Top Gun pilot from Sarasota plays pivotal role in 'Top Gun: Maverick,' hopes to inspire next generation
SARASOTA, Fla. - "Top Gun" inspired a Sarasota man to become a pilot in the Navy 30 years ago, and his career came full circle when he served as a technical advisor on the latest Top Gun movie.
Sitting in a Sarasota theater at the age of 17, Brian Ferguson's lifelong goal to fly became ingrained in him.
The Riverview High School student already knew he wanted to fly, but in 1986 the movie "Top Gun" made him realize his full dream.
"I said, ‘Oh, I want to do that. I want to land 50 million dollar fighters on aircraft carriers pitching around in the sea, and go fight for freedom and democracy,’" Capt. Ferguson told FOX 13.
He did. He served in the U.S Navy and attended Top Gun, the Navy Fighter Weapons School He flew F-A 18s on combat missions.
After transitioning from active duty to reserves, he received another call, which would take him full circle.
"They said, ‘Hey we have an opportunity for you to work on ‘Top Gun’,’" he said.
Fergunson almost turned down the role in "Top Gun: Maverick" the movie, but his wife gave him a nudge.
"She said you joined the Navy because of the first one, wouldn’t it be appropriate as you’re getting ready to end your 30-year career that you work on this one. She said the other part of this is if you’re not part of this, you will regret not being a part of this if it’s a good movie and if it’s not a good movie you’ll regret you didn’t do it because maybe you could have done better," he said.
For more than a year, he served as the Navy's technical advisor for the film. He worked on aerial coordination, prepared actors for flight and helped Tom Cruise achieve a vision.
"He said there are a lot of risks and it’s going to be very hard to do and it has to be perfect," said Capt. Ferguson.
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That's what Captain Ferguson and the crew did.
"We filmed 800 hours of aerial footage and there was what’s in the movie maybe 15 minutes, that’s the gold 1% that we used," he said.
They brought viewers as close as possible.
"That's exactly what the goal was. To put everyone in the seat of the theater in the seat of an F-18," he said.
He hopes to inspire a new generation to answer the call to serve our country.
"I'd say that those are the real stars and real heroes of the story are the young men and women of the American Navy. People will see this movie and say wow I want to go do that," he said.
LINK: Learn more about Ferguson on his Instagram page here.