There would be a lot of Shout-Out in this film
When Dr. Newton "Newt" Geiszler drifted with the Kaiju Brain the Precursors got more information than just where he was to kill him. After their defeat, they used the memories to prepare their next attack and discovered a bit about human culture that they use for inspiration to create more Kaiju. These are a few ideas for new Kaiju:- Giger: looks a bit like a Xenomorph but is bigger and has two more arms. It would be difficult to fight because his blood is designed to turn into an acid more powerful than Otachi's when exposed to oxygen and he is immune to it.
- Lovecraft: a combination of Leatherback and Otachi, Lovecraft not only can fly but can also use her tentacled face to capture Jaeger's heads and break them, killing the pilots.
- Sauron: more humanoid than other Kaijus and with the appearance of a medieval knight, this one is designed to fight Jaegers in equal condition and is armed with biological equivalents of their weapons. The Precursors would deploy a number of them equal to the number of Jaegers to distract everyone while the other Kaiju attack different parts of the world.
- Tarrasque: the second Category Five Kaiju, this would be one of the final Kaiju to fight. It looks like an Ankylosaurus but the body is crocodilian and has spikes on its tail closely resembling those of a stegosaurus. Like many other Kaiju it has six limbs but it's non-bipedial.
- Hanuman: to the surprise of everyone, this Kaiju looks like a scaled-up black orangutan. However, having dextrous hands mean that it can use anything around him to fight the Jaegers.
- Leto: a gigantic subterranean creature that has been destroying cities for a while before the Jaegers manage to trick it to go to the surface. It looks like a green-red worm with eight eyes and a mouth that opens into four parts.
- Xnaider: Looks like a bat and can belch a smokey mist that obscures the air. Inside the mist, color saturation lowers and everything moves in slow-motion. Stops fighting after realizing his brother is named Yancy.
The film will show Jaegers actually crossing the Rift and attacking the Precursors directly.
The humans know how to cross the Rift now, so they'll do it again, this time with a larger group of Jaegers to rampage through the Precursors' dimension and take the fight to them. Thus the 'Uprising' in the title.
- Jossed, although judging by Jake's Badass Boast at the end it sounds like they will in the next film.
Raleigh Becket is still alive in this film.
He's just not on-screen because he's working elsewhere in the Pan Pacific Defense Corps, either running another Shatterdome, instructing new Rangers in the Jaeger Academy, or working with J-Tech to oversee the construction of new and improved Jaegers, including a new version of Gipsy Danger. (Or possibly even promoted to Secretary-General of the entire PPDC.)- Jossed. He doesn't appear, and the novelisation reveals he passed away a year prior to cancer.
Jaeger technology has advanced enough that they only require a single pilot
This will play into the drama of the various generations of pilots, as the younger pilots are all brash loners than the closely bonded teammates of the previous film- Jossed by Steven S. DeKnight.
- Only Semi-Jossed: Scrapper only needs a single pilot due to its small size, and the drone control system seems to only use a single controller per unit.
There would be a Jaeger vs. Jaeger fight in the film.
Either as a training exercise, a conflict between pilots of two Jaegers, or one of the bots got hijacked by a Kaiju that has the ability to control electronics (well, we already got a Kaiju with EMP ability in the first film, it's not that far fetched.)- The trailer does show some Jaegers fighting one another and it sure doesn't look like a training exercise. If I were to guess i'd say that when the common enemy of the kaijus uniting us disappeared, humanity simply did what we always do and started fighting each other.
- The second trailer reveals that there will be a group of humans working with the Precursors, so it's possible the Jaeger seen fighting Gypsy Avenger is related to that group.
- Confirmed.
Raleigh Becket is still alive, he just retired to be a House Husband after settling down with Mako.
Because after all the crap he's been through, he'd probably be downright eager to take up something FAR away from fighting and Jagers.- Unknown. Raleigh isn't mentioned much, but he seems to be alive, his relationship with Mako, if any, is not brought up.
- Jossed. The novelisation reveals he passed away a year prior to cancer.
Newt and Herman are villains this time
Exposure to the hive mind during their Drift with the Kaiju brain in the first movie had long-term effects. Over time, the residue from their Drift grew, spread, and twisted their minds until they are now running a movement that is intended to make sure Earth is open to attack when the Kaiju Masters open a new Breach.- Confirmed on the Pro-Kaiju movement. Nothing on whether Newt and Hartman are in on it.
- Confirmed with Newt as the villain. His constant drifting with a Kaiju brain allows the Precursors to brainwash him into committing a Face–Heel Turn, while Herman stayed sane because he had only come into contact with the brain once in the first movie, then presumably never drifted with one again.
There will be heroic kaiju this time.
Guillermo expressed interest in the idea of merging jaeger and kaiju technology. The idea of drifting with a kaiju and freeing it from the hive mind isn't entirely unreasonable and would prevent the flashy new jaegers from stealing the show completely.- Jossed, although the bit about the Jaeger and Kaiju merging is confirmed in the form of the drones and Obsidian Fury.
Jaeger-shaped Kaiju.
