In addition to previewing new footage from Mission: Impossible 7 at CinemaCon this week, action star Tom Cruise also made a (virtual) appearance to showcase the first thirteen minutes of Top Gun: Maverick, due out in theaters this fall. Paramount previewed the footage of the sequel, a co-production with Skydance Media, to CinemaCon attendees, along with a brand-new trailer for the much-delayed film, which follows the adventures of a new generation of aspiring naval test pilots.
According to Deadline, the opening sequence sees Cruise’s flight instructor Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he is informed that the famous Top Gun program is being shuttered. In defiance, Maverick fires up a jet at sundown in the middle of a desert, in an attempt to reach Mach 10 — a speed ten times the speed of sound. Seemingly, Maverick doesn’t care what happens to him, or his plane, as long as he gets “one last ride."
The jet takes off, zooming over the head of Ed Harris’s Rear Admiral and nearly obliterating a gate box. Furious, the Admiral stalks to the control room as Maverick soars above him, dubbed the “fastest man alive” by one of the technicians. As his engine begins to fail, Maverick continues to push, soaring past Mach 10 to the sound of cheers from the control room — until he pushes past 10.1, and things quickly crumble into disaster.
After having seemingly exploded in mid-air, audiences see that Maverick is just fine, though slightly dazed as he walks into a country diner to the shock of its patrons, asking where he is. The footage ends there, leaving CinemaCon audiences wondering just what happened to Maverick, and just how the incident will affect him for the remainder of the film.
Top Gun: Maverick also stars Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, and Jon Hamm, and is directed by Joseph Kosinski. Originally slated to premiere in July 2019, the film was delayed by production issues and the COVID-19 pandemic and is now slated to arrive in theaters on November 19.