The training and preparation for the legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick was so intense that star Miles Teller was convinced that he might not come out of it alive. Speaking with LADBible, Teller revealed how he was thrown into the danger zone courtesy of Tom Cruise’s extensive training regime, with one moment in particular causing the actor to think he was going to die.

"I definitely had a moment where I thought I was going to die. There was a sequence where we were heading straight towards the ground and you do what’s called a max G pull-up. You’re heading down and at the last second you yank up, and it’s really tough for the pilot. It’s something they train in all the time, but it was the first time we’d done a maneuver like that and I completely stopped acting. I looked at the ground, and thought this wasn’t going to end well for me."

Teller was pumped with so much adrenaline during the training and filming of Top Gun: Maverick that he has now developed an appreciation for boring, normal, everyday commercial flying. The actor joked that thanks to the delirious heights he has now flown in Top Gun: Maverick, he has experienced more than enough G-Force.

"If anything I think it made me really appreciate how nice it is not to have to, you know, go 500 knots an hour all the time. I like a flight with very minimal G exposure.”

Top Gun: Maverick Has Seen Huge Critical & Financial Success

Top Gun Maverick
Paramount Pictures

Top Gun: Maverick picks up after more than thirty years since the release of the first Top Gun, and follows Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) who has been of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators for just as long. Feeling that he is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot, Maverick has dodged the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized 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 friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “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.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie, from a story conceived by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick stars Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, both of whom reprise their roles from the 80s original. The sequel introduces Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris.

Top Gun: Maverick was theatrically released in the United States on May 27, 2022, by Paramount Pictures, and has been met with critical acclaim, with many even calling it superior to its iconic predecessor. The legacy sequel has also been a huge financial success, grossing over $282 million worldwide so far.