Lt. Cmdr. Christian “Griff” Frasher didn’t appear in “Top Gun: Maverick” – with the exception of the two seconds showing the back of his head – but his flying certainly did.
The Lake Orion High School and Eastern Michigan University alumnus, 33, is one of several fighter pilots who took to the skies when filming the movie’s aerial combat footage.
“Everyone that flew for the film were all simply naval aviators demonstrating what they do for a living every day,” said Frasher. “Sure, the scenarios and storyboards weren’t exactly realistic and not an accurate depiction of true aerial combat, but it was rarely outside the scope of feasible and never unprofessional. Did we get authorization to maneuver on the edge of our comfort level and aircraft flight envelope? Sure. Did we take full advantage… to repeatedly execute a 600-mph, 100-foot low-level to a straight-ahead pop over a mountain while a Helinet aerial cinematography crew hovered on the other side of the ridge watching us? (Expletive) yes, we did!”
He continued: “We all flew both crewed up with actors and non-crewed (solo) for nearly every shot in the movie. We got to coordinate and plan in advance many of the shots to match them up to storyboards or the director’s intent. More so, however, we got do what naval aviation does best and creatively come up with an entirely new plan, on the spot, in the air, when the weather, sun angles, or whatever didn’t go to plan. Some of the best, most iconic shots of the movie were impromptu and just came together at the last second.”
Frasher took several actors up in his jet, including Tom Cruise (alias Capt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell) and Glen Powell (Lt. Jake “Hangman” Seresin).
“It’s a lot of new sights, smells, sounds, and sensations, even if you’re just along for the ride and getting comfortable in the jet was something that took repetition for all the actors,” said Frasher. “Tom was, for obvious reasons, the most comfortable, the quickest; the others took time. I doubled for Glen for the target attack practice scene. He did great but we ended up spending a decent amount of time just flying around, low to the ground, with me coaching him as to where to look and how to tilt his head and move his arm to sell the idea he was flying. He did better than most. He also puked more than anyone I’ve ever flown but always rallied immediately. He was a freaking machine!”
Frasher worked with Cruise in the final act, flying low in the snow-capped mountains of the Cascades. He told Cruise there wasn’t any rank in the cockpit.
“I was like ‘Dude, I’m going to call you Maverick, you can call me Griff,’” he recalled. “When he walks in the production room, the air gets sucked out and every Hollywood type goes silent like he’s Jesus in the Second Coming. He sits, the table read begins, flying things are generally alluded to, all the while he sits as the center of attention living up to his reputation of passionate and deliberate with complete agency of His Movie – minus the things the Navy leadership wouldn’t agree to.”
Nonetheless, Cruise was easy and fun to work with, stated Frasher.
“Once we got airborne… he never pretended to be in charge of my aircraft and he got to let loose and just be a pilot flying in a fighter jet,” he said. “We worked as a team while flying and got everything done we needed to do. After one day and three quick flights with him, he shook my hand, got on his private jet, took off, and receded back into whatever cloud megastars of his pedigree live on.”
For the record, Cruise did not fly any jets.
“No, he did not. Yes, he is a pilot and I’m sure a good one, but, no, the Navy would not let him fly for the sequences in the movie,” said Frasher. “It takes two years of training before we can even touch an F-18 and another couple before we feel comfortable performing the maneuvers that were showcased in the movie.”
Frasher joined “Maverick” in 2019 when he was an instructor in Strike Fighter Squadron 122 in Lemoore, CA. The movie needed pilots, so Frasher supplemented the efforts of members of the real TOPGUN, known as Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor school.
“Paramount and the Navy needed more support in terms of aircraft and pilots than TOPGUN actually could provide, so they asked us to help. I volunteered to go,” he said. “We all were active contributors to the creative and technical execution and many scenes that were huge ‘beats’ of the final edit were there purely because we chose, ad hoc, to give some idea a shot or change it up.”
“Maverick” is a sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun,” a blockbuster hit and seminal 1980s movie that cemented Cruise’s stardom. Originally slated to be released in 2019, it was delayed first by reshoots and then by the coronavirus pandemic several more times. Still, it’s the highest-grossing movie of 2022, passing $1 billion last week, as well as the highest-grossing movie of Cruise’s long career as a bona fide Hollywood hitmaker with his “Mission: Impossible” series, “Jerry Maguire,” “A Few Good Men,” and “The Firm.”
Frasher’s not surprised by the movie’s success.
“I actually called it making $1 billion at the box office a few years ago when I first saw the footage,” he said. “It was – and is – incredible. Now if only I could get even a crumb of that pie…”
