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As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taugh... Read all As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom. As students at the United States Navy's elite fighter weapons school compete to be best in the class, one daring young pilot learns a few things from a civilian instructor that are not taught in the classroom.

• Jack Epps Jr.
• Tim Robbins
• Kelly McGillis
• 853 User reviews
• 192 Critic reviews
• 50 Metascore
• 11 wins & 9 nominations total

• Air Boss Johnson

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Who Was Almost Cast in 'Top Gun'?

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• Trivia Stunt pilot Art Scholl was killed during the production of the movie, aged 54. He died when his Pitts S-2 camera plane failed to recover from a flat spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean. Scholl's last words over the radio were "I have a problem - I have a real problem." The exact cause of the crash was never determined, and neither the aircraft nor Scholl's body were ever recovered. The film is dedicated to him.
• Goofs The term "bogey" is misused throughout the movie. A bogey is an unidentified aircraft. Once identified, it is referred to as a "friendly" (for friendly aircraft), "bandit" (for non-friendly aircraft) or "hostile" (for non-friendly aircraft that may be fired at). In USN terminology, a non-friendly surface radar contact is a "skunk".

Iceman : You! You are still dangerous. But you can be my wingman any time.

Maverick : Bullshit! You can be mine.

• Crazy credits The opening credits sequence features a history of the Top Gun program before the title of the film appears on screen, with the remainder of the opening credits devoted to footage of planes being launched from and landing on an aircraft carrier.
• Alternate versions The version of the film shown on the Paramount Network has nearly all of the profane language intact (basically everything but the word "shit"). However, this version also randomly cuts out several scenes and parts of scenes, presumably to fit in the network time slot allotted. Scenes missing altogether include (but are certainly not limited to) Maverick and Goose conversing in their housing regarding whether or not they'll graduate, and Jester and Viper conversing, with Viper revealing hew knew Maverick's "old man." The latter is especially surprising considering this plot point plays a major role in a later scene.
• Connections Edited into MacGyver: GX-1 (1987)
• Soundtracks Danger Zone Written by Giorgio Moroder & Tom Whitlock Performed by Kenny Loggins Produced by Giorgio Moroder Kenny Loggins courtesy of CBS Records

User reviews 853

• Kirpianuscus
• Jul 31, 2019

Everything New on Prime Video in April

• How long is Top Gun? Powered by Alexa
• What military conflict is going on in the movie? Is there an actual war, or just one isolated incident against Soviet fighter planes for some reason?
• What is Top Gun about?
• The soundtrack has a song called "Through The Fire" but does that song actually appear in the movie?
• May 16, 1986 (United States)
• United States
• 102 Pacific Street, Oceanside, California, USA (Charlie's house)
• Paramount Pictures
• Don Simpson/Jerry Bruckheimer Films
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $15,000,000 (estimated)
• $180,258,178
• May 18, 1986
• $357,288,178

Technical specs

• Runtime 1 hour 49 minutes
• Dolby Stereo
• Dolby Digital
• Dolby Digital EX
• Dolby Atmos

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Top Gun: Maverick

Where to watch.

Watch Top Gun: Maverick with a subscription on Prime Video, Paramount+, rent on Fandango at Home, Apple TV, or buy on Fandango at Home, Apple TV.

What to Know

Top Gun: Maverick pulls off a feat even trickier than a 4G inverted dive, delivering a long-belated sequel that surpasses its predecessor in wildly entertaining style.

If you loved the original -- or enjoy some good old-school action -- you need to speed your way to a screening of Top Gun: Maverick .

Audience Reviews

Cast & crew.

Joseph Kosinski

Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell

Miles Teller

Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Jennifer Connelly

Penny Benjamin

Adm. Beau "Cyclone" Simpson

Glen Powell

Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin

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Tom cruise in ‘top gun: maverick’: film review.

The ace fighter pilot returns 36 years after first feeling the need for speed in Joseph Kosinski’s sequel, also starring Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly and Jon Hamm.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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As inescapable a pop-cultural totem as 1986’s Top Gun became, Tony Scott’s testosterone-powered blockbuster has all the narrative complexity of a music video crossed with a military recruitment reel. It’s hard to think of many more emblematic products of the rah-rah patriotism of the Reagan years, with its vigorous salute to American exceptionalism and triumph over a Cold War enemy left purposely vague — hey, don’t want to shut out a lucrative foreign market.

All that has only continued to toxify in the post-Trump age, with patriotism curdling into white supremacy. So depending on where you sit on the political spectrum, your enjoyment of Top Gun: Maverick might depend on how much you’re willing to shut out the real world and surrender to movie-star magic.

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Venue : Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Release date : Friday, May 27 Cast : Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis Director : Joseph Kosinski Screenwriters : Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie

Which this superior sequel — directed with virtuoso technical skill, propulsive pacing and edge-of-your-seat flying sequences by Joseph Kosinski — has in abundance. Every frame of Tom Cruise ’s Maverick is here to remind you, soaking up the awestruck admiration of the young hot shots ready to dismiss him as a fossil and the initially begrudging respect of the military brass who try and fail to pull the cocky individualist into line. “He’s the fastest man alive,” one of the slack-jawed hero worshippers in the control room says early on. And that’s even before he does his signature robotic “Cruise Run.”

“It’s not the plane, it’s the pilot,” we hear more than once. And Cruise leaves no question that he’s the pilot, despite hiring a pro craft team and a solid ensemble cast who were put through extensive flight training. Even the relic F-14 Tomcat, Maverick’s tactical fighter plane of choice in the first movie, gets fired up for a glory lap, a salute to aged movie stars and old technology in one. Cruise’s character is somehow positioned by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie’s screenplay as simultaneously a rule-breaking rebel and a selfless saint. That makes this a work of breathtaking egomania outdone only by the fawning tone of Paramount’s press notes.

Starting when Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” accompanies footage of new-generation F-18 hornets slicing through the clouds and swooping down onto an aircraft carrier amid a sea of high-fives, fist-pumps and thumbs-up, the sequel follows the original beat for beat, to a degree that’s almost comical. And yet, as formulaic as it is, there’s no denying that it delivers in terms of both nostalgia and reinvention. Mainstream audiences will be happily airborne, especially the countless dads who loved Top Gun and will eagerly want to share this fresh shot of adrenaline with their sons.

Pete “Maverick” Mitchell lives alone in a Mojave Desert hangar with a photo shrine on the wall to his former radar intercept officer and best buddy Goose, who died during a training accident in the first film. (Anthony Edwards and Meg Ryan are seen in a helpful recap framed as Pete’s tortured memories.)

Maverick zooms into the Naval base on his Kawasaki each day and continues to get his kicks as a daredevil test pilot, resisting the advancement in rank from captain that would have grounded him by now. But when his aerial showboating pisses off Admiral Cain (Ed Harris), who’s pushing to transition to drone aircrafts and make stick jockeys obsolete, Maverick gets his wings clipped.

Despite having lasted just two months as an instructor almost 30 years ago, he’s reassigned to the elite Fighter Weapons School, aka Top Gun Academy, in San Diego, which was established in 1969 to train the top 1 percent of Naval aviators. Neither Cain nor the academy’s senior officer, call sign “Cyclone” ( Jon Hamm ), wanted him for the job. But Maverick’s former rival and eventual wingman Iceman (Val Kilmer), who went on to become an admiral and command the U.S. Pacific Fleet, convinced them he was the only man who could prepare pilots for a top-secret mission.

A uranium enrichment plant has been detected on enemy soil — once again, exactly which enemy is unclear — and two pairs of F-18s need to sneak in, bomb the bejesus out of it and then get out fast, overcoming a near-impossible quick climb over rocky peaks and then surviving the inevitable blast of enemy missiles and aerial dogfights.

The candidates for that mission are “the best of the best,” former star graduates who are pretty much a repeat of the 1986 bunch aside from being more culturally diverse. There’s even — gasp! — a woman, Phoenix (Monica Barbaro). The two that matter most, though, are swaggering blowhard Hangman (Glen Powell) and Goose’s son Rooster ( Miles Teller ), still carrying around the ghost of his father and hostile to Maverick for stalling his career by taking his name off the Naval Academy list.

The Hangman-Rooster dynamic more or less mirrors the Iceman-Maverick friction from Top Gun , just as the incongruously homoerotic shirtless volleyball scene is echoed here with a rowdy team-building football game on the beach.

The only notable place where the screenwriters don’t genuflect to the original model is with Kelly McGillis’ astrophysicist and civilian Top Gun instructor Charlie, who declined a plum Washington job to stick with her man but doesn’t even rate a mention here. Instead, Maverick sparks up an old romance with Penny ( Jennifer Connelly ), a single mom with fabulous highlights. She runs a local bar — its name, The Hard Deck, doubles as a tactical plot point — which apparently puts her in an income bracket to own a sleek sailboat and drive a Porsche. (Producer Jerry Bruckheimer never met a power vehicle he didn’t love.)

Maverick’s task during training is to test the limits of the super-competitive candidates, whittling them down from 12 to six and choosing a team leader. “It’s not what I am. It’s who I am,” he says of his aviator vocation during a rare moment of self-doubt. “How do I teach that?” Anyone failing to guess who’ll land the team leader spot and who’ll be their wingman isn’t paying attention.

