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Tom cruise flew his own p-51 mustang in top gun: maverick.

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Top Gun: Maverick New Cast & Returning Character Guide

Top gun 2: all 6 jet fighter planes that appear in maverick, 2024 is the summer of glen powell i've waited 2 years for after $1.4 billion smash hit.

• Tom Cruise's flying sequences in Top Gun: Maverick add to the excitement of the long-awaited sequel, as he actually flew in the film.
• The movie's ending, where Maverick and Rooster restore and fly a vintage P-51 Mustang, has a special meaning, as Cruise owns the same plane in real life.
• Cruise's dedication to doing his own stunts, both in Top Gun: Maverick and in other movies like the Mission: Impossible series, showcases his commitment to realism and adds to his reputation as a Hollywood movie star.

Top Gun: Maverick 's flying sequences are part of what made the long-awaited sequel so exciting and that was further added to by the fact that Tom Cruise did fly in Top Gun 2 . The movie follows Maverick training a new group of young pilots which includes Miles Teller as Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Maverick's deceased best friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). Their tense relationship leads to a touching ending that relates to a plane that Tom Cruise flies in real life as well as in Top Gun 2 .

After surviving the mission together and proving the value of actual skilled pilots in the cockpit rather than just drones, Maverick and Goose form a bond that is similar to the one he shared with Goose. In Top Gun: Maverick 's ending , Rooster helps restore Maverick's vintage P-51 Mustang, which Maverick then flies Penny (Jennifer Connelly) out in. It's a fitting way to end Top Gun: Maverick , but there is a detail that many would have missed that makes the Tom Cruise P-51 Mustang scene even better.

Top Gun: Maverick has been praised for its spectacular stunts and action sequences, yet it is the cast that is proving to be its major strength.

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Tom Cruise Owns The Top Gun Maverick P-51

The original top gun inspired cruise's love of flying.

The P-51 Mustang plane that Maverick and Rooster work on in that final scene of Top Gun: Maverick is owned by Tom Cruise in real life. His passion for aviation was sparked while filming the original 1986 Top Gun movie and in 1994, Cruise became a licensed pilot .

The P-51 Mustang used in Top Gun: Maverick was built in 1946 and Cruise has owned the plane, which has an estimated value of $4 million, since 2001. Cruise originally branded the aircraft "Kiss Me Kate" after his ex-wife Katie Holmes, but he has since removed the name from the P-51 following their separation.

Top Gun Maverick's Tom Cruise P-51 Scene Was Real

The p-51 mustang is not the only plane cruise owns.

Although Cruise didn't fly the F-18 while shooting Top Gun: Maverick due to Navy restrictions, he was piloting in the P-51 Mustang during the scene in which Maverick flies with Penny. It's not surprising he was flying the plane, given how well-known Tom Cruise is for doing his own stunts . As well as the P-51 Mustang used in Top Gun: Maverick , Cruise owns two more aircraft.

His most luxurious is the Gulfstream IV jet valued at $20 million , which includes a Jacuzzi and a screening room, but it did not feature in Maverick . Tom Cruise and Captain "Maverick" Mitchell are both thrill-seeking daredevils, and the subtle inclusion of Cruise's own P-51 Mustang in Maverick 's ending made the link between the two even deeper.

Why The Navy Wouldn't Let Tom Cruise Fly Maverick's F-18

Cruise wanted limited cgi in top gun 2.

While known for doing most of his own stunts, the P-51 Mustang scene in Top Gun: Maverick highlights how some feats are too dangerous even for him . One of the biggest stipulations the actor had going into Maverick is that CGI would not play a major role in the film. Cruise got his wish, as most of the aerial footage depicted in Maverick is done with real planes. Being the man of ambition that he is, Cruise initially wanted to fly the Boeing F-18 fighter jet that's featured heavily throughout the movie. However, this turned out to be impossible.

Despite being a certified pilot, the U.S. Navy denied Cruise's request to fly the F-18, which itself holds a $70 million price tag. While no definitive answer has been given as to why Cruise couldn't fly the F-18 in Top Gun 2 , despite piloting other planes and helicopters in Maverick , it probably has to do with insurance reasons.

The F-18 alone would take up half of Maverick 's budget , and insurance for having Cruise in the pilot seat would have meant an even more expensive gambit. Considering how expensive the jet is on its own, it's probably best that the actor wasn't allowed to pilot it on his own. Rather, Navy pilots assisted in filming the F-18 scenes for Top Gun: Maverick .

Paramount Used Tom Cruise's P51 Mustang For The Top Gun 2 Marketing

Cruise's dedication to the sequel was a big narrative surrounding the movie.

It's no secret that Tom Cruise is an aviation enthusiast. The actor has spoken openly about his love of planes and all things flying throughout his career, and it's something he's both known and admired for among Top Gun fans. Paramount was clearly aware of this, as they leaned heavily into the fact that Cruise flew his own P51 Mustang in Top Gun: Maverick when promoting the movie. Of particular note is the featurette Paramount released on YouTube in 2022, simply titled "Tom's P51 Mustang."

The short promotional featurette is summed up perfectly by its title and is multiple interviews with Top Gun: Maverick 's cast members and technical professionals from the set . They all recount their experiences working with Cruise flying his P51 Mustang, some interesting facts about the plane itself, featuring great behind-the-scenes footage. Paramount putting this out there as part of the Top Gun 2 marketing both shows how astute the studio is at knowing its target audience, and how integral Cruise is as a personality for the Top Gun franchise beyond his acting talent.

Tom Cruise Isn't The Only Famous Plane Enthusiast

Various actors, filmmakers and musicians all have their own planes for travel.

Tom Cruise's P-51 Mustang and collection of other planes is impressive, but he's not the only celebrity who's made a hobby out of owning a plane. A long list of celebrities also owns their own jets for their personal travel needs. The most common jets owned by celebrities are the Gulfstream G650, Dassault Falcon, and the Bombardier, with each jet costing over $50 million and then some.

Mark Wahlberg ( The Departed ) owns a Bombardier BD-700, with which he takes frequent trips overseas, and across the U.S. Harrison Ford ( Indiana Jones ) himself owns a Cessna 680 Citation that jets him quickly all over the U.S. Steven Spielberg has a Gulfstream G-650, visiting various locations overseas. Star Wars creator George Lucas also owns a Gulfstream, with which he flies overseas relatively frequently.

Movie stars aren't the only celebrities who own their own aircraft, as plenty of famous singers also like to travel in style as well. Country superstar Blake Shelton purchased a Gulfstream 4 and takes summer trips across the U.S. Country musician Kenny Chesney also owns a jet, a Dassault Falcon 900 to be exact, and also tours the U.S. Jay-Z owns a Gulfstream 5, taking frequent trips all over. Finally, Taylor Swift herself is the proud owner of a Dassault Falcon 7X, which she uses to travel the globe.

