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If Tom Cruise Says He’ll Fly a Super Hornet in Maverick, He Flies It

The second, more detailed trailer for Top Gun: Maverick, the long-awaited and much-anticipated sequel to the 1986 original, dropped earlier this week. And, lest you forgot about it, those are real shots of Tom Cruise and cast flying fighter jets.
Tom Cruise shooting scenes for the 2020 release 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
As with any Cruise action movie, the promo trail is heavily focused on the stuntwork and the training Cruise had to undertake to deliver believable, outstanding action scenes. These days, Tom Cruise is the man when it comes to doing action, and it’s pretty clear that age isn’t slowing him down. If anything, he seems determined to push himself harder with each new project.

Earlier this year, after the premiere of the first trailer at San Diego Comic-Con, Cruise explained that he and the other cast actually flew inside the fighter jets for the majority of aerial scenes. They had real Navy pilots at the commands, but they were inside the cockpit, as well. This was meant to make aerial footage more “real” or, at the very least, as real as a movie can be.

The behind-the-scenes video released the other day shows exactly how these scenes were shot, while offering a better appreciation of the Pentagon’s involvement in the production. It also confirms that, when Tom Cruise says he’ll do something, he will do it – not buts and ifs about it. Or, as co-star Miles Teller puts it, if you tell Tom something is impossible, he will outdo himself to prove you it’s not.

Despite some reports online that the Pentagon gets a producing credit on the film, that’s not entirely accurate. However, it did have veto power over what footage could leave the secured facilities it offered producers and cast access to.

Those jets are real F/A-18 Super Hornets, real Navy helicopters and that’s a real Navy base. The cast even got escorted access to a Nimitz-class nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and flew in restricted airspace used only by Naval aviators. Moreover, the Pentagon allowed them to put several cameras inside and outside of the fighter jets, to bring the viewer closer to the action.

The cast received training for water survival and aircraft ejection seats and producers official consulting on the depiction of all Navy subject matter. At the end of each day of shooting, footage was reviewed for potential security breaches, and vetoed if any were found.

As producer Jerry Bruckheimer says in the video below, an aviation film like this hasn’t been done before – and nor will another like it be made. And Tom Cruise was partly responsible for making it happen. Maverick drops in theaters in June 2020.

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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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