The simmering conflict between Maverick and Rooster — who can’t see past his resentment to perceive the protective responsibility his dad’s friend feels toward him — provides an emotional core even if the role makes scant demands on Teller’s range. But that’s true also of Connelly, Hamm and everyone else in the cast; all of them get the job done while remaining satellites that merely orbit around Cruise’s glittering Planet Alpha, eventually having to acknowledge that Maverick’s a helluva guy no matter what stunts he pulls.

The film’s most moving element comes during the brief screen time of Kilmer’s Iceman, whose health issues reflect those suffered by the actor in real life, generating resonant pathos. There’s reciprocal warmth, even love, in a scene between Iceman and Maverick that acknowledges the characters’ hard-won bond as well as the rivalry that preceded it, with gentle humor.

Kosinski (who directed Cruise in Oblivion ), the writers and editor Eddie Hamilton keep a close eye on the balance between interpersonal drama and flight maneuvers; scenes intercut between field practice and classroom discussions during which Maverick points out fatal errors on a computer simulator are particularly sharp. This is all nuts-and-bolts buildup, however, to the mission itself, in which hair-raising action, seemingly insurmountable setbacks and miraculous saves keep the tension pumped.

This is definitely a film that benefits from the Imax experience and the big-ass soundscape that comes with it. The muscular score by Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga and Hans Zimmer also pulls its weight, with Gaga’s song, “Hold My Hand,” getting prime romantic placement. Musical choices elsewhere tend to lean into a retro vibe — Bowie, T. Rex, Foghat, The Who — while Teller gets to hammer the piano keys and lead a Jerry Lee Lewis sing-along that pays direct homage to his screen dad.

The most memorable part of Top Gun: Maverick — and the scenes that will make new generations swell with pride and adulation for good old American heroism — are the dogfights and tactical maneuvers of the pilots. Just as they should be. The best thing this movie does is boost visceral analog action over the usual numbing bombardment of CG fakery, a choice fortified by having the actors in the airborne cockpits during shooting.

Cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s work benefits from the technological advances of the past three decades, with camera rigs allowing for you-are-there verisimilitude. Cruise’s insistence on doing his own flying is undeniably impressive, even if the headgear’s breathing apparatus gets in the way of his trademark clenched-jaw intensity. No one is going to dispute that he works hard in this movie, justifying the labor of love. But no one is going to come out of it concerned for his self-esteem, either.

Full credits

Venue: Cannes Film Festival (Out of Competition) Distribution: Paramount Production companies: Skydance, Jerry Bruckheimer Films Cast: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, Ed Harris, Val Kilmer Director: Joseph Kosinski Screenwriters: Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, Christopher McQuarrie Story: Peter Craig, Justin Marks, based on characters created by Jim Cash, Jack Epps Jr. Producers: Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison Executive producers: Tommy Harper, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Chad Oman, Mike Stenson Director of photography: Claudio Miranda Production designer: Jeremy Hindle Costume designer: Marlene Stewart Music: Harold Faltermeyer, Lady Gaga, Hans Zimmer Editor: Eddie Hamilton Visual effects supervisor: Ryan Tudhope Aerial coordinator: Kevin LaRosa II Casting: Denise Chamian

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'Top Gun: Maverick' Cast & Character Guide: Who's Who in the Legacy Sequel

Meet the daring pilots joining Maverick in the Danger Zone!

Top Gun: Maverick is one of the biggest blockbusters since the 2020 pandemic. The film sees Pete "Maverick" Mitchell ( Tom Cruise ) return to the esteemed school, Top Gun, to lead a group of young aviators on a near-impossible mission. Seeing Tom Cruise return to Top Gun over 30 years later was a memorable sight. Top Gun: Maverick features familiar faces, new characters, and even appearances of characters who were only mentioned by name. This is a complete character guide for Top Gun: Maverick. Now that the biggest film of the year is available to stream exclusively on Paramount+, we’ve got you covered on who's who.

Related: When Will ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Be Available To Stream?

Tom Cruise as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell

The main character of both Top Gun films is Maverick himself, Pete Mitchell, played by the legendary Tom Cruise. Maverick started as a loose cannon who marched at the beat of his own drum. After the death of his best friend, Goose ( Anthony Edwards ), Maverick learned to grow up and become one of the best aviators in the Navy. When we meet Maverick in the Top Gun sequel, he is still as stubborn as ever, but now he’s often fighting for others. Once he’s tasked with returning to Top Gun, Maverick’s number one priority is making sure the pilots return home from their mission with zero casualties.

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest stars on the planet. You can see him in Edge of Tomorrow , the Mission Impossible series, and American Made ; his upcoming films include Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning (Parts 1 and 2), with both Luna Park and Edge of Tomorrow 2 in development.

Val Kilmer as Adm. Tom "Iceman" Kazansky

Top Gun: Maverick went so far as to make Kilmer’s real-life battle with cancer a part of Iceman’s character. The Iceman graduated Top Gun alongside Maverick. The two didn’t see eye-to-eye at first, but they became best friends by the end of the first film. Val Kilmer delivers a terrific performance as Ice, and Top Gun: Maverick allowed the actor to return to the role. Kilmer had to retire from acting due to throat cancer so the film might be Kilmer’s last role, making it all the more touching.

Val Kilmer has a stellar filmography. Some of his most iconic work includes Tombstone , Kiss Kiss Bang Bang , and Heat . He’s also known for starring in Joel Schumacher’s cult classic, Batman Forever .

Miles Teller as Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw

Miles Teller stars as Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw. The son of Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) and Carole Bradshaw ( Meg Ryan ), Rooster and Maverick’s relationship is one of the film's most significant sources of tension. After the death of Goose in the first film, Maverick feels guilt but also a duty to take care of Carole and Bradley. This leads to friction between Bradley and Maverick since Carole doesn’t want Bradley to be an aviator and get killed like his father. As a favor to Carole, Maverick sets Rooster back three years.

This doesn’t stop Rooster, and he becomes a solid naval aviator. Good enough to be invited back to Top Gun, where Maverick confronts him. The two have a unique relationship, and Rooster is one of the standout characters. Miles Teller is best known for his performances in Whiplash , War Dogs , and Fantastic Four (2015). His most recent film is Spiderhead , and his upcoming projects are The Ark and the Aardvark , The Fence , and The Gorge where he'll star alongside Anya Taylor-Joy .

Jennifer Connelly as Penny Benjamin

Penny is a character that was referenced in the original Top Gun but didn’t make an appearance until Top Gun Maverick . Penny and Maverick have had an on-again-off-again relationship for years, and we see their latest encounter in Top Gun: Maverick . Penny has a daughter named Amelia and owns a bar near Top Gun. Jennifer Connelly brings Penny Benjamin to life. Penny and Mav rekindle their relationship during his time back, and hopefully, it will last. She might be Maverick’s oldest and closest friend, making their bond all the more important to him. Connelly’s notable works include A Beautiful Mind , Requiem For a Dream , and Labyrinth . Connelly will next be seen in Alice Englert 's feature directorial debut Bad Behavior , where she'll star opposite Ben Whishaw .

Lyliana Wray as Amelia Benjamin

Amelia Benjamin is Penny’s daughter. She loves her mother and has a good rapport with Maverick. With the stranger nature of Penny and Maverick’s relationship, Amelia simply wants what’s best for her mother. Lyliana Wray has guest-starred on Black-ish , The Night Shift , and Strange Angel .

Glen Powell as Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin

Lt. Jake Seresin is one of the best pilots in Top Gun, but he’s reckless and leaves his fellow aviators hanging, hence the name. Ironically, Hangman isn’t so different from Maverick during his first stint at Top Gun. In a way, Hangman and Rooster mirror Maverick and Iceman. Glen Powell ’s charisma is on full display as Hangman. The actor initially auditioned for the role of Rooster but later took on the part of Hangman after a conversation with Tom Cruise . Glen Powell previously starred in Set It Up , Scream Queens , and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society . He most recently starred in another aviation-themed film, Devotion , where he starred opposite Jonathan Majors . Powell's career has exploded since the release of Top Gun: Maverick landing leading roles in high-profile projects like Richard Linklater 's action-comedy Hitman , the Kat Coiro -directed buddy-comedy Foreign Relations where he'll play opposite Nick Jonas , and the big-budget Prime Video original series Butch & Sundance which also stars Regé-Jean Page and is a reboot of the classic film Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid .

Monica Barbaro as Lt. Natasha "Phoenix" Trace

Phoenix is one of two female pilots invited to Top Gun. She is often at odds with Hangman and a friend to Rooster and the rest of the aviators. Monica Barbaro is best known for her time on Chicago Justice , The Good Cop , and Splitting Up Togethe r. Her next projects will be a voice-role in the Netflix anime series Army of the Dead: Lost Vegas and playing the co-lead in the Arnold Schwarzenegger -led Netflix series Utap .

Related: 'Top Gun: Maverick': Watch Miles Teller Rock Out to "Great Balls of Fire" in New Video

Lewis Pullman as Lt. Robert "Bob" Floyd

Bob becomes Phoenix's second seat and a trusted friend. His name is Bob, and his call sign is Bob, making for pretty funny banter between him and his fellow pilots. Lewis Pullman has previously appeared in Bad Times at the El Royale , Catch-22 , and Them That Follow . His subsequent appearances are in Thelma , Auxiliary Man , Salem’s Lot , and the Brie Larson -led Apple series Lessons in Chemistry .

Jay Ellis as Lt. Reuben "Payback" Fitch

Payback and his partner Fanboy prove to be terrific pilots under Maverick’s teachings. So much so that they are chosen as major players in the upcoming mission. Jay Ellis starred as Payback and was previously seen in Insecure , Mrs. America , and Masters of Sex . His next role is in the forthcoming film, Someone I Used to Know from director Dave Franco .

