tom cruise singing in top gun

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Every song on the top gun soundtrack.

The Top Gun soundtrack is one of the best-selling soundtracks of all time and is loaded with cheesy pop hits. Here's every song on the album.

The Top Gun soundtrack has one of the cheesiest, and greatest, selection of songs for any blockbuster ever made - here's every song found on the soundtrack. Top Gun is arguably the film that turned Tom Cruise into a movie star, and he was backed by a great cast that included Kelly McGillis, Anthony Edwards and Val Kilmer ( Batman Forever ). Directors like John Carpenter and David Cronenberg turned down the chance to direct until Tony Scott signed on. While the film received mostly negative reviews upon release, audiences flocked to it for the central love story, the action sequences and Scott's flair for visuals.

Top Gun has remained a classic for being a cheesy good time and has inspired numerous parodies over the years, such as Charlie Sheen's Hot Shots! Despite the success of the film, it's taken over 30 years for a sequel to come together. After years trapped in development hell Top Gun: Maverick will finally land in cinemas June 2020, with Joseph Kosinski ( Tron: Legacy ) directing. Cruise's regular collaborator Christopher McQuarrie ( Mission: Impossible - Fallout ) also co-wrote the screenplay for Maverick .

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There are a lot of iconic things about Top Gun , from the catchphrases to the aviator shades, but the movie's soundtrack is another element that made it a giant hit. The soundtrack is filled with catchy power ballads, with Giorgio "Father of Disco" Moroder composing the music for some of the album's biggest tracks. The Top Gun soundtrack song list is as follows:

1. Danger Zone (Kenny Loggins)

2. Mighty Wings (Cheap Trick)

3. Playing with the Boys (Kenny Loggins)

4. Lead Me On (Teena Marie)

5. Take My Breath Away (Berlin)

6. Hot Summer Nights (Miami Sound Machine)

7. Heaven in Your Eyes (Loverboy)

8. Through the Fire (Larry Greene)

9. Destination Unknown (Marietta)

10. Top Gun Anthem" (Harold Faltermeyer/Steve Stevens)

Top Gun soon became the best selling soundtrack of 1986, with "Take My Breath Away" and "Danger Zone" becoming chart-topping hits. "Take My Breath Away" would go on to win the Academy Award for Best Original Song and is still regarded as a classic love song. "Danger Zone" would quickly become the song everyone associated with Top Gun , however, though Kenny Loggins wasn't the first choice to sing it. Toto and REO Speedwagon were approached first before Loggins recorded it.

Bryan Adams was also invited to be part of the Top Gun soundtrack but would turn it down because he felt the movie glorified war. Later re-releases of the soundtrack would expand on the original song list; the 1999 Special Expanded Edition added tracks like "Great Balls Of Fire" and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" while the 2006 Deluxe Edition included bonus songs like Mr. Mister's "Broken Wings" and "The Power Of Love."

The Top Gun soundtrack is like a time machine back to the 1980s, and while not every song is a classic, the album is still a lot of fun. The soundtrack for Top Gun: Maverick will have a hard time topping it, though "Danger Zone" will at least be coming back.

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Top Gun Soundtrack [ 1986 ]

About the soundtrack.

Top Gun (1986) is an action-packed military drama directed by Tony Scott and starring Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, and Kelly McGillis. The movie follows the story of Maverick, a fighter pilot whose reckless attitude gets him reassigned to Top Gun - the Navy's premier school for elite fighter pilots. Maverick must face off against his rival Iceman while also grappling with his inner demons. As he deals with personal issues such as insecurity, regret, and ambition, he begins to develop a strong friendship with fellow pilot Goose and finds himself increasingly attracted to single mother Charlie Blackwood. Ultimately, Maverick learns that it takes more than just raw skill to be successful in the Air Force. With its high-octane aerial sequences and heartwarming character development, Top Gun stands out as one of the most beloved films of all time. "Top Gun" (1986) was a massive success both critically and commercially. It grossed over $356 million at the global box office, becoming the highest-grossing movie of 1986 worldwide. The film also received positive reviews from critics, praising its action sequences combined with a great soundtrack. Over the years, it has become one of the most iconic films of all time and is considered as one of the best action movies ever made. The soundtrack of Top Gun (1986) is timeless and unforgettable. Composed by the legendary Harold Faltermeyer, it contains memorable anthems such as Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone", “Take My Breath Away” from Berlin, and “Playing With The Boys” from Kenny Loggins. These songs perfectly capture the spirit and atmosphere of the film and make for a great workout playlist to this day. Additionally, the soundtrack also features romantic ballads such as Cheaptrick's "Mighty Wings" that add a layer of emotion to the story. With its perfect blend of rock and pop, Top Gun remains one of cinema's most iconic soundtracks.

List of Songs

Top Gun Anthem (The Intro)

Harold Faltermeyer

Opening Scene. Played mutilple times in the movie.

Danger Zone

Kenny Loggins

Aircrafts jetting off from the flight deck of an aircraft carrier. Later in the movie, Maverick can be seen riding his motorbike alongside these planes as they take to the sky.

Teena Marie

Maverick and Goose attend the party. Goose tells him the Iceman is the best pilot. Iceman and Maverick face off next to the bar. Maverick spots Charlie across the party.

