HOLLYWOOD, CA – A lot of aviation lovers around the world grew up with the movie Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise as Maverick, Anthony Edwards as Goose and Val Kilmer as Maverick’s rival Iceman. It’s one of the most successful movies ever and in the top 10 best movies of the 80s. Top Gun is an all American action drama film from 1986, directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. The blockbuster is probably still the best aviation film ever made. Paramount Pictures released the official trailer of Top Gun’s sequel; Top Gun: Maverick at Comic-Con International in San Diego on July 18. The past few years several fake trailers circulated on YouTube, but now we can confirm that this is the real deal, folks!

80s blockbuster

Top Gun was an awesome movie with some stunning camera work, showcasing a Navy fighter pilot’s life in the mid-80s, during the last years of the Cold War. Amidst all the tensions between east and west, Maverick had only one goal; he wanted to be the best of the best. The whole movie was like the best commercial ever, not only for the U.S. Navy, but for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marine Corps as well. Not only in America, but also worldwide, boys and even girls, dreamed of becoming a fighter pilot, flying in fast jets – to be the best of the best.

Top Gun had it all; a great American story, action-packed with a dramatic twist and a love story in one awesome movie. The fantastic soundtrack and the amazing cast completed the blockbuster, which many boys and girls will remember for the rest of their lives.

Many avgeeks who grew up in those days, loved the movie. Nowadays they are probably still reminiscing on the greatest aviation movie ever in relation to the awesome 80s, when it comes to all the awesome fighter jets flying in the 80s, many of them retired and gone now – dropped and left behind at sad boneyards in the desert, like the F-14 Tomcat and the A-4 Skyhawk. Some of them made it to beautiful museums, where they can still shine and where former fighter pilots – now proud grandfathers – can show their grandchildren how fighter jets looked like in those days, with every great story that goes with flying those awesome jets.

F-14 then, F-18 now

In the first film Maverick, Goose, and Iceman were flying in their mighty F-14 Tomcats against Top Gun’s A-4 Skyhawks and ‘Soviet’ F-5E Tigers. In Top Gun’s sequel, Maverick is flying the F/A-18 Super Hornet. Earlier, fake trailers of the sequel showed F-35C Lightning IIs in the new Top Gun movie.

The U.S. Navy is already flying with the F-35C since February 28 this year, when the Initial Operational Capability (IOC) of the carrier variant of the Lightning II was declared, after the first F-35C squadron – Strike Fighter Squadron 147 (VFA-147) – conducted aircraft carrier qualifications aboard the Aircraft Carrier USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) and received its Safe Flight Operations certification.

Paramount Pictures had first given the blockbuster the release date of July 12, 2019, but the sequel has since been delayed an entire year and is now scheduled to hit cinemas on June 26, 2020 – 1 year later.

Perhaps, the extra time will give the filmmakers the opportunity to work out the logistics of presenting flight sequences with new technology and planes. This movie is coming out a bit too early in relation to the Navy’s newest fighter and successor of the F-18 Hornet, the F-35C. But maybe there will be a chance that the 5th gen fighter will be starring in the long-awaited sequel.

The long-awaited sequel

Development of the film began in 2010 when Paramount Pictures made offers to Jerry Bruckheimer and Tony Scott to make a sequel to Top Gun. Sadly enough, Tony Scott passed away on August 19, 2012, at the age of 68. Don Simpson – who produced Top Gun with Jerry Bruckheimer – passed away earlier in 1996.

Top Gun 2 will now be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Tom Cruise, among others. Joseph Kosinski – a film director best known for his computer graphics and computer generated imagery work – will be the new director. He made his big-screen directorial debut with the 2010 sci-fi film Tron: Legacy. In 2013 he produced Oblivion, also starring Tom Cruise.

The Top Gun sequel takes place 34 years after the events of the original film from 1986. Pete Maverick Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is a Captain now and also the new Flight Instructor at Top Gun, in which he guides Bradley Rooster Bradshaw (Miles Teller) – a pilot trainee, and the son of Maverick’s late RIO (Radar Intercept Officer) Nick Goose Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards). Rooster seeks to become an aviator as his father was.

Top Gun: Maverick will be also starring Jennifer Connelly as Maverick’s love interest who is a single mother and owner of a bar. Ed Harris will star as a two-star rear admiral, and Maverick’s superior.

One thing is clear; after watching the stunning trailer of Top Gun: Maverick, 1 year will be a very long wait before we can finally watch this long-wait sequel.

For now, let’s enjoy the trailer and let’s watch it over and over again, because I feel the need…the need for speed!

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(Head image: Paramount Pictures)