Danny Ramirez as Lt. Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia

Fanboy is Payback’s flight partner and operates the backseat controls. He serves the same role Bob does for Pheonix or what Goose did for Maverick. Danny Ramirez most recently appeared in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier , Assassination Nation , and No Exit . His upcoming projects are Plus/Minus , Chestnut , and Captain America: New World Order .

Bashir Salahuddin as Wo-1. Bernie "Hondo" Coleman

Bernie is a Warrant Officer Rank 1 and is working on a program that Maverick is test-piloting. When Maverick gets called back to Top Gun, Hondo goes with him and becomes his assistant coach. Bashir Salahuddin is the writer and star of Sherman’s Showcase , where he plays Sherman McDaniels. He has also appeared in Robot Chicken , The Dropout , and has an upcoming project titled Paradise .

Jon Hamm as Adm. Beau "Cyclone" Simpson

Admiral Simpson is tasked with overseeing Maverick’s mission. He doesn’t tolerate Maverick’s shenanigans and doesn’t think he’s the man for the job. Cyclone is very strict and has a no-nonsense attitude, making him the perfect foil for Maverick. Jon Ham is best known as Don Draper from Mad Men. He has also appeared in Tag , Baby Driver , The Town , and he most recently starred in the title role in Confess, Fletch . 2023 looks to be a huge year for Hamm, he'll be reprising his role as Gabriel in Season 2 of Good Omens , will be joining the cast of Season 3 of the Apple original series The Morning Show , will play one of the leads in Season 5 of Fargo , he'll lend his voice to the animated comedy series Grimsburg, and will star in John Slattery 's directorial debut Maggie Moore(s) .

Charles Parnell as Adm. Solomon "Warlock" Bates

Admiral Bates is much more forgiving of Maverick’s past and wants to support him. Warlock works alongside Cyclone and offers a less-strict approach to the situation at hand. Charles Parnell has starred in many projects, including, The Last Ship , The Venture Bros. , and T ransformers: Age of Extinction . He most recently appeared in the FX series Kindred . He is slated to appear in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One and David Fincher 's action-noir film The Killer .

Ed Harris as Rear Admiral Chaster "Hammer" Cain

Ed Harris has a brief appearance in Top Gun: Maverick , but his presence is felt. We meet Hammer when Maverick is attempting to push his plane to Mach 10 to save the program he’s currently test-piloting for. Hammer arrives to shut down the program in person, and Maverick is flying overhead as he comes. Hammer later informs Maverick that Iceman wants him to report to Top Gun. Ed Harris is known for his roles in The Truman Show , Apollo 13 , Westworld , and Pollock . His upcoming projects include Love Lies Bleeding , Downtown Owl , and Get Away If You Can .

Screen Rant

Top gun cast & character guide.

The Top Gun cast has bona fide movie stars like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer and '80s icons like Kelly McGillis and Meg Ryan playing its characters.

The Top Gun cast contains some of the biggest stars of the 1980s, including a few who remain on the A-list many decades later. The Tony Scott-helmed action drama revolves around LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, a renegade fighter pilot who butts heads with his instructors at the titular U.S. Navy program. Maverick is surrounded by his fellow pilots, his instructors, and the military bureaucrats who try and fail to keep him in line. The Top Gun cast includes contemporary icons like Kelly McGillis and world-renowned movie stars whose fame has lasted, like Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.

While it received mixed reviews upon its initial release, Top Gun struck a chord with audiences and became a huge box office smash. Top Gun was the biggest box office hit of 1986 and has since been reappraised as an action movie classic, even being selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. A big part of Top Gun ’s crowd-pleasing appeal is the committed work of its actors. From its major stars to its scene-stealing supporting players, the Top Gun cast has remained iconic and revered in the decades that followed.

RELATED: 25 Best Top Gun Quotes

Tom Cruise As LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell

Tom Cruise leads the Top Gun cast as LT Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, the roguish, charismatic U.S. Navy pilot at the center of the movie. Cruise later reprised the role in the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick . Cruise got his breakout with the classic 1980s comedy Risky Business and went on to impress critics with his dramatic abilities in The Color of Money , Rain Man , and Born on the Fourth of July . The latter earned Cruise an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He is best known for starring as IMF agent Ethan Hunt in the long-running Mission: Impossible franchise .

Kelly McGillis As Charlie Blackwood

Maverick’s love interest, Top Gun instructor Charlie Blackwood, is played by Kelly McGillis. Outsider her role in the Top Gun cast, the actress is best known for playing Rachel Lapp, the Amish widow who hides Harrison Ford’s Detective John Book when he’s targeted by crooked cops in the acclaimed thriller Witness , which earned her Golden Globe and BAFTA Film Award nominations. She also played Kathryn Murphy, the attorney who helps Jodie Foster’s Sarah Tobias prosecute her attackers in The Accused . Later in her career, McGillis took roles in horror films like Stake Land , The Innkeepers , and We Are What We Are .

Anthony Edwards As LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw

Anthony Edwards appears in the Top Gun cast as LTJG Nick “Goose” Bradshaw, Maverick’s radar intercept officer and best friend. Edwards is most renowned for playing the now-deceased Dr. Mark Greene in ER , which earned him a Golden Globe, six SAG Awards, and four consecutive Emmy nominations. He also played Inspector William Armstrong in Zodiac and the recurring role of Mike Monroe in Northern Exposure . In 2022, Edwards appeared in two of the year’s most widely praised limited series; he played Alan Reed in Inventing Anna and Bruce Dunlevie in WeCrashed .

Val Kilmer As LT Tom “Iceman” Kazansky

Top Gun student LT Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, Maverick’s rival and later his wingman, is played by Val Kilmer. The actor reprised the role for a brief but poignant cameo appearance in Top Gun: Maverick . Kilmer has starred in a wide variety of movies, from the absurdist spoof Top Secret! to the action-packed neo-noir epic Heat to the fantasy adventure Willow . He earned widespread acclaim for his portrayal of Jim Morrison in the music biopic The Doors . He took over as Bruce Wayne in Batman Forever after Michael Keaton quit the Batman role , and he played Doc Holliday opposite Kurt Russell’s Wyatt Earp in Tombstone .

RELATED: Goose's Death In Top Gun Isn't Maverick's Fault, It's Iceman's

Tom Skerritt As CDR Mike “Viper” Metcalf

Tom Skerritt appears in the Top Gun cast as CDR Mike “Viper” Metcalf, Maverick’s commanding officer and instructor at Top Gun. Viper served alongside Maverick’s father, Duke Mitchell, in the Vietnam War. Skerritt was already an established star before taking the role of Viper in Top Gun . He’d played Duke Forrest in Robert Altman’s original movie version of M*A*S*H , and Dallas, the captain of the doomed space freighter Nostromo, in Ridley Scott’s sci-fi horror masterpiece Alien . He went on to play Drum Eatenton in Herbert Ross’s tearjerking adaptation of Steel Magnolias .

Meg Ryan As Carole Bradshaw

Carole Bradshaw, Goose’s loving wife and mother of his son, Bradley, is played by Meg Ryan. The actress got her start on the soap opera As the World Turns before appearing in Top Gun . She rose to fame with her leading role opposite Billy Crystal in the seminal romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally , for which she scored a Golden Globe nomination. She starred alongside her Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer in The Doors and opposite Hugh Jackman in Kate & Leopold . She also famously teamed up with frequent collaborators Tom Hanks and Nora Ephron for the classic romcoms Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail .

Top Gun Supporting Cast & Characters

Michael Ironside as LCDR Rick “Jester” Heatherly: LCDR Rick “Jester” Heatherly, a Naval aviator and Top Gun instructor, is played by Michael Ironside. The actor is best known for playing villainous roles like Darryl Revok in Scanners and Agent Richter in Total Recall . But he has also played sympathetic roles, like Jester in Top Gun and teacher-turned-squad leader Jean Rasczak in Starship Troopers .

James Tolkan as CDR Tom “Stinger” Jardian: The commander of the USS Enterprise Carrier Air Group, CDR Tom “Stinger” Jardian, is played by James Tolkan. The actor is most famous for his roles as Marty McFly’s authoritarian teacher Mr. Strickland and his Western-era ancestor Marshal Strickland in the Back to the Future trilogy.

RELATED: How The Original Top Gun Movie's Jet Fighter Scenes Were Filmed

John Stockwell as LT Bill “Cougar” Cortell: John Stockwell appears in the Top Gun cast as LT Bill “Cougar” Cortell, Maverick’s former wingman. Stockwell previously played Arnie’s best friend, Dennis Guilder, in the Stephen King adaptation Christine . He later became a director with such films as the teen drama Crazy/Beautiful and the action thriller Into the Blue .

Tim Robbins as LTJG Sam “Merlin” Wells: LTJG Sam “Merlin” Wells, Cougar’s radar intercept officer — and later Maverick’s during the climactic set-piece — is played by Tim Robbins. The actor went on to become a star in his own right, playing lead roles like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption and Dave Boyle in Mystic River , which earned him an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Clarence Gilyard as LTJG Marcus “Sundown” Williams: LTJG Marcus “Sundown” Williams, Chipper’s radar intercept officer — and later Maverick’s near the end of training — is played by Clarence Gilyard in Top Gun . Gilyard also played private investigator Conrad McMasters in Matlock , Walker’s partner Jimmy Trivette in Walker, Texas Ranger , and Hans Gruber’s computer expert Theo in Die Hard .