Hot Summer Nights

The Miami Sound Machine

As Maverick attempts to flirt Charlie at the bar, she instead leaves with her male companion.

Playing With the Boys

Plays during the volleyball scene.

Take My Breath Away

Maverick rides his motorbike to Charlie's house for their date. He pulled into the driveway and she shouted from inside, beckoning him to come in through the back door.

(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay

Otis Redding

When Maverick is talking to Charlie about song his mom used to listen to for hours

Heaven In Your Eyes

Goose waits for Carole and Bradley at the airport with Maverick.

Great Balls Of Fire

Jack Hammer and Otis Blackwell

When Maverick and Goose are playing piano in the restaurant with Goose's Family and Charlie.

Radar Radio

Giorgio Moroder

Plays briefly on the jukebox while Maverick drinks a beer at the bar.

Top Gun Anthem

Harold Faltermeyer and Steve Stevens

Add scene description

You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling

The Righteous Brothers

When Maverick sings the music to Charlie in the bay and while the movie credits.

Mighty Wings

Cheap Trick

Second song in end credits

Trailer Songs

Oh no! No trailer songs have been added yet. Add them by logging in.

Shirley (GUEST)

all I want is nothing more then you to hear you knocking at my door

top gun song all i want is nothing more then you knocking at my door

4 years ago

What is the song in the back ground when they are on the deck

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35 Years On, Why I've Never Lost That Loving Feeling For 'Top Gun'

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that the film I’d been most looking forward to seeing on a big screen post-vax was the extraordinarily belated sequel “ Top Gun: Maverick ,” which after three decades of anticipation and two years of release date delays had finally been scheduled to open this coming Fourth of July weekend. After all, what could be a more symbolically appropriate way to rally back from quarantine than an Independence Day IMAX screening of a gaudy, all-American extravaganza that takes place in an alternate universe where the Navy lets 58-year-old men fly fighter jets? Alas, citing concerns with international vaccine rollouts, Paramount moved the movie once again, this time to the week before Thanksgiving — as if anyone wants to watch people play beach volleyball in November.

In the meantime we’ll have to make do with the original, I guess. That’s right, “Top Gun” is roaring back to your local AMC theaters this weekend to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the film’s release, as well as something called “ Top Gun Day ,” which is one of those meaningless memetic holidays people invent as an excuse to talk about stuff they like on the internet. (Hilariously enough, “Top Gun Day” falls a few days before the film’s actual May 16 release date because the guys who came up with it made a typo on their merchandise designs.) Remastered in Dolby Vision and Atmos for this reissue, the 1986 movie was also recently made available in a new 4K UltraHD Blu-ray edition, which of course I ran out and bought right away because I find “Top Gun” to be politically repellant, logically incomprehensible and aesthetically irresistible. It’s a big, dumb movie that was probably bad for the world, and it’s also totally awesome.

Released six months after Rocky Balboa won the Cold War by defeating Ivan Drago in the ring, “Top Gun” offered an even more ecstatic escape into triumphalist, Reagan-era revisionism, removing all the blood, death and despair from combat — replaced by backlit beefcake shots and rah-rah aspirational recruiting mottos about being the best of the best. These clean-cut, freshly scrubbed flyboys weren’t haunted war criminals like John Rambo , they’re upbeat athletes aspiring to excellence. “Top Gun” might be framed around the military, but it’s a sports movie through and through. The screenwriters even invented a fake trophy competition and added a locker room to the Navy’s elite Fighter Weapons School as a way of reassuring audiences that all this war stuff is just fun and games.

Producers Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer were hot off of “Flashdance” and “Beverly Hills Cop,” but their stroke of genius here was hiring brash British ad man Tony Scott to direct. A Royal College of Art graduate who’d crashed and burned in Hollywood a few years earlier with his inscrutably esoteric lesbian vampire movie “The Hunger,” Scott scored the “Top Gun” gig thanks to a car commercial he’d helmed in which a jet plane races a Saab. The kind of blustery, larger-than-life figure one rarely finds in the film industry anymore, Tony Scott was almost always attired in short shorts and a safari vest, puffing on a cigar beneath an omnipresent pink baseball cap. Few filmmakers from the era were so adept at exulting in their own ridiculousness, which made him the ideal director for “Top Gun.”

Scott supposedly threw a book of Bruce Weber photographs onto Bruckheimer’s desk and announced that’s what the movie was going to look like. To call “Top Gun” over-stylized would be an egregious understatement, as every angle is finessed with smoke machines and soft gel lights to a degree of giddy absurdity. Witness instructor Kelly McGillis’ entrance into the cadets’ class, filmed low and from behind to show off her seamed stockings and stiletto pumps. The Navy made their actual academy classrooms available for filming, but of course, Scott found them dreadfully boring and instead staged the lessons in a sunlit hangar in front of an F-15 and a gargantuan American flag. (I love the lonely chalkboard shunted off to the side.) Also, her lipstick.

