How Top Gun: Maverick’s Jet Fighter Action Scenes Were Filmed

How were Top Gun: Maverick‘s jet fighter action scenes filmed? Top Gun has always been held in high regard for its realistic depiction of aerial dogfights, so there were understandable concerns about how the long-awaited sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, would honor the original. Special effects have evolved a great deal over the last 30 years, causing many to wonder how many of the action sequences would be real, and how much would be produced with CGI.

Fresh off of his $791 million box office hit, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Hollywood icon and action hero Tom Cruise is returning to the role that rocketed him to stardom in 1986’s Tom Gun, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. The film will see Maverick serving as a flight instructor for a new group of aspiring Navy test pilots. Like the first movie, Top Gun 2 is expected to put an emphasis on the aerial battles, but this time Tom Cruise’s character will be ditching the F-14 Tomcat for a F/A-18F Super Hornet. The cast includes Miles Teller as Goose’s son, alongside Ed Harris, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, and returning Top Gun cast member Val Kilmer.

Interviews and other details about the production reveal how the jet fighter action sequences in Top Gun: Maverick were put together. Cruise, who has a pilot’s license, will be flying some of the aircraft, but this doesn’t include F/A-18F Super Hornet. Even so, Paramount, Cruise, and Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski have all stressed that the intent for the film was for the action to look real, which is why the flying scenes, which were shot with 6K technology, rely more on practical effects than CGI. CGI is present, but greatly limited in order to keep that sense of realism.

Paramount was able to make this happen due to cooperation from the military. As Top Gun was a huge boost to recruitment in the 1980s, the U.S. military is helping the studio with making the sequel as accurate as possible when it comes to aircraft. The Pentagon even gave Paramount access to a military base during filming, allowing Top Gun 2 cast members to work with Navy personnel and for cameras to be attached both on and inside F/A-18F Super Hornets, and more. Permission was given for certain pilots to be filmed while in their cockpits [via Washington Business Journal].

When watching Top Gun: Maverick, audiences will be watching actual military jets flying through the air and performing spectacular aerial stunts. Knowing how the jet fighter action in Top Gun: Maverick was filmed will surely make the viewing experience feel even more authentic, which suggests the approach is going to pay off.

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