Maybe he just wasn’t paying attention
July 29, 2013
6:53 am
I’m sure this is going to bring out the “WELL ACTUALLY~” peanut gallery but I’ve gone to the theatre to see this movie twice and I still didn’t catch any explanation for why Raleigh wouldn’t know they had a sword.
i don’t get it…. what movie is this supposed to be from?
Pacific Rim
It appears Ecurps didn’t see the tags… ^^;;
Use a boat, guns, and lots of other weapons only to use the sword that can cut through anything… after nearly dying. Heck they could have ended the battles quicker if they used it from the start.
it’s giant robot vs. kaiju show law…you always have a cool infinity+1 sword…and you cannot use it until you are either you or the monster are on the verge of death.
*sources: Voltron, Power Rangers
Saber Rider, too. (No matter what the show really was, the law was in full effect)
It’s kind of like that end battle in Iron Man 2 when Tony cut all the drones in half in one move after causing thousands in property damage during a dramatic chase.
The reason he saved it for later was because it could only be used once, and he wanted to save it for a time when it would have the maximum effect. Since they couldn’t have escaped any other way, it seems to have been the right choice.
Heck, I seem to remember Iron Patriot/War Machine asking about that right after, and Tony gave him that very reason.
Then again, he could have just used it as soon as all the drones armed their weapons and started chasing him- you know, when they were all nicely clumped together on the stage, with all the civilians away from them?
Right with his friend near by with his warmachine suit on kill Tony Starks? That doesn’t sound to good besides… he had to let them attack first to prove they where the bad guys.
They explained that little tidbit away in the prequel comic. You see, Kaiju blood is REALLY toxic. Like, kill you in a couple of minutes from SKIN CONTACT kind of deadly. She most likely waited until she could be sure that the blood would evaporate before she could use the sword of +5 Coolness. Though the whole ‘Keeping the arm blade upgrade a secret’ deal IS a bit bogus.
And yet Ron Perlman somehow survives being ingested AND cutting his way out.
Because he’s Ron-goddamn-Perlman, that’s why.
Heck, I’d love to see the Sons of Anarchy in this comic.
there are tags? o_O
Right below the blurb.
No, no, this explanation is better.
*wipes single tear from cheek* God bless.
Thank you
I may be wrong but the first thing that comes to mind is they aren’t supposed to focus on the drift right? Maybe their minds are linked but they don’t actually look at memories, more their feelings and thoughts. When she was looking at memories they messed up.
Pretty sure they’re supposed to be tuned into the “what can this robot we’re co-piloting do” part of each other’s brains. Considering the whole… you know… moving in unison and all that.
Maybe he assumed that since he’d piloted it already, he didn’t need to learn anything about it from her, so didn’t really pay much attention to her side? I don’t know.
I haven’t watched it in a while, but isn’t the whole point of the drift to merge their minds? So it’s not “His side her side” it’s just…. Them doing the things?
I just figured in the first drift the memory overload crowded out anything else, then the second drift was too rushed for anything but instinct to really take root at first. His combat experience made his instincts more coherent until she could assimilate the experience.
This is more fun though.
The movements, yea. Optional weapons, maybe a bit less. Since it would be a bad idea to use in the city, she didn’t think about it, thus he didn’t. They get out, she thinks of it, and he does!
This was actually my thought process when they brought the sword out. I was like “You have a sword? Why the hell have you only been punching when you had a freaking sword?!” lol
Yes, this. It’s a total suspension-of-disbelief thing, actually. 100% cinematic “let’s pull the secret weapon out of our ass at the crucial moment” drama fodder, with absolutely no actual logic behind it. You can’t even make the argument that it wouldn’t have been good to use in the city.. they dragged, and wielded, a goddamn ocean liner at it. In the city.
That said, the whole movie is all about suspension of disbelief. Forget the bad science and lack of logic, they don’t matter! It’s a WHOLE lot of fun, and awesome to watch. People who must nitpick will say it’s OMG teh werst flim EVAR, while the rest of us will just go to watch giant robots battle giant monsters and be wicked.
I mean, just think about the hilariously bad science of the whole ‘Our jaeger works despite the EMP, it’s analog, not digital!’ Because clearly the whole thing works on a system of pulleys and counterweights, no screens or displays or any of the digital stuff we saw in it.
On second thought, don’t think about it ;b Just pretend they replaced their choice of words with “Shit, that tachyon pulse disrupted all the dilithium crystals – which power everything these days, including cities – for miles around! We’re screwed!” “No we’re NOT, because our oldschool Jaeger uses NUCLEAR energy! Huzzah!”
Or just smile and swallow it all and enjoy the movie =D
Yeah, that was my thought exactly: “So this EMP, which destroys anything reliant on electronic components, somehow manages to keep both the city and the jaeger intact? And analog means ‘oldschool’, however that is defined? Good job science crew!”
Analog doesn’t mean what you seem to think it does… You CAN have an analog computer, and display, etc, and have it perform the same functions. Digital stuff is actually much more fragile in terms of how much it’s affected by an EMP, as well as in terms of how easy it is to break by getting thrown around by, say, a giant monster. The “new” model Jaegers likely have a digitally controlled power supply, as compared to the entirely physically controlled supply that a nuclear reactor has (remember, those were around WELL before modern computers) which would be significantly more damageable by an EMP.
Negative. I think most or all of the components used in electronics (resistors, transistors, capacitors, etc) are susceptible to EMP, digital and analog refers to the signal/language used more than the components themselves. Otherwise it would be pretty easy to build “hardened” electronics for the Doomsday Prepper market. The only truly safe “analog computer” would be that thing they pulled out of the ocean that was all gears in such in it, what was it called, the Anticathera Mechanism or something.
Still though, I would imagine that in the age of giant robots, they could come up with a way to protect electronics from EMP
Transistors are, but resistors, capacitors, and vacuum tubes (the precursor to transistors) are not.
Also, I am given to understand there were early inroads to analog computing that used varying voltages but were non-starters due to the
Actually, the components you mentioned (solid-state devices, IIRC,) are all replacements for the older versions, as the older stuff, like vaccuum tubes, are larger (and therefore heavier), more expensive to produce, and don’t last as long to boot.
The current stuff is cheaper, smaller, and overall better, but is more easily damaged by EMPs and such.
Source is school.
Modern electronics, yes. Vacuum tubes are a LOT more resistant to EMP, and make splendid analog computers. Of course, the equivalent of a 286 would be the size of a large room, need HUGE amounts of power, and crank out waste heat. But that’s an entirely different corner of the Suspension of Disbelief arena.
