History Awesome / PacificRim

*** WalkingTall: The Mecha.

*** Walking Tall: The Mecha.

* The movie's music score, epecially Track 01 "Pacific Rim", which is played during the opening suit-up sequence and whenever the Jaegers started to fight against the Kaijus. That iconic opening riff? So damn '''AWESOME'''.

** The entire concept is one for humanity. We have giant monsters invading from another dimension, [[spoiler: and they've done it to who knows how many other planets.]] Humanity's reaction is to build giant robots ''and punch them in the face.''

* The Jaegers are summed up perfectly in the second trailer with the quote "Two-Thousand Five Hundred Tons of Awesome." [[spoiler:Which, funnily enough, was directed at the Kaiju in the movie itself.]]

*** For many a mecha fan,[[spoiler: deploying the sword as TheReveal after all the battles to that point]].
*** [[spoiler: ''[[AndThisIsFor "For my family!"]] ('''SLICE''')'']]
*** Up until this point, Raleigh had been the one giving orders, mostly due to Mako's inexperience as a Jaeger pilot. However, when Mako finally deploys the sword and declares that [[spoiler: this kill is for her family]], you can see ''him'' looking at ''her'' proudly and trusting her to handle the situation. He's copying ''her'' moves now.
** Gipsy Danger's ThreePointLanding ... [[spoiler: from orbit. Well, alright, technically it's from fifty thousand feet, which is extremely high (it's in the stratosphere) but not quite orbit, but who's counting?]]

* The moment when Otachi [[spoiler: spreads her wings]]. OhCrap indeed.
** Otachi herself shines above all Kaiju: she engages two of the most powerful Jaegers by herself, [[spoiler:manages to destroy Crimson Typhoon, and still keep her own against Cherno Alpha. She would have probably succumbed if Leatherback didn't pull a BigDamnHeroes, but it's the first time we see a Kaiju forcing Jaegers to bite the dust]].
** Both Otachi and Leatherback are, in many ways, a CMOA for [[spoiler: their masters]] as well. After finding out that the humans are building walls to hinder their creations, they respond with two methods of overcoming the walls. The first is with a huge brute who could just bulldoze his way through them effortlessly, with an anti-Jaeger weapon that could also kill most major weapons that any world government could throw at it. Otachi, meanwhile, [[spoiler: can fly]], making the walls absolutely useless. Plus, since she's [[spoiler: pregnant]], she's allowed her masters to sneak in the potential for a [[spoiler: third Kaiju, a day before they would have been able to unleash three normally.]]

* Gipsy Danger's fight with Raiju [[spoiler:is a quick CurbStompBattle where its pilots shoves its blade into its mouth during an underwater battle and [[InertiaIsACruelMistress uses the monster's momentum]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe to slice it in half]]]].
** And before that, Raiju [[spoiler: got the drop on Gipsy and bit off its right arm. Scunner follows up by mangling Gipsy's knee, forcing her to limp. So the above happens, Raleigh and Mako start off the fight with one arm, a dodgy leg, and make it work.]]

* Striker's [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice]] creates a blast so intense that the ocean retreats ''under water''.
** What makes it better is that it's TruthInTelevision. Considering that they [[spoiler:detonated a nuclear payload underwater]], the shockwave from the blast is so huge and has so much force, it creates a temporary pocket of ''hard vacuum.''
** Right before [[spoiler:Striker's sacrifice]], Stacker looks over at Chuck, who simply nods confidently. They showed not a twinge of fear towards death, fully willing to go out swinging.

** The fact that [[spoiler:despite the trauma of losing his brother ''while Drifting with him'', his cockpit being torn open, Gipsy Danger's arm having been torn off, and the Jaeger falling apart around him, Raleigh manages to control the Jaeger ''by himself'' to keep fighting and ultimately kills Knifehead. ''Then'' he makes it back to shore, also on his own. Keep in mind only ''one'' other person in history has been able to pilot a Jaeger on their own, ''period'', and that was Stacker Pentecost in Coyote Tango against Onibaba in Tokyo.]]
** The reveal that [[spoiler: Knifehead is NotQuiteDead]], OhCrap.

