Pacific Rim is a 2013 American science fiction monster film directed by Guillermo del Toro, starring Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, and Ron Perlman, and the first film in the Pacific Rim franchise. The screenplay was written by Travis Beacham and del Toro from a story by Beacham. The film is set in the future, when Earth is at war with the Kaiju, colossal sea monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers, gigantic humanoid mechas, each controlled by two co-pilots whose minds are joined by a mental link. Focusing on the war's later days, the story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju.
Principal photography began on November 14, 2011, in Toronto and lasted through to April 2012. The film was produced by Legendary Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. It was released on July 12, 2013, in 3D and IMAX 3D, receiving generally positive reviews; the visual effects, action sequences, and nostalgic style were highly praised. While it underperformed at the box office in the United States, it was highly successful in other markets, thus becoming a box office success. It earned a worldwide total of more than $411 million—earning $114 million in China alone, its largest market—becoming Del Toro's most commercially successful film. The film is regarded as an homage to kaiju, mecha, and anime media.
A sequel titled Pacific Rim Uprising was released on March 23, 2018, with Universal Pictures distributing.
Plot
In 2013, massive alien monsters called Kaiju begin emerging from an interdimensional portal, "the Breach" at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and attacking coastal cities. In response, humanity builds massive robots called Jaegers, each co-piloted by two or more people who share a mental link by a process called "Drifting" to share the mental stress of piloting the machine.
In 2020, brothers Yancy and Raleigh Becket pilot the American Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, to defend Anchorage from a Category-3 Kaiju codenamed Knifehead, who severely damages Gipsy, killing Yancy. Raleigh kills Knifehead and pilots Gipsy solo to shore before collapsing. Traumatized by the loss of his brother and the stress of piloting alone, Raleigh quits the Jaeger program.
Five years later, world leaders decide to cease funding for the Jaeger program and replace it with coastal defense walls, since Kaiju attack frequency is increasing and Jaegers are being destroyed quicker than they are built. Although the walls are quickly proven to be ineffective, the remaining Jaegers are relocated to Hong Kong under the command of Marshal Stacker Pentecost, who plans to try to destroy the Breach using a tactical nuclear weapon, despite unsuccessful previous attempts.
Raleigh, now working in wall construction, is recruited by Pentecost for the mission. At the Hong Kong base, the Shatterdome, Raleigh is introduced to Mako Mori, the director of the Jaeger restoration program and, it is later revealed, Pentecost's adoptive daughter. Four Jaegers remain operational – the refurbished Gipsy Danger, the Russian Cherno Alpha, the Chinese Crimson Typhoon, and the Australian Striker Eureka, piloted by father-and-son team, Herc and Chuck Hansen. To find a new co-pilot, Raleigh participates in tryouts, deciding that Mako is "drift-compatible". During their first test, Raleigh falls out of alignment after reliving Yancy's death, causing Mako to become lost in the memory of a Kaiju attack on Tokyo, nearly firing Gipsy'''s energy cannon. As a result, Pentecost grounds Mako.
Pentecost consults Kaiju experts Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb. Hermann claims the Breach will stabilize and the Kaiju will increase in number, but it will allow the assault to succeed. Against Pentecost's recommendation, Newton drifts with a Kaiju's brain to learn more about them, discovering that Kaiju are bioweapons grown by aliens so they can colonize Earth. Pentecost instructs Newton to find black market dealer Hannibal Chau to obtain another Kaiju brain to drift with. Newton realizes the Kaiju hive mind gained access to his brain, since drifting is a two-way link, and the two newest Kaiju to emerge, Leatherback and Otachi, are sent simultaneously to find him in Hong Kong.