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Top Gun 2 is tied for Tom Cruise’s best Rotten Tomatoes score

The Top Gun: Maverick Rotten Tomatoes score makes it one of Tom Cruise's best movie - but not quite number one in the action star's filmography

Tom Cruise in Top Gun 2

It seems Top Gun: Maverick does indeed have a need for speed. The action movie is doing rather well with critics, so much so that it’s now tied for the best score of any Tom Cruise movie on Rotten Tomatoes.

At time of writing, Top Gun 2 has earned an incredible 97%, comfortably certifying it as fresh. Only one other Cruise production has managed such a score, and that’s 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Several thriller movies come close; Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol are at 94% and 93%, respectively, and Risky Business comes in at 92%.

Science fiction movies Edge of Tomorrow and Minority Report round out all his films in the 90s. You might notice these are mostly modern pictures, and that’s not a coincidence. Over the last 15 years or so, Cruise has developed a reputation for the intensity of his blockbusters. For Mission: Impossible, you know you’re getting a thrill-ride, and that ethos has carried over for the Top Gun sequel.

Top Gun: Maverick brings back Cruise as Pete Mitchell, a test pilot that willfully avoids promotion so he can keep flying jets. He’s ordered to help guide a group of new recruits on another dangerous mission.

It’s a sequel to the 1986 smash hit Top Gun, and it’s directed by John Kosinski. Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connolly, and Ed Harries join Cruise in the cast. Our Charlotte Colombo gave it high praise in her Top Gun 2 review, calling it a “turbo-charged tribute”.

You can find out for yourself when Top Gun: Maverick arrives in theatres May 22.