MORE: Top Gun: Maverick New Cast & Returning Character Guide

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After more than thirty years of service as a top naval aviator, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot. Yet, Maverick must confront the ghosts of his past when he returns to TOPGUN to train a group of elite graduates and comes face to face with Lt. Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of his former wingman "Goose". Bitter rivalries ignite as the pilots prepare for a specialized mission which will require the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.

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• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned)
• Package Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.48 x 5.35 x 0.55 inches; 2.72 ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ DVD
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 130 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ October 31, 2022
• Actors ‏ : ‎ Tom Cruise, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller
• Dubbed: ‏ : ‎ Spanish, French
• Studio ‏ : ‎ PARAMOUNT
• ASIN ‏ : ‎ B09XZMF4MG
• Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
• Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
• #15 in Action & Adventure DVDs

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Tom Cruise’s 20 Best Performances, from ‘Top Gun’ to ‘Mission: Impossible’ to ‘Magnolia’

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Cruise has been leveraging looks and charm, and flexing his blockbuster muscles, for decades. Going all the way back to the early 1980s, his appeal never seems to age, even at 61 years old. He’s skillfully shepherded original movies as a star and producer, never falling into the trap of IP except, of course, with the franchises that are entirely his: “Top Gun,” “Mission: Impossible,” and “Jack Reacher.” Related Stories Lewis Hamilton Regretted Turning Down a Role in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’: ‘It Could’ve Been Me!’ Jerry Bruckheimer Offers ‘Top Gun 3’ Update: Joseph Kosinski Is Developing a ‘Wonderful’ Story Idea for Tom Cruise

While some may say that Cruise’s sculpted movie star image lacks a certain vulnerability, many of the films below showcase his gifts for dramatic acting, proving him more than just a deft maneuverer of box office and death-defying stunts — though he is, of course, all those things.

Cruise may in fact be the Last Movie Star in a time where such a nomenclature doesn’t really mean much anymore. He’s worked with smart directors — from Martin Scorsese to Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Stanley Kubrick — often chasing them down himself with a wicked idea or hopes for a collaboration. He’s thrived and held his own alongside iconic movie stars in classics, from Jack Nicholson in “A Few Good Men” to Paul Newman in “The Color of Money,” and even in duds alongside the likes of Meryl Streep and Robert Redford (“Lions for Lambs,” anyone?).

As we saw from the way he stood up against COVID rule-breakers on the set of “Mission: Impossible 7,” he cares about his collaborators and the work. And with “Dead Reckoning Part One” heading to theaters this week, Cruise has a brand new chance to showcase his charisma and talent for pulling off death-defying stunts onscreen.

Samantha Bergeson, Christian Blauvelt, and Kate Erbland also contributed to this story.

“Risky Business” (1983)

Few actors embodied the ‘80s as a time of simultaneous repression and entitlement like Tom Cruise in “Risky Business.” Paul Brickman’s capitalist satire, with its silky Tangerine Dream score and night cinematography by Bruce Surtees and Reynaldo Villalobos worthy of a Wong Kar-Wai movie, finds Cruise’s high school senior Joel having sex with a call girl (Rebecca De Mornay) on a dare and getting entangled in her orbit until he’s running a brothel from his house. He certainly expresses both an attraction and terror about losing his virginity, but morality or prudishness about profiting from sex workers? Hardly, despite the white-collar suburban setting. That is, after all, a world of materialism, of transactions, and running a brothel out of one’s home isn’t transgressive — it’s entrepreneurship. Or “human fulfillment,” the corporate buzzword label Joel gives it.

“Top Gun” and “Top Gun: Maverick” (1986, 2022)

Tom Cruise is both a great actor and a great movie star, two jobs that often overlap but don’t necessarily have to. The first “Top Gun” is a quintessential movie star performance from Cruise, relying more on excellent vibes than challenging character work. Pete Mitchell, aka Maverick, is a brilliant but cocky pilot, and we’re occasionally reminded that he’s tortured by the death of his father. But really, the movie is an excuse for Tom Cruise to wear cool sunglasses and leather jackets while he operates cool planes and motorcycles. No shame in that game, and Cruise can do it as well as anyone. But “Top Gun: Maverick” takes those good vibes and builds on them, and an aging Cruise turns the character into something much more three-dimensional as Maverick confronts the possibility of losing the life he has grown to love. Each movie is great in its own way, but the combination of the two serves as a perfect illustration of Tom Cruise’s unique set of skills. — CZ

“The Color of Money” (1986)

All you need to know about Cruise’s performance as Vincent — beyond the fact that he’s the kind of character who, totally unironically, wears a T-shirt printed up with just his name in massive letters across the chest —  is contained in the iconic “Werewolves of London” sequence . Vince faces off against a fierce competitor just for kicks, displaying wild cockiness, total resilience, and a major panache for pool-playing that shouldn’t surprise anyone up to snuff on his dedication to practical stunts. The actor practiced for months on end and ultimately completed nearly every one of Vince’s trick shots on his own, but that’s not even the marquee attraction here: instead, it’s Cruise’s full-force charm. “Top Gun” made the initial case, but “The Color of Money” sealed it. — KE

“Rain Man” (1988)

“Born on the Fourth of July” (1989)

Based on Vietnam War veteran Ron Kovic’s autobiography, “Born on the Fourth of July” starred Tom Cruise as an anti-war activist grappling with PTSD after being paralyzed in military service. Kovic’s life is depicted over the course of two decades onscreen; fellow Vietnam vet Oliver Stone co-wrote the screenplay with Kovic and directed the Oscar-winning film. Despite Al Pacino originally being attached to the lead role, Cruise carved out his iconic performance and received his first Academy Award nomination. Stone went on to win for Best Director, with the film also taking home Best Editing.

“Days of Thunder” (1990)

A sweat-soaked hotshot with a devil-may-care attitude and a taste for speed, danger, and zero gets handed a plum assignment that feeds all those desires and more. His love interest is smarter than him (and knows it). He rubs everyone the wrong way (including the similarly hotshot-y dudes also jockeying for a spot). He begrudgingly accepts a stately mentor. His unlikely best pal is grievously injured while on the clock. The soundtrack is a banger. Tony Scott directs.

No, this isn’t “Top Gun” — it’s the racecar drama “Days of Thunder,” which vroomed into theaters four years after the high-flying aviation hit, packed to the goddamn gills with the same elements that made the previous entry such a heart-pounder. As Cole Trickle, Cruise captures the same bravado and ballsy attitude as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, but in a decidedly earth-bound conveyance.

“A Few Good Men” (1992)

“The Firm” meets “Top Gun” is probably the simplest way to explain Aaron Sorkin’s complicated legal drama starring Tom Cruise and directed for the screen by Rob Reiner.

Cruise plays Lieutenant Daniel Kaffee, a military attorney who is assigned a murder case involving three Marines. Demi Moore is Kaffee’s fellow lawyer Lieutenant Commander JoAnne Galloway who questions Kaffee’s motives and approach to the case.

The duo question officers at Guantanamo Bay as they uncover a conspiracy involving corrupt witness accounts and bogus testimony.

Jack Nicholson stars as Colonel Nathan Jessup, who defends the practices of his Marine unit, and Kevin Bacon, Kiefer Sutherland, Noah Wyle, and Cuba Gooding Jr. round out the ensemble cast.

The film was applauded by critics upon release in 1992, with its acclaim marking the Cruise star vehicle as the “anti-‘Top Gun.’” “A Few Good Men” was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. — SB

“The Firm” (1993)

Gene Hackman plays Mitch’s boss Avery, while Ed Harris is an FBI agent using Cruise to expose the Firm’s corrupt offshore dealings and Chicago mob ties. Mitch’s legal prowess leads him to a private investigator (Gary Busey) and an ingenious secretary (Holly Hunter, who landed an Oscar nomination for the role) but leaves countless bodies in his wake. The cat and mouse thriller is anchored by Cruise’s signature smile and innate ability to build tension through his typically fierce determination to prove the truth. Call it Cruise’s good guy version of “American Psycho,” if you will, because you’ll never look at a lawyer the same way again. — SB

“Interview With the Vampire” (1994)

“Mission: Impossible” (1996 and onward)

Tom Cruise seamlessly shifted into the action star status era of his career with 1996’s “Mission: Impossible.” Based on the action spy series of the same name, the film franchise has endured over 25 years of billion-dollar profits to date. Cruise transformed into charismatic CIA agent Ethan Hunt who leads the Impossible Missions Force. Brian De Palma directed the first film, originally with Cruise set to reteam with “The Firm” filmmaker Sydney Pollack before De Palma took over.

