Fighter pilot who flew for Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick landed and told actor he'd 'never do' maneuver again

Top Gun: Maverick was a massive box office smash, and much of its success came from the decision to use real fighter jets instead of relying solely on CGI.

The aerial stunts were not just thrilling for audiences, but also nerve-racking for the pilots tasked with flying them.

One particular sequence, however, was so extreme that even the professional Navy aviator behind the controls was reluctant to repeat the maneuver.

It turns out, even the bravest pilots have their limits.

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Tom Cruise was actually in the aircraft while filming

Top Gun: Maverick famously didn’t rely on CGI for its action scenes, and yet the producers managed to make it look so real that China used a satellite to spy on the aircraft used in the movie.

For the movie’s flying sequences, every actor was paired with an experienced pilot who handled the actual maneuvering, while the performers played out their scenes in the cockpit.

Yes, the actors were actually in the aircraft, so they needed to undergo extreme training behind the scenes in order to make movie magic.

In one of the film’s standout moments, Maverick, played by Tom Cruise, skimmed the ground at roughly 50 feet, kicking up clouds of dust and shaking cameras placed on the desert floor.

The shot may have lasted only seconds on screen, but it required immense precision.

It also put the $70 million F/A-18 Super Hornet, and everyone on set, at serious risk.

In aviation terms, this pushed dangerously close to breaking the ‘hard deck.’

As both Top Gun films explain, the hard deck is a safety altitude that pilots must not dip below during training.

It exists to keep aviators (and the multimillion-dollar jets they fly) out of unnecessary danger.

While combat situations don’t always allow such restrictions, in training and testing environments, the rule is non-negotiable.

For the film to bend that guideline, even temporarily, highlights just how extraordinary the stunt really was.

In fact, the stunt was so extreme that the pilot himself told Tom Cruise afterward: “I’ll never do that again.”

Top Gun was the best Navy advertisement ever

So how did Hollywood get away with something the Navy itself would usually forbid?

Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski later admitted the decision was made easier because many of the admirals in charge were lifelong Top Gun fans.

“All the admirals that are in charge right now were 21 in 1986, or around there when they signed up,” Kosinski explained.

“They supported us and let us do all this crazy stuff.”

It’s a fascinating full-circle moment.

The original 1986 film famously inspired a surge in Navy recruitment.

Decades later, the same generation who signed up after watching Top Gun found themselves green-lighting its sequel’s jaw-dropping aerial stunts, even the ones that almost killed everyone on set.

Here’s to hoping that we don’t need to wait another 30-odd years before Tom Cruise blesses us with another sequel.

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