One of Tom Cruise’s lasting legacies will be his willingness to go all in on big-time stunts, and that started way back with the original Top Gun. It may be the Mission: Impossible series that cemented that legacy, but it was his flight time before Top Gun (which you can watch again with a Paramount+ subscription) that got it all started. The movie, which is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year (wow, that makes me feel old), was the most talked-about movie of 1986.
Top Gun, which was recently re-released on the 2026 movie schedule for its anniversary, took in the most at the box office that year because America had a need for speed. Cruise was more than happy to chase the adrenaline rush of flying at Mach 2 in state-of-the-art Navy jets. His first flight didn’t go as you might expect, but I’m hardly shocked by his reaction.
Flying With The Blue Angels
While Tom Cruise was producer Jerry Bruckheimer’s first choice to star as Maverick in Top Gun, Cruise was hesitant to commit. You have to think Bruckheimer knew exactly how to get the up-and-coming star on board, because he set up the perfect recruitment plan. He arranged with Cruise to go for a ride with the legendary Blue Angels. Screenwriter Jack Epps, Jr. was with Cruise when he arrived at the airfield and was there when Cruise’s ride was over. He told the The Guardian:
They look at him and they don’t know who Tom Cruise is. They do what they like to do: they took him up, they shook him around, he barfed on himself, and he came out and said, ‘I love this.’ From that moment, he was on.
If you’ve followed Cruise’s career over the last 50 years or so, this probably comes as little surprise. I know I wasn’t when I read this. Cruise is an adrenaline junkie, and I mean that with the utmost respect for what he does on screen. While I would probably puke on a Blue Angels flight, too, I wouldn’t do what Cruise did and ask for more.
Bruckheimer Knew Exactly What He Was Doing
In the same article, the Top Gun producer let on that he seemed to know exactly how to get Cruise excited about the movie:
We couldn’t quite get him to commit, so I arranged for him to fly with the Blue Angels in El Centro, California. He had long hair and a ponytail, and they saw this guy walk up and they said, ‘We’ll get this hippy a real ride.’
Bruckheimer saw the same reaction Epps did, adding:
He got out of the plane, walked to a phone booth, because there were no cell phones then, called me up, said, ‘I’m in.’
In the years since, this kind of action has become Cruise’s calling card. He’s pulled some amazing stunts in the Mission: Impossible series, and the movie-going public has come to expect the actor to do something amazing in all his action movies. 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick once again saw the actor in the cockpit of a Navy plane, and, of course, the whole cast of that movie went through something pretty similar. But even more intense than what Cruise went through on that first flight more than 40 years ago. It’s also no surprise that he wants to do it all again in Top Gun 3.
