“I’d like to honor my dear friend,” the “Top Gun” actor said before presenting his next “Mission: Impossible”

Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise in “Top Gun” (Credit: Paramount Pictures)

Tom Cruise appeared at Paramount’s CinemaCon presentation on Thursday to showcase his next “Mission: Impossible” movie, but before moving into promotion mode, the actor paid a touching tribute to the late Val Kilmer, with whom he starred in the iconic “Top Gun.”

“I’d like to take a moment before we move on,” Cruise said solemnly after walking onstage to thunderous applause. “I’d like to honor my dear friend Val Kilmer. I really can’t tell you how much I admire his work, how much I thought of him as a human being, and how honored I was when he joined ‘Top Gun’ and returned for ‘Top Gun Maverick.’”

Cruise continued: “I think it would be really nice if we could just have a moment together, because he loved movies and he gave a lot to all of us. Just kind of think about all the wonderful times that we had with him.”

After the silence passed, Cruise said to Kilmer, “I wish you well on the next journey.”

Kilmer died on Tuesday at the age of 65 from pneumonia, his family announced, and the tributes poured in from all of Hollywood. The actor had previously battled throat cancer and his return in 2022’s “Top Gun Maverick” was far from a sure thing, but he made it work and his quiet scene with Cruise — a revisitation of the Maverick/Iceman dynamic — ended up being one of the most emotional moments of the entire film.