It’s been 34 years since Top Gun was released and as sequel Top Gun: Maverick gears up to hit cinemas this Christmas, Tom Cruise shows no sign of slowing down. According to the film’s producer, the 57-year-old made sure his younger co-stars were in shape for Top Gun 2. Speaking with Yahoo Entertainment, Jerry Bruckheimer said: “He put the actors through this gruelling process over three months so they could take the G-forces when we put them in the F/A-18s.”

The producer continued: “It was really a tough slog for these young actors because they also had to go through water survival training.”

Bruckheimer revealed how the actors were blindfolded and put in an upside-down water tank.

They were then expected to find a way out in a challenging exercise of real skill.

And, of course, Cruise went through the same training as the young actors.

READ MORE: Top Gun 2: Val Kilmer teases ‘MOVING’ Iceman scenes with Tom Cruise

However, the 60-year-old actor has revealed to GMA that his Iceman has “moving” scenes with Cruise’s Maverick.

Kilmer said: “It was absolutely moving. I really was surprised and Tom was wearing his jacket.

“The original jacket from the first movie, it was just very moving.

“I don’t want to give away anything, but in between takes, Tom and I just laughed like we were in high school.”

Top Gun Maverick’s synopsis reads: “After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. 

“When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialised mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: ‘Rooster,’ the son of Maverick’s late best friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, known as ‘Goose’.

“Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.”

Top Gun Maverick is set for release in UK cinemas on December 23, 2020.