Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
fictional character in the Top Gun movies
Peter "Maverick" Mitchell is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Top Gun franchise. He is portrayed by Tom Cruise. The character first appeared in the 1986 film Top Gun, followed by Top Gun: Maverick in 2022.
Casting
Actor Matthew Modine turned down the role of Pete Mitchell because he felt the film's pro-military stance went against his politics. The producers of Top Gun wanted Tom Cruise for the role after seeing him in Risky Business. He was offered the part while he was in London filming Legend, Cruise was reluctant to take the part but director Tony Scott's brother Ridley Scott convinced him to do so.
Cruise was paid $12–14 million to reprise the role in Top Gun: Maverick, which was revised to over $100 million after his share of the film's box office gross.
Character and background
Mitchell was born to naval aviator Duke Mitchell who died in aerial combat in Vietnam on November 5, 1965, and an unidentified mother. Maverick carries a photograph of himself with his father in his wallet. His father flew with Commander Mike "Viper" Metcalf (Tom Skerritt), and that Viper and Duke were aboard the USS Oriskany before seeing Duke's F-4 Phantom II shot down.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pete "Maverick" Mitchell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.