(And the displays sure won’t be nice flat panel monitors — but you can build a CRT all from tubes.)
It’s called a faraday cage, the same thing as ArcAttack uses to shield them from their musical tesla coils. You take fine metal chicken wire and wrap it around all your most precious parts, then ground the cage. It’ll protect anything inside pretty well.
Look up: Faraday cage.
Gist of it is you cocoon sensitive electronics in metal so that an EMP induces electrical current (& thus resistive heating) in the cage metal rather than the electronics inside, thus protecting and preventing the electronics from getting fried. The cage works best when it’s grounded.
A real simple faraday cage would be a fully enclosed cardboard box with tin foil on the inside (or outside) and a wiring connecting the tin foil shell to ground (such as connected to a large copper stake in the ground, plumbing, etc.).
Or you know, armor plating and seawater….
Actually, it all depends on the scale of the E.M.P, an analogue valve based system is actually really resistant to most of the effects, so a mid range emp would kill all the silicon chips in the newer models, and as such are used to EMP harden a lot of things. So it probably refers to them using these.
Squirrel is right. It doesn’t matter at all if the device is turned off or not. Emp induces high currents and voltages on electrical devices. Emp is, simply put, just electromagnetic energy burst and carries electricity in itself. There are several kinds of emp arround, even electric motors cause emp radiation that can break devices, like radios for example, even if they are turned off. (true story)
Sorry, just HAD to come and put things right.. *puts cape on and flies away*
We have it now. I bet there’s one in your kitchen right now. It’s called a faraday cage, and it is a key componenet of the microwave oven. I was invented in 1836. This is why I call BS on the use of EMP weapons against any target that is aware that the enemy may have EMP weapons.
But ya. Suspend the disbelief and enjoy the film. GAI-SUPER-UPPER!!!!!
Prior to that point in the movie, they had absolutely no idea the Kaiju had any access to EMP and/or acid. EVERY Kaiju they had fought used the olde fashioned “bite, claw, stab, and beat it until it stops moving” approach.
It’s a magical sci-fi EMP. Those only temporarily disable electronics. It’s like you never watched Star Wars!
And all those fancy-looking controls and screens in the cockpit? Not digital at all! No, they’re actually very complex hydraulics powered by the steam generated by the nuclear reactor. Which also contains no electronics.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
I considered it like this; Striker Eureka would’ve taken longer to boot back up after a forced shutdown from an EMP due to everything being digitally controlled, whereas Gypsy Danger would at best only take a couple of minutes to boot back up due to digital only extending as far as the displays in the Jaeger.
And while it can be belief-breaking, this is also a movie where the giant monsters from Dimension X don’t crumple under their own mass and our physics happen to be the same.
If you want a more plausible explanation they did mention that early jaegers were not shielded against the radiation from the nuclear reactor. The newer one was. One of those shieldings would almost certainly be a faraday cage, which would protect from an EMP blast. The newest jaegers not being nuclear would not need the same shielding, and so no faraday cage.
I donno, pulled it out of my ass. As far as analog computers go it’s like the difference between a SSD and a platter HDD (which IS considered “analog”). One of the two will be wiped clean by an electromagnetic field.
I will add that electronics are far less likely to be affected by an EMP if they are simply turned off. Not sure why they didn’t just say so.
I don’t think that’s true at all, otherwise you wouldn’t need hardened electronics, you’d just need a back-up that was powered off. I think the damage comes from the individual components inability to disappate the heat energy of an EMP passing through them. Or something like that, been a while since I did research on hardening electronics.
SquirrelChaser, you got the gist of it correct.
EMP’s tend to fry electrical things. This is because an EMP induces electrical current (Look up Faraday’s Law of Induction & the Ampere-Maxwell Law for the math and theory) in a circuit, and electrical current causes (primarily) resistive heating in the circuit and its components. And small electronics can’t take a lot of heating, being unable to dissipate it quickly; thus they fry.
I think pulling a sword out your ass would hurt. But not as much as what it took to get it in there…
Jaeger piloting is a bit like a monster-punching, robot-piloting dance – you need two to dance, but one leads, and one follows. Raleigh is the experienced one, so Mako was just following along. After all, he’s done it before, so he should know what he’s doing, right? It’s only when he doesn’t know what to do that Mako has a moment to speak up and mention the sword. I guess nobody thought to tell Raleigh about the new sword, since they weren’t planning on having Gipsy sortie that soon anyways.
Maybe he just forgot they had a sword, or was just unaware of the specifics of Gipsy Danger’s upgrades beyond the nuclear reactor.
Also, the idea of the drift is that what they ACTIVELY think of gets shared. Their specific knowledge does not. If something reminds you of something, you have to not chase it (Random Access Brain Impulse Triggers – the RABIT. Don’t chase the RABIT.), but that gets shared. If you actively bring up a specific portion of your knowledge, that gets shared. If you think of what to do next, that gets shared. It’s not like you suddenly have access to all of your partner’s knowledge, you just know what they’re thinking the moment they think it. Or, well, maybe you do, but it’s like having a penny under the sofa. Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you know it’s there.
Mind=Blown
Thank you for that insight. Did not know it was RABIT
They aren’t supposed to, but they did…
Well, you see, while the movie was awesome, it did have a few bad points to it. Things such as plot holes and, you know, plot in general.
Which is fine, I really just wanted to see giant robots fighting giant monsters, which it delivered in spades.
Wait, there was supposed to be a plot? I went only expecting Giant Robots fighting Giant Monsters. I saw what I expected, and was happy. And now I hear there was a plot? I must have missed that part…
I’m just wondering why people try to read into a joke and dismantle its entertainment value with logic.
What else would we talk about in the comments section? We can only flame the author so much…
I like how no one has pointed out that Pacific Rim is essentially just Independence Day with giant robots! Also believable characters.
Also, the day is saved by a nuclear reactor creating a thermonuclear detonation as opposed to the day being saved by interfacing with, hacking into, and disabling a completely alien computer system with just an apple powerbook.
That isn’t all that much better, you know. To turn a reactor into a nuke, you’d have to… Well, pull out the fuel rods and build a nuke from them. There aren’t really any other components in common. And that assumes that you’re using weapon-grade fuel in your reactor, or you have to add a refining step in there and lose most of it.
I’m just shocked this actually came out on Monday. It’s like an early Christmas… only now I don’t get to look forward to this later in the week.
WELL ACTUALLY in the prequel comic it is revealed that her father was a swordsmith, so it makes total sense that she wanted to use the sword.
