A Must Watch Behind The Scenes Look At How Top Gun 2’s Flying Sequences Were Shot

Published Dec 18, 2019 9:22 AM EST

Just 48 hours after the second Top Gun: Maverick trailer was released, the film’s production team has posted a behind the scenes look at how they captured the footage that really matters to us aviation lovers—the live-action flight sequences.

This was really smart to do because the trailers have left us a little concerned that this is going to be a computer-generated imagery fest sprinkled with some cockpit and external shots. Now the producers are selling us hard that this will be unlike anything we have seen before in terms of real footage shot inside and outside the actual jets.

Let’s hope they are right. Getting the Pentagon to buy in full-tilt in producing such a film at an absurdly high-access level couldn’t have been an easy sell. Tom Cruise and the sequel to the movie that changed it all for the Navy, and military aviation as a whole, clearly helped sealed the deal. Those circumstances simply are not replicable. Producer Jerry Bruckheimer notes this by stating that the chances are we will never see something like this again.

The fact that the Super Hornet was available and in the fleet was also a big deal, too. It provided the two-seat cockpit needed to pull this off. The F-35 simply could not offer that accommodation nor will the unmanned aircraft of the future. Digital filming technology has also matured to the point that the timing was right as well. The texture of the movie will be different than its predecessor because of it—those cockpit shots in the original were mainly done in a fake cockpit in front of a projection screen in a studio—but considering how unprecedented the footage will be, that’s not a bad thing.

The wildcard remains the external air combat sequences. Incredible amounts of coordination had to occur to capture them in-camera when Top Gun was shot nearly 35 years ago—read all about how this was done in this past feature of ours . Now there are highly specialized aerial video services with modified aircraft that bring the latest digital camera tech to the fight. But you still need real fighter jets burning real gas and doing repeated setups to grab such imagery. This is an expensive and high-risk proposition.

We see a glimpse of a Cinejet L39 filming a Super Hornet going into burner in the behind the scenes video, but it’s unclear if the actual air-to-air engagements will be rendered in CGI or if we will get the real deal. Let’s hope for more of the latter than the former.

Anyway, strap in and check it out for yourself:

Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com

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发布于 2019 年 12 月 18 日上午 9:22（美国东部时间）。

在《壮志凌云：独行侠》第二支预告片发布仅 48 小时后，该片的制作团队就发布了一段幕后花絮，展示了他们如何拍摄对我们这些航空爱好者来说真正重要的镜头——实景飞行片段。

这招确实高明，因为预告片让我们有点担心这会不会是一场充斥着电脑特效、只穿插一些驾驶舱和外部镜头的闹剧。现在制片方极力宣传，这部电影在真实战机内外拍摄的镜头方面，将会与我们以往见过的任何作品都截然不同。

但愿他们是对的。要让五角大楼全力支持拍摄这样一部影片，并且还要授予如此高的权限，绝非易事。汤姆·克鲁斯以及这部改变海军乃至整个军事航空格局的电影续集，显然是促成此事的关键因素。这样的情况恐怕难以复制。制片人杰瑞·布鲁克海默也指出，我们可能再也看不到类似的情况了。

超级大黄蜂战机能够服役并投入使用，这本身也是一大优势。它提供了完成这项任务所需的双座驾驶舱。F-35战机无法提供这种配置，未来的无人机也无法做到。数字拍摄技术也已发展成熟，时机恰到好处。因此，这部电影的质感将与前作有所不同——原版中的驾驶舱镜头主要是在摄影棚的投影屏幕前搭建的模拟驾驶舱中拍摄的——但考虑到这些镜头的史无前例，这并非坏事。

最大的变数依然是外部空战场景。近35年前拍摄《壮志凌云》时，为了捕捉这些镜头，需要进行大量的协调工作——我们之前的专题报道详细介绍了当时的拍摄过程。如今，一些高度专业化的航拍服务公司使用改装飞机，将最新的数字摄像技术应用于实战拍摄。但要捕捉到这样的画面，仍然需要真正的战斗机燃烧真正的燃料，并反复进行各种拍摄设置。这是一项成本高昂且风险极大的工作。

在幕后花絮视频中，我们看到一架Cinejet L39摄影机正在拍摄一架超级大黄蜂战斗机启动燃烧室的画面，但目前尚不清楚实际的空战场景是会用电脑特效制作，还是会采用实拍。我们希望后者比前者更多一些。

总之，系好安全带，自己去看看吧：

联系作者：Tyler@thedrive.com

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