Pacific Rim Uprising is a 2018 American mecha 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 and was largely deemed inferior to the original film. With a gross of only $291 million against a $150–176 million budget, 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, 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 are 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, one of whom is Marshal Quan. 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 event while simultaneously triggering 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
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