The inverse of the above. The precursors reverse-engineer human technology from the wreckages of Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka and build humanoid biomechanical kaiju to combat human Jaegers. The two seen at 0:40 in the official trailer certainly have an oddly alien aesthetic...- Confirmed. The drones have some Kaiju stuff popping out of them.
The Precursors will be defeated for good in this film, but at a great cost
The "main" world and the Precursor world will be fused together into one new environment, resulting in a strange new setting for sequel projects.- Jossed, although this will likely be the plot of the next film.
Herc Hansen is retired.
Which explains why he won't be coming back in the new film. During the time gap between the first film and this, Herc got too old to pilot Jaegers. That, doubled with the grief of losing his son Chuck, means he probably doesn't want to be involved in the project anymore.- Unknown. Like Raleigh, he isn’t mentioned.
- Confirmed by Pacific Rim: The Black:he retired after the war but come out of retirement to help defend Australia where he goes M.I.A.
Uprising will be Darker and Edgier with a dash of Bloodier and Gorier
If the lyrics didn't tip off the theme and tone of the story, it would be.- Jossed. Mostly.
There will be an 11th-Hour Superpower built into the new generation of Jaegers
The ability to combine into a Gestalt. This is why the trailer shows multiple pilots working in four or six-man teams in a single cockpit.- Jossed. The Jaegers don’t anyway.
Obsidian Fury is Gipsy Danger Reforged into a Minion by the Precursors
Jake's Character Arc seems to be about stepping out of his father's shadow, it would be a fitting parallel if doing so coincided with Avenger killing her symbolic "mother".
- Jossed.
Shoutouts to super robot anime of the past will be present
Possibly in a twist ending, where Mako is introduced to a young boy named Ryoma Nagare.- Confirmed, though not as such: The mention of Rare Earth Elements in Mt. Fuji seems to be a Shout Out to the Japanium (a key element of Super Alloy Z) and Sakuradite of Mazinger Z and Code Geass found in the same place
Nate Lambert will die and be replaced by Amara as Jake's co-pilot
There's scenes where Amara is co-piloting with Jake instead of Nate, and a scene where he is on the ground firing an rifle at an imminent Kaiju threat.- Semi-confirmed. While Nate didn't die, he is wounded in the final battle. Amara, who happens to be on the ground nearby, then takes his place as Jake's co-pilot. The scene where Nate is fighting at smaller Kaijus on the ground is actually a Missing Trailer Scene.
Each generation of Jaegers start out with Fragile Speedsters, then build up
More an observation of recurring trends than a solid theory. Later into a generation, Jaegers are built bigger and tougher, whereas early members of a Jaeger "Generation" are fast, light, and agile. Compare Bracer Phoenix to Striker Eureka, or to Cherno Alpha and Saber Athena. As understanding and test data from a new generation of Jaegers is gathered, more powerful ones can be built. At the same time, the next generation "framework" is then put into test with even greater agility and more advanced internal systems. A certain invitation
Newt's invitation to Hermann was his cry for help. Think about it: With the way they Drifted together and how he's a genius in his own right, Hermann could have easily figured out something was wrong with Newt should he see "Alice".- In the third film (we know it will happen), Hermann will drift with Newt to save him from the Precursors. We'll get an epic Battle in the Center of the Mind.
Newt is going to recover in time
.Given Newt was regularly drifting with you know what to allow the Precursors to remain in control. Now that he's been forcefully separated from it Newts mind will start to reassert itself and overcome the mind control because the Precursors won't have a direct link to him but it won't be pretty and the recovery process will be like a drug addiction rehabilitation with constant threat of remission if he's allowed out where he can get his hands on a Kaiju brain to drift with, the urge to do it will never truly leave. The sequel will reveal that the events of Uprising were all just a nightmare of Newt's.
Think about it. Between the nonsensical retcons, the shameless character assassination - both figurative and literal - and the plots foreshadowed, the franchise has been grievously wounded. Any prospective sequel will have to deal with all of this, and the only reasonable way to come out on top is to just cut it out entirely. A lot of people died in Tokyo.
Given a major brawl is about to go down we see people going into shelters but we also see them closing leaving people outside. Subsequently, the Jaeger pilots are given the all clear to engage with command telling them everyone is underground. This troper suspects that with so much on the line command made the choice to hide that the city was still populated from the cadets piloting the Jaegers so they wouldn't hesitate about causing collateral damage while the two professionals were well aware of it and willing to accept the cost of victory. As a result, a lot, at least in the high hundreds to low thousands, of people died in Tokyo during the brawl.- Pretty much explicitly confirmed.
Pacific Rim is an AU of Code Geass.
But with a history similar to our own. Rare highly reactive minerals underneath Mt. Fuji? Sakuradites! They probably use it on the Jaegers. Heck, they even manage to miniaturize Jaeger to about Knightmare Frame size with Scrapper. Scrappers will be mass produced.
Considering the essential part Scrapper played in saving the day in Uprising, the PPDC will begin building dozens of similar small, highly mobile Jaegers to officially serve as a support unit to proper battle Jaegers. Mako faked her death.
She wasn't in the helicopter. It was a Ridiculously Human Robot. The real Mako is in hiding with Raleigh and Herc, planning the last major offensive against the Precursors.