“Jerry Maguire” (1996)

For years, conceiving a great Tom Cruise role was as simple as coming up with a cool job that lots of men wanted. Fighter pilot? Check. Pool hustler? Cruise played one. Hot bartender? Ditto. So it was almost inevitable that he would play a sports agent at some point, and Cameron Crowe gave him a beautiful vehicle to do just that in “Jerry Maguire.” While the idea of a rom-com set in the world of sports may be the greatest marketing ploy of all time, the endlessly quotable film is elevated by a thoughtful script and great performances from Cuba Gooding Jr. and Renee Zellweger. But it’s Cruise’s singular charm that ties the movie together, seamlessly alternating between alpha-male swagger and sentimental romance without ever missing a beat. It’s the kind of performance that reminds cinephiles what a real movie star is. — CZ

“Eyes Wide Shut” (1999)

Kubrick stops short of stripping him down to that degree, but the filmmaker disarms Cruise into giving one of his most exposed turns. (Recall an earlier scene in the film, when a marauding pack of frat boys flings gay slurs at Dr. Bill, a moment that calls the character’s, and by extension the actor’s, masculinity into question.) When the masquerade is over, and he finally heads back to a sleeping Alice, only to see the Venetian mask he wore to the orgy displayed on the pillow next to her, he breaks down. “I’ll tell you everything,” he weeps. Kubrick doesn’t show what happens then, instead cutting to an emptied-out Alice smoking blankly, having now absorbed his confession. No matter, as Cruise’s sometimes arch but inevitably denuded performance up to here tells us what we need to know about this offscreen moment. And then, of course, there’s that one thing Bill and Alice need to do as soon as possible. — RL

“Magnolia” (1999)

Cruise had jitters over taking on the role of Frank T.J. Mackey in Anderson’s sprawling San Fernando Valley love letter “Magnolia,” and that’s unsurprising given the leaps he takes. (And singing Aimee Mann’s “Wise Up” in-camera? How’s that for vulnerability.) The character, a motivational speaker peddling misogynistic pickup tips with wildly slung onstage maxims like “respect the cock” and “tame the cunt,” is all sorts of unpleasant. He’s viciously guarded toward a broadcast journalist interrogating his toxic male persona, preening and jumping around in his underwear in a moment that might anticipate the real actor’s eventual “Oprah” onstage meltdown. Frank dodges questions about his estranged, ailing father (Jason Robards), obviously hiding volcanic levels of trauma. But in a movie where “we may be through with the past, but the past ain’t through with us,” Frank ultimately has to pay his tab. Cruise scored a Best Supporting Actor Academy Award nomination most certainly for a cathartic deathbed breakdown in the movie’s operatic climax, clinging to his cancer-riddled father’s last rattle of life and watching redemption slip away. It’s the most moving single-scene performance of Cruise’s career. — RL

“Vanilla Sky” (2001)

Despite the movie’s constantly shifting timeline, Cruise conveys a compelling and coherent emotional arc, whether withdrawing into depression or huffing the fumes of his megalomania. With “Magnolia” and “Eyes Wide Shut” before it, “Vanilla Sky” capped a period of Cruise opening himself up emotionally to audiences. No other actor could better sell the wincingly cheesy line, with David tipping over a Manhattan high-rise ledge at the end (or beginning?) of his life, “I’ll see you in another life when we are both cats.” — RL

“Minority Report” (2002)

“Collateral” (2004)

When Tom Cruise gives that unblinking, intense eye contact — come on, you know you’ve seen it in interviews as well as in movies — you can either think this is the most committed, fully realized performer (or, maybe, human?) in existence, or that he’s an “American Psycho” type come to life. So of course he had to play a serial killer at least once. Not just any serial killer, though. One who is a professional and demonstrates the level of professionalism Cruise brings to everything he does himself. His Vincent in Michael Mann’s “Collateral” is meticulous, and he comes up with a unique plan. He’ll hire an ordinary Los Angeles cabbie, Max (Jamie Foxx), to drive him around the City of Angels to carry out his hits in the course of one night. Cruise has been able to do something the past couple of decades that few others have managed: to make action thrillers that are also character studies, and “Collateral” is the ne plus ultra of that combination. His character’s shock of silver hair notwithstanding, this unexpectedly haunting movie is pure gold. — CB

“War of the Worlds” (2005)

“Tropic Thunder” (2008)

Tom Cruise may have spent much of the 21st century cementing his status as the world’s greatest action star, but his surprise cameo in “Tropic Thunder” proved he can do comedy with the best of them. Cruise donned a fat suit and prosthetics to play studio executive Les Grossman, delivering a masterclass in the creative use of profanity (in addition to some legendary dancing to Flo Rida). Considering how carefully Cruise guards his image, seeing the movie star randomly pop up in a comedy and cut loose with an unhinged performance is a singular cinematic treat. — CZ

“Oblivion” (2013)

“Edge of Tomorrow” (2014)

Part of what makes Cruise such a good movie star is that he helps the cast around him shine. As larger-than-life as he can be, he’s also a generous scene partner who builds wonderful dynamics with his co-stars (see how good he and Rebecca Ferguson are playing off each other in the “Mission: Impossible” movies for proof). One of the clearest cases of this is “Edge of Tomorrow,” the highly underrated action film he headlined in 2014. Playing a public relations officer in a future where humanity is at war with alien “mimics,” Cruise is a blast. He’s cast slightly against type as a clueless wimp in over his head; especially after he gets stuck in a time loop where he repeats the same 24 hours after being killed in combat. But the best performance in the film is from Emily Blunt as the seasoned veteran he allies with, and Cruise is more than happy to give her the spotlight she deserves, while still delivering sparky chemistry. –WC

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All the Tom Cruise Movies Top Gun: Maverick Basically Rolls into One

If you were alive and cognizant in the early 1980s, you remember when America first developed a crush on Tom Cruise. It happened when he slid sock-footed and pants-free to the sound of Bob Seger in Risky Business . But three years later, in 1986, when Cruise’s naval-officer grin in Top Gun spread across cineplex screens from sea to shining sea? That’s when Americans fell in love.

There was something about Cruise as Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell — his motorcycle-revving exuberance and a charm just potent enough to undercut his arrogance — that was irresistible. It certainly helped that Maverick personified two fundamental American values that are completely at odds with each other: a belief in the exceptionalism of the military and an admiration of individualistic, authority-defying rebels. Maverick was all of that in one package, the best fighter pilot in the Navy and a guy whose ego very famously wrote checks his body couldn’t cash. He could fly an F14 Tomcat upside down and flip a Russian pilot the bird then enrage his superiors while still convincing them he had done the right thing.

More than any other role he would play — and yes, I am counting Ethan Hunt in the Mission: Impossible movies — Maverick defined Tom Cruise within the public imagination. Many of the characters he would take on during the three decades that followed would share some of the same core qualities as his Top Gun persona: daring, defiant, athletic, incredibly hardworking, and willing to put their lives on the line to achieve a seemingly insurmountable goal. Cruise’s own personal image, especially in recent years, has been built around these traits, too.

All of that Cruiseyness runs deep in the veins of Top Gun: Maverick , the sequel to 1986’s Top Gun . The follow-up is certainly its own entity and in many ways a more emotionally resonant experience than the first because it reckons so directly with the passage of time. As our film critic Bilge Ebiri put it in his review , this is “a movie haunted by the image of its own star and of an America that may not exist anymore.”

But there are also enough direct callbacks to the original to make Top Gun: Maverick feel a bit like a remake of Top Gun as well as, when viewed through the prism of Tom Cruise’s filmography, a reflection of many other movies he has starred in during his long career. (I said many, not every. There are no reminders of The Mummy in Top Gun: Maverick , and I am grateful for it.)

Note: This is the part where a lot of Top Gun: Maverick spoilers will start to appear.

Top Gun : Maverick is basically just Top Gun again.

Top Gun: Maverick starts exactly the way Top Gun does, with the low thrum of Harold Faltermeyer’s “Top Gun Anthem,” a title card that explains the history of the elite Fighter Weapons School at Miramar, imagery of planes revving up and taking off, and a transition from Faltermeyer’s music to Kenny Loggins’s “Danger Zone.” This may be the most “it’s 1986 again!” thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I’ve seen the new season of Stranger Things and also used to host a college radio show called “Cheezin’ Through the ’80s.”

In addition to the presence of Goose’s fighter-pilot son — call sign Rooster — there are photos of Anthony Edwards’s Goose sprinkled into many scenes along with replays of sequences involving him from the first movie. Rooster, played by Miles Teller, even sits at a piano in a bar and plays “Great Balls of Fire” like his daddy did, in the same shirt and mustache, too.

As in the first film, Tom Cruise rides a motorcycle adjacent to departing planes, because he will always have the need, the need for speed. He returns to Miramar, this time to be an instructor, and does another of his infamous inverted dives while in flight. Maverick, naturally, makes sure to reserve some time for shirtless athletics. While Top Gun offered the beach volleyball scene, one of the most homoerotic sequences in mainstream American cinema and easily the most homoerotic sequence set to a Kenny Loggins song, Top Gun: Maverick gives us Nerf football on the beach. But honestly? Same thing.

While Kelly McGillis’s Charlie Blackwood is notably absent from this sequel, Maverick does have a love interest who lives in a charming house whose exterior kinda sorta resembles the beach bungalow in which Charlie lived. But if you think Penny Benjamin, played by an absolutely gleaming Jennifer Connelly, is a new character created entirely for Top Gun: Maverick , think again. In Top Gun: Maverick , even the smallest details provide an opportunity for another callback.

As in Top Gun , the enemies in Top Gun: Maverick are never identified. Okay, we all basically knew that the bad guys in the first movie were the Russians, even though that’s never explicitly stated. But there’s even more mystery surrounding the military exercise that the young pilots are training for in Maverick . The country where it’s supposed to happen is never named. As in Top Gun , the identities of the enemy pilots are completely hidden behind very dark helmets. This allows Top Gun: Maverick , like its predecessor, to go full rah-rah for our American men and women in uniform without ever wading into politics or the thorny reasons why the U.S. may be attacking this random location. This is all good for global box-office prospects, of course.

