Thirty-four years after the release of Top Gun, Maverick will return to the cockpit. But this time, Tom Cruise has a pilot’s license.
After lots of talk and false starts, Top Gun 2 aka Top Gun: Maverick, hits theaters in the summer of 2020. For moviegoers of a certain generation, the event film is up there with the Star Wars: Episode VII; just like George Lucas’ space opera sags and Steven Spielberg’s Jaws, director Tony Scott and producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s 1986 air pilot drama revolutionized blockbuster cinema, grossing over $350 million worldwide.
Cruise’s career has morphed dramatically since the actor’s first mega-hit. These days, the Mission: Impossible star is hanging on by a helicopter strap as superhero movies crowd out most action-star-driven spectacle. Buckling back up for Top Gun: Maverick was an inevitable development — but in the hands of Oblivion filmmaker Joseph Kosinski, the sequel appears to one-up the hair-raising aerial photography from the first movie and bring something new to screens. It helps when your leading man can actually fly the damn plane.
The actual trailer’s slim on plot. Maverick is back, training a new set of recruits on how to take to the skies. Newcomers Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Glen Powell all appear, but at the end of the day, this is the Cruise show, and better for it. Only a star of a certain calibre can break the sound barrier and make that face without us turning on him.
Top Gun: Maverick hits theaters on June 26, 2020 in both traditional and IMAX formats.
