Faced with a tight job market, the Navy is banking that Top Gun can help rescue naval aviation from a pilot shortage, 36 years after the original film broke recruiting records.
It’s part of a long relationship between Hollywood and the military.
"TopGun: Maverick" premiered on Naval Air Station North Island near San Diego. Several scenes were shot there. Surrounded by sailors in front of the base theater, actor Tom Cruise said he shares the Navy’s high hopes for the long-awaited sequel.
“It’s a celebration of the Navy. It’s a celebration of aviation. It’s a celebration of, I think, our country,” Cruise said.
Paramount paid the Navy more than $5 million. Much of the money was spent to retrofit real F-18 Super Hornets with cameras. Real Navy pilots do the flying, putting the actors and the audience in the cockpit.
It’s part of a long tradition of Hollywood collaborating with the military. In 1929, Wings, the first film to win the Academy Awards for Best Picture, used real Army Air Corps planes, said Nick Cull, who teaches media and history at the University of Southern California.
”On the Pentagon side of things, they wanted to have the best of the US military represented," he said. "And they knew that if filmmakers wanted to have tanks and aircraft carriers and aircraft featured in their movies, they’d be willing to concede certain aspects of creative input.”
Though it can be tough for the Pentagon to live up to the Hollywood hype, Cull said.
“Why can't we succeed in Iraq or Afghanistan? The difficulty of operating in these kinds of situations are underestimated when we have these fantasies of exaggerated competence,” Cull said.
Rob Newell directs the Navy program that works with the entertainment industry. Part of his job is to ensure that films that use Navy assets also uphold the values of the US Navy.
“I do think that the country knows that they're going to see a movie — and they can make their own judgments,” Newell said.
He said the studios sign a production agreement that lays out what the Navy will provide. In exchange, his office reviews the script. The Navy is eager to get its message out in an era when fewer Americans have a direct connection to the military.
“That has started to wane — and so people don't have, and communities don't have, those connections that they used to,” he said. “Everybody can't go out to an aircraft carrier, but everybody can go to a movie theater.”
And the Navy could use a hit right now. The original film is legendary among Navy recruiters for driving up interest in naval aviation, 10 years after Vietnam.
Capt. Brian Ferguson was the Navy’s technical advisor on the Top Gun sequel.
Standing in front of an F-18 on North Island, he admits he became a pilot after seeing the original film in the 80s. Ferguson flies for the reserves as well as Delta Airlines — commercial aviation always draws military pilots.
And the competition for pilots, he says, is heating up.
“You have to retire at age 65. So you do the math,” he said. “You got a lot of people that are falling off the cliff there. The airlines, all of them did not necessarily plan in advance. And then COVID hit and a lot of people took early retirement and left. What we're left with now is a massive resurgence in travel demand and not enough people to fill it.”
With commercial air traffic rebounding, the need to keep and attract new pilots for the military is so great that the Air Force also plans to sponsor ads in theaters showing Top Gun this summer, for anyone who isn’t married to Naval Aviation.
“I do think it's going to strike gold, and I think it's going to be a huge return on investment for the Navy,” Ferguson said.
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer made both the original and the sequel. He wants a hit movie, but he doesn’t mind if the Navy was more interested in recruiting.
“We want people to serve our country. And to put in the sacrifices to keep our country safe,” he said.
When asked whether the original film really was the recruiting tool the Navy remembers it to be, Bruckheimer said that's what he's been told.
“That’s what they tell me. Recruiting went up 500 percent after the first one came out," Bruckheimer said. "I think everyone wanted to be naval aviators. I don’t blame them. I’d like to be one.”
Outside the premiere, a group of young sailors was waiting for the filmmakers. Some of them admitted they either hadn’t seen the original or had watched it the night before. Seaman Recruit Charles Poindexter said he used to watch it with his dad, as a kid. Cruise is still his dad’s favorite actor.
“I called him yesterday. You got to get some pictures. Whole lot of pictures,” he said.
