While Cruise has always reveled in pulling off ridiculously dangerous stunts on his own, the requirement for actors to essentially film themselves while in the jets was no easy feat. “You had to be incredibly efficient,” Miles Teller told Empire. “You had to, a lot of the time, create an imaginary eye line to where another jet would be, and when you say a line, your face better be telling the story — the sun needs to be at the right angle.” Teller is playing Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, the son of “Top Gun” favorite Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) who unfortunately died in the first film.

Joining Cruise and Teller are Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis, and Ed Harris. Val Kilmer is also slated to return in a cameo performance as his character Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. Fingers crossed this means we also get the return of his iconic “chomp” threat. With 800 hours of footage, it’s gotta be in there somewhere.

“Top Gun: Maverick” flies into theaters on May 27, 2022.