The Top Gun: Maverick star is a HUGE Phillies fan.
Sunday night, the Philadelphia Phillies extended its improbable postseason run with a 4-3 win over the San Diego Padres. With the victory, the Phillies will head to the World Series, where the AL’s Houston Astros will be waiting. Philadelphia has continued to get big hit after big hit as they swept St. Louis in the Wild Card and went 3-1 in the ALDS against the 2021 champion Atlanta Braves.
The Padres bested the Phils in game two, sending the ALCS to the City of Brotherly Love knotted up at 1-1. In games four and five, the Phillies rallied from behind in front of a raucous home crowd.
One particularly happy fan was actor Miles Teller, a Philadelphia sports super fan. Teller, who played Rooster in this summer’s mega blockbuster, Top Gun: Maverick, took in the games from the stands and was even brought onto the field for a Danger Zone inspired moment.
Rooster @Miles_Teller from Top Gun getting the people crazy at CBP
Here are six times he was thrilled to be celebrating the Phillies in the NLCS this weekend, plus a bonus shot of him donning Eagles gear at Super Bowl LIV (despite Philly not playing in it).
It isn’t an understatement to say that Glen Powell has waited his whole life for the premier of Top Gun: Maverick. The Austin, Texas native grew up obsessed with the 1986 original, citing the Tom Cruise love letter to Naval Aviation as his push to get into the film industry.
Now, Maverick is back in the No. 1 spot in the box office — claiming the rare No.1 on both Memorial Day and Labor Day — after it screamed into theaters May 27 following a two year, pandemic-related delay. It has made over $700 million domestically and $1.4 billion globally and set a new Memorial Day Weekend box office record after making just over $160 million.
Powell plays Jake “Hangman” Seresin, one of the hotshot pilots vying for a coveted spot in Pete “Maverick” Mitchell’s (Tom Cruise) nearly impossible mission (no, not that impossible mission). Hangman wasn’t the role Powell initially wanted in the long-awaited sequel as he made the final three actors in the running to play Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s former back seater Goose (Anthony Edwards).
The role eventually went to Miles Teller, and Powell took to Twitter to express his disappointment in a way only he knows how.
I’m taking down all the Tom Cruise posters in my bedroom. Maybe, I’ll leave one. Two for symmetry. Okay, the posters are staying. https://t.co/7gCpNLJCcz
Powell, now 34-years-old, would eventually get a call from none other than Cruise himself as the crew was so impressed with his audition that they expanded a role for him specifically. It’s not surprising he would have that effect. There’s something inherently easy about talking to Powell as he makes it feel like you are two friends reuniting over a beer rather than an interview being conducted.
He’s got everything you’d want in a leading man, including a superstar smile that lights up a room. And now he has his blockbuster. Maverick is the flick that will likely elevate Powell’s career after he’s found success in various roles in Hidden Figures, Scream Queens, Everybody Wants Some, and Set it Up.
His next big project, Devotion, hits theaters in October and is another film rooted in naval aviation — this time in the Korean War era. He’s also going to produce the Blue Angels IMAX experience, something he calls “pretty surreal” considering he grew up with a Blue Angels poster on his bedroom wall and going to their airshows.
“First off, I’m very honored to be your [naval aviation] guy,” Powell told For The Win with a smile when asked about staying within the genre. “I love the Navy. The Navy has been very good to me and by being on bases and flying with these naval aviators, and living on the U.S.S. Roosevelt, you get to know these people and you get to know their stories and you have a new level of respect for the men and women in uniform.”
Powell doesn’t just act as a pilot. He’s actually completed the training needed to get his private pilot’s license. He’s traded in the F/A-18 for a Cirrus, but the love of flying remains. Flying wasn’t always as kind to him, however, as Powell has been upfront about his bouts of airsickness throughout the intense jet training flights.
“If the question is, ‘Did I get airsick?’ the answer is yes, I did.” Powell said with a smile. “I want to be forthright with America here.” There’s no shame in “giving your breakfast back to the Navy” as Powell called it as every bit of aviation footage used in the film is absolutely worth every bit of vomit.
