Film / Pacific Rim: Uprising

Get it on 'til I die

"We were born into a world at war."

— Jake Pentecost

Pacific Rim: Uprising is the 2018 sequel to Pacific Rim, directed by Steven S. DeKnight. Guillermo del Toro, who directed its predecessor and stayed on as a producer, is one of the film's credited writers ^note alongside Zak Penn, Jon Spaihts, Derek Connolly, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, and T.S. Nowlin.

Jake Pentecost (John Boyega), the son of Stacker Pentecost, washed out as a potential Ranger before the events of the first film. Ten years later, humanity has enjoyed peace from stopping the Kaiju threat but fortified their cities and renewed development of the Jaeger program. Jake lives as a scavenger, stealing parts from Jaeger junkyards to sell to the Black Market. He comes across Amara (Cailee Spaeny) who has managed to build her own Mini-Mecha based on Jaeger tech, which ends up getting both arrested. Jake's adopted sister, Marshall Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), offers them a way out of prison time: Jake returns as an active duty Jaeger Pilot while also instructing the new recruits, of which Amara will be a new member.

Jake is reunited with Nate Lambert, (Scott Eastwood) an old rival with some bad history, and Amara deals with the rigors of Jaeger training and antagonism from the other recruits. Dr. Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Dr. Hermann Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) from the first film have to deal with the continued changing landscape of the Pacific Rim Defense Corps, especially the Shao corporation headed by Liwen Shao (Jing Tian). Events unfold that reveal Jaeger development has gotten out of their control, and with it may instigate the return of the Kaijus.

Charlie Hunnam (protagonist Raleigh Becket from the first film), does not return.

The film was released on March 23, 2018.

The 2017 Comic-Con teaser can be found here. The official trailer can be found here. Trailer 2.

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Pacific Rim: Uprising contains examples of the following tropes:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: Takes place a decade after the first film, which itself was already set in a near future. Most obviously, the analog, physical elements of Jaeger control have been replaced entirely by holograms.
• Actionized Sequel: Inverted with there being fewer action sequences in this film compared to its predecessor overall and the kaiju not showing up until the last quarter of the film.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot:
  • Subverted with Obsidian Fury. It's a next-generation unmanned Jaeger designed to operate without pilots. It appears to have gone rogue. It's actually piloted by a Kaiju-derived Wetware CPU acting on the behest of its Precursor masters, so it's essentially just a Kaiju in a Jaeger body.
  • Averted in the climax when Scrapper arrives to save Jake and Amara before Gipsy hits the mega Kaiju, as it's using one of the drone brains and Liwen is controlling it from the Shatterdome. Presumably, she modified the drone brain to remove the kaiju override.
• And Show It to You: Gipsy Avenger kills Obsidian Fury by punching its power core out of its back, then ripping it out of its chest and holding it up for everyone to see. It even looks quite a lot like a heart due to its multiple protruding parts resembling severed arteries/veins. Seeing how Obsidian Fury is a Kaiju/Jaeger hybrid, it’s possible the power core actually IS a heart.
• And Starring: Charlie Day gets it, reprising his role as Newt.
• Apocalypse How: Newt and the Precursors are planning a Class 5 (more details on Instant-Win Condition).
• Artistic License – Physics: During the climax, the Last Ditch Move involves taking a Jaeger into low-Earth-orbit and dropping it again. The pilots do this with the Conn Pod's windshield blown out, with no discussion of things like "oxygen supply" or "temperature problems" or "wind chill from re-entering atmosphere."
• Ascended Fanboy: Amara's life goal is to become a Jaeger pilot; when she is first brought to the Shatterdome, she gets distracted every few seconds whenever she spots a famous Jaeger she's read up on.
• Ass-Kicking Pose: All four Jaegers strike an awesome one before they engage the newly formed Mega Kaiju in Tokyo. Too bad it's them who get their asses kicked.
• Attack Its Weakpoint: The Jaegers attempt this on the Mega Kaiju, which has three secondary brains as a result of how it came to be. They manage to take out one before the MK curbstomps them all.
• Attack Reflector: The Cat 5 Kaiju, Raijin absorbs the energy of any attack from the front to discharge it right back at the Jaegers. It packs enough of a wallop to punch the giant mechas across half of downtown Tokyo in one hit.
• Badass Boast: In the pre-credit scene, Geiszler is ranting on how the war isn't over, only for Jake to come in to deliver a message to the Precursors: "We're bringing the fight to you."
• Behemoth Battle: The whole point of the Pacific Rim franchise is to watch giant things beat the stuffing out of each other. Uprising one-ups its predecessor by adding Jaeger-vs-Jaeger battles to the standard Jaeger-vs-Kaiju setup.
• Be the Ball: Scrapper can curl up into a ball for quick movement.
• Big Bad: Newt Geiszler, who reveals his Drifting with the Kaiju brain allowed the Precursors to dominate his mind and engineer the Shao Drone Jaegers into being Jaeger-Kaiju hybrids.
• Big Damn Heroes: When all seems lost, Shao shows up piloting Scrapper to save the day. Twice at least, in fact.
• Blade Brake: During the battle in Sydney, Obsidian Fury extends its swords into nearby buildings to stop a knockback blow from Gipsy Avenger.
• Body Horror:
  • The Jaeger drones are outfitted with Kaiju brain matter so they can be remotely operated by just one pilot. On first deployment, the Kaiju brain rapidly expands all Kaiju material in the system to create genuine Jaeger/Kaiju hybrids, which warps the natural body of the drones into monstrosities.
  • How the Mega Kaiju was created. A swarm of robots start climbing on to the three Kaiju and start biting and disassembling them so they can literally stick together. It's freaky enough to see their limbs being torn off and grafted together, but then we get a lovely close-up of half of Shrikethorn's head being grafted onto what seems to be parts of Hakuja's lower jaw. Keep in mind that the three kaiju are alive and conscious as the "surgical operation" takes place, and can be heard seemingly moaning in pain... All of it shown in visible but slightly-obscured detail.
• Book Ends: The film opens with Jake and a female party-goer passed out on a Jet Ski in a swimming pool, with a kaiju skeleton lying in the background. The film ends with Jake and Amara collapsing in the snow on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, the body of the Mega Kaiju lying in the background.