** [[spoiler: They proceed to get out of their Jaeger, stand on its shoulders, and shoot at the circling Leatherback with their piddling little flare guns (torching one of his eyes) just to buy some time for the city of Hong Kong.]]

* Raleigh's [[spoiler: epic beatdown of Chuck after Chuck insults Mako]].

* A badly damaged Gipsy Danger is making its way towards the rift [[spoiler:so it can be self-destructed to seal it]] when [[spoiler:[[FinalBoss Slattern]], having survived Striker Eureka's HeroicSacrifice, lands directly in front of them and blocks their path.]] What do Raleigh and Mako do? [[spoiler: Have Gipsy Danger tackle Slattern into the rift, engaging in a FreeFallFight with him as they plunge. They end said fight by blasting Slattern with Gipsy Danger's [[ChestBlaster chest mounted turbine]] at point blank range until the concentrated heat ''almost comes out his back''. [[Anime/{{MazingerZ}} Kouji Kabuto would be proud.]]]]
* There is nothing more satisfying than seeing Gipsy [[spoiler: nuking the alien bastards who ruined so many lives, ensuring that they would never be able to hurt an innocent life form ever again. Not to mention how Raleigh had to literally and figuratively go to hell and back to turn GD into a functioning nuke and get out of there. ALIVE.]]
** Furthermore, the fact that in those final moments, [[spoiler: you can see the fear registering on those alien bastards' faces long enough as they realize that they just fucked with the wrong planet.]]
** To further underscore what Raleigh and Mako accomplished: they [[spoiler:penetrated the Breach into ''another dimension'', kicked a Category 5 Kaiju's ass and used its body to get them through, activated the badly damaged GD's self-destruct, ejected from the Jaeger in record time, floated all the way from the alien Antiverse back through the Breach and to the surface of the ocean, and ''lived'' to tell the tale.]]
* [[spoiler: Chau is the only person onscreen to survive ''getting eaten'' by a Kaiju. When he cuts his way out, he cares less about the fact that he was inside a giant monster's digestive tract and more about his ''goddamned shoe'' missing.]]

** In the novelization, [[spoiler: he tackles Gipsy in mid-fall and battles them with only one arm]].
* More Awesome In Hindsight than anything else, but Raleigh piloting a Jaeger alone across the Atlantic and Stacker defeating Onibaba without their copilots becomes a lot more awesome when you consider [[spoiler:Jake could barely move 3 steps on his own in a more advanced Jaeger]] in ''[[Film/PacificRimUprising Uprising]]''

-->'''Raleigh:''' ''"Hold on, Mako! We're gonna '''burn''' this son of a bitch!" ''

'''Meta'''

* Sadly it seems the sequel might not have been as greenlit as once thought. On the plus side Del Toro is still writing the sequel, lack of studio be dammned, and promises it is full of crazy ideas.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HndBiSyOrK4 About that...]]
** Considering the head of Legendary said that the sequel was unlikely, and is now pulling a 180 with Godzilla's success, it's safe to say that Godzilla is a Kaiju worth being friends and co-workers with.
** Since we're on the subject of a studio that owns the rights to both the King of Monsters and Jaegers... [[UltimateShowdownOfUltimateDestiny Gipsy Danger vs. Godzilla]], anyone?
*** Or, even better, Gipsy Danger AND Godzilla beating the daylights out of Ghidora.
** [[http://www.lawyerherald.com/articles/30575/20160129/pacific-rim-2-director-guillermo-del-toro-exceed-first-film.htm Oh it's TOTALLY fucking happening!]]

'''Fanworks'''

[[caption-width-right:350:"We're out of options, Mako." "No, there's still something left!"]]

--> ''In all our eons, we've seen continents frozen and the sun blotted by ash - and we're still here. A decade after K-Day and we're still here. I've never believed in the end times. We are mankind. Our footprints are on the moon. When the last trumpet sounds and the beast rises from the pit - [[BadassBoast we will kill it.]]''

---> '''Marshal Pentecost:''' (''on Cherno'') Heaviest and oldest in the service, but make no mistake, Mr. Becket: it's a brutal war machine.