Actually the real enemy in both Top Gun movies isn’t a non-American country. It’s anyone who stands in Tom Cruise’s way. Because, of course, Maverick will eventually break protocol, take matters into his own hands in a way that puts multiple lives at risk, and nevertheless emerge as the hero. That is why he’s called … Maverick. Look, when Tom Cruise, also an EP of Top Gun: Maverick , promises the world he’s going to make another Top Gun movie, he really means he’s going to make another Top Gun.

Top Gun: Maverick is a Mission: Impossible movie.

The major storyline in this film focuses on a top-secret mission that is so challenging, the best recent graduates of Top Gun have been called back into service to get it done, while Maverick — in case you forgot, the best of the best — has been invited to guide them. Basically this group of pilots has to fly into a narrow canyon, drop bombs on a uranium production facility at the precise right moment, then zoom out of there as quickly as possible, without being blown up by enemy fire. One could very accurately say this mission sounds … impossible? The attention to detail about how to execute that mission, and the tense depiction of how it gets pulled off — spoiler, but come on not really: only Tom Cruise can really do this — would not seem at all out of place in one of Cruise’s Ethan Hunt-driven vehicles.

Top Gun: Maverick is The Color of Money

The Color of Money , also released in 1986, post– Top Gun , was a sequel to The Hustler , which came out 25 years prior to its sequel. ( Top Gun: Maverick is landing in theaters, following multiple COVID delays, 36 years after the first.) In it, Paul Newman reprised his role as Fast Eddie Felson at the age of 61; Cruise is returning to screens as Maverick roughly a month before his 60th birthday. In The Color of Money, Fast Eddie becomes a pool-playing mentor to the unpredictable hotshot Vincent, played by Cruise. In Top Gun: Maverick , Maverick becomes a mentor to a bunch of hotshot pilots while also still being a hotshot pilot because Tom Cruise is old but also young and also the only person who can truly solve all problems.

Top Gun: Maverick is Risky Business

Admittedly this is a bit of a stretch since Top Gun: Maverick is not about a prostitution business or trying to get into Princeton or contending with Guido the Killer Pimp. However, the catchphrase that winds up becoming a life philosophy for Cruise’s Joel Goodsen — “Sometimes you gotta say, ‘What the fuck?’” — is also a mantra for Maverick in both Top Guns . One could say the same about other Cruise characters, who are nearly all risk-takers. In short, Joel from Risky Business said “What the fuck?” and walked so that Maverick, in Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick , could say “What the fuck?” and fly a plane into the stratosphere.

Top Gun: Maverick is The Edge of Tomorrow

In this underrated action film, released in theaters eight summers ago, Cruise plays a member of the military who gets stuck in a time loop and keeps revisiting the same moment over and over again, and I’m sorry, but don’t tell me that could not also be the logline for Top Gun: Maverick .

Top Gun: Maverick is, Above All, a Movie About Tom Cruise

The public’s feelings about Cruise, a man the New York Times has dubbed “Hollywood’s last real movie star,” has (understatement) taken some twists and turns over the years. Following his fascinatingly messy divorce from Katie Holmes and heightened scrutiny over his Scientology connections, he risked becoming a persona non grata instead of a blockbuster-making machine. Then he quietly rejiggered his image.

He started to focus solely on action movie roles. In nearly all those roles, from Ethan Hunt to Jack Reacher to Barry Seal in the very smart American Made , he embodied the very qualities that defined Maverick: confident, determined, respectful of rules but always more than willing to break them. He has come across the same way in interviews and media coverage. He’s the guy who does all the stunts himself, which is both reckless and a sign of his work ethic (very Maverick). He’s also someone who keeps his emotions in check (also very Maverick) and his personal life, these days, to himself.

In Top Gun: Maverick , another character points out that Pete doesn’t really have any ties. He never married; he has no kids. His life is his work. That’s who Tom Cruise is to us now, too. He’s the movie star who projects his commitment to movie stardom at all times as if that’s all we care to know about him. For many, that is all we care to know. Or maybe not knowing much makes it easier to keep enjoying his movies, which I think that many still want to be able to do.

Since his split from Holmes and his full turn toward action fare, Cruise has also relinquished his status as a sex symbol, which was so central to his image in the first half of his career that it’s astonishing how easily it disappeared. He almost never does love scenes anymore. Rarely does he make headlines because of who he is dating, and even when he does, it’s a blip that barely registers .

Top Gun: Maverick notably gives Cruise an active love interest, something that has become a rarity in his recent films. But unlike so many other elements in this sequel, it departs from the first Top Gun by not really showing Maverick and Penny have sex. There is a romantic scene that implies the two of them do the deed, but it is wildly tamer than the “Take My Breath Away” tongue bath Cruise and McGillis acted out back in 1986. With her ebony hair, teal-colored eyes, and camera-ready smile, from certain angles, Connelly could even pass as a female version of Cruise. Which is perfect, somehow.

Finally, as Cruise’s career comes full circle back to the movie that really made him, his romantic counterpart has become, basically, himself. Top Gun: Maverick is, at its essence, a film that asks us to believe the world revolves around Tom Cruise. It is the most Tom Cruise movie imaginable, standing in front of the world and asking us to love it and him. When you settle into your reclining stadium seat and stare once more upon that wide, almost patriotic Maverick smile, don’t be surprised at how eager you are to love him right back.

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‘wednesday’ creators & ‘beetlejuice beetlejuice’ scribes alfred gough & miles millar ink first-look deal with sony pictures, peter bart: after ‘top gun: maverick’s setbacks and delays, its star is back in cruise control.

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It was an intimate cocktail party. Tom Cruise wore a cheerful smile so I couldn’t resist the opportunity to test it. “For someone who’s just been fired, you look very happy,” I said. “Sumner Redstone figured you would be angry by the press release.”

“I’m not really fire-able, if that’s even a word,” Cruise replied, his smile intact. “Besides, prods from CEOs never anger me.”

’Top Gun: Maverick’ From Cannes To Theaters – Deadline’s Complete Coverage

The media briefly fed on the studio press release, but as it turned out, Redstone and Paramount went into retreat mode within a week. Paramount’s long-standing deal with Cruise’s production company had elapsed a month earlier, but the CEO forgot to check his facts before issuing his statement, so Cruise looked smart in ignoring the Hollywood rhetoric (details below).

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The incident took place 15 years ago, but I was reminded of it this week as Cruise was again winning some important battles on his latest, much delayed, movie. Top Gun: Maverick would be destined to “own” Memorial Day weekend with a guaranteed, much extended theatrical run pre-streaming. In addition, two further Mission: Impossible sequels were positioned for lavish takeoffs.

With the New York Times christening him “The Last Movie Star,” Cruise’s four-day opening in North America may reach $100 million in 4,732 locations and perhaps hit $200 million internationally.

So that cheerful smile was still implanted on Cruise’s youthful 59-year-old face last week as he skillfully leveraged his simultaneous publicity blast-offs, one from the zealously self-protective Cannes Film Festival, the other from the British Royal Family. This was an historic PR coup: With war jitters raging, the startling image of eight fighter jets streaming red, white and blue across the Euro sky seemed at once defiant and disturbing.

Cruise’s promotional perils over the years have been matched by the physical stunts that he has orchestrated in defining his past films; his death-defying mountain climbs in M:I – 2 likely worried his studio and insurance carriers more than his feats on Top Gun: Maverick . All represented well-calculated adventures in Cruise Control, designed to nurture his continuum of pre-ordained tentpoles.

Also reflected in Cruise’s pursuit of peril has been his idiosyncratic choice of roles, both starring and supporting: Tropic Thunder, Magnolia, Born on the Fourth of July, Rain Man , etc. “His filmmaking friends understand that Cruise gets more excited about playing assholes than heroes,” says a director who has worked with him but doesn’t want to be quoted. “No other star has the guts to satirize both studio chiefs and porn freaks.”

Once he has signed on, Cruise is dauntless about seeing them through, he adds.

On Rain Man , Cruise remained committed to a challenging script even though filmmakers such as Steven Spielberg, Sidney Pollack and Martin Brest had all committed then backed out. Barry Levinson finally directed the award-winning film, in which Cruise played the younger brother of a severely autistic Dustin Hoffman, linked together on an emotional cross-country journey. In Jerry Maguire , Cruise was cast as a ruthless hustler who was unrelentingly chasing the big bucks, but Cruise turned him into an empathetic figure.

There were also failed ventures, such as Cocktail, Vanilla Sky or The Mummy .

A decade ago, when Cruise and his long-term manager Paula Wagner took control of United Artists, they had the option of pursuing the tentpole route or a more demanding slate. They took the latter path, marshalling a political thriller titled Lions For Lambs . with Robert Redford directing Cruise and Meryl Streep. The ill-fated project ran into a recession, a writers’ strike and financing setbacks for MGM, UA’s parent company. After a succession of disappointments, Cruise seemed grateful to return to the Mission franchise.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Review: Tom Cruise Is Back Soaring In What May Be The Role Of His Career

What will be his future scenario? The Top Gun: Maverick launch demonstrated anew his skill at commanding the younger movie audience — the Mission films alone have totaled $3.6 billion in global box office. But the present challenges are real: The army of teenagers who liked Top Gun are pushing 50 now, a difficult demo to conquer.

