The original Top Gun from 1986 brought forward Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer on the same screen together but as rivals of each other. Though the duo’s characters, i.e. Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell and Kilmer’s Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, spent their entire time trying to be better than the other, the film eventually ended up with them on a good note, allowing each other to be one another’s “wingmen.”
Yet, in the first film from the sequel film series, Kilmer felt that Cruise stole his spotlight in one of the most iconic scenes of Top Gun, i.e. the volleyball match scene, suspecting him of “cooking” his volleyball close-ups!
Val Kilmer suspected Tom Cruise of stealing his spotlight in the Volleyball scene
The fully-oiled naval aviators in the iconic Volleyball scene were one of the main talks of the town when Top Gun originally came out in 1986. But while Tom Cruise was seen flaunting his ripped physique under the sun while shooting the ball, Val Kilmer was hardly seen in the same manner.
This is why the now-64-year-old actor lightheartedly suspected his now-61-year-old co-star and the protagonist of the first installment from the Top Gun franchise of having “cooked” his volleyball close-ups.
In a DVD interview (via The Wrap), Kilmer teasingly recalled the same, saying:
“I always suspected Tom Cruise might have cooked my volleyball close-ups. If you notice, I don’t have any. Tony came up, he was very apologetic, and they got cooked. That means they were over or underdeveloped. And there weren’t any and they couldn’t go back. I think Tom went in there, a little payola [to get them excised] because I looked good.”
While this led some fans to believe that he may have been bitter with Cruise because of this, the Tombstone actor pushed all these suspicions down by calling his Top Gun co-star “a sweetheart” and even claiming in his Amazon Prime documentary Val:
“It was fun to play up the conflict between our characters, but in reality, I’ve always thought of Tom as a friend and we’ve always supported each other.”
So it was never really like Val Kilmer genuinely developed bad blood for Tom Cruise with Top Gun, as could be deciphered from his comment. In fact, if anything, the pair have been nothing short of good friends!
Fans believe one Top Gun: Maverick scene had Tom Cruise finally making up for it
On the one hand, while the 1986 Top Gun brought about this lighthearted confession from Val Kilmer following the release of the film, the sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, showed something different; which some fans have even been citing as Tom Cruise making up for his previous actions.
The scene in the talk from 2022’s Maverick is the one where Iceman, who becomes a four-star admiral, calls Maverick to see him, who is still a Navy aviator even after over 36 years, and to convince him to take on the mission.
As one fan, @VyceVictus on X, liked to put it, this scene simply led to the conclusion that Kilmer was “always the superior actor” as compared to Cruise.
The meta narrative in MAVERICK has been noted (Cruise the Last Movie Star showing the kids how its done) but I also felt the Admiral Iceman/Captain Maverick relationship was tacit admission that Kilmer was always the superior actor, and here he’s getting his due with nary a word https://t.co/WWyC2iudeg
— VyceVictus (@VyceVictus) January 6, 2024
In the meanwhile, one other fan, i.e. @tj_mackey432 on X, claimed this was Cruise’s way of finally making up to Kilmer for the volleyball incident that happened more than three decades ago.
Tom was finally making up for this pic.twitter.com/Yha7IqKt22 https://t.co/tshrrSn6Fd
— Walter Garber’s Coffee-Soaked Sweater (@tj_mackey432) January 6, 2024
Well, irrespective of whatever it might be, Tom Cruise’s tears when he met Val Kilmer once again for Maverick were real (he admitted later it was because of Kilmer’s presence), which further proves that there was far from bad blood but only goodwill between the on-screen rivals from Top Gun.