Jerry Bruckheimer unveils that Tom Cruise’s one call can sparked the sequel “Top Gun: Maverick”

After the Tony Scott and Tom Cruise-led picture became 1986’s largest international blockbuster with $357 million, the renowned producer behind the original Top Gun struggled to get a sequel off the ground. However, work never took off, and emphasis quickly shifted to other initiatives.

Bruckheimer and Scott recommitted to the project two decades later, until Scott’s terrible death in 2012. While production lagged, Bruckheimer was still committed to making the sequel, and in 2017, the stars aligned when Cruise’s Oblivion director, Joseph Kosinski, impressed everyone with his idea for Top Gun: Maverick.

Bruckheimer tells the media, “Joe [Kosinski] had a look book, a poster and the title, Top Gun: Maverick, and then he told Tom the journey of the character and the story he wanted to tell. Tom then looked at him, pulled out his phone and called the head of Paramount at that time and said, ‘I want to make another Top Gun.’ And that was it,”

Cruise’s commitment to the movie was contingent on a few factors, one of which being Val Kilmer’s participation. Early screenings of the film’s reunion between Cruise’s Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Kilmer’s Admiral Tom “Iceman” Kazansky got overwhelmingly positive reviews.

Bruckheimer share, “[Tom] said, ‘I’m not making this movie without Val.’ When we filmed it, it was a very emotional day, having Val there and seeing him work with Tom after 35 years.”

The film’s compelling original song, “Hold My Hand,” is the film’s last touch, and the Maverick brain trust understood they had to expand on it when they first heard it at Hans Zimmer’s studio.

Bruckheimer says, “We played it at Hans Zimmer’s studio, and Tom flipped. Hans loved it so much that he said, ‘I’m going to take that melody and use it as a love theme in the movie.’”