-->'''Chuck''': ''C'mon, Gipsy, '''kick his ass!'''''

* Mako's drift flashback was both a Moment of Heartwarming and a silencing of anyone's lingering doubts regarding Pentecost's badassery, standing like a triumphant god over his two-thousand-ton enemy with the rising sun framed behind him. Truly the crowning moment for Pentecost's story, because for a paternal authority figure like him, ''nothing'' is more awesome than being a little girl's hero.

[[caption-width-right:350:"We're out of options, Mako." "No."]]

** The best bit? The [[Music/RaminDjawadi same composer]] who did Iron man did this film.

** The man was a walking RousingSpeech. "I carry nothing into the Drift. No memories, no fear, no rank. And as for you, you're easy. You're an egotistical jerk with daddy issues, a simple puzzle I solved on day one."

** Crimson Typhoon gets a nice moment to shine, when it gets seized and lifted by Otachi the mecha merely rotates its body so it can replant its feet and throw Otachi aside.

** Cherno as well, getting the drop on Otachi with an [[WrestlerInAllOfUs elbow drop]], followed by a ''headlock'', where it could pound the thing's skull in at its leisure. Were it not for Leatherback's interruption Otachi would have taken quite a beating.

*** This has been dubbed the "Boat Sword".

** Before Gipsy shows up, Otachi has cracked open the shelter that Newt is hiding in and was about to eat him. Then Gipsy comes down the street dragging the boat, main theme blasting in the background, and a complete air of "you came to ''the wrong neighborhood.''"

** Gipsy Danger's ThreePointLanding... [[spoiler: from orbit. Well, alright, technically it's from fifty thousand feet, which is extremely high (it's in the stratosphere) but not quite orbit, but who's counting?]]

* It's revealed that the Kaidonovskies held the coastline for ''six years'' in Vladivostok, Russia, destroying over a half-dozen Kaiju that attempted to break through the Siberian Wall. And they did it in a Mark-''1'' Jaeger at that.
** They also hold the record as the Jaeger team with the longest and most stable neural handshake in the Corps, lasting up to eighteen hours.
** After funding to the Jaeger Program was officially cut off by the UN, it was Sasha and Aleksis who used their own personal connections to [[ArmsDealer procure any weapon]] that Pentecost needed in his assault against the Breach and the continued defense of Hong Kong. All weapons that were added to the Jaegers after they arrived at the Hong Kong Shatterdome were supplied by the Kaidonovskies, not any of the world governments or even the [=PPDC=] itself. This presumably includes the ''nuclear warhead'' Striker Eureka carries into battle during the final assault on the breach.

** Otachi herself shines above all Kaiju: she engages two of the most powerful Jaegers by herself, [[spoiler:manages to destroy Crimson Typhoon and still keep her own against Cherno Alpha. She would have probably succumbed if Leatherback didn't pull a BigDamnHeroes, but it's the first time we see a Kaiju forcing Jaegers to bite the dust]].
** Both Otachi and Leatherback are, in many ways, a CMOA for [[spoiler: their masters]] as well. After finding out that the humans are building walls to hinder their creations, they respond with two methods of overcoming the walls: The first is with a huge brute who could just bulldoze his way through them effortlessly, with an anti-Jaeger weapon that could also kill most major weapons that any world government could throw at it. Otachi, meanwhile, [[spoiler: can fly]], making the walls absolutely useless. Plus, since she's [[spoiler: pregnant]], she's allowed her masters to sneak in the potential for a [[spoiler: third Kaiju, a day before they would have been able to unleash three normally.]]

* Gipsy Danger's fight with Raiju [[spoiler:is a quick CurbStompBattle where shoves its blade into its mouth during an underwater battle and [[InertiaIsACruelMistress uses the monster's momentum]] [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe to slice it in half]]]].
** And before that Raiju [[spoiler: got the drop on Gipsy and bit off its right arm. Scunner follows up by mangling Gipsy's knee, forcing her to limp. So the above happens, Raleigh and Mako start off the fight with one arm, a dodgy leg, and make it work.]]