Each actor was required to complete intense preparation, which included ground training, water survival training, and obviously flight training.
“Talk about the most immersive experience ever,” Powell said of Maverick’s prep. “You go on a movie and they’re like, ‘Hey, you’re not going to die during filming’ and [here] they’re checking your heart like, ‘is your heart going to explode when you’re in an F/A-18?’ Never had that physical on a movie.”
While the flying is something he loves, the uniform might be just as big an impact on staying in the cockpit for future projects. “First off, you never look cooler than you do in a flight suit. It’s a great look,” he said before likening it to a pair of pajamas.
Powell wasn’t as big of a fan of all the other gear necessary to fly, however. Due to all of the intense G-forces encountered while flying, all of the actors had to don a g-suit in the cockpit. When experiencing G-forces, the suit — which is effectively a pair of fancy chaps — inflates to prevent blood from pooling and to send it back towards your head and heart.
“Once you actually get kitted up to go in the F/A-18, that’s something I took off as quickly as possible,” Powell stated. “The G-suit was not my friend. I liken it to squeezing toothpaste and getting that last bit out. Every time that G-suit would inflate, I could feel my breakfast which is never a good thing.”
Outside of the cockpit, Powell’s Hangman is the reincarnation of Val Kilmer’s Iceman from the original. He pushes everyone’s buttons, knows he may actually be the best of the best and is kind of an all-around jerk. Still, you can’t help but find yourself absolutely loving the character. As the real life nice guy, Powell definitely has fun playing the bad boy.
“They are the most fun characters to play. People have a really fun time watching Hangman, and it’s as much fun to watch as it is to play.”
There will be plenty of roles in Powell’s future, both the instigator and the good guy. At CinemaCon, Powell won the “Male Star of Tomorrow Award,” which is just hardware to prove what we already know from watching him: he’s just getting started. Get ready for the Glenaissaince.
Top Gun: Maverick is not only the biggest movie in the U.S., it’s absolutely obliterating box offices worldwide. Maverick as sped through the $900 million mark as it looks to join Spider-Man: No Way Home as the only post-pandemic movies to hit a billion dollars in ticket sales. It is already Tom Cruise’s biggest box office success, and it has also received high praise from critics and audiences alike with a 97 percent and 99 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, respectively.
Maverick features incredible aviation sequences, thrilling action and a lot of up-and-coming stars. With a lot of nostalgia that harkens back to the 1986 original, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski made a few updates to bring the action into the 21st century.
It can be difficult to get everything correct, as one savvy Reddit user highlighted. Instead of the iconic beach volleyball scene, Maverick features an oiled-up beach football scene.
There’s just one problem.
As naval aviators, all of the game participants have Navy ties (although it’s not a given that they are all Naval Academy grads).
“However, the game consists of almost exclusively spread formations with forward passes, a clear slap in the face to the much superior triple option offense run by the service academies,” user puuma20 said in a self-proclaimed rant. “I almost got up and walked out of the theater.”
They’ve got a point. In 2021, Navy completed just 48 passes for a total of 681 yards and six touchdowns. Most impressively last season, the Midshipmen upset Tulsa, 20-17, without completing a single pass.
Man, what an oversight by the filmmakers. We need answers, Maverick.
Women weren’t allowed to fly combat for the Navy until 7 years after the original Top Gun came out. Now Phoenix rules the sky in Top Gun: Maverick.
It’s Top Gun: Maverick Week here at For The Win, where we’ve taken to the skies for five days of content to celebrate the premiere of the sequel to 1986’s iconic ode to naval aviation. Strap in for a wild ride (no spoilers!).
When the original Top Gun released in 1986, women were still seven years from being allowed to fly combat missions for the Navy. As a result, there were only two actresses in a major role: Kelly McGillis as contractor-turned-Maverick’s-love-interest Charlie and Meg Ryan as Goose’s wife Carole.
In the long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, we finally get to see a woman in the cockpit as Monica Barbaro portrays Phoenix, a pilot that is vying for a spot in the challenging and dangerous mission that Maverick (Tom Cruise) is training them to do.
