Tom Cruise’s aviation epic Top Gun: Maverick was released in 2022 to pack theaters and repeated viewings as the film’s practical aerial action sequences exhilarated audiences. The film’s commitment to practical effects was appreciated by not just audiences but by industry insiders too and was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars.

While Tom Cruise may have saved cinema with the Top Gun sequel and made it the highest-grossing film of his career, no other aviation film has been regarded as well as this one. The Top Gun franchise is noted for its renewed interest in aviation in real life as well as a genre, but none of the films or series that have come out since the sequel has received similar responses from audiences or critics.

Tom Cruise’s follow-up to his 1986 epic action film Top Gun was thirty-six years in the making. The original had a lasting legacy with the film being used by the US Navy to recruit potential members to its department. The department reportedly had booths set up in theaters that were screening the film to recruit interested members.

A sequel for the film reportedly began taking shape in 2010 with Tony Scott and Jerry Bruckheimer returning. However, while in development, Scott passed away in 2012 and the film was stalled. Joseph Kosinski was reportedly hired as a director in 2017 after collaborating with Cruise on the sci-fi epic Oblivion.

The film used practical effects wherever possible and reportedly had extensive CGI for the aerial dogfight sequences. However, the cast and crew also filmed many of the aerial shots in specially rigged flights, with the cast reportedly learning how to shoot, edit, and light once they were up in the air. Trained Navy pilots flew along with the actors.

The film was released with amazing reviews and positive responses all around. The film was also the second-highest-grossing film of 2022 with $1.4 billion at the box office. Due to the pandemic, the film was considered to be a game-changer for the theater industry after the pandemic. The only other film that was equally successful was Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Director Steven Spielberg was seen at the Academy Luncheon talking to Tom Cruise and according to The Hollywood Reporter, told him that he had saved cinema. He said,

“You saved Hollywood’s a*s, and you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously, Maverick might have saved the entire theatrical industry.”

While Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick may have ‘saved Hollywood’s a*s’, its effects are yet to reach other films in the similar genre as unfair comparisons seem to be doing the rounds.

Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick had one of the best visual effects for the aerial fight sequences and changed the game when it came to depicting such sequences on film. Blending CGI and practical effects in an era that was oversaturated with VFX-heavy sequences was a masterful move that made the experience all the more real.

While on one hand, the film’s success proved that there was still scope for such a genre to be a trend and be successful, its amazing sequences seem to have worked against other films of the genre. Since Top Gun: Maverick’s release, prominent films and shows such as Devotion and Masters of the Air have been released to less-than-stellar responses.

Devotion, an aerial war film was based on a real incident and starred Top Gun: Maverick’s Glen Powell. It was a box office bomb, earning only $21 million against a $90 million budget. It was released in the same year as Top Gun: Maverick and starred Jonathan Majors, who was still reeling in from the success of Loki.

While Steven Spielberg may have credited Cruise for saving cinema, his own series Masters of the Air drew unfair comparisons to Top Gun after its recent release. Speilberg and Tom Hanks acted as executive producers for the biographical war series set during WWII. An IMDB review read,

“The digital air combat scenes come nowhere near to the battle scenes in either Band of Brothers or The Pacific. I know its digital movie-making is not as realistic as actual on-the-ground or in this case in-the-air filming but it still looked a little too fake for my liking. I hope the characters come a little more to life as the series progresses.” 

Despite Tom Cruise’s push for practical effects over CGI, the efforts seem to have worked against the genre as lesser productions seem to bear the brunt of the standards set by the legendary film.

Top Gun: Maverick is streaming on Amazon Prime Video. Masters of the Air is streaming on Apple TV+. Devotion is streaming on Fubo TV.