm setting the cameras up, making sure all the angles are exactly what we need," says the filmmaker. "But once that jet pulls out onto the runway, they're gone for the next hour or two. As soon as they land, we take the footage, we went into the debrief, we put it all in and watched it together. We give them notes on what didn't work, and we'd cheer when something was great, and then we'd give them notes and send them up again in the afternoon. It was a very unique way to direct, because it was a lot of prep and a lot of rehearsal. And it was very tedious — you're only getting a minute or two of good stuff every day. But it's the only way to get footage that looks like this."

The flight sequences in the finished film are certainly thrilling (EW's Leah Greenblatt praised Kosinski for "sending his jets swooping and spinning in impossible, equilibrium-rattling arcs"), aided by the fact that the cast's faces can be seen enjoying and enduring the aerial acrobatics.

"You just feel the peril for everyone in the movie in a different way," says Powell. "If you were using CGI, audiences are very smart, they can tell the difference. When you are whipping through canyons at 650 knots, you can't fake that, and you can't fake the Gs on actors faces."

So, if Top Gun: Maverick is a success, can Kosinski imagine overseeing more of such sequences in a sequel?

"It's all about the story for Tom," says the filmmaker. "If we can figure out a way to tell what Maverick's up to next, who knows?"

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Lewis Hamilton is producing a Formula 1 movie with Joseph Kosinski starring Brad Pitt.

The British racing star could have worked with the filmmaker on Top Gun: Maverick had it not been for his conflicting work schedule.

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“Firstly, I hadn’t even had, like, an acting lesson,” he said. “And I don’t want to be the one that lets this movie down. And then secondly, I just really didn’t have the time to dedicate to it. I remember having to tell Joe and Tom — and it broke my heart. And then I regretted it, naturally, when they show me the movie and it’s: It could’ve been me!”

Although he didn’t have the opportunity to work with Kosinski in Top Gun: Maverick , he will now work with him in the Formula 1 film.

“My point was: Guys, this movie needs to be so authentic,” Hamilton said. “There’s two different fan groups that we have — like, the old originals, who from the day they’re born hearing the Grand Prix music every weekend and watching with their families, to the new generation that just learned about it today through Netflix.”

He continued, “I felt my job really has been to try to call BS. ‘This would never happen.’ ‘This is how it would be.’ ‘This is how it could happen.’ Just giving them advice about what racing is really about and what, as a racing fan, would appeal and what would not.”

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Tom Cruise’s Last Stand

Thirty-six years after the original, top gun: maverick eulogizes the actor’s entire career..

I’d never noticed the curiously melancholy overtones of Harold Faltermeyer’s famous Top Gun theme until the opening moments of the brand-new Top Gun: Maverick . Maybe it was the distance in time. Back in 1986, those gongs and synth chords felt like a fairly standard New Wave–y intro; today, they register as a mournful dirge. Even the ensuing guitar riffs, which once seemed so triumphantly badass, now have a sad echo to them.

What’s even weirder: Maverick appears to recognize this. The sequel, directed by Joseph Kosinski, begins pretty much exactly as the first picture did, with a modified version of Faltermeyer’s theme playing against onscreen text introducing us to the elite training program for the Navy’s best pilots. That theme is then replaced (as it was in the earlier film) by Kenny Loggins’s power-pop classic “Danger Zone” as we cut to a montage of fighter jets launching off and landing on an aircraft carrier.

In the original Top Gun , directed by Tony Scott, this montage served a narrative purpose: It set up a scene involving Tom Cruise ’s young fighter pilot, Maverick, flipping off an enemy MiG in the skies over the Indian Ocean. It’s a moment that encapsulates the whole movie. Yes, the Cold War was raging and some were upset about the film’s militarism, but Top Gun was really about the need for speed and being the best of the best, beach volleyball and Goose and “Take My Breath Away.” Most of all, it was about Tom Cruise and the unforeseen astronomical event that was his smile.

This time, however, the sequence fades to black with one last longing look at the ship, as if it were a lost Edenic dream. It reads as a eulogy for Maverick and, by extension, Cruise himself. As the screen slowly goes dark, you can feel in your bones the 35-plus years that have elapsed since that first film. Because for all its stunning flying sequences — mad ballets of soaring, spinning, spiraling, seesawing fighter jets — Maverick is a movie haunted by the image of its own star and of an America that may not exist anymore. Maverick moves through the film like a messenger from a dying world. As someone tells him early on, “The future is coming, and you’re not in it.”