Every scene of “Top Gun” is shot and cut like a commercial — all shimmering sunsets and golden magic hours with cool motorcycles and vintage cars. People wear heavy leather bomber jackets in the San Diego summer simply because they look so great in them. Everyone in this movie is always glistening for some reason, and any given frame could be put on a poster. Characters speak almost exclusively in catch-phrases and slogans they repeat back to each other later for applause cues and the soundtrack is wall-to-wall chart toppers and classic oldies. (Note the mercenary brilliance of the monologue during which Maverick talks about his mother’s favorite song, never mentioning the title nor the artist to give the filmmakers maximum leeway when negotiating the movie's music rights.) “Top Gun” looks and sounds like the longest advertisement you’ve ever seen, but what exactly is it supposed to be selling?

The Navy famously set up recruiting tables in theater lobbies, no doubt enlisting an entire generation of cadets disappointed to discover that their classes were taught indoors and never by Kelly McGillis. It’s an aesthetically jingoistic film according to the flattering photography of flags and uniforms, with still unparalleled aerial footage of these majestic silver phallic symbols whizzing around at the speed of sound. Yet the screenplay is clear as mud when it comes to cryptically exonerating Maverick’s deceased dad for I think maybe bombing Cambodia, and nobody’s ever been really sure if it ends with our boys starting World War III. “Top Gun” clearly hasn’t the slightest interest in — nor any ideas about — the problematic geopolitics it keeps stumbling over, because the movie is really just selling swagger, sunglasses and speed. Well, all those things and also Tom Cruise, who in the span of these 109 minutes went from a promising young dork dancing in his underwear in “Risky Business” to an instant American icon.

I’ve always considered Cruise one of our most underrated actors, but between us, he’s not very good in “Top Gun.” He still hadn’t learned how to modulate his voice yet and falls back on that jerky smirk far too often, especially in the chemistry-free scenes he spends sexually harassing Kelly McGillis. Of course, none of this matters because Scott and cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball frame and light Tom Cruise as a modern-day deity, embodying all the cocky aspirations of America’s recently restored confidence whenever he's putting on a pair of aviators. His physicality is extraordinary, a diminutive god among taller, lesser men. Characters are constantly telling Maverick how amazing he is, and even when Maverick isn’t in a scene people only talk about Maverick. I saw “Top Gun” in the theater when I was 11 years old — one of the neighborhood kids and I were thwarted in our efforts to sneak into Sylvester Stallone’s grisly vigilante cop movie “Cobra” so we had to settle for this PG alternative — and even though the film hadn’t been our first choice for that particular afternoon, when it was over we both wanted to be Maverick.

“Top Gun” didn’t have a massive opening the way blockbusters do today, and it actually got clobbered that Memorial Day weekend by competitors “Cobra” and “Poltergeist II: The Other Side.” But the movie stuck around all summer, thanks to repeat viewings and rapturous word of mouth, not to mention a smash soundtrack album that kept cranking out hits. The film’s Oscar-winning love theme “ Take My Breath Away ” remains composer Giorgio Moroder's towering masterpiece, with Berlin vocalist Terri Nunn cooing over billowy synth bubbles that make the world feel like it’s moving in dreamy slow-motion every time you hear it. 1980s soundtrack staple Kenny Loggins was a last-minute replacement for the group Toto on the Moroder-penned kickoff track “ Danger Zone ,” and the singer later confessed that his bizarre enunciation of the title’s two words was a feeble attempt to mimic the inimitable accent of his musical hero, Tina Turner. (This is one of those things that once you notice, you will never be able to unhear it. You're welcome.) Even Harold Faltermeyer’s instrumental “ Top Gun Anthem ” got radio airplay, as this summer movie lingered in the box office top 10 until almost Thanksgiving, when it finally began to fade from theaters, presumably because nobody wants to watch people play beach volleyball in November.

Ah yes, about that volleyball scene. Every generation thinks they’re the first to discover the hilarious homoeroticism of “Top Gun,” a subject dissected at amusing length by Quentin Tarantino in the otherwise forgotten 1994 rom-com “Sleep With Me.” It’s no stretch to say that Cruise has considerably less chemistry with Kelly McGillis than he does with flyboy rival Val Kilmer, the two literally snapping at each other half-naked in their fictitious locker room. (When I spoke to Kilmer before the Boston Film Festival screening of "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang" back in 2005, he laughed and acknowledged "it was recently pointed out to me that I'm really f---ing gay in that movie." Then he jokingly accused Tom Cruise of intentionally sabotaging all the volleyball shots in which Val looked hotter.) During an amusing archival interview during one of the new Blu-ray’s generous supplements, Scott admits he “had no vision” for the volleyball game, which was requested by the producers to once again emphasize that this was a sports movie and not a war film. So Scott shrugged and “slicked the boys up with baby oil "and "shot it like a softcore porno.”

None of this went unremarked upon at the time. Critic J. Hoberman’s Village Voice review was titled “Phallus in Wonderland,” and he drew angry letters from regular readers after writing, “the screen is so packed with streamlined planes and heat-seeking missiles, wagging forefingers and upright thumbs that, had Freud lived to see it, he might be excused for thinking ‘Top Gun’ an avant-garde representation of Saturday night at the Saint Marks Baths.” (Well, the movie was designed to look like a book of Bruce Weber photographs, after all.) At an early screening for midwestern exhibitors, it was sheepishly suggested that maybe they should beef up the hetero love story a little bit?

