Ever since Glen Powell joined Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick dream team of a cast, the actor can’t stop, won’t stop being part of projects that have to do with the Navy. His latest is a high-flying documentary called The Blue Angels, which chronicles the year for the Navy’s elite Flight Demonstration Squadron. When Powell spoke to CinemaBlend about the making of the new release, he reflected how it made him appreciate his work on Maverick.
While chatting with Powell about The Blue Angels, I asked the actor how being a producer on the new documentary might have given him a better understanding for his naval characters (which also includes the 2022 biopic, Devotion). Here’s what he said:
Well, I think that centrifuge that you're talking about, that sequence in the documentary is so cool and I think so effective because I don't think people really have a concept of what Gs are and what that is on your body. Obviously during Top Gun we had to figure out how to increase our G tolerance so we weren't passing out in the back of Jets. But the crazy thing about the Blue Angels is because of the precision, because they're flying so close to each other at such crazy speeds, how a G suit works is it literally inflates and squeezes blood in your legs and keeps it in the top half of your body, so you don't pass out. The Blue Angels do not have a G’s because it would affect how that stick moves and potentially harm other people when you're flying in that close proximity.
During The Blue Angels, which is now streaming with an Amazon Prime subscription, audiences get to see just how demanding it is to be part of the elite Navy team. Particularly through one sequence where they are tested in a centrifuge that places their body into G-force. The Blue Angels have been said to speed up to 400 mph to initiate a level 360-degree mid-radius turn across the horizon during their shows, which has them pulling 7Gs in the air.
As Powell explained, while there is such a thing as a G suit that can help pilots withstand the intense speed one might undergo in flight, The Blue Angels learn to deal with it without these suits, and it’s rather mind-blowing. As he continued during our interview:
So, they have to learn how to endure more G’s than any other pilot and do it without that G suit, which is incredibly impressive. So what you're seeing in that centrifuge is them increasing those Gs and essentially until they pass out and learning how to continue to push that limit so that we're never worried about those pilots G locking when they're up there pulling off these maneuvers. But I totally agree, I think that's a really impressive part of this documentary. 'cause it's such a human part of it. It feels like someone that you and I would know, just an ordinary person walking into this thing where you are spun around like a washing machine until you pass out and you continue to do that because that's what these pilots have to do. You know, even when you hit perfection there's a point past that to always do better. And I think that's such a defining aspect of the Blues.
During the documentary, audiences get to experience what it's like for these pilots to learn how to withstand G’s on their own, and it’s really eye-opening in terms of the risks involved. While Glen Powell is not one of the Blues, he can share some experiences with these pilots since he and the other Top Gun 2 actors went through extensive training so they could be filmed in the back of fighter jets for the 2022 blockbuster. Powell’s co-star Miles Teller previously shared he thought he was “going to die” at one point filming the action flick due to being part of a G-pull up!
In our interview, Powell told us that he saw The Blue Angels as a young boy before nabbing his role in Top Gun: Maverick, Devotion or producing this doc alongside J.J. Abrams. His time on Top Gun only enhanced his love for flight, considering he has since gotten his pilot's license and become good pals with Cruise.
You can check out The Blue Angels documentary on Amazon Prime now. Powell is also set to star next in the action comedy Hit Man, which arrives on Netflix on June 7.
