It’s been 34 years since Top Gun came out, and in that time moviemaking technology has improved significantly.
Considering it’s been 34 years since the original Top Gun, it should be no surprise that Top Gun: Maverick intends to utilize modern-day filmmaking elements to execute its own action sequences differently than its predecessor.
That original film was a 1986 pop culture phenomenon hailing from director Tony Scott that cemented Tom Cruise as a movie star and grossed a massive $356.7 million worldwide. Given such enormous achievements in its popularity, it was inevitable that Top Gun would spawn a follow-up.
Such a successor comes in the form of Top Gun: Maverick. This time helmed by Joseph Kosinski (Oblivion), this feature will see Top Gun protagonist Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) still soaring across the skies as a test pilot.
While in the process of training a gaggle of pilots for an important mission, Maverick ends up coming face-to-face with the son of his late best friend “Goose,” Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller). This highly-anticipated title also stars Jennifer Connelly, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, and Ed Harris and will debut in theaters on June 26, 2020.
In both of these Top Gun features, action sequences play a big part in the proceedings. In the case of the original Top Gun, such sequences tended to involve the central characters engaging in dangerous aerial dogfights with fighter jets to capture a sweeping sense of excitement and sorrow, such as during Goose’s (Anthony Edwards) untimely death.
Whatever the emotions its action scenes were trying to convey, Top Gun had an engrossing quality to it that lured audiences in. The film also notably featured practically-realized methods of capturing fighter jets in flight. Blue-screen and other shortcuts were kept to a minimum, and instead, cameras captured actual aircraft soaring across the sky.
Such shots were then filtered through Tony Scott’s trademark rapid-fire editing style. That frenetic method of editing ensured that the pacing of these intense sequences never lagged; they were always moving as fast as the jets themselves.
This mixture ensured that Top Gun’s biggest set-pieces were the kind of blockbuster movie sequences you couldn’t turn away from. When it hits multiplexes in four months, Top Gun: Maverick will come armed with a barrage of its own action scenes hoping to live up to the high standards for the airborne spectacle that its predecessor set decades prior.
Without Tony Scott behind the camera and a whole new generation of special effects at its disposal, it’s clear that the action scenes of Top Gun: Maverick won’t just retread the same ground that its predecessor’s action scenes did.
One way Top Gun: Maverick’s creative team intends to establish its own identity is by making its action scenes more immersive on a visual level. A sense of being fully engulfed into the world of Top Gun was a key element people loved about the original film, and that trait will be taken to the next level in Maverick thanks to this feature filming its aerial-based sequences in unprecedented 6K camera technology. With this level of image quality, viewers can feel like they’re right there in the cockpit with Maverick, Rooster and all the other characters. However, camerawork is not the only way Maverick intends to heighten the sense of realism in its action scenes.
Tom Cruise returns as Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, now a flight school instructor whose talents and exploits are a legend.
One of his students is Lt. Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), a pilot trainee and son of the late Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards).
This new adventure sees Maverick working as a test pilot and training a fresh group of Top Gun graduates. He also encounters Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller), who’s the son of his late friend Goose.
A little more than two minutes long, the spot for the Paramount Pictures’ film is packed full of action and, of course, some motorcycle riding.
In addition to Cruise, the movie stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer, who reprises his memorable role of Ice Man.
Top Gun: Maverick flies into theaters on June 26, 2020.
