Tom Cruise was overcome with emotion when he reunited with fellow "Top Gun: Maverick" star Val Kilmer, who reprised his role as Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in the box office hit last year.
"I've known Val for decades, and for him to come back and play that character — he's such a powerful actor that he instantly became that character again. You're looking at Iceman," Cruise, who starred as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell in the film, said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
"I was crying. I got emotional. He's such a brilliant actor, and I love his work," Cruise added.
Kilmer also reflected on the reunion in an email to USA Today last year.
"I was very moved the first time I saw it. Almost 40 years is a long time for a reunion," Kilmer said of the scene he shares with Cruise. "We laughed all day. Tom is great and surprisingly funny!!"
"Top Gun: Maverick" director Joseph Kosinski added that the reunion scene was fueled by real emotions.
"It's a long friendship. They were both there at their career beginnings with the original 'Top Gun.' I'm sure there was a little bit of a rivalry back then, just like the characters," said Kosinski. "But for both to be back in this movie, it was a really special moment. There was so much joy."
In "Top Gun: Maverick," Iceman is mostly unable to speak due to cancer. It is not unlike Kilmer's own loss of speech. The actor underwent a tracheotomy for throat cancer in 2014 but is still able to deliver some dialogue in the new film, due largely to artificial intelligence that Kilmer previously used.
In 2021, Kilmer revealed that he had partnered with the software company Sonantic to create his old speaking voice. Using an AI prototype, Kilmer supplied the company with archival footage of his voice that was then fed into its algorithms and used to create the model, according to The Wrap.
"We create the world's most expressive and realistic artificial voices, and we do this for the entertainment industry," CEO and co-founder Zeena Qureshi told People at the time. "So on one side we work with actors and we help them train basically an AI version of themselves that can edit and it can work for them."
CTO and co-founder John Flynn in a recent interview with Fortune said that the company generated more than 40 different voice models and "selected the best, highest-quality, most expressive one."
"Those new algorithms are now embedded into our voice engine, so future clients can automatically take advantage of them as well," he said.
"I'm grateful to the entire team at Sonantic who masterfully restored my voice in a way I've never imagined possible," Kilmer said in a statement in 2021.
"As human beings, the ability to communicate is the core of our existence and the side effects from throat cancer have made it difficult for others to understand me," he said. "The chance to narrate my story, in a voice that feels authentic and familiar, is an incredibly special gift."