Steven Spielberg caught up with Cruise at this year’s Oscar nominees luncheon earlier this week. In an exchange between the former collaborators caught on camera — see below — Spielberg tells Cruise that he “saved Hollywood’s [butt]” with Maverick.
“And you might have saved theatrical distribution,” Spielberg tells Cruise. “Seriously, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry.”
Maverick was just the second film released amid the pandemic to gross more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office, joining the exclusive company of Spider-Man: No Way Home. And in the domestic box office, Maverick is the fifth-highest grossing film of all-time, topping $718 million. It’s the only non-Marvel and non-Avatar film in the top five.
steven spielberg telling tom cruise to his face, “you saved hollywood’s ass. and, you might have saved theatrical distribution. seriously. MAVERICK might have saved the entire theatrical industry.” i have to lie down. pic.twitter.com/nYbWbgadM7
Unlike the third installment of the third Spider-Man series, Maverick has been nominated for multiple Academy Awards, hence Cruise’s presence at the awards luncheon. In addition to starring in the film, Cruise is also credited as a producer.
Cruise and Spielberg’s films are both competing at this year’s Oscars. Both Maverick and Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans are nominated for Best Picture. The Fabelmans is up for six other awards – including Judd Hirsch for Best Supporting Actor – while Maverick is nominated for five others, including sound, editing, original song, visual effects, and adapted screenplay.
Despite great performances by Cruise, and co-stars Glen Powell and Miles Teller, Maverick didn’t land any nominations for acting. Cruise has never won an acting Oscar, but would be credited with a win as a producer should Maverick win Best Picture. Cruise was last nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 2000’s Magnolia. Though, we all think he should’ve at least been nominated for pulling off this insane stunt in Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation.
Spielberg and Cruise haven’t worked together on a film since 2005’s War of the Worlds. Before that, they also teamed up for 2002’s Minority Report. Perhaps we’ll see them work on another film together if Cruise can take a break from death-defying stunts in Mission Impossible sequels.
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.
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 sequel to 1986’s high-flying hit is finally in theaters, and it’s worth the wait.
The long awaited Top Gun: Maverick screams into theaters this week after numerous COVID-19 related delays. Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer’s sequel to 1986’s cult classic love letter to Naval Aviation was set to come out in the fall of 2019 before the studio pushed it to ensure they had enough time to edit the intense flying sequences. The July 2020 release was pushed after the start of the pandemic, sliding right to December 2020 before moving to July 2021 and then November 2021 before landing on May 27, 2022.
It was worth the wait.
Top Gun: Maverick is the kind of movie made to watch on the absolute biggest screen possible. From the very first bell gong that signals you’re about to strap in for a high-flying adrenaline rush, Maverick moves Mach 10 from start to finish. There’s no real reason why this should work so well, but Bruckheimer and director Joe Kosinski manage to perfectly mesh just the right amount of nostalgia with the action and excitement of a new adventure.
The plot is straightforward: Pete “Maverick” Mitchell is back — and don’t worry, they explain how he’s still active duty and only a Captain — and in charge of coaching up a group of Top Gun graduates for a seemingly impossible mission. Those graduates are (of course) the best of the best, and include Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of Maverick’s former Weapon Systems Operator Goose. Rooster, played by Miles Teller, still holds a grudge against Mav for not only his potential role in his father’s tragic death but also for some drama around his application to the Naval Academy.
Teller didn’t get any time with Anthony Edwards, who played the iconic Goose, before the filming. Despite that, he does a remarkable job emulating his fictional father’s mannerisms in a way that immediately makes you think, “ah yes, I see this 100%.”
Although the plot is simple, it’s the perfect vehicle to bring the audience a plethora of just absolutely incredible aviation sequences. The utterly charming Glen Powell serves as cocky pilot Hangman, with Phoenix (Monica Barbaro), Payback (Jay Ellis), Fanboy (Danny Ramirez), Coyote (Greg Tarzan Davis), and BOB (Lewis Pullman) all among those vying for the coveted mission spots.
All of the flying scenes are real, and Kosinski shot over 800 hours of footage to put together the finished product. Each actor was their own director in the cockpit, adding one more layer of complication to an already endlessly complicated process. He essentially had a collection of mini-directors, each responsible for controlling their own scenes mid-flight.
“It was the only way to accomplish what we wanted to accomplish, which was getting all of this footage for real in the [F/A-18] Super Hornet,” Kosinski told For The Win during the Top Gun: Maverick press junket. “It was a lot of training, a lot of briefing, a lot of rehearsals on the ground…it was a team effort.”
In an era of sequels and nostalgic reboots, Top Gun: Maverick knocks it out of the park. It’s not just a good movie or a fun summer blockbuster; it’s the best blockbuster to hit theaters in the last decade. There’s drama, edge-of-your-seat excitement, emotion, and everything in-between. While it may not end up with the quotability of Top Gun’s “need for speed” or the classic “your ego is writing checks that your body can’t cash,” it is a sequel that honors the original and elevates it (literally) to a new level.
This is pretty cool for #TBDBITL after its tribute to #TopGun.
The world-famous Ohio State marching band has a new fan. In case you missed it, OSU performed a Top Gun salute at halftime of the Purdue game on November 13, and it apparently did not go unnoticed.
Just to get you acclimated with the performance, we’re resharing it here. TBDBITL took the crowd through several songs from the movie all while changing formations and, of course, pulling off some pretty amazing animations on the field to pay tribute to one of the most popular movies of all time.
If you haven’t seen the performance, you can take a look at it below thanks to the local Columbus CBS affiliate’s YouTube Channel below.
Apparently, Tom Cruise himself took note of the performance and wrote into the band during a one of their breaks. What was then shared that may interest you is that band director Christopher Hoch then surprised TBDBITL by reading the letter from Cruise and keeping the one who penned it a surprise until the end.
It’s definitely worth a watch for yourself, and pretty cool for one of the biggest movies stars of all time to not only recognize the OSU marching band on Twitter but to also send some swag. Follow the video through and look at some of the perks Cruise provided, including an invitation for an early screening of Top Gun: Maverick in the spring.
Thank you for the amazing Top Gun tribute. And good luck at the Rose Bowl! https://t.co/sGNN428Cx8
The 122nd edition of the Army-Navy Football game is coming up on December 11, and the Midshipmen already have a leg up heading into East Rutherford, New Jersey. As a former Naval Aviator, I am incredibly biased, but Navy just released the most absolutely awesome uniforms in the history of this matchup.
[takes deep breath to compose myself]
Navy went with a Naval Aviation — namely the carrier-based F/A-18 Super Hornet — themed uniform, and they rule. The mostly navy kits feature the current active roundel (essentially a circular logo), which is made up of a white star with white and red stripes, on each shoulder and on one side of the helmet. The pants have a red stripe between two white stripes.
The back of the helmet has the gold wings earned by Naval Aviators (pilots), Naval Flight Officers (navigators), and Aircrew. On the left side of the helmet, you can find the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the latest in the F-14 Tomcat line of aircraft made popular by that little old 1986 classic Top Gun.
It’s all so clean and sharp, and the “Fly Navy” script on the gloves makes me melt a little inside whenever I see it. Top Gun: Maverick — a sequel to the Tom Cruise classic — is set to release in May after several pandemic-related delays, so these might have to just hold us over until then.
Both Army and Navy feature unit or squadron patches on their uniforms each year, and this season Navy is highlighting the Strike Fighter Wing, U.S. Atlantic Fleet out of Oceana, Virginia with the triangular patch on the upper chest.
Not only are the uniforms outstanding, the release videos (and pictures) are phenomenal. Try and watch this and not want to run through a wall.
Not to be dramatic, but these are the most gorgeous uniforms to step onto a college football field this season. Be right back, I’m going to put on my flight suit and listen to Danger Zone on repeat.
