Video: Tom Cruise arrives by helicopter to ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ premiere on USS Midway Tom Cruise at the advance premiere of Top Gun: Maverick on Naval Air Station North Island (NASNI), Calif., May 4, 2022. (Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Keenan Daniels/U.S. Navy)
The premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” took place at the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego, Calif. on Wednesday and leading actor Tom Cruise arrived in a personalized helicopter.
The helicopter, bearing Cruise’s name along with the movie’s name and logo, landed atop the retired carrier and Cruise stepped out. He later joked he “doesn’t do anything simple.”
The highly anticipated film is set to release on May 27. The film’s release was delayed several times over the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This is the first time I’ve been on a movie set for years in lockdown and shooting. I’m seeing faces again and this is humanity back, you know. It’s an honor to be here for me,” Cruise said on the red carpet.
Tom Cruise first publicly confirmed in 2017 that a Top Gun sequel was upcoming. Filming had begun in May 2018 and the film was originally intended to release in July 2019. It was delayed a year to July 2020 when Paramount Studios said they needed more time to work on flight sequences with new tech and aircraft. The film crew was able to get a brand new six-camera system to capture Imax quality footage inside the cockpit of a Navy fighter jet.
Cruise reportedly caused some delay in the production of the sequel in order to get certified to fly fighter jets. A source for the film production told The Sun that Cruise would fly for some, but not all of the scenes.
Paramount released a new official trailer for the film on Mar. 29.
More than 30 years since the May 1986 release of the original “Top Gun,” Tom Cruise returns as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the “Top Gun” sequel.
“After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him,” Paramount Pictures website states. “When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: ‘Rooster,’ the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka ‘Goose’.”
“Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it,” the website continues.
In addition to Cruise and Teller, the film’s cast includes Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Ed Harris and Val Kilmer also star.
