All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S10E06.The.Producer.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BTN_track4_[eng]

Maverick.
[Maverick] Dagger attack.

- Hold on.
- It was the sequel
the whole world

had been waiting for since
Top Gun took flight in 1986.

- Damn right.
- Yeah.

- Damn straight.
- You got it.

Just no one thought
they would have to wait...

For 32 years.

But when
your whole career
has been more or less defined

by one character...

- I'm Maverick.
- Maverick?

Does your mother not
like you or something?

There's a legacy at stake.

He was very clear.
"I won't do anything to ruin
the memory of that."

So to undertake
a new mission
would mean failure

wasn't an option.

The weight of audience
expectation preyed on us.

- Commander-in-Chief
Tom Cruise...
- It is his movie.

Everything about it's his movie.
He's in charge, right?

...would need to assemble
a crack team...

He had fired his chef.

...held to exacting
standards...

We were kind of working
24 hours a day.

- Is this even achievable?
- Tom said, "I don't get tired.

"I make people tired."

Following
the perfect flight plan.

Boy, that's a hornet's nest
right there.

His objective?

Tom said, "We've got
to do it all for real."

- Which meant...
- Oh, shit.

- Real jets.
- As well as...

- Real Top Gun pilots.
- Not to mention...

Real flying.

If it could
be real, it was.
[Hangman] Holy shit.

But would
making it real
make it any good?

Yes.

It was
an assignment many
thought was doomed.

[Rooster] Smoke in the air!
Smoke in the air!

He wanted the actors to fly
the airplanes at

the maximum performance
capability of the airplanes.

But armed with
state-of-the-art equipment...

The type of filming
we were doing on Maverick

had never been done before.

I doubt it will
ever happen again.

...and the single-minded
determination to succeed

- at any cost...
- Tom is very controlling.

- ...it was go time.
- No turning back now.

He pushes.
He pushes on everybody.

"Let's go. Let's shoot."
It was crazy.

Cruise put everything
he had into Maverick.

But would it all go up
in flames?

The World Health Organization
today declared the coronavirus

a global pandemic.

People thought
nobody's going to go
back to theaters ever again.

There's so much at stake.

In the vapor trail of
Top Gun's success in 1986,

Paramount Studios
were desperate to capitalize,

as were producers Don Simpson
and Jerry Bruckheimer.

Top Gun screenwriters
Jack Epps and Jim Cash

were immediately
shoulder tapped.

We were contracted
to do a sequel,

so they had
to come to us first.

Top Gun,the tone of that movie,
it's an earlier '90s,

so it was
a younger Maverick.

And even though Top Gunhad made Paramount

millions and millions
of dollars,

- for the sequel...
- [Weber] They were
thinking less money

instead of shooting
a whole new movie.

Can't we use some
of the old footage?

You see, in the '80s,
a sequel typically made about

half as much as the original.

So a retread of Top Gun with
recycled footage made sense.

- Unfortunately...
- There's nothing left.

There's not another
frame available

that we haven't used already.

And so,
that was that.

But in 1992,
when Tom formed
Cruise Wagner Productions

with his longtime agent,
Paula Wagner,

one of their first orders
of business was getting

a Top Gun sequel
up and running.

He was deeply ambitious with
great aspirations to be the man.

However,
the project never
got off the ground.

The story never was right
for him.

And so
with a Top Gun sequel
still proving impossible...

Tom just made the decision
with his production company,

you know, let's go ahead
with Mission: Impossible.

And we all know how
that worked out for Tom.

He said, "This is the perfect
star vehicle for me

"and the perfect movie
to start this new career
as a producer."

And Maverick went
from afterburner

to going
on the back burner.

And then in 1996,
Don Simpson passed away,

leaving Jerry Bruckheimer
without his co-pilot.

But still, talk of a Top Gunsequel persisted.

I don't think it ever really
got serious until 2010.

When the original
Top Gun director,

Tony Scott, came to Tom
with a fresh idea.

[Marks] Tony was
really interested
in unmanned aerial vehicles

and what that could change
when it came to the role

of fighter pilots in the Navy.

[Jordan] Tony Scott
wanted to shoot
a poignant movie.

Some of these ace pilots
were going to become

a thing of the past.

But fans
hadn't waited for years to see
Maverick piloting a drone

with a mouse.

Ultimately, there's no Top Gun
movie without naval aviators

because there's
no Top Gun movie
without dogfights.

And so,
an exciting script with
Tony Scott attached emerged.

It would become
a story of a mission,

and it would be
about the preparation
for that mission.

The target is an unsanctioned
uranium enrichment plant

built in violation of
a multilateral NATO treaty.

[Marks] Let's have them
go after something
that people might have

to die to achieve.

I think that really
raised the stakes.

The signs
were looking good that
a Top Gun sequel

would finally take off.

- They were ready to do it.
- They had a finished draft,

starting to consult
with the pilots.

You know, a Tony Scott,
Jerry Bruckheimer movie

is going to be spectacular.

They can make a movie
about peanut butter and
jelly sandwiches

and it would be great.

But what
happened next
was anything but.

A man just jumped.
He parked his car,

and he's in the slow lane
of the Vincent Thomas Bridge,

and he just jumped off
the top of the bridge

into the harbor.

