Tom Cruise roared to the top of the Hollywood chain after 2022’s Top Gun 2. The film grossed $1.4 billion and springboarded the film industry back into action. It gave confidence to many that the pandemic was indeed over and people were venturing out for movies again instead of waiting for streaming.
At the 2023 Academy Awards luncheon, Steven Spielberg personally thanked Cruise for saving theatrical distribution. Top Gun 2 was also nominated in 5 Oscar categories, including Best Picture. It instead only won the Best Sound category. Looking back at its first anniversary, it’s a special film. But it was also one that Tom Cruise almost didn’t make.
Tom Cruise Wasn’t Interested In Making Top Gun 2 At All
In an interview with Collider, Top Gun 2 director Joseph Kosinski, revealed that when he went to meet Tom Cruise in Paris to pitch him the film when he was filming Mission: Impossible 6. But the star wasn’t interested in a sequel to Top Gun at all. Here’s what Kosinski said:
“When I pitched Jerry (Bruckheimer) my approach, he said, ‘Well, we got to go, you got to talk to Tom about this directly, so let’s go to Paris.” He was shooting Mission 6, and we went out there. I think what I didn’t realize, and Jerry was probably smart not to tell me was that Tom really didn’t want to do another Top Gun movie.”
The director further said that the Mission: Impossible actor seemed like he wasn’t even interested in talking a little about the film. He said:
“I think he walked into that room prepared to say, ‘Thank you for coming all this way, and I appreciate it, but I’m not interested in making another movie.'”
But he loved the pitch so much that he immediately, right then and there, called the studio head and announced that he was on board for a Top Gun sequel. He said:
“Then at the end of that meeting, he picked up the phone, and he called the head of the studio and said, ‘We’re making another Top Gun.’ So, that was a pretty epic meeting, and pretty amazing to see that level of power on display.”
But what was it in the pitch that the Minority Report star loved so much? It was all about the Goose connection.
What Tom Cruise Loved The Most About The Top Gun 2 Pitch?
Joseph Kosinski revealed in the interview that Tom Cruise loved his pitch about forming a connection between Maverick and Goose’s son. Kosinski wanted that to be the emotional core of the film. He said:
“Then just like looking at that little kid with the cowboy hat, sitting on the piano in that scene in the first movie, and thinking about him growing up and what that would mean if he became a Naval aviator and Maverick had to send him into combat, what that would feel like. I think that’s where Tom finally said, ‘You know what? That’s it. That’s what’s worth coming back for.'”
That emotional connection between the two characters was apparent in the film and it drew in audiences as well. This is definitely a factor that propelled the film to a major box office win.
Top Gun 2 is available on Paramount+.
Source: Collider