So two new scenes were hastily shot scant days before the release, while the film was already being mixed. In that bit with Maverick and McGillis in the elevator, the actress is wearing a baseball cap because it was now months later and her hair no longer matched the character’s. Meanwhile, Cruise’s coiffure is all slicked down and soaking wet because by then he was busy shooting Scorsese’s “The Color of Money,” for which he’d grown out a formidable pompadour. Scott was savvy enough to know we’d never stop to ask why Maverick might be stepping into a crowded elevator after just getting out of the shower, much as he knew we wouldn’t care about these characters’ mismatched haircuts and bad wigs during their later sex scene that, to preserve a PG rating, was restricted to the memorably acrobatic intertwining of backlit tongues. (“We only had time to set up one light,” cinematographer Jeffrey Kimball sighs defensively on the DVD.)

Ever-underrated, Tony Scott went on to helm meathead masterpieces like “The Last Boy Scout,” “True Romance,” “Crimson Tide” and his fantastic final film, “Unstoppable.” Scott was for so long a lowbrow pariah in critical circles, it’s been enormously gratifying in recent years to watch young writers latching onto his work, citing Scott’s formal innovations as the trailblazer in a school that’s come to be called “vulgar auteurism.” His big brother Ridley might have been more respectable and won Oscars for his visionary science-fiction pictures and humorless historical epics, but I always preferred Tony’s lowbrow laughs and his sense of what fun, silly things these big blockbusters could be. (To my knowledge, he's still the only director who has his entire filmography engraved upon his headstone .)

One of my dearest moviegoing memories was watching “Top Gun” at the Somerville Theatre’s 70mm festival back in 2017 , with a six-track magnetic soundtrack that shook the bloody walls and a loud, rowdy crowd that was the exact, perfect level of drunk for the occasion. Everybody was halfway between mocking the movie and adoring it — applauding every iconically absurd line. Seen up close and so massively large, there’s no mistaking “Top Gun” is the work of a disgruntled British art student having a bit of a laugh about all this admittedly awesome American nonsense. What makes the film so much fun is that you’re invited to share it with him.

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Sean Burns Film Critic Sean Burns is a film critic for The ARTery.

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Tom Cruise Cries in Lady Gaga’s ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Music Video for ‘Hold My Hand’ Ballad

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The loss of Goose (Anthony Edwards) still haunts the “Top Gun” films, despite Pete “Maverick” Mitchell ( Tom Cruise ) flying high once more.

Oscar winner Lady Gaga announced original song “Hold My Hand” for “ Top Gun: Maverick ,” the sequel to the hit 1986 film, in theaters May 27. The “House of Gucci” star released the emotional music video for the ballad on May 6, ahead of the “Top Gun: Maverick” premiere at Cannes in a few weeks.

Director Joseph Kosinski filmed Gaga belting the moving single while at an airfield in the desert. Flashbacks to the original film, helmed by Tony Scott, revisit Goose’s heartbreaking death as Cruise’s Maverick holds him. The follow-up film is set 30 years after the original, with Maverick now training a detachment of TOPGUN graduates, including Goose’s son Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller) aka Rooster, for a dangerous, specialized mission.

The lyrics for “Hold My Hand” include: “I see that you’re bleeding / You don’t need to show me again. But if you decide to, I’ll ride in this life with you / I won’t let go ’til the end.”

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“When I wrote this song for ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ I didn’t even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film’s heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we’ve been living in,” Gaga, who also contributed to the “Top Gun: Maverick” score along with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer, Lorne Balfe, and Harold Faltermeyer, tweeted .

The “A Star Is Born” Academy Award winner continued, “I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life’s heroes…This song is a love letter to the world during and after a very hard time.”

Lead star Cruise praised Gaga’s dedication to the film while on “ The Late Late Show ,” saying that the song “opened up the whole movie” and grounded the “emotional core” of the epic film.

“The song she’d written just fell right in and became, really, the underlying score and the heartbeat of our film,” Cruise said.

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Top Gun: Maverick

After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ... Read all After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it. After thirty years, Maverick is still pushing the envelope as a top naval aviator, but must confront ghosts of his past when he leads TOP GUN's elite graduates on a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those chosen to fly it.

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• 107 wins & 234 nominations total

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• Trivia According to Miles Teller , the cast got to choose their own call signs. He chose "Rooster" because it was in the same family as "Goose."
• Goofs At 1h12'10" Coyote is in G-LOC, releases the stick and his aircraft falls towards the ground. Super-hornet are equipped with auto GCAS (automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System), which would react to the situation and take control to climb and level at a safe altitude with no obstacles.

Rear Admiral : Maverick. Thirty-plus years of service. Combat medals. Citations. Only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last 40 years.

[Cain looks through pages of Maverick's records]

Rear Admiral : 'Distinguished.' 'Distinguished.' 'Distinguished.' Yet you can't get a promotion, you won't retire, and despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star admiral by now, if not a senator. Yet here you are: Captain. Why is that?

Maverick : It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

Rear Admiral : This isn't a joke. I asked you a question.

Maverick : I'm where I belong, sir.

Rear Admiral : Well, the navy doesn't see it that way. Not anymore.

Rear Admiral : These planes you've been testing, Captain, one day, sooner or later, they won't need pilots at all. Pilots that need to sleep, eat, take a piss. Pilots that disobey orders. All you did was buy some time for those men out there. The future is coming, and you're not in it.

