Top Gun: Maverick Director Reveals Darkstar Sequence May Have Resulted in International Espionage

'Tis the season for Top Gun! Top Gun: Maverick hit Paramount+ yesterday so now more people can enjoy 2022's biggest movie from the comfort of their own homes. In honor of the film's release, Paramount has dropped some fun content, and many of the people involved with making the film are sharing some interesting behind-the-scenes information about the Tom Cruise-led sequel. In an interview with Collider, director Joseph Kosinski was asked if there was anything in the movie they had to fight to use. 

"Definitely," Kosinski shared. "The Darkstar sequence, that hangar. I went to China Lake Naval Air Station, which is a Navy base out in the desert. I'm sure you drive near it when you drive up to Mammoth. It's off to the right, and it encompasses a huge amount of desert out there. But I was doing a tour of the base looking for a hangar for the Darkstar sequence. And they said, 'You can take pictures as long as you don't point your camera over there.' I look over there, and there's this really interesting-looking hangar with a tower and barbed wire around it and a blue door. And I'm like, 'What is that?' And they're like, 'Oh, don't even think about it. You're never going to be able to shoot over there. Don't take a picture of it. Don't even look at it.' I'm like, 'Well can we drive by it if I don't take a picture?' And they're like, 'Okay, fine. We can drive by, but you can't take a picture.'"

He continued, "So we go, and we drive by it, and I look at it, and it's just perfect. I mean, it looks like a top-secret hangar inside a top-secret base. And I'm like, 'We have this sequence where we've got this secret airplane that they pull out at night, and it just looks like that's the perfect spot for it.' And they said, 'Well it's no surprise that you're interested in that particular building.' So, I'm like, 'Oh man, wow. It'd be great to shoot there. That's too bad.' So, a couple days later, I get a call. And they're like, 'Okay, if you tell us when you want to shoot there, we'll take what's in there, and we'll move it out a few days before so you'll have a building.' And we ended up getting to shoot at the top secret hangar, and we really built Darkstar, and we put it in a hangar. And when we pulled it out for the shoot, I was told that certain satellites owned by other countries actually moved in space to take pictures of it. I guess they were able to track that, which I thought was just amazing. If they were able to zoom in very close, they'd see Tom Cruise is in the cockpit, which is pretty cool."

Is Top Gun 3 Happening?

Currently, Top Gun: Maverick is the highest-grossing movie of the year, having made $1.4 billion at the box office. The film also earned an impressive Rotten Tomatoes score with a 96% critics rating and a 99% audience rating. Now, fans want to know if there will be a Top Gun 3. While there are no current plans, Kosinski recently spoke at Deadline's Contenders LA3C panel and addressed the possibility of another film.

"Is there another story that is compelling enough that we need to go back?" Kosinski asked. "It seems to me at the end of this film that Maverick has some gas left in the tank. He's not settling down." 

Top: Gun Maverick is now streaming on Paramount+.