Top Gun: Maverick put Tom Cruise back in the cockpit after three decades, but which specific jet fighter planes appear in the followup to Top Gun?

Top Gun Wasn't The Only Movie Where Tom Cruise Actually Flew

The mission: impossible movies best showcase cruise's commitment to stunts.

The P-51 stunts in Top Gun: Maverick were certainly impressive and such stunts have become typical for Tom Cruise's movie roles as of late. His commitment to realism has been a common theme in Cruise's career and Top Gun: Maverick isn't the only time he has piloted an aircraft on camera. For Mission: Impossible - Fallout , rather than relying on CGI or stunt doubles, Cruise took helicopter flying lessons so that he could perform the movie's biggest action sequence.

Cruise's Mission: Impossible stunts have become the stuff of legends, including his much-talked-about motorcycle jump in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 . However, the skill and training involved in learning to not only fly a helicopter but also pull off the stunts required in that sequence is especially impressive. It is yet another reason Cruise has earned a reputation as one of the last movie stars in Hollywood as he is willing to put everything he has into his roles, from Mission: Impossible to Top Gun: Maverick .

Top Gun: Maverick

• Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

I went 'Maverick' in Tom Cruise's 'Top Gun' training plane and didn't eject my lunch

SAN DIEGO –  Let's make one thing clear: I did not vomit.

That's important to clarify when the faint of heart is thrust aboard the world’s most advanced aerobatic stunt plane, the Extra 330, one of the planes Tom Cruise used to train actors for the rigors of shooting jet action in "Top Gun: Maverick."

As my pride flew out the cockpit, I never took my eyes off the two vomit bags near me, or stopped repeating my mantra:  Don't puke. Don't puke. For God's sake, don't puke.

Confession: I can fly commercial like a pro, but avoid any roller coaster requiring a shoulder harness. Yet I volunteered, even semi-pleaded for this adventure, being offered in conjunction with Tuesday's "Top Gun: Maverick" digital release.

'Top Gun' reveals: Why Tom Cruise's love scene isn't steamy and Val Kilmer's voice didn't need A.I.

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

The phrase "once in a lifetime" opportunity was all the catnip this sucker needed. I brought my own denial to prevent freaking out weeks in advance. 

It didn't help my ever-looming dread to meet a guy who gleefully swiped through pictures of his recent stunt plane-vomit disaster. The spew was everywhere. The windows, seats, on his lovely, forgiving girlfriend. He warned me: Locate the vomit bags before takeoff and don't drink tequila the night before. Done.

I learned a few hours before that I would actually take the controls of the Extra 330 during the flight. But it was all under the guidance of a trained pilot who obviously handled most of the flying. I made sincere eye contact with a preflight message to the man holding the keys to my fate: Slow your roll, cowboy, or it's gonna get ugly fast.

Secrets to 'Top Gun: Maverick's epic football scene: Spray tans, protein bars and panic workouts

I took off like a champ, with moments of pure glee in ever-expanding blue skies. Did I dream that I belted out  "Danger Zone" with my pilot? (He, too, only knew five words.) But that happened. Had I suddenly turned into an adrenaline junkie? No, it passed.

We definitely twisted in the air, gracefully upside down. There was that bizarre reality of looking up at the ground flying past, before slamming my eyes shut and waiting for that to just be over. God meant for the ground to be in the opposite direction. Makes me queasy thinking about it.

The dogfight did me in. Flying right at an opposing plane with me holding the stick. I have no business driving this flying apparatus, especially knowing an arm spasm would turn this jolly jaunt into tragedy. Was there even an arm spasm backup plan?

Ranked:  Every song on the original 'Top Gun' soundtrack (including 'Danger Zone,' obviously)

I was absolutely fine with losing the best-of-three air battles. Winning one was clearly an act of luck or pity. Evading the opposing pilot – a glamorous, beaming British journalist – meant taking maneuvers I'd never, ever willingly do. I flat-out refused one sky-braking move my pilot urged me to take. He overrode me and pulled back the stick. That move alone will take up a few therapy sessions.

Flying the plane Glen Powell trained in for 'Top Gun: Maverick' was maybe too thrilling

Taking Gs from the steep turns was where the battle to stop stomach-fluid ejection reached a new level of urgency. I focused on holding the rising vomit storm, but could not stop the rioting sweat glands that ran amuck. There was even kneecap perspiration and my barber will surely fire me over the debacle of my sweaty hair.

They say the flight was 20 minutes. It felt like an hour. If I was giddy at takeoff, I was exultant upon landing.

"Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski reminded me in my flight debriefing that film stud Glen Powell often tossed his cookies on flights. "He wore it with pride, he was not embarrassed," Kosinski said.

Powell was also flying bigger jets, is a movie star and takes his shirt off in public. Whereas I can merely clutch one victorious thought.

I did not vomit. 

Glen Powell:  'Top Gun: Maverick's coolest pilot suffered 'ultimate gut punch' of losing role

Top Gun: Maverick Director Explains The Extreme Scene That The Navy Pilot Flying Tom Cruise Said He'd Never Do Again

You know it's intense when the pilot won't do it again.

Top Gun : Maverick has been the most successful film on the 2022 movie schedule so far, as it brought tons of viewers into the movie theater to witness the spectacle of high-flying planes and death-defying action. While Cruise is known for, and does, most of his stunts, there was one scene in Maverick where a Navy pilot flew the track for him. When they finished filming the pilot said he never wanted to do it again. 

Joseph Kosinski explained to Empire that the most extreme scene they shot in the movie was Maverick’s speedy flight through the mountains during training. The pilots have to get through a low and curvy path really fast. To prove it’s possible Maverick ends up flying the course. It was agreed early on that these flights would be practical, and everything we see on screen came from “practical aviation assets flying in front of a lens,” as the aerial coordinator Kevin LaRosa Jr. said. So, for this scene, real-life Navy pilot Frank “Walleye” Weisser flew the course with Cruise in the backseat. He elaborated on the technical difficulty of the sequence saying: 

That was the most extreme thing we shot in the film, just in terms of the practicality of what you’re actually seeing on screen. It’s all in-camera, it’s Tom Cruise at 550 knots, going 30 feet above ground through the Toiyabe [Canyon] low-level training grounds. That’s a real Top Gun training thing, but they never fly as low as he does. After they landed, Walleye came up to me and said, ‘Did you get it?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I think we did.’ He said, ‘Good, because I’m never doing that again.’

In other words, they were flying low and fast, and in a way that is never actually done in real Navy training. So, it makes sense the pilot didn’t want to do it again, it sounds like it was a massive and dangerous challenge both physically and mentally. Meanwhile, Kosinski explained that Cruise was having the time of his life, saying: 

He would have done it 100 more times! In fact, I smile because when I watch that sequence, he’s wincing through the Gs, but I know under the mask he’s smiling for most of it, because he’s having the time of his life.

