Jackson Storm (Cars 3; film)

Jackson Storm is the main antagonist of Cars 3. He is a custom-built Next-Gen race car who competes in the Piston Cup Racing Series. Following his debut in 2017, Storm has proved to be highly talented, hitting top speeds that veteran racers struggled with reaching (210+ mph). Storm's stellar performance sparked interest in the next-generation of racers, and other Piston Cup teams began replacing their veterans with newer, more powerful racers. Storm achieved many wins during his first full season, and even set the record for fastest lap of all time at the Florida International Speedway. He is also part of the next generation of high-tech racers. He is an rude and arrogant racer because of his skill. Knowing how talented and successful he is, Jackson has a oversized ego, and disrespects other racers beyond simple trash talk. One of Storm's biggest rivals was Lightning McQueen, who crashed while attempting to keep up with Storm at the Los Angeles 500. After a long absence, McQueen returned to the Piston Cup for the Florida 500, but since he wanted to give Cruz Ramirez a chance to race, he made her finish the race, even though he wanted to finish the race. Cruz took advantage of Storm's weaknesses, allowing her to pass him and win the race. Storm's racing number is 20, however, it is designed with the design of 2.0 sponsored by IGNTR to resemble the next-generation.

Why He (Intentionally) Should Be Caught in a Lightning Storm (no pun intended)

 * 1) He comes across as a ruthless and generic jerk character with little-to-no personality or development. At least Chick Hicks had more humor and snarky moments to make him partially entertaining, but Storm has no such traits, making him a pretty weak "villain".
 * 2) We're supposed to see him as the "main antagonist" even though he just happens to be a very talented racer, and never really did anything evil or even tried cheating (except when he tried to slam Cruz Ramirez into the wall, more on this later).
 * 3) His role as the main antagonist is completely shoehorned as he is only deemed that because of his skills and the fact that he is a race car who is a physical threat to McQueen. However, he does not really cause the actual conflict of the film as Sterling is responsible for that as he tries to force Lightning McQueen to retire.
 * 4) He's also another portrayal of pre-character development Lightning from the first film or even Chick Hicks but without his own character arc or development. As a result, he's more of a plot device than an actual character.
 * 5) * Speaking of Lightning, despite that he was an arrogant jerk at first in the first film, at least his actions are nowhere near villainous, which is what made Jackson such a lame and pathetic villain to begin with.
 * 6) Even though he's the supposed "threat", he barely gets any screen time or lines despite how much he was advertised. The irony is, Sterling has more personality than him, and feels more like a threat to the protagonists than Storm.
 * 7) There was no proper reason for him to try ramming Cruz into the wall towards the end since even if he lost, he still would have had an impressive winning streak, and the writers just wanted to both make the audience root against him and set up Cruz using Doc's wall flip.
 * 8) There was very little detail given on him after the final Florida 500 race in the ending.
 * 9) *It's also never been even explained what happened to him either. We also never found out.
 * 10) His personality is basically there just to enforce the “all rookie race cars are narcissistic jerks” and “all veteran race cars are kind and humble” stereotypes, which is something the first movie did. However. that argument has become illogical this time around as Cruz Ramirez is a rookie race car who is kind and humble.
 * 11) He becomes very angry in times of weakness, and when Cruz Ramirez moved to pass him during the Florida 500, he responded by violently slamming her against a wall.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) At least his car design looks cool - sort of a mix between a NASCAR Xfinity Series car, some types of supercars, and a Le Mans racer. And so does his paint job and decals too as well.
 * 2) Actually, his pit crew, known such as Ray Reverham (his crew chief) and Laura Spinwell (his female pitty), is more tolerable than him.
 * 3) He is actually a bit better and a little redeemed in Cars 3: Driven to Win (though not much), since he gets a second comeuppance, doesn't cheat whatsoever (even as an AI opponent), and keeps his trash-talk to a minimum level.
 * 4) Armie Hammer did a pretty good job voicing him, and so does A.J. Hamilton surprisingly.
 * 5) His backstory is pretty heartbreaking, as it implies that he is depressed and lonely and he is unable to regain his feelings about the race is due to his cockiness.
 * 6) Due to him being antagonistic towards both Lightning and Cruz, he may have been supposed to be hated.
 * 7) There is one scene in the film where he shows a morsel of genuine admiration for McQueen, calling him a "crafty veteran champ".

Trivia

 * Storm's voice actor, Armie Hammer, was born the same year Pixar was founded (1986).
 * By winning the Piston Cup in his rookie year, Storm achieved what McQueen almost did in the first Cars film. However, it is not known whether this makes him the first rookie to win the Piston Cup, the distinction McQueen was aiming for at that time, as there could have been another racer since to do so.
 * Although Storm is the fastest Piston Cup racer, he is not actually the fastest car in the franchise; the record is held by Francesco Bernoulli (Lightning's rival in Cars 2), with a top speed of 220 mph.
 * He is one of the three racers to have a named hauler the other two being, Paul Conrev, and Eric Braker.