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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
David Jarvis

Tom Cruise is real-life Top Gun as he soars in vintage plane

Tom Cruise took his Top Gun co-star’s breath away with a thrill-ride in his vintage plane.

Jennifer Connelly, who plays the actor’s love-interest in sequel Top Gun: Maverick, told how aerobatics ace Tom is a real-life daredevil.

And he even took her for a ride in his own Second World War Mustang.

Jennifer, 51, said: “That was pretty extraordinary. He is actually a licensed aerobatic pilot, which I didn’t know about before. I don’t think I’d even thought about the fact there are aerobatics pilots.”

Jennifer was just 15 when the first Top Gun movie came out 36 years ago, starring Cruise as daredevil Navy pilot Maverick.

In the sequel, she plays Penny – a single mum who runs the bar where flight school graduates drink.

Jennifer Connelly says co-star Tom Cruise is a daredevil (Getty Images)
Tom Cruise is known for his love of outrageous stunts (Amber Maas / SWNS)

Explaining that Penny and Maverick “have a history together”, she told magazine Total Film: “They’ve sort of come in and out of each other’s lives over the years.

"It’s not by accident they keep finding themselves next to each other.”

Cruise, 59, who has been a pilot for 28 years, also flies his own private Gulfstream jet. He does many of his own film stunts in planes and helicopters, including in 2018’s Mission Impossible: Fallout.

He is not the only action star to chase thrills off-set.

Steve McQueen raced motorbikes and cars and Harrison Ford, 79, also flies planes and helicopters.

He broke his pelvis after making an emergency landing in 2015.

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