The latest Top Gun movie, Top Gun: Maverick is breaking records. It made an estimate of $151 million in North America on the Memorial Day weekend. The fans had to wait for 36 years to finally see a sequel for the original film. But according to the critics and the audience, the movie was worth the wait. Some even claimed that the movie is superior to the original. The director Joe Kosinski is quite skilled at making blockbuster sequels to decade-old movies. Tom Cruise and other cast performed the majority of their stunts on their own. This is how the movie avoided the use of CGI in most parts. Now, the director talked about working with the ultra-secret military division.
Top Gun: Maverick worked with an ultra-secret military division
The Darkstar sequence happens in the first half of the film, where Tom Cruise’s character, Maverick is announced the fastest human alive. He is piloting an experimental aircraft called Darkstar. It reaches Mach 10. The director, in an interview with Polygon, talked about working with Skunk Works. It is a top-secret division of Lockheed Martin – the world’s greatest fighter aircraft manufacturing company that makes planes for the USA.
He said, “Yeah, I mean, it was my dream. Skunk Works is this division of Lockheed that makes these planes that are top secret. They fly at night, no one knows they exist. We find out about them 20, 30 years after they fly.”
Joe Kosinski reveals how he got in touch with Skunk Works
In the same interview, Joe Kosinski shared, “I had just done a movie that was financed by Fred Smith, who is the founder of FedEx. And he told me he had a contact at Lockheed. He had just done a tour there — it helps to have friends in high places. He set up a meeting between Jerry, me, and Skunk Works, and we drove out into the middle of Palmdale and met with their senior staff. And I just said, ‘Listen, I want to put an airplane in this film that does this, this, and this. I know you guys have some experience in that area. We’re gonna give people a glimpse of something they’ve never seen before.'”
He further added, “And they said yes. I think the real reason they helped us was so we could make it as real as possible, but not too real, you know? We changed a couple of details so we’re not giving any secrets away, but it has a lot of features and details for people who really are into this world. I think they’ll get a kick out of it.”
Top Gun: Maverick is now in cinemas.
Source: Polygon
