Pacific Rim (2013)

In 2013, massive alien monsters called Kaiju begin emerging from an interdimensional portal called “The Breach” at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and attacking coastal cities. In response, humanity builds massive robots called Jaegers. Each is co-piloted by two or more people who share a mental link via a process called “Drifting” to share the mental stress of piloting the machine. In 2020, brothers Yancy and Raleigh Becket pilot the American Jaeger, Gipsy Danger, to defend Anchorage from a Category-3 Kaiju codenamed “Knifehead”. During the confrontation, the Kaiju unexpectedly pierces the Jaeger’s armor, ripping out half of its head and killing Yancy. Raleigh, piloting the damaged Jaeger alone, manages to kill Knifehead and walk Gipsy back to shore by himself before collapsing. Traumatized by the loss of his brother and the strain of drifting alone, Raleigh quits the Jaeger program.

Five years later, world leaders decide to cease funding for the Jaeger program and replace it with coastal defense walls, since Kaiju are appearing more frequently and Jaegers are being destroyed as quickly as they are built. The walls are quickly proven to be ineffective. The remaining Jaegers are relocated to Hong Kong under the command of Marshal Stacker Pentecost, who plans to try to destroy the Breach using a tactical nuclear weapon, even though previous attempts to do so have failed. Raleigh, now working in wall construction, is recruited by Pentecost for the mission. Travelling to the Hong Kong base, the Shatterdome, Raleigh is introduced to Mako Mori, the director of the Jaeger’s restoration program and Pentecost’s adoptive daughter. Four Jaegers remain in operation – the refurbished Gipsy Danger, the Russian Cherno Alpha, the Chinese Crimson Typhoon, and the Australian Striker Eureka, piloted by father-and-son team, Herc and Chuck Hansen. To find a new co-pilot, Raleigh participates in tryouts and decides that Mako is “drift-compatible”. During their first test, Raleigh falls out of alignment after reliving Yancy’s death, causing Mako to become lost in the memory of a Kaiju attack on Tokyo, nearly firing Gipsy’s energy cannon. As a result, Pentecost grounds Mako.