Creating “The Best Shooter: Maverick” was not an easy task, and it took very close cooperation with the US Navy to create this authentic and extreme film about fighter pilots. Joseph Kosinski, the director of the sequel, spoke very frankly about his “search for authenticity” in this film, as he told Deadline. More recently, he talked about how he was allowed to visit places and see things in the navy that many civilians could never see. However, since the Navy let the director go behind the scenes, if you will, they also didn’t mess around when it came to keeping confidential and classified information from coming out.
All this happened when Kosinski was talking to Deadline about his love of aviation. He explained that cooperation with the Navy was very exciting, and while working on the film he managed to visit the aircraft carrier Teddy Roosevelt and learn all about airplanes. The director also noted that he had done a lot of things that many civilians would never have reached, saying:
So, I realized this dream and served in the Navy for a couple of years. I have to go to places where civilians don’t go. I happened to see something that no civilian would see. One day my camera was confiscated. Wiped clean.
However, despite the fact that this dream came true for Kosinski, it could not be taken lightly. As he mentioned, what he saw is not publicly available information, which led to the confiscation of his camera. He continued the story, explaining why, in his opinion, his camera was taken away from him:
I took some pictures and may have captured something I shouldn’t have taken, and my camera was quickly returned to me without any photos.
It makes sense that this will happen. There are some things that the military must keep secret, and these things cannot be shown in one of the most popular films of the year. Nevertheless, all this research that Kosinski conducted and the access provided by the Navy did lead to the creation of a film that, as the director put it, succeeded in its “search for authenticity.” This success is clearly visible, as the film became one of the best films of 2022 and can claim the title of “Best Film”.
In addition to the confidential information that Kosinski learned on this trip, he and Tom Cruise also put a lot of effort into making the film on real planes. The cast went through crazy training sessions that used blindfolds and cages, and after one of the most intense episodes in the film, the Navy pilot who flew it said it would never happen again.
This desire for mastery, perfection and authenticity is perhaps one of the main reasons why Top Gun: Maverick has been such a huge success both with critics and at the box office. In this regard, it is likely that the sequel will go down in history as one of the best action movies ever created, in my opinion.
Despite the fact that the filming schedule for 2023 is in full swing, “The Best Shooter: Maverick” is still an important part of the zeitgeist, partly because of all the work of Kosinski and the company. put it in it. If you’re interested in watching the long-awaited sequel, you can do so with a Paramount+ subscription.
