Tom Cruise arrives in a helicopter at the San Diego premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in a new video. Cruise first appeared as Naval aviator Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Tony Scott’s Top Gun in 1986. 36 years later, the 59-year-old actor returns in Joesph Kosinski’s Top Gun: Maverick alongside franchise newcomers Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris, Monica Barbaro, and Miles Teller as Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw— the son of Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards), who died in the original film. Val Kilmer also returns as Tom “Iceman” Kazansky from the original Top Gun.
The sequel picks up over three decades later and sees Maverick still a Captain, having dodged advancement in rank to avoid being grounded. He’s ordered to return to the Fighter Weapons School on a special assignment to train a detachment of Top Gun graduates—which includes Rooster. In real life, Cruise developed a program for his younger Top Gun 2 co-stars, teaching them how it feels to fly in the F/A-18s, handle the Gs, and often work their cameras in the cockpit. Suffice to say, Top Gun: Maverick features an impressive amount of practical aviation stuntwork, with the crew having built brand new cameras to capture the flight sequences properly. Given that fact, of course, its star would show up at the film’s premiere in an aircraft.
Wednesday, Cruise landed in a helicopter on the USS Midway, the iconic Navy aircraft carrier docked in San Diego, before heading to the world premiere of Top Gun: Maverick. While many assumed Cruise piloted the helicopter, which read “Tom Cruise. Top Gun: Maverick,” he later confirmed to ET that he wasn’t behind the controls this time. Check out the video (via THR) below:
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Cruise is a certified pilot with hours upon hours of flight experience and has also done many jumps. In Mission: Impossible – Fallout, in addition to piloting a helicopter in an invigorating chase, he also jumped from a plane. Cruise is renowned for performing his death-defying stunts, many of which involve his willingness to get into a cockpit and truly fly on camera (or hang onto the side of a plane as it takes off for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation). While filming Mission: Impossible 7, many fans saw Cruise either landing a helicopter on a golf course to grab lunch or parachuting in the English countryside. Naturally, everyone assumed he flew himself to the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick. It wouldn't even have been his most daring stunt.
Cruise and his co-stars’ real-world flight experience brings an element of credibility to Top Gun: Maverick, which looks to deliver some awe-inspiring aerial cinematography. The early buzz for the film has certainly been favorable. After waiting decades for the green light and having been delayed multiple times due to the COVID-19, this sequel to the 1986 cult classic, Top Gun, has been a long time coming. The film is a legacy project for Cruise, and his propensity for dramatic entrances has more than kept the hype alive. Despite the wild and memorable premiere in San Diego, Top Gun: Maverick doesn’t land in theaters until May 27.
