10 Even More Movie Scenes Shot For Real

6. Real Planes Were On-Screen - Top Gun: Maverick

Ong Bak
Paramount

While the likes of Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Glen Powell and the rest of the actors playing Top Gun: Maverick's brilliant pilots didn't actually fly the various jets seen hurtling through the air in that epic legacy sequel, that doesn't mean they weren't very much up there in the sky, folks.

After being put through a training programme - monitored by the mighty Cruise himself - which saw them graduate from sitting in Cessna 172s to eventually comfortably performing and pulling heavy Gs in F18s, the stars were in a position to just naturally react and act on camera within the aircraft as they soared up high (via GQ).

Now a little bit of CGI was used for certain exterior shots, digitally altering the jets to make it look like Cruise and co. were flying around in one-seater F-18s instead of the two-seater ones used in reality.

But the cast ultimately still ended up spending up to a whopping four hours a day up in the sky during the shooting of these exhilarating training and dogfight sequences, more than doing their part in making Top Gun: Maverick one of the most gripping and authentic feeling action dramas of the last few years.

 
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Lifts rubber and metal. Watches people flip in spandex and pretends to be other individuals from time to time...