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Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer

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Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:958px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1743723075947Top-Gun1.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">A scene from &quot;Top Gun: Maverick&quot;. <em>Handout</em></span></span></span></div><p>LAS VEGAS - Tom Cruise paid tribute to late &quot;Top Gun&quot; co-star Val Kilmer on Thursday, leading movie theater owners in a moment&#x27;s silence at the CinemaCon event before unveiling new footage from his latest &quot;Mission: Impossible&quot; movie.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;d like to honor a dear friend of mine, Val Kilmer,&quot; said Cruise, at the start of his hotly anticipated appearance at the annual industry summit in Las Vegas.</p><p>&quot;I really can&#x27;t tell you how much I admired his work, how much I thought of him as a human being, and how grateful and honored I was when he joined &#x27;Top Gun&#x27; and then came back for &#x27;Top Gun: Maverick,&quot; said Cruise.</p><p>Kilmer, one of the biggest Hollywood actors of the 1990s, who shot to fame playing Iceman in the original 1986 &quot;Top Gun&quot;, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/entertainment/showbiz/celebrities/2025/4/2/-batman-forever-actor-val-kilmer-dies-at-65-1303">died aged 65</a>, his family announced this week.</p><div><iframe src="https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FabscbnNEWS%2Fposts%2Fpfbid0AWcYHw6cuEH8FT8DiTJ4aVBC9yo8JuGmweneTk7JZMkXVqTFxCWxAK2kDq5VjugCl&amp;show_text=true&amp;width=500" width="500" height="660" style="border:none;overflow:hidden" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div><p>The cause of death was pneumonia. Kilmer had battled throat cancer after being diagnosed in 2014, and made his final appearance in the &quot;Top Gun&quot; 2022 sequel &quot;Maverick,&quot; physically diminished and with a raspy voice.</p><p>Cruise on Thursday led the audience at Caesars Palace casino in a lengthy silence, asking attendees to &quot;take a moment and just think about all the wonderful times that we had&quot; watching Kilmer on the big screen.</p><p>&quot;I wish you well on your next journey,&quot; said Cruise, to Kilmer.</p><p>He added to the attendees: &quot;Thank you all for doing that. I know he appreciates it.&quot;</p><p>&quot;Top Gun&quot; was Kilmer&#x27;s breakout role. Starring opposite Cruise, he played the cocky, square-jawed and mostly silent fighter pilot in training Tom &quot;Iceman&quot; Kazansky.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UWBmAja6g4Y?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div><p>When he reprised his role as &quot;Iceman&quot; in the long-awaited sequel &quot;Top Gun: Maverick,&quot; Kilmer&#x27;s real-life health issues were written into the character.</p><p>Cruise on Thursday also introduced a new trailer for &quot;Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,&quot; out May 23.</p><p>Footage shows Cruise&#x27;s ageless hero Ethan Hunt clinging to the wheels of a small biplane as it soars down a narrow canyon and barrel rolls through the skies.</p><p>The trailer contained extensive flashbacks to famous scenes from earlier in the eight-film blockbuster franchise, such as Cruise dangling between lasers and climbing the Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai.</p><p>&quot;I need you to trust me one last time,&quot; says Cruise&#x27;s character, in what Paramount is marketing as supposedly the final movie of the franchise.</p><p>amz/hg</p><p>© Agence France-Presse</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Da1yFFnkGhU?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Tom Cruise paid tribute to late "Top Gun" co-star Val Kilmer on Thursday, leading movie theater owners in a moment's silence at the CinemaCon event before unveiling new footage from his latest "Mission: Impossible" movie.</p>

Tom Cruise paid tribute to late "Top Gun" co-star Val Kilmer on Thursday, leading movie theater owners in a moment's silence at the CinemaCon event before unveiling new footage from his latest "Mission: Impossible" movie.

'I wish you well on your next journey': Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer

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'I wish you well on your next journey': Tom Cruise pays tribute to Val Kilmer

Agence France-Presse

Published Apr 04, 2025 07:31 AM PHT

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