Top Gun: Maverick's last major mission comes straight from the Navy
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski revealed that the film's mission came out of consultation with the Navy, saying their participation was invaluable.
Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinki reveals how the film's tense mission came to be, and how the Navy played a key role in inspiring it. The long-awaited Top Gun sequel hit theaters this summer to widespread critical and commercial acclaim, especially Top Gun and Tom Cruise's gripping final mission in his prime. In the mission, Cruise's Mavericks lead a team of jets to destroy a nuclear enrichment facility, though the conditions and paths they must take make the mission nearly impossible.
As it turns out, the final Maverick mission and its parameters came directly from the Navy itself. In an interview with Collider, Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski revealed the extent of the Navy's involvement. The mission that the entire movie revolves around stems from a conversation Kosinski had with them about what the hardest, toughest, most terrifying missions can be like. Read what Kosinski had to say about the Navy's valuable engagement below:
"Well, on the first movie, I think they struggled a little bit to get that participation. On this one, yes, the people that are in power at the Navy, the admirals and people of that level, a lot of them joined the Navy because of Top Gun. So, yes, once we described the movie we wanted to make and how we were going to make it, how we wanted to make it, they were very, very helpful and instrumental and invaluable. I mean, the whole third act sequence, actually the whole movie, the structure of the movie, the whole mission that they go on, all came from a conversation we had with them about what is the most difficult, gnarliest, scariest mission you could ever imagine being put on as an aviator? And that is it. The one thing they added, which I didn't put in the film, was they said, "And you do it at night," which would've been all with night vision goggles, which I like not to do. I said, "We'll do it at dawn. It'll look much better." But yeah, without the Navy helping us not only in the script and providing us with all the fun toys, every sequence that you see in there is flown by a Naval aviator or real Top Gun pilots are flying the jets. So, what you're seeing is real Naval aviation, which is pretty amazing."
Maverick's Navy Help Made Top Gun's Finale More Realistic
This engagement ultimately led to a mission that was both realistic and fraught with high risk and tension. The first part of the mission involved traversing a narrow, Rocky valleys to avoid detection. The second part involves a steep climb and dive while hitting a small target. After that, another steep climb has to be done. There's plenty of SAM waiting for you once you step out of the dub in the movie "Coffin Corner". On top of that, Maverick and Co. only have two and a half minutes to complete the core mission, which would be the crowning achievement of the record-breaking Top Gun sequel.
From Kosinski's interview, Top Gun: Maverick seems to bring to life the nightmare mission of a Navy pilot, and the director took it all into account, except for the fact that the Navy advised them to do it at night. While this could further heighten tensions, shooting at dawn, when aerial stunts are easier to see on camera, was the best decision to film the mission, as the team's stealthy run through the canyons includes the film's biggest hits. Some of the best shots for content. It's these shots that make the sequences all the more realistic and the best parts of Top Gun: Maverick.
What A Sequel To Top Gun: Maverick Could Look Like
Following the success of Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel follows Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw's career and father-son relationship (Miles Taylor) and Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) are likely; Pete's relationship with Penny (Jennifer Connelly) is in full swing. That being said, it's nice to see Top Gun's elite grads come back for another deadly mission, perhaps with more pilots and more aerial combat. While Top Gun: Maverick offers plenty of character development -- namely Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), Payback (Jay Ellis), and Hangman (Glen Powell) -- the continuation of their development and more reactions will make Top Gun 3 the stakes. become more important and higher.
More: A full comparison of Top Gun's and Maverick's beach scenes (and which one is better)