Cruise is definitely committed to the art of great action movies. In the Mission Impossible movies, he’s hung onto the outside of an airplane taking off, jumped from roof to roof, and much more, each time upping the ante. So, it makes sense that in the long-awaited Top Gun sequel Cruise had a blast creating these incredible scenes.

While there are moments in the film that defy the laws of physics , a lot of it was practical. Many of the stars have spoken about training for and filming the scenes up in the air. Danny Ramirez explained how insane it was to film in the air, saying they had to wear multiple hats from acting to helping run the cameras in the airplane. Plus, with Cruise leading the cast, the bar was set high for everyone when it came to training and the filming of the jaw-dropping action. 

While dangerous, the payoff of these scenes was incredible. They really pulled off an amazing feat with this movie, and it’s wild that the action was so intense even a Navy pilot didn’t want to fly certain sequences again. 

You can watch all this action in Top Gun: Maverick which is out on demand. Plus, make sure to stay tuned to the 2023 movie schedule to watch more of Cruise's death-defying action in Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning - Part One . 

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Riley Utley is the Weekend Editor at CinemaBlend. She has written for national publications as well as daily and alt-weekly newspapers in Spokane, Washington, Syracuse, New York and Charleston, South Carolina. She graduated with her master’s degree in arts journalism and communications from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University. Since joining the CB team she has covered numerous TV shows and movies -- including her personal favorite shows  Ted Lasso  and  The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel . She also has followed and consistently written about everything from Taylor Swift to  Fire Country , and she's enjoyed every second of it.

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Winning the Skies Without Losing Your Lunch: Filming ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

The makers of the “Top Gun” sequel discuss the challenges of filming practical aerial stunts.

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By Amy Nicholson

Before Tom Cruise signed on to star in the original “Top Gun,” he asked to take a test flight in a jet. Cruise wasn’t yet world famous, so when he arrived at the hangar, his long hair still in a ponytail left over from “Legend,” the pilots, according to one of the film’s producers, Jerry Bruckheimer, decided to give this Hollywood hippie the ride of his life. Zipping at 6.5 G’s — more than twice the G-forces some astronauts endure during rocket launches — Cruise felt the blood drain from his head. He vomited in his fighter-pilot mask.

He agreed to make the film.

Cruise continued to fly so fast, and so frequently, that he learned to squeeze his thighs and abs to stay conscious. His stomach adjusted to the speed. When the director Tony Scott put a camera in the cockpit, Cruise could smile for his close-ups. His castmates weren’t as prepared.

“They all threw up and their eyes rolled back in their heads,” Bruckheimer said in a phone interview. The original footage “was just a mess,” he admitted. “We couldn’t use any of it.”

“Top Gun” made Cruise a superstar — and the experience of shooting it stuck with him so much, he was convinced he needed to lead a three-month flight course for the cast of “Top Gun: Maverick,” a sequel, now in theaters, that has had 35 years to build up suspense. In the new movie, Cruise’s Capt. Pete Mitchell (known as Maverick) readies a dozen young pilots for a dangerous mission to destroy an underground uranium plant in an enemy land. Behind the scenes, Cruise did roughly the same thing, gradually raising the actors’ aerial tolerance, and confidence, from small prop planes to F-18 fighter jets. “He’s got every kind of pilot’s license that you could possibly imagine — helicopters, jets, whatever,” Bruckheimer said.

In essence, “Top Gun: Maverick” is a 450 mile-an-hour flying-heist caper. The mission leaders devise a difficult set of challenges for the pilots: zoom low and quick, vault a steep mountain, spin upside-down, plummet into a basin and survive a near-vertical climb at 9 G’s while dodging missiles.

Cruise, a contender for the most daredevil actor since Buster Keaton, was adamant that every stunt be accomplished with practical effects. Each jet had a U.S. Navy pilot at the controls, while its actor spun like a leaf in a windstorm. The deserts and snow-capped peaks in the background are real, and so are many of the performers’ grimaces, squints, gasps and moans.

“You can’t fake the forces that are put on your body during combat,” the director Joseph Kosinski said by phone. “You can’t do it on a sound stage, you can’t do it on a blue screen. You can’t do it with visual effects.”

From the safety of theater seats, the audience faces its own challenge: unlearning the computer-generated complacency that’s turned modern blockbusters into bedazzled bores. The imagery of the sky and ground spiraling behind the actors’ heads in “Top Gun: Maverick” looks like it must be digital wizardry. It isn’t.

The movie’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa II, and its aerial unit director of photography, Michael FitzMaurice, filmed from above using three aircraft: two types of jets with exterior cameras mounted on wind-resistant gimbals, and a helicopter, which proved best at capturing the speed of actors whizzing by. One specialized jet could film the same scene using two different lens focal lengths to double the footage captured on a single flight. Once LaRosa heard that the long-anticipated sequel was finally going to become a reality, he also developed his own aircraft, a shiny black plane with cameras that can withstand up to 3 G’s.

“That had never been done before,” LaRosa said in a video interview. As he flew next to the cast, LaRosa dodged trees while keeping an eye on the monitors to make sure FitzMaurice, controlling the cameras from the back of the plane, had gotten the shot.

Kosinski, the director, also spent 15 months working with the Navy to develop and install six cameras in each F-18 cockpit, which meant passing rigorous safety tests and securing the military’s all-clear to remove its own equipment. Luckily, Kosinski said, there were “Top Gun” fans among the commanding officers. “All the admirals that are in charge right now were 21 in 1986, or around there when they signed up,” he said. “They supported us and let us do all this crazy stuff.”

Usually, the Navy forbids pilots from flying below 200 feet during training. One of the film’s most staggering images is of Cruise in an F-18 whooshing just 50 feet above the ground, a height roughly equal to its wingspan. The plane flew so close to the earth that it kicked up dust and made the ground cameras shake. The pilot landed, turned to Cruise, and told the superstar that he’d never do that again.

The actor Monica Barbaro didn’t know how nervous she should be when she agreed to play the pilot Natasha Trace (nickname: Phoenix).

“When I met Joe in my callback, first thing he had me sign a waiver saying that I didn’t have a fear of flying,” Barbaro said by phone. “I just got goose bumps. I was so excited.”

Each flight day kicked off with a two-hour briefing for the pilots and film crew to go over every upcoming shot, movement and line of dialogue. Next, that sequence’s actors and pilots would rehearse the maneuvers in a wooden mock-up of the jet cockpit until the motions were ingrained. Then, they took to the sky to film as many takes as possible before the jet, or the performers, ran out of fuel. In the afternoon, they did it again.

Soaring above the crew, Barbaro and the rest of the cast took on a Swiss Army knife of skills. Instead of hitting her mark on the ground, she had to hit it in the air. The sun was her spotlight. A pilot’s kneeboard on her lap displayed her script, her movements and her necessary coordinates, plus reminders to check her parachute and shoulder straps, fix her hair and makeup, adjust her flight visor, flip on the bright red switch that controlled the cameras, and note down the time codes. Finally, Barbaro had to do her actual job: act.