Too bad some of us didn’t even read the prequel comic… ^^;;
Yeah like everyone but TheGoddamnBatman.
There was a prequel comic? How did I not hear about this?
Because you forgot to hotwire your brain to learn of awesome things. The look on that Kaiju’s face the first time it met a Jaeger was priceless.
Tales From Year Zero. Goes into the background of Pentacost, Raleigh, and Choi. It raises one really odd question about how long the original Kaiju lasted (as the timing is wonky for Choi’s backstory.) Also addresses the FIRST Jaeger pilots and mech. (Brawler Yukon, BTW.)
It’s actually quite good, but, much like Pacific Rim, didn’t get a whole lot of press until it was dropped on our laps.
Her father was swordsmith? Because of course he was. “Hey, what should the Japanese guy do in my love letter to Japan’s most distinctive cinematic genre?”
“Well, he’s Japanese, so that rules out, like, scientist or engineer or pilot who survives flying a plane or anything. What if we made him a samurai?”
“No, I have just enough cultural latitude to recognize how offensive that is. What if we had him just, like make robot swords?”
“YES! PERFECT!”
The preceding angry rant was written for comedic purposes by a white guy who did not read the comic. If for any reason you feel the need to correct his perception of either the comic or the authenticity of representations of Japanese people in western cinema, that actually sounds like an enjoyable conversation, by all means.
I wondered about that myself. Seems as good an explanation as any that Mako just wanted to kick some ass herself.
The explanation that I’m going with is that he was so used to Gipsy Danger’s old tactics that he forgot about any new options, running more on impulse and familiarity due to stress.
Mako gets to use the sword, Raleigh gets to shout all throughout the fights.
When they pulled out the sword was one of the silliest things in the whole movie. Wouldn’t that be the first weapon used? The worst move is the “pick up and throw”, what is that supposed to achieve? You are fighting a monster from a parallel universe so you pick it up and throw it, man that is just going to annoy it.
The best thing was the cute little monster lice, much cuter than the things that fell off the monster in cloverfield.
that was my first thought too……they have this amazing sword that obviously tears through the kaiju like tissue, but instead of using it they punch the crap out of it, or use a plasma cannon that just pisses it off.
but apparently in the comics they mention that kaijuu blood is extremely toxic to the environment, so they don’t want to pierce the skin- the cannon immediately cauterizes the wounds….so the sword is a last result.
still, it’s incredibly stupid, considering that by the time of the movie, there’s only 4 jaegers left. obviously they had this tech, but instead of using it they let all these hundreds of thousands of innocents and these billion dollar machines get destroyed.
The plasma cannon has range, and got two kaiju kills during the flick. I can see keeping it ready for deployment earlier in a fight, and I don’t think you can have both out at once.
The sword’s good, but against one of the underwater kaiju it just got stuck in the armor (useful in maneuvering it over a lava vent, granted…). It’s only super-deadly against the lighter, speed types.
Kaiju blood is acidic. It could strip the metal of the town and the Jaeger leaving the pilots and people in even more danger. The reason for throwing around the Kaiju is so that blunt force trauma and internal bleeding will kill it.
look, man. Don’t you watch mecha anime? Swords are for finishing moves. If you OPEN with the sword, you don’t have anywhere to go but down.
This.
Or the sword itself is made of unobtainium-something?
Yeah, goddamn, that was definitely the moment where the film lost any pretense it was not simply a tribute to mecha anime.
Bladed weapons are always the last-ditch attempts because kaiju blood is extremely toxic and spilling it anywhere near a population center is just as good as letting the kaiju destroy the place itself. This is why punching and throwing are preferred. Throws in particular let them control where the kaiju dies. Also, if you’ve ever messed up moving anything heavy, you know dropping something of any significant weight (like a multi-ton monster, perhaps) causes a ton of damage to it.
They wouldn’t want to get blood everywhere like you know, might happen if they were to punch the monster through a glass skyscraper or two or blow up the torso to make sure it’s dead.
The skyscraper can’t cut it, and the blowing up the dead one, well it was hardly going to move and spread blood around, it was dead in place (and didn’t splatter too far, most of the blood stayed inside the corpse).
As a finisher the sword’s not bad, but imagine a good long cut, and then the fight continuing on for awhile after that, bleeding and leaving a biohazard over a dozen blocks…
I still think that’s reaching dude, they pretty much totalled that part of the city anyway, the kaiju bleeds whenever they slam it, the longer it stays standing the more acid it actively projectile spews at different locations in a larger area, blowing it up got all sorts of tissue and nasty stuff in the water immediately bordering the city, “toxic blood” was the least of their worries if it’s the difference between the Kaiju dying and the kaiju taking out the last functioning jaeger and running amok to its heart’s content. And considering people are cool with running in to butcher the Kaiju topless with medical masks, it’s probably not nearly as toxic as you’d like to believe it is. Hannibal spent however many minutes carving his way out of one from the inside and seemed no worse for the wear. And I mean, the guy who wrote the movie reblogged this on his tumblr and straight up said that Raleigh didn’t know about the sword because basically the drift is vague enough so as only to allow the plot-relevant information they wanted to write through.
I mean, I love the movie with all my heart, but I’m not gonna pretend it wasn’t full of goofy exceptionally convenient Movie Science to allow for big over-the-top action movie moments. It’s impossible to not use that kind of logic if you’re going to make a really out-there fantastic sci-fi fantasy fest, getting defensive when people tease it takes all the fun out.
Groundwater, wells, the ocean right there nearby where all the blood will go when the rain starts washing stuff.
Also they treat the Kaiju to slightly detoxify it before going in. I think it was mentioned in the movie or at least shown even if not explained outright but im not sure since i didn’t take note as I’d already know that due to all the info Del Toro was throwing out about the world beforehand. Basically all those “nontoxic” Kaju you’re talking about were chemically treated already.
Also did you really expect proper health and safety considerations in China?
Not to mention that japanese jaeger seemed to exclusively use circular saws as it’s weapons. I don’t think they were too concerned about cutting the thing.
The actual concern about using a bladed weapons was almost exclusively about using it -in the water-. It would cause massive dead tides as the Kaiju blood poisoned the ecosystem and could potentially crash a good deal of the planets biosphere. That’s why no one but China went for bladed weapons. China, in the metaphor, disregards the environment, focusing on victory at all costs, while the other 1st world nations put themselves in more danger to try to preserve the environment as much as possible.
As far as people being relatively unaffected, it’s really more of an ingestion thing. If you’re a fish and you’re breathing the stuff is game over, but just getting some on you is like a particularly unpleasant little dilute ammonia bath.
