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Tom Cruise Shares Emotional Reunion With Val Kilmer In Top Gun: Maverick

Home> Film & TV

Published 19:21 20 May 2022 GMT+1

Tom Cruise Shares Emotional Reunion With Val Kilmer In Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer starred in the 1986 Top Gun film, and now they're reunited for Top Gun: Maverick

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

The new Top Gun film isn’t even out in cinemas just yet, but one particular moment has already got people talking – the ‘emotional’ reunion between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer, reprising their roles as Iceman and Maverick.

36 years since the first film saw the two characters turn from bitter rivals into firm friends, the pair have been reunited on screen once again in Top Gun: Maverick.

If you want to get a taste for what the film is all about, you can watch the trailer below:

Cruise and Kilmer shared the screen back in 1986 as Admiral Tom ‘Iceman’ Kazansky and Captain Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, and now they’re back together after much water has passed under the bridge.

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While Cruise has obviously continued his stellar Hollywood career, Kilmer has recently recovered from throat cancer, which threatened to end his own career prematurely.

At the UK premiere – attended by stars such as Prince William and Kate Middleton – Cruise explained how ‘lovely’ the experience of shooting the film was, and one of the producers spoke of how ‘emotional’ it was to see the pair sharing the stage once again.

Mission Impossible star Cruise said: “It was lovely. The whole experience, you know, 36 years to make this film. There were so many moments in making it that were very special, incredibly unique.

“He’s an actor that I greatly admire, so it was wonderful.”

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Kilmer and Cruise in 1986.
Paramount Pictures

David Ellison, one of the producers and a collaborator with Cruise on Jack Reacher and Mission Impossible, said that the scene between Maverick and Iceman was his ‘favourite in the movie’.

Ellison said: “The first movie made me want to become a pilot.

“This was the first movie when we originally started working with Paramount 12 years ago we said we wanted to make.

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“So to see the two of them on set, the emotion that people hopefully get from that scene, was how it felt to be on set.

“It was a surreal experience.”

Kilmer revealed in 2017 that he’d been suffering from throat cancer and the treatment had affected his voice.

In a Reddit AMA, he said he was ‘healing’ but added: “My tongue is still swollen altho healing all the time.

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“Because I don’t sound my normal self yet people think I may still be under the weather [sic]."

Kilmer has also spoken about how he ‘begged’ to be allowed to return as Iceman.

Iceman and Maverick were rivals who became friends.
Alamy

In his 2020 memoir, he wrote: “Tom was Maverick, but Maverick’s nemesis was Iceman.

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“The two went together like salt and pepper.

“It didn’t matter that the producers didn’t contact me.

“As The Temptations sang in the heyday of Motown soul, ‘Ain’t too proud to beg.’”

Top Gun: Maverick is out in cinemas on Friday 27 May.

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If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]  

Featured Image Credit: Alamy/Paramount Pictures

Topics: Film and TV, Tom Cruise, Celebrity

Tom Wood
Tom Wood

Tom Wood is a LADbible journalist and Twin Peaks enthusiast. Despite having a career in football cut short by a chronic lack of talent, he managed to obtain degrees from both the University of London and Salford. According to his French teacher, at the weekend he mostly likes to play football and go to the park with his brother. Contact Tom on [email protected]

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@TPWagwim

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  • Tom Cruise reveals how he broke a world record in death-defying stunt skydiving with his parachute on fire
  • Heartwarming way Val Kilmer ended up starring in Top Gun sequel despite having no voice
  • Tom Cruise breaks silence on Top Gun co-star Val Kilmer’s death with emotional statement
  • Batman and Top Gun star Val Kilmer dies aged 65

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