10 Movie Moments More Terrifying When You Know The Truth

8. A Real Pilot Was Too Terrified To Give One Extreme Stunt Another Go - Top Gun: Maverick

Henry Cavill
Paramount

While the average Joe or Jane would be all too happy to call it a day after pulling off a simply horrifying and high-risk stunt the one time, Tom Cruise is the sort who would quite happily give it another few goes in order to ensure its in the can - and probably for the sheer joy of it, too!

But not everyone was as happy to keep the stunt show going whilst shooting his most recent big-screen smash of Top Gun: Maverick. In fact, one of the genuine pilots tasked with executing some of the death-defying stunts in the film classed one particular sequence as something that was simply too extreme to do again.

As director Joseph Kosinski would explain to Empire, ace real-life pilot Frank ‘Walleye’ Weisser was in charge of flying the jet for the thrilling and highly dangerous moment that sees Cruise's Maverick prove that the film's "impossible" run is anything but.

Yet, after touching down the plane that also contained "Cruise at 550 knots, going 30 feet above ground", 'Walleye' would simply ask, "Did you get it?" And after receiving the thumbs up, he soon followed that up with a "good, because I’m never doing that again." Which probably tells you how damn frightening the whole experience must've been for even the most seasoned of pros.

Cruise still would've probably done it again, mind.

Contributor
Contributor

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