In his heyday, Cruise was a youthful blank slate, a perpetual son for an era that always felt like it was promising new beginnings. After the actor agreed to make the original Top Gun, he and a team of writers worked to polish the script, adding a missing-in-action, larger-than-life father to Maverick’s psychological portfolio — a specter that would then proceed to reappear, in some form or another, in subsequent Cruise films . Maverick wore the daddy issues lightly; surely, amid the plot points one remembers from Top Gun, the story of the hero’s father is rather low on the list. Still, it helped make the character just vulnerable enough that an entire generation seemed to view itself in Cruise’s shadow: Women adored him, and men defined themselves in relation to him. (If you want an inexact comparison, consider what happened to Leonardo DiCaprio’s persona with Titanic. )

It would’ve been a no-brainer to have made a sequel to Top Gun right after it became the biggest movie of 1986. But back then sequels still had a whiff of vulgarity to them, and Cruise wasn’t interested — he wanted to prove his chops as a serious actor, and he would take on projects such as The Color of Money, Rain Man, and Born on the Fourth of July over the next few years. It wasn’t until several films into the Mission: Impossible franchise that the actor began even to entertain the idea of a Top Gun sequel; Cruise, Scott, and producer Jerry Bruckheimer had their first meeting about a follow-up in 2010.

By that point, it may well have been a matter of survival. After years as Hollywood’s most bankable movie star, Cruise had come close to flaming out completely, partly thanks to concerns over his heavy-duty involvement in Scientology, not to mention a series of bizarre television appearances (including an infamous Oprah Winfrey Show episode). His films were regularly underperforming. Female viewers, once a reliable demographic, turned on him. Even his longtime studio, Paramount, dropped him, citing his less-than-stellar public image (though he has continued to make Mission: Impossible movies, and now Top Gun: Maverick, with the studio). Perhaps not coincidentally, Hollywood was also losing interest in the kind of star-driven vehicles that had helped build Cruise’s career in favor of franchise pictures.

So he changed too: Of the 11 films Cruise has made since 2010, all but three are either sequels or movies that at least attempted to set up sequels. For some years, Mission: Impossible entries have been his only reliable moneymakers. Through them, Cruise has clawed his way back to respectability. And he has done so in an oddly poetic way: by suffering onscreen. He’s become known for those films’ spectacular stunts, many of which he conceives of and performs himself. Once Hollywood’s “It” boy — bright, gleaming, untouchable — Cruise fought back into our good graces by bleeding for us.

In so doing, he has somehow turned himself into a representative of a kind of old-school, let’s-do-it-for-real action-filmmaking that, for all its silliness, offers a refreshing alternative to the increasingly bland, overelaborate spectacle of Marvel movies and their ilk. Maverick subtly nods to all this with an early standoff between Maverick and a drone-happy general played by Ed Harris as well as constant reminders that the success of the central mission will depend on the people flying the planes and not on the technology itself. And, of course, much of Maverick was shot in real fighter jets with real actors enduring real g-forces on their faces and bodies. The level of authenticity achieved is, quite frankly, astonishing.

Cruise’s best performances were always extensions of his driven, all-American go-getter persona — the persona the original Top Gun helped create. This new Maverick has his daredevil temptations, to be sure, and when he’s flying — seen in close-up in the cockpit, his face yanked back by g-forces and his laser-focused eyes seemingly staring straight at us — he is brilliant and aggressive. On the ground, however, he displays a strange hesitancy, a fearfulness hiding behind that ever-present smile. A touching reunion between him and his former nemesis, Iceman (Val Kilmer), now the admiral of the Pacific Fleet and one of Maverick’s few remaining friends, feels like a confessional. As detailed in last year’s excellent documentary Val , Kilmer has lost much of his voice owing to a bout with throat cancer, so Iceman types his dialogue on a computer. As a result, for most of this affecting scene, Maverick’s is the only voice in the room, underlining the character’s loneliness. Even Cruise’s remarkably well-preserved face and physique add to his out-of-time and out-of-place aura. The actor has never seemed so vulnerable; Maverick might be the first time he has played a genuinely broken man, and there’s a poignant irony to the fact that he’s doing so while resurrecting his most iconic character. His tears, when they come, reach beyond the screen — they seem like a cathartic lament for everything that has changed since 1986.

