The film crew turned the Lake Tahoe Airport into a war zone.
The movie used military bases all over the west coast, including North Island in San Diego, Lemoore in Fresno and Kings counties, China Lake in Ridgecrest, and Naval Air Station Fallon in Nevada, where the real life top gun aviation school is located. Each of those locations offered unique qualities, but none were quite right for the film’s climax.
“We needed a mountaintop that overlooked the airport,” Fantasia said. “You don't have mountains close to most airports, but it just so happened there's a couple of knobs of rock sticking up, called Twin Peaks, that are just sitting south and west of the airport.” Jennifer Connelly plays Penny Benjamin and Tom Cruise plays Capt. Pete"Maverick" Mitchell in"Top Gun: Maverick."Working with the U.S. Forest Service, the crew built platforms on the side of the mountain that helicopters could land on to bring in the equipment needed to shoot an epic scene overlooking the airport, which had been transformed into a military base.
Another element that cinched the deal was the ability to make the area look like a war zone. Due to forthcoming renovations to the airport, the crew were given nearly free rein to do whatever they liked with the site. That meant infrastructure upgrades like adding military hangars that could house fighter jets, but also doing enough damage to make the area look like it had just suffered a tactical air strike.
“First, we pockmarked the runway with potholes,” Fantasia said. “We made it look like there'd been a battle there. We cut down trees that were going to be removed anyway for the construction.”The other major location was Washoe Meadows Park, just west of the airport over Twin Peaks.
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