Tom Cruise only took the role so he could do what?
How much is he actually flying in the films, and why did he flip on his decision to never
make a "Top Gun" sequel?
Here's everything you never knew about Top Gun's Maverick.
It's nearly impossible to imagine Maverick being played by anyone other than Tom Cruise.
But, as it turns out, another actor was actually offered the part before Cruise came on board.
The part was initially offered to actor Matthew Modine, who turned down the role because he
didn't agree with the film's politics.
He went on to star in Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" instead, a role that remains
one of his most memorable.
Speaking with Salon in 2020, Modine has said he does not regret turning down the role in
"Top Gun" all those years ago, despite what it did for Cruise's career.
He explained:
"Cruise said that he felt that 'Top Gun' was a movie about individualism and personal strength.
I just thought the movie was jingoistic."
While "Full Metal Jacket" is also about the armed forces, Modine maintains that it does
not endorse the actions of the military, but rather indicts the regressive, violent values
that these institutions espouse.
For his part, Cruise told Playboy that "Top Gun" was never meant to represent the reality
of the U.S. military and was created for purely entertainment purposes.
When it came down to casting "Top Gun," director Tony Scott relied on someone he could trust:
a member of his own family.
Prior to "Top Gun," Tom Cruise was working on a film called "Legend," which was directed
by Tony's brother, Ridley Scott.
In an interview for the 30th-anniversary release of the film, Cruise recalled that he was first
offered the role in the film in 1983, but he was in the middle of filming "Legend."
"And at this time I was off in London working with Ridley Scott, who had just done 'Blade
Runner.'"
Though "Legend" wasn't received very well by critics, Cruise maintains that it was a
hugely important learning experience for him and taught him a lot about the work that goes
into making a film.
Once he was done with "Legend," though, Ridley Scott urged Cruise to look at the "Top Gun"
role.
'At the end of 1984, "Ridley said, you know, you gotta meet my brother.
And he's gonna direct this film, 'Top Gun.'
You know, it's aligned with things that I love: movies and aviation."
By this point, Cruise was in a position to accept the role of Maverick, and the rest
is history.
"So you're the one."
"Yes, ma'am."
Tom Cruise and "Top Gun" producer Jerry Bruckheimer actually have pretty different stories about
how Cruise came to be cast as Maverick.
In an interview with Variety, Bruckheimer said that it took considerable effort to get
Cruise to sign on to the film.
He explained:
"We wanted Tom after we saw 'Risky Business' and he kind of hemmed and hawed.
So we arranged for him to fly with the Blue Angels at the Naval Air Facility in El Centro,
California."
The pilots decided to give him the ride of his life in order to scare him to death.
But, as Bruckheimer tells it, this is actually what convinced Cruise to do the movie.
But Tom Cruise has said this wasn't actually how it went down.
"And I said, 'Here's the deal.
I'm going to make this movie, but don't tell anyone yet.'"
He claimed that the reason he didn't reveal his excitement about the project at first
was that he wanted the opportunity to fly with the Blue Angels — something Bruckheimer
was happy to provide for him.
While Cruise admitted that he spent much of his first flight with the Blue Angels vomiting
all over the cockpit, he maintains that it was well worth it in the end.
It's a well-known fact that Tom Cruise takes his work as an action star very seriously,
taking the time to really prepare for his roles and often doing his own stunts.
In the case of "Top Gun," Cruise did what one would imagine he would do to prepare for
the role: he shadowed-real life pilots.
According to TIME, TOPGUN is the nickname of a real military school called the Navy
Fighter Weapons School that was founded in 1969, at the height of the Vietnam War.
As part of his training for the role, Cruise shadowed pilots at the school.
While there, Cruise reported that an instructor told him:
"[There are] only four jobs in the world worth having: an actor, a rock star, a jet fighter
pilot, and President."
Kelly McGillis, who played Maverick's love interest, Charlie, shadowed the woman her
character was based on — Christine Fox, a woman who worked at the Center for Naval
Analyses.
In 2013, Fox was named acting deputy defense secretary by President Barack Obama, making
her the highest ranking woman to ever serve in the Department of Defense.
What does "Top Gun" have in common with films like "The Bling Ring" and "Hustlers," you
ask?
Well, all of these films were inspired by magazine articles.
The magazine article in question was titled "Top Guns," and it was published by California
Magazine in 1983.
The piece covers the high-octane world of fighter pilots.
One element of the film that was clearly inspired by the article is the nicknames of the pilots.
Though names like "Maverick" and "Iceman" were created for the film, the article explained
that pilots were often called things like "Yogi," "Gringo," "Gator," and "Possum."
While there's not a specific pilot mentioned in the article that directly inspired Maverick,
the article goes into the intensity of the job and how many pilots lived for the "glorious
and terrifying" thrill of flying tomcats.
These days, because "Top Gun" has made the real school so famous, students at the Navy
Fighter Weapons School are actually fined $5 every time they reference the film while
at the academy.
"I feel the need, the need for–"
"Get out.
Get out.
There's one every year.
I will not tolerate clowning."
Tom Cruise isn't the tallest guy out there.
