Each New Trailer Release Has Raised As Many Questions As It Has Answered
Top Gun: Maverick has been referred to as “a love letter to aviation.” We’re all waiting for what we hope is, at best, the finest aviation film of our lifetimes, and at worst (we hope) simply good entertainment. We’ve been waiting literally for years for the movie to be released, so no matter how good Top Gun: Maverick turns out to be the film will have more than its fair share of critics. We profiled the F-6K/P-51K Mustang Tom Cruise owns and flies in the film. We tracked down the actual jets used for the flying scenes (spoiler alert- some are flying with the Blue Angels now). We’ve hyped the previous trailers. We’ve speculated (along with everybody else who hasn’t been living under a rock for the last couple of years) about the plot, the timelines, and just about every aspect of this highly-anticipated film.
Will the Film Live Up to Expectations?
There’s no point in denying it- there were plenty of questionable aspects of the 1986 blockbuster, particularly in the realism department. Former Tomcat RIO and best-selling author Ward Carroll has picked apart the original film, and it’s a forgone conclusion Top Gun: Maverick will get the same treatment from lots of folks- experts and armchair aviators alike. But we’re all hoping for a technically realistic film free of the faux pas left in the original film as edited for its theatrical release. Of course some viewer suspension of disbelief will be necessary, but hopefully not throughout the feature. It’s been reported that there were 800 hours (that’s 33+ days) of footage shot for Top Gun: Maverick. It’s unlikely the kind of recruiting boom that Naval Aviation enjoyed after the release of the original TOP GUN in 1986 will recur, but it’s not impossible.
The Latest Trailer
Footage included in the latest trailer (released on 29 March 2022) includes an ever-so-brief glimpse of Bradley ‘Rooster’ Bradshaw (the son of Maverick’s late RIO Nick ‘Goose’ Bradshaw) riding in the backseat of an F-14 Tomcat doing his best to keep eyes on a Sukhoi Su-57 Felon fighter immediately after a merge. This footage seems to support the hypothesis that somehow or other, Maverick and Rooster end up flying an F-14 for a portion of the film- and absolutely have their hands full going up against the Su-57 in a Tomcat! In the trailer that footage appears at the 2:08 mark (but don’t blink- it only lasts for about a second)! The trailer was uploaded to YouTube by Paramount Pictures. Enjoy!
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Here is a new behind the scenes trailer showing how the aerial scenes were shot and how the actors trained for the Top Gun: Maverick aerial scenes. The video was released on 18 April 2022 and uploaded to YouTube by Paramount Pictures.
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