Q 6

PLAYBOY: Just how much fun can you have in a jet fighter?

Tom Cruise: Landing on a carrier deck in an F-14 has been described as having sex in a car wreck. I've always enjoyed going fast. I've always wanted to be a fighter pilot. I enjoy competition, though not in terms of war and battles--I'm not a warmonger. I just love jets and flying--in the romantic sense. During Top Gun, it was such a thrill for me to go to the officer's club in San Diego and talk with World War Two fighter pilots about combat. Now, with air-combat maneuvering, there's a computer in each plane. Everything is calculated by computer, so that combat is a huge video game. The A-4s and F-5s simulate Migs. You get the conditions: hard deck at 5000 feet. You make a head-to-head pass and enter combat. It's like two warriors jousting. You see the fighters coming down, full throttle, to the deck, the exhaust just ripping out of the planes as they tear over the desert canopy to canopy, inches apart. The key thing is to try to get nose to tail on the enemy aircraft. We've also got missiles to shoot head on. But since it's all computer-guided, there's a chance the missile won't go off. So you have to switch to guns. When you're down on the ground, you can listen to the pilots' voices in combat and see it all on a big video screen from the pilots' point of view.

I took three hops while we were shooting. I also took lessons in a Cessna to prep for the film. I came close to getting my license but didn't really have enough time.

Q 7

PLAYBOY: If you could ask Chuck Yeager one question, what would it be?

Tom Cruise: Why are you still alive?

Q 8

PLAYBOY: When are you most dangerous?

Tom Cruise: At about 160 miles an hour on my motorcycle. It goes 170.

PLAYBOY: Say you're going 80. What goes through your head as you wind it out?

Tom Cruise: [Grins] OK, it's like this: A Porsche cuts in front of me because the guy doesn't see me. So I calmly pull up next to him and honk my horn and say, "What do you think you're doing?" But he just takes off, thinking that he's in a Porsche and I'm just on a bike. So I lay across the tank and pull the throttle back a little bit. I start to pass things. The Ninja begins to bear down as I speed up. I see the taillights of the Porsche coming closer and closer. Then, as I'm passing, I look right into the big, surprised eyes of the driver.

The Ninja really holds the road, so I don't worry about balance. But I wouldn't do this on roads I didn't know, either. I just like going fast, but [snaps fingers] anything can happen.

Q 9

PLAYBOY: There have been varying interpretations of your breakthrough film, Risky Business. What would you tell a film school class the picture was about?

Tom Cruise: It's about capitalism and the idea that there has to be more to life than making money. Joel Goodsen is a kid from upper-middle-class society who has an ultimate capitalist adventure by organizing callgirls--the ultimate capitalists. I love the way Rebecca De Mornay played her part, because she didn't do the happy hooker. There was sadness and reality. She asks, "Why does it always have to be so tough?" Then, when Joel says, "My name is Joel Goodsen and I grossed $8000 in one night," he is really saying that he now understands the system and that he's not going to play.

Q 10

PLAYBOY: Your name has been linked lately with those of a few actresses. Would you rather have a girlfriend in or out of the movie business?

Tom Cruise: Again, the press makes things up. I haven't been in a relationship with anyone since Rebecca.

I'm not really sure whether it is an advantage to be with someone in the business. I know I need someone who is adaptable, someone who can go from one extreme environment to the next and not go crazy. Sometimes I get up in the middle of the night and want to work. Other times, I can sleep for days. And I'm always going from one location to the next. I want someone extremely bright and creative. That kind of woman is likely to be pursuing her own vision in life, which for me is ideal. I don't want someone living for and depending on me for everything, because I do need a lot of time alone.

But just as I'm still at the beginning of my career as an artist, it's the same in relationships. I'm not looking to get married right now. But I love to be in love. That's what makes it all worth while. Outside of a high school sweetheart I went with for about seven months, Rebecca was my first serious girlfriend. Living with her was fantastic. She's bright, talented. I've since dated women other than actresses--no, not the check-out girl at the local market. [Laughs] Lawyers, writers, artists. But in the final analysis, it's just the person, isn't it? Who knows? One day, I'll just be walking down the street and there she'll be.

Q 11

PLAYBOY: Whose company do you enjoy more--women's or men's?

Tom Cruise: Women's. I like the company of men, but I prefer women. Maybe it has to do with having three sisters. I trust women easier than men. Also, I got to see all the stuff they went through. I know that women are at their worst in the morning. [Laughs] I used to talk with my sisters about women. I saw how they liked to be treated, what upset them. We were close. And now I am very careful with the women I date. I treat them the way I would want my sisters to be treated.

Q 12

PLAYBOY: We loved the train scene from Risky Business. Whom would you like to have directed in it?

Tom Cruise: [Long pause] Hmmm. Who would I like to see make love on a train? Sean Penn and Madonna? Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd? Actually, I see more of Kim Basinger and...Paul Newman. I'll throw him in there so he can have a good time. [Laughs] Whom else do I want to do a favor for here? The list will be long and distinguished.