“Tom just really encouraged everybody, if you are going to throw up, just learn how to do it and move past,” Barbaro said. “We would applaud when anyone threw up, so it became celebrated.” Glen Powell (he plays the hot shot Lt. Jake Seresin, who is called Hangman) even brandished his barf bag while gliding upside-down and flashing a thumbs up.

Barbaro held onto her lunch. But after her first dailies, she said, her face appeared so calm, it gave the impression that the clouds whooshing behind her were simply a green screen. Cruise’s training had prepared her too well.

She was sent back into the sky for a retake.

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The Real Story of Darkstar, the Mach-10 Hypersonic Jet in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

The legendary Skunk Works had a hand in developing Tom Cruise’s fastest plane yet.

• The SR-72 doesn’t really exist, but engineers at Lockheed Martin had a hand in its development.
• The company’s famous Skunk Works division developed the SR-72 , as well as the real SR-71.

In Top Gun: Maverick , Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell takes his need for speed to a new realm: the hypersonic realm, that is. Thirty-six years after the first film debuted, Mitchell is a test pilot flying the SR-72 “Darkstar” airplane. Although fictional, the SR-72 has a real-world pedigree, with design help for the aircraft and models coming from the same group that is designing the real SR-72: the world-famous Skunk Works , Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Development Programs.

According to Lockheed Martin, the production team behind Top Gun: Maverick contacted the company’s Skunk Works division to assist with the SR-72 concept. The Skunk Works, a name drawn from the cartoon Li’l Abner , is the division of Lockheed Martin that works on classified aircraft programs. Established by legendary aviation engineer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson, the Skunk Works has proven itself the most important and influential aviation design bureau of the modern era, responsible for the U-2 spy plane , SR-71 Blackbird , F-117A Nighthawk stealth fighter, F-22 Raptor , and F-35 Joint Strike Fighter .

The Top Gun team made a logical choice. After all, the fictional SR-72 “Darkstar” hypersonic aircraft is meant as a follow-on to the SR-71, which the Skunk Works also developed. Both are high-speed, manned strategic reconnaissance jets. The difference is that while the SR-71 had a top speed of Mach 3.3 (or 2,193 miles per hour), the movie’s SR-72 is firmly in hypersonic territory, reaching Mach 10, or 7,672 miles per hour. (Hypersonic speeds—faster than the speed of sound—exceed 3,000 miles per hour, or over Mach 5.)

Of course, the SR-72 Darkstar is also fake. The movie plane shares its name with the RQ-3 Darkstar , a high-altitude, long-endurance surveillance drone that Lockheed Martin developed in the 1990s. The real Darkstar was a slow-moving spy platform that flew at less than 5 percent of the movie plane’s speed.

But is the movie version closer to reality than one might suspect? The movie SR-72 bears a resemblance to Skunk Works concept art for the real-world uncrewed SR-72, also a hypersonic strategic reconnaissance aircraft, first announced in 2016. The aircraft features a long blended wing and fuselage and small cranked arrow wings. The Skunk Works logo is prominent on the visible tail fin. According to The Washington Post , then-LockMart CEO Marilyn Hewson described it at the time as a Mach 6-capable jet.

The movie’s SR-72 (pictured at the top of this story) is virtually identical to a 2016 rendering that Lockheed Martin released on its website (pictured just above), right down to the Skunk Works logo on the tail. The only major difference is the addition of pilot cockpit windows on the left and right of the movie SR-72, whereas the real-world plane will be uncrewed and would not need any.

Lockheed Martin, on its Top Gun: Maverick webpage , explains it had a number of staff work on the movie project to flesh out what a Mach-10 plane might look like. The page has three short video vignettes featuring “ Jim ,” a conceptual designer who draws aircraft for the company. Using a pencil, Jim sketches the movie SR-72 while sitting outdoors in front of a CGI version of the aircraft.

The next LockMart employee is “ Becky ,” who describes her work as designing and fabricating different types of full-scale pole models. Pole models are models of aircraft that are mounted on tall poles for testing to determine their radar cross-section. The smaller the radar cross-section, the more difficult it is for a radar to detect the aircraft. Becky appears to be at the Lockheed Martin Helendale Radar Cross Section Facility, which had a moment on social media last year when a new, previously unseen aircraft shape was photographed at the facility.

The final two company employees profiled for Top Gun: Maverick are “Jason” and “Lucio.” Jason and Lucio are model-makers that actually cut and mold material to form a concept aircraft, and the video shows them working on a model of the movie SR-72. (Or is it the real SR-72?) Interestingly, Becky, Jason, and Lucio are all shown with a previously unseen teardrop-shaped aircraft mounted on the Helendale facility pole. Whether or not the aircraft is a real design under testing or something cool dreamed up to place on top of the pole remains to be seen.

The movie SR-72 could be a lot closer to a real aircraft than the general public realizes. There’s no Pentagon contract to build the real-world SR-72 yet; So far, it’s an internal Lockheed Martin effort, so it may never actually be built. But it seems likely that what’s on the silver screen is very much along the lines of what at least one defense contractor believes is a plausible aircraft. Unfortunately, it won’t have room inside for Tom Cruise.

Kyle Mizokami is a writer on defense and security issues and has been at Popular Mechanics since 2015. If it involves explosions or projectiles, he's generally in favor of it. Kyle’s articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Naval Institute News, The Diplomat, Foreign Policy, Combat Aircraft Monthly, VICE News , and others. He lives in San Francisco.

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Audiences coming out of “ Top Gun: Maverick ” this weekend want to know one thing, are the actors really flying those fighter jets? The answer in short is, yes.

Tom Cruise , who returns as “Maverick,” is renowned for doing his own stunt work, and he wanted his stars Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro and Glen Powell to learn how to fly. That’s where the film’s aerial coordinator, Kevin LaRosa Jr. , stepped in.

LaRosa Jr. worked with Cruise to put together an intense flight program that began with the cast flying in a smaller aircraft. “We started with the Cessna 172 and we took them through basic flying. This allowed them to see what it was like to take off, land and know where to look and put their hands,” LaRosa. Jr. explains. That starter plane also allowed the actors to get a feel of what a small g-force felt like.

And just like in a real training program, once the actors were comfortable with that, they graduated to the next level and it was onto the aerobatic airplane, the Extra 300. “This was similar to what the general public would see at an airshow where those planes do crazy maneuvers. It can pull up to eight g forces. It’s exhilarating,” says LaRosa Jr.

Again, the exercise would build up their G-tolerance. “That to me is almost like muscle memory. If I don’t fly for a long time, I might go up and get sick. But if I fly every day and pull those Gs, it’s almost like brain muscle and you’re going to get used to it, and get better.” He adds, “We built them up to the point where they were mainly not getting sick.”

