Posted by Ra Moon
The sequel to the 1986 classic that featured breathtaking fighter jet sequences and launched the career of Tom Cruise has landed more than three decades after Maverick felt the need for speed.
Like its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick was filmed primarily in San Diego, California, but also in Nevada, Utah, and Washington State.
Set 36 years after the events of the first installment, in this new film Pete "Maverick" Mitchell returns to the Navy Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program to lead a new generation of pilots on a near-suicide mission.
Welcome to our spoiler-free guide to all the filming locations of Top Gun: Maverick.
You can also find our wonderful article revealing all the locations where Top Gun was filmed following this link.
The opening sequence, with the experimental (and fictional) Darkstar plane, was filmed at the Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in the Mojave Desert.
Director Joseph Kosinski said that in the scene with Ed Harris pictured, the plane destroyed the set, ripping the roof off the guard shack.
(You can open all the locations on Google Maps by clicking on the links below in the captions ↴)
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures - Map
The Top Gun beach and the Hard Deck bar
As the local press reported, the Hard Deck bar owned by Penelope "Penny" Benjamin (played by Jennifer Connelly) was located on Breaker’s Beach in San Diego.
In 2018, the film crew built an impressive set in less than a month on this beach, located at the Coronado air station premises.
Image courtesy of Paramount - Map
The Top Gun Station
The Top Gun base was filmed at several locations, including the North Island Naval Air Station on San Diego Bay.
The plane on display outside the main gate is actually an A-4E Skyhawk, not the F-14 Tomcat that the filmmakers CGI'd into the scene.
Image courtesy of Skydance Media - Map
The Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada and the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, Washington, were also featured in the new film.
In the 1986 movie, most of the Top Gun school was filmed at the Naval Air Station Miramar in San Diego, now the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (MCAS Miramar), nicknamed "Fightertown USA".
Image courtesy of Paramount - Maps: Fallon / Whidbey Island
Penny's house is a gorgeous oceanfront home located at 4000 Bluff Place in San Pedro near Cabrillo Beach.
This is a private residence - if you are visiting, please be considerate of the owners’ property.
Image courtesy of Paramount - Map
As the San Diego Union-Tribune revealed, the funeral scene was filmed at the Army's Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in Point Loma.
This beautiful burial ground, with perfectly lined-up gravestones overlooking San Diego Harbor and the Pacific Ocean, is the resting place for service members since the Battle of San Pasqual during the Mexican-American War in 1846.
At least 112,000 Army, Navy Seals, Sailors, Marines, and Air Force are buried at Fort Rosecrans.
Image courtesy of Skydance Media - Map
The F-18 low-level flyover scene seems to have been filmed at the Utah Test and Training Range salt flats located in Utah's West Desert.
Covering nearly 2,675 square miles (6,930 km2), this military area is the largest supersonic-authorized restricted airspace in the United States.
Image courtesy of Paramount - Map
The aircraft carrier scenes were filmed on board the USS Abraham Lincoln and the USS Theodore Roosevelt.
The actors went through a three-month rigorous aviation training course to prepare for riding in an F-18, as the producers tried to use as much real aircraft footage as possible instead of green screens and CGI.
A Twitter user confirmed that the spectacular low-level flight formation scene was filmed at Rimrock Lake west of Yakima in Washington State.
Some of the snowed mountains of the unnamed rogue nation were recorded at Washington's Cascade Mountains.
Image courtesy of Skydance Media - Map
A team of moviemakers and stunt pilots used the Northgate Aviation Chico Jet Center in Chico, CA, as a base to shoot footage over Butte County, including Lake Oroville, Feather River Canyon, and the High Lakes region.
They used grey L-39 fighter jets with computer points painted in different places to digitally transform the aircraft into the F-18 we see in the film.
Image courtesy of Netflix - Maps: Northgate / Feather River Canyon
The scene in the woods was filmed at the Washoe Meadows State Park located in South Lake Tahoe (California).
Image courtesy of Skydance Media - Map
The SFGate informed that the destroyed airbase was filmed at Lake Tahoe Airport, near the forest.
Location manager Mike Fantasia found this spot, with a mountaintop overlooking the airport, after scouting more than 200 aerodromes.
During production, the airport was undergoing renovations, so the crew could make it look like a war zone.
