The “SNL” episode in question would have featured an iconic cameo from Tom Cruise that the audience wasn’t expecting.

When Val Kilmer hosted Saturday Night Live in December 2000, a Top Gun sketch almost featured a cameo from co-star Tom Cruise ...

Tom Cruise paid tribute to his late "Top Gun" co-star Val Kilmer on Thursday.

From playing rock legends to gunslingers, Kilmer left a huge mark on Hollywood with a career spanning more than four decades.

The 2000 sketch's co-writer, Michael Schur, joked that "30 Rock would have crumbled to the ground" had the cameo worked out.

Cruise and Kilmer met on the set of 1986’s “Top Gun,” in which they played rival fighter pilots Maverick and Iceman, who eventually became friends at the U.S. Navy’s Fighter Weapons School.

PHOTO: Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise are shown in a scene from the 1986 movie 'Top Gun.' (Paramount Pictures via Newscom) After the moment of silence, Cruise, speaking to his late co-star, said, "I ...

Tom Cruise paid tribute to his late Top Gun costar Val Kilmer with an emotional moment of silence at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. At the beginning of his Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning ...

Following Val Kilmer’s death, his fans and his friends have spoken out in order to pay tribute to the accomplished actor. Tom ...

The bar scene, while nostalgic, functions as a crucial pivot point that sets up character arcs, thematic depth and emotional ...

I’ll say one of the things that jumps out is FaceTiming my dad and Tom Cruise taking the phone and talking to my dad on FaceTime while we were shooting Top Gun, that was pretty crazy.

Continued Cruise: "I wish you well on the next journey." Kilmer starred as naval aviator Tom "Iceman" Kazansky in 1986's Top Gun, which propelled him into stardom. Funny enough, the pop culture ...