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[cntr]

One of the most famous bits of Pacific Rim, and one of the most mocked. "Why didn't they use the sword earlier?", you ask? "Why didn't they use swords on all Jaegers?", and so on. Well, there are answers to all those questions and more.

So why didn't they deploy the sword earlier? Because it wasn't originally part of Gipsy Danger. It was added when it was being repaired. Mako knew about it, but didn't transmit the information across the drift to Raleigh because she was avoiding trying to think about unnecessary things.

Unnecessary? Isn't the sword a super weapon?

Kaiju blood is poisonous. So what'll happen if you start chopping up a kaiju in the middle of Hong Kong with the sword, spilling its blood everywhere? Well, they'd git rid of the kaiju...and turn Hong Kong into a toxic wasteland.

In fact, this is a major reason they use giant robots in the first place. You can blast fire a kaiju with hordes of artillery and missiles, sure, but it's going to charge through the storm through the city where it finally explodes into gibs, again spilling its blood everywhere.

The Jaegers, however, can physically restrain kaiju, keeping them away from cities, and use blunt force to inflict damage without spilling blood.

In fact, every weapon a Jaeger uses is made to not spill blood. Gipsy Danger uses plasma weapons to cauterize wounds as they are inflicted. Cherno Alpha has flamethrowers and electrically charged fists. Even Striker Eureka's missiles are designed to explode in ways to cauterize wounds.

And when Jaegers do have cutting weapons, they have extra stuff to fix blood spills. Crimson Typhoon has a plasma weapon that it can use to cauterize its slices. Gispy Danger does the same, though it got the sword later, and never put into practice due to the events of the film. Striker Eureka's swords are heated, burning wounds closed.

This logic extends all the way back -- Tacit Ronin, one of the Jaegers we see in the opening news reel scenes, is primarily sword based...but it's also paired with Coyote Tango, which uses ranged weapons and can cauterize the wounds inflicted by Tacit. (Incidentally, Coyote is Japanese, and Tacit is American -- but given that they're paired, the idea was that they would give the Jaeger's a name based on the partner Jaeger's culture. Explaining why Coyote Tango has such a name despite being Japanese.)

So, Pacific Rim is a dumb movie, right?

 

[Amalthea]

And some people think that all the exposition in modern films is unnecessary.
But when it's not there they can't piece anything together.

 

[Volimar]

Pacific Rim is dumb because there were no Big O references.

 

[r1chard]

Was already awesome before I knew this, but thanks for sharing

Having watched the behind-the-scenes stuff, the attention to detail in this film was astounding.

 

[matrix-cat]

Still think Pacific Rim is dumb?

Extremely. Where's your in-depth lore explanation for why the fucking robots kept harmlessly throwing the monsters back into the sea in that one scene? The monsters that came from the sea. I was shouting at the screen.

 

[Acinixys]

Pacific Rim is dumb because there were no Big O references.

It was dumb because no one was watching Evangelion in the background

I mean come on

 

[wenis]

And there you go

 

[Rei no Otaku]

I just went with it's a show based on the super robot genre, and in the super robot genre you don't use your best weapon until the end. Ever see Voltron start the fight with the Blazing Sword? Of course not.

That's all the explanation I needed.

 

[cntr]

Extremely. Where's your in-depth lore explanation for why the fucking robots kept harmlessly throwing the monsters back into the sea in that one scene? The monsters that came from the sea. I was shouting at the screen.

Uh. What are you talking about? The scene where they're fighting the Kaiju in Hong Kong bay?

If so, well, what the hell else would they have done? If you throw them into the city, you're missing the point of the mission. If you let them stay too close to you, you risk getting the mech damaged -- they're not built for extended very close range combat. So you have to throw them into the sea -- at least body slamming into the ocean'll hurt a bit.

 

[royalan]

Extremely. Where's your in-depth lore explanation for why the fucking robots kept harmlessly throwing the monsters back into the sea in that one scene? The monsters that came from the sea. I was shouting at the screen.

There are simple explanations for why the jaegers were throwing the kaiju in that scene:

Crimson Typhoon - to create space between it and the kaiju so that they could regroup (remember that at this point the kaiju it was fighting had seized all of its hands. Throwing him back was pretty much their only option at that point).

Striker Eureka - To create space so it could use its missile attack.

 

[pestul]

So why not have a plasma sword that just cauterizes wounds as it slices?

 

[cntr]

So why not have a plasma sword that just cauterizes wounds as it slices?

