Tom Cruise Gave Kevin Pollak a Ride to the ‘Few Good Men’ Set… in a Helicopter

Kevin Pollak has an A Few Good Men story that has nothing to do with the courtroom and everything to do with a commute.

The film split its shoot between locations. A couple of weeks in Washington, D.C. established the exteriors, while the interiors were built on sound stages in Culver City. One scene, the visit to Colonel Jessup down in Guantanamo Bay, needed a real setting, and the production ran into a problem.

"They sent the script to the Marines who read the script and said, 'You've got the Colonel being a bit of a lunatic here. You're not shooting here. You're getting no help from us,'" Pollak told Rich.

So the Guantanamo scenes moved to Long Beach. And the day before that shoot, while the cast was still working in Culver City, Tom Cruise made Pollak an offer.

"Tom says, 'Do you want to ride to work tomorrow?'" Pollak recalled. "I got a car. I mean, what do you mean? It's 20 minutes down the... No, no. Do you want to ride to work tomorrow?"

Cruise was not talking about a car.

"Tom piloted the helicopter to take me down," Pollak said. "This was 1991, '92, a little bit before people were hip to the fact that Tom was a pilot, let alone a helicopter pilot, which is one of the more difficult."

The morning had a detail Pollak could not stop repeating afterward.

"You haven't lived till you valet parked your car on a tarmac," he said. "That's what I kept saying for about six months."

The trip that takes 30 minutes by car took about 11 by air. Cruise climbed into the pilot seat, handed over the headphones, and started narrating.

"He's like, 'You like the view?'" Pollak said. "And it's bonkers. It's bonkers."

Somewhere in the back of his mind, the practical questions piled up. Did anyone tell the insurance company? Did Cruise have to clear this with someone?

"I think I would have to clear it with someone," Pollak said. "And I'm not sure Tom does that sort of thing."

The payoff comes when he watches the movie back. The scene where his character sits across from Colonel Jessup at breakfast is Long Beach, California, and Pollak is in it having just stepped off a helicopter flown by his co-star.

"Probably a little sweaty from it," he admitted. "Because I was nervous. He said, 'Do you want to see something?' And I said, 'No, no, let's just get there.'"

The whole thing lands as a snapshot from the moment right before the rest of the world learned what Cruise would do for a thrill. Pollak just happened to be the passenger who valet parked on a runway to find out early.