How Top Gun: Maverick became the year’s biggest movie

It was a long time coming – and almost didn’t happen at all – but here’s how Top Gun: Maverick became the year’s biggest and best movie so far.

When Top Gun: Maverick zoomed into the public consciousness travelling somewhere near Mach 10 earlier this year, audiences didn’t quite realise just how much they had missed the need for speed.

The action blockbuster was an immediate commercial and critical hit when it finally released in cinemas in May, with older audiences who loved the 1986 embracing the return of Cruise’s Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and younger audiences embracing the next generation of US Navy fighter pilots and the truly astonishing aerial sequences.

But even those closest to the production admit they were shocked by just how successful it was, quickly becoming the year’s highest grossing film. Director Joseph Kosinski had worked with Cruise on the 2013 sci-film Oblivion and came on board for Maverick in 2017 after pitching the A-list actor an idea that would see Maverick butting heads and then reconciling with Miles Teller’s Rooster, (the son of Anthony Edwards’ Goose, who died in the first film) as they prepared for a difficult and dangerous mission.

Director Joseph Kosinski is blown away by the cinema success of Top Gun: Maverick.

Kosinski described the success of the film in cinemas as “mind-blowing” as it still continues to draw crowds to see it on the biggest screen possible.

“I don’t know if I’ve wrapped my head around it. I’m amazed every day that it continues to play,” he told Variety this week. “I’m thrilled that people liked the movie.”

Ahead of this week’s digital release that includes 110 minutes of new content, here’s the story of how it came about, how it was made and what’s next for Maverick.

Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick.

LONG TIME COMING

At 36 years, the gap between the 1986 original and its sequel is only surpassed by the 68 years between Bambi and Bambi 2. In the years following the success of Top Gun, Cruise was dismissive of the idea of reprising his role, and plans didn’t begin in earnest until 2010 when original director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer were approached by Paramount Pictures. Scott’s death in 2012 put the project on hold but Cruise remained keen and his involvement was officially announced in 2016. Production began in 2018 with an intended release date of July 2019. It was first pushed to June 2020 to accommodate more action scenes, and then delayed several more times due to Covid-19, with Cruise insisting it be released in cinemas rather than to streaming.

Elvis star Austin Butler could have been Miles Teller’s character Rooster in Top Gun: Maverick – and vice versa.

CASTING CLOSE CALLS

If things had gone a little differently, 2022 could have looked very different for both Miles Teller and Austin Butler. The former was among big names including Harry Styles and Ansel Elgort being considered by Baz Luhrmann for the lead role in his Elvis biopic. The latter had a serious shot at the role of Rooster in Maverick. X-Men star Nicholas Hoult and Glenn Powell (who ended up with the role of Hangman) also went close to playing Goose’s son, with Teller eventually winning out after all three were flown to Cruise’s home for chemistry tests.

THE PLANE TRUTH

Producers paid the US Navy more than $16,000 per flight hour for the single and double seat F/A-18 fighter jets used to make it look like the actors were actually flying the planes. The aerial shooting was typically done in the first and last two hours of day when the sun was low on the horizon, giving the best light. The planes were flying at between 550km/h and 930km/h, over jagged and unforgiving terrain, meaning every stunt had to be meticulously planned. Aerial Co-ordinator and Lead Camera Pilot, Kevin LaRosa Jr was a third-generation pilot, and helped design, build and fly “the Cinejet”, a modified Czechoslovakian-built two-seat fighter-trainer with a camera mounted on the nose to capture the extraordinary aerial action sequences. Cruise himself is also a dedicated aviator, who flew his own WWII Mustang plane at the end of the movie.

Tom Cruise in one of the real FA18 jets used in Top Gun: Maverick.

THE NEED FOR SPEED

New recruits Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez and Greg Tarzan Davis were all put through flight school in a program put together by Cruise and LaRosa Jr.

“We built a program that would take them through the basic foundation of flying and incrementally graduate them to more advanced levels, each step giving them more G-forces, more manoeuvrability – building them up to be able to step into an F-18,” says LaRose.

With each actor starting logbooks, they graduated from Cessna 172s to the Extra 300, a “world-famous acrobatic aircraft [in which] they were pulled up to eight Gs on a daily basis to get their bodies ready for the strain”. To put that in context, the typical human body can withstand approximately five G’s, or the force of an average roller coaster. Anything higher than nine G’s moves blood away from the brain, causing G-LOC, or G-induced loss of consciousness.

CALL THE BALL

Before filming began, the cast visited the real TOPGUN facility, in Nevada, to meet face-to-face with the Navy pilots who would be flying with them on location and to get an insight into their famous customs. They learned that call signs aren’t chosen but given, by fellow flyers. Most of the actors were assigned their call signs in Maverick but Teller was allowed to choose his own, picking Rooster because it comes from the same bird family as Goose. Teller also insisted on learning how to sing and play the piano so he could perform Great Balls of Fire himself.

Miles Teller learned how to play Great Balls Of Fire on the piano himself for Top Gun: Maverick.

THE DEATH THEORY

Aviators and scientists have scoffed at the idea that any pilot – even one as accomplished as Maverick – could survive a plan malfunction travelling at more than Mach 10 (more than 12,000 km/h) and anyone ejecting at that speed would be instantly killed. Allison Willmore of US online publication Vulture came up with a theory to explain this glaring hole, namely that Maverick dies while testing the Darkstar scramjet and the rest of the film is a death dream in which he’s making peace with his mistakes of the past. It might sound crazy, but makes a certain amount of sense on a rewatch.

CRUISE IN CONTROL

Cruise has undeniably been one of the biggest movies stars in the world for more than four decades but of the more than 40 movies on his resume, Top Gun: Maverick is his most successful by some margin. From its $250 million budget, it has now made just over $2 billion making it the highest grossing film of 2022 to date and the 12 highest grossing film ever worldwide and its $88.5 million here makes the third highest ever in Australia. Whether audiences have seen the last of Mav remains to be seen – no sequel has been officially greenlit and while Teller has revealed he has had conversation with Cruise regarding a sequel (and has also floated the idea of a Rooster spin-off), the veteran’s commitments to his Mission: Impossible franchise and a variety of other already-announced projects probably mean it won’t happen any time soon.

TOP GUN: MAVERICK is now available to buy on Digital and will be released on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD November 2