Next was the L-39 Albatross. “This allowed them to experience a fighter trainer jet. When they graduated from that, we had aviators.” LaRosa Jr. adds some cast members are working on getting their full license. Glen Powell, who plays Hangman, did get his.

By the time the actors were put into F/A-18, LaRosa Jr. says, “They were confident and they felt good. They were used to those G-forces, and then they could focus on working with Joseph and Tom on telling this amazing story.” He continues, “They didn’t have to worry that they were in this high-performance fighter jet flying through canyons.”

As someone who has dedicated his life being an aerial coordinator, flying and teaching, LaRosa Jr. praises the talent of the cast. Barbaro, he says was the most impressive. “She absolutely killed it, and did a good job of adjusting to the physiological effects of everything.”

Equally as impressive was Powell, who got sick while filming the F/A-18 scenes. Says LaRosa Jr., “He would go and take care of his business and then get right back in the game. of the most impressive things was watching how some of the cast were able to process that and recover themselves.”

The training program set the actors up, so when they were ready to fly and film, Cruise’s determination of wanting the best performances possible were delivered.

For the mission training program that the pilots go on, LaRosa Jr. says the jet-to-jet photography allows audiences to go live with the fighter jets while IMAX cameras were mounted to the inside and outside of the F/A-18. “As the audience, it feels like we’re riding in there with them.” LaRosa Jr. adds, “When you mix all of those things together, you end up with the perfect mix of aerial storytelling.  It is a perfect blend of living with our actors who are absolutely in those aircraft, maneuvering and pulling G’s and also letting the audience see where we are to get spatial orientation and to see these aircraft maneuvering down low and in and around the training range.”

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How the Cast of "Top Gun: Maverick" Made Those Flight Scenes Look So Real

The high-flying, high-intensity stunts were a signature part of the original " Top Gun ," so it's no wonder "Top Gun: Maverick" features several sequences of incredible aerial stunts. With such realistic-looking sequences, it's easy to imagine the actors are actually flying during these scenes — and that's partially true! While they're obviously not actually the ones at the controls during these incredible maneuvers, the actors got to participate firsthand for added realism.

According to Fortune , the Pentagon forbids civilian personnel from actually controlling major assets like the F/A-18 fighter jets depicted in the movie. Instead, the actors who play the fictional team of elite aviators were flown by military pilots along with IMAX-quality cameras.

While they weren't literally at the controls, though, that didn't stop the actors from having to go through some serious training just to be able to be a passenger in these fighter jets! The Ringer detailed the intense training program — spearheaded by Tom Cruise himself — that included dozens of hours of actual flight training, learning about survival tactics, and sustaining up to 8 Gs while in flight.

The results were impressively realistic-looking flight sequences, plus some very uncomfortable and challenging moments for the actors.

"I had about three months of flight training before starting the movie. That time was important to get comfortable with the crafts but also to build up our G-force tolerance, because all of the aerial elements were shot practically. The training started in a Cessna, and moved to an Extra 300, a single-prop aerobatics craft, where you start to improve your G-tolerance. From there we got into an L-39 Albatros, flying with these guys called The Patriots, who are the civilian equivalent to the Blue Angels," Miles Teller, who plays Goose , told Men's Health . "The F-18 is just a completely different beast. Every element of our training came into play during those sequences, all of the breathing techniques and tolerances. Every single day of the shoot we were really getting after it, up until the very last day people were fainting and puking."

Throughout production, the actors also had to keep up with their training in between filming their actual scenes.

"We were doing it during the entire time we were filming, which was a 10-month shoot," Monica Barbaro, who plays Phoenix, told the New York Daily News . "If we ever had a day off from filming, we would be sent over to the airport to go fly . . . to keep sustaining Gs. It would've been a huge disservice to get out of shape."

As it turned out, a few of the actors were inspired by the intense experience and have continued flying since wrapping the movie.

"I started flying on my own, and Tom was with me every step of the way," Glen Powell, who plays Hangman in the sequel, revealed to The Ringer. "After I got my private pilot's license, there was a note waiting for me on the ground from Tom that said, 'Welcome to the Skies.'"

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‘Top Gun: Maverick’ director explains what it took to ace Tom Cruise’s awesome flight scenes

‘You just can’t fake what it’s like to be in one of these airplanes,’ says director Joseph Kosinski.

Anyone who fueled up on Top Gun: Maverick this summer knows the chart-shattering sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 classic features some of the most realistic and hair-raising aerial acrobatics ever committed to film. What you may not know, though, is how Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski collaborated with a team of ace real-life pilots to capture the movie’s authentic aerial combat sequences.

There’s no CGI along for the ride as Cruise and his crack team of present-day daredevils take what seems like an impossible fight to the movie’s unnamed bad guys. That’s because the onscreen action was captured exactly as it actually happened — a feat that required tons of practical expertise from the U.S. military pros who fly the film’s cutting-edge Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (as well as legacy aircraft like Cruise’s old-school Grumman F-14 Tomcat) — all as part of a day’s work.

“I saw online that some Navy pilots were putting on YouTube these videos where they would film their training exercises by putting a little GoPro on the canopy next to them,” Kosinski told The New York Times of his initial research into how Maverick would set up its in-flight action. “And so there was this kind of off-kilter angle that was capturing their training flight, and when I saw that, I was like, this is more interesting than any aerial sequence I’ve seen in a movie in a long time. So, [I wanted to] get the choreography of dog fighting, and do it in a two-seat airplane so Tom can be in the back and the [actual] Top Gun pilot can be in the front and [a real] Top Gun pilot is in the same thing that Tom’s wearing.”

Though Cruise is famous for performing his own stunts , there are some things that just have to be handled by the experts — and that includes piloting an extraordinarily expensive aircraft paid for by the U.S. Department of Defense. Kosinski said Cruise challenged all of the film’s flying cast to get themselves into “the same aviation shape that he was,” easing the illusion that the helmeted pilots actually at the helm were Cruise and the rest of the cast.

“…I can shoot Tom with these cameras, and it’ll look like Tom’s flying it,” Kosinski explained. “That was the inspiration. Then we went to Top Gun [the real-life, Nevada-based Navy Fighter Weapons School ], and we worked with the best pilots in the world flying these sequences for us.”

Committing so much effort to nailing the real look and feel of a dogfighter’s view from the cockpit, confessed Kosinski, “was a lot of work.” But, he said, there’s simply no CGI substitute for capturing the real thing. “You just can’t fake what it’s like to be in one of these airplanes,” he said. “You can’t fake the imagery of what it’s like to be going 600 miles an hour 30 feet above the ground through a canyon. I think, as an audience member, something in your brain tells you it’s real, and there is a visceral response, and so I’m glad we did it.”

