The Movie That Almost Reunited Tom Cruise & Val Kilmer (Before Top Gun 2)
Their onscreen reunion proved to be the emotional highlight of Top Gun: Maverick, but another movie almost reunited Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer first. Top Gun became a cultural event upon release in 1986, thanks to its visuals, soundtrack and quotable dialogue. It helped it was fronted by a great cast too, with the film nudging Cruise over the line into movie stardom. The film was helmed by the late, great Tony Scott, whose signature flair for visual storytelling was in full force. Oddly, two candidates who were in contention for the director's chair first were horror icons David Cronenberg and John Carpenter.
Top Gun went on to become a classic, but despite its success, it didn't receive a sequel. In the decades that followed, talk of a Top Gun 2 — which is currently facing a lawsuit — would crop up occasionally, but it never came together. Scott's passing in 2012 appeared to rule out a follow-up, but in 2017, Cruise confirmedTop Gun: Maverick was finally happening. While fans of the original were excited, there was also fear over how it could possibly live up to expectations, especially for a film so deeply rooted in the '80s. Those fears were dashed by the final product, which somehow managed to stay true to Top Gun while expanding on its themes and adding great new characters of its own.
Related: A Top Gun: Maverick Streaming Release Would Be Terrible Right Now
Not only has Top Gun: Maverick received near-universal praise, it also became Cruise's first movie to pass $1 billion worldwide. One of the most emotional sequences of Maverick sees Cruise's title character meeting with Val Kilmer's Tom «Iceman» Kazansky. The two were bitter rivals turned friends in the original, which propelled both Cruise and Kilmer to fame.
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