Tom Cruise Reminisces About Puking During 'Top Gun' Air Action
By Nick Schager, Yahoo Movies
Tom Cruise is renowned for doing as much of his own stunt work as possible, which lends a death-defying electricity to his action-movie feats, from running alongside the exterior of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa skyscraper for Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol to hanging from a flying plane in Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. Thus, during the actor’s visit to The Graham Norton Show to promote his latest film, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, it was no surprise to hear that the star was performing his movies’ craziest exploits as far back as Top Gun — even if they made him literally sick to his stomach.
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After Cruise said of chatter about Top Gun 2 that “We’re trying to figure it out,” he recalled how, while filming Top Gun, he put it in his contract that he had to be allowed to fly in an actual F-14 fighter jet. He soon came to regret that decision, however, when training began with his pilot, “Bozo.” After a particularly difficult exercise caused him severe nausea, Cruise went to grab the barf bag located at his ankles — a reasonable course of action, except that at that precise moment, Bozo decided it was time for some clever maneuvers that amusingly complicated the actor’s attempts at puking.
Related: Meet the Real-Life Badass Who Inspired ‘Top Gun’ Love Interest
Cruise also discussed how, for M:I — Rogue Nation, he learned to hold his breath underwater for six-and-a-half minutes — an accomplishment that fellow guest Jude Law confesses he did not match while filming his new TV series The Young Pope. You can watch Cruise’s Top Gun chat above, his oxygen-depriving anecdote below, and see Jack Reacher: Never Go Back in theaters now.