Today, women make up just 12 percent of all Navy pilots, and Barbaro felt pressure to play Phoenix in a way that would make them proud. “It was just an incredible honor to represent the female aviators that I got to meet and got to fly with,” Barbaro said during the Top Gun: Maverick press junket. She took some of those female aviators with her to the movie’s premiere and was grateful for their support throughout the whole process.
The movie doesn’t burden Phoenix with a romantic storyline, but clearly establishes her friendship with Rooster (Miles Teller), contentious rivalry with Hangman (Glen Powell) and fantastic working relationship with her weapon systems operator, Bob (Lewis Pullman). The message? She’s an incredible pilot who just happens to be a woman.
“Initially she was written like she was overcompensating for the fact that she was a woman in the original script and being the bro-iest bro of the crew,” Barbaro said of Phoenix’s beginnings. While Monica and the rest of the actors were in training, Jerry Bruckheimer, Joe Kosinski and leading man Tom Cruise had already started tweaking her character.
“As I was in training, they were like, ‘OK, just FYI, she’s changing a lot,'” Barbaro said. “It was really important to Tom [Cruise] and Joe [Kosinski] and Paramount, and then also so important to the Navy and our pilot consultants, to represent her in that strong, capable way where she’s just really confident about what she’s great at and not overcompensating for everything.”
The training Barbaro and her cast mates had to go through was intense and included water survival and high G training to prepare them for all of the demanding flying scenes. Despite all that training, flight hours in an F/A-18, and becoming a movie star, Barbaro has remained humble about the process. There is one thing she refuses to stay cool about, however.
“They made a Phoenix Barbie, which I think is like, the coolest thing on the planet. It’s the only thing I refuse to be humble about. It’s super cool.”
“I think it’s terrific, I really do,” Bruckheimer said. “I’m so thrilled that on the first movie a lot of fathers took their sons and Navy recruiting went up 500 percent after the first one. A lot of the pilots that we talked to said, ‘I joined the Navy because I saw Top Gun,’ and I think it’s going to happen all over again.”
Barbaro felt similarly regarding the reach this film could have.
“I became very close with a lot of the guys at Top Gun and to the instructors … the way they talked about hoping their daughters would be interested in aviation I think was cool.
“I think in a big way, watching a big media movie represent a woman in a way that that she’s strong and capable and cool … this is why representation matters. You need evidence of these things and you need to see it to be like, ‘OK, that’s a possibility for me’ or ‘ Oh, that is a possibility for my for my daughter.'”
“It’s an honor,” Barbaro said of depicting a naval aviator. “They’re big shoes to fill.”
Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters worldwide on May 27.
It’s Top Gun: Maverick Week here at For The Win, where we’ve taken to the skies for five days of content to celebrate the premiere of the sequel to 1986’s iconic ode to naval aviation. Strap in for a wild ride (no spoilers!).
If someone told you their favorite movie was an action flick about Pete Mitchell, Tom Kazansky and Nick Bradshaw, it might take you a minute to figure out what they’re talking about. Now imagine they said an action flick about Maverick, Iceman and Goose. Whole new story.
Behold, the power of the call sign.
Tom Cruise’s 1986 mega-hit Top Gun first introduced us to Maverick et al. and introduced (a lot of) us to the notion of a call sign and its place in military aviation. A call sign is essentially a nickname, but its origins stem all the way back to the early days of flying as pilots needed ways to both distinguish their aircraft and speak concisely over the radio.
Call signs are more common in jet or attack squadrons like those portrayed in Top Gun. Much like in the fleet, the actors in Maverick were assigned call signs rather than choosing their own. Each actor was given the opportunity to pitch a new name for their characters, but none of them ended up taking it.
“All of our call signs were scripted,” said actor Jay Ellis, a.k.a. Payback. “But Joe Kosinski (the director) was like, ‘Hey, if you have pitches for call signs, let me know.'”
Ellis said they all fell in love with their given names. “I remember just going, ‘I love Payback! There’s nothing better. I’m coming for payback!'”