Because plasma swords don't exist in real life, and until they say otherwise, we have to assume the same is true of the Pacific Rim 'verse.

 

[TheChewyWaffles]

So why not have a plasma sword that just cauterizes wounds as it slices?

Yah, what about that OP?

Because plasma swords don't exist in real life, and until they say otherwise, we have to assume the same is true of the Pacific Rim 'verse.

Well neither do 300 ft robots!

 

[DoktorEvil]

Extremely. Where's your in-depth lore explanation for why the fucking robots kept harmlessly throwing the monsters back into the sea in that one scene? The monsters that came from the sea. I was shouting at the screen.

Because the Jaegers are trying to keep the Kaiju away from the city?

I didn't think that needed an explanation. IIRC one of the missions is to protect the city from the Kaiju. Why would you throw them towards the city?

 

[highrider]

I loved the movie, but poisoning would be a minor concern if a giant monster is stomping out the population. The Jaegers should have had much more emphasis on mele weapons imo. At that point in the film the giant wall proved ineffective and they were getting crushed.

But I just think weapons would be way cooler than essentially brawling with the monsters.

 

[Liamario]

One of the most famous bits of Pacific Rim, and one of the most mocked. "Why didn't they use the sword earlier?", you ask? "Why didn't they use swords on all Jaegers?", and so on. Well, there are answers to all those questions and more.

So why didn't they deploy the sword earlier? Because it wasn't originally part of Gipsy Danger. It was added when it was being repaired. Mako knew about it, but didn't transmit the information across the drift to Raleigh because she was avoiding trying to think about unnecessary things.

Unnecessary? Isn't the sword a super weapon?

Kaiju blood is poisonous. So what'll happen if you start chopping up a kaiju in the middle of Hong Kong with the sword, spilling its blood everywhere? Well, they'd git rid of the kaiju...and turn Hong Kong into a toxic wasteland.

In fact, this is a major reason they use giant robots in the first place. You can blast fire a kaiju with hordes of artillery and missiles, sure, but it's going to charge through the storm through the city where it finally explodes into gibs, again spilling its blood everywhere.

The Jaegers, however, can physically restrain kaiju, keeping them away from cities, and use blunt force to inflict damage without spilling blood.



In fact, every weapon a Jaeger uses is made to not spill blood. Gipsy Danger uses plasma weapons to cauterize wounds as they are inflicted. Cherno Alpha has flamethrowers and electrically charged fists. Even Striker Eureka's missiles are designed to explode in ways to cauterize wounds.

And when Jaegers do have cutting weapons, they have extra stuff to fix blood spills. Crimson Typhoon has a plasma weapon that it can use to cauterize its slices. Gispy Danger does the same, though it got the sword later, and never put into practice due to the events of the film. Striker Eureka's swords are heated, burning wounds closed.

This logic extends all the way back -- Tacit Ronin, one of the Jaegers we see in the opening news reel scenes, is primarily sword based...but it's also paired with Coyote Tango, which uses ranged weapons and can cauterize the wounds inflicted by Tacit. (Incidentally, Coyote is Japanese, and Tacit is American -- but given that they're paired, the idea was that they would give the Jaeger's a name based on the partner Jaeger's culture. Explaining why Coyote Tango has such a name despite being Japanese.)



So, Pacific Rim is a dumb movie, right?

Thanks for sharing and that makes sense, but this is just your theory and it's not an official explanation. We can only go by the official info we have and that info does not explain why the sword wasn't used earlier.

Additionally, you shouldn't feel the need to write this up and explain it. The movie is a action movie and it's best not to think about these things too much. That said, it is something that should have been explained in the movie, and not something that should be explained with fan-fiction

 

[Moonlight]

Thanks for sharing and that makes sense, but this is just your theory and it's not an official explanation. We can only go by the official info we have and that info does not explain why the sword wasn't used earlier.

Additionally, you shouldn't feel the need to write this up and explain it. The movie is a action movie and it's best not to think about these things too much. That said, it is something that should have been explained in the movie, and not something that should be explained with fan-fiction

Most of this is either explicitly explained in side materials or visually depicted in a scene.

 

[DoktorEvil]

I loved the movie, but poisoning would be a minor concern if a giant monster is stomping out the population. The Jaegers should have had much more emphasis on mele weapons imo. At that point in the film the giant wall proved ineffective and they were getting crushed.

But I just think weapons would be way cooler than essentially brawling with the monsters.

There was a severe lack of pile bunkers in Pacific Rim.