All the death-defying feats Cruise himself has done in other movies linger in the background of Maverick, in which our hero seems constantly poised on the edge of death. Dialogue continually hints at the possibility, maybe even the probability, of his demise. (“Someone’s not coming back from this”; “This will be your last post, Captain”; “The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.”) The film follows Maverick as he trains a group of young pilots for an insanely intricate and deadly mission behind enemy lines, and we’re reminded, over and over, that some of these fresh-faced men and women won’t be coming back. The heavy aircraft canopies that close around them when they enter their planes look eerily like coffin lids. Even the flyers’ jargon for the cockpit — “the box” — is morbid.

Among those young pilots is Goose’s son, nicknamed Rooster (Miles Teller), who has some history with Maverick: Our hero is still guilt-ridden over Goose’s death and doesn’t want Rooster there, because he doesn’t want to be responsible for his. Rooster, eager to fly like his old man, blames Maverick for holding him back from advancing in the Navy, and maybe even blames him for the death of his father. Teller, whose achingly doleful performance in Kosinski’s 2017 firefighting drama Only the Brave was the heart and soul of that film, brings a contemptuous edge to Rooster that convincingly cuts Maverick, and perhaps by extension, Cruise, down to size.

As Maverick becomes more and more invested in Rooster’s and the other aviators’ survival, his own fate feels like it’s in question. Late in the film, right before the final mission, when he shows up to see Penny (Jennifer Connelly), a bar owner and admiral’s daughter with whom he has rekindled an old romance, he’s wearing his crisp Navy whites and looks like an apparition. It’s a teary good-bye, the kind we’ve seen countless times in movies about the military, but the grieving expression on Connelly’s face suggests that Maverick is already a ghost. A mood of sorrow hangs over the entire film, enhanced not just by the desperate circumstances of the narrative but also by its star’s newfound fragility. It certainly seems like it might be Maverick’s time to go.

Maverick is enormously entertaining, but watching it makes for a surprisingly emotional experience. That’s partly due to what happens onscreen, but a lot of it has to do with the memories the film evokes — memories not just of the first movie but of everything that has happened to the world, and to us as viewers, since then. If Cruise was the sign under which my generation came of age, then what to say about the fact that America has changed even more than he has? The original Top Gun distinguished itself through an authenticity brought to it by unprecedented technical support from the U.S. military, support the film paid back with its success: Top Gun was reportedly such a boon for recruitment that representatives for the Armed Services started setting up shop at theaters. But for all the flak it caught for its militarism, Top Gun ’s jingoistic message was more latent than overt. The villains were rarely seen and never actually named. (Of course, any 13-year-old boy in 1986 could have told you that a MiG was a Soviet aircraft.) Superpower conflict was sublimated into Maverick and Iceman’s race to be the best pilot in their graduating class.

This time around, the enemy once again remains unnamed and unseen. It’s not the Soviets, that’s for sure. Rather, we’re told, it’s a rogue nation that is trying to enrich uranium. But it also happens to possess fifth-generation aircraft superior to anything in the U.S. arsenal. In other words, it’s an impossible enemy, almost as if in acknowledgement that a modern-day blockbuster can’t really afford to name any real adversaries. (That’s presumably why so many of them are about fighting aliens from other dimensions.) In 1986, for all the sword-rattling of the Reagan years (and the invasion of Grenada, and the bombing of Libya, and the meddling in Central America, and …), the U.S. had not been involved in a major armed conflict for some time. In the wake of the forever wars, however, that veil has been lifted, and the viewer’s relationship to the idea of combat has changed considerably. Gone is the image of the happy warrior, replaced by the grim spectacle of drone warfare, and street battles, and insurgencies, and long, agonizing, bloody stalemates. Military fantasies of the kind the first Top Gun sold have become largely extinct on our screens.

Which is maybe why Maverick takes place in such an otherworldly environment. The reality these pilots inhabit is a curiously empty one, mostly devoid of civilians, and the vast stretches of flat desert across which their jets blast feel like a dreamscape — an effect enhanced by the fact that during their training exercises, the valleys and mountains and missiles and enemy fighters they must evade exist only as readouts on computer screens. This is supposedly the same “Fightertown, USA” in San Diego where the first Top Gun took place (the airplane sequences were shot in real military-controlled areas where the U.S. Navy trains its pilots because those are the only places in the country where fighter jets are allowed to fly that low). But this time, the whole film seems to be playing out on the far edges of the empire. Never have fighters zooming across the screen looked so thrilling and felt so resoundingly, so gorgeously sad. This is also the universe in which Kosinski best operates. He finds cinematic poetry in liminal spaces — be it the melancholy, nocturnal digital netherworld of Tron: Legacy, or the flat futuristic wastelands in his moody sci-fi thriller Oblivion, or the great cathedrals of fire in Only the Brave.