He's reportedly around five-foot-seven, which means his female co-stars are sometimes significantly
taller than he is.
This happened to be the case in "Top Gun," where Cruise starred opposite Kelly McGillis,
who stands at around five feet, 10 inches tall.
Speaking with The Oklahoman, McGillis recalled:
"Well first off, Tom and (director) Tony (Scott) and I really weren't bothered by the height
difference, but apparently Paramount was."
As such, measures needed to be taken for the scenes they shared to make them closer in
height.
"I acted in my bare feet most of the time.
I slouched a lot.
My posture in that movie is appalling."
McGillis noted that while she had a great time making the film, looking back she can
now see that she was trying to "shrink" herself more and more as the film went on.
Nonetheless, the experience was something McGillis is used to, as she wryly recalled:
"There've been a lot of men that I've worked with that I don't wear shoes with."
Unsurprisingly, given that it's a blockbuster sequel, everything in "Top Gun: Maverick"
is bigger and badder than it was in the original.
There are bigger, faster jets, more realistic action sequences, and even drones in the new
film.
While all of these advancements were necessary for updating the film and aligning it with
contemporary technology, it also meant that Cruise couldn't quite do everything himself.
Though Cruise is an experienced pilot himself, Jerry Bruckheimer admitted that the Navy denied
Cruise's request to pilot the F-18 Super Hornet jet that Maverick flies in the film.
Despite this, Cruise took it upon himself to pilot every other aircraft he could.
Bruckheimer told Empire:
"The Navy wouldn't let him fly an F-18.
But he flies a P-51 in the movie and he flies helicopters.
He can do just about anything in an airplane."
In order to get around the fact that Cruise couldn't pilot the F-18 himself, producers
engineered some pretty ingenious camera setups.
Cruise was adamant that the film not rely on CGI, so instead, IMAX cameras were actually
installed inside F-18s while Navy pilots did the actual flying.
"I told everyone, 'If you're gonna take this role, part of it is being in that F-18.
I don't know how to do it any other way.'"
In the first couple of decades of his career, Tom Cruise was adamant that he didn't want
to make sequels for any of his films.
This all changed when he starred in the first "Mission: Impossible" film, which spawned
multiple sequels.
According to Cinema Blend, he eventually decided that sequels could be a fun challenge for
the cast and crew.
For many years, Cruise was also similarly disinterested in making a sequel to "Top Gun."
In fact, in 1990, Cruise spoke to Playboy magazine about the possibility of a sequel,
saying:
"Some people felt that 'Top Gun' was a right-wing film to promote the Navy.
And a lot of kids loved it.
But [...] 'Top Gun' was just an amusement park ride, a fun film with a PG-13 rating
that was not supposed to be reality.
That's why I didn't go on and make 'Top Gun II' and III and IV and V. That would have
been irresponsible."
This was 32 years ago now, so we don't blame Cruise for changing his mind on the subject
since then.
"I just want to manage expectations."
Despite Cruise's hesitance to sign on for a sequel to "Top Gun" for many years, director
Joseph Kosinski was eventually able to convince him.
Part of Kosinski's pitch had to do with the journey that Maverick would go on in the film,
and the first step in getting the film made was to pitch the idea to Cruise himself.
As Kosinski told Deadline,
"I started the discussion with what I thought should be the emotional core of the film:
the severed relationship between Maverick and Goose's son set against a dangerous combat
mission that would take them both deep into enemy territory.
As soon as I said that, I could see the wheels in Tom's head starting to turn."
"My dad believed in you.
I'm not gonna make the same mistake."
Kosinski went on to say that the latter half of his pitch revolved around what Maverick
would be doing in the Navy at the time the film is set.
Kosinski also told Cruise that they were thinking of rigging cameras inside the cockpit of the
jets.
Interestingly enough, an attempt at that exact same filming approach had been made in the
original "Top Gun."
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer explained to Empire:
"What’s different about this movie is that [in Top Gun] we put the actors in the F-14s
and we couldn’t use one frame of it, except some stuff on Tom, because they all threw
up.
So everything was done on a gimbal.
But in this movie, Tom wanted to make sure the actors could actually be in the F-18s."
According to Kosinski, Cruise was immediately on board following the conversation, even
going so far as to call up the head of the studio immediately after he heard Kosinski's
pitch.
When the trailer for "Top Gun: Maverick" was released, some fans were skeptical as to why
Maverick would still be a Captain in the Navy after more than 30 years of service.
This issue is actually brought up in the film.
"Yet here you are: Captain."
While this does address the elephant in the room, it doesn't actually answer the question
of why Maverick is still a captain.
This question became so controversial that the Navy felt compelled to provide answers.
The Navy Personnel Command spoke with USNI news to speculate about how this turn of events
could have happened.
It turns out, it is possible, but it's unlikely.
One explanation would be if Maverick had left active duty sometime after the events of the
first "Top Gun" film and spent several years in the Navy Reserves.
Another scenario would be if Maverick was "retired but retained in service."
This situation is unlikely, as most people do not serve past their mandatory retirement,
but the Navy says it is possible.
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