“We all earned them, too,” said Monica Barbaro, who plays Phoenix. “I remember [Ellis] convinced [co-star Lewis Pullman] to put his phone on the bar, and then he had to buy everyone in the bar a round of drinks. We were all like, ‘you better pay him back.'”
Miles Teller, the actor who portrays Rooster, was one of the few — if not the only one — that got to choose his own call sign. Playing Goose’s son meant the pressure was on to find the right one.
“Rooster did just kind of come to me,” Teller said. “I remember meeting with Joe Kosinski, our director, and [producer Jerry] Bruckheimer, and they went through thousands of call signs.”
Rooster was really the only bird-related call sign they considered.
Each cast member was partial to their own call sign, though that isn’t always the case in the fleet.
“You can get a call sign for almost anything, and usually it’s a work in progress,” said Marine Corps F/A-18 Weapon Systems Officer David “Uncle Rico” Hall. “Whether it’s because they did something stupid, or whether you just think of one that sounds funny because of their name, or just how they act.”
The surest way to make sure you’re not stuck with a bad call sign is to let your squadron know you hate it.
Hall is an expert in assigning call signs thanks to his time with VMFA(AW)-225 in Miramar, California and VMFA(AW)-242 Iwakuni, Japan. For him, the call sign is more than just a time-honored aviation tradition; it also serves to breakdown rank barriers in the cockpit.
“I could be flying with the general, and if he does something stupid, then I need to be able to say, ‘Hey, Smiley, you’re doing something stupid,'” Hall said. “It just kind of levels the playing field, and that’s super important — tactically and safety-wise — at least in aviation.”
You can see Maverick, Rooster, Payback and more in Top Gun: Maverick, which opens in theaters worldwide May 27.
Meet the ‘Helo Dunker,’ the water survival training tool that tormented Top Gun: Maverick actors.
It’s Top Gun: Maverick Week here at For The Win, where we’ve taken to the skies for five days’ worth of content to celebrate the premiere of the sequel to 1986’s iconic ode to Naval Aviation. Strap in for a wild ride (no spoilers!).
Tom Cruise was adamant that the aviation sequences in Top Gun: Maverick be realistic. This meant that the young actors had to go through intense training, both on the ground and then in the air. A large part of that ground training involves water survival, something all naval aviators have to complete in case the absolute unthinkable happens and you end up in the water.
The worst and most memorable part of this water survival training for most participants is the Modular Egress Training Simulator, better known as the Helo Dunker. The Dunker simulates when a helicopter hits water and begins sinking, at which point it flips upside down.
Yes, you read that right, it flips upside down and continues sinking as it fills with water.
To complete the training, you unstrap yourself (once you come to a full stop upside down and submerged) and egress through one of the approved exits. This may involve working a lever to open a window or climbing over multiple seats to find one of these aforementioned windows. Sometimes, you have to wear a blindfold. Fun!
As a former naval aviator, I have been personally tormented by the Helo Dunker, and even more times than the training required as I am a self-proclaimed terrible swimmer and therefore terrible at the whole process. When done properly, the whole thing takes a matter of seconds, even if you’re in the seat further from the window. If you didn’t think you were terrified of being strapped into an enclosed space while it fills with water, you will be after you do it a few times.
It can humble even the biggest and strongest of aviators, or in the case of Top Gun: Maverick, actors. “There were tears,” Jay Ellis, the actor who portrays Payback, said immediately upon being asked about his experience with the dunker. “There was a lot of shaking.”
Cast mate Lewis Pullman — callsign Bob — laughed. “Look at all of our body language,” Pullman said as he, Ellis and Monica Barbaro physically recoiled as they thought back to their Dunker runs. “You get kicked in the head,” Barbaro said before Ellis agreed. “I got knocked out almost.”
Pullman had the misfortune of needing to complete the training with a fever of 101 degrees. Since they were on a tight timeline to begin filming, he had no choice but to power through, a fate I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy.
Miles Teller, a.k.a LT Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, succinctly sums it up. “Well, the Dunker is horrible.”
