Jackson Storm (Cars 3; film)

Jackson Storm "Wow! Thank you, Mr. McQueen! You have no idea what a pleasure it is for me to finally beat you." Gender: Male Type: Ruthless Generic Jerk Chick Hicks but even worse Age: 36 (according to Pixar Cars Wiki; formerly known as World of Cars Wiki) Species: 2017 Custom-Built Next-Gen Piston Cup Racer Portrayed by: Armie Hammer (film) A.J. Hamilton (game) Status: Alive Media of origin: Cars 3

Jackson Storm is the "main antagonist" of Cars 3. He is a Next-Gen race car who competes in the Piston Cup Racing Series. He also happens to be the pioneer of the next generation of the championship's competitors. He is voiced by Armie Hammer.

Why He (Intentionally?) Doesn't Belong On This Track

1. Much like Sid Phillips from the Toy Story franchise, he comes across as a ruthless and generic jerk character with little-to-no personality or development. At least Chick Hicks had slightly more humor and snarky moments to make him partially entertaining but still, but Jackson 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 mh:greatcharacters:Lightning 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 McQueen 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.
   • Speaking of Lightning McQueen, 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 mh:greatcharacters:Doc Hudson's wall flip.
7. There was very little detail given on him after the final Florida 500 race in the ending.
   • It's also never been even explained what happened to him, nor we ever found out.
8. 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, which is contradicted by Cruz Ramirez' kind and humble personality.
9. 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.

(Intentional?) 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; so does his paint job and decals too as well.
2. 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).
3. Armie Hammer did a pretty good job voicing him, and so does A.J. Hamilton surprisingly.
4. His backstory is pretty heartbreaking as it implies that he is depressed and lonely and unable to regain his feelings about the race due to his cockiness.
5. Due to him being antagonistic towards both Lightning and Cruz, he may have been supposed to be hated.
6. There is one scene in the film where he acknowledges McQueen, as a "crafty veteran champ", in his words.
7. He was never seen again after Cruz won the race.

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.

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