• Boom, Headshot!: When the Jaeger-Kaiju hybrids attack the Shatterdomes, a beleaguered Titan Redeemer blasts one drone's head off with his wrist-mounted Arm Cannon before being destroyed for good.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Newt is revealed to have continued drifting with his beloved Kaiju brain, treating it as a very creepy girlfriend substitute of sorts. The result? Precursors hijacked his brain years ago and compelled him to instigate a series of events that cause most of the trouble in the film.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor little Scrapper... Until the climax.
• Call-Back: Stacker's sacrifice is mentioned throughout and Jake talks about his saving Mako from Onibaba. There's this golden line in particular from Newt:
  Newt: I was a huge fan of your father. Great speech writer. Did you ever hear the one about cancelling the apocalypse?
• Calling Your Attacks: Done more than in the first film, again with the justification of Jaeger pilots ordering the activation of certain weapons of keeping each other informed to what they're doing. Or, rather the audience, since the Drift has the pilots telepathically linked and aware of each other's thoughts.
• Chainsaw Good: Obsidian Fury isn't just armed with chain swords but chainsaw swords. That are also energized for that extra bit of cool.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • You didn't really think the PPDC would bring Scrapper all the way to China without it playing a major role saving the world, did you?
  • Gottleib's experiments on Kaiju blood as a fuel for Jaeger rocket boosters turn out to be very important for the Kaiju and the PPDC.
  • One that's held over all the way from the first movie — all Kaiju have identical DNA regardless of their shape, making them genetically compatible when three of them are dismembered and grafted together into the Mega Kaiju.
• Chekhov's Volcano: The Kaiju of the previous film were attacking regions along or near the Pacific Ring of Fire, a geologically active region with a large number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. It turns out that the villains' plan is to cause a global eruption of toxic gas by reacting Kaiju blue with rare metals in Mt. Fuji, a noted usual exception to this trope.
• Chest Blaster:
  • Obsidian Fury has a blaster in its chest.
  • The Hybrids also possess cannons in their chest that can create new Rifts for Kaiju to pass though. That said they can still be utilized as an actual weapon.
• Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Gipsy Avenger's swords have a blue hue to them and she is piloted by the lead Jake Pentecost. Meanwhile Obsidian Fury wields chainsaw swords with red hues and sparks. Though Gipsy Avenger does end up with the salvaged red blades for the climax fight against the Mega Kaiju.
• Colossus Climb: Scrapper pulls one on a patrolling PPDC Jaeger as part of her, Amara's and (to some extent) Jake's Establishing Character Moment.
• Combat Breakdown: Four fully-functional Jaegers versus three kaiju rapidly becomes one exceptionally-large kaiju against four increasingly-damaged Jaegers, ending in barely-functional Gipsy Avenger resorting to dropping itself from low orbit on the Mega Kaiju.
• Combining Mecha: Inverted. Here it's the Kaiju that are combining into a far larger one (given the code name of Mega Kaiju) for the Final Battle.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Stacker and the Kaidanovskys have portraits on the Shrine to the Fallen.
  • Amara "chases the RABIT" towards a scarring memory of a childhood Kaiju attack when she and Jake first try to drift together, much like how Mako did in the first movie. This time they weren't actually in a Jaeger.
  • Amara's first mock battle is against Onibaba, the kaiju that Stacker defeated in Coyote Tango.
  • In the first film, Gipsy Danger was pulled into low orbit by a Kaiju and, once freed, had to deploy a number of maneuvers to slow down and land safely. Gipsy Avenger pulls off a similar trick, but instead of trying to land safely uses all that momentum in a suicidal ram to take out the Mega Kaiju.
  • Crimson Typhoon, elusive and graceful, was said to be the only Jaeger that could actually use its legs to kick at Kaiju while all other Jaegers could only punch. Sadly the ability was never shown in the movie. Saber Athena, a red Jaeger that is known for being quick and graceful, literally kicks a lot of Kaiju ass once battle is joined.
  • In its final moments after being blown in half, the Mega Kaiju assumes a dying pose similar to that of Baby Otachi.
• Conveniently Empty Building: Gottlieb mentions that the citizens of Tokyo were all evacuated into the underground shelters, so the whole city is empty.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: It's pretty obvious Liwen Shao, the standoffish CEO who makes sinister remarks about needing to be sure where her underlings' loyalties lie, is in deep with the bad guys. Except she isn't. She's actually just as taken aback by the unfolding events as anyone else, and she immediately deploys her enormous economic weight in support of the PPDC the moment the real Big Bad reveals themselves.
• Crippling Overspecialization: Jaeger weapons are designed for the express purpose of killing giant melee-oriented creatures. When Gipsy Avenger suddenly finds herself fighting Obsidian Fury, a robotic opponent with a heavy ranged arsenal, they have trouble even closing. It also extends to her enemy as a whole, seeing how a Jaeger's movement and combat behavior is completely different from any known Kaiju's.
• Curb-Stomp Battle:
  • The Jaeger drones developed by Shao Industries turn out to use Kaiju brain matter in their construction. When officially deployed to the various Shatterdomes, a hidden protocol is activated where the Kaiju material overtakes the Jaeger shells and become berserker hybrids. None of the Shatterdomes were prepared for this, and if the Rangers even got to their Jaegers they were outnumbered and fighting in confined spaces. The only reason anyone survived was Shao HQ scouring for the kill switch.
  • The new recruits, Jake and Nate seem to be holding their own. Managing to go toe-to-toe with the Kaiju, it even looks like they might be able to take them down. However, Newt notices his Kaijus are losing, so he unleashes a huge swarm of tiny robots that effectively "stitch" together the three Kaiju into the giant Mega Kaiju. Once this is accomplished, the Jaegers lose their advantage and all but Gipsy Avenger are destroyed in about one minute because of its sheer size and strength.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: The Mega Kaiju easily smashes through three of the Jaegers with minimal trouble. Gipsy Avenger, being piloted by experienced Rangers instead of the trainees, manages to hold its own with a couple of decent hits and even outmaneuver it on a few parries, but is simply well outside of its weight class.
• Cute Machines: Scrapper may be considered a Jaeger, but she barely comes up to a true Jaeger's knees and is just plain adorable to behold. Her many slapstick moments make her that much more endearing.
• Dead-Hand Shot: The only thing seen of Cadet Suresh after Guardian Bravo gets wrecked. Cadet Ilya has to give the news.
• Death by Adaptation: There's no mention of Raleigh in the movie itself. In the official novelization, however, it's mentioned that he died from cancer (caused by the native radiation of the Anteverse) a year after the events of the first movie.
• Death from Above: In a case where "Above" is so high that borders on Colony Drop, Gipsy Avenger is flown to the stratosphere so it can fall straight into the Mega Kaiju.