I heard about Tony Scott's
passing and I was shocked.

It just didn't make sense.

It's heartbreaking because
he was so vibrant.

Absolutely the last person
I would expect
to commit suicide.

- It was just awful.
- I didn't believe it.

The sudden death
of director Tony Scott
had stopped everyone

in their tracks.

And then everything kind of
went quiet for a little while.

In the wake
of Scott's death,
Cruise embarked on a series

of hit or miss films.

Meanwhile, Jerry Bruckheimer
attempted to push
the project forward,

and in 2014, Jerry hired
a screenwriter who had

a lifetime of experience.

The original Top Gun was
the very first movie I saw

in the movie theater.

For some reason, my mom
was willing to bring me back

to that movie
five or six times.

Justin wouldn't
be starting from scratch.

They had a script from
Peter Craig that had

a lot of great ideas in it,
and that's what we used
as the template.

But one of the things that
I really wanted to add to it

was this idea of the feeling
of the original movie.

This kind of feeling.

♪ You've lost
That loving feeling♪

[Marks] What defines Top Gun is
this idea of camaraderie

and how a profession
that really does
seem superhuman

can be humanized in
very accessible terms,

like characters who just want
to fall in love.

It would be nice
to see Maverick resolving
things romantically

with his past.

However, Kelly McGillis,
now happily working as

an acting coach,
would not be reprising
her role

as Charlotte Blackwood.

Instead, Cruise chose to move
with the times.

Penny?

[Marks] Single mom who is
a bartender off the base,

and we figured out this idea
to make her Penny Benjamin

as a reference to
the original film.

You told me all about the time
you went ballistic

with Penny Benjamin.

That felt like a good way
to make Maverick's story
feel complete,

to give him a love interest
in the end who really felt true

to Maverick's story.

And true to Top Guntradition...

Well, you know, son,
you'll have to go up
in one of the jets.

...this scriptwriter, too,
would be shown the ropes

by none other
than the Navy.

I was invited onto
an aircraft carrier.

You land in a COD and you do
the arrested landing.

That's COD,
or Carrier Onboard Delivery.

As the COD is coming into land,
it keeps having to redirect

'cause the carrier's moving.

- And for Justin,
that meant...
- Getting progressively sicker

and sicker and sicker.

Leaving him praying.

Please don't let
the first impression of me

coming onto
this aircraft carrier
is the guy who stumbled out

and vomited all over
the flight deck.

Finally, it dips down
and it lands.

Soon as the rear gate lowers,
they're blasting...

- ♪ Highway to... ♪
- [Marks] Now here I go.

I'm going to come out
and stumble out and vomit

and just puke my guts out
while "Danger Zone's" playing

in the background.

But the real test for Justin
came when he was called

to New Orleans to meet
his captain for the very
first time.

He was making a movie
at the time and we
had the script.

But he said,
"Let's all come out

"and let's just read it together
around the table."

Cruise had put his legacy
in Justin's hands.

Now it was time to see what
he had done with it.

We met and read over
that script over the course
of about eight hours,

going page by page
through it.

And there was one point
we were maybe two-thirds

of the way
through the script.

He got up to take care
of some phone call.

And all of us are looking
at each other like, "Okay."

And we're kind of starting
to pack up.

And he just walks back into
the room, sits back down
at the table,

turns the page again
and says, "No,

"on this line,"
and here you go again.

And then it's
a few more hours of it.

It's very rare to see
that level of energy.

But this script
required all the strength
Tom could muster.

He wasn't going to do it
until it was right.

And the bar
was high.

[Marks] He knew
what the original film
meant to him and his career.

And he was very clear
in the sense of taking you
by the hand

and staring you in
the eyes and saying,

"That movie is my legacy.

"And I won't do anything
to ruin the memory of that."

You know, if we're going
to do something,
it's got to be better.

But if they were going
to do anything at all,

they'd need a director.

And Tom found one
in Joe Kosinski,

with whom he
had made Oblivion.

And Kosinski dug deep
into the back catalog

of prior Maverick drafts

and found something
that really encapsulated...

- The feeling...-...of the original.

[Marks] The idea that Maverickshould have this very important

central relationship
with Goose's son.

[Rooster] Why'd you
pull my papers
at the Academy?

- Why did you
stand in my way?
- You weren't ready.

To bring Maverick's unfinished
business from
the original film...

-
- ...and force him into a place
where he has to resolve that.

He pitched it to Jerry,
and then Jerry,

and he pitched it to Tom.

[Jordan] It is Tom's movie.
Tom is calling the shots.

- No Tom, no movie.
- Show me what you're made of.

That pitch meeting happened
when we were filming in Paris

on Mission:
Impossible - Fallout.

They met with Tom
for about 15 minutes.

And I think Rooster was called
Rascal at the time.

I'm trying to remember
what Hangman was.

Slayer. That's right.
He was Slayer.

From what Joe tells me,
Tom was immediately onboard

with the idea.

[Marks] And that was really,
you know, Joe Kosinski
coming in and said,

"This is how you have to do it.
You know, this is the story.

"This is what makes
the most sense."

Could it be
that after more than
three decades,

a Top Gun sequel script
was emerging

that was good enough
for Tom?

We didn't want
to screw it up.

