F1 is turning out to be one of the summer’s most unexpected success stories, and a reminder of the appeal of classic, old-fashioned, high-concept cinema. Reuniting the writer-director-producer—and even composer—of Top Gun: Maverick, it’s just as immersive and engaging as that film, even if it’s missing one key ingredient: Tom Cruise. Brad Pitt is superb in the lead role, but certainly, I wasn’t the only one watching F1 thinking that it felt almost exactly like a Tom Cruise movie—only without him. In fact, Cruise himself has been openly advocating for people to see F1, showing up at the premiere and writing about how much he enjoyed it on social media. But it also seems to have lit a competitive fire inside Cruise, who—after thirty-five years—has announced a sequel to his own racing movie, Days of Thunder! But what would it be like?
Now, one thing worth noting is that Days of Thunder wasn’t one of Tom Cruise’s bigger hits, even if it’s now considered something of a classic. Released in 1990, it was viewed as Cruise’s follow-up to Top Gun, reuniting him with that movie’s director, Tony Scott, as well as the producing team of Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer. Yet, the shoot was infamously problematic, plagued by the excesses of producer Don Simpson—detailed in shocking fashion in the book High Concept. One famous story was that Simpson had a closet full of Donna Karan dresses on hand to give out to sexy women he saw at Daytona, who would come to private parties that were infamous for their excess. The movie’s script was also problematic and plagued by endless rewrites, to the point that the budget hovered somewhere around $70 million.
The movie was a box office disappointment. It earned $82 million domestically, which was a solid number in 1990, but four years earlier Top Gun made close to $100 million more than this for half the budget. You do the math.
That said, Days of Thunder did well on VHS and cable, and seems to have gotten a second life—especially in the wake of Top Gun: Maverick’s success, which seems to have reinvigorated interest in Tom Cruise’s catalogue, especially his legendary run with Paramount Pictures, where he’s spent most of his career. Days of Thunder is often packaged with other, more successful Cruise movies like Top Gun and The Firm.
Certainly, a Days of Thunder sequel has potential, but to my way of thinking, there’s one pivotal reason that Cruise wants to make it—beyond friendly competition with F1. You see, despite its mega budget and access to the world of NASCAR, Cruise was not allowed—for insurance purposes—to do a lot of his own driving, with him doubled by Greg Sacks. Now, Cruise did indeed learn how to drive NASCAR for the movie. He started with showroom stock cars and then progressed to Nissan 300ZX race cars, eventually moving on to racing full-sized NASCAR stock cars. He did do some driving in the film—he even crashed one due to the fact that he was reading lines taped to the windshield on cue cards—but during this era Cruise didn’t yet have the daredevil reputation he would later achieve. That really only began with the Mission: Impossible movies. I imagine that if Days of Thunder 2 gets made, Cruise’s main motivation will be to do as much of his own driving as possible.
Just like Top Gun: Maverick simulated what it would actually be like flying a jet—in a way that the original film never did—one has to imagine Days of Thunder would do the same thing for NASCAR, especially since F1 has set the bar pretty high as far as Formula One goes.
CAREFUL – F1 ENDING SPOILERS AHEAD!
Another possibility is that Days of Thunder and F1 could cross over. Cruise and Pitt are famously pals, having walked the red carpet together for the F1 premiere, and having co-starred in Interview with the Vampire. F1’s Joseph Kosinski has openly discussed bringing the two franchises together, and it would make sense. At the end of F1, Pitt’s Sonny Hayes—after winning the Grand Prix—leaves the world of F1 behind. The movie establishes that, medically, he’s never been able to fully recover from the trauma of his crash thirty years earlier, and it ends on a bittersweet note, with it clear that his medical problems are catching up with him and that he may not have much time left. The movie makes it clear that he’s going to keep on racing until he dies, and that he’s proficient at all types of driving—so maybe he hits NASCAR? Having Sonny Hayes go up against Cole Trickle, who could be established as one of the sport’s greatest legends, would be an amazing hook for a sequel.
And there’s another thing that could make Days of Thunder a huge event. The movie is arguably most famous for the fact that it co-starred Nicole Kidman, and that she and Cruise married shortly after and became Hollywood’s golden couple until their divorce in the early 2000s. For obvious reasons, their careers have never really intertwined in the years since, and there were loads of tabloid stories about issues the two might have had. Yet, in recent years, both have praised each other as actors in the media—and could you imagine how prestigious it would be if Cruise and Kidman reunited more than twenty years after their divorce in a movie? Both have maintained a level of stardom that’s rare in the industry, and having her reprise her role as Cole’s love interest would be a coup. Here’s an even crazier route they could go: her character is a neurosurgeon, and in F1 it’s made clear that Sonny is suffering from neurological issues that may one day kill him. Imagine he goes to her for treatment, and then he and Cruise not only go to war on the racetrack—but also for her affection? Heck, you could even have her and Cole’s relationship mirror Cruise and Kidman’s own and have them be divorced.
Most importantly, though, Days of Thunder 2 will need a great director—and frankly, there’s only one person who can do it: Joseph Kosinski. Give us a Days of Thunder 2 that’s directed by Kosinski, scored by Hans Zimmer (his OG Days of Thunder score is a masterpiece), and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and it would be an event. In some ways, I’d almost like to see it more than another Top Gun movie—because Maverick was already pretty perfect.
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