Saturday 14 May 2022 10:19 PM Strap yourselves in! CAROLINE GRAHAM provides the low-down on Top Gun: Maverick  trends now

It has been 36 years since the original Top Gun blasted Tom Cruise to Hollywood superstardom. 

Now the movie's long-awaited sequel is set to transport a new generation of fans into the 'danger zone'.

Top Gun: Maverick, which has critics raving, will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday, with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge joining the 59-year-old actor on the red carpet in London the following day for a UK Royal premiere.

While sequels rarely live up to the hype, those who have seen this $200 million blockbuster predict it will dominate the box office this summer and could even snag a Best Picture Oscar.

A producer who saw the film in LA last week said: 'It's the perfect summer movie and the best sequel since The Godfather Part II. Everyone was worried the hype couldn't possibly match the movie, but this is a great film.

'It has everything you want from a Hollywood blockbuster and Tom Cruise is magnificent. He's nearly 60 but this is his movie. He proves why he's been a superstar for so long.'

The film, which opens across the UK on May 27, tells the story of the US Navy's elite 'Top Gun' fighter training school.

It introduces favourites from the original film, such as Val Kilmer's Iceman, to a new batch of flying aces, which include black and Hispanic Top Guns – and a female pilot.

'It's just a fantastic thrill ride from the start,' the source said. 'It has everything from the most spectacular aerial dog-fight scenes to moments so heartbreaking you could hear people sobbing. It's one of those films where you immediately want to go back in and watch it again.'

Hollywood pundits predict the movie could make $1 billion globally in its opening weekend and may go on to challenge Avatar as the most successful movie ever.

'It is so good everyone expects it to win a ton of Oscars next year,' the source said.

'It's bound to win all the technical awards because the aerial fight scenes are incredible but it should get nominated for Best Picture, it's that good.'

Here's all you need to know about the film which – as Top Gun's original theme tune promised – will take your breath away…

With thrilling aerial dogfights at 1,189mph, strap yourself in for the low-down on Tom Cruise's new Top Gun sequel blockbuster

Cruise control 

Tom Cruise was in control of every aspect of the new movie, from picking its director to choosing his co-stars and even signing off on the final script.

The 59-year-old superstar was 'only' paid $13 million, although he will also earn a percentage of every dollar taken at the global box office. He made $100 million for the original Mission: Impossible film – and could earn even more if Top Gun: Maverick is a box office smash.

The first Top Gun film not only made Cruise a global action star but inspired him to become a real-life pilot off-screen. He calls Top Gun: Maverick 'my love letter to aviation'. As Captain Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell, he donned his signature aviator sunglasses and filmed inside real F-18 fighter jets at 1,189mph over California's Mojave Desert.

'Everyone thought he was crazy,' said Captain Brian Ferguson, the US Navy adviser who coached Cruise. 'It probably would have looked almost as good if they had used special effects technology. But he wanted it to be authentic. And it is.

'There will be speculation that, 'Well, there's no way an actor was in that plane at 50ft, inverted, going over the ridge at 580 mph at seven Gs'. But there was.

'Every time you see an actor in a plane, there is an actor in a plane.'

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer said: 'We spent a fortune filming them in the cockpit. Tom was the only one who could handle the G-forces.

'The rest of them, their

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