It was 36 years ago that Tom Cruise graced the silver screen in Top Gun in 1986 and the actor continues to win hearts in the sequel Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise says that the sequel wasn’t an easy thing at all. “Taking on the sequel was a daunting task.”
”The foundation of the story that we have in this film originated back in 1986. So the dynamic of that relationship we talked about back then was there originally.”
Like most sequels it is anticipated that fans of the original would definitely get on board but whether it will appeal to the new generation was the real challenge.
Cruise said he intended for Top Gun:Maverick to far exceed what the first movie did where the actors shot closeups in cutaway cockpits on a sound stage. He wanted to film inside the F-18 fighter jets, while flying for real. This meant that his co-stars would have to deliver in-flight performances without fainting from the intense gravitational force or vomiting mid-scene.
When asked why he still performs his own stunts despite the risk, Cruise answered, “No one asked Gene Kelly, Why do you dance? Why do you do your own dancing?
Cruise also spoke about whether there was any pressure to release the movie on a streaming service.
“That was not going to happen ever. That was never going to happen,” he said.
Cruise has always been in favour of the theatre experience. Maverick’s release was pushed back several times due to the Covid-19 pandemic but he made sure that the movie made it to the multiplexes when many films were being streamed instead.
He said that each time the movie release date was postponed he would contact the cast saying, “Don’t worry, this is going to happen.”
On his love affair with the big screen, Cruise said, “I’m still learning, still trying to take this art form and push it.”
Top Gun: Maverick follows the story of Cruise’s hotshot fighter pilot several decades after the original 1986 film left off. In the new installment, Maverick is called back to the Top Gun flight academy to train a new group of pilots-most notably the sone of his former flight partner Goose:Rooster, played by Teller-for a dangerous mission that involves an underground stash of uranium that is a threat to global security.
