The following contains spoilers for Top Gun: Maverick, now playing in theaters.
Top Gun: Maverick did a spot-on job evolving the '80s franchise for new audiences, as well as loyalists. It had Tom Cruise's Pete Mitchell training a new generation to fight terrorist threats while allowing fresh veterans to take center stage, including Jon Hamm's Vice Admiral Beau "Cyclone" Simpson. Obviously, Pete needed a foil, so Cyclone provided that by keeping Maverick's wild teaching style in check. However, while Hamm's role grounded Pete and offered antagonism in the Navy, it also proved the actor's one of Hollywood's biggest and best jerks.
Now, Hamm's had quite a few of these roles, and he's nailed them. He was an arrogant, unreasonable hot-headed fed in The Town, a bloodthirsty egomaniac in Baby Driver and a perfect narcissist in Mad Men as Don Draper. Apple TV+ even played up his unlikeable disposition with the "Everyone but Jon Hamm" campaign, where he moaned about not being in properties on the streaming service.
Maverick smartly played to this strength as Cyclone and Pete often butted heads over things like the "hard deck," the minimum height fighter pilots could fly at. Pete wanted it lowered to enhance the mission, but the boss hated him so much that he tried to shoot down almost every plan. Cyclone even disliked how Pete had the new breed playing beach football and bonding to become a family, thinking it was a luxury they couldn't afford.
Cyclone was the Grinch of the fleet, and a sourpuss Pete -- despite having lots of patience as he grew older -- couldn't stand. Even Cyclone's own people felt he was too uptight and judgmental, which resulted in Pete often buzzing the tower, spilling people's coffee and ticking off Cyclone, who couldn't stand juvenile behavior. However, Cyclone trying to fire Pete did result in a Hail Mary play where Pete made the test run with his F-18, which allowed him to lead the mission.
The dismissive Cyclone wrestled with axing him, but he knew Pete was the man for the job. And ultimately, that saved the day and delivered victory, but the bullish Cyclone, as glad as he was the threat got neutralized, was still a bit reluctant to celebrate. He faked smiles, not wanting to seem human while hiding how much he liked the crew. Still, it gnawed at him how the immature Pete showed him up time and time again, getting the glory. Thankfully, there was begrudging mutual respect, but this was signature Hamm, a passive-aggressive hater even after victory.
To see Jon Hamm's Cyclone cause Tom Cruise's Maverick problems, Top Gun: Maverick is now playing in theaters.