The blockbuster sequel continues to swoop box office receipts , collecting a global $1.4 billion and $731 million domestic haul as the year’s highest-flying movie (as well as Cruise’ highest-grossing film ever). If you missed the movie’s initial flight in theaters, not to worry: Top Gun: Maverick has just come in for landing at on-demand streaming platforms, including Amazon Prime and Apple TV+.

Looking for some action and adventure? Peacock has a slew of titles to get your heart rate up, including The Fast and the Furious, Ambulance, and Flashpoint. 

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Tom Cruise Used One Of His Own Planes In Top Gun: Maverick's Final Scene

Nearly 40 years after Tom Cruise flew into our hearts with 1986's "Top Gun," its sequel, "Top Gun: Maverick," has proven that there is still plenty of fuel in the tank for audiences to enjoy. Released during the 2022 Memorial Day weekend, the film, which follows Pete Maverick ( Tom Cruise ) returning to the Top Gun program in order to train a new crop of pilots for a dangerous mission, became a record-breaking juggernaut at the box office. Upon its opening weekend, the film earned over $160 million, becoming the most successful film to open during Memorial Day weekend, besting the previous record-holder, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" (via Deadline ). "Maverick" would go on to become the year's current highest-grossing title (via Variety ) with a worldwide box office gross of over $1.4 billion (via Box Office Mojo ). On top of that, the film was lauded by critics and audiences alike, boasting a 96% score on Rotten Tomatoes . 

Among the film's most beloved aspects are its daring arrays of stunts and plane flying sequences. "Maverick" saw a different challenge as the rest of the cast had to go through rigorous training in order to direct themselves while simultaneously performing their many high-flying action scenes (via The Independent ). For stunt guru Cruise, however, this was clearly a great chance for him to allow his immense love of aviation to shine once again. And he would do this by showing off his own impressive air vessel in the film. 

Cruise's P-51 Mustang is his pride and joy

The end of "Top Gun: Maverick" would see the use of a P-51 Mustang where Rooster, which Maverick uses to fly with his love interest, Penny (Jennifer Connelly). The impressive machine, which was originally built as a fighter jet in the 1940s for use in World War II, belongs to Tom Cruise. "You know if 'Top Gun' was made in the 1940s ... this airplane is the star of the show," says "Top Gun: Maverick" technical advisor Steve Hinton in a behind-the-scenes featurette (via YouTube ). "Airplanes today are very computer-oriented and P-51 is all push, pull, cables, nothing's automatic." To promote the film's release, Cruise even brought late-night television host James Corden into the plane for a special flight — much to Corden's dismay (via YouTube ).

While Cruise may be well-known for his daring array of stunts within such movies as the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, the actor also has a real-life need for speed, owning a varied collection of valuable automobiles, motorcycles, and planes. This should come as no surprise, considering that Cruise obtained his pilot's license in 1994 (via Style ). His plane collection is especially impressive, as he is reported to own upwards of five private jets, including a Gulfstream IV G4 jet, which he originally got for his then-wife, Katie Holmes. Even his famous Mustang would sport "Kiss Me, Kate" on its side for some time until the two broke up (via Forbes ). 

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Tom Cruise felt the need to terrify James Corden in a ‘Top Gun’ fighter jet

The danger zone met the funny bone when Tom Cruise took James Corden up for a pair of unforgettable flights he piloted on Monday night’s “Late Late Show.”

The “Top Gun: Maverick” star, who previously went skydiving with Corden, took the late-night host out to the desert where Cruise revealed he would fly the two of them in a vintage fighter plane.

“With all due respect, you played a lawyer in ‘A Few Good Men.’ I wouldn’t want you to represent me in court,” Corden said. 

Corden tried to run away, but that couldn’t dampen Cruise’s enthusiasm.

“I’m very excited that James is doing this,” he said. “Was he the first late-night show that I asked? Hell, no. He was just the first one — and the only one — who said yes.”

The pair prepped for the flight and Cruise explained what he would do if there’s a malfunction — roll the plane over and dump Corden out.

“I’m going to plop you out,” Cruise said, which had Corden looking stupefied.

If the flight had Corden’s stomach in knots, it had viewers’ stomachs hurting from laughing.

As they took off, Corden asked Cruise for the Wi-Fi password. While they were flying, Cruise took a dive to the left and Corden posted a note saying “Help me” on the window. They also got into a “dogfight” with another plane next to them.

“You’re a madman!” Corden said after Cruise flew over a mountain.

After they landed, Cruise said they were going to go up again in a plane with air conditioning before they engaged in some in “Top Gun” training.

Corden said he has no interest in flying the new plane, but Cruise kept him seated.

“You are my Goose,” he said, alluding to Anthony Edwards’ doomed character in the original “Top Gun.”

“When you say I’m your Goose, it makes me feel excited and then I realize that Goose dies at the end of the film,” Corden said.

Cruise then touched his face to simulate how Corden will feel with negative G and positive G forces. They walked around with Corden’s hands on Cruise’s hips to feel what the flight will be like.

“We’re doing the conga!” an exasperated Corden said.

The segment went into full-blown “Top Gun” parody mode when Cruise started singing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” after Corden complained about going up again. They also played volleyball, a reference to one of that movie’s most famous scenes.

While camping out that night, Cruise explained why he called his movie “Cocktail” and how the missions in the “Mission: Impossible” movies were actually possible.

The next day, they took off in the new plane, singing the “Top Gun” classic “Danger Zone” and “Old Time Rock & Roll,” made famous by Cruise’s movie “Risky Business.”

“This is the stupidest thing I’ve ever done,” Corden said as Cruise pointed out the nearby trees.

James freaked out as Cruise dipped and then ascended. 

“You absolute bastard,” Corden said before motioning to a camera in another plane that Cruise is crazy.

Cruise said he’d fly straight for a bit, then motioned to the camera that he won’t before he went  upside down.

“Oh my god,” Corden said.

They finally touched down and hugged.

“I love you and I hate you at the same time,” Corden said,

“You can be my wingman anytime,” Cruise said, prompting Corden to reply, “I’m good.”

Drew Weisholtz is a reporter for TODAY Digital, focusing on pop culture, nostalgia and trending stories. He has seen every episode of “Saved by the Bell” at least 50 times, longs to perfect the crane kick from “The Karate Kid” and performs stand-up comedy, while also cheering on the New York Yankees and New York Giants. A graduate of Rutgers University, he is the married father of two kids who believe he is ridiculous.

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How Tom Cruise and Miles Teller Pulled Off Those Insane Stunts in Top Gun: Maverick

By Jack King

According to the aviation website Aerocorner , in today's money, a Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet — the fighter jet du jour used by the U.S. Navy since 1995 — costs the American government $67.4 million. That isn't a bulk deal, folks: it's per plane. It should come as no surprise to anyone with a sliver of critical thought, then, that Tom Cruise , Miles Teller and Co. didn't actually pilot the vehicles we see in Top Gun: Maverick .

“But it looks real!” Yeah, it does. That's movie magic, baby.