[Cain faces the officer by the door]

Rear Admiral : Escort this man off the base. Take him to his quarters. Wait with him while he packs his gear. I want him on the road to North Island within the hour.

[surprised look on Maverick's face]

Maverick : North Island, sir?

Rear Admiral : Call came in with impeccable timing, right as I was driving here to ground your ass once and for all. It galls me to say it, but... for reasons known only to the Almighty and your guardian angel, you've been called back to Top Gun.

Maverick : Sir?

Rear Admiral : You are dismissed, Captain.

[Maverick proceeds to leave Cain's office]

Rear Admiral : The end is inevitable, Maverick. Your kind is headed for extinction.

[Maverick turns around]

Maverick : Maybe so, sir. But not today.

• Crazy credits "Top Gun 001: Tom Cruise" is listed among the other pilots who worked on the film.
• Connections Featured in Conan: Tom Cruise (2019)
• Soundtracks Danger Zone From Top Gun (1986) Original Soundtrack Written by Giorgio Moroder & Tom Whitlock Performed by Kenny Loggins Courtesy of Columbia Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment

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• May 27, 2022 (United States)
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• May 29, 2022
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Watch Tom Cruise and James Corden have 'Top Gun' sing-along on musical cruise

"Late Late Show" host James Corden is certainly keeping London hopping this week. He's already performed "Mary Poppins" on the streets with Ben Kingsley , and on Wednesday night he decided to take a more leisurely trip down a different thoroughfare: down the Thames.

Well, maybe not so leisurely: After all, his companion for the boat ride was none other than Tom Cruise!

It was all a surprise to the "Mummy" star, who was led to a riverboat bedecked in giant posters of his and Corden's heads, with a sign reading "Tom's Cruise" — which of course was sailing down the river Thames Corden.

Wordplay! Get it? Still, Cruise seemed more bemused than anything else as Corden walked him through the interior, where the rooms were all named after Cruise's big films. There was a "You Can't Handle the Truth" booth from "A Few Good Men," and a Corden'ed-off area out on deck for the interview later.

"I'm not going to lie. I'm a little nervous about this," said Cruise, standing next to "The Last Samurai" room. Then the sign fell off, revealing that it was actually the restroom.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BU-L3RngI2A

But that was only the beginning, as they welcomed passengers on board for a "Risky Business" contest, after which Cruise got the party started by mixing lots of colorful drinks a la "Cocktail."

"This is the best idea you've ever had," Cruise eventually told Corden, which is saying something: In 2016 the pair re-created Corden's entire career in less than 10 minutes on the show .

Alas, Corden was feeling a little down in the dumps: Nobody wanted to visit his Corden'ed-off area upstairs for an interview. Fortunately, Cruise had just the solution: Navy whites for them both and a duet of the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling" — just as Cruise and co. sang in "Top Gun"!

"There is no Maverick without Goose!" said Cruise, pointing to Corden. "Goose!"

"Although Goose does die halfway through the film," noted Corden.

Well, it was good while it lasted!

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Tom Cruise revisits Goose's Top Gun death in Lady Gaga's 'Hold My Hand' music video

Anthony Edwards' emotional death replays in Cruise's memory in the music video for Gaga's Top Gun: Maverick soundtrack song.

Get ready to cry over Goose's death all over again — this time as Tom Cruise revisits classic Top Gun movie moments from the 1986 film in Lady Gaga 's new "Hold My Hand" music video.

The clip, directed by Top Gun: Maverick helmer Joseph Kosinski, follows Gaga as she sings at an airfield in the middle of the desert, while flashes of Cruise — who reprises his role in the 2022 sequel as Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchel — show the actor reminiscing on key moments from the Tony Scott-directed original. One moment sees Cruise staring at photos from his past before cutting to a shot of him holding Goose ( Anthony Edwards ) in the ocean as the character dies.

Cruise has said that Gaga's work on the film was key to highlighting the sequel's heart.

"There was a sound we were looking for.... she presented her song to us and it just opened up the whole movie," he said on The Late Late Show . "It opened those doors to the emotional core of the film that we had. That moment, things just came together in such a beautiful way. The song she'd written just fell right in and became, really, the underlying score and the heartbeat of our film."

Gaga previously said that the song was a "love letter to the world" amid difficult times.

"When I wrote this song for Top Gun: Maverick , I didn't even realize the multiple layers it spanned across the film's heart, my own psyche, and the nature of the world we've been living in," she wrote on Instagram upon announcing the track. "I've been working on it for years, perfecting it, trying to make it ours. I wanted to make music into a song where we share our deep need to both be understood and try to understand each other — a longing to be close when we feel so far away and an ability to celebrate life's heroes."

In addition to penning "Hold My Hand" as an original song for the film, Gaga also contributed to the Top Gun: Maverick score with Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer , Lorne Balfe, and Harold Faltermeyer, who worked on the original Top Gun soundtrack in 1986.

Gaga also told EW that she's considering her next musical moves as a solo act in a November 2021 interview amid the promotional cycle for her second jazz album with Tony Bennett, Love for Sale .