• Defiant to the End:
  • Marshal Quan doesn't run or take cover when the corrupted Jaeger Drones launch a missile salvo straight at his Shatterdome's command center. Instead he faces his inevitable doom by roaring a defiant scream at the incoming missiles until they blast him to smithereens.
  • The pilots of Titan Redeemer, despite being crippled, manage a final headshot on their opponent before dying.
• Desperate Object Catch:
  • When Obsidian Fury attacks Sydney, its missiles blast the helipad off the roof of a skyscraper near Gipsy Avenger. Gipsy barely manages to catch it before it can squash a bunch of civilians, takes a couple of hits for her troubles, and eventually hurls the thing in Obsidian Fury's face.
  • Moments later, when Mako's helicopter is shot down by Obsidian Fury, Gipsy Avenger fails to catch it before it crashes into the ground, killing everyone on board.
• Disappeared Dad: Stacker Pentecost, leaving behind a (biological) son after his death.
• Disaster Scavengers: The poor that live on the coast scavenge from the things the rich left behind. Jake works in the Black Market, living in a destroyed mansion and selling whatever he can find or steal.
• Disc-One Final Boss: In terms of starting villains the mysterious Obsidian Fury actually goes down after the first act. Justified, as its role was to create an emergency to push for the drone program to speed up.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Viktoriya is immediately hostile towards Amara, believing she is unfit to be a Jaeger pilot. She warms up to her later though.
• A Dog Named "Dog": The fused form of the three kaiju Hakuja, Shrikethorn, and Raijin is simply called "Mega Kaiju".
• Dramatic Unmask: Obsidian Fury refuses all direct commands to its pilots to reveal themselves. Once beaten, Gipsy Danger rips the front visor off and shows a Kaiju brain inside.
• Dressing Down: Liwen Shao is first portrayed as a no-nonsense Corrupt Corporate Executive in immaculate suits and makeup. When she defrosts and helps save the world, she switches to a tank top and gets disheveled from physical work.
• Dual Wielding: Both Obsidian Fury and Sabre Athena dual-wield energized swords, with Athena apparently having the ability to combine them into a single one for more powerful strikes. Gipsy Avenger gets in on the fun for the Final Battle due to having been upgraded with some of Obsidian Fury's weaponry.
• Ejection Seat: The Jaegers are all fitted with escape pods to get the pilots out in a hurry. Gipsy Avenger's last pod, however...
• Elevator Action Sequence: Newt and Hermann take out a bunch of Shao Industries mooks in an elevator. Played more for comedy, since neither of them are really trained fighters, so they make do with some writhing around and Hermann's cane.
• The Elevator from Ipanema: Elevator music of "The Girl from Ipanema" plays in a scene where Newt and Hermann are being escorted by Shao's security.
• Eloquent in My Native Tongue: Shown from the native tongue side; Newt's Mandarin is very not good, and Shao comments that it makes him sound stupid. Which is exactly what he wants you to think.
• EMP: Jake repurposes one of Scrapper's two ion cells into an impromptu EMP grenade to fight off November Ajax. It works... for about ten seconds. Cue Ajax' One-Hit KO against poor little Scrapper.
• Epic Flail: Titan Redeemer's weapon of choice. It passes to Bracer Phoenix after Titan Redeemer's destruction and sees some very limited use in the Final Battle.
• Evil Counterpart: Obsidian Fury serves as one to Gipsy Avenger for the first half of the movie. In addition to having rather similar appearances, both of them wield energy blasters and wrist-mounted blades. Two of the latter in Fury's case.
• Evil Is Bigger: The Fusion is so enormous that penetrating its skull to attack the primary brain is impossible, not to mention getting to its secondary brains are difficult. It is so big that its super power is one-hit-killing Jaegers.
• Expy: Viktoriya Malikova, the blond Russian girl who co-pilots the Jaeger team's Mighty Glacier, is too similar to Aleksis Kaydanovsky, Cherno Alpha's main pilot from the first film, for it to be coincidence.
• Eye Lights Out: Happens to the Mega Kaiju upon its death.
• Face–Heel Turn: Newt, who was key to defeating the kaiju and the Precursors in the previous film, has turned into a Precursor collaborator due to his obsession with drifting with kaiju brains, and actively aids and abets their new war effort.
• Falling into the Cockpit: A proud Super Robot tradition. The trainees shown in the film end up piloting the remaining Jaegers in the climax, as the Jaeger/Kaiju hybrids kill the mainline pilots in the surprise attack at the Shatterdome.
• False Flag Operation: Subverted. It seems obvious that the "rogue Jaeger" Obsidian Fury is actually a Shao drone. And it is... but Liwen Shao did not order it built and has no knowledge of it. It was actually Newt, who has been siphoning off money and materials from the company for ten years in order to insert Kaiju organic material into the drones. Killing Mako got the drones deployed, exactly as he intended.
• Family of Choice: A theme of the film. When Amara asks Jake if Mako is his half-sister or what, he explains the circumstances but then says that to him, she's just his sister. He and Amara also form a sibling-y bond. Nate tries to get the cadets to get along by sharing his experience of Jaeger pilots all being family to one another, and (by the end of the film) addresses Jake as "brother".
• Flaming Sword: Obsidian Fury's swords have a rippling red energy field that looks a lot like fire.
• Flipping the Bird: Guardian Bravo's pilots are not impressed with the kaiju and use their expensive equipment to give two fingers out of disrespect. Not really surprising, given that Bravo is piloted by teenagers in that scene.
• Foe-Tossing Charge: The very first thing Scrapper does upon her activation is charge through a couple of PPDC vehicles, hurling them aside like toys.
• Foreboding Fleeing Flock: The first sign something is going wrong in Sydney is noticing a large number of birds flying away. Then Obsidian Fury shows up.
• Foreshadowing:
  • When Scrapper is fleeing from November Ajax, attentive viewers can see an abandoned dock along with a kaiju skeleton. This monster and amusement park will show up in Amara's Drift memory.
  • Obsidian Fury emerging from the sea just like a Kaiju would is a pretty big hint as to its true nature.
  • Newt arriving at his apartment and venting to his kaiju brain before drifting with it seems to be a nasty quirk, possibly an addiction, since he experienced such a rush doing it in the original film... until it turns out indulging in his "quirk" has left his mind completely open to the Precursors and turned him into their puppet.
