39 Fun Facts About Top Gun: Maverick

Who directed Top Gun: Maverick?

Joseph Kosinski directed it; he had made Oblivion (2013) with Cruise and pitched the sequel with a lookbook, poster and title while Cruise was shooting Mission: Impossible – Fallout in Paris.

Whose memory is Top Gun: Maverick dedicated to?

Tony Scott, who directed the 1986 original, died in August 2012; only days earlier he and Cruise had toured a naval air station together to research a sequel.

What is the name of the hypersonic test aircraft Maverick pushes past Mach 10 in the opening?

Darkstar was designed with engineers from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works, and a full-scale mockup was built so that its ground scenes could be filmed for real at China Lake.

Which real Navy rank does Maverick hold at the start of the film, having never made flag rank?

Maverick is a Captain, the Navy's highest non-flag rank; Admiral Cain notes that after thirty-plus years he should be a two-star admiral, but insubordination has kept him a test pilot.

Which old rival, now Pacific Fleet commander, saves Maverick's career by sending him to Top Gun?

Iceman, now Admiral Tom Kazansky commanding the Pacific Fleet, has Maverick ordered to Top Gun as an instructor, which stops another admiral from grounding him for good.

What is the target of the mission Maverick must train his pilots to fly?

An unsanctioned uranium enrichment plant, dug into a bunker at the end of a canyon, has to be destroyed before it becomes operational; the film never names the country that built it.

In Top Gun: Maverick, why can't stealthy F-35s be used for the canyon strike?

GPS jamming rules them out, so Maverick builds the raid around two pairs of Super Hornets carrying laser-guided bombs on a low-level run through the canyon.

Who plays Bradley 'Rooster' Bradshaw, Goose's son?

Miles Teller won the part in July 2018 after chemistry tests at Tom Cruise's Florida home, then grew a moustache to echo his on-screen father, Goose.

Why does Rooster resent Maverick?

He blocked his Academy application, costing Rooster four years; Maverick was keeping a promise to Rooster's dying mother that her son would never fly, which Rooster knows nothing about.

Which Top Gun: Maverick actor lost Rooster's role, then played a cocky rival pilot?

Glen Powell thought the role had no payoff, calling the character a 'Navy Draco Malfoy', until Cruise and the producers let him reshape it; in the script he first read, the call sign was Slayer.

Which actress plays Penny Benjamin, the bar owner and Maverick's old flame, in Top Gun: Maverick?

Jennifer Connelly plays a character who is only a name in the 1986 film: Penny Benjamin is the admiral's daughter his commander brings up while dressing Maverick down.

In Top Gun: Maverick, the dying admiral's advice to Maverick about Rooster is which line?

'It's time to let go' appears on a screen: the admiral's illness has left him barely able to speak, so he types his side of the conversation with Maverick.

In Top Gun: Maverick, what is flown over the late admiral's funeral in his honour?

A missing man formation of Navy jets passes over the funeral; in the salute one aircraft pulls up and away from the rest, its empty place standing for the aviator who is gone.

How does Maverick prove his canyon attack run can be flown inside the time limit?

He flies it himself, unauthorised, while Cyclone is relaxing the mission's limits, and beats the time he had set the trainees; Cyclone then reluctantly makes him team leader.

Which two aviators fly the buddy-lasing F/A-18F alongside Maverick's lead jet?

Phoenix and Bob fly the two-seat F/A-18F that lases the target for Maverick's bombs; earlier in training, a bird strike had set their jet on fire and forced the pair to eject.

In Top Gun: Maverick, after both are shot down, which aircraft do Maverick and Rooster steal from the enemy air base?

They steal an F-14 Tomcat, the jet Maverick flew in the 1986 film, and down two Su-57s with it before a third catches them out of ammunition.

In Top Gun: Maverick, who unexpectedly arrives to shoot down the last Su-57 when Maverick and Rooster are out of ammunition?

Hangman had been sidelined as the mission's emergency action pilot, waiting on the carrier deck in his Super Hornet.

What vintage aircraft does Maverick own and fly off in with Penny at the end?

A P-51 Mustang, and it is Tom Cruise's own: the actor owns the Second World War fighter and flew it from Florida to California himself for the shoot.

Top Gun: Maverick shot as much footage as which entire film trilogy?

The Lord of the Rings: the director said the shoot's 800 hours matched all three films combined, because a whole day of flying, twelve hours or more, might yield only moments worth keeping.

Which Jerry Lee Lewis hit does Rooster hammer out on the bar piano, just as his father Goose did in 1986?

