“It’s definitely happening,” confirmed Tom Cruise on an Australian morning show, Sunrise, causing the excited female host to almost pass out. As the flabbergasted interviewer struggled to grapple with the enormity of returning to Top Gun’s high-octane world of aerial dogfights and greased-up men playing volleyball, Cruise repeatedly assured her that, “It’s true.” He further went on to claim that the sequel could begin filming as early as next year. Below is a clip of the impromptu reveal.
WORLDWIDE EXCLUSIVE: @TomCruise just confirmed that Top Gun 2 is happening! “I’m gonna start filming it probably in the next year”. #sun7pic.twitter.com/X17xvxz4Q4
— Sunrise (@sunriseon7) May 23, 2017
The 1986 film starred Tom Cruise as a hot-headed Navy pilot, Maverick, attending flight school and stumbling aviator sunglasses-first into love with “Charlie,” a beautiful woman pulling double duty as a Navy instructor and astrophysicist. Cruise starred opposite Val Kilmer’s “Iceman”—Maverick’s primary rival in the film. The movie is stuffed with exciting action and campy dialogue that combines for one of the best cult films of the last 30 years.
Top Gun earned several Oscar nominations upon its release, managing to win the Oscar for best original song off the tender ballad, “Take My Breath Away,” as performed by the band Berlin. The movie was even selected for preservation in the United States Library of Congress in 2015.
For an example of what the film aspired to be, here’s the director of the original film in an interview featured in the film’s 30th anniversary Blu-ray/DVD and Digital HD release:
I didn’t have a vision of what I was doing other than just doing soft porn. I knew I had to show off all the guys, but I didn’t have a point of view … so, I just shot the shit out of it. I got the guys to get all their gear off and their pants and sprayed them in baby oil.
If the prospect of updating that kind of cinema gold for the new millennium—but with a middle-aged man in his fifties as the lead—doesn’t send you rushing for the nearest Navy recruitment station, you either don’t love America, or you’re quite dead inside.
To read more about the impending sequel, check out our earlier coverage here.