Top Gun 2: Does Tom Cruise really fly planes in the sequel?

Speed ​​intoxication Tom Cruise felt good on the set of Top Gun Maverick. Thirty-six years after the release of the first opus, which made him the star he is today, the actor and producer have not done half the work. While he himself performs the craziest tricks in each Mission Impossible, he applied the same concern for realism to another flagship saga of his career.

So he filmed his flight scenes in the cockpit of a real fighter plane and his young partners as well. It took a long time to prepare. For Tom Cruise, it all (again) really starts on September 7, 2018, when he goes to Miramar Military Base, where a large portion of the Top Gun was shot in the spring of 1985. Not so much for the pilgrim as for the classes.

The actor is indeed following the ASTC (Aviation Survival Training Course), a program required to qualify for the US Navy F / A-18 Long Flight. “I told the studio earlier that if I was going to invest in this film, we would have to put everything into practice. I will be in this F / A-18 period.”Explains the main stakeholder.

“So camera ramps need to be developed, there will be wind tunnels and engineering. It will take me a long time to understand all this (…) We have been told for years: ‘You can’t shoot in synthetics. pictures?’ “I always said no, it was not an experience. I warned those around me, ‘I have to find the right story.’ We will need the right team. This movie is a story of precision and virtuosity. “This is not a game for me.”

Drunkenness of justice

The way for him to once again cross his borders. And envy the past? Because it was already being considered to shoot scenes from the first Top Gun on planes, but the tests proved to be unreliable. And although the Maverick press kit says that only shots of Tom Cruise were used when all of his classmates were vomiting and / or rolling their eyes, other sources claim that the star suffered the same battle.

In addition to the desire to turn Joseph Kosinski’s film into a true cinematic event that deserves to be seen in cinemas in order to be stunned, thus, there was a personal side to this amazing new challenge posed by Tom Cruise himself. And it fits perfectly with what we can decipher from a feature film that underscores Hollywood’s propensity to overly rely on digital effects to the detriment of reality when it comes to filming a show and refusing a star to retire. Even when the younger generation wants to take the place that was hers, or when the event is impossible to reach, the one whose legend is openly praised in the scene where Maverick introduces himself to his students.

He wanted to take the students with him. Because it is not the only shooting issue on airplanes in flight, when the rest will only have the right to exercise simulators: “This time, thanks to the tribe, all the actors got used to the basics and mechanics of the flight and the G-force, thanks to the training they went through months earlier.”– Says producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “Unlike the first movie, our actors are actually in the cockpit of the F / A-18s during the flight and performing their lines.”

Tom Guns

Demand for the sake of realism, but also so as not to lose the heart of the film. “One of the things I told Tom earlier was that the original Top Gun was not just about Maverick.”– Says producer and co-author Christopher McCuar. “It was about the culture and competition of these pilots that they all participated in. We wanted to bring that. Therefore, all the pilot characters in this film are more richly developed, they have more depth.”

“This diversity of pilots helps us understand who Maverick is today. Obviously, this film is evolving more than 30 years later. We did not want to stop the film about what it was like 30 years ago. We wanted you to feel that this story was natural. It develops when you watch a movie. “ Directed by Joseph Kosinski… and actors who are forced to steer the cameras themselves in flight and take into account their position or light.

But have they really ruled so far? No. Even Tom Cruise. If the star could carry out catapults and landings as part of his qualifying program, the U.S. Navy would not allow him to use the F / A-18. If only because you could not play games on a device worth $ 70 million. Even if the actors are not in control, the flight scenes are still spectacular and sunken, so much so that you can feel the effect of gravity on them.

Or rather, a speeding intoxication for Maverick, for which Tom Cruise wanted to offer a return to the show that could impress. Adding another string to the list of his translator prizes, both for his needs and for his brave side.

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