Top Gun Maverick Theory: Cyclone Was In On Maverick’s Test Run

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Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS for Top Gun: Maverick (2022) ahead.

Although Jon Hamm’s Cyclone says he is angry at Maverick for his risky test run stunt in Top Gun: Maverick, one fan theory claims that the Vice Admiral was secretly hoping he could get the feckless antihero to give the mission a shot. Midway through the action of Top Gun: Maverick, it looks like all hope is lost for Tom Cruise’s franchise hero. Maverick’s best friend Iceman is dead, he has been kicked out of his job teaching elite TOPGUN recruits how to pull off a secret mission, and Cyclone has taken over his post.

However, when Jon Hamm’s Top Gun: Maverick villain begins his first lesson, he and his students are shocked to see an unexpected aircraft on the test route. Maverick flies the test run in direct defiance of Cyclone’s orders, and ends up completing it even faster than the mission required. This leaves Cyclone in a tight bind, forced to choose between discharging Maverick for insubordination or letting him lead the mission. That is, unless this is exactly what Cruise’s superior hoped would happen.

Related: Top Gun 2 Can Set Up A Sequel Without Tom Cruise

Early on in Top Gun: Maverick, Cyclone claims he is close with Iceman and tells Maverick that  he is familiar with his reputation. As such, it seems unlikely that Cyclone would have accidentally allowed Maverick to pull off the test run of the mission that stunned students and superiors, putting Hamm's character in the tricky situation of deciding whether to court-martial Maverick or make him the team's leader. What one fan theory posits, however, is that Iceman’s relationship with Maverick gave Cyclone all the clues he needed to engineer a situation that would goad Maverick into attempting the course,