Nevertheless, Tom Cruise knew from experience on the first Top Gun just how physically taxing the face-melting forces of extreme flight can be: on his debut test run, rocketing up to double the speed of launching astronauts, he hurled inside his oxygen mask. While they might not have actually hit the throttle and handled the joysticks, Cruise did insist that they actually go up into the air, albeit as passengers, not pilots.

Ergo, he put the ensemble of Top Gun candidates through an intensive training course in the run-up to production. Going from smaller prop planes to, eventually, actual F-18s — loaned to the filmmakers by the Department of Defence for a measly $11,000 an hour — they learned not to fly the things, but how best to mitigate the ill effects of jet flight. In part, this was a three-month boot camp to avoid air sickness en masse.

But it worked: “There was never a time on Top Gun: Maverick where we had to delay or stop filming because somebody felt sick,” says Kevin LaRosa II, the movie's aerial stunt coordinator. Sitting down with LaRosa for just under an hour, we got all the goss from the making of the Top Gun sequel.

"We had what I like to call rules on Top Gun: Maverick as far as aerials were concerned. And the first and foremost rule, it all had to be real. However: not every aircraft we used in the movie is readily available in the United States, or they're not flyable here, and we show their aircraft flying.

“So here's the other rule: there has to be an aircraft in front of the lens, but a subject [stand-in] aircraft could be used — like another F-18. And then visual effects comes in, they tweak or retexture it to look like a different aircraft. [See: the ambiguously-defined ”fifth-generation jets" the equally nebulous bad guys fly.]

“But the beauty of that is the audience should know that there really is an aircraft out there — the vapour's going to be real, the flight dynamics are going to be real, it's simply a digital reskin of a real fighter. When it came to VFX plane shots? Always a real aircraft.”

"Our cast had to be in the aircraft for every shot. So when they're delivering those epic performances, they are really in there pulling those Gs. Production went to great lengths to design that in-cockpit IMAX camera set up so those actors could be in there, doing that.

"This was a process that was built in and heavily driven by Tom Cruise. They had me build the training programme: we started them in Cessna 172s — my father and I were actually the first cast flight instructors — and those little single-engine aeroplanes are entry-level aircraft that anyone would learn to fly.

"This gave the actors spatial orientation, and an understanding of what flying was all about, where to look where, where to move their hands, what all of the gauges do, the basic things. How to turn, land, takeoff.

"We graduated from there to an aircraft called the Extra 300. Their new instructor there was Chuck Coleman, a great friend of mine — again, this is all being heavily monitored by Tom Cruise every day, every step of the way. [Cruise earned his pilot license in the mid ‘90s.]

"This is the aircraft the general public would’ve seen in Red Bull Air Races or other stunt shows. It's a single-engine, piston-driven aeroplane that's extremely manoeuvrable and capable of pulling a lot of Gs. This part was to build up their G tolerance.

"From there, we moved on to the L-39 Albatross, a Czechoslovakian fighter trainer jet imported to the US — it's readily available, very manoeuvrable, very fun. And this was for the cast to learn how to pull heavy Gs. By the time they graduated from this one, and got into the F-18s, they were seasoned pros.

“This process lasted for three months, all in parts of Southern and Central California. That's why even for a guy like me, who can watch something and pick it apart, I watched Top Gun: Maverick and it looks like they're real naval aviators.”

"The Cinejet platform is something that I dreamt up: I needed a camera platform that would match the story quality of Top Gun: Maverick , something that'd really let us get in there, into the dogfights and canyon runs, really put the audience through a thrill ride.

"I was struggling to find the right platform and, again, I landed on the L-39 Albatros. I put a picture of a camera gimbal over the nose of the jet — in an old programme called Microsoft Paint — and said, you know what, that's it. We had to work with the manufacturers to make it a reality but, a year later, the L-39 Cinejet was a real thing.

"Previous jet-based platforms worked with partially stabilised camera technology, meaning that if I'm flying that aircraft, and I rock my wings at all, it could disturb the shot. It was a lot harder for the aerial director of photography, or the camera operators sitting in the back of the jet — they'd have to stabilise my movements, which is very difficult to do.

“With the Cinejet, the gimbal is fully stabilised. It doesn't matter what I do while I'm flying, that thing's gonna be rock steady. Now you can get very aggressive, really get the camera in there so we're shoving the audience in the face of these afterburners.”

"We were working with F/A-18 F Models, which are two-seat F-18s — basically a pilot up front, and typically a weapon system operator in the back seat. They look very, very similar. So we'd have forward-facing cameras over the shoulder of actual naval aviators in the front seat at the controls, and four rear-facing cameras [facing the cast] in the back.

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"For the exterior sequences — say when we see Tom flying an F-18, we're enhancing that F-18 with CGI to change it from a two-seat to a single seat. The beauty is that really is a shot of Tom in the back seat of that F-18, so he is there, being piloted by a genuine naval aviator.

"The cast would have an hour and a half to two hours in the morning, and another period in the afternoon, but typically no more than four hours a day. But that's a lot of flying. When you're pulling those days and doing the type of manoeuvres that we were doing, that's a lot.

“Obviously everything in the cockpit needs to be stowed away. They would unzip their flight suit, pull out whatever they need to do their own hair and makeup — you know, spray their face if they needed extra sweat, make sure their mask was centred, their googles were clean.

“Once that was all done they'd stow all that stuff, hit the big red button and start rolling the camera. This is where they became like a [director of photography]: they'd tell their pilots, 'Hey, I need the sun back here at five o'clock, I need a thirty-degree right bank, and I'm gonna hit these lines!'

"Remember, in a jet, you're moving really fast, you're covering a lot of terrain — it's not like you can just get the perfect background and leave it there, you have to hit it, say your line, and come all the way back to get [another take]. By the time we'd get to the debrief, we'd sit there and watch maybe ten takes, and two would be perfect.

“So it's a lot of work — not just sitting there taking a joy ride!”

This story originally ran on   British GQ   with the title  “How Tom Cruise and Miles Teller pulled off those insane, high-flying stunts in Top Gun: Maverick ”

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Tom Cruise Takes James Corden to the Danger Zone with Frightening Flight in 'Top Gun' Fighter Jet

Monday's Late Late Show with James Corden featured the host going on a pair of flights with Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise

Dave Quinn is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE. He has been working at the brand since 2016, and is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It.

James Corden feels the need — the need for a speedy landing.

The Late Late Show host, 43, had an adventurous two days with Tom Cruise on Monday night's show, joining the Top Gun: Maverick actor for a terrifying trip in the air on a pair of fighter jets.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime getaway that Corden wasn't necessarily excited about. In a package of the high-flying experience, he played as an unwilling participant in Cruise's plan — admitting, "When Tom Cruise calls, you sort of have to say yes."

Cruise, for his part, was thrilled to be palling around with Corden again, as the 59-year-old actor previously jumped out of an airplane with Corden while promoting 2018's Mission: Impossible — Fallout .

