How Top Gun 2's Emotional Maverick & Iceman Scene Came Together

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Caution: This article contains spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick.

According to the director of Top Gun: Maverick, filming the reunion between old rivals Maverick and Iceman was an emotional experience. The sequel to 1986's action blockbuster Top Gun is a massive success even 36 years later, reinvigorating theatergoing at the behest of Tom Cruise and proving to be a riveting film in its own right. Even decades later, Pete «Maverick» Mitchell is still flying fighter jets when he suddenly gets pulled back into the Top Gun program, this time as a trainer. His task: to prepare a new class for a high-stakes mission they may not make it out of alive.

While a central narrative element of the film involves Maverick's relationship with Rooster, the son of his late friend and co-pilot Goose, the film offers ample opportunity to bring back fan-favorite characters from the 1986 original. The prime candidate was Iceman, Maverick's nemesis-turned-friend, played by rising star Val Kilmer. Even though Kilmer never wanted to be in Top Gun, the film launched him to success in the late '80s and '90s, and the actor was a shoo-in for the long-awaited sequel.

Related: Why Iceman Doesn't Speak In Top Gun: Maverick

Per EW, Maverick director Joseph Kosinski recalls the process behind Iceman and Maverick's heartwarming reunion scene. Iceman and Maverick's meeting in the film serves as a way to pay tribute to Kilmer and assure Maverick about his instincts in training the Top Gun class for their dangerous operation. Kosinski says that the crew spent a lot of time perfecting the scene and that it was worth the effort due to how beautiful it turned out. Check out the quote below:

Obviously [we] spent a lot of time on that scene, writing it, getting