The rivalry between Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in Top Gun was rumored to also be the case off-screen with Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, but is there any truth to do these claims? Directed by Tony Scott, the 1986 action film focused on the U.S. Navy's Fighter Weapons School at Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, California dubbed TOPGUN and its skilled pilot trainees. That included Maverick and Iceman who were rivals, both wanting to emerge at the top of their batch.
Throughout Top Gun, the pair would engage in various kinds of contests — from actual training to a session of beach volleyball. Iceman and Maverick also liked poking fun at each other to establish their dominance. Despite the intense competition between the pair, their rivalry never became personal. In fact, by the time Maverick tragically lost his RIO, Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) in a freak accident, Iceman dialed down his cockiness in respect to what happened. By the end of the film, they developed a newfound respect for each other, with Kazansky even becoming Mitchell's wingman. It remains to be seen how Kilmer's Iceman will factor into Top Gun: Maverick, and whether or not the rivalry to be the best has continued.
Iceman and Maverick's fictional rivalry in Top Gun, however, was rumored to spill into real life. Kilmer and Cruise have long been speculated to not get along. In his new Amazon documentary, Val, the actor finally clarifies these persistent claims surrounding the real status of his relationship with his co-star. Fresh from acting school at Juilliard and essentially forced to do Top Gun, Kilmer reveals that he did try to bring some of his method acting while working on the Scott-directed flick. He says that he "would purposely play up the rivalry between Tom’s character and mine off screen as well.” This understandably made Cruise and Edwards uncomfortable, to the point that they started keeping their distance from Kilmer and his crew once the cameras stopped rolling.
Despite this, however, Kilmer maintains that he and Maverick actor Tom Cruise have always been friends and supportive of each other. He didn't get into specifics about their relationship, but the fact that he scored a role in Top Gun: Maverick after reaching out to its star and producer could be a good indication that there's no bad blood between them. Kilmer previously said that "Cruise couldn't have been cooler" about the idea of bringing Iceman back for the Joseph Kosinski-directed sequel. He then added that they "took up where we left off" and that "the reunion felt great.” It's still unclear what Kazansky's role in the Top Gun follow-up will be. Plot details are strictly under wraps, with still no sighting of Iceman in any of the trailers thus far.
With the rumors of Kilmer and Cruise's real-life feud on the set of Top Gun now officially squashed, people can focus on their impending reunion on-screen as Iceman and Maverick in Top Gun: Maverick. There's barely anything known about what happened to the characters after the original 1986 film. But considering that they became friends following their graduation at TOPGUN, it's not outside the realm of possibility that they've also maintained their friendship more than three decades since they first met.
