Name: Learn English with TOM CRUISE — Funny Story
Uploaded: 2026-02-01T17:09:20.000Z
Duration: 16 min 12 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Future continuous

Today we'll be learning English with one of the funniest celebrity stories that I've heard in a while.

Adverbs of manner

We'll listen to Tom Cruise talking about his experience filming Top Gun, where he actually chose to fly in real fighter jets for the movie.

Now, most actors would just use green screens and special effects, but not Tom Cruise.

In fact, I would even say that this man, Tom Cruise, is the real deal.

That's slang for saying that he is authentic, that he is what he is and is truly skilled at what he does.

Alright, now let's watch him tell this incredible story.

I've heard you in interviews talking about the trials of being in one of those jets.

When you first start flying, you're gonna.

Yeah, properly, like fill a bag sick, you know.

I flew with the Blue Angels and then I went.

When we were filming, when I made my deal, I said, I've got to fly in the F14.

I made it with the studio and I had to be filmed in the F14 live.

And so I had to go through all the ejector seat training and couldn't wait to fly.

So in the morning I said my first pilot that I flew with, his name was Bozo.

And we were up there, we had five minutes of film, we had to coordinate, he and I.

And we had other airplanes coming in on us and there was air combat maneuvers and we very detailed briefings and everything.

So we're going out and we're just right, you know, I don't know, a couple feet off the deck in the desert and we're just sweating.

Alright, you're going to want to stay until the end to get the rest of the story.

Now let's analyze the most advanced expressions that we just saw in the first clip.

Trials here means difficulties, like challenging experiences that test your limits.

It's not about a court trial, it's about going through something really tough.

For example, this winter has been a trial for me physically and emotionally.

So Graham describes flying fighter jets as horrific, which means absolutely terrible or extremely unpleasant.

But when you first start flying you're gonna.

You get sick, you know, but like, properly sick?

When Graham says properly sick, he's checking with Tom.

If he means sick, as in going to throw up.

In English, the expression I'm gonna be sick when said exactly like this means I'm going to vomit.

So when Tom says fill a bag sick, that's his way of confirming exactly what Brent meant.

Filling a bag, like the bag they give you throw on a boat and get seasick.

You know, I flew with the Blue Angels and then I went when we were filming, when I made my deal, I said, I've gotta fly in the F14.

I made it with the studio and I had to be filmed in the F14.

The Blue Angels are the US Navy's aerobatic demonstration team.

And the Navy is the part of the military that operates ships and sea based aircraft.

Aerobatic means performing stunts, skillful movements in the air like loops and rolls.

And the F14 is a specific type of fighter jet which was the main plane used in the original Top Gun movie.

And so I had to go through all the ejector seat training.

To eject means to push something out of something else.

Like we used to eject CDs from computers and stereos.

Now, an ejector seat is a special safety seat in military planes.

If there's an emergency, the seat can shoot the pilot out of the plane so they can parachute to safety.

And Tom needed to learn how to use the ejector seat before he was allowed to fly in the morning.

I said the first pilot that I flew with, his name was Bozo.

You've probably heard of Bozo the Clown, a famous clown character who appeared on children's TV shows for decades, right?

Well, in English, this name has actually become associated with clowns in general.

So sometimes people informally use the word bozo to refer to someone who acts silly or foolish.

You think so you can take the average guy off the street and you could do a better job.

This Bozo right here could probably be a better congressman than them.

By the way, these advanced expressions that you're Seeing highlighted in blue is you can practice them on our app.

Honestly, you may ask, why would you not do that?

Well, we've discovered that this is a great method to memorize words so you can remember them later when you have conversations in English.

I mean, I'm sure you've been in situations where you try to speak English, but

it's like all the words you know have disappeared from your brain.

So thousands of learners just like you are using our app to start speaking English naturally with the words they learned from our lessons.

I'll leave the link in the description below so you can click on that right now using your phone and continue watching this lesson from there.

Film here refers to the amount of videotape they had for filming the scenes for the movie.

They had enough for five minutes of shooting.

A briefing in this context is a professional meeting where it is given a detailed explanation of what exactly is going to happen, what everyone's job is, what safety rules to follow and things like this.

Tom is explaining that these flights were very coordinated.

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Learn English with TOM CRUISE — Funny Story

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