Jerry Bruckheimer is a Hollywood legend. His killer instinct, consistently good taste and innate understanding of what the public wants has led to franchises like “Beverly Hills Cop” (with his late partner Don Simpson), “Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Bad Boys” (also with Simpson) and “National Treasure.” He, too, has had so many notable one-off favorites: “The Rock,” “Flashdance,” “American Gigolo,” and the list goes on. And for a while it seemed that “Top Gun” was following up in that last category, an all-time record, but that it stood alone.
That is, until Bruckheimer released, with Tom Cruise and director Joseph Kosinski and producer/writer Christopher McQuarrie, “Top Gun: Maverick.” Against all odds, it came 36 years after the original. And, perhaps most unlikely, it led to Bruckheimer’s first Best Picture Oscar nomination. “Hope for the best, but expect the worst,” Bruckheimer said of his prospect Tuesday. “And this time we did it. It’s fantastic.”
In “Top Gun: Maverick,” Cruise reprises the role of Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, this time recruited by Top Gun to train a new group of pilots to fly a dangerous and seemingly suicidal race in an enemy country. It’s a story about old age, death, and legacy, themes that resonated with audiences, especially when presented in the context of a heart-pounding action movie (the film grossed nearly $1.5 billion Worldwide). And just as Maverick returned to what made him so special, Bruckheimer returned to a beloved property that hadn’t been touched for three decades. For both of them, it could have ended in disaster.
Instead, it’s felt like a victory lap for Cruise and Bruckheimer, capped off by this morning’s nominations.
“Honestly, I feel great. It’s great when your peers recognize you. We make movies with them and for them and it’s exciting when they see the hard work that goes into making all these movies,” said Bruckheimer. “It was a combination of Tom and Joe [Kosinski] Y [Christopher] McQ[uarrie], they all contributed a little bit of what they have learned throughout their history in the movie business in their experience. And the Academy recognized all the hard work and excellence that went into making the film.”
Bruckheimer says much of the film’s commitment to excellence can be traced back to Cruise.
“Tom would always say, ‘We’ve got to hit a bullet with a bullet.’ And he didn’t want to give up on anything,” Bruckheimer said. “All the actors trained to be in the jets so they could take on the G-forces. They put in the hard work and now we get the praise from our peers.”
And Bruckheimer also feels the love of other people. The producer was approached at a colleague’s funeral by a young woman who said the company she worked for was holding a contest to see who had seen the film the most times. The young woman won. She had seen it 25 times. Bruckheimer then told an even more powerful story: “Another girl came up to me at one of our screenings here and said, ‘My dad was so depressed he was having suicidal thoughts. And I took him to see Top Gun and he has a new lease on life.’” That’s right, “Top Gun: Maverick” saves lives.
But given the film’s huge success (both critically and commercially), is Paramount clamoring for another sequel?
“A lot of people talk about it,” Bruckheimer said. “But Tom is doing two ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies and he’s risking his life as he often does, unfortunately. But we haven’t had a discussion with him about it yet.” Not that I’m totally ruling out the possibility. “You always like to make movies that entertain audiences, if we can find a way to bring another one back, of course. Why wouldn’t we? Look, it took us 35/36 years to do this. You never know.”
