Top Gun: Maverick star Glen Powell has explained how Tom Cruise reacted to a serious mid-flight issue while filming the 2022 sequel. Set more than 30 years after the original Top Gun, Top Gun: Maverick sees Cruise return as aviator Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. When Cruise’s character is nearly grounded indefinitely for defying orders and destroying a prototype hypersonic jet, he is redeployed to serve as an instructor at the same United States Navy Fighter Weapons School from which he had himself graduated. Rather than relying on CGI effects for the movie’s flight scenes, the film’s cast flew as passengers in real Navy F/A-18 Super Hornets.
In a recent interview with Men’s Health Cruise’s co-star Powell revealed that during production, the fighter jet in which Cruise was seated experienced mechanical issues mid-flight. However, when the pilot landed the plane with Cruise aboard, the star simply smiled as he exited the craft. Meanwhile, Powell was taken aback by his reaction, exclaiming that the “guy almost died, and he’s smiling.” Check out his comments below:
There will never be another Tom Cruise. He and the pilot landed the plane with a wire. He smiled, got out of the plane. I was like, That guy almost died, and he’s smiling.
Will Top Gun 3 Finally Give Tom Cruise The Chance To Fly His Own Super Hornet?
In a world where cutting-edge visual effects are increasingly relied on to achieve the kind of high-adrenaline action scenes featured in movies like Top Gun: Maverick, director Joseph Kosinski and his team would instead seek to feature real-world aerial photography wherever possible. Paying the US Navy a reported $11,374 per hour, Cruise and his co-stars not only flew as passengers in the dual seated F/A-18F’s with professional fighter pilots behind the controls, but they also underwent an intensive three-month bootcamp to get accustomed to the aerial acrobatics and the g-forces they would encounter.
Yet, as impressive as these lengths seem, producer Jerry Bruckheimer has previously revealed that Cruise did ask to fly one of the Navy’s Super Hornets himself, but his request was ultimately denied. Moreover, despite Cruise’s own experience behind the controls of both helicopters and his personal P-51 Mustang, given both the risks and the demands involved in piloting an aircraft like the $70 million F/A-18 it was certainly a logical decision on the Navy’s part.
However, with Cruise and his castmates hopeful for a possible Top Gun 3, the daredevil star may still be tempted to try his luck again. Whether Cruise would have any more luck in convincing the Navy to allow him to fly his own Super Hornet after being knocked back for Top Gun: Maverick remains to be seen, but it’s more than likely that Cruise would still be keen to get behind the controls of such an aircraft if given the chance.
