Honoring his late friend and co-star Val Kilmer is something that Tom Cruise is doing.
Cruise, who is 62 years old, made an appearance at CinemaCon 2025 in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 3, to introduce new content from Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning. However, before to beginning his presentation, he led the audience in a minute of silence to remember Kilmer, who had been his co-star in Top Gun and had passed away on Tuesday, April 1.
As Cruise addressed the crowd, he was greeted with cheers. “I would like to take a moment before we get started today to honor a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer,” Cruise made the statement. “I am unable to express how much I respected his work and how much I admired him as a person. I do not have the words to express how pleased and honored I was that he joined Top Gun and returned for Top Gun: Maverick. Due to the fact that he had a passion for movies and had provided a great deal of assistance to each and every one of us via his performances in his films, I believe that it would be very lovely if we could just have a moment together and just take a minute. It would be lovely if we could all just take a minute to reflect on all of the beautiful experiences that we had with him that we had.
“Thank you, Val,” Cruise responded after there was a little pause in the conversation. “I hope that your future path is successful for you. All of you are appreciated for doing that. He is aware of how much he values it.
As reported by his daughter Mercedes Kilmer to The New York Times, Kilmer passed away on Tuesday, April 1 due to complications from pneumonia. Val was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2014, and his daughter reported that he had made a full recovery from the disease.
It is well known that Cruise acted opposite Kilmer in the first Top Gun picture, which was released in 1986. In the film, Cruise played the role of Tom “Iceman” Kazansky, who was Cruise’s character’s adversary at the fighter pilot training school. Kilmer made his last appearance on screen in the sequel Top Gun: Maverick, which was released in 2022. In this film, the two actors reunited as their legendary roles. According to statements made by Jerry Bruckheimer, the producer of the film, to People in the year 2021, Cruise “was the driving force” in obtaining Kilmer’s participation in the sequel.
“He said, ‘We have to have Val, we have to have him back… ‘” At that moment, Bruckheimer made statement. “…We all wanted him, but Tom was really adamant that if he’s going to make another Top Gun, Val had to be in it.”
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live in February 2023, Cruise said that the process of recording his reunion sequence with Kilmer was “pretty emotional” on set. The actor even admitted that he shed tears when the scene was being filmed.
Over the years, Cruise and Kilmer continued to be close friends outside of the film industry. A message commemorating Cruise’s 60th birthday was posted by Kilmer on X in 2022. The message was a word of congratulations to Cruise. It was written by him, “Happy Birthday Mav @TomCruise from Ice!” in reference to their respective Top Gun characters.
During an interview with People magazine in 2022, the late actor said that working with Cruise once again on the sequel was “like being reunited with a long lost friend.” During his time working on the first picture, he also said that his “main joy” was the opportunity to collaborate with Tom Cruise. Kilmer said, “I am happy to announce that we have home movies to prove how much fun we had!” in reference to the couple’s relationship that did not take place on film.