He finds a similar poetry here, and it’s a profoundly moving one because the image of America from the original Top Gun still haunts the empty spaces of the new movie. The long-ago world that Maverick evokes and laments — the long-ago world of Cruise’s unblemished youth and of an influential era of pop filmmaking — also includes a happy national fantasy of freedom and certainty and goodness. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t unaware of this. The film isn’t political in any overt sense, but its hermetically sealed world suggests it knows it exists outside the margins of reality. Maverick makes quick references to Bosnia and Iraq but also notes that in a world where pilots are primarily called on to drop bombs or missiles from many miles away, dogfighting has become a lost art — one the movie will, of course, resurrect for one last ride, one last impossible mission against one last impossible adversary, threading the thinnest of threads through the tiniest of needles. The whole movie might be Cruise’s greatest stunt yet. Top Gun: Maverick is, finally, about the very impossibility of its own existence. The movie is its own ghost.

Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters May 24.

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Screen Rant

Top gun 3: confirmation, cast & everything we know about the maverick sequel.

Tom Cruise flew high in 2022 in Top Gun: Maverick. With its success, Top Gun 3 feels inevitable, and here's everything we know about the next Top Gun.

Quick Links

The latest top gun 3 news, top gun 3 is confirmed, top gun 3 cast, top gun 3 story.

• Top Gun 3: Further News & Info
• Top Gun 3 is confirmed, and the success of Top Gun: Maverick is perhaps the biggest reason for the third film.
• While the cast for Top Gun 3 is uncertain, Tom Cruise will return as Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell with Miles Teller as Hangman and Glen Powell as Rooster.
• No details about the story have been revealed, but it could see the Top Gun team flying to prove they are better than drone pilots.

Top Gun 3 was an inevitability after Tom Cruise's triumphant return in Top Gun: Maverick, and the future of the Top Gun franchise and a third movie is becoming clearer. 36 years after Top Gun became a cultural phenomenon Tom Cruise reprised one of his most iconic roles, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, in Top Gun: Maverick . Maverick reignited the audience's passion for Captain Pete Mitchell, and the demand for Top Gun 3 was instant.

Top Gun: Maverick's cast brought Captain Mitchell back to Fightertown, USA, to train a new generation of pilots claiming to be "the best of the best." With breathtaking aerial photography and steeped in nostalgia for the original Top Gun, Maverick brought Pete Mitchell into the modern era full throttle. Top Gun: Maverick performed swimmingly at the box office, being one of the biggest breakout hits of 2022 and making $1.4 billion worldwide. Despite this, Top Gun 3 wasn't rushed into production, and it has taken until 2024 to hear any real news.

Top Gun 2: All 6 Jet Fighter Planes That Appear In Maverick

Jerry bruckheimer hints at an uncertain timeline.

Not long after the project was officially announced, the latest update comes as producer Jerry Bruckheimer offers an uncertain timeline for Top Gun 3 . The legendary producer behind both the original film and Top Gun: Maverick Bruckheimer spoke candidly about the challenges of making Top Gun 3 with star Tom Cruise's busy schedule . Cruise is still one of the most in-demand actors in Hollywood, and his return for the third film is necessary if not a bit of an impediment. Read Bruckheimer's full comments below:

It's hard to tell. You don't know, you really don't know. You don't know how they come together. You just don't know. Because with Top Gun you have an actor who is iconic and brilliant. And how many movies he does before he does Top Gun, I can't tell you.

Tom Cruise is currently working on Mission: Impossible 8 and it isn't clear if there are any other projects on his schedule before he can return for Top Gun 3 .

The Classic '80s Franchise Returns Again

While speculation about the sequel has been high since the film was such a box-office juggernaut, Top Gun 3 wasn't officially confirmed until January 2024. However, the confirmation was also accompanied by news of Tom Cruise's return as Pete Mitchell , further proof that the sequel would be on the way soon.

