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A Reminder That Tom Cruise Is Basically God in the Action Movie Universe

Tom Cruise is a brilliant action movie star, that much can’t be denied. Just think of it: he’s done every stunt in the world, to the point where, in order to top himself, he’s getting ready to fly to space with NASA for his next film.
Tom Cruise resumes Maverick role in Top Gun: Maverick 12 photos
Photo: YouTube / Paramount Pictures
Top Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial actionTop Gun: Maverick second trailer includes plenty of aerial action
Cruise also works as a producer and is still a big enough name to have a say in the final product, and perhaps even to veto studio bosses over some aspects. Tom Cruise is the man to go to if you want believable action, whether it involves flying stuff, driving stuff or jumping out of stuff that’s either flying or driving at high speeds.

As such, all media promo tours for Cruise’s movie focus solely on this impressive set of skills that he has. Top Gun: Maverick was recently postponed until December but, as the world is starting to open up after lockdown, producer Jerry Bruckheimer is here to steer the conversation into that direction, with a friendly reminder that Tom Cruise is basically God on every action movie set. Or Xenu, take your pick.

Speaking of Maverick in a new interview with Yahoo!, Bruckheimer mentions the hard training that the entire cast had to undergo in order to withstand G-forces. All actors in the film were flown in F/A-18 Super Hornets for the aerial dog-fighting scenes, so that meant they had to have training to be able to appear on camera without puking.

The way Bruckheimer puts it, Cruise was in charge of the training program, which included water survival training, “where they are blindfolded and put in a water tank that’s turned upside down and they have to figure out how to get out.” Cruise went through the training with them and, unsurprisingly, he handled it like a 22-year-old would.

But Cruise’s contribution to the film doesn’t stop here. He also devised a new technique for shooting aerial scenes.

“We put five cameras in the cockpit, so the actors not only had to act, they had to know when to turn the camera on and where the sun was to match the previous scene,” the producer explains. “They had a lot to do in that cockpit when they were flying these planes on sorties, which were designed by Tom and Joe [Kosinski, the director]. Tom gave all the briefings and all the debriefings after the shoot along with the great Top Gun pilots that we work with from the Navy.”

All this sounds very much like something Cruise would – and could – do, so there’s no denying his merits or contributions to this particular production. But does it get a bit too tiresome to keep hearing about it, or is it just Bruckheimer’s fawning over it?
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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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