It’s time to feel the need for speed once again as Top Gun: Maverick roars into theaters. On Monday, May 24, photographers and journalists lined the AMC Magic Johnson in New York City to catch a glimpse of the stars that lead the newest action blockbuster starring Tom Cruise as the iconic hotshot pilot, Maverick. Cruise was not in attendance at the red carpet event, but his presence loomed large as discussions of the Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One trailer, which dropped earlier in the day, spread through the floor.
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Stars of the film that arrived included Jennifer Connelly, who portrays Penny Benjamin, a single mother who owns a bar. She serves as Maverick’s love interest, a character previously mentioned in the original Top Gun as an admiral’s daughter. Another actor from the film who arrived at the Harlem premiere is Jay Ellis, who portrays Lieutenant Reuben “Payback” Fitch. Payback is one of the Top Gun pilots Maverick trains in this high-adrenaline cinematic event. Ellis went through a demanding training process for the film, where he and his co-stars spent three months learning how to fly real F-18s to perform the aviation sequences practically.
“I’m gonna say it’s probably our last day all on the boat together,” Ellis said when asked about his favorite memory from the film. “We shot on the Theodore Roosevelt carrier out at sea for a week and we all sat down and realized that we would never be on a carrier again. Like, we just had this moment – we got shot off the carrier all together. And as we were loading into the plane, we all kinda turned and looked at each other and realized that six other actors have done what we’ve done and we’re all on the same movie. It’s such a singular experience and to like keep that sacred and keep it here because it was a really amazing thing.”
“After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him,” says the official Top Gun: Maverick synopsis. “When he finds himself training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: ‘Rooster,’ the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka ‘Goose.’ Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.”
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This film is nothing short of epic—a breathtaking cinematic experience that deserves to be seen on the big screen. The screenplay balances the epic action with an emotional center, and director Joseph Kosinski does a phenomenal job helming the film’s high-speed aerial sequences. Top Gun: Maverick surpasses the original and delivers on every level that a movie lover could hope for.