** The fact that [[spoiler:despite the trauma of losing his brother ''while Drifting with him'', his cockpit being torn open, Gipsy Danger's arm having been torn off, and the Jaeger falling apart around him, Raleigh manages to control the Jaeger ''by himself'' to keep fighting and ultimately kills Knifehead. ''Then'' making it back to shore, also on his own. Keep in mind only ''one'' other person in history has been able to pilot a Jaeger on their own ''period'', and that was Stacker Pentecost in Coyote Tango against Onibaba in Tokyo.]]
** Knifehead [[spoiler: revealing to be NotQuiteDead]], OhCrap.

** It's so much cooler than that. Watch Raleigh's fighting style; the neck chop, dropping down on one hand to use Chuck's weight against him. That's simply not the fighting style of a big, powerful guy. When you're big and muscular and brawny you train to use that to your advantage. That's not Raleigh's style. That's a combination of Raleigh and ''Mako''. And ''they have only Drifted once''.

*** Foreshadows Gipsy's epic ass-kickery for the rest of the movie: Raliegh has been stated as an unorthodox fighter, but here we see he's also ''adaptive'': able to switch on the fly in a split second to a completely different tactic.
* A badly damaged Gipsy Danger spears Scunner through the neck and drags him to an underwater volcano and burns off half his face, Scunner has his own when he shrugs off the burns.

* A badly damaged Gipsy Danger is making it towards the rift [[spoiler:so it can be self destructed to seal it]] when [[spoiler:[[FinalBoss Slattern]] lands directly in front of it after surviving Striker Eureka's HeroicSacrifice, blocking the path.]] What do Raleigh and Mako do? [[spoiler:Have Gipsy Danger tackle Slattern into the rift, engaging in a FreeFallFight with him as they plunge. They end said fight by blasting Slattern with Gipsy Danger's [[ChestBlaster chest mounted turbine]] at point blank range until the concentrated heat ''almost comes out his back''. [[Anime/{{MazingerZ}} Kouji Kabuto would be proud.]]]]
* There is nothing more satisfying than seeing Gipsy [[spoiler: nuking the alien bastards who ruined so many lives, ensuring that they would never be able to hurt an innocent life form every again. Not to mention how Raleigh had to literally and figuratively go to hell and back to turn GD into a functioning nuke and get out of there. ALIVE.]]
** Furthermore the fact that in those final moments [[spoiler: you can see fear on those alien bastards faces as they realize that they fucked with the wrong planet before they were nuked to hell.]]
** To further underscore what Raleigh and Mako accomplished: they [[spoiler:penetrated the breach into ''another dimension'', kicked a Category 5 Kaiju's ass and used its body to get them through, activated the badly damaged GD's self-destruct, both ejected from the Jager, floated all the way from the alien Antiverse back through the breach and to the surface of the ocean, and lived to tell the tale.]]
* [[spoiler:Chau is the only person onscreen to survive ''getting eaten'' by a Kaiju. When he cuts his way out, he cares less about the fact that he was inside a giant monster's digestive tract and more about his ''goddamned shoe'' missing.]]

* The first portion of the credits plays the ''Pacific Rim'' theme and just before it ends it shows black silhouettes of Gipsy Danger slicing Otachi, scrolls down to Gipsy Danger struggling with Slattern, then scrolls down further giving a Kaiju roll-call to all the monsters that appears and ends with Gipsy Danger at front and center with Striker Eureka and Crimson Typhoon flanking her.
* The movie's music score, epecially Track 01 "Pacific Rim", which is played during the opening suit-up sequence and whenever the Jaegers started to fight against the Kaijus. The score is so damn '''AWESOME'''.
* Everything that Newton and Hermann do in the movie should count as a Crowning Moment of Awesome in some way. They're both geniuses, and very young, considering what they manage to accomplish: they're both only in their mid-thirties but Newton has several doctorates and taught at MIT, and Hermann worked on the early jaegers. Hermann creates complex algorithms that accurately predict the patterns of when Kaiju will appear and probably knows more about the Breach than any other human being, and Newton understands the physiology of Kaiju better than anyone else. Newton survived direct attacks from two individual kaiju, and still managed to stumble back to the powerful crime lord and demand to get the Kaiju brain he was promised. And both did something incredibly scary and painful that neither of them were trained for: they Drifted. With a ''Kaiju''. They're as much heroes as the jaeger pilots.
* "Guess who's back, you one-eyed bitch? You owe me a Kaiju brain!" What makes this moment so awesome is that Newt is obviously terrified of Chau and his goons (he did just survive a close encounter with a Kaiju, but they also did put a bunch of guns to his head, and a knife up his nostril just before). And yet, he calls Chau out on his shit -- and that is so awesome that it earns him the VillainRespect and in the next shot, ''Chau is directing his men to get that Kaiju brain''.