There was a *little* blood, but compared to a gaping big wound a sword causes? A fair difference. Damage is much easier to fix if there’s not a giant Blue spill at the same time. Sure, it can be neutralized, but neutralizing it still takes time and effort, those people taking apart one with masks and stuff used liquid nitrogen, ammonia, and so on.
The prequel comic had someone get covered in it like Hannibal did, and then he died like a half hour later. If Hannibal lives, it’s cause he’s near a lot of people who know how to treat it.
There is some goofy contrivance, but they were fairly consistent about the Blue.
Also is why they try to fight the Kaiju out to sea (Miracle Mile and all that.)
Though admittedly, I currently blame their trauma-flashbacks as cutting out their weapon check time more, when they would’ve gone over it properly.
Or, you know, perform a full autopsy and butchering in the middle of the street. That asphalt has obviously been treated with kaiju-resistant compounds. *cough*
Or, you know, enjoy the big giant robot combat. . . .
The Plasmacaster weaponry cauterizes wounds, it’s stated in the Pacific Rim bible as well as the prequel comic. How effective it might be at cauterizing a kaiju blown up by emptying the clip into it is entirely hypothetical.
there’s a reason for that – the monsters leak gross acidic mutating blood everywhere, so they try to avoid making them bleed. blunt force trauma, quarterizing weapons and such are all good, blades not so much.
cauterising, not quarterising, good point though. Also that sword could quarterise a kaiju, it’d make the job of Ron Perlman employees easier.
The first weapon would be the plasma gun, which being on the same hand and need a bit of a transformation, can’t be used at the same time as the sword.
The throw thing is pretty standard- first you try and stun the Kaiju, then you finish it with your weapon.
While watching this [the first time] in the theatre I actually yelled out “You had that the whole time!?”
*Everybody* did that.
I figured it was because the aliens or whatever had toxic blood, so they tried to avoid slashing. They used blunt trauma or plasma weapons up until that point, so I figured the sword was, like, a very last resort to keep that toxic blood from getting everywhere and potentially hurting people?
He didn’t know they had it. it was in the process of carrying them into space and the conversation was something like “we’ve got nothing left!” “No! We’ve got one thing left!”
True! But I supposed I sort of just let that slide as ‘we’ve got nothing else we should use’. That said it’s kind of a weak explanation. I’m more trying to do a favor for the story than claim they planned that.
Or even that he was like “wait when did you guys put a sword on my mech, didn’t we decide those were a bad idea?”
I mean, it’s not like it was Striker Eureka’s punchknives, those were heated up to thousands of degrees so they cauterized the wounds on contact. Because, you know, carbon nanotubes… or… something.
He knew they had a sword the whole time. He just acted like he didn’t until they he got to hit a Kaiju with a cargo ship.
“I wanted to use the sword!”
“Well I wanted to use the cargo ship!”
Gregg, it’s was stated somewhere that Kaiju blood is toxic to humans. Can’t go spilling that stuff anywhere, especially in the cities, hence the sword was used last. Kinda like Ultraman or Power Rangers. Also, Jaegars really, really want to punch things to death, why begrudge them?
^He’s a Kaiju fanboy
*Kaiju Groupie
Real men use guns and only guns, duh.
And also fists, and oil tankers. Just not swords.
And their axe?
Don’t forget shipping crate brass knuckles.
I’m pretty sure Raleigh didn’t know about the sword because he was too busy shouting every fool thing that crossed his mind to make use of the two-way street aspect of the drift.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who felt that way about Raleigh.
I just saw it as a nod to the http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForgottenSuperweapon trope. It’s like Voltron’s Blazing Sword, you don’t use it until the last second as a finishing move.
This is the explanation most likely. Several other scenes were direct tributes to the cliches of other giant robot anime, including Gipsy Danger being immune to disablement because it used out of date technology.
Plus if you want an in-universe explanation, they really aren’t supposed to focus on specific knowledge in Drift because it causes someone to get lost inside the other’s head and forget they’re not in reality. One could say that Drift is a byproduct of the mental link required to synchronize their bodies – a bug, not a feature. As such it’s dangerous and can’t simply be used to sort through another person’s brain like a filing cabinet.
‘Gipsy-Daisy’s analogue.’
What does that even mean? I’m pretty damn certain it doesn’t mean they decided to build a giant robot (with holographic interfaces and an onboard adjutant AI) with discrete electronic circuits using valve transistors for no apparent reason.
And it sure would’ve been nice for Raleigh to get a proper briefing on Gipsy-Daisy’s upgrades and new armaments instead of a walky-talky informal exposition scene with Mako, but we make these allowances for the sake of drama. I did like the catchphrase for someone getting lost in a Drift-induced reverie though, ‘chasing the rabbit’. Very evocative.
Here’s the way I explain it to myself. The Jaeger pilots know that the Kaiju adapt to the techniques used against them, so the sooner a weapon is revealed, the sooner it can be countered. The sword is an Ace in the hole. They used a freighter ship because they wanted a weapon that wouldn’t also be a reveal, and even that was countered. It was a cool throwback to the staff sparring.
It was weird that they never made giant guns for them though.
I thought that was pretty silly myself, BUT in the interests of pedantic nerd theorizing, it seems to me that the memories shown during the drift sequences were exclusively of things that happened a long time ago, particularly memories that are associated with string emotions. While they are linked up actively while piloting, the link seems to be mostly sensorimotor and emotional, not “what are you thinking right now”. Otherwise why would they talk to each other while linked up? It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but hey, movie.
I got the moves like Yeager.
“I got the moves like Yeager.”, eh?
Sie sind das Essen und wir sind die Jäger!
*taken from Attack on Titan opening song; Guren no Yumiya (sung by: Linked Horizon)*
For the same reason we test drift compatibility with the weapons systems online, of course.
Why didn’t he know about the sword?
“Because plot convenience.”
Did he actually not know about the sword (I haven’t seen the movie yet)? The explanation I heard for it not being used was that something that causes the monsters to bleed absurdly-toxic blood everywhere was a last-resort weapon.
Supposedly all the slicing weapons used are designed to simultaneously cauterize any wounds inflicted, but the whole thing with the toxic blood wasn’t explained that well in the movie. It was hinted at in the opening documentary, but then they’re busting out all these slicing weapons and exploding missiles, and Mako and Raleigh explode Leatherback after it’s dead, sending blood and tissue flying, so I didn’t get it until I read through the wiki and the prequel comic.
I wish they at least had a line explaining it in the opening documentary since it honestly really legitimizes the whole giant robots thing.
