Tom Cruise as Maverick in Top Gun

The producers wanted to convince Cruise by giving him a taste of the flyboy life and took him to fly with experts in California. The instructors wanted to pull a prank on Cruise and gave him an extreme flight in hopes of scaring him. But, as we now know, Tom Cruise is a goddamn lunatic with a need for speed. As soon as he got off the play, he called the producers and took the role.