* "There are things you can't fight; acts of god. You see a hurricane coming you have to get out of the way. But when you're in a Jaeger, suddenly you can fight the hurricane. You can win."

** Knifehead vs Gipsy Danger. Between the sheer scale of the Kaiju presented on screen, Knifehead returning from the dead, humanity learning ItCanThink when Knifehead plays dead, counters Gipsy's plasma caster, targets Gipsy's con-pod and ''rips out the pilot'', it showed that this movie wouldn't be a repeat of the 1998 Godzilla and the Kaiju were going to be a very real threat. Knifehead would have won if Raleigh hadn't been able to keep his composure and single-handedly pilot Gipsy Danger.
*** In the novelization, Raleigh wonders if Knifehead is ''deliberately'' aiming for the head/cockpit, as if it ''knew'' the pilots were there. Yes Raleigh, yes it does. And it's later confirmed that the Kaiju have been observing this weakness for a long while because another Kaiju does the ''exact same thing'' to Romeo Blue in Seattle, aiming directly for the cockpit and killing Bruce and Trevin Gage by ripping them out of it.

*** When Crimson needed help, Cherno was unable to save their asses in time. Similarly, when Cherno was getting torn apart, Striker couldn't stop Leatherback from killing the Kadainovskys. On the other hand, when Cherno starts getting back in the fight, Leatherback immediately ensures that victory would be the Kaijus', and when Striker had Otachi dead for rights, he again manages to both save her and defeat Striker. The two were essentially unbeatable until they made the mistake of splitting up.

** The rise of Slattern is an awesome moment, with cinematography, the hype of the first Cat 5, 5,730 Tons of Awesome and the sheer damn size of Slattern (he makes even Scunner and Otachi look small) making it one hell of an introduction.
** The best part being the Kaiju leitmotif playing faster and more ''urgent,'' as if to highlight just how dangerous this terrifyimg new monster is. The way he rises from the Breach looks almost like Satan himself emerging from the darkest pits of hell itself to bring about the apocalypse.
** Slattern being the first Kaiju to hold his own against, even dominate for a while, Striker Eureka. Eureka had previously completely handed Mutavore and Otachi their asses with ease (Otachi and novel Mutavore had both shown the capability to dominate two Jaegers at once), and Slattern not only manages to throw him all over the place and seriously damage him, but shrug off the Stinger Blades.
*** Can't forget the 'Slattern survives a nuke' scene, of course. ''Especially since the bomb was Sixty times more powerful than the one that hit Hiroshima''.

*** Slattern's battle with Striker was also a CMOA for Striker. Slattern is the biggest, baddest and most powerful Kaiju seen yet. Yet Striker was capable of turning the tide of the battle despite his devastating injuries and gives it such a brutal beatdown that Slattern ''had to call for the other Kaiju for help''.

** Knifehead's aforementioned exploitation of a Jaegers' weaknesses.

** Scunner, Slattern, and Raiju splitting up the tackle Gipsy and Striker and swapping opponents when necessary, hence showing their capacity for tactics and complex ambush strategies.

** Leatherback bodylocking Gipsy, then throwing him over the distance of few hundred meters.
*** Gipsy gets one from more or less landing on her feet from that.
** Leatherback using a crane like a club to hammer Gipsy silly, another indication of the Kaijus' intelligence and resourcefulness.
** Leatherback manages to overpower Gipsy at the end of the fight, driving him across the port, all while Gipsy was loading plasma casters point-blank into his chest. He continues his charge even after Gipsy blows his arm off and takes nearly a dozen blasts to defeat.

