How many years have passed between the first and second ‘Top Gun’ movies with Tom Cruise?
The first film was released in 1986 with the second released in 2022 as ‘legacy sequels’ continue to dominate the box office.
Tom Cruise became a household name with the release of ‘Top Gun’. The 1986 movie hit all the action, drama and romance beats was wildly successful, collecting a mighty $356 million from a budget of only $15 million.
In 2022 its director, Joseph Kosinski, brought audiences back with a sequel, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’.
Cruise returned as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, no longer the student and serving as a test pilot for the US Navy. He is called back to Top Gun to train an elite group of pilots for an urgent mission to destroy an unknown nation’s uranium enrichment facility.
36 years apart but still no slouch
Many renowned critics, such as one who commented “the flight sequences are absolutely jaw-dropping... and i’m thinking it’s got under my skin,” regard ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ as far superior to its predecessor. The Academy agreed, nominating the film for Best Picture for the Oscar Awards coming up in later this month.
An emotional moment for all fans of 80s action films is the return of Val Kilmer, who has lost his voice due to throat cancer he suffered. He is given a voice thanks to artificial intelligence, which has made it possible to reconstruct his voice.