Top Gun: Maverick Featurette: Being In A Jet Is Like Being Strapped To A Dragon

The insatiable need for speed is back with the fast-approaching release of "Top Gun: Maverick" this Friday, and a recently released featurette adds fuel to the fire. After a wait of more than 35 years, we will soon witness the return of aviator Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise), who will be struggling with his new role as a flight instructor and protecting a certain someone from the danger of aerial combat.

Take a look at the "Top Gun: Maverick" featurette, which features the film's cast enduring the speed an F-18 jet fighter in real life.

Cruise has never been one to shy from doing his own stunts, and the more audacious they are, the better. The latest trailer for "Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning" adds even more evidence of that to the ever-growing file of Cruise's daredevil nature. Returning to the "Top Gun" franchise after so many years, Cruise leaves no stone unturned when it comes to the film's aviation-oriented stunts, which involve getting into real fighter jets while filming high-intensity scenes.

The featurette highlights the crew's reaction to hopping into jets, which they were't surprised by, given Cruise's involvement with the film's stunt work. Comparing being in the cockpit of a jet to "being strapped to a dragon," the "Top Gun: Maverick" cast shared their excitement about the experience and the totally bonkers nature of everything involved. Here's what Cruise said about the process in the featurette:

"I told everyone, if you're gonna take this role, part of it is being in that F-18. I don't know how to do it any other way ... The Navy and Top Gun team, oh, they're amazing."

The real-life airplane stunts are sure to add a layer of authenticity to these sequences in the films, making them breathtaking to witness (thanks to the IMAX cameras used during filming). "Top Gun: Maverick" appears to be a labor of love, and will hopefully be able to surpass the legacy of the original.

Apart from Cruise, "Top Gun: Maverick" stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, Ed Harris, and Val Kilmer.

Here's the official synopsis:

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 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.

"Top Gun: Maverick" hits theaters on May 27, 2022.