Tom Cruise’s insistence on authenticity saw Top Gun: Maverick production declare war on Iran

Top Gun: Maverick was a box-office triumph, but it has recently emerged that the production was one of the most unique in history because, due to star Tom Cruise’s insistence on authenticity in his action and stunt work, the entire production declared war on and invaded Iran.

“We needed to set up conflict with another country. Although it’s never mentioned in the script, that country is pretty clearly Iran. I originally planned to set up that conflict through some scenes in which actors play the role of Iranian soldiers and pilots,” explained director Joseph Kosinski.

“But Tom was never happy with that. He kept saying that people wouldn’t buy it, it would look like a narrative effect.

“The pair of us had a meeting one day and he suggested that the production actually declare war on, and then invade Iran. I mean, I laughed, I didn’t think he was serious. But he was. He’d drawn up a basic invasion plan, fully costed. I couldn’t believe it, but that’s what you get with Tom.”

The film had a budget of $170M. Using $10M of that, Kosinski and Cruise hired Elon Musk’s private army and from friendly bases in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, launched an invasion on Iran.

“It was wild. I’d never invaded a sovereign nation before. No movie production has. But, you know, I directed Tron: Legacy, so after that, invading another country was actually pretty straight-forward.”

The war lasted two weeks, allowing Kosinski and his team to film all the shots set on the airbase whilst the actual war raged around them. After filming was complete, the production sued for peace.

“Tom handled the peace talks himself. He was incredible, he posed for autographs with the Iranian negotiators’ kids and the talks went great. We declared peace and Top Gun: Maverick actually now owns a small province in Southern Iran.

“It was crazy, but it was worth it. The whole thing looked great in camera.”

Invading a sovereign country may seem extreme, but Tom Cruise is famous for his demands of authenticity in his movies. For Edge of Tomorrow, he battled real aliens, for Minority Report, he filmed in the future, and for Cocktail, he mixed an actual Cosmopolitan.