History Fridge / PacificRim

* Pentecost's last words to Mako are "You can always find me in the Drift!" It's a heartwarming reminder that he'll be there for her when she needs him--it also makes sense as more than a metaphorical statement because as we've seen earlier, Mako gives in to chasing the RABIT when Drifting, going back into her memories. On top of that, Geiszler and later Gottlieb have shown that it's possible to drift outside of a Jaeger, so it's entirely possible that, if she needs his presence, she can purposefully chase the RABIT in a safer Drift setting to be with him.

** To add further insult, Raleigh wound up working on the Wall project, which was just proven ineffective since Chuck had to use Striker Eureka to take out the kaiju that breached the Sydney wall. To Chuck, Raleigh is a reminder that the Jaeger program is being scrapped in favor of a worthless publicity stunt.

* The Drift makes it so that co-pilots while in the Drift don't really need to communicate since they are in each others heads. So when Yancy is KilledMidSentence at the start of the film, you would think that his last words were echoed in Raleigh's mind. Only, sometimes our minds get so scrambled we need to speak in order to organize them; chances are, Raleigh could only guess at what his brother wanted to say to him. Yancy could have wanted to say anything along the lines of pride, regret, reassurance--maybe even all of these things and more at once. Raleigh may have some semblance of what Yancy wanted to say to him--after all, the sentiment is there, and the connection is empathic--but the fact that Yancy never got to vocalize these thoughts to Raleigh is another painful reminder of how brutally Yancy was taken from him.

* It seems a bit awfully convenient that Leatherback doesn't attack Striker Eureka right after crippling it with his EMP generator. It's probable that he thought Striker was "dead" and didn't understand that Jaegers are actually controlled by humans. After all, we have seen Kaijus aim for the Jaegers' heads or torsos, techniques wich make more sense for a living being than for a machine.

* Raleigh handily thrashes Chuck (an Australian!) in a punch-up. ''How?'' Raleigh grew up with ''a brother to tussle with''. It also handily explains how a Mark-3 Jaeger can beat the holy hell out of two Category 4 Kaiju that just destroyed 3 Jaegers...Raleigh is insanely good as a hand to hand combatant. His fight with Chuck is practically a curb stomp battle...and Mako can keep up with him easily. Gipsy Danger may be slower, older, and less well armed/armored than Striker Eureka but it has the two most dangerous hand to hand combatants in the film at the helm. You'll notice that Striker Eureka, Cherno Alpha and especially Crimson Typhoon use the same general tactics and fighting styles in all their fights -- Striker typically knocks around a Kaiju for a minute before going for the chest missiles, Cherno has been fighting (apparently non-stop) for ten years, and Crimson Typhoon has had the same tactic in use for so long that even Raleigh, who's been out of the game for five years, was familiar with it.

* Raleigh handily thrashes Chuck (an Australian!) in a punch-up. ''How?'' Raleigh grew up with ''a brother to tussle with''. It also handily explains how a Mark-3 Jaeger can beat the holy hell out of two Category 4 Kaiju that just destroyed 3 Jaegers...Raleigh is insanely good as a hand to hand combatant. His fight with Chuck is practically a curb stomp battle...and Mako can keep up with him easily. Gipsy Danger may be slower, older, and less well armed/armored than Striker Eureka but it has the two most dangerous hand to hand combatants in the film at the helm. You'll notice that Striker Eureka, Cherno Alpha and especially Crimson Typhoon use the same general tactics and fighting styles in all their fights -- Striker typically knocks around a Kaiju for a minute before going for the chest missiles, Cherno has been fighting (apparently non-stop) for ten years, and Crimson Typhoon has had the same tactic in use for so long that even Raleigh, who's been out of the game for five years, was familiar with it. After the timeskip, it is explicitly said that the Kaiju are adapting to their tactics (with Herc Hansen ''standing right there''), and yet the Jaeger pilots continue to use the same moves even as the Kaiju mix things up. Gipsy doesn't, in accordance with Raleigh's improvisational fighting style that carries over to the Jaeger fights -- using cargo containers as knuckle dusters and a freaking oil tanker as a bat -- and thus the Kaiju can't plan for Gipsy as well as they did for Striker, Cherno or Crimson. During their fight, literally the second Chuck starts countering Raleigh's moves, he changes styles, keeping him off balance. One of the biggest problems the individual Kaiju have is lack of adaptability - and it bites them in the ass every time.

** Although keep in mind that the reason everyone united in Pacific Rim was because the attacks kept coming. We can't honestly say how the countries of the world would have responded had the attacks ever actually stopped.

* The MultiNationalTeam that saves the world applies on a meta level to the film itself. It's an American homage to every single Japanese work of popular science fiction ever, directed by a Mexican.

