Top Gun 2 Maverick | How They Filmed The Most Dangerous Scenes Ever
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Top Gun 2 Maverick | How They Filmed The Most Dangerous Scenes Ever

May 25, 2022 Share

Real G-force and pure adrenaline scream through the screen in Top Gun 2: Maverick, starring the legendary Tom Cruise. 

“You just can’t experience it properly, until you do it live ,” – these are the famous words spoken by Cruise when preparing for the movie.

In 1986, Hollywood legend Cruise, director Ridley Scott, a load of dry ice and a song by band Berlin, Take My Breath Away, revolutionised the way we watch cocky young men fly F-14 fighter planes. Produced by the legendary Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, the movie was a monster hit, bringing in $356 million against a budget of only $15 million – peanuts in today’s world.

Now, 36 years later, in the manner of such legacy sequels as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Halloween and the like, Cruise is back, with a script by his Mission Impossible Rogue Nation and MI Fallout co-conspirator Christopher McQuarrie, in Top Gun: Maverick.

Co-starring Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer, and directed by Joseph Kosinski – the picture is set to blow people’s minds. Why? Because Tom Cruise, the 100-megawatt movie star, is featured in the state-of-the-art realistic action sequences involving F-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, intense G-forces, barrel rolls, and aerial nonsense. 

Top Gun
Photo: Paramount Pictures
Top Gun
View from the array of VENICE cameras trained on Cruise in the Super Hornet. Photo by Sony.

It seems like the team decided to nip those concerns right in the bud by releasing another “Top Gun: Maverick” video 48 hours later, all about how accurate this movie is going to be. 

Among the clips shown in this video is one of the shallow passes of a Super Hornet that I honestly assumed had been made by adding a CGI ground into actual aircraft footage.

Nope. They did that. And I mean no green screen or underwater effects. Yep, that’s right, from the crazy risks, the wild stunts, to every flip and turn Tom Cruise and his fellow actors planned to take away our breath this time.

For example, on a recent Twitter video posted by Sky Dance, a behind-the-scenes video shows a shot of the film crew as they “duck for cover as a low-flying fighter jet hurtles over their heads”. Tom Cruise is shown in the jet’s cockpit in the final frame of the clip, but it’s not known if he was in the plane during the flyover.

They say that he flew as a co-pilot or passenger but was seen flying other winged beings on occasion.

The 59-year-old actor, licensed, did fly a P-51 propeller-driven fighter plane and a few helicopters, but the Navy denied him permission to fly an F-18 fighter jet. 

According to Mighty Movies, producer Jerry Bruckheimer also said the performers had to learn how to use the cameras because they had to direct themselves. At the same time, on the planes – imagine that.

Cruise and the crew even underwent a three-month boot camp for the actors, including training in underwater evacuation and aerial aviation and preliminary training to build spatial awareness within the plane and flying itself.

“For some of the actors involved in this, regardless of what they tell you, for some people, they puked on the first day, and they puked on the last day,” the actor told GameSpot, “I think when we were filming, I was never scared and I never was nervous because the pilots know what they’re doing, but also you’re focusing so much on things like the acting and the camera and making sure your mask didn’t fog up.” 

Top Gun
Front cameras filming Tom Cruise. Image credit: Sony
Tom Cruise flying his personal P-51 Mustang. Image credit: Sony

Spoiler alert! Top Gun 2 will be set in the modern-day, as the pilots take on drone warfare and fighter jets. It is said that the sequel will be a reverse of the original, with Maverick returning as an instructor.

The film will also feature the adult son of Goose, who is also likely to clash with Maverick, but only time will tell. The movie has already been met with wide eyes as the long-awaited screening occurred on the second evening of the two-week Cannes Film Festival.

It was here that Tom Cruise was awarded one of the most prestigious awards in film, the Palme d’Or, for his starring role – so it must be good!

Top Gun 2: Maverick will finally arrive at cinemas in the UK on May 25, 2022, and US cinemas on May 27, 2022.

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Author: Michelle Laver
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