* Slattern, even after getting his throat slit, arms nearly amputated, hit point-blank by a damn nuke and getting a hole punched right through his torso with the sheer heat emitted from Gipsy's turbine, continues to put up one hell of a fight till the end and nearly destroys Gipsy.

** Pentecost is even more awesome, since he managed it without taking any serious damage from the Kaiju and looking fresh as a daisy after it while having just taken enough radiation to KO his partner
* During the fight with Leatherback aand Otachi, Railegh and Mako show some epic CombatPragmatism
** What is Gipsy Danger's opening move ,while fighting Leatherback? Jump onto his back and tear off a lobe of the EMP organ, disabling it
** Then when Otachi spits her acid, GD does an Iron Man-esque dodge, then proceeds to grab the acid sac and rip it out!
*** And when Otachi tries to stop this by grabbing her opponent's arm with her tail, Railegh has Mako vvent coolant onto the tail, freezing it, then shatters it.

* Sadly it seems the sequel might not have been as greenlight as once thought. On the plus side Del Toro is still writing the sequel, lack of studio be dammned, and promises it is full of crazy ideas.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pacific_rim_space.png]]

* "Stop the clock!" Over a decade of war against monsters right out of nightmares, and humanity came out on top with a gigantic "FUCK YOU!" to the other side.

* Mako's drift flashback was both a Moment of Heartwarming and a silencing of anyone's lingering doubts regarding Pentecost's badassery, standing like a triumphant god over his two-thousand-ton enemy. Truly the crowning moment for Pentecost's story, because for a paternal authority figure like him, ''nothing'' is more awesome than being a little girl's hero.

* More Awesome In Hindsight than anything else, but [[spoiler:Raleigh piloting a Jaeger alone across the Atlantic and Stacker defeating Onibaba without their copilots]] becomes a lot more awesome when you consider [[spoiler:Jake could barely move 3 steps on his own in a more advanced Jaeger]] in ''[[Film/PacificRimUprising Uprising]]''

* Pacific Rim. Set to the theme to ''WesternAnimation/MegasXLR''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWrzv6Z7uRc That is all.]]

* A badly damaged Gipsy Danger is making it towards the rift [[spoiler:so it can be self destructed to seal it]] when [[spoiler:[[FinalBoss Slattern]] lands directly in front of it after surviving Striker Eureka's HeroicSacrifice, blocking the path.]] What do Raleigh and Mako do? [[spoiler:Have Gipsy Danger tackle Slattern into the rift, engaging in a FreeFallFight with him as they plunge. They end said fight by blasting Slattern with Gipsy Danger's ChestBlaster at point blank range until the beam ''almost comes out his back''.]]

* You know that horn that always heralds Gipsy Danger's arrival? That loud ''BWOOOOM'' that sounds like HansZimmer's wet dream? [[SugarWiki/MostWonderfulSound That's not part of the soundtrack.]] That's Gipsy's warning horn, and it has the double purpose of 1) [[BringIt distracting/intimidating Kaijus]], and 2) [[BigDamnHeroes announcing to any humans in the vicinity that a Jaeger is here to kick some monster ass.]]

** After funding to the Jaeger Program was officially cut off by the UN, it was Sasha and Aleksis who used their own personal connections to [[ArmsDealer procure any weapon]] that Pentecost needed in his assault against the Breach and the continued defense of Hong Kong. All weapons that were added to the Jaegers after they arrived at the Hong Kong Shatterdome were supplied by the Kaidonovskies, not any of the world governments or even the [=PPDC=] itself. This presumably includes the ''nuclear weapon'' Striker Eureka carries into battle during the final assault on the breach.

** After funding to the Jaeger Program was officially cut off by the UN, it was Sasha and Aleksis who used their own personal connections to [[ArmsDealer procure any weapon]] that Pentecost needed in his assault against the Breach and the continued defense of Hong Kong. All weapons that were added to the Jaegers after they arrived at the Hong Kong Shatterdome were supplied by the Kaidonovskies, not any of the world governments or even the [=PPDC=] itself.