Image courtesy of Skydance Media - Map
The final scenes with the silver P-51 Mustang, which also appears in the video with Lady Gaga, were filmed at the Inyokern Airport in California.
This World War II veteran is actually Cruise's own airplane who is also a licensed pilot in the real world.
Image courtesy of Paramount - Map
Can you help to improve this article about the filming locations of Top Gun: Maverick? To complete and correct this report, any feedback, info, or images that you may have are more than welcome, thank you!
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21 comments:
1- Anonymous - Jun 4, 2022, 9:05 AM Reply 3- Hangman - Jun 5, 2022, 9:36 AM 4- Anonymous - Jun 5, 2022, 12:37 PM 5- Hammer - Jun 8, 2022, 6:01 AM Thank you for the information about such a well-made movie! 6- Payback - Jun 8, 2022, 7:29 PM 7- Anonymous - Jun 9, 2022, 10:42 AM Reply 9- Anonymous - Jun 10, 2022, 9:43 AM 10- Cyclone - Jun 12, 2022, 2:41 AM
I want to know where they filmed Penny Benjamin's house.
2- Anonymous - Jun 5, 2022, 8:31 PM
I'm going to guess, based on my having lived in the area for two years, that her house is somewhere in or near Point Loma.
Very well done. Thank you.
The final scene with the WW2 plane was filmed over the central Washington Cascade Mountains. Tampico, West of Yakima.
The house looked like Corona del Mar.
Excellent information. I used to work in Hollywood and have "scouted" locations... Thank you!
I believe Penny's house is located in San Pedro, CA, on 40th and Bluff. I just went by there, but I don't see where I can attach a picture to this comment.
8- Ra Moon - Jun 9, 2022, 11:48 AM
Thank you, it's the right location!
Can someone pinpoint the "target valley" used in the mission?
This wasn't filmed in Los Angeles - this was filmed in San Pedro, CA. The Port of Los Angeles resides in our city. If you know Pedro, you know what I mean.
11- Anonymous - Jun 12, 2022, 11:35 AM There was nobody around and we would have the entire place to ourselves on any given Sunday. Seeing the Bar and the Volley Ball game where the old building used to be was humbling. If only we had known... 12- Bob - Jun 15, 2022, 5:10 PM 13- Anonymous - Jun 15, 2022, 11:26 PM Reply 15- Anonymous - Jun 16, 2022, 8:37 PM 16- Marya Hayes - Jun 18, 2022, 9:32 PM 17- Anonymous - Jun 21, 2022, 11:04 PM 18- Anonymous - Jul 4, 2022, 2:54 PM 19- Anonymous - Jul 16, 2022, 5:20 PM 20- Anonymous - Jul 18, 2022, 3:48 PM 21- Anonymous - Jul 23, 2022, 2:49 AM Lots of Navy guys (aviators) are out there in the desert, and many of them use the smaller private hangars in nearby Inyokern (the one in the movie) as well as in Mojave and Rosamond and Lancaster.
Breaker's Beach used to be the location of the original CPO Mess at NASNI. My uncle was an E-8 in the Navy in the '70s and we used to go to that very spot and swim.
Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery is the burial place for all services, not just the Army.
Any idea where the offshore sailing scene was filmed? Not San Diego for sure, sea conditions and coastal background are not a match.
14- Anonymous - Jul 20, 2022, 12:33 AM
I read that the sailing scene was supposed to be shot in San Pedro, but there was no wind, so they filmed it in the SF Bay instead.
Chico, Ca, around Butte County, 2019.
The Rosecrans Cemetery from Top Gun Maverick is the final resting place for service members slain in almost every military conflict since the Battle of San Pasqual in 1846.
Don’t forget Chico CA, Feather River Canyon, Oroville Lake, and Butte County!
Where was the external scene of Cecil’s cafe filmed? Since there are mountains in the background it can’t be the actual Cecil's cafe in Marshalltown, Iowa.
Immediately following Maverick’s mishap in the experimental scramjet he is shown walking towards a diner with a mountain in the distance. Does anyone know where this was shot?
Was any of the flying filmed at Mach Loop in Snowdonia?
It was pretty funny sitting in the theater watching this movie... In the Mojave Desert, which is full of aviators and test pilots, and listening to the giggles of all the locals. It was pretty true to reality, though...