Top Gun: Maverick has become as big a hit as you could imagine. Although technically not the highest-grossing film of 2022, it still remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time in the world. For many fans who thought they would never see the sequel to “The Best Shooter,” this film is of great importance, and we all need to thank director Joseph Kosinki for convincing Tom Cruise to make the film.
While Tom Cruise has long publicly expressed interest in making “The Best Shooter 2,” Kosinski told Deadline that, especially after the suicide of Tony Scott, the director of the original film, Cruise really needed to be convinced. This did not prevent Kosinski from presenting his idea of a sequel to “Cruise”. The director explains…
Tom really didn’t want to shoot another “Best Shooter,” and [director Tony Scott’s suicide] made that even less likely. I am sure that for him this is probably another reason why he will never think about returning. But I put forward the idea of this story as a reconciliation between him and Ruster as opposed to this mission, which will lead Ruster into a very dangerous situation that they will end up together through enemy lines, will have to resolve their differences and work together to get home.
It looks like Tom Cruise needed a reason to create a sequel. In particular, he needed a story that, in his opinion, gave the Maverick character a reason to return to the screen. This idea to build the film around the relationship between Maverick and Ruster, the son of Goose, played by Miles Teller, was apparently the spark that lit the fire in Cruise. Despite this, Kosinski says that Cruz was well aware of how high the stakes were. Kosinsky continued…
As soon as I presented this idea, I saw the wheels spinning in Tom’s head, and suddenly he had a very emotional reason, a hook associated with this character, and a reason to come back, because I think in his mind it was like a one in a million chance that we could do it that’s right. He kept saying, “Joe, we have to hit a bullet with a bullet.” And that was his line in this movie. So, of course, I heard it in my head every day while we were shooting the movie. I think everyone who worked on this film felt that the bar was very high because we were all fans of the original.
“The Best Shooter” is one of the most popular films ever made. Fans have been waiting for decades to continue. Tom Cruise seems to have realized that it’s not enough just to make a good enough movie. They needed to achieve or surpass the success of the first film, and there was a known way to be sure that they would succeed, no matter how good everyone thought the story was. We know how much work they’ve done to make the Maverick jet engine perfect.
However, somehow they really “hit the bullet with a bullet” and made Top Gun: Maverick everything they needed. The fans are thrilled, the critics are thrilled. It has grossed almost $1.5 billion at the global box office, and to top it all off, “Maverick” may end up with several major awards, as many think it’s a movie we could see at the Oscars.