That's what it comes
down to, ultimately.

And so there's
so much at stake.

It wouldn't be until 2017,
while Tom's Oblivion director

Joe Kosinski was in talks
with Jerry Bruckheimer

to direct the film,
that the pieces of

the Maverick puzzle finally
started to slot together.

Kosinski brought with him
writers Aaron Kruger

and Eric Warren Singer,

who got to work fleshing out
the emotional heartbeat
of the film.

My dad believed in you.

I'm not going to make
the same mistake.

Now that the project
had a story in place...

- That's miracle number one.-...and a director in place...

That's miracle number two.

But was
the technology in place
to achieve Cruise's vision?

[Ferguson] It was Tom who said
the technology has to be there

such that when the people
watch the movie,

they are in the airplane.
They are in combat.

They are landing on the boat.
They are flying the F-18.

If we did it on a green screen
or we did it with CGI,

people would know.

And he goes,
"It has to be realistic.

"And the only way
to make it realistic

"is we have to be
in the jet."

And not
just in the jets.

He wanted them actually
piloting it.

[Ferguson] He wanted
to fly the airplanes
at the maximum performance

capability of the airplanes,
which in the F-18,

seven and a half Gs.

So you weigh seven
and a half times
what you would.

Your face gets pressed down,
the blood goes out of your head.

And as the Navy's
technical advisor

and aerial coordinator
for the Top Gun sequel,

it was Brian Ferguson's job
to consider Tom's request.

Tom is a very experienced,
seasoned aviator.

He's been flying
as long as I have.

He started flying after
the first movie.

And was
the proud owner of a vintage
P-51 Mustang.

Tom would fly his P-51 to work
every day like it was a car.

He flew his own P-51
at the end of the film.

At the very end,
when the credits are rolling

and there's a barrel roll
around the sun, his airplane,

him flying it.
It was awesome.

So surely flying
an F-18 for Tom would be
no problem at all.

There was no realistic vehicle
to training them for months

and months and months
to fly the F-18.

To his credit,
he pushed real hard.

And we just said,
"We can't get there.

"So it's going to be in
the backseat of the airplanes

"for everybody."

Being denied the ability
to fly supersonic jets

wasn't Tom's only problem.

If you're doing this for real,
you have to put cameras

in the plane, which they could
not do on the first film.

When I first read the script,
I was like,

"How the hell are we gonna
pull this off?"

The type of filming
we were doing on Maverick

had never been done before.

The engineering challenge
of putting six IMAX cameras

in the F-18 was significant.

[Ferguson] We're going
to need to put all
these cameras in airplanes

and we want to start
shooting in a month.

And I kind of chuckled.

- This was
no laughing matter.
- "What's funny?"

And I go, "Well, everything
you said was funny."

What you just described,
putting the cameras

in the airplanes,
there's a massive engineering
effort that happened.

It's not like putting
a new CPAC entertainment system

in a 400-person airplane.

These are high-performance
tactical jet airplanes.

The biggest challenge
was allowing the pilot to eject

in an emergency.

Eject! Eject!

'Cause the cameras
could not interfere with

the ejection process.
So, the lenses had to be
very compact.

It was a massive undertaking.

The cameras in the real jet,
there's four cameras about

head height looking
straight back

and then there's two cameras
looking forward

over the shoulder
of the real pilot.

While the technical
crew worked out how to squeeze
cameras into planes,

casting got underway to address
another aspect of

the original Top Gunthat needed updating.

Women don't fly these airplanes
because in 1985,

it was against the law.

But thankfully,
by now, times had changed.

Monica Barbaro, she was such
a great image for the Navy

because everybody
thinks every Navy fighter pilot

looks just like me.

I guess I surprised you back.

We don't. You know,
there was a time when we did.

Now, we don't really care what
the best looks like anymore.

So it was great to see,
especially Monica,

you know, bringing in
the strong female character.

- Right engine is out!
- [Phoenix] It's still spinning.

Try to restart it.

But casting
a link to the original
was just as crucial.

[Cain] Bradley Bradshaw.

I understand you used to fly
with his old man.

The part
of Goose's son
was originally lined up

for Glen Powell.

He wanted the part which,
of course,

Miles Teller read for
and was awarded.

[Hamilton] It was Miles Teller
who came up with the name of...

[Rooster] Bradley Bradshaw,
AKA Rooster.

- ...Rooster.
-

Because Goose and Rooster.

And then Tom was
so impressed with Glen,

with his read,
that he called him.

"Come into the office right now.
I'd really like to talk to you."

So Glen went in and Tom
talked him into it.

And so Glen Powell
was introduced as...

- Fellas, this here's Bagman.
- Hangman.

- ...Hangman.
- Whatever.

The casting
of the actors might
have been complete,

but the casting of
their naval watering hole,

the Hard Deck,
was proving more problematic.

[Wallace] We scouted
Paradise Cove in Malibu.

We thought, "Great,
we'll shoot there,"

but to shut down that restaurant
at the height of

their peak season

would be a couple
million dollars.

Realize it makes
a lot more sense that
we build it ourselves.

And for
research purposes, they went
on a pub crawl of sorts.

I'm like, "Okay, you got to go
to at least two places.

