The ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Phenomenon: From Improbable Sequel to Surprising Oscar-Nominated Blockbuster

If ‘Avatar’ is an exception, it always has been, ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ is already practically perceived as a miracle, exactly How the Movie Industry Experienced ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s Incredible Theater Run: Like a Surprising Phenomenon. The film, directed by Joseph Kosinski and from a screenplay by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer and Christopher McQuarrie, based on a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, is produced by McQuarrie and the legendary Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, a task in which, of course, its star, Tom Cruise, was also involved.

This actor so well known for embodying iconic characters and for his role as a specialist in the vast majority of action scenes he conducts, is a central, vital, and underrated piece of the magical puzzle that catapulted the “Top Gun” sequel. Idols of the Air’ at a Hollywood peak from which history was made. Together with the aforementioned second chapter of ‘Avatar’, this film that marked a before and after in the successful film career also broke down the barriers to the prestigious Oscars: never before have two sequels been nominated simultaneously in the Best Picture category . Best Picture, unprecedented recognition for a product like ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, a film built on the whims and tribulations of a director whose art is rarely appreciated or taken seriously.

But the fact is that behind one of the latest Hollywood stars there is much more than what is known. Tom Cruise insists: “I don’t want people to see the work behind itI just want them to experience the world [que construimos]”. A world that in the case of Maverick began 37 years ago with the premiere of one of the most remembered films of the 80s, a film which, as Bruckheimer says, “changed a whole generation” and signed his protagonist, a twenty year old “precocious and conceited” (according to Cruise himself), promising him a place in production meetings. Even then Cruise wanted to know more about the cinematographic profession, a job that he then brought to his land. So, according to the actor himself, before the premiere of “Top Gun” the studio already wanted to make a sequel. “I didn’t feel ready”recalls Cruise.

“For years I wondered how we could develop the film in terms of story and structure.. Terrible ideas came to me, proposals that just didn’t work at all. And I was like, ‘This is never going to work. I am not interested'”. Said sentiment is something Cruise has projected for over three decades: I don’t care. His rejection was so profound that when Kosinski flew to Paris to try and sell him the “Top Gun: Maverick” storyline during one of the breaks in filming “Mission Impossible: Fallout,” a cross-armed cruise was found with a pose of “I’ll have to figure out how to tell Joe no”recalls the director. “It all started when Jerry Bruckheimer sent me an early version of the script. I knew Tom would be reluctant to return to that character unless there was a very strong emotional anchor. The idea that Maverick had to mend their relationship with Rooster, his co-driver’s son and friend, it seemed like a great way to start the field. It was the first thing I said to him and I could see how his mind started to change, to see the way to recover the character. Tom basically greenlighted the film at the end of that meeting.”.

“There were enough elements to get to the point”remember Cruise for his part. “And I thought if I was ever going to do it, it had to be right now.”. This after passing “Years of figuring out the process of making the movie, all the while I was being told to jump in, ‘You’re Tom, we’ll be on your side.’ And I was like, ‘No, no, you have to think about it.'”. This insistence on finding an impeccable narrative structure, a worthy, solid story, adapted to the gaze of the current viewer and with the ideal point of nostalgia, has proved to be fundamental., one of the essential ingredients to catapult ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to an unexpected triumph in theaters. The other punch? All scenes were filmed “for real”.

“If we do that, we’ll be flying F-18s”. Cruise was clear about it and in his case, being a pilot, it wasn’t something that far fetched, but the whole cast had to follow in his footsteps. “Tom has designed very comprehensive aviation training for the actors”says Monica Barbaro, Fenice in the film, because “the aviation sequences had to be real”adds Bruckheimer assuring him the actors trained for three months to be able to embody their characters from the cabin. In addition to the workout Cruise outlined for his teammates, “they also had to learn how to operate the cameras because essentially when they’re at the top they had to direct themselves”says Kosinsky. Elements that later had to converge into a sufficiently solid whole to achieve its goal: that the actors could convey as powerfully as possible what it is like to fly an F-18 and taking off from an aircraft carrier, and that audiences heard in the air.

To achieve this, a practical approach was essential, but this approach meant that, as Kosinski reveals, 23 cameras were used for a single scene with the fighters immediately catching the action. 23 different points of view including resources recorded by the interpreters themselves. this later translated into 13 hours of footage falling into Eddie Hamilton’s lapeditor who, after shaping the last two impossible missions, finally managed to get the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize his work with a nomination.

