In real life, the millionaire Top Gun star Tom Cruise is reported to own anywhere from three to five private jets including a $20M Gulfstream.
Tom Cruise has held a pilot’s license since 1994 and he often pilots all of the private jets that he owns. Although quite luxurious when flying privately, Cruise purchased a rugged World War II fighter namely, a P-51 Mustang.
In a new interview with Empire magazine ahead of the release of “Top Gun: Maverick” this summer, film producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed that despite Cruise’s piloting prowess, the Navy wasn’t keen on actually putting the superstar actor in the cockpit of an F/A-18 Super Hornet.
“The Navy wouldn’t let [Tom] fly an F-18, but he flies a P-51 in the movie, and he flies helicopters,” Bruckheimer told Empire, per Military.com. “He can do just about anything in an airplane.”
Depending on your perspective, it’s either a relief that the Navy wouldn’t put an actor at the controls of a $71 million aircraft or a huge disappointment that Maverick won’t actually be piloting the plane in some of the movie’s action sequences.
According to Empire, both Cruise and Bruckheimer put a premium on authenticity when it came to the return of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell for the highly anticipated sequel.
“We just started talking,” Cruise told the magazine. “And I realised that there were things that we could accomplish cinematically. And I started getting excited about this big challenge of, ‘How do we do it?’ So I said to Jerry, ‘I’ll do it if…’ meaning, I’m not going to do the CGI stuff.”
Top Gun: Maverick is still scheduled for release on 24 June in the US and 17 July in the UK, though the coronavirus pandemic has delayed many of the year’s planned releases.
Cruise will return as the titular Maverick, 34 years after the character was first introduced to viewers.
Miles Teller will star as Gooses’ son, along with Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, and more