You got to go
to Fallon, Nevada,
our officer's club

where Top Gun is,
and you got to go to the I-Bar,

which is a bar that dates back
to the '40s

that's on Navy North Island.
And they looked at both
of them.

They loved them.
Like, "We're going to take stuff
from both of them."

We built the hard deck
on the beach on

the North Island base.

The Navy North Island base
in San Diego offered something

both the military
and Tom Cruise needed.

Privacy.

[Wallace] Tom, he always
had to be concerned
with the paparazzi,

so it was ideal that
we ended up building it

from scratch on a beach
on a military base,

which we could control.

The custom-built
hard deck also gave
the filmmakers control

over something
more important,
storytelling.

We knew we wanted
the shot of Maverick
looking outside through

the windows as he's seeing
Rooster sing

"Great Balls of Fire."

♪ Goodness gracious
Great balls of fire ♪

Where we knew it
was an important element

to connect to
the original movie.

♪ Goodness gracious
Great balls of fire ♪

So that was an important way
that we laid out the bar

to make sure that
that shot worked.

So while
the crew were building
beachside bars,

the cast were building up
their bodies,

preparing for a grueling,
unprecedented shoot.

[Robertson] The actors went through
a three to four-month

training program
that Tom developed.

This is going to take you
and your aircraft
to the breaking point.

It's brutal.
It's physiologically brutal.

But to Tom,
this was a matter
of life and death.

Tom Cruise had
a very good reason

for implementing
his training program.

I think it's based on
what he wished he had done

back on the original.

They did an underwater program,
and the reason for that

is when you're in an F-18,
if you go down,

you go into water,
how do you escape?

Also, if the plane crash lands
in the ocean,

they have to be able
to get out of it blindfolded

in the dark underwater
and figure out which way is up.

Some of them had never even
learned to swim before.

[Robertson] And then
Tom designed
an aerial program.

Because
even if the actors
wouldn't be pilots,

to pull this off,
they needed to pull some Gs.

[Robertson] He had them start out
in a single engine.

And then he elevated them up
to an L-39.

And there you got
into aerobatics.

And then finally,
F-18 Super Hornets.

And that's where they really
started to pull Gs

and train their bodies on
how to withstand those Gs.

And there was
no time to waste.

Tom insisted that we start
in the air.

That was our first two days
of shooting.

The reason he wanted to do that
is so the crew could learn

how we're going to pull
this thing off.

For the actors,
the learning curve

was as steep as
an F-18 climbing.

Once the actors are up
in the jet,

in the air, they have
to direct themselves.

And it began every day
with pre-flight briefings.

The briefings
are two hours.

All of the actors,
it didn't matter whether

they were flying that day
or not, was in every briefing.

Tom was in every briefing.

It would always be
the full thing, just like

we're going to fly
a Top Gun event.

I'd brief contingency.
What if somebody ejects?

What if somebody crashes?

Tom, being the leader of it,
explaining what he wants.

Joe, our director,
explaining what he wants.

Everyone knows what it is.

We're going out there to fly
$80 million taxpayer assets

really close to each other,
doing some pretty dynamic,

robust things.

Everybody's head's got
to get in the game.

And with the F-18s
costing north of $10,000
an hour to hire...

We got Tom right there
who's pushing, "Let's go,
let's shoot."

...there was no time for
poor acting in the skies.

[Yale] Rooster, we're late.
[Rooster] We're alive.

We'll make up time in
the straightaway.

After we would do our briefing
with the cast,

the last thing we would do prior
to the cast going to the jets,

we'd bring them down
to this little cockpit
that we built.

And we'd put the actors
in there.

And then Joe and Tom would watch
the actors perform that chunk

that they're about
to go up and do.

And they would rehearse
the actors.

Where are they looking?
Where's the sun?

where are the background jets,
and they would give
their performance,

and then Joe and Tom
would work with the actors,

and then we would get it
just right,

and we'd jam them over to
the plane and load them in.

Crews had also taken steps
to ensure that while

in the air, their performances
would resonate with audiences.

Tom learned
on the first Top Gun
and insisted on,

"You can't have
dark visors."

You want to be able
to see their face.

You want to be able
to take your mask off sometimes

and deliver lines.

It's not anything that
real pilots would do.

It helps the audience understand
what is going on.

The drama was,
of course, as much about
what was going on

outside the cockpit
as inside.

[Robertson] We had
a camera ground to air,
air to air,

on front of a helicopter
that worked as a dolly
as jets screamed by.

We had cameras on wings,
under the body of the jet.

So that was by far the most
difficult challenge.

Well, unless
you're one of the actors.

They would have to learn
how to turn the camera on,

knock on their head
for sound sync.

They'd check their own hair
and makeup.

They'd check their visors
were clean.

They would work
with the pilot on where

those jets are
and then perform.

And all that
while pulling Gs.

It's just a brutal
physical environment.

In fact,
managing the G forces
became one yardstick

for performance.

- Altitude.
- Monica was a trooper.

- She never threw up.
All the others did.
- Damn it.

While we were editing,
I would see Glen Powell
go green

on camera,
and he'd reach forward

to switch the cameras off.

And at that point,
we'd be thinking, "Uh-oh."

And then five minutes
would go by,

and the cameras would
switch back on,

and he would, like,
lift up this bag of vomit

and just point at it
and go like this.

