The Saturday Night Live 2000s sketch co-writer Michael Schur traced down the events that almost led to Tom Cruise’s surprise cameo on Top Gun sketch.
During the latest episode of The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers Podcast, the host played a voice note in which Schur reminisced about Kilmer as stint host in the December 9, 2000 episode.
He remembered the actor as "very intense but very nice." Describing the sketch, he said, "It was 25 years after the events of Top Gun and Iceman (Kilmer's character's nickname in the film) had retired from the Navy and was now flying very boring commercial flights for Delta."
According to Schur, the Mission: Impossible actor was also present at the show "standing eight feet away and watching this sketch and just enjoying it a great deal."
He went on to share that a long time SNL producer Marci Klein came to him while sketch was being performed and said, "Tom Cruise is here, should we get him to like walk on?"
Schur agreed to the idea and tried to quickly come up on how to make Cruise’s entrance on the set, suggesting that Jack Reacher star will walk on sketch’s final moments to "grab Val Kilmer and just say 'Hey Iceman, let’s get you out of here, bud.'"
When Cruise learned about his cameo he was ready to perform saying "yeah, ok I get it."
However, before Cruise could reach the stage, the sketch ended and Kilmer walked off the stage to change his attire. Cruise missed his part by eight seconds difference.
Kilmer died of pneumonia of April 2 at the age of 65. Cruise paid his respect during a promotional event for Mission Impossible – The Finale Reckoning by asking the audience to join him a moment of silence. "Thank you, Val. I wish you well on your next journey," he concluded.
