‘Top Gun’ gets ’evolution’ in sequel 36 years on, says Cruise

It has been 36 years since Tom Cruise donned his aviators, jumped into a fighter jet and ascended Hollywood's A-list with "Top Gun" and, finally, a sequel is about to land.

"I was a little slow, sometimes I'm a little slow," Cruise joked to AFP at the world premiere of "Top Gun: Maverick," held aboard a retired U.S. aircraft carrier in San Diego on May 4.

Slow is not usually a word associated with Cruise, arguably the world's biggest movie star, who landed via helicopter onto a red carpet that was rolled across the USS Midway's sprawling top deck for the occasion.

In his new film, out in U.S. theaters May 27, Cruise's hotshot pilot Maverick returns to the Navy's elite TOPGUN fighter weapons school where he earned his wings to train the latest batch of cocky young aviators.

Among them is Rooster, son of Goose, who was killed in the 1986 original in a moment that still haunts Maverick, even as he must prepare his charges for a deadly mission.

"The sense of romance, the sense of adventure - there's a world that you want to be in," said Cruise, on returning to "Top Gun" at the age of 59.

"And obviously, there's always something about aviation."

Cruise's original film popularized the concept of the "wingman", and he said viewers particularly connected with the closeness of relationships in the world of aviation.

"The culture in this world is very unique... and it's really interesting that people can just connect with the friendships," he said.

While the movie opens with a nostalgic throwback sequence set on an aircraft carrier, and features a brief return for Val Kilmer alongside Cruise, it otherwise rests on a group of relatively unknown young actors.

"I always knew that's how I wanted to open the...

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