Surveys indicate that more than half of the 45-and-over crowd haven’t been to a movie in over a year compared with 20% of the 18-24 demo. Cruise’s battle to gain a 45-day-plus window for theatrical release thus will likely prove pivotal — the older audience waits for reviews and word-of-mouth.

So will Cruise ever, in fact, be “fired”? There were conflicting reports 15 years ago over what precipitated Sumner Redstone’s outburst. One of his top aides confided to me that his boss had become grumpy about first-dollar gross deals in general. Why should select stars have major paydays before the studio had recouped?

I finally asked Redstone directly two or three weeks later, when we were dining at Dan Tana’s restaurant. “Why did you aim your rant at Cruise?” I asked. “Under his deal he took no money up front. Not even scale?”

“I understand all that,” the CEO snapped. “I’m closing a new deal with him next week. Same terms.”

“Good. Then you’re biting the bullet, right?”

Redstone grunted. “He is still overpaid. And I can still fire him.”

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Why does Tom Cruise do his own stunts? ‘No one asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance?’’

Cruise spoke at the 75th edition of the Cannes Film Festival for the premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick.”

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By Kyle Buchanan

• May 18, 2022

CANNES, France — It has been 30 years since Tom Cruise attended the Cannes Film Festival, and it’s evident the festival would like to make up for lost time.

Perhaps that’s why, in advance of a conversation with the actor billed as a “Rendezvous with Tom Cruise” — which was itself happening in advance of the evening premiere of Cruise’s sequel “Top Gun: Maverick” — the festival played a nearly 15-minute-long clip reel of Cruise’s filmography, hyperbolically scored to Richard Strauss’s “Also sprach Zarathustra.” As the actor and audience watched from their seats, the reel touched on Cruise the action star, Cruise the dramatic thespian and Cruise the romantic, though the latter section, which featured him pitching woo at a bevy of leading ladies, notably left out Cruise’s ex-wife and three-time co-star Nicole Kidman.

“It’s wild seeing this reel,” Cruise said after taking the stage. “It’s like your life in ten minutes — very trippy.”

Cruise was speaking in front of a mostly unmasked crowd in the Salle Claude Debussy, which included hundreds of journalists and a team from Cruise’s agent, CAA. “After everything we’ve been through, it’s such a privilege to see your faces,” he said. He noted that “Top Gun: Maverick” had been held for two years because of the pandemic, though he refused to show it on a streaming service in the meantime. “Not gonna happen!” Cruise said to applause.

The 59-year-old star is insistent that his movies receive a lengthy theatrical window, a mandate that has sometimes put him in conflict with studio heads, who are eager to fill their streaming services with star-driven content. And in an era where big names like Leonardo DiCaprio and Sandra Bullock have no problem appearing in films for Netflix, Cruise remains a rare holdout.

“There’s a very specific way to make a movie for cinema, and I make movies for the big screen,” said Cruise. “I know where they go after that and that’s fine.” He said he even called theater owners during the pandemic to reassure them: “Just know we are making ‘Mission: Impossible.’ ‘Top Gun’ is coming out.”

Cruise is a discursive speaker who will leap out of one anecdote before it’s done to land in another, then another. (Perhaps that would make for an esoteric set piece in one of his action films?) But it was striking how often he returned to his formative experience shooting the 1981 movie “Taps,” in which he acted opposite George C. Scott and found himself fascinated by the way the filmmaking worked. Cruise said that while shooting, he thought, “Please, if I could just do this for the rest of my life, I will never take it for granted.”

And in the absence of any challenging questions from his interlocutor, the French journalist Didier Allouch — who was mostly content to burble blandishments like “You're absolutely extraordinary” to his interview subject — Cruise had the freedom to basically spin his own narrative of being a determined student of cinema and his fellow man. (And “Taps,” of course.)

“I was the kind of kid who always wrote goals on the wall of what kind of movies I liked or what I wanted my life to be, and I worked toward those goals,” Cruise said.

Though the conversation increasingly leaned toward bland generalities — “I’m interested in people, cultures, and adventure,” Cruise said more than once — it did provide one major laugh line when Allouch asked why he was so determined to do his own stunts in the “Mission: Impossible” movies, which will soon be receiving seventh and eighth installments shot back-to-back.

“No one asked Gene Kelly ‘Why do you dance?’” replied the star.

Kyle Buchanan , a Los Angeles-based pop culture reporter, writes The Projectionist column. He was previously a senior editor at Vulture, New York Magazine's entertainment website, where he covered the movie industry. More about Kyle Buchanan

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Jennifer Connelly Is 'Ready' to Film Top Gun 3 with Tom Cruise: 'I'll Be There'

The actress also noted that she hasn't "seen anything" yet when it comes to 'Top Gun 3,' though she's discussed it with director Joseph Kosinski

Scott Garfield/Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of Everett

Jennifer Connelly would love to return to the world of Top Gun again.

The Snowpiercer actress, 53, revealed in a recent interview with Entertainment Tonight that if she got the call to do a third movie in the popular franchise, she’d do it in a heartbeat. 

"I'll be there. I'm ready," Connelly told the outlet. 

She also pointed to her positive experience filming Top Gun: Maverick as the reason why she would return to the film series, saying, "We had such a great time shooting it. It was fun."

Samir Hussein/WireImage

Despite her enthusiasm for the potential project, the actress noted that she hasn’t been privy to “anything” in the works yet. 

"I haven't seen anything," she said. "I had a casual chat with my friend, Joe Kosinski, who directed it, who I worked with twice now. I'm his biggest fan. I think he's so great. [I talked to him] about the possibility of it, but I don't know anything concrete."

Her comments come a month after Jerry Bruckheimer , the producer behind both Top Gun movies, confirmed to PEOPLE "we're working on" Top Gun 3 .

"We pitched Tom [Cruise] a story he liked. But he's a very in-demand actor and he's got a lot of movies lined up, so we have to wait and see," Bruckheimer, 80, shared of the potential for a third installment.

He noted that part of what makes the Mission Impossible actor, 61, so popular is his work ethic, saying, "A lot of actors, they finish the day, they get in their car and they go home. Tom stays around, talks to the other actors, looks at the film that they shot, wants to know what's happening tomorrow. He's really engaged in every part of the process."

Never miss a story — sign up for  PEOPLE's free daily newsletter  to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Reports initially circulated in January that a third installment of the Top Gun movie franchise was in the works. The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film’s co-writer Ehren Kruger had been writing a script for the film and that Kosinski would be tapped once again to direct.

Miles Teller , who plays Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw in the film series, teased in July 2022 that he and Cruise had "been having some conversations" about the possibility of another movie . Though the actor, 36, noted at the time, "It's all up to Tom.”

He and costar Glen Powell , 35, both shared that they would be open to returning to the franchise again as well. 

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Explained: How Many Top Gun Movies Are There?

As one of the best action films starring Tom Cruise, Top Gun has garnered a huge following. Here's how many Top Gun movies there are.

The Navy's TOPGUN flight school, which trains fighter pilots, was the focus of the first Top Gun movie. Along with co-stars Anthony Edwards as Maverick's right-hand man, Goose, and Val Kilmer as Iceman, Tom Cruise portrays the impulsive adrenaline junkie Pete Mitchell, a.k.a. Maverick. Action, plane stunts, tragedy, and well-known songs — including "Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins — were all featured in this action-packed movie. Cruise's on-screen portrayal was well received by the audience and critics, who longed to see more of him as the infamous Maverick.

Fans of the legendary movie are already speculating about if additional motion pictures based on the flight school will be produced after the release of the second film in 2022. Top Gun: Maverick follows Pete Mitchell once more as he prepares a group of younger TOPGUN students, including Goose's son, Rooster (played by Miles Teller), for a perilous mission while dealing with his past. Here is a full analysis of the most recent Top Gun movies as well as potential future installments.

Top Gun (1986)

Top Gun tells the story of Pete Mitchell (Cruise), a reckless, impulsive Navy ace known by the code name Maverick, who is admitted into Top Gun, Miramar's prestigious Fighter School. The impulsive young pilot, however, will go out against the best there, including Iceman (Val Kilmer), a talented and very competitive classmate. Mitchell must now give it everything, but his father's sudden and strange death still bothers him. Maverick needs to convince Charlie (Kelly McGillis), the strict astrophysics teacher at the flight academy, of his value and learn a bit of control if he’s going to take home the coveted Top Gun Trophy. Top Gun became a cult classic and gained so many fans that it was only a matter of time before a sequel appeared, especially in the time of reboots. The film also did well with 11 award wins.

Related: Top Gun Maverick: How Have the Original Characters Changed Over 35 Years?

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

In Top Gun: Maverick , Cruise returns as the title character, top naval pilot Pete Mitchell, who travels through his past by making several appearances and callbacks to the 1986 cast. Included in this is the long-rumored, heartwarming on-screen reunion between Cruise and Kilmer's Iceman. Being on the screen was a huge accomplishment for Kilmer, who lost his speaking voice while battling throat cancer. The groundbreaking use of artificial intelligence (AI) vocal reconstruction technology, as reported by Variety , assisted in making sure Kilmer’s legendary character could return to the big screen. As Maverick leads a fresh group of flight graduates that includes Teller's portrayal of his late co-pilot Goose's kid, Maverick's past becomes his present.

Related: Top Gun: Maverick Success Has Reese Witherspoon Wanting to Make Legally Blonde 3

Will There Be a Top Gun 3?