What was so funny was
they were very proud of

the puke bags.

Fortunately,
for those struggling with
the visceral experience

of being in the jet,

the visceral experience did
some of the acting for them.

There's a point where
Phoenix says...

[Phoenix] Dagger one is hit.
I repeat. Dagger one is hit.

Her emotion as she delivered
that line for real in the air

was so good that
it stayed in the movie

all the way through
to the final mix.

And that wasn't
the only time real life
reactions

made it into the final film.

[Hamilton] When Maverick
and Rooster are in the F-14

and they see the Su-57
do the Pugachev cobra maneuver

where it spins around
and then it goes past them

- and Rooster says...
- [Rooster] What the fuck
was that?

And that was a real delivery
as well from Miles

in the plane
that we kept.

So taxing
was the experience
of being in the Super Hornet.

You got this.

They would take off.
They would fly, sometimes
for 45 minutes,

sometimes for an hour
and a half.

[Maverick] Good. Good.

That's enough for today.

Tom would go up on
a second flight that day.

It was too much for the other
cast to be able to do that.

And then,
at the end of every day,

the footage would be examined
to make sure it met

Tom's exacting standards.

I would go into
my edit trailer with Joe,

and we'd review
what we'd got.

We would decide if we think
we got everything that
we needed.

We're all then talking about
what needs to change

the next day.

Well, compared
to the original movie,

a lot had changed.

But there was one thing
Tony Scott had insisted upon

in the first movie
that's a big part of
that Top Gun...

Feeling.

Always backlit
in Top Gun world,
which means the warm sun

is always in camera.

And it's always that warm
orange type of sun.

So we always had to schedule
around the sun.

If we need to do it again,
we do it again the next day

or the day after.

But something that was far
less reliable than the sun's

ups and downs were
the cameras that the actors
needed to turn on.

[Robertson] Probably a few times we had
to reshoot because

we would get back down
on the ground and the camera
didn't roll.

And we just spent
two hours in the air
doing all of this stuff.

That happened
a couple of times.

Despite all
the in-air challenges,

the results were often
spectacular.

I would go,
"That was amazing.

"That's the most incredible
footage I've ever seen."

But not to one man.

[Ferguson] Tom would go,
"It's not perfect."

He would take something
that we just couldn't believe

was so good, and he'd go,
we got to do it again.

And in his pursuit
of perfection,

Cruise didn't ask more
of anyone than himself.

It was the scenes
we were filming

where he comes up that route
and goes through what we call

the goalposts,
these two giant granite peaks.

So we got helicopters
on both sides filming
everything,

and they're rolling up.
So it's seven Gs on the top,

a bunch of Gs
down the bottom.

[Robertson] And we needed
three flights with Tom,

but we only had time for two.
Tom said, "You know what?

"I'm going to squeeze in
three flights today."

-
- It's hard enough to do one.

It's hard to do two.

- [Maverick] Direct hit!
- And so I pulled him aside.

I go, how you doing?
He goes, "Yeah, I think
I'm good for third flight."

[Robertson] I remember Joe
asking Tom if he was tired.

And Tom said,
"I don't get tired.
I make people tired."

That's absolutely true.
He does make people tired.

But the sage advice
of the Navy's
technical advisor...

Like, "I got to tell you,
I'm not super comfortable
with it.

"I don't think this
is a great idea."

[Maverick] Radar warning.

...wasn't the advice Tom Cruise
wanted to hear.

Tom Cruise was pushing himself
to the limits.

"I'm not super comfortable
with it."

And pushing
Brian Ferguson's patience.

But Tom went up three times.

So they go out there,
and they get some really
great footage.

And they come back,
and Tom pulls me aside,

and he goes, "Well,
you were right.

"Three is too many."

His ambitions,
though, went from sky high
to the down and dirty.

Well... sandy.

Tom referred to it as
the Lawrence of Arabia scene.

Long white shot in the desert,
a mirage,

which turns into dust,
which turns into a speck,
and then it's a camel.

Tom wanted to do that
with the F-18.

In Death Valley,
they already had the desert,

but they wouldn't
be needing the camel.

But Tom wanted the jet
to be almost as low as

the camel in the sand.

His initial request
was to do it
at 15 or 20 feet.

This has got to be lower than
anyone has ever done this.

In the Navy, we train
to 500 feet to be able

to be comfortable in
a low altitude environment.

There are some syllabus items
in the training scenario

where we go down to 100 feet,
but it's a straight level
and we test it.

Brian thought
he'd give it a go,
thinking, you never know.

I went in and I suggested this
to the three-star admiral,

and he lovingly, jokingly
threw me out of the office,

minus the lovingly
and jokingly.

But Brian
wasn't done yet.

There was one other option.

Blue Angels.

The elite men
and women of the second-oldest
aerobatic team

in the world.

I worked through the Blue Angels
to find the person who has done

the most low-altitude flying
in an F-18

in the world,
and that's Frank Weiser.

Finally, we found
a path to 50 feet.

Which,
although not 15 feet,
was low enough to create

a genuine buzz.

On the day that we filmed
that, we were feeling
pretty comfortable,

feeling froggy,
and it was looking
really good.

It was never before done
and never before seen

on a movie screen.

