Tom Cruise apparently had a rough first ride before becoming one of Hollywood’s most famous fighter-pilot heroes.
As ‘Top Gun’ marks its 40th anniversary, members of the film’s creative team are looking back at the wild flight that helped convince Cruise to sign on. According to co-writer Jack Epps Jr. and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, Cruise went up with U.S. Navy pilots before officially committing to the 1986 classic.
The ride did not go smoothly. It did, however, work.
Tom Cruise Got A Brutal Fighter Jet Ride
Epps recalled that the pilots did not know who Cruise was when he arrived.
“They look at him and they don’t know who Tom Cruise is,” Epps said. “They do what they like to do: They took him up, they shook him around, he barfed on himself, and he came out and said, ‘I love this.’ From that moment, he was on.”
Bruckheimer said he arranged the flight because Cruise had not fully committed to the movie yet. “We couldn’t quite get him to commit, so I arranged for him to fly with the Blue Angels in El Centro, California,” Bruckheimer said.
At the time, Cruise looked very different from the clean-cut Pete “Maverick” Mitchell fans would later meet. He had recently worked on the 1985 fantasy film ‘Legend’, which left him with long hair and a ponytail.
According to Bruckheimer, that made the pilots underestimate him. “They saw this guy walk up and they said, ‘We’ll get this hippy a real ride,’” he recalled.
Cruise Reportedly Called Bruckheimer Right After
Bruckheimer said the flight did exactly what he hoped.
Cruise got out of the plane, found a phone booth, and called him. This was before cell phones, so the old-school detail makes the story even better.
“He got out of the plane, walked to a phone booth, called me up, said, ‘I’m in,’” Bruckheimer said.
Cruise has told a slightly different version of the story before. In a 2016 appearance on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’, he said he already wanted to make ‘Top Gun’ after meeting Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott. Still, he kept that quiet because he wanted to use the situation to get a Blue Angels flight.
“I told my agent, ‘I’m going to make this movie, but don’t tell Jerry I want to make this movie because I want to fly with the Blue Angels,’” Cruise said. “You’ve got work these things, you know? I’m a businessman.”
He also confirmed the messy part. “I vomited with the Blue Angels,” Cruise told Kimmel.
Blue Angels Pilot Also Remembered The Flight
Curt “Griz” Watson, a Blue Angels pilot, also recalled flying with Cruise in a 2023 interview.
“We put him in the back of the 7 jet and I took him out,” Watson said. “We basically did some rolls and some loops.” Watson said he even let Cruise fly the plane a little bit.
He also remembered hearing that Cruise called the producer right after the flight and agreed to make the movie. Later, Watson said, Cruise sent him a letter thanking him for the ride and saying the experience helped with his character work.
For Cruise, the flight may have been physically brutal. For ‘Top Gun’, it was perfect. The star got shaken around, lost his lunch, and walked away ready to make the movie that would become one of the defining roles of his career.
