(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

Top Gun 2 is the sequel we’ve waited nearly 35 years for and this December it will finally be heading our way! But whilst we’ve been impatiently waiting to see Tom Cruise step back into the role of Maverick, the entire cast of the sequel have been working hard and away, taking on intense training to prepare for their roles.

In a recent interview with Yahoo!, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer detailed the intense training which the younger cast members went through, just to get ready for their takes. And only at the hands of Tom Cruise himself! Bruckheimer told,

“He put the actors through this grueling process over three months so they could take the G-forces when we put them in the F/A-18s. It was really a tough slog for these young actors, because they also had to go through water survival training, where they are blindfolded and put in a water tank that’s turned upside down and they have to figure out how to get out. And Tom went through all the same stuff! They told me he went through that training just like a 22-year-old would — that’s how good he is.”

Talk about dedication?! And whilst Cruise is no stranger to doing his own stunts, Top Gun: Maverick will be another blockbuster of his to take cinema to new heights! With the fighter jet sequences filmed practically, and with very little or no CGI, the sequel is already promising to be an authentic cinematic masterpiece. Jon Hamm revealed to Collider,

“They’re using some technology on this that is never before seen. We’re shooting the movie in, I think, 6K. So it’s incredibly hi-def. The aerial footage is mind-blowing. And it’s mostly practical. There’s not a lot of CG. Those guys are really up in planes and getting thrown around in multiple Gs.”.

But not only that, Bruckheimer told Yahoo!,

“For Maverick, we put five cameras in the cockpit, so the actors not only had to act, they had to know when to turn the camera on and where the sun was to match the previous scene. They had a lot to do in that cockpit when they were flying these planes on sorties, which were designed by Tom and Joe. Tom gave all the briefings and all the debriefings after the shoot along with the great Top Gun pilots that we work with from the Navy.”.

At this point, we don’t expect anything less from a project Tom Cruise is involved in! He is preparing to film a movie in outer space, after all!

Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled for release December 23, 2020, having been postponed because of COVID-19. Let’s hope we get to see it this Christmas… it looks to be a great cinematic gift!