  • When Newt and Hermann meet up for the first time in years, Hermann confides that he still has nightmares about drifting with the Kaiju. Newt shrugs it off, making it seem like he has gotten over it.
  • The whole reason Jake was kicked out of the PPDC was because he and Nate had an argument over something. Jake decided he was good enough to pilot a Jaeger on his own and hijacked one. He made it about two steps before falling unconscious from the strain. During the final battle Nate is hurt and only Jake and Gipsy are standing. Cue Jake attempting to complete the mission on his own and naturally... he just can't do it on his own. Fortunately Amara is right there to switch out with Nate.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Much is made of Stacker Pentecost's sacrifice in the first movie, and Raleigh Becket gets mentioned a couple of times as an inspiring hero. There's no mention anywhere of Chuck Hansen's own Heroic Sacrifice nor a homage portrait in the Hall of Heroes shown.
• Fragile Speedster: Saber Athena is very quick and evasive but is smaller and lighter. She's actually so agile she can employ an aerial fighting style full of leaps and kicks that wouldn't look out of place in a Matrix movie.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: While Hermann is on a computer we see a list of of kaiju with names and pics, with three of them being Battra and Gigan from the Godzilla series and Clover from Cloverfield with Gamera, Jiger and Zigra from the Gamera series.
• Fusion Dance: The enormous Mega Kaiju that serves as the Final Boss is composed of the kaiju Raijin, Hakuja and Shrikehorn.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Amara is implied to be this. Apparently a lot of people are trying to build their own Jaegers from scrap, but she seems to be one of the few who actually pulled it off. And she's still a teenager, mind you.
• Giant Foot of Stomping:
  • In Amara's flashback, her parents are a victim of this.
  • Technically a Giant Fist of Stomping as Shrikethorn knuckle-walks like a gorilla, when he crushes several unfortunate civilians who didn't make it into the shelter in time.
  • After the Mega-Kaiju throws Guardian Bravo away, the movie offers a shot of his building-sized hindpaws as he stomps away: covering an entire intersection with his right, while giving the ground a firm earthquake with his left.
• Gravity Screw: Gipsy Avenger's arsenal is mostly identical to Gipsy Danger's, except for one thing: a gravity tether that can pick up random objects in a small area to be used as an impromptu club. It's even powerful enough to grab and topple skyscrapers.
• Groin Attack: Of all people, Hermann does this twice and with a cane to some goons in an elevator.
• Guy in Back: Bracer Phoenix uses its third pilot as a gunpod operator, with a separate control station in the Jaeger's lower torso.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Several examples.
  • When the Big Bad makes their move and reopens new Breaches all along the Pacific Rim, one titanic Kaiju gets cut in half when its Breach suddenly collapses.
  • Bracer Phoenix gets torn into half a dozen pieces by the Mega Kaiju.
  • The Mega Kaiju itself ends up in two pieces after Jake and Amara launch Gipsy Avenger at it. From the stratosphere.
• Handshake Refusal: In Liwen Shao's introduction, she is offered a handshake, but just stands there scowling, as Newt explains she is not into shaking hands.
• Happy Ending Override: As it turns out, destroying the Breach and the Precursor base on the other side did not end the war. The Precursors are still out there, and they're pissed.
• Heel–Face Turn: Liwen Shao starts off as cold, and trying to dismantle the existing Jaeger program. By the end of the movie she is not only directly supporting them, she even pilots Scrapper into battle (if remotely).
• Hellish Copter: You didn't honestly expect Mako to survive coming to Sydney when you saw her flying in on a chopper, did you?
• Hidden Depths: Who'd have thought prim-and-proper corporate boss Liwen Shao was so good at piloting a jury-rigged Jaeger that probably doesn't conform to any established standards? It's also implied she upgraded Scrapper's equipment personally, so it seems Newt and his team weren't the only geniuses behind the Jaeger Drones' creation.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: At the end of the film it's implied humanity has acquired the technology to invade the Precursors' dimension. This is because the aliens used stolen Jaegers to create portals... technology that mankind could salvage from the deactivated wreckage.
• Holographic Terminal: Most of the terminals in the film.
• Hope Spot: In the final battle the new recruits and the Rangers are holding their own against the Kaiju. It looks like they might actually win the day. Unfortunately Newt pulls out a trump card and combines the Kaiju into one Mega Kaiju that puts a stop to their momentum.
• Humongous Mecha: Much like the first film, this movie features giant mechs built to take down kaijus that emerge from the ocean all over the world. Due to humans being humans without an extradimensional enemy to fight, the inevitable happens: Jaegers fighting Jaegers. Sort of.
• Ice Queen: Liwen Shao is... not the nicest person around. She thaws considerably once things really start going south.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Between Hermann and Newt when the latter reveals his true allegiance. Newt does try to fight and he's clearly still inside but it doesn't work.
• Impossibly Graceful Giant: All Jaegers are considerably more agile than the ones from the original movie, but none of them can hold a candle to Saber Athena. Sure, she's a bit smaller and lighter than her compatriots, but that doesn't change the fact she's still a skyscraper-sized Humongous Mecha that can perform leaping kicks.
• Improvised Weapon:
  • After catching a helipad blown falling from a damaged building, Gipsy Avenger throws it like a discus at the opponent.
  • Gipsy Avenger's Gravity Sling is built around this concept, enabling the Jaeger to grab and weaponize just about anything in the vicinity, like cars, debris, skyscrapers...
• Instant-Win Condition: It turns out that Kaiju blood, mixed with certain rare earth metals, results in the most potent fuel/explosive known to mankind. The Precursors intend to exploit this fact by sending the Mega Kaiju to Mt. Fuji in Japan in an attempt to blow up the whole Ring of Fire in one fell swoop. The resulting cataclysm would cause a worldwide volcanic winter and kill off most higher lifeforms, leaving Earth ripe for the taking. All it takes is the Mega Kaiju reaching Mt. Fuji's peak and jumping into the crater, and it's up to the PPDC to prevent that from happening.
• Jettison Jetpack Attack: Jake repurposes one of Scrapper's two vital ion cells into an impromptu EMP grenade to fight off November Ajax. It works... for about ten seconds. Cue Ajax' One-Hit KO against poor little Scrapper, on top of the latter running out of power from losing one of the ion cells.
• Job-Stealing Robot: Shao Industries antagonizes the PPDC Rangers by intending to replace existing force with remote-control drones, which are "manned" by individual pilots from a central HQ but are implied to be able to operate independently if the need arises. In fact, an entire two-thirds of Shao Industries is entirely automated, from the assembly lines to accounting. Which allows Newt to surreptitiously appropriate funds, materials, and resources for his projects without anyone human noticing.