Danny Ramirez, who plays Weapon Systems Officer Fanboy in Maverick, had his own tale of terror from the experience. In an animated fashion, Ramirez explained how he and co-star Glen Powell (callsign Hangman) volunteered for an extra ride as solidarity for Tarzan Davis (callsign Coyote), who still had one more run through to get fully qualified. “At that point, I felt all cocky that we had passed the test,” Ramirez said.
Easy, right?
Not so fast. His harness wouldn’t unlatch, leaving him stuck hanging upside down underwater. “The harness wasn’t opening, and I see Glen [Powell] kind of waiting for me,” Ramirez said, mimicking Powell’s underwater treading as he waited for his open window to egress out of. “He sees me unable to open my harness, and he’s like, ‘alright’ and just leaves.”
Davis and Ramirez bust up laughing as Powell attempts to explain that he didn’t abandon his cast mate. “Tarzan was already out — he accomplished the test,” Ramirez continued. “Finally two of them let loose and I squiggle out of there.”
This wasn’t the only time that Powell got some flak with regards to the Dunker, however.
“You’ve got to trust your buddy — I won’t name names … Glen Powell — to open a window the way you tell him,” Barbaro said with a smile. “There’s only one way this window is going to open, and he’s like, ‘yeah sure, you’re just not as strong as I am.'”
Powell, however, was the lone cast member that admitted to loving the Dunker. There is always one in a group that goes through training, and for this cadre of Maverick actors, Powell was the guy.
“I think I’m the only one that loved the Helo Dunker,” Powell said with a wry smile. “I’m that guy. I just thought it was like an American Gladiators activity. So even after I passed I went back in it with everyone for solidarity, but really I was just having a good time,” he added with emphatic air quotes on the word solidarity.
All the stress and inhaled water was worth it, however, when you get to see the finished product that includes the actors in the back seats of F/A-18s. They just might give a little extra pause when driving over a bridge from here on out.
Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters May 27 nationwide.
Who has the best technique? Are jeans the best for volleyball? USA Volleyball’s Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb help us answer these questions and more.
It’s Top Gun: Maverick Week here at For The Win, where we’ve taken to the skies for five days’ worth of content to celebrate the premiere of the sequel to 1986’s iconic ode to Naval Aviation. Strap in for a wild ride (no spoilers!).
The 1986 Naval Aviation classic Top Gun has a lot of memorable moments. None is sweatier or more superfluous than the iconic beach volleyball scene. For just under two incredible minutes, Tom Cruise’s Maverick, Anthony Edwards’s Goose, Val Kilmer’s Iceman and Rick Rossovich’s Slider play what can only be described as a scintillating game before Mav rudely departs — with the score tied at one game apiece — for his date with Charlie.
In case you have (somehow) never seen this incredible scene — or just want to enjoy it again — here you go:
In order to fully appreciate and understand the levels of this match, we enlisted the help of experts Tri Bourne and Trevor Crabb of the USA Volleyball Beach National Team.
The 2022 Indy 500 is getting a little extra need for speed.
It’s Top Gun: Maverick Week here at For The Win, where we’ve taken to the skies for five days’ worth of content to celebrate the premiere of the sequel to 1986’s iconic ode to Naval Aviation. Strap in for a wild ride (no spoilers!).
But for the 2022 Indy 500, that sentiment will mean a little something extra. Top Gun: Maverick star Miles Teller will be at the 106th running of the Indy 500, and he’ll serve as the honorary starter, waving the green flag above the 33-car field to signal the start of the race, Indianapolis Motor Speedway announced Tuesday.
Teller plays Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s (played by Tom Cruise) former Weapon Systems Operator, the late character Goose, who ends up clashing with Maverick in this decades-later sequel, as For The Win’s Top Gun Week team noted.
Celebrities and other athletes are regular attendees at the Indy 500, and some, like Chris Hemsworth, Matt Damon and Christian Bale, have also been the race’s honorary starter. Elevated above the iconic track’s start-finish line, the honorary starter has one of the best views possible at the beginning of the 500-mile race.
Matt Damon and Christian Bale wave green flags to start the 2019 Indianapolis 500. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
The 2022 Indy 500 is set for Sunday, and the green flag is scheduled to fly at 12:45 p.m. ET on NBC, but coverage begins at 11 a.m.
