Mayday directors break down the Top Gun tribute in their latest comedy

Apple TV's Mayday is a playful love letter to Tom Cruise's larger-than-life action drama film Top Gun. Co-written and co-directed by Game Night duo Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, the latest comedy thriller follows Troy "Assassin" Kelly (Ryan Reynolds), a hotshot U.S. Navy pilot who is stranded in the Soviet wilderness after a mission gone wrong, forcing him to rely on an unlikely ally, ex-KGB agent Nikolai Ustinov (Kenneth Branagh).

From the fighter-pilot setup in 1987 to the celebrated mythology surrounding American pilots, Mayday pays homage to Top Gun. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, the director duo revealed how Troy was modeled after Cruise's Maverick:

"And obviously, Troy Kelly, the character that Ryan plays, is in many ways an homage to Maverick."

Apple TV's latest thriller takes its Top Gun homage up a notch through Nikolai Ustinov, an ex-KGB operative fascinated by Cruise's film to an extent that he has obsessively watched a bootleg copy.

Apple TV's Mayday is Maverick-approved

A still from the movie (Image via YouTube/Apple TV)

In addition to Nikolai's obsession with the Tony Scott-directed film, Mayday feels like a love letter to Top Gun. Reynolds' Troy "Assassin" Kelly is a spitting image of Cruise's character from the beloved film, which aids the developing friendship between the two men. Apple TV's latest film uses its Top Gun homage to subvert expectations from a Cold War-set story. While Troy expected hostile treatment from Nikolai upon crash-landing behind enemy lines, he is surprised to see posters of the Tom Cruise-led film in Nikolai's cabin and a scandalous admission on his part: he admires Troy's country very much.

Top Gun serves as the catalyst that brings the two men closer in Mayday, making the inclusion of footage from the iconic ’80s film an important creative choice for the directors. In an interview with GamesRadar+ at San Diego Comic-Con 2026, Goldstein and Daley revealed that Tom Cruise unintentionally blessed their movie when he gave permission to use footage from Top Gun:

"We did use a clip from Top Gun in the movie. It takes place in 1987, and we needed Tom Cruise's permission for that, and he granted it."

Mayday had real Naval consultants on set

It looks like Mayday's Top Gun inspiration ran deeper than the story. As Goldstein and Daley revealed to Entertainment Weekly, they had technical consultants from the Air Force and the Navy on set, who helped Ryan Reynolds transform into a US Navy pilot. Check out Goldstein's comments:

"And we had them on set. These are guys in their 80s now. And Ryan could say to them, “Where would my left hand be at this point?” They’d be like, “You’d be doing this and this and that.” So, for flying aficionados, they’ll be able to appreciate that a lot of this is as close as we could make it to the real thing."

The duo also revealed that while they were unable to shoot on Navy aircraft carriers, they shot real French jets above the Mediterranean, which were digitally altered into American planes for the film.

The directors' commitment to spending time aboard a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier and interviewing Blackbird pilots to gain insights into their experiences suggests that the duo was determined to recreate Top Gun's nostalgia, with a comedic spin.