• The Juggernaut: The gigantic Mega Kaiju is barely affected by the attacks from four Jaegers despite all of them targeting its weak points with everything they got.
• Kaiju: The Kaiju make a comeback as the film's antagonists for the last few minutes.
• Legacy Character:
  • Gipsy Avenger carries on the name of Gipsy Danger, wielding her chain blades and now mounting two Chest Blaster weapons instead of one. She's also piloted by two unrelated people with a past friendship, like Coyote Tango.
  • Saber Athena bears the coloration and emphasis on speed of Crimson Typhoon, while sharing the car-based design of Striker Eureka, right on down to a chest that mimics a real life car grill (the Bugatti Veyron, in this case) and enormous back fins. She also wields a pair of energy-infused swords similar to Striker's Heat knives, though to save on weight she lacks ranged weapons. In this respect she functions almost identically to Tacit Ronin, a cameo Mark 1 Jaeger from the first film.
  • Bracer Phoenix is the oldest model in service, built to be incredibly tough and with a cockpit in its chest like Cherno Alpha. However its weapons emphasize ranged combat like Coyote Tango, wielding missile launchers on its thigh, railguns in its chest, and miniature versions of Coyote Tango's own cannons on its left forearm. To aid in melee it carries an upgrade to Striker's armored fists (as well as a variant of Striker's enormous shoulder pads) on its hands, with Romeo Blue's "brass knuckles" on its left hand.
  • Guardian Bravo is built like a football player like Striker, has an Arm Cannon like Gipsy (though this one extends from its forearm rather than its hand), and uses an exotic fighting style like Crimson Typhoon's 3-arm-style in the form of its whip. It also shares a super-hero-style design with Romeo Blue.
  • November Ajax (the jaeger that chases Scrapper) is entirely blue, like Romeo Blue, while having a mono eye head head like Crimson Typhoon and Tasers mounted in his fists like Cherno Alpha (though Ajax's are ranged compared to Cherno's melee). It's also resistant to the EMP that Scrapper hits it with, similar to Gipsy.
  • Obsidian Fury, fittingly for being designed in part by the invaders from the first film apes the two Jaegers that closed the breach. It wields Striker's chest cannons, two of them mounted in its shoulders, and souped up versions of Gipsy Danger's arm blades. It also shares Gipsy's protective head collar and sleek physique, along with the chest blaster she used to kill Slattern, but is also armed with electronic countermeasures mounted in its spine similar to Leatherback's EMP. Lastly its face and head are built similar to Cherno's.
  • Hakuja, Shrikethorn, and Raijin, the three Kaiju encountered in Tokyo. Like Raiju, Scunner, and Slattern, they are a team of two Cat 4s and one Cat 5 employed in a final effort to stop the heroes. Shrikethorn in particular has multiple tails as Slattern did, a characteristic inherited by the Mega Kaiju that the Tokyo beasts merge into.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: Liwen Shao notes that Mako's death has resulted in her winning the vote to replace normal Jaegers for her drones. This implies that she was behind the attack, but actually it was Newt. Shao really was just being pragmatic about the tragedy.
• Lighter and Softer: Uprising is considerably more light-hearted, funnier and goofier than the first film. Everything's much brighter lit, the atmosphere is a lot more optimistic, and the death count (of named characters at least) is far lower, that being said it is willing to kill children
• Lightning Lash: Guardian Bravo is armed with the Elec-16 Arc Whip, an almost indestructible whip capable of delivering extremely powerful electric shocks.
• Literally Falling in Love: Nate and Jules during the attack on the Shatterdome.
• Logo Joke: The Universal and Legendary logos look like graphics seen in the Jaeger interfaces.
• Love Triangle: Played with. The movie seems to be setting up a standard uptight-vs-cowboy love triangle with Nate, Jake, and Jules, but then never quite goes the predictable place. After some initial sparring, Nate and Jake acknowledge that they have more important things to be spending their energy on and let the matter lie. After Nate and Jules have their Literally Falling in Love moment, Jake seems inclined to cede, especially after Jules gives Nate a good-luck kiss before the final battle — but then she gives an identical one to Jake too. The last thing the movie (and Jake) have to say about the matter is, "Well, that was confusing."
• A Love to Dismember: It's eventually revealed that Newt's partner Alice is actually a dismembered Kaiju brain that he Drifts with. Disturbing? Yes.
• MacGuffin: The Dying Clue about the abandoned Jaeger facility in Russia turns out to be this. It reveals the true nature of Obsidian Fury, but it's unlikely that the slain character could have intuited all this while being slain by Obsidian Fury.
• Macross Missile Massacre: All hostile Jaegers use missile spam as their primary ranged attack, with Obsidian Fury's Chest Blaster being the sole exception. This includes Shao's Jaeger Drones.
• The Main Characters Do Everything: When multiple Kaiju manage to emerge out of the oceans, other Shatterdomes are unable to stop them, leaving it to the Chinese Shatterdome team to take care of all three using their remaining Jaegers. And the pilots are out of commission, so the cadets introduced earlier have to step up.
• Make Sure He's Dead: Played for Laughs when November Ajax comically nudges a prone Scrapper's head with his index finger after he tasered the little Jaeger into submission. Its finger alone is almost as long as Scrapper is tall.
• Mauve Shirt: Aside from Amara and Vik, Suresh is about the only cadet with just a hint of background and a bit of a cowardly lion. He's killed when the Fusion throws Guardian Bravo around mercilessly.
• Meaningful Background Event: As the last few remaining pilots are loading up in the hangar of the Shatterdome, preparing for the final battle, attentive audiences can spot Scrapper being raised on a cargo lift in the background amid all the other Jaegers being refitted.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • "I am not my father.": Jake says it at the beginning, when he's describing the life he adopted after washing out as a Ranger, and again near the end, when he's decided to make a proper go of the second chance Mako gave him.
  • "Hold on!" "I am holding on!" "Well, hold on tighter!": Amara to Jake before she executes a clever move in Scrapper during the chase scene at the beginning, and Jake to Amara before Liwen executes a clever move in Scrapper during the rescue at the end.
• Mid-Season Upgrade: It is rather minor but an upgrade none the less. Gipsy Avenger is given Obsidian Fury's chainsaw blades just before the finale to replace her lost single sword.