Tom came back buzzing
because he knew

they'd got it,
and that is what is
in the movie.

But there
was one aspect
of Top Gun: Maverick

that audiences had definitely
seen before.

[Fanboy] Rooster,
there's something wrong
with this laser.

That stabilizer
has broken loose again.
See if you can't lock it down.

The canyon run feels
like Star Wars.

Come on, bad boy.
Get online.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi] Use the Force, Luke.

[Rooster] There's no time.
I'm dropping blind.

You're all clear, kid.

- Come on.
- It was a huge Star Wars fan.

[Rooster] Bombs away!
Bombs away!

[Hamilton] And I remember
thinking, "This is like, you
know, a real life Star Wars."

The key difference,
of course,

- being the force behind
Maverick was Tom Cruise.
- [Maverick] Here it comes.

However, when it came
to Rooster's mustache,

it appeared that perhaps
Eddie's mind was the subject

of Jedi mind tricks.

- It was his real mustache.
- The mustache was fake.

- What's that supposed to mean?
- It's not a fake one.

No.

- Lieutenant, that's it!
- You son of a bitch!

- He grew it for the film.
- Nope.

Yeah, I just thought
I'd surprised you.

- Kept falling off.
- You don't know that.

He was a real mustache,
I promise you.

I think his wife was a bit sick
of it by the end of the movie.

No.

On my mother's life,
he grew it for real.

And the real answer?

My mustache fell off.

While Miles Teller's mustache
had Eddie fooled,

it wasn't the only prop
to look convincing.

Darkstar, Control.
Loud and clear.

The hypersonic jet Darkstar
suddenly found itself

the target of foreign
intelligence organizations.

Darkstar was a mock-up
aircraft, did not work.

We brought it out of
the hangar to film.

The air boss walked over
with an iPad and he said,

"Hey, guys,
take a look at this."

Navy intelligence
had spotted
some very interested fans.

He said, "These are
all the satellites

"that are above us
right now.

"And that is a Chinese
and a Russian satellite.

"And they're moving to get
a better look at this plane."

They thought that
this was the new plane,

the SR-72,
which had been rumored
to be in production

for a long time.

Which we all thought
was hysterically funny.

But Darkstar
would take flight, sort of.

An F-18 Hornet that
would become Darkstar
in post-production

was employed
for its takeoff.

We had our F-18 Super Hornet
coming straight at us,
taking off.

I don't want to get anybody
in trouble or anything,

but I think
it was like 20 feet
over our heads.

Brian
had tossed the 50-feet rule
out Darkstar's window.

The admirals don't know
what the admirals don't know,

and I took a risk on that.

Now that I'm retired,
I can say this.

They'll probably put me back
in the Navy now just

to court-martial me
for this interview.

A gatehouse
and Ed Harris would be
right in its flight path.

I said, "Do your best
to not react.

"Try not to flinch.

"Try not to move until as late
as you possibly can."

And he honestly looked bored
that I was talking to him.

And I thought, "Okay.
Well, good luck, Ed."

Ed Harris might
have been prepared,
but was the gatehouse?

We built the gatehouse
the day before.

Tom came on set and said,
"Guys, are you sure

this is strong enough?"
And we said, "Yeah.

"We're fine, Tom.
We know how to build stuff.

"It's, you know...
It's gonna be fine."

We had one take
based on the lighting,

and the airplane came by.

It blew the shack roof off,
which was not planned.

The stuntmen, the extras,
they dove for cover
for their lives.

And Ed Harris, the champ,
just stood there

and did not move.
It was incredible.

There was,
however, plenty of
movement in the gym

as members of the cast
trained for the football game
on the beach.

So they're just killing
themselves to get shredded

and ripped so that
they can look the way

that audience wants them
to look playing football
all oiled up.

It's funny, I'd be
in my trailer eating
craft services

and they'd have, you know,
the prime rib.

And I'm like,
"This is great."

And I look outside
and they're all doing push-ups.

It was all
to pay homage to
a famous sequence

from the original Top Gun.

And after shooting it,
it was party time.

The cast were all so excited
that they had done

their topless scene
that they all went off
and ate pizza

and ice cream afterwards.

But there was
no ice cream for Tom.

He didn't particularly like
the way he looked.

And then they ended up
shooting it twice.

[Hamilton] Joe called them
and was like, "Sorry, guys.

"You're going to have
to get in shape again."

It's his image more than
anybody on the line,

on Top Gun.

So a week later,
we went back to the beach

at another magic hour
and did it again.

It was really great
to send it to the next
generation of actors.

You can cash in
on that beach football scene

for years to come.

On land and in the air,
Tom Cruise was in his element.

But it would be in the water
where he'd go cruising

for a bruising.

Out of the whole film,
the hardest thing to shoot

was that sailing sequence.

It's sort of like raising
the flaps on an airplane.

For the man
who wanted to look good
at all costs,

what would come next was far
from a good look.

He would fall off the boat.

Tom Cruise
and Jennifer Connelly's
sailing scene

didn't exactly go to plan.

It was originally conceived that
he would fall off the boat.

Tom wasn't real happy
about how that made

his character look
somewhat weak.

After a couple of rehearsals
and talking character,

it was decided
to not do that.

But if the wind
didn't pick up, they wouldn't
be doing anything.