I got that impression, whether or not they said it explicitly, when Ron Perlman was giving the run-down of all the dangerous and toxic-useful materials they could scavenge from the bodies, and the clean suits his men used to perform the salvage.
But then that wasn’t applied very consistently (see: the mid-credits stinger with no apparent injuries).
Maybe he built up a bit of an immunity by now doing whatever wild adventures he goes on.?
I forget the exact dialogue, but Raleigh said something to the effect of, “the cannon’s out of power, we have nothing else we can do!” and Mako was like, “Except this!“
Just enjoy the ride, it’s good entertainment. That is the main reason why they chose the giant robot solution in the first place. Otherwise, it might have been better to just build a few orbital rail guns and aimed them at the rift (since huge power in a relatively compact package is a reality in this universe).
why would you even bother reading a comic that exists for the purpose of making fun of movie logic when it’s applied to real life if you’re going to complain when I make fun of movie logic.
I don’t really get the whole “enjoy the ride, it’s just a movie” thing either. It’s like saying, “forget plot and content, just smile and drool at the pretty pictures”. Whatever though, to each their own.
You have to apply suspension of disbelief to almost all movies to enjoy them. Either that, or you’d have to be quite bad at spotting physics/plot/character loopholes and inconsistencies. Especially Hollywood blockbusters, which are bursting at the seams with them.
It’s also crucial that the movie does well the things of which it is about. For example, logical flaws would jar a movie like Inception in the same way that boring fight scenes would jar a movie like Pacific Rim. Vice versa? Not so much. “Forget plot and content, just smile and drool at the pretty pictures” doesn’t work for every movie, but it does for some.
What also helps is if the movie has elements which transcend these plot conveniences and visual indulgences. Frequently, it’s these special things that elevate our opinion of a given movie, and helps us overlook things in them which would normally irritate us.
Suspension of disbelief is indeed somewhat of a requirement for enjoying most movies. But suspension is in the name for a reason; disbelief still tends to come if you think about it later or watch it again.
Since comic was made a while after watching the movie, it does not conflict with suspension of disbelief. And seeing that Coela strongly recommended the movie, it did not hamper her enjoyment much either.
My comment wasn’t aimed at the comic or you, but more in response to others who were over-analysing. The comic made fun of a loophole, which was funny, and that should be that. It’s like a good joke which is funny when first told, but when other people start expanding upon it or explaining it, it stops being funny.
Looks like I misunderstood your comment and took a pretty long time writing mine. Never mind.
The sword was the one thing I’d been waiting for all movie, the writer put it in exactly the right place. the only other complaints I have are head cockpits (see the fate of the red guy) and a lack of stand off “shoot once” weapons, think rocket pods on the hips.
It needed more rocket fist projectiles, and drills.
The head cockpits were a major weakness, couldn’t the pilots have been hidden away in the arse where the monsters couldn’t get them? The whole notion of fighting monsters with humanoid robots doesn’t make sense, but how else can they battle?
That would be awkward once the Kaiju figure it out.
“WHY ARE THEY ALWAYS BITING ME IN THE- Oh wait, ri-AARRGH IT’S EATING ME!”
The head is an escape pod basically sums it up. Sure they could put it in the body but they’d have to take out some of the weapons and/or reactors so that the people could fit.
Oh man, you think that was the worst part? I rather thought screaming “MAKO, ARE YOU OKAY?!” after her side being hit by one of the kaiju kind of took it.
I mean I get that it’s stock dialogue, but shouldn’t you automatically know if she’s okay? You’re in her mind, right?
People are really bad at judging the extent of their own injuries when they happen. “Are you okay” is kind of a reflexive thing people say when they want to look and see if someone is okay.
I would completely agree with that interpretation… if it weren’t for other major neuroanatomy blunders in the film. For example, the Jaeger diagram that shows the pilot’s right brain hemisphere on the right side of the body and the co-pilot’s left hemisphere controlling the left. This makes very little sense, since in reality (due to nerve cells physically crossing over contralaterally in the brainstem) our brain hemispheres control the opposite sides of our bodies.
To me the mistakes made the whole neural link thing look like it was poorly conceptualized and ignored unless it was convenient to the plot. …And as a neuroscience major that made me kind of sad.
True. The sword thing for me was part of the subset of my realization during the movie of “For people who know each other’s thoughts, he seems to need to give her verbal instruction a lot.”
Then Idris Elba would make a speech or they’d punch a Kaiju and I’d realize that I didn’t actually care. Same with the brain hemisphere thing. At the restaurant afterwards, I even mentioned it to my friend but, during the movie…I just didn’t care.
When they pulled out the sword I about fainted with happiness.
Too bad it’s not an actual WHIP sword. Can you imagine how awesome is that?
Uggggh I know! I wanted them to whip-lash a kaiju!
Honestly, I’m willing to overlook this. At the end of the day, it’s a giant robot punching Godzilla in the goddamn face. To death.
Actually the only thing I DID have a beef with regarding this movie was when two of the robots were taken out so quickly. Even if there was a valid reason why (and there was), it still sucks.
“Why couldn’t we see the awesome Russians more” is my biggest problem, really. THEY LOOKED SO DARN INTERESTING.
I think we got more of them before cuts were made. Hopefully the Blu-Ray well have the extras (or even a directors cut! But I’ll keep my expectations at realistic levels)
Pretty much that. I didn’t care much about the triplets but the Russians were pretty interesting particularly with the whole “Keeping their patrol area Kaiju-free for 6 years in a Mark 1” bit. In fairness, it took two Kaiju to take them down and, sometimes, you gotta sacrifice to keep a movie like this streamlined.
Personally I was disappointed that the Chinese one didn’t have rotational symmetry- 3 arms, with each brother controlling one arm with the same side of his body, so they’d be rokin’ and rollin all over the place.
Very Motie-y the way they did do it, though.
I say they make this a comic book series, like Avengers on the 1:200 scale or something. Just don’t let a mangaka handle it. On second thought, that would still be awesome.
What I gathered was that the kaiju work on a hive mind system. Any time that one was defeated the experiences of the battle are transferred to the newest one. This makes each newer incarnation able to adapt faster for the next battle.
When they deployed the first time it was totally unexpected, but when they fought the next one. Did you notice as soon as it was deployed, the Swimming Kaiju targeted that specific arm immediately.
I believe he knew about it but it was as a last resort type weapon(other than blowing up). Another point is that he is known for being extremely unpredictable/unstable as a pilot. Which probably makes it harder for them to adapt to his methods(other than the mission that went bad).
