Pacific Rim Uprising

2018 film by Steven S. DeKnight

8 min read

Pacific Rim Uprising is a 2018 American monster action film, the sequel to Pacific Rim (2013). The film was directed by Steven S. DeKnight, and written by DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, and T. S. Nowlin. The ensemble cast includes John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona and Zhang Jin, with Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman returning from the original film. Set ten years after the events of the first film, Pacific Rim Uprising sees former pilot and Marshal Stacker Pentecost's son, Jake, returning to the Pan Pacific Defense Corps to stop a renewed Kaiju threat. Principal photography began in November 2016 in Queensland, Australia.

Pacific Rim Uprising premiered in Hollywood, on March 15, 2018, and was released in the United States on March 23, by Universal Pictures. It received mixed reviews from critics. With a gross of $291 million, it was considered a box-office disappointment. It was followed by an animated television series in 2021.

Plot

In 2035, ten years after the events of the previous film, the Jaeger Program has been reinstated and now thrives under the watchful eye of Mako Mori, currently the Senator who runs the Pan Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC). Former Jaeger pilot and Stacker Pentecost's son, Jake, ekes out a living for himself in the Relief Zones (abandoned sections of cities destroyed by past Kaiju battles), mostly by stealing and selling Jaeger parts on the black market in Santa Monica, California. After tracking a disabled Jaeger's power core to the secret workshop of fifteen-year-old Jaeger enthusiast Amara Namani, both are apprehended by the PPDC following an altercation between Amara's small, single-pilot Jaeger Scrapper and the law enforcement Jaeger November Ajax. Mako persuades Jake to return to the PPDC as an instructor to avoid prison, with Amara as his recruit.

Arriving at the China Shatterdome, Jake begins training Jaeger cadets alongside his estranged former co-pilot, Nathan "Nate" Lambert. Nate and Mako explain that the Jaeger program is threatened by Shao Industries' new drone program, which offers to mass-produce Jaeger drones developed by Liwen Shao and Dr. Newton "Newt" Geiszler. Mako is due to deliver a final assessment to determine the approval of the drones at a PPDC council meeting in Sydney. A rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, attacks the city and during an altercation between the former and Jake and Nate's Jaeger Gipsy Avenger, Mako is killed. Obsidian Fury escapes into the ocean before backup Jaegers can apprehend it. Mako's death prompts the PPDC council to authorize and deploy the drones immediately.

Moments before her death, Mako had transmitted the location of a defunct Jaeger production facility in Severnaya Zemlya, Siberia. Jake and Nate travel there in Gipsy Avenger, but Obsidian Fury destroys the complex and engages them in battle. Although Obsidian Fury initially has the upper hand, Gipsy Avenger manages to overpower and destroy the Jaeger's power core. Upon removing its control module, they find Obsidian Fury not controlled by humans, but by a Kaiju's secondary brain, which testing shows was grown on Earth.

When the drones reach their respective locations, they become hijacked by cloned Kaiju brains secretly mounted on board. The Kaiju-Jaeger hybrids simultaneously attack all Shatterdomes, incapacitating most of the Jaegers and inflicting heavy casualties, with Marshal Quan getting killed in the process. While attempting to sabotage the drones, Dr. Hermann Gottlieb discovers that Newt - whose mind is possessed by the Kaiju's creators, the Precursors, due to him drifting with Kaiju brains - is responsible for the attack when he commands the Kaiju-Jaeger hybrids to open multiple breaches across the Pacific Rim. Newt had also implanted the brains for both the drones and Obsidian Fury in accordance with the Precursors' plan.

Although Liwen destroys the drones, closing the breaches in the process, three Kaiju—Hakuja, Shrikethorn, and Raijin—had already emerged and reached Tokyo. The team realizes that the Precursors' true endgame is to detonate Mount Fuji with the Kaijus' reactive blood, which will cause every volcano lining the Ring of Fire to erupt, releasing volcanic matter into the atmosphere and causing an extinction-level event. This simultaneously causes terraformation of the planet for Precursor colonization.