• Mighty Glacier:
  • Bracer Phoenix is the slow but strong Jaeger of the fleet. Titan Redeemer is also pitched as the brute force of the new line.
  • Mega Kaiju is not especially fast, but is so large and hits so hard the Jaegers take immense damage from single strikes and can barely deal any noticeable damage.
• Mini-Mecha: There is one made of scrap metal called Scrapper, and it only comes up to a real Jaeger's ankles. She mostly serves as Plucky Comic Relief and to show off Amara's technical skills, but she does get to shine in a more active role as well.
• Mirror Match: In design and weaponry, Obsidian Fury is almost identical to Gipsy Avenger, especially obvious is both having deployable arm swords.
• Monster Delay: Exaggerated and justified with no portals getting opened up for any new kaiju until the last quarter of the film and there only being one fight scene between the kaiju and the jaegers on top of that.
• More Dakka: Bracer Phoenix has four massive guns mounted in his lower torso that positively spew firepower at his enemies. One of his pilots needs to slide down into his abdomen to take control of them. They're also mounted on rails to allow Bracer to fire at targets behind him.
• Near-Villain Victory: The Precursors' entire plan comes close to this, on multiple occasions. They operate undetected for a full decade, create a lethal army without anyone noticing, kill Mako and shift the ensuing investigation to Liwen to throw off suspicion, near-totally wipe out the Jaegers at the various Shatterdomes, create new breaches to get their Kaiju through and with their final trump card almost manage to wipe out all life on Earth using Mt. Fuji. Were it not for the skill and resourcefulness of the heroes they would have won.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Once Gipsy Avenger reboots back up, it tries to form a Fist-in-palm pose, only to immediately lose balance and fall over. Jake mentions how they screwed up what was supposed to be an awesome moment.
• Nested Mouths: Much like Raiju from the first film, Raijin's real head is basically inside a giant mouth.
• Newcomer Saves the Day: Although Amara despairs about being behind everyone in the class, she winds up being crucial to the cast's victory.
• No Endor Holocaust: Just as the Kaiju reach Tokyo, we see the populace running for elevators leading to underground shelters, and as the Jaegers arrive, Mission Control warns that the city has been evacuated. This is a good thing, as the resulting battle levels most of the city, with most tactics used being smash them into the buildings (in one case, Gipsy Avenger used its gravity gun to smash buildings into the Kaiju).
• Noodle Incident: In the movie Lambert reminds Jake he holds the record on something and refuses to explain it to Amara. It is explained in the novelization though. Part of the final exam involved cadets climbing into a Mark III Jaeger and having to hold a Drift for twenty minutes. Jake held his with Lambert for four whole hours.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Newt spends most of the first half of the movie running off his mouth, being an arrogant twerp and butchering Mandarin. After he reveals himself as The Quisling, he admits that this was a deliberate strategy to avoid suspicion... and he says it in fluent Mandarin.
• Once per Episode: Jaeger pilots beating the shit out of each other in their Shatterdome, all Jaegers but Gipsy being destroyed or at least heavily damaged in the Final Battle, and Gipsy performing a suicide attack that utterly annihilates the mecha but saves the day.
• One-Hit Kill: The Fusion's specialty whether with its claws, teeth or tails.
• Organic Technology: Turns out Obsidian Fury is actually controlled by a Wetware CPU grown from scavenged Kaiju flesh, which is also merged with the Jaeger's cables and musculature. Once the plot is revealed, the supposedly mechanical brains of Shao's Remote Jaeger drones rapidly mutate and expand to turn the giant machines into horrifying amalgamations of mechanical and organic parts that act on the Kaijus' everlasting directive: Kill All Humans.
• Organization with Unlimited Funding: Shao Industries is so world-breakingly wealthy it literally does not notice when Newt diverts funds from it to build the Obsidian Fury Super Prototype or the Ripper drones. On the flipside, this wealth also allows it to bring its engineering resources to bear when the world needs the damaged Jaegers repaired and upgraded.
• Outside-Context Problem: Obsidian Fury. An unregistered Jaeger rising from Sydney's harbor bay and attacking the city was probably the last thing anyone in the PPDC was expecting that day. If not for the trailers, the same might've been said of the viewers.
• Parents as People: Stacker's reserved, perpetually critical attitude worked with Mako, but destroyed his relationship with Jake.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Whenever Scrapper is on screen, you can bet something funny will happen.
• Portal Cut: A truly gigantic kaiju (possibly the first Cat 6) is halfway through a newly created breach before it is disrupted, killing it in the water.
• Prodigal Hero: Jake was part of the original Jaeger program and one of its most promising pilots, but strain between him and his father led him to run away to the criminal underworld of the coast. With the reemergence of the Kaiju, Mako tracks him down and gets him back into the fight.
• Properly Paranoid: While officially the Kaiju War has been won and the world is recovering, every government knows that it's not over, and is still investing in building new Jaegers.
• Punny Name: Scrapper is good at scrapping/fighting and is also made out of literal scrap.
• The Quisling: The Kaiju are able to invade Earth again due to someone on Earth (Newt, to be specific) re-opening the Breach and letting them in deliberately albeit under mind control. Obsidian Fury is just the first harbinger of all the shit that's about to go down once the Precursors make their next move.
• Ramming Always Works: With all other Jaegers scrapped and Gipsy Avenger barely operational, they don't stand any chance at beating the Mega Kaiju. Their last plan is to weld a rocket to Gipsy and get her into low orbit, then let sheer momentum and the mass of a Jaeger break the Mega Kaiju in half.
• Recoil Boost: At the climax, Jake and Amara use the plasma cannon to steer a free-falling Gipsy Avenger on to the Mega-Kaiju as part of their downplayed Colony Drop to take it out.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Well, Obsidian Fury's glowy parts are more a dark shade of orange than actual red, but combine them with its black armor and it still fits the trope quite nicely.
• Red Herring: Liwen Shao says that the first rogue jaeger attack was a good thing in the end, implying that she orchestrated it to get her drones approved. However, it was actually Newt behind the plan, as he's being controlled by the Precursors.
• Red Shirt Army: Sadly, the Jaegers. All of them. When Newt makes his move, he activates a hidden protocol that turns Jaeger drones into Jaeger-Kaiju hybrids. Worse, he does it while they are being delivered simultaneously to Shatterdomes all over the world. Bases expecting a delivery of drone back ups are attacked unexpectedly by heavily armored and armed Hybrids that catch them unaware. All the veteran Jaegers at the Chinese Shatterdome are destroyed or at least disabled in very short order, and reports after the battle mention that the same happened at every Shatterdome on the Pacific Rim. If not for Amara's technical genius and Shao's logistical support, the Precursors would've won right then and there.