Mind you, when the other robots were taken out, that was apparent plot advancement. but weren’t they battling kaijus more consistently(also due him being decommissioned from service and the kaijus were appearing more frequently).
By no means is it perfect writing was was certainly entertaining.
And I thought this strip was hilarious because it could be true.
Also on a side note blades never run out of ammo.
I can’t blame her one bit. I would’ve wanted to use the sword too. Also, how did you actually get an update out on Monday? Have you finally sold your soul to Satan?
Well I thought that Raleigh knew about the swords but didn’t want to risk using them. You will note that when they grabbed that oil tanker they used it like the staffs they fought with during training. They were proficient with the stuff. The wrist swords however required a completely different fighting style and approach, something Raleigh wasn’t trained for. He didn’t want to risk using a weapon he wasn’t proficient with and loosing the fight with the Kaijuu.
Gotta say I love how you drew these two. :D
My problem was that before using the sword, they instead chose to use a large cargo ship. Not only would that ship have been much less useful than the sword, it also potentially was filled with crewmen. It was a cool, desperate tactic at the time, but when they later reveal that the robot has a kickass sword that it could use but instead chose to get a boat, well, that’s weird. And it’s not like the robot suddenly reached for the boat in desperation. He gets a slow, walking towards the monster with boat reveal. Plenty of time to say to your co-pilot “oh, by the way, we have a sword.”
I would have liked to see them with more quirks like this in the movie itself. I didn’t dislike them or anything, but they weren’t as fun as various secondary characters. Of course, maybe that was the right dynamic to have for a movie like Pacific Rim.
As for the logic of the sword, they seemed to play fast and loose with the rules of drifting. I could nitpick how it SHOULD have worked (HARUMPH!), but I think it would have been boring if both pilots were truly in sync.
“Let’s say something to enhance this cool action sequence.”
“But our minds are linked. Why should we bother?”
“You are correct. Let us silently communicate and act as a single being for the duration of this battle.”
I don’t know- coulda been cool seeing pairs of people acting and reacting completely in synch- Legion Voices and everything.
YES. I <3 this so much.
Maybe it is kind of like browsing the internet? You see a lot of stuff that is largely relevent any time you log on, but just because something important exists, there is so much information, you might not see it till it is ‘called upon’, much like doing an internet search. So the info could have been there all along, it just was not fore front in her thoughts, and was not a dramatic part of what makes up who she is.
So Pacific Rim is a metaphor for the internet? What would that make the Kaiju? SOPA?
I love this comic so hard. I’ve been reading for about two years now, and I can’t get enough.
Those drawings don’t really look like Charlie Hunmann, but I don’t blame you for that. He has got to have one of the most generic faces I’ve seen in Hollywood since that guy from Battleship…the one who’s indistinguishable from Channing Tatum.
Dayum, Coela, not only did you make the strip lightning fast (I saw the pencils on tumblr last night!), but the characters are so well done that I’m kind of disappointed you haven’t been hired to do some official comics for the Big Movie Guys.
I definitely enjoyed the movie a ton, but there were a lot of subplots and things that were never resolved to any degree. Why wasn’t there more about the politicians and their stupid fucking wall idea? Why were the Kaijuu trying to find It’s-Always-Sunny-in-Philidelphia Guy? How in the Hell did Ron Perlman have access to equipment to Drift with a Kaijuu and why would he even want to? The one that bothered me the most though is when Mako had that big breakdown the first time they Drifted and……that’s it. They never mention it again. Nothing. There’s just that five-second awkward moment in the cafeteria later and then that’s it. There’s not even a, “Hey, are you sure you’re up for this?” the next time they have to Drift. They just cut to her having already done it, like she’d been perfectly fine the whole time. She was apparently able to work through a lifetime of unresolved trauma in less than a day. And it’s not even that I wanted Mako to remain traumatized or anything, but it was a whole huge scene! She almost killed EVERYONE with A GIANT LASER CANNON, and it was made a big deal about how she was doing something that was impossible cuz the machine wasn’t even turned on or something. It was a whole big thing and it was never mentioned or referenced again. Just bothers me. /rant
1) Because the Mitt Romney lookalike decided to move everyone 300 miles inland.
2) Because he drifted with the Kaiju brain and made the Kaiju aware of him.
3) He didn’t. Charles (mathmatician with the cane) presumably brought it.
4) They had that scene where Beckett said “Yeah, I should have told you that first drifts are rough” while they looked at the Mark 3’s heart. There was also a manly punch-out before Idris told both of them “Look, unless we have something totally impossible like a EMP-equipped monster, you’re not allowed to pilot again.” Afterwards, their analog mech was the only thing that could stop the Kaiju so everyone just kinda dropped it.
1) Yes, I understand that, but it felt like they were trying to lead into a subplot of sorts. Or at the very least it felt like it had a lot of lead-in but no real resolve. For me, it felt like it became a shoe-horned plot point that hinted at substance but actually had none.
2) Yes, I understand that, but why did the Kaijuu seek him out specifically? Wouldn’t they have just wiped him out with the rest of humanity? And how did they know who he was after separating from the Drift? If you Drift with someone you can see into their past, but how would the Kaijuu have known who he was or that he’d gone to that underground bunker?
3) No, not that guy. Ron Perlman. The big smuggler kingpin guy. I know how Rock Star Biologist did it, but it’s apparent that Smuggler Kingpin also did sometime before, but they never explain how and why.
4) That’s it, though? Seriously, an, “Oops, should’a warned you,” is enough to make up for nearly killing everyone with a deactivated laser cannon? And she still got over it just fine in a matter of hours? That bothers me more, that there wasn’t even like a follow-up struggle, where she still has trouble keeping her memories in check, but works through it. At least for the sake of consistency. No, she just jumps right in like it was never a problem. Also, that whole, “Our Jaeger is analogue so EMP shouldn’t have bothered it,” thing got to me too. There were electronics and communication devices on the Jaeger that would still be shut down by and EMP weapon. Maybe sure, they could start the Jaeger up because it was analogue, but it still could get shut down if the monster used the EMP thing again (which he conveniently didn’t), and then they’d be screwed because they need the equipment back at the bunker to start up again. Speaking of which, if the bunker was blacked-out from the first EMP attack, how the hell did they even launch the Jaeger?
So she means she couldn’t use the trauma and it didn’t matter if Raleigh saw it or she wanted to use the sword before Raleigh?
Dibs on the second, I would’ve done the same.
Beautiful comic. I had a bigger problem with the whole “yeah my brother was eaten while I was literally inside his head but you’re the only one with emotional trauma” storyline.
