Where Was ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Filmed? Top Filming Locations

It’s only been one day since Top Gun: Maverick flew onto digital and it’s clear that the talk of this movie isn’t going to fade. The sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 film, Top Gun, is making headlines for its record-breaking success, even beating out movies like Titanic for a top spot on the list of biggest domestic box office runs of all time.

Set more than three decades after the original, the action drama brings Cruise back as Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he takes on a teaching position for a new group of elite TOPGUN graduates, including his former wingman Goose’s son, Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw, played by Miles Teller. As Maverick teaches the group the need for speed and his “don’t do, just think” attitude in preparation for a dangerous mission, he must decide whether or not to keep a promise to Rooster’s mother to never let her son become a pilot.

Throughout the movie, we see an array of mountainous regions, sunset beaches, and snowy lands. While the sarcastic part of me wants to just say, “it was filmed in the sky, duh,” here are the exact filming locations where Top Gun: Maverick was shot:

Where was Top Gun: Maverick filmed?

Like I said before, Top Gun: Maverick hits on most types of regions from sand to snow to mountains, and according to IMDb, most of the movie was filmed in California — though some scenes were filmed in Nevada and Washington.

Much of the California locations extend from San Diego and South Lake Tahoe, however, several scenes were also shot at the Naval Air Stations in Fallon, Nevada and Whidbey Island, Washington.

Executive producer Tommy Harper said, “The one thing we all talked about in speaking to the Navy is that we had to figure out where the jets were. You don’t want to set up shop somewhere and then travel to the jets. You want to be where the jets are and manipulate the shoot and schedule accordingly. We were thankful that we could shoot the whole film all in California and a little bit in Nevada and Washington,” per The Hollywood Reporter.

According to him, they “ended up flying a lot in the Death Valley area,” including some sequences that flew out of Fallon, NV as well as the “deep, deep valleys” surrounded by 12,000-foot mountains in the Cascades on Whidbey Island.

Top Gun: Maverick is currently streaming on digital platforms such as Prime Video, Vudu, and more.