At the time of this writing, there are currently only two Top Gun movies, as a possible Top Gun 3 isn't scheduled for development right now. This, of course, doesn't mean it won't happen. It would almost seem foolish to not explore the Top Gun storyline for a third movie, given the popularity of the 1986 original and the 2022 sequel. In an interview with Entertainment Tonight , Teller said, "That would be great, but that's all up to TC… it's all up to Tom. I've been having some conversations with him about it. We'll see." A third Top Gun movie might explore Maverick's potential for retirement and how he might cope with civilian life before ultimately being called back to duty. On the other hand, a new movie might very well center on Teller's Rooster even though it's difficult to picture Top Gun without Cruise's Maverick. Some fans even believe a television series spin-off would work better than another film. Until news of a continuation is revealed, fans will have to make do with Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick .

Here's Why The Kawasaki GPz900R Was The Ideal Candidate For Top Gun

• The Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun was more than just a prop; it was a statement made by Tom Cruise during iconic scenes.
• The bike's innovative design, powerful engine, and revolutionary features put it ahead of its time, making it a standout choice.
• Despite being the fastest production bike of its time, the Kawasaki GPz900R can be acquired today for a range of $4,000 to $13,000.

When you consider massively successful Hollywood movies with cameos of popular motorcycles and cars, it's likely that a number of them will come up in discussion. Even more likely, the Kawasaki GPz900R's starring role in the original Top Gun will be voted one of the best.

There are plenty of reasons for this, but predominantly, it had to do with the fact that it wasn't just a mere prop used in the film; Tom Cruise made a statement with the bike, especially during the iconic scene when the Kawasaki is seen riding alongside a runway and a fighter jet at full bore.

UPDATE: 2024/04/25 21:17 EST BY RAUNAK AJINKYA

The Kawasaki GPz900R is one of the biggest highlights from the original Top Gun movie. More than that, though, it had plenty going for it, even without the movie. Given that, we have updated this piece to include a few more highlights of what was once the fastest-production motorcycle in the world.

And unless you've been boycotting the movies for a while, you'd know that a sequel's out, which also features another incredible Kawasaki , unsurprisingly. That, however, is a story for another day.

For now, the focus is on the original movie and the GPz900R, which was pivotal in so many scenes. Why did the movie demand that particular motorcycle, though? And what made the GPz900R so special in the first place? There is a fair amount to get through, and that's just what this piece will get into.

Why It's No Surprise Tom Cruise Sticks With Another Incredible Kawasaki In Top Gun: Maverick

Here's why maverick's kawasaki gpz900r is so special.

The Kawasaki GPZ900R appeared on the market in 1984 and was in production until 2003. When it debuted, the bike made an immediate impression and impact on the automotive market for several exciting reasons. Firstly, the Kawasaki GPZ900R was the first member of the Ninja family sports bikes. Secondly, it brought a revolutionary design to the picture, becoming a direct predecessor of the modern-day sport bike.

The story of the Kawasaki GPZ900R is interesting. Rumor has it that Kawasaki developed the bike six years in secret before it showcased its innovative design to the world. Aside from getting the bike itself sorted out, one of the reasons behind this lengthy gestation period is that Kawasaki was particularly innovative with the bike and was planning to incorporate a host of technological features that weren't seen before. Understandably, then, Kawasaki wanted to keep things under wraps for as long as possible, just in case their rivals got a sniff of what they were planning.

Gearheads, then, had quite a thing to see when the bike finally launched — the world's first 16-valve liquid-cooled inline four-cylinder engine. However, the innovative styling was far from everything this motorcycle offered .

10 Best Kawasaki Ninja Models Ever

Here's what made the kawasaki gpz900r tick.

Above everything else, the newly developed (for the time) 908cc four-cylinder engine was a powerhouse. It could put out an incredible 115 horsepower and develop a top speed of 151 mph, allowing the GPZ900R to be the first road bike to exceed 150 mph. The box for the world's fastest production bike, then, was ticked.

Admittedly, the Kawasaki GPZ900R achieved exceptional performance and handling because of some standard components, such as the steel frame, 16-inch front and 18-inch rear wheels, air suspension, and anti-drive forks. However, the step away from the then-standard styling was the lower placement of the compact engine, which allowed the bike to boost performance even more. It's not a stretch to suggest that the Kawasaki GPz900R was unlike anything the world had seen then, and plenty consider it to be the seed that sprouted the current generation of superbikes.

In addition to being the fastest production bike in the world, the GPz900R reportedly retained the smooth and reliable character that made it suitable for daily rides and traffic.

So, looking at the Kawasaki GPZ900R with all this information (and as the fastest bike of the time), it makes perfect sense that the producers chose it for Maverick (and that racing scene with a jet). Keep in mind that this was a time when people conjured images of big, heavy cruisers parading on our roads at the mention of a motorcycle, and for the GPz900R to not just change that narrative but become an icon in the process is something that's deeply impressive.

Anyhow, the protagonist is a daring pilot in the movie, and the producers knew exactly that the appearance of the outstanding Kawasaki GPz900R would wow the crowd. That's why they chose it over other options, including a Honda , increasing the popularity of both Top Gun and the bike.

1984 Kawasaki GPz900R Specs

(Specs sourced from Motorcycle Specs )

How The Famous Top Gun Kawasaki Motorcycle Was Almost A Honda

Here's how much a kawasaki gpz900r costs today, maximum value: $13,000.

Maverick's Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun achieved great customer reach over the years. Because of its innovative design and stunning specs, the bike would undoubtedly become a star even without starring in a movie. But it's also true that Top Gun and Tom Cruise made the Kawasaki GPz900R more iconic and ushered it into pop culture .

The status of the Maverick's Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun is even more apparent when you see that the producers of the 2022 sequence again briefly showcased the good old ride. The bike simply became and remained that iconic over the years.

However, Maverick's Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun didn't reach the same heights in pricing, much to our surprise. If you want to acquire this very special bike, you can find used examples ranging from as little as $4,000 to a fairly steep $13,000. Of course, not every example you come across will be in mint condition, which explains the rather wide used price range. That said, you do come across the occasional unicorn, and those make the entire experience worth it.

Although we were surprised by the pricing of such an important motorcycle classic, we're pleased that more fans of Maverick's Kawasaki GPz900R from Top Gun can buy and brag about it.

• Source for features : Kawasaki, Mecum Auctions, IMDb
• Source for technical specifications: Motorcycle Specs
• Source for used prices: Bring A Trailer

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Top Gun: Maverick actor Jennifer Connelly has revealed that she would return to do a third movie if the makers approach her for a role.

In a recent interview, she said that she would instantly agree if she got the call to do Top Gun 3, PEOPLE reported.

“I’ll be there. I’m ready,” Jennifer Connelly said.

Recalling her positive experience while filming Top Gun: Maverick, the actor said that she would return to the film series due to this reason.

“We had such a great time shooting it. It was fun,” Connelly added.

Read more: ‘Top Gun 3’ in the works with Tom Cruise returning in iconic rule

In January this year, reports said that Paramount has greenlighted the third installment of Top Gun: Maverick.

Actor Tom Cruise plays iconic Navy pilot Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell in the action movie.

The 61-year-old action star first played the character in 1986’s Top Gun and returned in 2022 for Top Gun: Maverick, which was a massively successful box office hit grossing $1.49 billion worldwide.

Top Gun: Maverick was a massive overperformer at the box office in 2022, earning $1.5 billion globally and sparking Steven Spielberg to credit Cruise with saving the theatrical business, which had been beleagured by the coronavirus pandemic.

The feature followed decades after Tony Scott’s 1986 Top Gun, which helped cement Cruise as a rising movie star. As well as being a commercial hit, the movie was also nominated for Best Picture at last year’s Oscars.

According to an international media outlet, Paramount commissioned “Top Gun: Maverick” co-writer Ehren Kruger to work on a script for a sequel to the action blockbuster.

It is pertinent to mention that Tom Cruise had signed a non-exclusive deal to develop franchises and original movies for Warner Bros., the studio where he made “Interview With the Vampire,” “Eyes Wide Shut,” “Magnolia” and “Edge of Tomorrow.”

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Tom Cruise Stole The Show At Victoria Beckham’s Birthday Party When He Reportedly Started Breakdancing

Reasons to not invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:

-All the guests will be too busy asking “wait, is that Tom Cruise? It looks a lot like Tom Cruise. I’m 99 percent sure it’s Tom Cruise. How do they know Tom Cruise?” to focus on you, the birthday boy or girl

Reasons to absolutely invite Tom Cruise to your birthday party:

-He might start breakdancing

The Mission: Impossible star attended former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham ‘s 50th birthday celebration over the weekend in London. Other guests included Gordon Ramsay, Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek, Jason Statham, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Guy Ritchie, and the rest of the Spice Girls, all of whom got to Cruise start breakdancing. According to the Daily Mail , “Cruise stunned many when he demonstrated a series of breakdancing moves.”

After a formal sit-down dinner, the Top Gun: Maverick actor was one of the most enthusiastic dancers in the crowd of 120 at the private members club Oswalds, in Mayfair. One guest said: “People were absolutely dumbfounded.” Sadly, cameras were strictly banned by the Beckhams and its not thought that anyone sneaked a picture.

Between his moves at Posh Spice’s party and Risky Business being added to the Criterion Collection , Tom Cruise dancing is having a moment. Just wait until Mission: Impossible 8 when he dances and runs at the same time. It’s maybe not as impressive as climbing the Burj Khalifa, but I bet you can’t do it.

(Via the Daily Mail )