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Cruise pays tribute to late co-star Val Kilmer
At CinemaCon 2025, Cruise remembered Kilmer as he said, “I’d like to take a moment before we get started today to honour a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer.” He continued, “I can’t tell you how much I admired his work and him as a human being, how grateful and honoured I was that he joined Top Gun and came back for Top Gun: Maverick. I think it would be really nice if we could just have a moment all together and just take a moment because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us with his performances with his films.”
The 65-year-old actor added, “If we could just all take a moment and just think about all the wonderful times that we had with him,” as reported by the People magazine.
After a moment of silence, Cruise expressed his gratitude to Kilmer and the audience. He said, “Thank you Val. I wish you well on your next journey. Thank you all for doing that. I know he appreciates it.” Kilmer’s daughter Mercedes Kilmer revealed to The New York Times that he died because of pneumonia after fighting throat cancer which he was diagnosed with in 2014 but also recovered from.
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Cruise’s ‘pretty emotional’ reunion with Kilmer
Cruise and Kilmer shared a memorable on-screen rivalry in the 1986 original Top Gun, with Kilmer playing the iconic character Tom “Iceman” Kazansky. The two reunited in 2022 for Top Gun: Maverick, marking Kilmer’s final appearance on screen. In 2021, producer Jerry Bruckheimer revealed to the media outlet that Cruise was the driving force behind Kilmer’s return.
The producer shared, “He said, ‘We have to have Val, we have to have him back…’ …We all wanted him, but Tom was really adamant that if he’s going to make another Top Gun, Val had to be in it.”
In 2023, the Mission Impossible character revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live that his reunion with Kilmer on the sets was “pretty emotional,” adding that he even cried during the filming.
