Pacific Rim (film)

Pacific Rim is a 2013 American military science fiction and monster movie directed by Guillermo del Toro. The screenplay was co-written by Travis Beacham and del Toro, based on a story by Beacham. It launched the Pacific Rim franchise. The story takes place in a future where Earth is fighting the Kaiju, giant sea monsters that come through an interdimensional portal at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To fight them, humanity builds the Jaegers, enormous humanoid robots piloted by two people whose minds are linked through a connection called the Drift. The film is considered a tribute to kaiju, mecha, and anime.

Principal photography started on November 14, 2011, in Toronto and wrapped up in April 2012. Legendary Pictures produced it, and Warner Bros. Pictures handled distribution. It came out on July 12, 2013, in 3D, RealD 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX. Critics generally gave it positive reviews, praising the acting, direction, story, action, visual effects, music, and nostalgic feel. Although it didn't do as well in the U.S., it was a hit overseas, making $411 million worldwide—$136 million of that came from China, its biggest market—making it del Toro's most commercially successful film. A sequel, *Pacific Rim Uprising*, was released on March 23, 2018, by Universal Pictures.

The plot begins in 2013, when alien Kaiju emerge from the Breach, a portal at the bottom of the Pacific, and attack coastal cities around the Pacific Rim. Humanity builds Jaegers, each piloted by two or more people who share the mental strain through the Drift. In 2020, brothers Yancy and Raleigh Becket pilot the Jaeger Gipsy Danger to defend Anchorage. A Kaiju badly damages Gipsy and kills Yancy. Raleigh kills the Kaiju but, traumatized by his brother's death and the stress of piloting alone, quits the program.

Five years later, with Kaiju attacks increasing and Jaegers being destroyed, world leaders shift funding to coastal defense walls. These walls fail when a Kaiju breaks through in Sydney, only stopped by the Jaeger Striker Eureka, piloted by father-son duo Herc and Chuck Hansen. The remaining Jaegers are moved to the Hong Kong Shatterdome under Marshal Stacker Pentecost. Raleigh, now building the wall, is convinced by Pentecost to return. In Hong Kong, he meets Mako Mori, head of the Jaeger restoration program. Only four Jaegers, including Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka, are left.