Great Balls of Fire was performed live on set; in the edit the director added footage of Goose singing it in 1986, to show why the sight shakes Maverick.

Which country is the only one besides the United States ever to fly the jet Maverick flew in the 1986 film?

Iran is the only other country that ever acquired the jet, which is why the US scrapped or disabled its own retired fleet: to stop spare parts reaching Tehran.

Since 1996, where has the Top Gun school been based, despite the film's San Diego setting?

Naval Air Station Fallon, Nevada, took in the school in 1996, as Miramar was being turned over to the Marine Corps; the film shot aerial footage at Fallon but kept its story in San Diego.

Top Gun: Maverick's snowy low-level mountain flying was filmed over which range, flown from NAS Whidbey Island?

The Cascades: the aerial unit flew out of NAS Whidbey Island to film the jets racing past iced-over cliffs, after scouting every route by helicopter.

Which Formula One champion turned down a fighter-pilot role in Top Gun: Maverick offered through his friendship with Tom Cruise?

Lewis Hamilton had told Cruise 'I will even be a janitor, just let me be in it', then had to refuse a pilot's role because the shoot fell in the final months of his 2018 title fight.

Which Chinese company signed on as a co-financier of Top Gun: Maverick, then pulled out in 2019?

Tencent Pictures withdrew its backing, reportedly worried that a film celebrating the US military would anger Beijing; the film was never released in mainland China.

Which two flags vanished from Maverick's jacket in the first trailer, then returned in the film?

The Taiwan and Japan flag patches on Maverick's jacket gave way to look-alike symbols in the 2019 trailer, which fans read as a bow to Chinese censors; the finished film restored both flags.

Why was Top Gun: Maverick delayed from 2019 to 2020?

Complex flight sequences needed another year to work out; when the pandemic then kept the film from cinemas until 2022, Cruise said he would never let it debut on streaming.

In Top Gun: Maverick, what destroys the enemy air base as the strike team flies in?

Tomahawk cruise missiles wreck the enemy air base as the raid begins; the same ruined base is where Maverick and Rooster, both shot down, later find the jet they escape in.

At which film festival did fighter jets trail coloured smoke over Top Gun: Maverick's red-carpet premiere?

Cannes: eight jets streaked over the premiere trailing smoke in the colours of the French flag, and the festival surprised Cruise with an honorary Palme d'Or before the film began.

Which holiday weekend saw Top Gun: Maverick return to number one at the US box office?

Labor Day: the film retook first place in its fifteenth weekend, as National Cinema Day's $3 tickets drew crowds back to cinemas.

Which 2025 film broke Maverick's record for the biggest four-day Memorial Day opening?

Lilo & Stitch took about $183 million over the holiday against Maverick's $160 million, on the very weekend Cruise's own Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opened to $77 million.

Which Academy Award did Top Gun: Maverick win from its six nominations?

Best Sound was its only win from six nominations; the roar is real, because Skywalker Sound's crew went out and recorded working jet engines for the film.

Which Lady Gaga song was the first single from the Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack?

Hold My Hand arrived on May 3, 2022, as the soundtrack's first single; its melody is woven into the film's score, and Cruise said the song opened up the emotional core of the film.

Which director told Tom Cruise that Top Gun: Maverick 'might have saved the entire theatrical industry'?

Steven Spielberg said it to Cruise in person at the 2023 Oscar nominees' luncheon, telling him he had saved Hollywood too; another nominee caught the exchange on video.

How did the copyright suit over Top Gun: Maverick, brought by heirs of the writer whose article inspired the original, end?

A judge dismissed it in April 2024, ruling the sequel shared only unprotectable facts with Ehud Yonay's 1983 magazine article 'Top Guns'.

Which Kenny Loggins hit from the 1986 soundtrack is heard again in Top Gun: Maverick?

Danger Zone returns in its 1986 recording: Loggins re-recorded it for the sequel, but the filmmakers judged the original superior and used that.

Where did the beachfront Hard Deck bar in Top Gun: Maverick come from?

Built new on a Navy base: real pilots' bars proved too small for the cameras, so the Navy let the crew put up the Hard Deck on the beach at North Island.

Which actor signed on to Top Gun: Maverick before receiving an official offer or even a script?

Jon Hamm took the call in his car and told his representatives to say yes before anyone had seen a script or discussed a fee, saying they could work all that out later.

Which Top Gun composer returned for Maverick, joined by Lady Gaga, OneRepublic and Hans Zimmer?

Harold Faltermeyer scored the 1986 film and won a Grammy for its 'Top Gun Anthem'; the sequel's new main title is built around that same theme.