Top Gun: Maverick star ‘strapped to a chair, blindfolded and submerged under water’

Actors were put through months of terrifying training in order to pilot US fighter jets in Top Gun: Maverick. 

Speaking to Supercar Blondie, Miles Teller, who stars alongside Hollywood icon Tom Cruise in the film, said he was strapped to a chair, blindfolded and submerged under water as part of a naval aviator survival course needed to fly fighter jets in the new movie.

“So you’re strapped to the chair, blindfolded, under water and they flip you upside down very slowly and you have to get out,” he said.

CHECK OUT OUR INTERVIEW WITH THE TOP GUN: MAVERICK CAST

“It’s not comfortable, it was pretty intense, but I think once we got through that we felt like we’d earned our stripes a little bit and were worthy of flying.” 

Ahead of Top Gun 2’s release on May 27, Teller told Supercar Blondie the training was absolutely necessary because he would get up to more than eight g-forces, close to nine when they were flying the F18.

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Eight or nine g-forces is more than double what a regular person will ever feel. 

Describing what the intense g-forces felt like, fighter pilot Hasard Lee told Sandboxx it pulled the blood out of your head and down your body.

He said it led to vision loss and even passing out so pilots needed to train extensively to prepare for it.

For most people, he said the peak g-force they would ever feel was on a roller coaster which can get up to 3 or 4g.

He said it would pin someone’s head back and their arms by their side. 

Actor Jon Hamm also spoke to Supercar Blondie about his role as a vice admiral named Cyclone in the film. 

Unlike Teller, Hamm’s character did not pilot some of the world’s most powerful fighter jets. 

“I felt very comfortable in my capacity to keep my feet on the ground,” he said. 

“I’ve gained a lot of wisdom in my 51 years on the planet and much of that has said to stay away from pulling multiple g-forces.” 

READ MORE: Top Gun: Maverick jet looked so real China ‘used a satellite to spy on it’

Some 35 years after Tom Cruise first starred in 1986 original, Top Gun: Maverick will be released on May 27.

Skydance Media’s description of the film reads “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”.

“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,” it said.