After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films present A Don Simpson / Jerry Bruckheimer Production, A Joseph Kosinski Film, Tom Cruise, Top Gun: Maverick. Directed by Joseph Kosinski. Story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks. Screenplay by Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie. Based on Characters Created by Jim Cash & Jack Epps, Jr. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison. Executive Produced by Tommy Harper, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Chad Oman, Mike Stenson.
Top Gun: Maverick stars 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 with Ed Harris and Val Kilmer.
I had the opportunity to speak to Greg Tarzan Davis and Glen Powell on what it was like working with Tom Cruise and here is what they had to say.
Greg: It’s aspiring because he does not get tired of the things he does. He does not sleep. And, and that’s the motivation. Like he’s setting the bar high for everybody around him. And he loves film so much that, uh, he wants it to be great. And, because he is setting in the tone, we’re all in there.
Uh, given all to it as well, but it’s also all by all moment because this is the guy who I grew watch, we all robots and movies, and to have a chance to share the screen with them, it’s like, wow. And sit there and watch him pack it. It’s like, so this is the magic mat. You’ve been doing this for 40-plus years. Uh, and there’s also a masterclass because he’s very generous when it comes down to teaching every one of us how to become better filmmakers, how to become better.
Glen: I think there’s one line in the movie that I know Tom really fought for it and really resonated as sort of a mantra that, which is that line with UUNET Harris, where he’s like, you’re kind of heading first sanction Maverick, and he says maybe so’s are, but not today.
Who Tom is, you know, he, no matter what anybody says, like, Hey man, you gotta dump this movie on the streamer. Like, there’s no way this thing’s going to come out. You can’t do it, and that is that sort of the beautiful thing about him is he really is. He has a new school appreciation for how the business evolves, but this old school mentality.
Of, of how much work it takes to do it. Right. Um, and I think it’s just so admirable, and I really do think, I really think he loves movies so much. He appreciates them. And I think he wants all of us to take this education. I mean, I don’t know if he’s ever taken the role of mentor to this degree before, but at least, at least from the other people I’ve heard, you know, it’s like this, I feel like this group of actors is very blessed in the fact that Tom.
Top Gun: Maverick is doing fantastic at the box office.
Over $300+ million worldwide in its first week.
Be sure to go check it out.