• Remember the New Guy?: The fact that Stacker Pentecost had a son was never mentioned in the first film.
• Rousing Speech: Being a Pentecost, of course Jake gets to do this — in the aftermath of the Shatterdome attack he motivates the cadets with one before they fly to Tokyo to battle the three Kaiju that made it through. Amara teases him after, asking if he practiced it in a mirror.
• Scenery Gorn: Sydney, the Moyulan Shatterdome and Tokyo are ravaged without any shame (in the last one, whole buildings are pulled on top of Kaiju).
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Played straight and subverted. Mako has pulled strings to get Jake off the hook in the past. However, when Jake asks for help after being arrested for the incident with Scrapper, she is unwilling to look the other way, and forces him to trade bars for stripes in exchange for a pardon.
• Sequel Hook: After the initial title card, Newt is shown locked up but rambles about how the Precursors will eventually find a way to take the world. Jake tells him the humans plan on taking the fight to them.
• Serial Escalation:
  • It took until the end of the third act of the previous film to have a triple kaiju event. Uprising has a quadruple event right out of the Breach rather than starting over with singles or doubles (though fortunately for the humans the largest of the four kaiju was killed before it could fully escape the Breach). It might have gone much, much further if the breach was maintained, too.
  • The first film has exactly one Breach for the heroes to contend with. Uprising has... well, more than one.
• Sequel Escalation: More action sequences, more types of Jaegers in battle, more types of weaponry, and a Kaiju that's three times bigger than normal.
• Sequel Non-Entity: Raleigh Beckett is mentioned a couple of times, but his current whereabouts are unknown. Hannibal Chau gets only a namedrop. Herc and Tendo go completely unmentioned.
• Ship Sinking: Newt/Hermann was a popular ship after the first movie came out. Their first scene together in this one makes it clear that they haven't seen each other for a while, and has Newt inviting Hermann to visit and "finally meet Alice", implied to be his romantic partner. Subverted with the revelation that "Alice" is Newt's nickname for his pet kaiju brain pod, and with that out of the way their interactions are at least as amenable to a shippy reading as the first film.
• Shipper on Deck: Charlie Day is a fan of the Newt/Hermann ship. Though it was never confirmed to him, he decided Newt was in love with Hermann, then adjusted his performance accordingly.
• Shock and Awe: November Ajax, the Jaeger Scrapper tangles with early on, is, for some unexplained reason, equipped with gigantic taser guns in his knuckles. Given that he seems to be guarding a Jaeger graveyard from scavengers, they're probably custom-designed to disable illegally constructed Jaegers and similarly heavy equipment without seriously endangering the pilots.
• Shockwave Stomp: The Mega Kaiju's first attack is to make a Ground Punch that causes enough of a tremor to send all four Jaegers sprawling.
• Shouting Shooter: Viktoriya gets very excited behind the controls of Bracer Phoenix' humongous autocannons. It's pretty hard to blame her.
• Shout-Out: It comes with its own page.
• Sliding Scale of Shiny Versus Gritty: In contrast with the moody, worn-down Used Future look of the first film, portraying a humanity battered by endless war, Uprising is bright, sleek, and shiny for a new, optimistic age.
• Spectacular Spinning:
  • Prevalent on the Jaegers, as usual. Bracer Phoenix' Epic Flail sports multiple spinning blade rings, Gipsy Avenger's Arm Cannon still does a lot of spinning when it's activated, and the others do get their moments as well.
  • During the attack on the Chinese Shatterdome, one hostile missile salvo converges into a rapidly spinning cluster to pass through the dome's closing main gate. Bonus points for being shot in glorious slow-motion for maximum nerdgasm potential.
• Spent Shells Shower: When Bracer Phoenix opens up with his enormous autocannons, shells the size of buses fall like rain. Probably owing to the sheer awesome factor, the scene featured prominently in the trailers.
• Spike Shooter: Shrikehorn has the ability to shoot spikes from his twin tails.
• Spikes of Villainy: Shao's Jaeger Drones grow impressive ones the moment their Kaiju aspect assumes control. Some of the Kaijus, notably Shrikethorn, also sport them in various forms.
• Squee: Amara's reaction upon encountering several top-of-the-line Jaegers from up-close when she's brought to the Chinese Shatterdome.
• So Last Season:
  • There was one Mark 5 Jaeger in the original, the most advanced (Striker Eureka). And there's also one in Uprising, but here it's upclassed by three Mark 6 (including Gipsy Avenger) and a Mark 7.
  • The chain sword in the first film was functionally a Story-Breaker Power for how easily it cut up even the biggest Kaiju. Similar sword weapons are common in this film and do reliable damage, but several are broken rather easily.
• Starfish Aliens: Whereas the first film's Kaijus were explicitly based on Earth fauna and usually clearly identifiable as such, Uprising's roster looks far more alien in comparison. If there's a resemblance to Earth critters at all, you need to look really hard to spot it; especially with the Cat 5. However, they do seem to be combinations of parts of different Kaiju seen in the first film.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Mako Mori dies less than halfway through the movie.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Newt, having been corrupted by the Precursors between films, serves as the Big Bad.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Back when Jake was a cadet, he tried to prove himself by piloting a Jaeger solo. This didn't last long, and he only made it three steps before he passed out from the strain and crashed. Being one of the most skilled and promising recruits of your generation doesn't mean you can overcome the limitations of your body. This incident also got him expelled, as there was no way his father would ever be willing, or able, to look the other way at such a reckless and dangerous violation.
• The Swarm: The Swarmers, tiny (read, car-sized) robots that do exactly what their name implies. Surprisingly, instead of zerging the Jaegers, they merely facilitate the three true Kaijus' Fusion Dance.
• Sword Drag: Saber Athena does a variation during the Final Battle by pulling both her swords through the skyscrapers on her left and right while she charges the enemy.
• Take That!: The 2017 Comic-Con teaser gives a subtle jab at superheroes:
  When the monsters came we did not wait for heroes to fall from the sky and save us — we saved ourselves. Innovation is our superpower.
• Take Up My Sword: Stacker Pentecost's son is the protagonist of this film, following his father's death.
