Newly Revealed Footage Shows Tom Cruise Hyping Up ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ From the Sky

If you had to pick one motif that has defined movies in 2022, you could do a lot worse than “Tom Cruise in an airplane.”

Endless words have been written about how “Top Gun: Maverick” was an undisputed triumph, earning rave reviews from critics and bringing in massive box office returns in a year where the film industry desperately needed them. The film’s success has resulted in an increased appreciation for Cruise’s commitment to practical effects and doing his own stunts, ginning up anticipation for next year’s “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning: Part I” in the process.

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Cruise began stoking anticipation for both films at CinemaCon this year, where attendees were shown some early footage from “Dead Reckoning” as well as one of the earliest full screenings of “Top Gun: Maverick.” As IndieWire reported at the time, the screenings were prefaced by a pre-taped video that featured Cruise addressing the audience while holding onto a plane flying over South Africa for dear life.

Now that footage has surfaced on social media, fans who couldn’t make the trip to the exclusive Las Vegas event can watch the introduction for themselves. And, needless to say, Cruise does his own stunts.

Cruise is accompanied in the air by his longtime collaborator Christopher McQuarrie, who has directed him in three “Mission Impossible” movies (they’re currently shooting a fourth) and co-wrote “Top Gun: Maverick.” Both men are seen in separate planes, with Cruise expressing his excitement about both films and McQuarrie joking that he needs to stop talking to the audience because they need to shoot a scene.

Fans of Cruise are likely to be thrilled to see any new footage of the actor flying a plane, as many are already pining for a third “Top Gun” movie. The cast and crew of “Maverick” haven’t been shy about their desire to reprise their roles in another movie, but they all admit that it’s ultimately Cruise’s decision.

“That would be great, but that’s all up to TC,” Miles Teller recently said. “It’s all up to Tom. I’ve been having some conversations with him about it. We’ll see.”

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