Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller has revealed which scene in the newly released blockbuster made him think he was going to die. Over thirty years after it originally hit theaters, Top Gun is back with a follow-up. The first film unquestioningly played a major role in lifting Tom Cruise to superstar status, after providing the then 23-year-old with what was by far the biggest hit of his career at the time.
Of course, anyone with even the vaguest familiarity with Cruise’s career over the years knows that Top Gun was just one of many blockbusters that he went on to star in. But the impact that Top Gun made was enough to linger with fans for decades, ultimately justifying the recent sequel. So far, Top Gun: Maverick is a huge hit, supplying Cruise with the biggest opening weekend ever for one of his films. Whether this record will linger for some time or be surpassed next year when the highly anticipated Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning arrives in theatres remains to be seen. However, while Maverick is the next stage in yet another franchise for Cruise, the film also introduces some new talent to the mix.
As the son of Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Miles Teller’s Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw offers Cruise’s Maverick an uncomfortable reminder of the past. The character plays a central role in the new film and just like many of Top Gun: Maverick’s other stars, Teller underwent the same sort of extensive training that Cruise demanded. With a training schedule designed specifically by Cruise, it’s unsurprising that it was extremely challenging. Teller recently spoke to LADbible about his training, admitting that at one point, he thought he might die:
"I definitely had a moment where I thought I was going to die. There was a sequence where we were heading straight towards the ground and you do what’s called a max G pull-up. You’re heading down and at the last second you yank up, and it’s really tough for the pilot. It’s something they train in all the time, but it was the first time we’d done a manoeuvre like that and I completely stopped acting. I looked at the ground, and thought this wasn’t going to end well for me."
Thankfully, Teller survived the training and can now rest easy knowing he’s got a hit film on his hands. Ever since it was first announced that production was underway on a Top Gun sequel, fans had high hopes for the degree of intensity that the new film would offer. A lot has changed in both the world and Cruise’s career since the first Top Gun was released. And although the first film had its fair share of stunts, Cruise had yet to establish himself as the daredevil that he’s widely known as today. As a result, it was clear early on that any Top Gun sequel that saw Cruise reprise his role as Maverick would also be filled with white-knuckle levels of adrenaline and action.
It’s previously been revealed that some actors turned down roles in Top Gun: Maverick due to the intensity of its training schedule. It already looks as if going that extra mile to familiarise the actors with the airplanes has paid off. That might be easy to say now, but for those like Teller who felt he’d officially taken on his final role, training sounds extremely challenging and downright terrifying.
Source: LADbible
