Top Gun: Maverick Cast Underwent Intense Water Survival Training With Cages And Blindfolds

Tom Cruise is well-known for his eagerness and enthusiasm for doing his own stunt work in his films, and his unbelievable commitment to preparing for his roles. At the Cannes Film Festival, Cruise was asked why he insists on doing his own stunts for films like "Mission Impossible" and its sequel (via People). He bluntly answered, "No one asked Gene Kelly, 'Why do you dance?'" While the answer was deflective, he went on to explain that as a kid, he was the one who, "would climb to the rafters or climb the tallest tree in the wind just to — I wanted that."

But not every actor is as much of a daredevil as Cruise, and it's common for actors to use stunt doubles for dangerous scenes. "I knew we'd be able to get Tom [Cruise] on the plane, but we weren't sure about the rest of the cast," "Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski told the audience at Deadline's LA3C panel about the film's famous jet scenes. "So, Tom devised this three-month course for all the actors, to start with a very simple airplane and work their way up to the Navy jet."

While the training before the actors went up in the air is familiar news, Kosinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer surprised the audience with details relating to the intense water survival training the cast also underwent in preparation for the film.

While the three months of training the cast underwent in order to handle the intensity of the jets sounds grueling, it turns out they also had to go through extreme water survival. "They put them in kind of a cage, blindfold them, dump them in the water six or eight feet down, 10 feet down, turn them upside down, and they have to figure out how to get out of that cage," Jerry Bruckheimer told the audience at the Deadline panel.

While we can't say that it sounds like fun, their hard work and persistence definitely paid off, with fans going to the theater in droves. "Maverick" was a hit with fans and critics, alike, with some declaring the film to be better than the original in some regards (via Collider). The film not only became the top-grossing film of 2022, but also one of the highest-grossing films in U.S. box office history (via Box Office Mojo). "Maverick" surprised many, including the movie critic who ate a shoe after his public tweet declaring, "If Top Gun 2 happens, I will eat a shoe" came back to haunt him.