Navy lends carrier to Tom Cruise for new ‘Mission: Impossible′ -

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two” is expected in 2024. (Paramount Pictures/YouTube)

Tom Cruise’s nearly four-decade dalliance with the U.S. Navy is going strong as he films yet another movie with assistance from the sea service.

Variety reports that Cruise is currently filming “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two” on an aircraft carrier in the Adriatic Sea, marking the eighth film in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

Antonio Parente, head of the Apulia Film Commission in Italy, told Variety that the carrier lending itself to the big screen is “probably the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush, but we are not sure.”

Though Cruise reportedly landed at the Bari airport and took on a private helicopter from there to the carrier, Parente said the Navy ship is now “somewhere between Italy and Croatia.”

Cruise’s relationship with the Navy dates back to the first “Top Gun” movie in 1986, which would prove to be a massive recruiting lure for Navy pilots.

Its long-anticipated sequel, “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022), has been nominated for best picture at this year’s upcoming Oscars.

Scenes from “Top Gun: Maverick” were filmed aboard the carrier Abraham Lincoln.

“Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One” will premiere on July 14, 2023. Part Two is expected to arrive in 2024.

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Sarah Sicard is a Senior Editor with Military Times. She previously served as the Digitial Editor of Military Times and the Army Times Editor. Other work can be found at National Defense Magazine, Task & Purpose, and Defense News.