Top Gun: Maverick world premiere

(San Diego) It’s been 36 years since Tom Cruise put on his aviator goggles, hopping on a fighter jet to shoot stardom with the movie Top Gun — and, finally, a sequel is coming.

“I’ve been a bit slow — sometimes I’m a bit slow,” the star joked to AFP on Wednesday at the world premiere of Top Gun: Maverickaboard a former US aircraft carrier in San Diego, Southern California.

Slow isn’t a word we usually associate with Tom Cruise, one of the world’s most famous actors, who landed in a helicopter on a red carpet at the event.

In his new film, which will be released in the United States and Canada on May 27, elite pilot Maverick returns to the Navy’s Top Gun School to train the latest generation of daring young aviators.

Among them is Rooster, Goose’s son, whose death in the first film still haunts Maverick as he prepares his proteges for a perilous mission.

“The sense of romance, the sense of adventure — it’s a world you want to be in,” says Tom Cruise of his return to Top Gunat the age of 59.

“And, of course, there is always something with aviation. »

The 1986 film popularized the idea of ​​a “wingman”, a term designating a pilot who supports and protects another, flying alongside him. For Tom Cruise, the spectators were particularly sensitive to these close ties which unite the members of the world of aviation.

“The culture in this world is very unique… And it’s really interesting that people can understand these friendships,” he says.

Even if the film opens with a nostalgic sequence aboard an aircraft carrier, with a brief return of Val Kilmer alongside Tom Cruise, it is above all based on a group of relatively unknown young actors.

“I always knew that was how I wanted to open the film, from the start, to allow the audience to say to themselves ‘you’re going to get what you want, believe me'”, assures Tom Cruise.

It also includes technological advancements like combat drones that the actor, who has long held a very real pilot’s license, says he has spent decades observing and analyzing.

“It’s definitely an evolution,” he says.

“Always lower”

In Top Gun: Maverickfemale pilots join the elite squadron, including Phoenix, played by Monica Barbaro.

“I was able to learn from incredible airwomen,” enthuses the actress, who trained with US Navy pilots.

“They’re smart, they’re smart, they don’t have to prove themselves aggressively. They are just amazing. »

If the Navy had been “suspicious” during the filming of the first opus, this time it gave its full support, according to director Joseph Kosinski.

“Those who make the decisions in the Navy today are guys who joined in the 1980s because of Top Gun “, he advances.

The film largely eschews special effects, and the actors were filmed in the cockpits of fighter jets, experiencing intense gravitational forces as the craft came perilously close to the Earth’s surface.

Despite everything, Tom Cruise “wanted to go ever lower,” says Joseph Kosinski.

“There is a sequence in this film where we went so low, I guarantee you will never see anything like it again”, promises the director.

“He was still pushing… But I think he’s happy with the result. »