 

[123rl]

I watched it again recently and it's one of my favourite action films in recent memory. It's good, dumb fun but it looks stunning. The use and variety of colour is just so striking. For a film that is mostly set at night, it could have easily been nothing but greys, browns, and black but every frame is brimmed with as much colour as possible.

I just wish the film had kept the Glados voice but I understand why it wasn't used.

 

[highrider]

There was a severe lack of pile bunkers in Pacific Rim.

You understand.

 

[Hagi]

This is such a cool movie, I don't really give a shit if it's dumb as a brick like most super robot stuff is. I wish Godzilla was this dumb then it might have been better.

 

[Liamario]

Most of this is either explicitly explained in side materials or visually depicted in a scene.

OP hasn't fabricated evidence, but he has put the evidence together in order to reach an intended conclusion.

 

[matrix-cat]

Uh. What are you talking about? The scene where they're fighting the Kaiju in Hong Kong bay?

If so, well, what the hell else would they have done? If you throw them into the city, you're missing the point of the mission. If you let them stay too close to you, you risk getting the mech damaged -- they're not built for extended very close range combat. So you have to throw them into the sea -- at least body slamming into the ocean'll hurt a bit.

Why throw them at all? Surely extended close range combat is exactly what they're built for, that being the entire point of the movie. It was like a fight scene where the one guy kept taking breaks to throw the other guy onto a nice cushy mattress every few seconds.

 

[Currygan]

So, Pacific Rim is a dumb movie, right?

I could excuse the dumbness if it also wasn't so damn awful

 

[cntr]

Well neither do 300 ft robots!

Simply because there's already one unrealistic things doesn't mean that we should throw in everything unrealistic.

I loved the movie, but poisoning would be a minor concern if a giant monster is stomping out the population.

Yeah, but if you let the poison go around freely, you'll eventually render the entire pacific rim uninhabitable, and likely wreck the environment. The fact that they don't freely use cutting weapons in oceans where there are no humans suggests that environmentalism is still a big thing in the future.

Thanks for sharing and that makes sense, but this is just your theory and it's not an official explanation. We can only go by the official info we have and that info does not explain why the sword wasn't used earlier.

All of this is based on the movie itself and the extra stuff they released. I didn't bullshit it out of my ass.

Additionally, you shouldn't feel the need to write this up and explain it. The movie is a action movie and it's best not to think about these things too much. That said, it is something that should have been explained in the movie, and not something that should be explained with fan-fiction

Sure, but when you know this shit, and people go running around saying that Pacific Rim did not have thought put into it...you'd go and put up a counterexample, yeah?

 

[Sojgat]

This is a great thread, and Pacific Rim is awesome.

Can't wait for the sequel.

 

[moojito]

Pacific rim is awesome specifically because of all the crazy shit, not despite it.

 

[Prophet Steve]

I love the shot in the gif so much. I'm really hoping Pacific Rim 2 manages to improve of the aspects outside of the action so I enjoy the entire movie.

 

[cntr]

Why throw them at all? Surely extended close range combat is exactly what they're built for, that being the entire point of the movie. It was like a fight scene where the one guy kept taking breaks to throw the other guy onto a nice cushy mattress every few seconds.

Remember the first battle? Where Gipsy was immobilized after having Raleigh's brother killed? Knifehead tore through Gispy like it was made of tissue paper. The winged kaiju also casually tears Crimson Typhoon up after its been immobilized.

So Jaeger's can't just sit there and take beatings from kaiju. They'd break.

However, they mention Cherno Alpha being sturdy and defensive -- and if you see the scene, it never throws the kaiju away. It continues doing close range, even when ambushed by the bulky EMP kaiju.

Also, haven't you ever bellyflopped into a pool of water? It hurts like shit.

 

[Tizoc]

Pacific Rim is dumb because there were no Big O references.

Either you're joking or you never watched Big O; Elbow Rocket is similar to Big O's punch attack thing.

 

[royalan]

Either you're joking or you never watched Big O; Elbow Rocket is similar to Big O's punch attack thing.

Hell, Cherno Alpha basically IS Big O.

 

[blakep267]

There's no excuse for it dude. Out of all the technology we have, 300 foot robots are the answer? How bout we put a rail gun on a satellite that orbits the known areas where they appear. Once it appears, boom shoot down a rod like in GI Joe

 

[aly]

Quick question: Was there only one rift or did they randomly appear in different places? I honestly can't remember. If there was only the one, then why not just keep the base and giant robots in that one place?And why did they lose so many robots if only one at a time came out mostly?

