CORONADO, Calif. — Wednesday is the world premiere of “Top Gun: Maverick” in San Diego, and the stars of the sequel are in town for a series of events.
A special screening for Navy sailors was held in the afternoon at Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado.
Actor Tom Cruise spoke with FOX 5 anchor Andrew Luria about what it means to be back in San Diego to show the film.
“‘Top Gun’ was such a huge moment in my life as an actor, my love of aviation and the way that it came together, so to be back here again, it’s very special for me,” Cruise told FOX 5.
“I told all the actors, I said, from now on, your lives are going to change,” he added. “People are going to come up to you in the street and they’re going to be saying your call sign, they’re going to quote the lines back to you. I felt — we all did — felt a tremendous responsibility to everyone to be able to deliver that for our audiences.”
When asked what it meant to be able to show the film to members of the Navy first, Cruise said, “I cannot wait for them to see it.”
“They’re the ones who helped us make it, let’s face it,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer told FOX 5. “They put in a lot of long hours. The mechanics who kept the planes flying, the pilots, all the crews around here and the sailors that we had. It was just terrific the way they lent their time and their energy to support us.”
FOX 5 also spoke to Navy Cmdr. Michael Patterson, Top Gun commanding officer, about the meaning of the film’s debut.
“I think it’s going to do the same thing that the original movie did, where it portrays and communicates the excitement that is involved in being part of naval aviation,” Patterson told FOX 5. “Just as importantly, it’ll highlight and showcase the skill, the talent, the dedication that our young men and women — the junior officers that form up the bulk of Top Gun and naval aviation — I’m hoping that it showcases their talents.”
Vice Adm. Kenneth Whitesell, commander of Naval Air Forces, said Paramount “made the right decision” to bring the premier to San Diego.
“For them to come down here and to break out the movie, to roll it out in this environment — it’s a Navy town, home for thousands of us — and for them to pull it out of Los Angeles and come to San Diego, it’s a coup for San Diego to do it,” Whitesell told FOX 5. “It’s an acknowledgement that this is a Navy town, it’s an acknowledgement of the support that San Diego gives to it.”
The screening will be followed by a red carpet event on the deck of the USS Midway Museum.