How do you figure she was the only one with trauma? He even apologizes to her for exposing her to his memory of the experience and the related flood of emotion without warning her. He was just more experienced with the drift and the way it opens up your mind in uncomfortable ways so he could recover easier in the moment.
Because she was the one that freaked out, and he had to go into her memory to help her thru it. That’s my entire point.
“The first drift is always rough.”
And his residual emotional trauma is actually what kicked off her chasing the rabbit. He slips up, she gets a huge blast of his horrible memories, which dominoes into her losing it. He’s just way better at reigning it in, she’s never actually had to deal with it before.
It didn’t portray that very well at all.
I had the same problem. He could have acted that bit better.
Same here. I had a really serious issue with the whole ‘Daddy Issues’ between her and the General guy:
“Daddy, can I drive the robot?”
“No, honey, you’re too inexperienced.”
“I got perfect scores on the simulator! NOW can I drive the robot?”
“No, honey, there’s no one to drift with you.”
“I’m perfectly drift compatible with this new guy, and you desperately need operational robots to save the world! NOW can I drive the robot? Pleeeease Daddy PLEEEASE?!”
“No, honey, you’re too emotionally traumatized from the loss of your family from a Jaeger attack.”
“B..but Daddy, he saw his brother ripped out of the cockpit 3 feet from him by a Jaeger during a fight for his life that he barely survived! And he was connected to his mind when he died! And besides that, the whole WORLD has been affected by this! Millions of people have lost their families from Jaeger attacks! PLEEEEEASE can I drive the giant robot and SAVE THE WORLD?!”
“…well, okay, honey. But only to save the world.”
Like we needed to add to the massive pile of women cast in the stereotype of hot Asian girls with daddy issues… ugh.
My guess is that, despite the Drift, he was a little… distracted at the moment what with being mostly out of weapons and being carried by a giant, acid-spewing pterosaur. He might not have been looking into Mako’s mind at that exact moment.
Dammit, Raleigh, the girl wanted to use the sword! Don’t take that from her!
Randomly, my inner pervert/mischief maker wonders how often drifting pilots end up noticing certain things about their co-pilot like “Raleigh… You… Have a thing for Asian chicks?” or on a more innocent note, especially with family members for there to be a moments that could best be dubbed as “WAIT! THAT WAS YOU?!”
Admittedly, these people are expressly professional, but especially with first drifts one has to wonder how often that might come up.
I’m pretty sure that if Michael Bay had made this movie whenever they drifted it would be an “oh my gawd don’t look at my naked body in my memories you pervvvv” moment. Which is why I’m glad Michael Bay didn’t make this movie.
You and me both sister.
Yeah… I like del Toro kept it classy.
In an interview with him, del Toro originally had intended for Raleigh to not know Japanese at all but by the end of the movie be fluent in it from drifting with Mako, but he gave up on that idea ’cause they ran out of time.
To be fair Raleigh’s pronunciation when he greeted her made me cringe.
Ouch ^^;; Btw, anyone knows exactly what happened to Hannibal’s eye? Some friends says it’s from injury when he was taking refugee in the shelter, but some other friends says it’s because he did attempt to “dive in” the Kaiju’s brain, just like Newton did.
Lampshaded when Hannibal examine Newt’s left eye.
Yeah, that threw me as well, because when Hannibal sent him to the public shelter, he was all “You’re an idiot for drifting with a Kaiju, now it’s chasing you, I’m going to my private shelter, you can go to a public one, I tried it!”
So… you can literally take it either way.
The only Professional one out of the pair was Mako. Raleigh acted like he was competing for the lead in “Top Gun”.
My guess is that a number of factors were involved.
1. The sword was added during Gipsy Danger’s repair/refurbishing, overseen by Mako, and Raleigh never did get a briefing on any alterations, as he was too busy being quietly tragic and beating up Australians.
2.a. The drift is sort of a shifting stream of thoughts and memories, and the pilots are only supposed to focus on what they’re currently doing, not rummaging around in each others heads for details.
2.b.Mako didn’t think about the sword until they needed it.
3. Subconsciously Mako really wanted to be the one to use that sword.
Maybe he’s just stupid.
Maybe he knew about the sword the whole time and he was just surprised because he didn’t think that was the best time to pull out a sword.
That is not what she said.
It really doesn’t make sense. He was told that they were repairing and upgrading his old mech, you would think he would of gotten a run down on how it was being upgraded.
What I have to say about the ‘bad science’ with the “EMP”, is that it was never said that it was an EMP, just a ‘blast’. My theory, is that it was just massive electric blast, that fried the circuits. Circuits in digital computer systems these days are kinda cheap, and fragile, durability-wise, whereas, older, analog computer components were pretty resilient, to the point where you could fix them with ‘technical thumps’.
As for the bit about the drift, memories only show up clearly to pilots at random. They only share their mental voices(You know, that voice you hear in your head when silently reading, or when you’re formulating a plan without speaking?) actively, and even then, only parts of it. Kind like the left and right hemispheres of a brain, as the pilots are aptly named by HQ.
Dude if you’re going to insist on using html please learn to close your tags properly so I don’t have to go back and do it for you.
EMP = electromagnetic pulse = massive electrical blast
Raliegh Beckett: You mean we could’ve used the sword at any time?
mako mori: No, not at any time, only when it was awesome.
Actually yeah, that makes the most sense really, they had to wait until the meter was full.
Asura agrees with this.
Great, now I want to see Eddy Valiant and Roger Rabbit in a Jaeger.
…actually that would be pretty fun.
OH. Oh my. You do realize it would be a Toon Jaeger. Probably like old Toon Town- big smiley face, is constantly rubber-hosing back and forth…
That’s what I had rationalized with my friends.
My girlfriend is one of very few nerds in the world that knows so few anime/mecha/kaijuu tropes that she actually hated the movie, thought it was boring and contrived as fuck, because while watching it, she couldn’t match scenes to the corresponding trope, thought the character development was poorly written (I tried to explain to her that there wasn’t supposed to be any, but she has too much trouble believing it)….
In contrast, I loved the movie and its ridiculously amazing usage of tropes to build itself.
But this comic still made /both of us/ laugh quite a bit, so thank you, coelasquid :)
“[she] thought the character development was poorly written (I tried to explain to her that there wasn’t supposed to be any…”
Hate to break it to you, but both you and your girlfriend are wrong on those counts.
http://stormingtheivorytower.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-visual-intelligence-of-pacific-rim.html
Alternate Title: “I DIDN’T KNOW TRAVIS BEACHAM HAD A TUMBLR”.
