'They would have never found him': Tom Cruise almost died after parachute malfunctioned while filming 'Top Gun'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tom Cruise is the first name that springs to our mind when we talk about performing deadly stunts and sequences. From plunging off a chopper to swinging out of an airplane, the 60-year-old action freak has pulled off some of the most break-taking stunts over the years. However, nothing beats the dreadful near-death experience that Cruise encountered while filming the 1986 box-office hit ‘Top Gun’.
In Tony Scott’s mega-blockbuster, Cruise underlined the dangers faced by Navy fighter pilots by portraying reckless Navy jet pilot Lieutenant Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. ‘Top Gun’ was the highest-grossing domestic movie of 1986 after earning $357M internationally on a $15M production budget. The movie not just treated the audience with magnificent stunts but also evoked their emotions with some emotion-heavy scenes. The most heart-breaking sequence in the movie was the one where Cruise’s on-screen best friend Goose (played by Anthony Edwards) dies and he carries his body with his parachute on in the middle of the ocean.
'Cruise came as close to dying as anybody'
Unexpectedly, the dramatic sequence was considerably more compelling in person than it appeared on the big screen. As per Barry Tubb, Cruise had a brush with death while filming the scene as his parachute started filling up with water, and he could have been right at the bottom of the ocean if not rescued. Describing this incident, Tubb, who played ‘Wolfman’ in ‘Top Gun’, noted that “Cruise came as close to dying as anybody on a set I’ve ever seen.”
Tubb also revealed that Cruise had no idea that his parachute is filling with water. “They were refilling the camera or something, and luckily one of the frogmen in the chopper saw his chute ballooning out” Barry Tubb explained to New York Post. Discussing the gravity of the situation, Tubb mentioned how the incident could have drowned Cruise to the bottom of the ocean. “He jumped in and cut Cruise loose right before he sank. They would have never found him. He would have been at the bottom of the ocean,” the ‘Grand Champion’ actor mentioned the rescue process.
How did Art Scholl while filming ‘Top Gun’?
Cruise was lucky enough to be rescued, but veteran aviator and aerial cameraman Art Scholl was not. Near the conclusion of the filming, Scholl, who had previously captured aerial footage for films and TV series including 'The Right Stuff' and 'The A-Team' had to fly a maneuver known as an "inverted flat spin" to capture the quick whirling view of ocean and land that Maverick would have seen as his jet spun out. But as soon Scholl’s Pitts S-2 biplane approached 3,500 feet, he said, “I’ve got a problem.” While being followed by pilots in another aircraft, Scholl descended into a succession of clouds, but neither he nor his aircraft were ever seen again.
