Tom Cruise is famous for doing his own daredevil stunts, and his latest blockbuster looks to set to follow suit.
Skydance, the production company for the much-anticipated Cruise sequel Top Gun: Maverick, shared some behind-the-scenes footage on Wednesday, showing the great lengths the crew have gone to keep the action looking as real as possible.
‘No CGI here,’ the company tweeted, posting a video of the crew looking visibly shocked as a jet plane is seen flying very low to the ground as they film beneath it.
‘No CGI here’: Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick scene shows jet flying VERY low over the crew… in a clip posted by Skydance on Wednesday
The nail-biting, nine-second teaser clip shows members of the production team reacting in slo-mo, as the force of the jet is seen shaking them up a notch.
It is not clear if Cruise is flying the jet himself, though he his featured in the clip towards the end.
Cruise – who is reprising his role as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell – told Empire Magazine in January that the movie would not include ‘CGI stuff’ like his last box-office bomb The Mummy.
‘I said to the studio, “You don’t know how hard this movie’s going to be. No-one’s ever done this before,”‘ Cruise told the publication. ‘There’s never been an aerial sequence shot this way. I don’t know if there ever will be again, to be honest.’
How low can you go: The crew are seen getting ready to feel the force of the jet flying over
Slow-motion: The clip then goes into slo-mo as we see how the force of the jet shakes everyone up
Keeping it reel: Tom Cruise has previously said the movie would not contain a lot of ‘CGI stuff’
In April, director Joseph Kosinski insisted that the highly anticipated action flick starring Cruise will ‘stick’ to schedule and be ready by June, even if it’s not being released for another six months.
‘We’re sticking to our schedule and finishing the movie just as if it were coming out on its original release date,’ said Kosinski in an interview with ComicBook.com.
Even though COVID-19 has left Hollywood at a standstill, the Joseph revealed that the current restrictions have not interfered with him completing the project.
He’s back: Cruise is reprising his role as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell
‘Luckily, I’m in the home stretch of post-production where, despite all the restrictions of how you can work now, I’m able to continue doing my job and finish the movie, which is pretty amazing.’
The film-maker did admit that if he ‘were in any other phase of the project, it would be hard’ to complete.
Joseph explained: ‘But because I’m in the tail-end of post, I’m able to do everything I need to to be able to to finish it.’
Push back: The film was originally scheduled to hit theaters in June of 2020, but will, instead premiere in December.
The film was originally scheduled to hit theaters in June of 2020, but will, instead premiere in December.
According to its official synopsis, Top Gun: Maverick marks the return of ‘one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete Mitchell.’
‘After more than thirty years of service, Mitchell is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him.’
With many films, such as Disney’s live-action Mulan making the transition from a theatrical release to a VOD release, Kosinski was asked if he considered releasing the film onto a streaming platform.
Kosinski refused to follow suit because he believes Top Gun: Maverick is a ‘movie that people need to see on the big screen’.
He added: ‘If there’s no big screen, then you don’t want to release this movie. We want this to be a shared experience on as big a screen as possible.’