pacific rim & emotional connection
a look into a documentation of the virtues of humanity... with cool monsters!
Full disclosure: Pacific Rim is my favorite movie of all time. I tell this to everyone I know, and I think it’s fitting that I say this here before writing about it. Even when starting this blog, I knew it was a not a question of “if”, but “when” I would choose to write about Pacific Rim. I’m typing this at the beginning of watching it for the eighteenth time since a fateful day in August of 2020 when I watched it on a whim because “Hey, it has that guy from It’s Always Sunny in it!” I could rave all day about what I love so much about this film and have done so at length with many people. I show this film to anyone who was or is becoming friends with me, sort of like a rite of passage; the movie that the guy who really loves movies decides to show you up front. With all of that being said, it’s a lot harder for me to describe why I call this my favorite film ever.
Discussion of this film starting and ending with “Oh, it’s just a fun movie where robots fight giant monsters!” is always a bit of a shame to see. While it is, in pure concept, a film where robots (mechs, technically, but whatever) fight giant monsters… well, not to be that guy, but it is deeper than that I promise. Firstly, it should be stated that this film uses modern technology to its fullest extent in an action-packed and riveting two hours. Obviously, 150-foot tall mechs (“jaegers”, in the world of the film) and monsters (“kaiju”) are just generally not going to be practical in a production using human actors, and the team behind this project knew when and how to mix practical and computer-generated effects to bring life to their stunning designs behind the world post-Breach opening (for those who haven’t seen the film, the opening is a sort of apocalyptic event).
Praising of technical aspects aside, a lot of the benefit in Pacific Rim for me lies in its theming. The conflict lies in higher powers (in comparison to where the story takes place in the hierarchy of the Pan Pacific Defense Corps) planning to shut down the jaeger program in favor of the less personal, although more unsuccessful (demonstrated by one breaking down near the beginning of the film the first time it was attacked, with the jaeger Striker Eureka coming in to defeat the kaiju on its way to be decommissioned) border walls around countries that are impacted by the attacks. Through this setup, the actions of the characters are meant to serve the viewpoint that humanity working together could defeat great hardships. An important facet to this theming is the concept of “drifting” created for the world.
“Drifting” refers to the linking of minds between the two pilots of a jaeger in order for it to operate. This is absolutely essential for it to work, and could lead to disastrous consequences if gone wrong (also seen in the film during the test drift of Lady Danger1 with Mako and Raleigh). “Drift compatibility” is also used as a term to denote how well two specific people are able to do this or if they can drift together. (This is also a concept essentially thrown out of the window in its sequel, which is something I can write an entirely different post about. I thought I would mention it here, as it would be far too much for me to go into here and a bit beside the point.)
Through having to drift with each other, pilots form a deeper connection with one another. This is further demonstrated in seeing the relations between pilots. Many of the pilots in the film had a personal relationship with one another before becoming pilots: Raleigh and Yancy are brothers, Herc and Chuck are father and son, Sasha and Alexis Kaidanovsky are husband and wife. Mako and Raleigh’s relationship and its evolution through the film is given focus in this light: How will the two of them improve their bond over the course of the 1 hour and 40 min or so of runtime after the two meet each other?
The writing and framing of the two characters lends itself to lead to a non-romantic but extremely trusting relationship between the two. Del Toro and co-writer Travis Beacham worked together to make the romantic text between the two non-explicit, allowing the viewer to leave with the view that they either had or had not entered a romance and be founded. Del Toro himself stated that he shot the scene during Mako’s audition to be Raleigh’s co-pilot as he would shoot a sex scene, although they were fighting each other.2 This nondisclosure is also key to impacting a greater audience: not everyone seeks out these kinds of stories needing a romantic throughline, and this makes it so there does not have to be one. With the closure of the Breach, all of the setup pays off and the simple at heart demonstration of the need for humanity to stick together lasts through all the flashy monster designs.
With the theming of togetherness and all, I guess it makes a sweet sort of sense for this to be the movie I introduce to people the most once they meet me. Pacific Rim, for me, has always represented a clean and optimistic of what people can do in the worst of situations in order to change any hardships they may be going through. Simple morals like that could be seen as “childish” and not needed for a more mature audience, but it’s always sweet to have a reminder of those things. And hey, even if the theming isn’t really one that calls for a lot of ruminating for some people, it does still have really cool mechs and monsters.
Whoops! The jaeger name has a slur in it! For the purposes of this, I refer to the jaeger called “Gyp*y Danger” (redacted letter “s”) in the film with the general fandom-used alternative name of “Lady Danger”.