What was truly dumb though was building those stupid walls. Which I think the movie acknowledges as being dumb. Can't believe people mock the sword though. Even if it did'nt make sense it could still get a pass for being cool.

 

[highrider]

Simply because there's already one unrealistic things doesn't mean that we should throw in everything unrealistic.

Yeah, but if you let the poison go around freely, you'll eventually render the entire pacific rim uninhabitable, and likely wreck the environment. The fact that they don't freely use cutting weapons in oceans where there are no humans suggests that environmentalism is still a big thing in the future.

All of this is based on the movie itself and the extra stuff they released. I didn't bullshit it out of my ass.

Sure, but when you know this shit, and people go running around saying that Pacific Rim did not have thought put into it...you'd go and put up a counterexample, yeah?

It's like doomsday scenario. Environmental concerns just seem silly. The lore should serve the action, it's an action film.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Ah, why don't they completely vaporize them when they enter a city with nuclear explosions, this way the toxic blood will burn up and wont make the city unhabitable!

(Sometimes I think I'm the only person thinking these things through)

 

[Carcetti]

There's no excuse for it dude. Out of all the technology we have, 300 foot robots are the answer? How bout we put a rail gun on a satellite that orbits the known areas where they appear. Once it appears, boom shoot down a rod like in GI Joe

Orbital Strikes big enough to one-shot kaijus on land would cause climate cooling via dust clouds and on sea they'd cause tsunamis. They'd just be nukes without the fallout.

 

[Aegus]

Why didn't Batman help?

 

[Volimar]

Either you're joking or you never watched Big O; Elbow Rocket is similar to Big O's punch attack thing.

I meant verbal references. Like "Showtime!"

 

[Fularu]

Pacific Rim was dumb not because of the sword, but because it was a dreadfull slog with unlikable characters, douchebag extravaganza and a non sensical plot.

A waste of 2 hours more or less.

 

[royalan]

Pacific Rim was dumb not because of the sword, but because it was a dreadfull slog with unlikable characters, douchebag extravaganza and a non sensical plot.

A waste of 2 hours more or less.

It could have been worse.

It could have been that snorefest Godzilla.

 

[CoyoteSpitfire]

Pacific Rim was dumb not because of the sword, but because it was a dreadfull slog with unlikable characters, douchebag extravaganza and a non sensical plot.

A waste of 2 hours more or less.

All that on top of being a catalogue of every generic action movie trope.

For all the talent Del Toro supposedly has, the movie was aggressively cliched.

 

[cntr]

Quick question: Was there only one rift or did they randomly appear in different places? I honestly can't remember. If there was only the one, then why not just keep the base and giant robots in that one place?And why did they lose so many robots if only one at a time came out mostly?

There was only one rift. But, it's located in the middle of the Pacific, in the Mariana Trench. There's no way to build something so deep underwater there before the kaiju would destroy the construction, and since it's underwater, the kaiju can just swim to where ever they want to go.

Before, kaiju just attacked Jaegers like whatever. But when Knifehead fought Gipsy, it did something no kaiju did before -- aim for the pilots. The kaiju before that were just generic kaiju -- the kaiju masters simply didn't expect humanity to invent Jaegers in the first place, the previous species they'd invaded likely did nothing of the sort. So they had to spend some time studying Jaegers before creating anti-Jaeger kaiju when they figured out that humanity had "created monsters of its own", and then the kaiju started winning.

What was truly dumb though was building those stupid walls. Which I think the movie acknowledges as being dumb. Can't believe people mock the sword though. Even if it did'nt make sense it could still get a pass for being cool.

The walls were supposed to be dumb. The losing war has destroyed the moral and economy of the world. The politicians created the wall as an excuse that they were doing things, even if it wouldn't work -- they had given up on winning.

Ah, why don't they completely vaporize them when they enter a city with nuclear explosions, this way the toxic blood will burn up and wont make the city unhabitable!

(Sometimes I think I'm the only person thinking these things through)

They did nuke the first kaiju.

It rendered San Francisco a nuclear wasteland.

Edit: Actually, I just realized you're being sarcastic. sorry

 

[cntr]

Orbital Strikes big enough to one-shot kaijus on land would cause climate cooling via dust clouds and on sea they'd cause tsunamis. They'd just be nukes without the fallout.

Also, they can't do orbital strikes. The first kaiju landed in 2013. And just like our universe, the space program is shit.

The Kaiju War is more like WW2 -- all nations were retooled to a war economy to support the fight. They aren't going to spend time on developing the space technology needed to do orbital strikes, which are bad for the reasons in the quote above, so most technological advancement is focused on Jaegers, Jaeger support, and things to protect civilians. Space is probably even more underfunded in the Pacific Rim verse.

 

[Vicetrailia]

T
The walls were supposed to be dumb. The losing war has destroyed the moral and economy of the world. The politicians created the wall as an excuse that they were doing things, even if it wouldn't work -- they had given up on winning.

We get the desperation and surrendering from everyone, but the wall idea was so illogical and low fantasy that it took people out of the movie.. They should have settled for something better that didn't work anyway because a low ass wall across the pacific is just lame, regardless of symbolism.

 

[elyetis]

Never thought of it, when I think of PR and a problem with a sword, I think about that boat used as sword. I mean they were lucky to find a boat made of adamantium.

 

[matrix-cat]

Remember the first battle? Where Gipsy was immobilized after having Raleigh's brother killed? Knifehead tore through Gispy like it was made of tissue paper. The winged kaiju also casually tears Crimson Typhoon up after its been immobilized.

So Jaeger's can't just sit there and take beatings from kaiju. They'd break.

However, they mention Cherno Alpha being sturdy and defensive -- and if you see the scene, it never throws the kaiju away. It continues doing close range, even when ambushed by the bulky EMP kaiju.

Also, haven't you ever bellyflopped into a pool of water? It hurts like shit.

Something tells me a gigantic murder beast from another universe can take the pain of a bellyflop, but whatever, I don't know any of the names or anything so I'll take your word for it.

I wasn't upset by the movie's dumbness so much as its general lack of quality. People talk about it like it's nothing but big monster fights but, same as all the Transformerses, it's 90% some generic white guy's angst with the occasional action scene here and there (which I thought were slow, with dull choreography and and poor camerawork to boot). Rubbish characters played by actors struggling with foreign accents written a guy who doesn't have a great command of English. I watched it once and don't have strong enough memories to mount any further arguments here.

 

[cntr]

Something tells me a gigantic murder beast from another universe can take the pain of a bellyflop, but whatever, I don't know any of the names or anything so I'll take your word for it.

I wasn't upset by the movie's dumbness so much as its general lack of quality. People talk about it like it's nothing but big monster fights but, same as all the Transformerses, it's 90% some generic white guy's angst with the occasional action scene here and there (which I thought were slow, with dull choreography and and poor camerawork to boot). Rubbish characters played by actors struggling with foreign accents written a guy who doesn't have a great command of English. I watched it once and don't have strong enough memories to mount any further arguments here.

heh

Gipsy is the hero one
Cherno is the big one with the Russians
Crimson is the one with three arms

 

[Tapiozona]

Also, they can't do orbital strikes. The first kaiju landed in 2013. And just like our universe, the space program is shit.

The Kaiju War is more like WW2 -- all nations were retooled to a war economy to support the fight. They aren't going to spend time on developing the space technology needed to do orbital strikes, which are bad for the reasons in the quote above, so most technological advancement is focused on Jaegers, Jaeger support, and things to protect civilians. Space is probably even more underfunded in the Pacific Rim verse.

Except that technology is far more believable, reachable, and grounded in reality than giant 300 foot robots piloted by 2 humans, in a virtual brain sync.

Besides, we already pretty much have similar technology today and it would be far more effective than the stupid rockets on the Australian's chest. It'd also have 10 times the kinetic energy and the ability to attach explosive payloads compared to rocket punches.

Here it is in missile form...

 

[hendersonhank]

So we can't use rockets and artillery etc to kill the kaiju because too much blood will be spilled. Instead, we'll use a team of robots where one chops it up and the other fires magical cauterizing rockets and artillery at it, or use another robot that fires special rockets that cauterizes the wounds it causes in some special way. Let's not use these special cauterizing rockets in our jets and artillery though.

You are correct, the movie is not dumb at all.

 

[Bubba_Sparks]

I don't understand why submarines stationed around the Rift wouldn't have worked. They could have bult mobile platforms stationed nearby to resupply. The toxic waste would have been contained to inside and around the trench. Shutting down the Rift would have been difficult without the insanely convienent events of the movie, but you could contain them. On top of that building Kaiju destroyining subs or modifying existenting ones would have been a lot easier than engineering and building Jagers.

EDIT: It just made no sense why only the Jagers could be used to destroy the Kaiju, and not a combination of military technology.