"I'm very excited that James is doing this," Cruise said, before piloting Corden in both planes. "Was he the first late night show that I asked? Hell no. He was just the first one, the only one , to say yes."

To kick things off, Cruise took Corden for a ride in a 1944 fighter airplane, Corden quickly putting up a sign in the window that said "Help Me."

Things got serious when a dueling plane popped up to challenge them. "We're in a dog fight," Cruise said, as Corden screamed, "I don't give a s---."

For more on Tom Cruise and James Corden flying on fighter jets, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

"You did good," Cruise assured Corden after they landed, the comedian teasing, "The fact that this is your idea of a fun day out tells me how different we are as human beings."

Just when Corden thought he'd survived, Cruise informed him the two would be going up again, this time in a jet fit for modern aerial warfare.

Amid Corden's "I don't want to do it" objections, Cruise told the host, "You are my Goose," a reference to his Top Gun character's best friend in the original 1986 movie.

"When you said I'm your Goose it makes me feel excited and then I realize that Goose dies in the film," Corden explained in response. "You're the first half of the film Goose," Cruise insisted. "That 'You've Lost that Loving Feeling' Goose."

"That's the Goose I want to be," Corden quipped. "I want to be in a bar, singing..."

From there, Cruise and Corden followed through with some additional Top Gun experiences (like a game of volleyball and a camping getaway) before heading up in their flight.

"You look like a fighter pilot, I look like a hamster," Corden said, as they suited up for the flight.

Corden loosened up for his second flight, even channeling his "Carpool Karaoke" segment by singing Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock and Roll" — two tunes famously featured in Cruise's movies.

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But when Cruise started stunting, even flipping the plane upside down, Corden got scared. "Oh my God," he screamed. "This is absolutely ludicrous. This is the craziest thing... this is the stupidest thing I have ever done."

"You absolute bastard," he told Cruise. "I've got an idea, why don't we fly straight for a bit?"

"Okay, we'll fly straight," Cruise said, before flipping them over again.

Back on the ground, Cruise praised Corden for how he handled it all. "You can be my wingman anytime," he said.

"You know what, I think I'm good," joked Corden.

Top Gun: Maverick opens in theaters on Friday. The long-awaited sequel sees Cruise making his triumphant return as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, this time returning as an instructor for the elite fliers three decades after his graduation from the TOPGUN Naval aviation program.

Among his young charges is Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Goose ( Anthony Edwards in the first movie). Miles Teller , who plays Rooster, is among the actors cast as new class of pilots. Also joining are Glen Powell , Greg Tarzan Davis and Lewis Pullman .

Aside from the hands-on skills required for the film, Cruise still had more to share with his costars, when the training was over and the cameras turned off.

"There were times after we were wrapped for the day, we would spend an hour circled around him, listening to the stories that he's been through," Davis, 28, told PEOPLE in a new all- Top Gun special edition .

Added Pullman, 29, "Every one of the pilots has a story of him talking about what he thinks is great about them, what they can do with that quality. He teaches you, basically, how Tom Cruise became Tom Cruise ."

The Late Late Show with James Corden airs weeknights (12:30 p.m. ET) on CBS.

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Tom Cruise surprises James Corden with fighter jet flight: 'You're an actor, not a pilot'

"With all due respect, you played a lawyer in A Few Good Men, I wouldn't want you to represent me in court," the late-night host told the Top Gun: Maverick star.

James Corden lived the Top Gun: Maverick experience to the extreme when Tom Cruise visited The Late Late Show .

In 2018, Cruise took Corden skydiving ; this time, he flew him in a vintage fighter plane and a modern war jet.

"I'm gonna go up in a 75-year-old plane with someone who isn't a pilot? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," Corden says before running in the opposite direction.

Cruise promises Corden that he's not just an actor, but a pilot too, to which Corden retorts, "With all due respect, you played a lawyer in A Few Good Men , I wouldn't want you to represent me in court."

Through Corden's quips asking for the plane's Wi-Fi password and holding up a sign that reads "Help me," he laughs through much of the fear, mixed in with some blood-curdling screams.

As Cruise smiles for the duration of flight, in his element, he plays with Corden, taking him along for a dogfight with a neighboring plane, flying right over mountains and dropping at a 90-degree angle.

"The fact that this is your idea of a fun day out just tells me how different we are as human beings," a winded Corden says.

When the pair gets out of the plane and heads back to camp, Cruise reveals that the day is not yet over. They prepare for a second flight the way any high-intensity fighter pilots do: a game of slow-motion volleyball and a "You've Lost That Lovin Feelin" serenade.

"You're the first half of the film Goose," Cruise reassures Corden, comparing him to the Anthony Edwards Top Gun character before his death in the second half of the film.

The new Hollywood power duo ends their night in a tent, where Corden confesses, "Tom, if you kill me tomorrow, I'll haunt you for the rest of your life." Cruise replies, "James, if I kill you tomorrow, I'll be dead too."

When Corden and Cruise board the next plane, a much cushier, newer vehicle, the host seems to feel more at ease. Upon Corden's request, the action star says, "We'll just fly straight, just relax, just take it easy for a little bit" while he shakes his head at the camera. But Cruise doesn't hold out, nearing the plane to trees and cliffs and pulling off 360-degree loops and spins.

Finally done with the adventure, Corden seems relieved to be returning to the comfort of his studio: "You can be my wingman anytime," Cruise says. "You know what? I think I'm good," Corden replies with a laugh.

Hopefully for Corden's sake, Cruise won't sign him up for any other wild antics in his eighth and final season.

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Related content:

• James Corden leaving The Late Late Show in 2023
• Tom Cruise revisits Goose's Top Gun death in Lady Gaga's 'Hold My Hand' music video
• Why Top Gun: Maverick starts exactly the same way as the original film

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CinemaBlend

Tom Cruise Basically Got 'Top Gun: Maverick' Greenlit By Picking Up The Phone And Telling The Studio He Was Doing It

Posted: May 12, 2024 | Last updated: May 12, 2024

It’s become more common nowadays for popular movies to score sequels/follow-ups decades later. In fact, the most commercially successful movie of 2022 falls into this “legacyquel” category, with "Top Gun: Maverick" soaring over $1 billion worldwide on top of earning critical acclaim. So how did Tom Cruise arrange for his return to the role Pete “Maverick” Mitchell? According to producer Jerry Bruckheimer, it was as simple as calling Paramount Pictures and telling the studio he was doing it. I had the pleasure of speaking with Jerry Bruckheimer on behalf of the "Top Gun: Maverick" digital rollout. After noting how the sequel had been in development since 2010 and hit a setback when Tony Scott, the original "Top Gun’s" director who’d been slated to reprise his helming duties, died in 2012, I asked Bruckheimer at what point he and the other creative minds behind "Maverick" decided that it was still worth moving forward with the movie.

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