"There's always music in my heart, in the works. It's just about [asking], 'What will it be?'" she explained when asked about releasing new pop music for the first time since unveiling her Grammy-winning 2020 album Chromatica . "I'm not ready to answer that yet. But what I will say is that... I'm always thinking about music. It just comes out in different forms."

Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters on May 27. Watch Gaga's "Hold My Hand" music video above.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist , featuring awards analysis, exclusive interviews, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's movies and performances.

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• Lady Gaga teases new Top Gun: Maverick song 'Hold My Hand' as 'a love letter to the world'
• Lady Gaga 'thinking' about next music moves: 'There's always music in my heart, in the works
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TV & Film

When Tom Cruise sang on live TV and he was amazing

5 August 2022, 15:47

By Tom Eames

Tom Cruise is one of the world's greatest film stars, and it turns out he's a fantastic live performer too.

In 2015, the Top Gun: Maverick actor appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in the States, and shocked the audience with his impressive command of the stage.

• Simon Cowell finally sang on the Got Talent stage and he was incredible
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OK, he wasn't actually singing, but rather taking part in the Lip Sync Battle segment of the show, miming along with The Weeknd's 'Can't Feel My Face', but he was particularly great at it.

Watch the clip below:

Tom Cruise, Jimmy Fallon do lip sync battle | 'Can’t Feel My Face' & 'That Lovin Feelin'

Tom impressed the audience and Jimmy with his performance, which he followed up by lip-syncing to Meat Loaf 's 'Paradise by the Dashboard Light'.

Even The Weeknd himself was amazed, tweeting about the show afterwards:

can't believe @TomCruise is singing my song. @jimmyfallon *** you're the MAN for this one. #tomcruisetomcruise ||| https://t.co/xVFZSkYCCx — The Weeknd (@theweeknd) July 28, 2015

But it's not like Tom can't sing at all. He's belted out the likes of 'Great Balls of Fire' in Top Gun , 'Free Fallin'' in Jerry Maguire and 'Addicted to Love' in Cocktail .

And of course, in 2012, he starred as stadium rock legend Stacy Jaxx in the musical Rock of Ages , where he convincingly performed various '80s anthems like 'Wanted Dead or Alive' and 'Pour Some Sugar on Me'.

Tom Cruise has just experienced the most successful film of his career, with Top Gun: Maverick grossing over $1.3 billion at the worldwide box office.

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Tom Cruise Helped OneRepublic Score Its Latest Hit (Yes, For Real)

The band's "I Ain't Worried" has climbed to No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100, partially thanks to fans creating and sharing their own edits of Miles Teller's "Rooster wiggle" on TikTok.

By Glenn Rowley

Glenn Rowley

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Two years ago, Tom Cruise asked Ryan Tedder a simple question over Zoom: “What do you hear?” Having been connected through a mutual collaborator at Paramount, the actor was showing the veteran producer and OneRepublic frontman a rough cut of the dogfight football scene from Top Gun: Maverick , and Tedder could imagine quite the sonic blend. “I said, ‘I hear a little Beach Boys… Gorillaz… and this kind of whistle thing,’ ” Tedder recalls.

Taking cues from those references, as well as other acts like Foster the People, Tedder and his bandmate Brent Kutzle turned the whistling melody in his head into OneRepublic’s latest single, “I Ain’t Worried.” The shuffling groove — which appears halfway through the blockbuster sequel that was 36 years in the making and premiered in May — has since scored the band its biggest hit in nearly a decade.

With the track gaining traction on TikTok following its May release, “I Ain’t Worried” has climbed to No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100 (chart dated July 30), partially thanks to fans creating and sharing their own edits of Miles Teller’s shirtless — and now-viral — “Rooster wiggle” from the scene during which the song plays. While the “Rooster wiggle” tag has been viewed over 1.5 billion times on TikTok, “I Ain’t Worried” has garnered over 65.5 million on-demand official U.S. streams, according to Luminate.

Trending on Billboard

Much like Kenny Loggins’ “Playing With the Boys” did during the classic beach-volleyball scene in the 1986 original film, “I Ain’t Worried” offers viewers a much-needed exhale amid the life-or-death stakes and high-flying action central to the plot. “The beauty of it was that I wasn’t trying to write some huge global record — it’s not following any pop math,” says Tedder. “It wasn’t written to sound obvious.” To Cruise, however, the song’s potential was always clear. His one piece of feedback when Tedder turned it in: “I think it’s a bull’s-eye.”

This story originally appeared in the Aug. 6, 2022, issue of Billboard.

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Tom Cruise is back in 'Top Gun: Maverick'

Three Decades after the original "Top Gun", Tom Cruise returns to lead a fresh squadron of Navy fighter pilots in "Top Gun: Maverick."

MILES PARKS, HOST:

It's been 36 years since Tom Cruise first took to the skies as Pete Mitchell with the call sign Maverick, the hotshot jet fighter pilot in "Top Gun."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOP GUN")

TOM CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) I feel the need.

TOM CRUISE AND ANTHONY EDWARDS: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Lieutenant Nick "Goose" Bradshaw) The need for speed.

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) Ow (ph).

