It’s been over 30 years, but Tom Cruise once again feels the need… the need for speed. And a Top Gun sequel. He told the Australian Morning Show Sunrise (via Yahoo) that “It’s true. I’m going to start filming it, probably in the next year.”
Top Gun was an unexpected smash hit in 1986, shooting a young Tom Cruise to superstardom and selling about a zillion soundtracks (estimated). In a decade largely defined by films that celebrated nonconformity, Tony Scott’s drama about fighter pilots argued that rebelliousness has no place in the military, and inspired an enormous spike in Navy recruitment.
It’s highly unusual for a film as popular as Top Gun to go decades without any sequels, remakes, spin-offs or television series. Rumors swirled for years until Top Gun 2 finally got the green light in the early 2010s, but the production stalled out when filmmaker Tony Scott – who was planning to return for the follow-up – committed suicide in 2012.
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The odd thing about any potential Top Gun sequel is that it will almost certainly tackle the realities of modern warfare, in which the skies are currently filled with remote-controlled drones, and the sort of high-speed, high-stakes dogfights that made the original movie so viscerally thrilling no longer take place. Recent films like Good Kill have already tackled the difficult transition that veteran pilots are making in this new military environment.
Tom Cruise is no doubt eager to get started, but be careful not to take his word as gospel just yet. Top Gun 2 still needs a director, and a heck of a lot can happen to a motion picture while it’s still in development. But if you’re a fan of Top Gun, it’s never the wrong time to crack out some Berlin, and hope that the future will take our collective breath away.
Top Photo: Paramount Pictures
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
