Regardless of your opinion regarding method acting, sometimes you need to give a tip of the hat to those who go the extra mile for their craft. Tom Cruise is such a person, and apparently so are the whole cast of the upcoming film Top Gun: Maverick; in a recent Tweet, the lead actor revealed the absolute gauntlet of a training regimen he and has castmates undertook.Â
Cruise, who is known for doing his own stunts in the Mission: Impossible series, physically pilots the jets in the film, as do his castmates. But they didn’t just hop in and take off; the Twitter video outlines the cast’s experience working with the U.S. Navy to create the film’s flight sequences in a practical, safe, and faithful manner.
As shown in the video, after three months of highly intense training (including simulating an underwater escape situation in the event of a crash), the actors were first given clearance to fly a single-engine plane, to grant them familiarity with the fundamentals. Following that, they practiced with jets that were more and more akin to what we’ll see in the film, before finally taking off from a real Navy carrier ship in a twin-engine fighter aircraft.
The cast shared nothing but praise for Cruise, who was heavily involved in organizing the regimen; Jay Ellis, who plays Lieutenant Payback in the film, called it “the most amazing thing I’ve ever done.” Cruise was equally appreciative of his castmates, calling them “extraordinary.”
Top Gun: Maverick will release in theatres across the United States on May 27.
