Maverick’ Journey And Being In The Room For The Emotional Tom Cruise-Val Kilmer Reunion

So what is the secret to Top Gun: Maverick breaking box office records and grossing over $1.4 billion at the box office so far?

“There is no secret,” explained director Joseph Kosinski as we discussed the acclaimed sequel that has been right on target to give Tom Cruise the biggest film of his career.

While the action drama continues to put butts in seats in theaters, Top Gun: Maverick touched down on Digital so audiences can watch, or rewatch, the smash hit in the comfort of their own home.

I caught up with the filmmaker to break down the film’s runaway success, how and why Cruise continued to be part of the creative process long after shooting wrapped, and what it was like being in the room for the emotional onscreen reunion of Cruise and Val Kilmer.

Simon Thompson: Top Gun: Maverick not only turned out to be arguably the best film of the year, but it has also defied all the odds at the box office. How many executives have asked you for your secret?

Joseph Kosinski: There is no secret. It was a lot of hard work by an incredibly talented group of people. It was the right story with the right cast and crew at the right time. We were very lucky and fortunate that people went back to the movies to see our film and, in many cases, went back again and again. It’s just been gratifying for me to hear those stories about people falling in love with going to the movies again because there were a couple of years there where we wondered if it was going to come back, but I think it has, and it’s just been a great summer for movies.

Thompson: Top Gun: Maverick has hit Mach 10.1 at the box office making over $1 billion and having weekly grosses go up at times. There have been movies starring big names who haven’t even managed to open as expected, let alone hold firm for a second week. Here you are; your film is still going strong months after it debuted.

Kosinski: This is how movies used to play in the 80s. Jerry Bruckheimer would tell me stories about Beverly Hills Cop or Flashdance or the original Top Gun, where it would just sit in theaters all summer long. It just seemed like that didn’t happen anymore, so to have that happen with another Top Gun film with Tom Cruise and Jerry Bruckheimer, working with them, and seeing this happen has been pretty phenomenal.

Thompson: Is there anything Tom wouldn’t do in this? It seems that he is the man who will do whatever it takes to get the job done, apart from compromising on quality or spectacle.

Kosinski: This drive to deliver the absolute best experience he can is what has made him so successful. This film and this character being so close to him, it is one that he protected for 35 years and didn’t want to touch, in a field that he cares so much about and him being a pilot, it was a project that was very close to his heart. He was so passionate about it. I was thrilled and very grateful to be able to do it with him and Jerry, and we had a blast making it. Now it’s out there, and it’s just great to see people responding to it.

Thompson: As you say, Top Gun is a deeply personal movie for Tom. It takes guts to do a sequel to a great film, a lot of guts to do it so many years later, and even more guts when it’s really personal. What were those conversations like? What were the fears, and were they the same for you, Tom and Jerry?

Kosinski: I think it was about the story’s emotion. The thing that I think Tom was waiting for was an emotional hook that would pull him back into this character and this notion of having to train his wingman’s son for a mission that would likely kill him. There was a lot there that he could dig into, so I think the emotional hook of that storyline was a big part of it. There was also the idea of figuring out a way to shoot this film practically. He had done aerial sequences in other films for years. I had been working in aerial sequences in films, including one with him called Oblivion, trying to find different ways to shoot them, cover them, and make them exciting. It just felt like the right time because the technology reached a point where we thought we might be able to pull off shooting this film for real. I think he ultimately thought that if not now, then when? We all held hands and jumped in back in 2017 and here we are five years later. We made it through the other side.

Thompson: I want to talk to you about that emotion. There were various points in Top Gun: Maverick where I was crying, and others where I was trying to catch my breath. I was not expecting that. It was an overwhelming experience. One scene that touched me very deeply, in a way I wasn’t expecting, was the one between Tom and Val Kilmer. The love and bond between those two men is genuine as characters and actors.

Kosinski: That’s exactly what I felt like on the day. It was two men who had a long friendship and a tremendous amount of respect for each other, professionally and personally, and it was a reunion of sorts. I don’t think they had seen each other much. They had gone off and had these incredible careers that were very separate, and to come back over 30 years later, in these roles as these iconic characters that were so important to both of them and defined them in their careers, there was just a lot of emotion. The scene itself was beautifully written, and their performances in it are them both at the absolute top of their game. We didn’t shoot a lot of takes of the scene. It was like one of those scenes where they were firing right from the start, and I think what you feel in that scene is genuine. I think that’s why it has resonated with people.

Thompson: Tom famously likes to be very present throughout the creative process. How does that extend? Did he sit with you in the edit as well? Did he get involved in that?

Kosinski: Yeah, he’s very involved in all aspects of filmmaking. He’s made 50 films, and he’s worked with literally every one of my cinematic heroes as directors, so working with him and Jerry on this film was an incredible experience. We were all in there together, in the edit, trying things, testing cuts, testing ideas, pushing each other, challenging ideas, looking for soft spots, and that went on until we’d honed this thing into the best shape it possibly could be. Then we had to put it on a shelf for two years and wait and see if it actually worked.

Thompson: Putting it on that shelf for that long would have killed me.

Kosinski: It was hard to hold it, but at the same time, we knew that it had to be seen on the big screen, and it just couldn’t be released.

Thompson: Top Gun: Maverick could land you at the Oscars. There is some real talk going on about that. How does that feel? Did you ever anticipate that that would be the conversation people would have?

Kosinski: Certainly not. We never thought about it, making the movie, and it’s not the reason we made the movie, but for me to see all the people that worked on this film be honored in their categories would be amazing. Everyone worked so hard. It really was a labor of love, the pressure was high, and we all felt it. At the end of the day, we just wanted to make it the best movie we could, then you put it out there, and you see what happens.

Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters and on Digital. It lands on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD on Tuesday, November 1, 2022.