PARKS: Now Cruise is back in the cockpit in "Top Gun: Maverick." And the sequel is having a near-record Memorial Day weekend. Critic Bob Mondello says it's the same but sharper.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: The opening credits sequence is identical, almost shot for shot, as if to reassure audiences the filmmakers haven't forgotten what worked the first time - airmen readying sleek jet fighters in predawn light on the deck of an aircraft carrier, planes silhouetted against a sky just starting to glow orange as the sun burns off the mist, then the whine of jet engines as one plane fires up, then another and another and a roar as each one rockets into what Kenny Loggins is about to remind us is the danger zone.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANGER ZONE")

KENNY LOGGINS: (Singing) Revving up your engine, listen to her howling roar.

MONDELLO: Having seen the original "Top Gun," what about the recruitment ads modeled on it after the 1986 Navy saw a 500% spike in enlistees wanting to be aviators?

LOGGINS: (Singing) Highway to the danger zone.

MONDELLO: We are in the zone here, going straight to shots of a still seriously fit, almost 60-year-old Tom Cruise revving up his Kawasaki Ninja, roaring down a highway to what looks like a gigantic arrowhead that he's supposed to fly to Mach 9. But, I mean, seriously, 9 with Ed Harris about to shut down the test? How about 10? How about 10.2, just so they'll have something to talk about when he's called on the carpet?

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TOP GUN: MAVERICK")

ED HARRIS: (As Rear Admiral Chester "Hammer" Cain) Thirty-plus years of service, combat medals, citations, only man to shoot down three enemy planes in the last 40 years, yet you can't get a promotion. You won't retire. Despite your best efforts, you refuse to die. You should be at least a two-star admiral by now, yet here you are, Captain. Why is that?

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) It's one of life's mysteries, sir.

MONDELLO: Maverick gets assigned to train new blood in the Top Gun pilot program, much to the annoyance of Jon Hamm, his immediate superior.

JON HAMM: (As Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson) I have everything I need to have you court martialed and dishonorably discharged.

MONDELLO: Yeah, well, Maverick has a guardian angel. His rival ace, Iceman, is now an admiral, still played by Val Kilmer, whose offscreen battle with throat cancer brings significant resonance when he shows up here. There is a mission. Call it impossible, if you must. Certainly, it's a risky business flying 30 feet off the ground at 500 miles an hour between cliffs. You get the impression Cruise could do this with eyes wide shut, but they've given him a few good men to work with...

GLEN POWELL: (As Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin) What do we have here?

MONDELLO: ...And one good woman...

MONICA BARBARO: (As Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace) Fellas, this here's Bagman.

POWELL: (As Lieutenant Jake "Hangman" Seresin) Hangman.

BARBARO: (As Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace) Whatever.

MONDELLO: ...All with descriptive call signs they've earned in flight.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Where's he going?

BARBARO: (As Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace) That's why we call him Hangman. He'll always hang you out to dry.

MONDELLO: Others include...

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) Rooster.

MILES TELLER: (As Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw) Phoenix.

BARBARO: (As Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace) We've got to move, Coyote.

GREG TARZAN DAVIS: (As Lieutenant Javy "Coyote" Machado) Who are your friends?

JAY ELLIS: (As Lieutenant Reuben "Payback" Fitch) Payback.

DANNY RAMIREZ: (As Lieutenant Mickey "Fanboy" Garcia) Fanboy.

BARBARO: (As Lieutenant Natasha "Phoenix" Trace) What do they call you?

LEWIS PULLMAN: (As Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Floyd) Bob.

ELLIS: (As Lieutenant Reuben "Payback" Fitch) No, your call sign.

PULLMAN: (As Lieutenant Robert "Bob" Floyd) Bob.

MONDELLO: OK, from my perspective, that's a cheap joke - just saying. Director Joseph Kosinski has clearly studied what the original "Top Gun" did, but he has a far better script to work with - not more plausible, exactly, but one that puts an adult Cruise in charge of all that free-range testosterone the film's unleashing that lets it channel emotions the first one couldn't, as when Maverick tells Rooster, the grown-up son of his wingman, Goose, who died all those years ago, to follow his instincts.

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) You think up there, you're dead. Believe me.

TELLER: (As Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw) My dad believed in you. I'm not going to make the same mistake.

MONDELLO: Rooster is played by Miles Teller with a mustache nearly as big as the chip on his shoulder and ripped abs that he and his fellow airmen display in team-building beach football rather than beach volleyball this time, all of which is designed to help the film barrel right past your plot objections before they quite have time to form in nerve centers overstimulated...

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) What the hell?

MONDELLO: ...By vertigo-inducing...

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) Good morning, aviators.

MONDELLO: ...Aspect-ratio exploding...

CRUISE: (As Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell) This is your captain speaking.

MONDELLO: ...IMAX flight sequences. Cruise insisted that these be filmed with the actors actually in flight, and they are nerve-scrambling in ways digital trickery on screen just isn't. I'm not going to say "Top Gun: Maverick" takes my breath away, exactly, but it's one hell of a ride. I'm Bob Mondello.

LOGGINS: (Singing) Revving up your engine, listen to her howling roar.

Copyright © 2022 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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• Entertainment

Tom Cruise Takes James Corden to the Danger Zone with Frightening Flight in 'Top Gun' Fighter Jet

Monday's Late Late Show with James Corden featured the host going on a pair of flights with Top Gun: Maverick star Tom Cruise

Dave Quinn is a Senior Editor for PEOPLE. He has been working at the brand since 2016, and is the author of the No. 1 New York Times best-selling book, Not All Diamonds and Rosé: The Inside Story of the Real Housewives from the People Who Lived It.

