Brad Pitt and Damson Idris in F1 (2025) Dan Mullan/Getty Images
Joseph Kosinski has been a film director for a long time, but his first project Tron: Legacy (2010) is generally not considered a good film despite grossing $400 million worldwide. However, one thing the Tron sequel is good at are visuals, which is why the movie looks terrific on a big screen but fails to impress if watched at home. His next big film, Oblivion (2013), also got mixed reviews. Oblivion was budgeted at $120 million and grossed $286 million worldwide, and even though it starred Tom Cruise, it is barely remembered today. Still, Cruise liked what Kosinski did and agreed to do another film with the director. This proved to be a prudent decision, as Top Gun: Maverick (2022) would jumpstart not only Kosinski’s career but would reignite Cruise’s career as well.
The sequel to the legendary Top Gun (1986) brought back elements of what audiences love about the original film: impressive flight sequences, Tom Cruise’s movie star appeal, and the antagonistic relationship between the cocky cadet Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Cruise’s character) and his former rival Ice (played by the late Val Kilmer). But the film did not just coast on the appeal of the original, it brought a lot of new ideas to the table as well. Maverick is now an instructor to elite pilots at the Top Gun school and Ice is no longer a rival but a commander of the US Pacific Fleet. In fact, it is Ice who has kept Mitchell’s career alive, as his cocky attitude and refusal to follow superiors’ orders have put it in jeopardy many times. The new character—Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (played by Miles Teller), son of Mitchell’s deceased best friend Nick “Goose” Bradshaw—who is now a cadet, blames Mitchell for his father’s death. While this is a source of tension, the two men not only have to get along as teacher and student, but work together as partners on a mission.
The sequel was loved by audiences but even critics found it superior to the original. It grossed $1.496 billion worldwide and was the highest grossing film of Tom Cruise’s career. With this enormous success, most wondered what Kosinski would do next.
Enter Brad Pitt. Like Cruise, he is a huge movie star and a household name, but has also had low periods in his career, while generating publicity due to high-profile marriages to well-known actresses. One thing that has remained constant with Pitt is that he has never stopped being a star. However, his last two films—Babylon (2022) and Spys (2024)—were a critical and commercial failure. Even though Spys also featured George Clooney, this did not prevent the project initially set for theatrical release from ending up streaming on Apple TV+.
For his latest movie F1 (2025), Kosinski teamed up again with Top Gun: Maverick screenwriter Ehren Kruger. Together, they wrote this sports drama centering around Formula 1, one of the world’s premier forms of racing cars, considered to be the pinnacle of racing. Brad Pitt was paid $30 million for his portrayal of Sonny Hayes, a race driver who returns to Formula 1 after a 30-year absence to save his former teammate’s racing team APXGP from collapse. With Kosinski as a director and Jerry Bruckheimer—producer of both Top Gun films—as a producer, as well as a $200−$300 million budget, expectations were understandably high.
From the trailers, F1 appears to be a film that was made to emulate the success of Top Gun: Maverick. While certain story elements are reminiscent of Top Gun: Maverick, viewers will still be surprised by the overall plot.
For starters, Pitt’s Sonny Hayes has very little in common with Tom Cruise’s Pete Mitchell, who has always been cocky and defied superiors’ orders, but has always delivered the goods as a pilot as well as instructor. When we come to the film’s climax, he is the one flying the plane. Hayes, on the other hand, has never been a champion. Since the end of his career due to a crash at Spanish Grand Prix, Hayes went through three marriages and became a gambling addict. At the beginning of the film, he lives as a nomadic racer for hire. While Hayes loves to win at racing, we notice he doesn’t like to hold the trophy. When his former teammate Ruben (Javier Bardem) asks him to join his team, he does not come back for money or to get his name back in the press, but to achieve a goal he had set for himself 30 years ago. Likewise, while Mitchell seems to be always successful in whatever he does, Hayes continues to encounter a lot of racing mistakes as he pursues his goal. As a result, when the movie comes to an end, we are left with the impression that his character has not changed and he will go back to the lifestyle he was living before Ruben contacted him.
Just as Mitchell was teamed up with Nick, Hayes has to work with Joshua Pearce (Damson Idris), many years his junior. There is tension between the two, but it is not the same kind of tension as that portrayed in Top Gun: Maverick. Joshua believes he must trounce his teammates in order to impress the team’s investors. As Hayes does not take kindly to Joshua’s aggressiveness, they get into car collisions with each other at the first few Grand Prix races.
Kosinski continues to show his eye for visuals as he directs the race sequences in F1. As he directed the flight sequences in Top Gun: Maverick , he never relies on CGI and utilizes professional stuntmen to deliver the visual stunts. While most action film directors make a lot of quick editing cuts that make the action hard to follow, this is not the case in F1. Kosinski’s race sequences are easy to follow as we can always know whether it is Sonny or Joshua driving the car as well as if they are doing good in the race or falling behind.
The big question is how F1 is doing at the box office. In its first international opening week, it grossed $144 million. While it was the first hit for Apple Studios as a producer, it was the biggest opening week of Brad Pitt’s career. In its second weekend, F1 grossed $56.3 million. To date, the film has collected $184 million overseas and $293 million worldwide. Still, due to its huge budget, it will need a few more strong weeks at the box office to make a profit. Right now, it appears likely that will happen.
While I do not think the film will do as well financially as Top Gun: Maverick, it will continue to bolster Kosinski’s career. At this point, Kosinski is only getting started and no one can really predict what direction his career will take. However, it is certain that he knows how to make a film look good on the big screen. In this post-pandemic era, that is a huge plus, as most people these days will wait for a film to hit streaming. If you want the theaters to be popular again, you must give them a visual experience that can’t be attained by watching the film on their couch. Kosinski delivers that visual experience.
