Tom Cruise's new movie "Top Gun: Maverick" paid as much as $11,374 per hour to the Navy for using F/A-18 Super Hornets in the new film, Fortune is reporting.
But Cruise couldn't touch the controls of the advanced fighter planes.
Cruise, 59, had insisted that actors portraying pilots in the film fly in one of the jets so they could experience the fighter's gravitational forces. And Fortune noted Cruise wound up flying more than a dozen sorties for the movie. However, a Pentagon regulation prohibits nonmilitary personnel from controlling a Defense Department asset — except for small arms.
So, the actors sat behind pilots once required training on how to eject from the plane in case of emergency was completed.
Much of the filming of the movie was done in 2018 when the rate for the jets was $11,374, according to Fortune.
In the film, Cruise reprises his role as U.S. Navy pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. The film premiered in the United Kingdom last week and Prince William and his wife, Kate, joined Cruise in viewing the film, according to The Associated Press.
Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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