The first time we did it,
there was no wind,

so the boat was barely
going along.

And then there
was too much wind.

Jennifer Connelly's hair
was an issue.

They had to reshoot scenes
that had already been edited.

I think we shot it twice out
of L.A.,

once out of San Diego,
and we finally found
the wind up

in San Francisco.

Jennifer Connelly, amazing.

She spent a lot of time
taking sailing lessons

to prepare for that sailboat,
and she was out there sailing

that boat in that high wind.
It was incredible.

That was all her.

But there was one scene
where being real

wasn't a matter
of degrees.

Admiral?

We were concerned because
we knew about Val.

Val Kilmer
was diagnosed with
throat cancer in 2015.

A small role to reprise
his Iceman character...

[Marks] There's always a bit of
a rivalry between them.

I don't think that could
ever disappear.

...was now a huge challenge.

How is he gonna make it
through this?

That was
also a story problem
for Tom and his writer,

Chris McQuarrie.

They had to do some
real rewriting to find a way

to make it work.

The answer
was a creative decision
that produced arguably

Top Gun: Maverick'smost real moment.

A way to integrate
his condition
in a way that

was so deeply emotional.

- Val's illness...
- How's my wingman?

...would become
part of his character
Iceman's story.

I don't think
it would have been
what it is without that

just real-life coincidence
of, you know,

what had happened
with his voice
and his throat.

But getting
the performance they needed
would be easier done

than said.

The scene with Maverick
and Iceman,

it was very difficult
to get right

and it didn't work
for a long time.

Tom said, "We gotta get
this right."

It's a huge emotional moment
in the movie.

The scene needed
to find a way to speak
without talking.

They originally
filmed outside.

Unfortunately,
it just wasn't working.

They went back
and filmed it at home
so that he could type on

- the computer.
- What can I do for you?

[Hamilton] We weren't sure
it would work.

Initially, we did film
a version where Val
spoke the lines

that were on the screen,
just in case,

but it was
so much more powerful
to have him typing.

And then just his
final statement at the end,

which I think was
really powerful.

Val saved
his best lines for the crew.

[Robertson] He was still
very funny, very present.

It was a very special day
for us.

And an even
more powerful scene...

Of course, it wouldn't
be a Top Gun movie
if you didn't lose someone.

...was made more so by
military-level secrecy.

When we shot Val's
funeral scene,

we did not give away to anybody
that it was his character,

so no one knew.

This was classified.

And we had secretly coded it
as somebody else's funeral.

We kept that secret.

Something not so secret
was the fact that

Eddie the editor
was drowning in footage.

We had 814 hours,
and I was exhausted.

It was just monumentally
time-consuming.

Months and months and months
and months and months
and months.

I got to a point
where I wasn't sleeping well.

Like, I would wake up,
and I would just have
fever dreams

of close-ups of pilots.

I remember saying
to the producers,

"I can't do this on
my own anymore."

Original Top Gun editor
Chris Lebenzon

was brought in to help
prevent Maverick overshooting

the delivery
schedule runway.

There was one scene
in particular that Eddie
needed help with.

Yeah, Maverick is chased into
the canyon by the enemy fighter.

Originally, Maverick chased
the enemy fighter

into the canyon,
so all the footage that
we had was shot for that.

But when Tom saw it
and he went,

"You know what would be better
is if Maverick is chased into

the canyon and he has to do
some cool pilot shit."

And for Chris and Eddie,
some cool editing.

[Hamilton] We had to take
the whole scene apart
and recut it.

We had to put the enemy plane
behind him using the footage

for the exact opposite purpose
that it was intended.

And Chris said, "I'll do it."

The flying, I kind of knew
the principles of how
to do that.

But, bear in mind,
COVID hit.

The toll of the coronavirus
widens here in the U.S.

Eddie was in London
with Tom because

they were prepping Mission.

[Hamilton] He's producing
Top Gun and he's producing
Mission: Impossible.

It's really
something to behold.

Meanwhile,
director Joe Kosinski

and Chris were back in L.A.,
but Tom wasn't about

to let the creative team
being locked down

on opposite sides of
the Atlantic stop them

from continuing to edit
the film,

which made for some sometimes
strained relationships.

Joe and Tom.

Boy, that's a hornet's nest
right there, buddy.

Joe, he's not a fighter
at heart.

He was dealing with
a superstar who wasn't
on the same continent.

And Tom is very controlling,
as he would be

and should be
and is on all his movies.

[Hamilton] I remember
Joe and Chris had spent
weeks and weeks

recutting that scene
and fixed it
and made it brilliant.

Thank you.

Deep into post,
the film still wasn't
quite singing.

It needed a standout track
to set the vibe.

We were using
"Playing with the Boys."

♪ Playing
Playing with the boys ♪

It's so iconic,
it just felt like
we couldn't go back

to the well twice.

Ryan Tedder is a very prolific,
award-winning songwriter.

He got on a Zoom call
with us all.

Literally the next day,
Ryan sent us like five riffs,

and one of them had the...

And a really good backbeat.

And a real sense of fun
and lightness.

And he went away
for about three days

and he came back with the song
that you hear in the film.

♪ I don't know what
You've been told ♪

And it was perfect.