* The fact that Kaiju blood is Ammonia-based becomes much worse if you know something about chemistry.
** When exposed to soil, Ammonia can react with the water inside and change into Ammonium, its ionic form. This form will disassociate or nitrify if not absorbed by biomass, releasing Hydrogen Cations, which will result in soil acidification.
** While it can help with fertilization, in some environments, the nutrition Ammonia provides usually promotes the growth of weedy species that will choke out ones dependent on larger amounts of nutrients.
** In aquatic environments, Ammonia results in the formation of Algal blooms, which deprive water of oxygen and block the sun over large areas. Some even secrete poisons into the water.
** Worst of all, while Mammals have special mechanisms to help prevent Ammonia from building up in the bloodstream, ''fish and amphibians don't.''

** It's also why the kaiju took final battle underwater near the Breach, where Striker Eureka cannot use its missles

* It was stated that building a Jaeger cost over 100 ''billion dollars.'' How many Jaegers were built again? Plus, all the money that was lost in damage repairs and damage to cities, it's safe to say that the world won't be that much better off after the breach was closed.

* Why did Scunner attack Gypsy Danger unrelentingly until Slattern called in for back up? Well consider how much of a SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute he is for Knifehead. Dual sets of split arms, sharp head ornaments, shell on back; and large mouth for biting. Now consider the Precursors were actively changing and adapting the kaiju to better deal with the Jaegars. They knew Gypsy Danger was a threat so they created a kaiju based on the last one of their forces that took Gypsy out. Scunner was made to be a bigger, stronger, more dangerous version of Knifehead specially make to take out Gypsy
** Mirrors real life species, a Great Hammerhead Shark (Scunner) is much larger and brawnier than a Goblin Shark (Knifehead)
** Now recall the HiveMind the kaiju had. If Scunner had Knifehead's memories it make sense for him to go after Gypsy, it remembered getting killed by it

** It's because the reactor isn't actually part of the Jaeger. Cherno Alpha is actually a very small Jaeger carrying a massive reactor on its back - it seems likely that the reactor and the Jaeger are individually shielded from external attack, and that's enough to protect the pilots. Whether this is intentional or not isn't discussed.

* Meta, but [[http://starseedjenny.tumblr.com/post/56497775832/a-couple-days-ago-i-saw-someone-raise-the-question THIS]] is one of the best reasons I've seen to explain why this movie seems to have such a following among younger movie-goers...

* This movie actually has an unstated justification for the presence of people on rooftops, filming the Kaiju attack instead of running for their lives. When Kaiju attacks are a regular occurrence, and the Kaiju are evolving and changing with each go-round, video documentation of each Kaiju attack and (hopefully) defeat is of the utmost importance, so that the PPDC can study the Kaiju and prepare for the next one. I wouldn't be surprised if the PPDC subsidizes professional emergency camera crews on hand in every major Pacific city; maybe there's a rewards systems in place (rations cards?) for found footage shot by amateurs, if it's more informative.

** Further reinforced by the fact that Raleigh remained in the flashback despite the narrative's potential to dip into Pentacost's perspective and have the scene play out without Raleigh present. His presence makes it very clear that the event is being viewed through a single, recursive perspective (Raleigh through Mako via Drift), and thus highly subjective with a potential for inaccuracy.

* Take a second time to view the battle between Gipsy Danger and the Kaiju in Hong Kong. Raleigh is frequently [[CallingYourAttacks telling Mako what to do next]] despite the fact that they are mind-connected through the Drift. At first, it seems like he's doing it for the audience. But that's not the case: notice that Mako's movements come just a little after Raleigh's, [[spoiler: at least until Otachi lifts them in the air]]. [[ShellShockedVeteran Raleigh]] has the lead in this fight and [[TheRookie Mako]] tries to keep up with his movements and tactics. He's simply making it easier for her by telling her out loud. Later in the battle, when Gipsy Danger is [[spoiler: almost in orbit]] and he's out of ideas, [[TheRookie she]] takes the lead and points out that they still have the [[spoiler: sword]]; now he's copying her moves.

* It seems odd that Striker Eureka (and to the same extent, Crimson Typhoon)'s systems being "digital" meant it was more vulnerable to Leatherback's EMP than the nuclear Gipsy Danger and Cherno Alpha. Danger had core systems that still would've been lost if EMP'd. But being "digital" was referring to the ''connection between the pilots and the Jaeger'', not the power systems. Think about it -- in the prologue we clearly see Yancy and Raleigh's braces connected to a multitude of pistons and gears that move in conjunction with their movements. They were ''directly connected to Gipsy's drive motors through the braces''. Meanwhile, we don't see the same exposed machinery in Eureka or Typhoon. Being "digital" likely means that computerized systems "read" the movements the pilots make via the braces, and then make the motors respond appropriately -- reducing the exertion level for the pilots and allowing for movements not possible through standard movement (e.g. Typhoon's lower-torso-rotation). If the power is lost -- the connection is severed, and there's no way of controlling the Jaeger -- hence, Eureka going limp. An "analogue" Jaeger has a direct connection between the pilots and the motors, so even if the systems stop working, the pilots are still somewhat capable of controlling the mech, albeit with more effort needed and a possible HUD loss.
** Striker and Crimson both being digital through this definition also connects to them being faster and more agile than their analogue counterparts, Gipsy and Cherno, both of which are slower models.