The cadets are mobilized while Hermann and Liwen repair Gipsy Avenger and three salvageable Jaegers Bracer Phoenix, Saber Athena and Guardian Bravo. Hermann develops Kaiju-blood-powered rockets, which launches the team to Tokyo. Although the Jaegers initially repel the Kaiju, Newt merges them into a "Mega-Kaiju" using robotic parasites from one of Liwen's factories. Gipsy Avenger is the sole survivor when the other three Jaegers are destroyed or heavily damaged. Jake and Amara, replacing the injured Nate, pursue the Mega-Kaiju, with Liwen aiding them by remote piloting Scrapper and welding a rocket to Gipsy Avenger, which sends both Jaegers into the atmosphere and free-falling back to Earth. Jake and Amara transfer to Scrapper before Gipsy Avenger collides into the Mega-Kaiju and kills it at the last second. Angered by the Mega-Kaiju's death, Newt attempts to initiate a backup plan but is knocked out and captured by Nate. Confronting an imprisoned Newt, who warns of the Precursors' return, Jake states that humanity is preparing to take the fight to them.

Cast

Production

Development

In 2012, prior to the first film's release, del Toro noted that he had ideas for a sequel, adding in 2014 that he had been working on a script with Zak Penn for several months. In June 2014, del Toro stated that he would direct the sequel, and the film's distribution was taken over by Universal Pictures. In July 2015, it was reported that filming was expected to begin in November, though production was halted following conflicts between Universal and Legendary. As the sequel's future became unclear, Universal indefinitely delayed the film. Still determined to have the film made, del Toro kept working and by that October announced that he had presented the studio with a script and a budget.

After the sale of Legendary to Chinese Wanda Group for $3.5 billion, observers noted an increased likelihood of Pacific Rim 2's production being revitalized because the first film was so successful in China.

In February 2016, the studio, and del Toro himself via Twitter, announced that Steven S. DeKnight would take over directing duties, with a new script written by Jon Spaihts, marking DeKnight's feature directorial debut. Del Toro remained on the project as a producer. Del Toro revealed he left the film once the studio lost their reservations to the Toronto sound stages where the first film had been shot, as he was not willing to move to China to film the sequel given he would remain in the city to work in The Shape of Water. Derek Connolly was brought in on May 12, 2016, to rewrite the script again.

Casting

Cast announcements began in June 2016, with John Boyega accepting a role, and news that Scott Eastwood was in talks appearing later that month. Further announcements took place in September and November. A notable absence from the cast was Charlie Hunnam, who could not join the project because of his scheduling conflicts with King Arthur: Legend of the Sword.

Filming

Principal photography on the film began on November 9, 2016, in Australia. On December 14, 2016, the official title was revealed to be Pacific Rim Uprising. In January 2017, John Boyega was photographed in his costume in Sydney. In February 2017, three new Jaegers for the film were revealed. On March 8, 2017, filming started in China. The Battle of Tokyo sequence was filmed in Seoul and Busan in South Korea using drones. Filming was completed on March 30, 2017.

Visual effects

The visual effects were done by DNEG (Double Negative), Atomic Fiction, Blind LTD and Territory Studio, with Peter Chiang and Jim Berney serving as visual effects supervisors. Production designer Stefan Dechant tried to push "the look and the feel" of the Jaegers, stating that while in the original film they resembled tanks, the new generation of robots tried to be more like a fighter jet, adding more speed and strength and combining them into one. The robots became more acrobatic and had silhouettes and color schemes that allowed them to become distinct and recognizable. Artists from Industrial Light & Magic, who made the effects in the first film, helped develop Gipsy Avenger, a "sleek and advanced" upgraded version of Gipsy Danger which DeKnight often compared to the USS Enterprise in being "awe-inspiring" given its status as the Jaeger flagship.

Music

Composer John Paesano was originally slated to be writing the score for the film, replacing the first film's composer Ramin Djawadi. However, in January 2018, it was announced that Paesano had been replaced by Lorne Balfe, who recorded his score at Synchron Stage in Vienna. The soundtrack was digitally released on March 23, 2018, by Milan Records with the physical format being released later on April 6, 2018.