Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick. (Image courtesy: YouTube)
Highlights
- Tom Cruise resumes his duty as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
- Twitter is thrilled about the new Top Gun film
- Top Gun: Maverick is slated for June 2020 release
It might have been something of a mission: impossible but 30-plus years later, Tom Cruise is still feeling the need for speed and resumes duty as naval pilot Captain Peter Mitchell, call sign Maverick. No need to read that again - 'captain' is right. As top brass notes in the newly-released first trailer of Top Gun: Maverick, he should have been a '2 star admiral' at the very least; instead, he has only risen in rank from lieutenant to captain. Very much still Maverick, then. Tom Cruise made a surprise appearance at Comic-Con in San Diego yesterday to release the trailer and let's just say it's going to give you 'goose'-bumps, pun intended with all due respect to Goose, Maverick's partner who died in the original film.
Goose's son, played by actor Miles Teller, appears in this new film but the trailer is Tom Cruise all the way. Not only has Maverick failed to rise through the ranks, he also refuses to retire, executing the kind of pyrotechnical loops and manoeuvres that gave him his name. At Comic-Con, Tom Cruise, 57, described Top Gun: Maverick as a "love letter to aviation" and said, "I really wanted to give you all an experience of what it is to be inside that aircraft," reported AFP.
You would be absolutely correct in assuming that some of the flying has been done by Tom Cruise himself, a licensed pilot and real life daredevil. This is, after all, the same man who climbed a Dubai skyscraper and hung off a plane in the Mission: Impossible films. At Comic-Con, the actor said that the aerial shots were "all real" and the filmmakers consulted US Navy officials for several sequences. The action is both old school and stunning - it's pretty much what Tom Cruise did in Top Gun in 1986, and really, would we want it any other way? And yes, the theme music has been retained.
"34 years you guys have been very patient with me, and I felt it was my responsibility to finally really deliver for you," Tom Cruise said during Thursday's event. You did, Tom. Without further ado, take a look at the trailer of Top Gun: Maverick:
Twitter is thrilled. Many tweets referred to songs from the iconic soundtrack of the original film - Danger Zone, You've Lost That Loving Feeling - to Tom Cruise's refusal to age and even to the bizarre fight challenge Justin Bieber threw out a while ago.
Not too many of the original Top Gun cast members are returning for the sequel - Anthony Edwards' character, Goose, is dead of course; but Twitter is disappointed that Kelly McGillis, who played an instructor and Maverick's love interest, and Meg Ryan, who had a small role as Goose's wife - are no-shows. However, Iceman, played by Val Kilmer, is back.
Top Gun: Maverick directed by Joseph Kosinskim is slated for June 2020 release. The film also stars Jon Hamm, Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly.