Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski explains the dangerous and nearly impossible aerial stunt filmed by Tom Cruise without stuntmen.
Joseph KosinskiDirector of Top Gun: Maverickhas explained the dangerous and almost impossible aerial stunt he filmed Tom Cruise no doubles. More than any of this year’s releases, the aviation sequel has had an incredibly long and complicated journey to reach theaters. The film was originally scheduled for July 2019. It was first pushed back to give the production more time to prepare. After this, the film suffered multiple delays due to the pandemic.
In an interview given to Comic BookJoseph Kosinski has recounted an almost impossible aerial trick that has Top Gun: Maverick. The filmmaker has admitted that he was not sure that Tom Cruise was going to be able to shoot it. The scene takes place approximately halfway through the movie. Kosinski has revealed that they had to request special permission from the Navy in order to film the sequence. This required the Hollywood star to fly below 50 feet (15.24 meters) at a whopping 965 kilometers per hour. A feat that Joseph Kosinski did not think he would be able to accomplish on set.
A historic event that required the US Navy
“There’s a sequence in the middle of the movie where Maverick is circling alone on a very low flight,” explained the director of Top Gun: Maverick about the epic and impossible scene shot by Tom Cruise. “For that sequence, we got special permission from the Navy because we had to fly below 50 feet and about 600 miles per hour. It’s one of those things I don’t think I’ll ever do again.”
You don’t have to be an aviation expert to understand how dangerous it can be to fly a fighter jet at such a low altitude. Aircraft generally never fly below 500 feet above ground level, even in rural areas. Military low-flying training does not generally require pilots to go below 100 feet. The fact that the US Navy allowed Tom Cruise to fly so absurdly low to the ground during the filming of Top Gun: Maverick it is something historical in itself. The most incredible thing is that he did it without having any problem.