• Technology Marches On: In-Universe, Uprising continues the trend introduced in the first film's Time Skip. Ten years have passed since the first Breach was sealed, holographic displays are now literally everywhere, the Jaeger pilots' helmets sport Deflector Shields instead of physical visors, and gravity itself has been weaponized to great effect, to name but a few examples.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Jake and Nate have a bad history together, and are paired up in Gipsy Avenger. Their first outing is said to be the bare minimum of synchronizing, which leaves them at a disadvantage when Obsidian Fury shows up. They decide to be more professional and put aside their personal issues, which immensely helps in their rematch.
• Time-Delayed Death: After the Mega Kaiju is hit by Gipsy Avenger dive-bombing it from the stratosphere, it stirs again, rears up with a mighty roar... and promptly keels over. The camera then zooms out to show the attack left it Half the Kaiju It Used to Be.
• Time Skip: Takes place ten years after the events of the first film.
• Title Drop: Not a full drop, but we at least get to hear the phrase "Pacific Rim" uttered twice, unlike the first film which never title-dropped.
• Token Romance: Jules seems to be part of Mission Control but is rarely ever seen actually doing anything. Her whole purpose seems to be providing some eye candy for the viewers and a source of romantically induced conflict between Jake and Nate.
• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Tokyo is where the final climactic battle takes place (namely because the Kaiju are seeking Mount Fuji). Given the franchise is an homage to Toku and Kaiju works, not surprising.
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • After the Mega Kaiju No-Sells all four Jaegers' attacks and knocks them all down, the Guardian Bravo pilots decide to pull a Leeroy Jenkins and take it on solo despite the protests of the rest of the group. Naturally, the Mega Kaiju takes out the Jaeger effortlessly removing it from the fight and killing one of the pilots.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Newt, previously the more personable counterpart to caustic Gottlieb, switched roles with his (former) colleague, who in turn Took a Level in Kindness in the decade since the end of the Kaiju War. The viewer assumes money and fame went to his head. However it is misdirection concealing that Newt is the film's Big Bad.
• Trading Bars for Stripes: Jake only rejoined the PPDC because Mako demanded it in exchange for sparing him a lengthy stint in the clink.
• Trailers Always Spoil: Obsidian Fury's appearance becomes unsurprising to the audience. That said, there are Missing Trailer Scenes.
  • The fact that the Kaiju can merge together.
  • Some of the trailers showed shots from the very end of the movie, including the Mega-Kaiju reaching the summit of Mount Fuji, Gipsy Avenger plummeting from space in her suicide drop, and even Scrapper surfing the avalanche after Gipsy kills the Mega-Kaiju! Some folks at Legendary's advertising team really need to learn how to keep things under wraps...
• Transformation Is a Free Action: When the three Kaiju merge to form the Mega Kaiju (which takes at least one minute), the Jaeger team just stands there and stares slack-jawed instead of seizing the opportunity to deal some serious damage to the immobile, incapacitated and presumably defenseless monsters, who are currently in several pieces. The Jaegers could have easily grabbed the pieces as they broke off, and either threw them far away or destroyed them, and the Mega Kaiju would never have come to fruition.
• Trolling Translator: After Amara gets off on the wrong foot with Viktoriya, one of the other cadets offers to teach her a few phrases in Russian, claiming they will help calm Viktoriya down. When Amara tries one out during their next confrontation, it turns out to be an insult that only makes Viktoriya angrier.
• The Unfavorite: Stacker clearly preferred Mako to Jake, and the stress of trying and failing to live up to his father's expectations and being perpetually upstaged led Jake to run away.
• Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway: Hermann's theoretical concept for a rocket pack powerful enough to fly a Jaeger. At first he can't get anybody interested, then it turns out it might be the only thing that will save the day, at which point they have to build and fit them as fast as they can and light them up without any testing, because if they had time for testing they wouldn't need the rocket packs.
• Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Prototype is rather strong wording for Gipsy Avenger. However there is a clear conflict between Avenger and Obsidian Fury, a newer design with an advantage in weapons and muscle.
• Up, Up and Away!: Gipsy Avenger flies in this pose, both fists stretched forward, as it dive-bombs the Mega Kaiju for a final blow.
• [Verb] This!: Though not done to the one speaking:
  Hermann: Raijin's plates are absorbing your attacks.
  Jake: Let's see him absorb this! [drops a whole building on the monster]
• Vocal Dissonance: The roars of the kaiju are rather... unfitting for massive monsters of their size, with Shrikethorn in particular making squeaky, seal-like yelps, grunts and barks.
• Voice of the Legion: It's very subtle, but after the Big Bad reveals themselves to be Newt, some of their spoken lines have a layered audio effect, showing that the Precursors are in control at that moment.
• Voodoo Shark: The movie asks why the precursors would wipe out humanity with Kaiju attacking cities when they had the capacity for more expedient or efficient methods. It's revealed their plan all along was to get a Kaiju into Mt. Fuji where their Alien Blood would trigger mass volcanism terraforming Earth to their liking while casing a mass extinction for humanity. This leads to a new issue of why would a vast majority of the Kaiju attacks, especially the first ones, not be Mt. Fuji Japan if that was their real target? Even accounting for the Retcon that data on Kaiju movements reveals they were targeting Mt. Fuji despite contradicting the aforementioned, how did they not notice the obvious pattern sooner?
• War Memorial: The Chinese Shatterdome has a wall of holographic portraits of all Jaeger pilots that fought and died in the final days of the Kaiju War. By the time the credits roll, Mako Mori has joined them. Also doubles as a Shrine to the Fallen.
• We Will Meet Again: At the end of the film, a captured Geiszler rants that the Precursors will keep coming. Jake comes in and gives him a message to deliver: Humanity will be coming for them first.
• Wham Line: This line, and who says it, completely flips all assumptions about the plot on its head.
  "What I spent the last ten years planning. Ending the world."
• Wham Shot: Gipsy Avenger rips open Obsidian Fury's cockpit to reveal a Kaiju brain controlling its movements.
• World Half Full: Contrasting the first film's very bleak outlook on humanity's chances for survival, the ten years since have been well-spent. The world is recovering from the Kaiju attacks, most cities are busily rebuilding, famine and other resource shortages seem to be a thing of the past, and technology has taken another massive leap forward. Shatterdomes all along the Pacific Rim have been reclaimed and restocked with an army of top-tier Jaeger models, and there's no mention of international conflicts at all, implying mankind has finally gotten their act together and put their petty disagreements aside.
• Wrecked Weapon: Gipsy Avenger has bad luck with swords this time. First Obsidian Fury breaks her single blue one during their second fight. Then during the finale both swords are broken by the Mega Kaiju.

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