But what was far
from perfect was attempting
to release

a major film during
the pandemic.

And inevitably...

The release of the film
was delayed.

First in 2020,
then again in 2021.

People thought
nobody's going to go back
to theaters ever again.

Paramount was going
to stream the movie.

[Ferguson] And he goes,
"This movie was designed

to be watched on a big screen
and I will not have it
premiered

in somebody's living room.
We're not doing it."

Tom Cruise was
so passionate about Maverick,

he would rather hold out
for the unknown

than premiere his film
on a small screen TV.

I know it was
a part of it to be
like, "Let's wait until

"it's the right moment
when we feel like people

"might go back to theaters."

It was
the ultimate illustration
of Tom Cruise's power

in Hollywood.

Which came with
a silver lining.

The delays because of
the pandemic made the movie

a whole lot better.

Just drilling down on
every single tiny moment

to stress test it
and making sure it was as good

as it could be.

So, one of the notes was
it doesn't emotionally

kind of flow properly.

In particular, the line...

Talk to me, Goose.

Where it was
placed in the initial cut
proved confusing.

How it went was...

So after the opening montage,
we would cut downstairs

to the hangar underneath,
and Maverick is stood there.

And he says,
"Talk to me, Goose."

You see him being
very introspective
and worried.

Raising the question...

Where is Maverick
and what's he doing

and why is he sad?
And then later,

when you see Warlock
say to Maverick...

You're where you belong.

That was kind of coming
full circle back
to the beginning of the film

and you'd realize that
a big flashback was happening

inside his head.

But a reflective, introspective
Maverick wasn't what people

were braving post-COVID
movie theaters to see.

Meeting Maverick in
an introspective mood

and we removed
"Talk to me, Goose,"

from the very beginning
of the movie.

Those now iconic words saved
to be delivered by Maverick

on the edge of Earth's
atmosphere.

Talk to me, Goose.

The emotion is perfect
because you understand that

he's gone up in this plane
to do Mach 10.

- Come on!
- [Hamilton] So it
works emotionally

for that point
in the film.

Come on!

-
- Whoo!

The extra time
also gave Tom
the opportunity to break

the sound barrier.

The sound design barrier.

Tom had the bar set
at a world-class,

uncompromising level.

This has to be one of
the best mixed films

that's ever been mixed.

This is the longest sound mix
of any film I've done.

It was seven weeks
to mix the sound.

The sound effects mixer
had just done No Time to Die,

and he mixed that
in three weeks.

And with the world reeling
from a global pandemic,

no one was quite sure
about anything

except Tom Cruise.

[Tom Cruise] I love watching
movies in the theater.

It's my whole life.

I'm always thinking about
the big screen
and that experience.

And his insistence
that Maverick grace

the world's big screens
paid off big time.

I went to the premiere inside
for the first time

and was blown away,
and the audience went crazy.

[Hamilton] None of us
could have predicted
in our wildest dreams

how well people reacted
to the movie.

It really proved that
the movie-going experience

was still alive.

The timing for it to come out
right after the pandemic

and to welcome people back
to theaters,

all of that was like
a unicorn experience.

Maverick not only became
the highest-grossing movie

in the U.S. that year,
it was the
highest-grossing film

of Tom Cruise's
career to date.

I think they did a really
good job minding

the original movie,
keeping in touch with
the original movie.

And I think every one of us
who actually flew the airplanes

liked the second one better
than the first one.

The cinematography
for the airplane scenes

were so much cooler.

The VFX team got
an Oscar nomination,

and we got a Best Picture
and Best Adapted Screenplay
nominations.

Not to mention
a Best Editing nomination
for Eddie.

Top Gun: Maverick,
Eddie Hamilton.

It was just an honor.

The sound
design team came away
with the gong.

All the hard work
from everybody
was rewarded by the Academy.

But once again, for Tom Cruise,
it was close, but no cigar.

For now, at least,
his Oscar cabinet remains bare.

You know, I just think
he's one of the most

completely underrated
actors working.

The fact that he doesn't have
an Academy Award

after his body of work
is ridiculous.

I don't know
that he needs it.

He's achieved
really more than

even the most successful
of his peers.

A kid who always knew
he was going to be

- a part of Hollywood...
- [Pinchot] He knew he was
gonna be a movie star.

Absolutely, unquestionably,
he was going to be a movie star.

...has now become
one of Hollywood's
most powerful players.

Cruise's movies have together
grossed over $11.5 billion,

firmly placing him
in the top echelon
of Hollywood actors.

I think Tom managed
to find his authentic self,

which is basically
stunt leading man.

Maybe not every movie
is a movie that I love,

you know, but the frickin' guy's
done it for 40 years.

No one else has done that.

And perhaps
by making Maverick,Tom Cruise has already won

something bigger.

Steven Spielberg
said it best,

"Tom, you guys saved
the movie business."

Having conquered Hollywood,
Tom Cruise could easily hang up

his helmet
and drink cocktails
in Kokomo.

No.

No. No.

- Mmm. No.
- No.

- No.
- That would never happen.

So what then?

[Wagner] I suspect that Tom will be
an incredible director someday.

But I suspect
he doesn't want to yet.

I mean, he's very young.

He has a whole life
left to live.

That's probably maybe going
to be his third chapter.