Danny Ramirez is an actor who knows his way around movies that involve his character flying. In 2022, he starred opposite Tom Cruise as Fanboy in Top Gun: Maverick, and just a few months ago on the 2025 release schedule, he reprised Joaquin Torres, the new Falcon, in Captain America: Brave New World. Of course, the kind of flying done in those two movies is quite different, but to my surprise, Ramirez informed me that Maverick’s Christopher McQuarrie actually helped with making Brave New World’s flight sequences look great.
Early on in my interview with Ramirez tied to Captain America 4 becoming available for Disney+ subscription holders to stream, I brought up how he’d said earlier this year that he had Tom Cruise on his mind when shooting the flying scenes in the latest Marvel movie. He elaborated on that mindset during our conversation, which started with him saying:
… During those flight sequences, I felt not pressure, but just responsibility on making sure that… the moment you put Top Gun in the out in the world, it changes the way people perceive air to air sequences. And to deny that I think is a disservice, ‘cause obviously it did such a good job and it set the the standard of cinema flight, of IMAX flight. It created a visual language for it.
Because of the pandemic, there was a time when it was rumored that Top Gun: Maverick might be sold off to a streamer. But Tom Cruise and Paramount held the course on a theatrical release, and it resulted in the sequel making nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. But even beyond its critical and box office success, as Danny Ramirez noted, Maverick changed the game when it comes to cinematic flight sequences. He wanted to make sure the same care and attention went into what Captain America: Brave New World had to offer on that front, even though in this case, the majority of the movie’s flying came from Joaquin and Sam Wilson using their wing packs.
As for Christopher McQuarrie, he co-wrote Top Gun: Maverick with Ehren Kruger and Eric Warren Singer, and he’s helping put Top Gun 3 together. So when the time came to plan Captain America: Brave New World’s main flight sequence, Danny Ramirez set up a meeting between director Julius Onah and McQuarrie. As he recalled:
One of the best sequences, we called it the Top Gun sequence over Celestial Island, and so I connected Julius Onah and Chris McQuarrie to have conversations about a lot of that, ‘cause Chris was also really active in obviously Top Gun Maverick. So Julius and Chris chopped it up about what Chris learned and what we learned on Top Gun and be able to relay that in this world to Julius, ‘cause obviously it’s a different world. Physics are still there, but it’s a little bit different. Yeah, I think that’s the Tom Cruise effect for me.
The Celestial Island sequence saw Sam and Joaquin racing to neutralize two American pilots who’d been mind-controlled by Samuel Sterns into attacking the Japanese fleet nearby. Their efforts and successfully persuading the Japanese to stand out prevented a war from breaking out over the adamantium on the petrified Celestial, but Joaquin was critically injured in the process, leading to Captain America: Brave New World’s ending hospital scene. While I’m sure that flight sequence would have still looked impressive without Christopher McQuarrie’s involvement, I’m nonetheless glad Danny Ramirez was able to loop him in as an additional way to ensure its quality.
We’ll see Ramirez back in action as Joaquin Torres when Avengers: Doomsday is released on December 17, 2026, and I look forward to seeing the character showing off his in-flight moves within an even more fantastical MCU setting. Christopher McQuarrie’s latest movie, Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, is now playing in theaters.