Without a doubt, all the hard work and all those headaches that the process involved for Cruise and the rest of the cast, it was worth it because the sequel closed its opening weekend having raised $300 million worldwide and breaking its first record: $160.5 million over the four days of the Memorial Day Bridge. This North American party, popular with film distributors when setting release dates for their blockbusters, had spent 15 years with ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’ at the top of the highest grossing theaters, until ‘Maverick’ arrived .

Of course, that was just the beginning and what really took the breath away of even the most skeptical was: its maintenance. “Top Gun: Maverick”, like so many other films expected to release during the 2020 pandemic, underwent numerous release changes and had to live for several months with the lengthening streaming shadow that threatened to crush its plans for a glorious return to the big screen.. “It Would Never Have Happened”says a Cruise who, according to Kosinski, had to close ranks with Bruckheimer to keep Paramount from jumping on the platform releases bandwagon. With those early days in theaters, Cruise and his staunch advocacy of the cinematic experience has already silenced many a mouth. but no one saw the months of unbeatable leadership coming.

Three weeks remained the leader in that first month of May, since losing to “Elvis”. Subsequently, 12 weeks after its theatrical release, this sequel slipped into the national top 3, and after a few more weeks, 15 weeks after its premiere, ‘Maverick’ returned to No. 1 at the North American box office it led the first few weeks after its release. That return to the throne of the most watched in theaters, more than three months after his premiere, coincided with his start on the platforms, medium in which he also made the rounds.

Finally More than six months of traveling to theaters resulted in a collection of 1.488 million worldwideof which 718 million dollars come from the domestic market and 10 million euros from the Spanish one, figures that made it the highest-grossing film of 2022. Only ‘Avatar 2’ managed to snatch that position, relegating it to twelfth place in the standings one of the highest-grossing films in history.

“Critics applauded it, audiences raved about it, and the industry embraced it. Everyone backed us up”says Kosinski emphasizing how ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ escaped the snobbery that traditionally surrounds action blockbusters. With 460 reviews from the specialized press and more than 50,000 from the public, Rotten Tomatoes, a renowned website that collects the impressions of critics and the public, has crowned this second installment as the most appreciated film of the year with more than an average of eight out of 10 in the case of professional opinion and 4.9 out of 5 in the case of the public. This affection was palpable when the team received a thunderous standing ovation following its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, with Cruise snatching up the honorary Palme d’Or, and it reached its pinnacle with six Oscar nominations.

Al caramelito, Best Film, are joined by Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Editing, Best Visual Effects and Best Original Song for Lady Gaga’s theme “Hold My Hand”. Cruise and Kosinski, unfairly for many, were excluded from the Best Actor and Best Director categorieswhen, according to Bruckheimer, “Of course they deserve to be nominated. Tom made ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ possible, it’s the heart of the movie”. For his part, after decades of success, having launched mythical sagas like “Pirates of the Caribbean” or “The Search (National Treasure)” and unforgettable films like “Armageddon” or “Flashdance”, this producer received his first nomination . Late, but right. How would the statuette for Cruise who, despite being nominated three times for lead actor, does not seem to be close to winning such an award.

“Nobody asked Gene Kelly, ‘Why do you dance? Why do you choreograph your dance?'”says Cruise, implying he doesn’t understand why his work isn’t appreciated. Because the way he does the stunts feels more like madness than success. Because everything he contributes in this sense does not shine enough to be awarded as an actor. It could be that his efforts to push technical advancements, especially with the ‘Mission Impossible’ franchise, push him further into the role of producer, which could lead to him winning an Oscar for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.

Many virtues would justify that hypothetical momentIndeed, the prodigy requires an intelligent analysis of the structure and beauties of this sequel, but it could be condensed into a few essential elements. ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is one of the few sequels that far surpasses the original film and it does so by exploiting the most important emotional element of the first episode to promote a new chapter in its history.. It also takes advantage of all the tools available to cinema to design an experience designed by and for the big screen, with all the technical spectacularity that is currently available, and find the good side of nostalgia: that feeling so exploited nowadays.

As Kosinsky explains: “There’s sort of a tendency to sigh about the way things were and this film has an intentional retrospective sensibility. There’s not much that connects her to 2022 either, and all of the emotional drama happens through face-to-face conversations. It’s a bit of a fantasy world. Maverick can ride without a helmet and the sun always sets”.

* “Top Gun: Maverick” is currently located. available at no additional cost on Amazon Prime Video.