Apple TV's latest release, Mayday, is an action-packed thrill ride that pays homage to classic films like Top Gun. Starring Ryan Reynolds as Lieutenant Troy 'Assassin' Kelly, a US Air Force Pilot with a penchant for flying high, the movie brings plenty of heart-pumping aerial sequences and a dash of humor.

Mayday's connection to Top Gun is no coincidence. The film's directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, have revealed that they used a clip from the 1986 classic in their movie. However, it wasn't until Tom Cruise granted permission for its use that the project truly took off.

Top Gun Connections Abound

In a previous life as a print dinosaur, I was the Deputy Editor of Total Film magazine, and the news editor at SFX magazine.

Fun fact: two of my favourite films released on the same day - Blade Runner and The Thing.

As well as featuring Kenneth Branagh going full John Wick as a kick-ass former KGB agent, Apple TV action-comedy Mayday is also a love letter to Top Gun and even uses footage from the '80s classic. According to the movie's directors, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley (Game Night), it was none other than Tom Cruise who said permission: granted.

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Mayday Directors Gunhomaging Details and Timeline

"We did use a clip from Top Gun in the movie," Goldstein tells GamesRadar+ during an exclusive conversation at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 . "It takes place in 1987, and we needed Tom Cruise's permission for that, and he granted it."

Both Mayday and Top Gun: Maverick share a production company in Skydance, and the Top Gun connections don't end there. "One of our editors actually worked on Top Gun: Maverick, and so he already was well versed in aerial photography," Daley adds.

In Mayday, Ryan Reynolds plays Lieutenant Troy 'Assassin' Kelly, a US Air Force Pilot and something of a maverick himself. While Kelly is soon grounded and stranded behind enemy lines in Russia, early scenes see Kelly take to the skies in a fighter jet and a Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird.

Like Top Gun: Maverick, much of this footage was captured in-camera.

"We spent a month in the south of France shooting all of our aerials because we wanted there to be as [few] false moments as we possibly could have," Daley notes.