Tom Cruise made an epic entrance to the premiere of Top Gun: Maverick on Wednesday, but has denied he was flying the helicopter that he landed in. Check it out, Cruise certainly arrived in style.
Never one to shy away from the spotlight – or a stunt for that matter – the 59-year-old actor landed in a chopper on the back of the USS Midway aircraft carrier ahead of the blockbuster sequel’s premiere in San Diego, California.
A nice understated location, wouldn’t you agree?
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The helicopter even bore the name of the film on the side of it.
While it’s no secret that Cruise likes his flying, he did confirm he wasn’t at the controls of this particular helicopter at the time of the landing.
He said: “No, not today. I do fly that helicopter, but not today.”
Still, it’s a hell of an entrance.
Last Thursday, Cruise introduced the film – directed by Joseph Kosinski – via a video link to the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, and it was then shown to an audience of cinema boffins and journalists, many of whom seem to really like what they’ve come up with.
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In a piece of behind-the-scenes footage, Cruise revealed how he requested that the entire cast was stuck through some gruelling aviation training in preparation for the film.
He said that he wanted them to take on the training – described as ‘challenging’ and ‘all-encompassing’ by various cast members – in order to make the film as good as it could be from a cinematic perspective.
Cruise explained: “We worked with the Navy and the Top Gun school to formulate how to shoot it practically, because if we’re gonna do it, we’re gonna fly in the F-18s."
That meant the actors had to learn to use cameras while inside the fighter jets.
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Cruise continued: “I had to really teach them cinematography and the lighting so they understood what’s gonna look good on camera.
“I’m very proud of what we all accomplished.
“Each one of them are extraordinary.”
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer added: “The aviation sequences had to be real, so our actors went through three months of gruelling training.”
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Actor Monica Barbaro explained: “Tom designed this all-encompassing aviation training for all the actors."
Whiplash star Miles Teller also weighed in: “Everybody thought it would be impossible for the actors to really be in the jets.”
Co-star Glen Powell added: “But that’s the gift that Tom gave us, that by the time we got up there, we could handle it.”
Top Gun: Maverick is released in cinemas across the UK on 25 May.
Topics: TV and Film, Tom Cruise, Celebrity
Tom Wood