James Corden feels the need — the need for a speedy landing.

The Late Late Show host, 43, had an adventurous two days with Tom Cruise on Monday night's show, joining the Top Gun: Maverick actor for a terrifying trip in the air on a pair of fighter jets.

It was a once-in-a-lifetime getaway that Corden wasn't necessarily excited about. In a package of the high-flying experience, he played as an unwilling participant in Cruise's plan — admitting, "When Tom Cruise calls, you sort of have to say yes."

Cruise, for his part, was thrilled to be palling around with Corden again, as the 59-year-old actor previously jumped out of an airplane with Corden while promoting 2018's Mission: Impossible — Fallout .

"I'm very excited that James is doing this," Cruise said, before piloting Corden in both planes. "Was he the first late night show that I asked? Hell no. He was just the first one, the only one , to say yes."

To kick things off, Cruise took Corden for a ride in a 1944 fighter airplane, Corden quickly putting up a sign in the window that said "Help Me."

Things got serious when a dueling plane popped up to challenge them. "We're in a dog fight," Cruise said, as Corden screamed, "I don't give a s---."

For more on Tom Cruise and James Corden flying on fighter jets, listen below to our daily podcast PEOPLE Every Day.

"You did good," Cruise assured Corden after they landed, the comedian teasing, "The fact that this is your idea of a fun day out tells me how different we are as human beings."

Just when Corden thought he'd survived, Cruise informed him the two would be going up again, this time in a jet fit for modern aerial warfare.

Amid Corden's "I don't want to do it" objections, Cruise told the host, "You are my Goose," a reference to his Top Gun character's best friend in the original 1986 movie.

"When you said I'm your Goose it makes me feel excited and then I realize that Goose dies in the film," Corden explained in response. "You're the first half of the film Goose," Cruise insisted. "That 'You've Lost that Loving Feeling' Goose."

"That's the Goose I want to be," Corden quipped. "I want to be in a bar, singing..."

From there, Cruise and Corden followed through with some additional Top Gun experiences (like a game of volleyball and a camping getaway) before heading up in their flight.

"You look like a fighter pilot, I look like a hamster," Corden said, as they suited up for the flight.

Corden loosened up for his second flight, even channeling his "Carpool Karaoke" segment by singing Kenny Loggins' "Danger Zone" and Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band's "Old Time Rock and Roll" — two tunes famously featured in Cruise's movies.

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE 's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

But when Cruise started stunting, even flipping the plane upside down, Corden got scared. "Oh my God," he screamed. "This is absolutely ludicrous. This is the craziest thing... this is the stupidest thing I have ever done."

"You absolute bastard," he told Cruise. "I've got an idea, why don't we fly straight for a bit?"

"Okay, we'll fly straight," Cruise said, before flipping them over again.

Back on the ground, Cruise praised Corden for how he handled it all. "You can be my wingman anytime," he said.

"You know what, I think I'm good," joked Corden.

Top Gun: Maverick opens in theaters on Friday. The long-awaited sequel sees Cruise making his triumphant return as Capt. Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, this time returning as an instructor for the elite fliers three decades after his graduation from the TOPGUN Naval aviation program.

Among his young charges is Lt. Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw, the son of Goose ( Anthony Edwards in the first movie). Miles Teller , who plays Rooster, is among the actors cast as new class of pilots. Also joining are Glen Powell , Greg Tarzan Davis and Lewis Pullman .

Aside from the hands-on skills required for the film, Cruise still had more to share with his costars, when the training was over and the cameras turned off.

"There were times after we were wrapped for the day, we would spend an hour circled around him, listening to the stories that he's been through," Davis, 28, told PEOPLE in a new all- Top Gun special edition .

Added Pullman, 29, "Every one of the pilots has a story of him talking about what he thinks is great about them, what they can do with that quality. He teaches you, basically, how Tom Cruise became Tom Cruise ."

The Late Late Show with James Corden airs weeknights (12:30 p.m. ET) on CBS.

CinemaBlend

Tom Cruise Basically Got 'Top Gun: Maverick' Greenlit By Picking Up The Phone And Telling The Studio He Was Doing It

Posted: March 22, 2024 | Last updated: March 22, 2024

It’s become more common nowadays for popular movies to score sequels/follow-ups decades later. In fact, the most commercially successful movie of 2022 falls into this “legacyquel” category, with "Top Gun: Maverick" soaring over $1 billion worldwide on top of earning critical acclaim. So how did Tom Cruise arrange for his return to the role Pete “Maverick” Mitchell? According to producer Jerry Bruckheimer, it was as simple as calling Paramount Pictures and telling the studio he was doing it. I had the pleasure of speaking with Jerry Bruckheimer on behalf of the "Top Gun: Maverick" digital rollout. After noting how the sequel had been in development since 2010 and hit a setback when Tony Scott, the original "Top Gun’s" director who’d been slated to reprise his helming duties, died in 2012, I asked Bruckheimer at what point he and the other creative minds behind "Maverick" decided that it was still worth moving forward with the movie.

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