14 DAY TRIAL // “Top Gun” (1986) is widely considered the movie that put Tom Cruise on the A-list map and which helped him build the career that he has now, that of Hollywood’s top action movie hero. Talk of a sequel goes back at least to 2010, with recent reports indicating that some progress has been made on the script.
No one knows yet what the sequel would be all about, but one thing is clear: it won’t happen without the leading man from the original, preferably in more than a cameo. Tom Cruise tells Reuters he’d totally be game for “Top Gun 2,” as long as the studio meets one condition.
Tom Cruise wants to do his own stunts
He wants to be allowed to do all his stunts on his own. Cruise made the admission on the red carpet at the London premiere of “Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation,” which sees him reprise the role of Ethan, the daredevil on whose apt shoulders the fate of the world (or of America, at least) lies.
The film has gotten a lot of media attention after it was revealed that Tom actually agreed to being strapped on the side of a military plane as it took off, so that he could shoot one scene. It took 8 different takes, and he admitted he was scared out of his mind every time, but he was proud nonetheless.
Tom is slowly making a reputation for himself as one of the gutsiest action stars of our times, which is all the more impressive considering he’s no longer in his 30s. Other actors at 53 would rather they let the stuntmen do all the work, while they sip cocktails in their trailers, but not Cruise.
So no wonder he wants the guarantee he could do the same on “Top Gun 2.”
“It would be fun. I would like to get back into those jets,” he admits. “It would have to be practical. I don’t want any CGI jets. I want to shoot it like how we shot the first one.”
Sequel might still not happen
Tom Cruise might want to be in the sequel and he might even promise to give it his best, but that doesn’t mean it will happen.
If you look at the years this planned sequel has already spent in what industry people call “pre-production limbo,” you might get your first clue as to its chances of ever making it to be the big screen: if interest in it had been high enough, a way to make it happen would have been found.
And Tom Cruise isn’t getting any younger, all jokes aside. If the production doesn’t pick up the pace, by the time it goes into shooting, Cruise might be too old to do as he promised fans.