Stream Top Gun: Maverick on Amazon Prime Video, MGM+, and Paramount+.

Tom Cruise Will Return For The Third Movie

While most of the cast of Top Gun 3 is still under wraps, early news suggests that the ensemble of Maverick may return en masse . When the sequel was announced in January 2024, it was revealed that Tom Cruise would reprise his role as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, quelling rumors that he wouldn't be involved with the third film. Additionally, it was revealed that Cruise would be joined by his Maverick co-stars Miles Teller as Lt. Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw and Glen Powell as Lt. Jake 'Hangman' Seresin.

The rest of the returning cast might include:

Does Top Gun: Maverick Set Up A Sequel?

Top Gun: Maverick's ending didn't explicitly set up a third movie, but it also didn't need to for a sequel to work. The Top Gun 3 story will inevitably feature a new mission that requires Maverick and the other pilots, and the specific details will be secondary to what it means for the development of their characters. However, Maverick did plant a seed for a potential new story because Admiral Cain planned to replace human pilots with a drone armada. Perhaps Top Gun 3 would pit Maverick and other human pilots against Cain's drones to prove that man is superior to a machine.

What would make this story even better is a Top Gun reunion. As previously mentioned, most of the crew didn't come back for Top Gun 2 , so a battle against the machines sets up the perfect reunion story for Top Gun 3 . Top Gun 3 could see the original fighter pilot team reuniting to prove that men fly better than machines, and it would be a satisfying tribute to the original movie. Needless to say, the storyline that sees replacing human pilots with drones will probably be a part of Top Gun 3 's setup, but it'll be interesting to see in what capacity.

Top Gun 3: Further News & Info

• Top Gun 3's Surprise Announcement Got Excited Reactions From Maverick Pilots
• Top Gun 3 Reportedly In Development, Tom Cruise & 2 Maverick Stars To Return

Tom Cruise Is ‘So Busy’ That ‘You Never Know’ When ‘Top Gun 3’ Will Get Made, Says Franchise Producer: He ‘Really’ Likes the ‘Wonderful Story Idea’

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Tom Cruise is a busy man, which makes it all but impossible to put a timeline on when “ Top Gun ” fans might finally get to see a third installment in the beloved action-drama franchise. Variety confirmed in January that Paramount was developing “Top Gun 3”  and had tapped its “Top Gun: Maverick” co-writer Ehren Kruger to work on the screenplay. Franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer now tells ScreenRant he has no idea when Cruise might even have free time in his schedule to shoot the third “Top Gun” film.

Cruise is currently filming “Mission: Impossible 8,” which will serve as the sequel to last year’s “Dead Reckoning.” Paramount is also behind that action franchise. The studio is hoping that “Top Gun: Maverick”   director Joseph Kosinski will return to helm the next “Top Gun” movie. Bruckheimer now confirmed Kosinski came up with the story idea for the next sequel. “Top Gun” newcomers Glen Powell, Miles Teller and more are likely to return.

“People looked at me like I knew what was going on,” Powell told Variety at Sundance earlier this year about the next “Top Gun ” movie. “There is going to be some fun stuff being announced soon…but it was confidential to me. I talk to [Joseph] Kosinski, Cruise and Jerry [Bruckheimer] all the time. There is stuff happening and it sounds very exciting. I don’t know when I’ll be going back…I’m sure there is a jet waiting for me sometime in the future.”

“Top Gun: Maverick” was a huge hit for Paramount, which tried for decades to find a way to get Cruise back in aviators. The film was nominated for the Oscar for best picture and grossed nearly $1.5 billion, making it the most popular film of Cruise’s career.

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Why Lewis Hamilton Turned Down Tom Cruise's Offer To Join Top Gun: Maverick

"Top Gun: Maverick" could have featured racing royalty. One of the most celebrated films of the last decade — and the project that solidified Tom Cruise's status as Hollywood's last great action star  – the long-gestating sequel was worth the wait. With so much clout, it's no wonder that racing maverick Lewis Hamilton is bummed that he didn't get to star in the flick. In an interview with GQ , Hamilton opened up about his friendship with Cruise, and how he eventually gained the confidence to ask the actor to put him in "Top Gun 2" if it ever happened. When "Maverick" was finally greenlit, Cruise reached out to Hamilton and offered him the role of a lifetime as one of the film's many pilots. 

Unfortunately for Hamilton, the call to "Top Gun" coincided with his 2018 rivalry with Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel. Arguably one of the most important years of his career, Hamilton had to choose between "Top Gun" and preparing for his races. "Firstly, I hadn't even had, like, an acting lesson," Hamilton explained. "And I don't want to be the one that lets this movie down. And then secondly, I just really didn't have the time to dedicate to it. I remember having to tell [director Joseph Kosinski] and Tom — and it broke my heart," the racer said. 

Hamilton went on to make waves that year and cement his status as one of the greats on racing's Mt. Rushmore, but he still thinks he made the wrong choice. "And then I regretted it, naturally, when they show me the movie and it's: It could've been me!" Hamilton exclaimed. 

Lewis Hamilton is making his own racing movie

It's easy to imagine the suave and confident Lewis Hamilton stepping into the shoes of one of the pilots in "Top Gun: Maverick." But ultimately, the racer never got the opportunity to cement his friendship with Tom Cruise on the big screen. Those initial chats about starring in "Maverick," however, seemed to help Hamilton secure his next gig. 

He'll be starring in and producing Joseph Kosinski and Brad Pitt's untitled racing film for Apple TV+. Set in the world of Formula One racing, the film reunites "Top Gun: Maverick" director Kosinski with franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer. The duo asked Hamilton to join the film and help ensure its authenticity, something that excites the driver. "I felt my job really has been to try to call BS [...] Just giving them advice about what racing is really about and what, as a racing fan, would appeal and what would not," he told GQ. While he missed out on Cruise's flick, Hamilton could potentially be responsible for another cinematic classic. Details are slim but hopefully, the film can make box office history like "Top Gun: Maverick." 

Seeing as Hamilton already has a working relationship with Kosinski and Bruckheimer and a friendship with Cruise, it's possible that he could still have a shot at  the upcoming "Top Gun 3," which is in the works at Paramount . 

'Top Gun: Maverick' lawsuit against Paramount rejected by US judge

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Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York: Editing by Devika Syamnath and Richard Chang

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'Top Gun: Maverick' lawsuit against Paramount rejected by US judge

By Jonathan Stempel

(Reuters) -Paramount Pictures has won the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming its 2022 Tom Cruise blockbuster "Top Gun: Maverick" borrowed too much from a 1983 magazine article that inspired the original "Top Gun" film.

In a decision on Friday, U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson in Los Angeles said the sequel was not "substantially similar" to Ehud Yonay's "Top Guns," about the U.S. Navy's Top Gun fighter pilot training school in San Diego.

Yonay's widow Shosh Yonay and son Yuval Yonay, heirs to his copyright, said they deserved some of the sequel's profits, after Paramount built a billion-dollar franchise off an article that "breathed life into the technical humdrum of a navy base."

The plaintiffs will appeal, their lawyer Marc Toberoff said.

"Once Yonay's widow and son exercised their rights [to] reclaim his exhilarating story, Paramount hand-waved them away exclaiming 'What copyright?'" Toberoff said in a statement. "It's not a good look."

Paramount said in a statement, "We are pleased that the court recognized that plaintiffs' claims were completely without merit."

"Top Gun: Maverick" featured Cruise reprising his role as U.S. Navy test pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.

It grossed $1.5 billion worldwide, becoming Cruise's biggest film, and is the 12th highest-grossing film according to Box Office Mojo.

The plaintiffs, both from Israel, claimed that the fictional "Maverick" was "derivative" of nonfictional "Top Guns" because of similar plots, characters, dialogue, settings and themes.

But the judge said copyright law does not protect factual elements such as the identities of real people in "Top Guns," or familiar plot elements such as pilots embarking on missions, being shot down or carousing at a bar.

He also said copyright law does not protect themes such as "the sheer love of flying," or the only specific dialogue - "Fight's on" - identified in both works.

"No reasonable juror could find substantial similarity of ideas and expression," Anderson wrote.

Anderson also said Paramount was not required to credit Ehud Yonay in the sequel, as it had in the original "Top Gun" with a "suggested by" credit, after the Yonays in 2020 terminated Paramount's exclusive movie rights to his article.

The article was published in the May 1983 issue of California magazine.

The case is Yonay et al v. Paramount Pictures Corp, U.S. District Court, Central District of California, No. 22-03846.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York: Editing by Devika Syamnath and Richard Chang)