This. So this.
Two words: Penis Envy.
Only twice? Shame on you.
Mako looks so great in your style! And I actually forgot that he forgot about the sword!
It is a thoroughly enjoyable movie, but mostly due to the direction and design, not the writing- and I don’t mean the writing was cheesy and bombastic, because that would have been fine. It was just lazy and sloppy. I shouldn’t be distracted from the movie by my brain cycling through better ways to get a given point across.
As for the sword, I assumed he knew about it, but was discounting it in his disgruntlement at being out of all the explody weapons. Since it turned out to be the single most effective weapon we saw that brings up some problems, but I can ignore them.
That’s a perfectly valid reason for not telling him about the sword.
I for one support her choice to keep the sword to herself.
I haven’t seen the movie but I am expecting someone to say “So, that’s how child birth feels like.”
… why?
I assumed he knew but it simply hadn’t occured to him to use it… That was my reading.
Nah. it is because like all men he didn’t bother to RTFM! And when he saw the manual in her head he still didn’t bother to peek into it, because real men don’t RTFM!
Why does this book say to instruct Manuel? I don’t even know him!
It really kills me that we’ve got a movie where giant robots fight giant monsters and I can’t see it. The whole “merging minds” thing just makes my joints hurt whenever I think about it, even just reading this comic. There’s no way I’d survive two hours in the theater.
I’m not trying to be that ‘Well Actually’ Guy, but to my head canon, the drift doesn’t make the entire contents of the other person’s brain available to you, It just sort of synchs up your surface thoughts. Raleigh didn’t know they had a sword until it consciously occured to Mako.
On the other hand, it still makes me wonder why, when Raleigh reached for a boat to use as a bat, Mako didn’t go “Well, Actually, We have this other thing….”
I rather thought he did know about the sword, (hell, one assumes the Marshall gave him a damn rundown before shoving him back in) he just forgot in the heat of the moment. After all he never used to have a sword.
DID YOU CATCH THE THEME SONG. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQDx9BYGv4A
I finally get these last two comics. Also I’m jonesing for robots and glowy monsters.
He overlooked the silliness of using a sword.
By which, I mean, he thought using a sword was an idiotic idea, and over looked it.
As far as the “No Bladed Weapons” part goes, didn’t the Chinese Jaeger have like spinning saw-blades as its primary weapon?
Holy shit, had the same discussion with my friends after seeing it. Also, why were they not using it from the beginning? I mean, they spent the whole movie up until that point just punching things, and then suddenly swords errywhere.
WEEEEELL Actually…who cares…FORM BLAZING SWORD! That had the best rocket punch EVER in the history of rocket punches. My inner nerd was salivating the whole damn movie.
…Sooo, will Stacker Pentecost and the Kaidonovskys make an appearance as well?
Because I really want to see them.
What I was wondering was why, when the DO have a sword, they still choose to use bare fists. If I was in a Jaeger the sword would be my first solution each time, it would end fights so much quicker.
(except starting the fight with a blast from my cannons where it was suitable)
The drift doesn’t connect their minds together in the sense of a complete mind reading. it makes them intuitive to each other, and the closer they already are in mind, the easier this becomes. Remeber, don’t chase the rabit. Which basically means, don’t focus on any thoughts, just let them all “drift” back and forth. At least that was the explination I got from it all.
I think you are missing the bigger issue here.
The didn’t just have one sword, they had TWO!
The potential for ultimate dual wielding awesome was RIGHT THERE!
I think it has something to do with the toxicity of the Kaiju blood (“Kaiju Blue”). It’s little more than a throw away at the beginning, but they talk about how toxic and detrimental to the environment it is in the opening news-reels. So, maybe they have orders to use the sword as an absolute last resort to avoid destroying the eco-system?
Or, maybe it was a new addition. They DID rebuild Gypsy, so maybe they added a new toy. As for why Raleigh didn’t know, maybe the swords had become common so the construction/ maintenance crews didn’t even think that a pilot wouldn’t know about them. Besides, why would Raleigh randomly ask “So, have you attached any Giant Swords?”
And why wouldn’t he have known about the sword through Mako’s thoughts? They drifted twice before he found out about it. The first time was almost devastatingly catastrophic, and the second time was in the middle of a crisis situation. Perhaps he didn’t pick up on the sword from Mako because she wasn’t actively thinking about it until right then.
Then again, it could just be a case of the “thank God we have exactly what we need for this situation! ala James Bond” plot device.
Personally, I think it’s the first one.
And I just started reading through the comments, and I see my points have come up a few times. But it’s still unique, dammit! lol
You pretty much hit it on the nose with the comic. the implication i got was that Mako had prepared herself to sync with (hero protaganist). she let him lead. if you watch that first fight, she is very passive, letting him “take the lead”. he used all the normal systems that Jipsy Danger had previously. then when he is out of options, she takes the lead, and uses the sword system she put into the mech, her own addition to the design. for family. for honor. the way of the Samurai.
Either she has a wonky thumb, or she’s flipping him off and happens to have an extra pinky. I’d don’t remember her having six fingers. Gah – It’s screwing with my brain!
The gypsy danger word was basically Ivy’s blade from soul calibur. Basically chainsaw sword/vibro blade that could turn into a whip and all that if i remember the people talking about the blueprints being sent out right.
Striker Eureka had a blade as well but it was heated to cauterize the wound and prevent blood spilling after it stabs the Kaiju in the heart or something.
I cant wait for the dvd to come out because I expected Russia to use it’s damned lighting fists and I want to see it use some goddamned lighting fists.
As for the “loophole” above. Ever forgot you had something until you had to actually stop and think? Mako wasn’t thinking about the sword until she had to go “huh? what do you mean we have no weapons? I don’t remember using the sword.” Once she thought about it they both knew.
I honestly forgot they used a sword in the movie. All I can remember is the punching and the shooting…
Personal headcanon on the sword: it was experimental, not necessarily expected to work as intended, thus Mako (who had overseen the refit) didn’t even consider it except as a last resort. It just turned out to be a stunning success.
Not that anything they say supports that.
Actually the reason is twofold
1) He may not have known about it, the point of the drift is not to share memories, it is a side effect of the main goal, distributing the neural load, you don’t see everything going on in their head, additionally he just got there so he wouldn’t know about the sword
2) There’s a reason that they don’t use too many bladed weapons, the comics even mention it, the Jaegars mostly use their fists in order to reduce the amount of kaiju blue (kaiju blood) that gets into the environment, which is why they’re not going around just slicing them in half and why it is used as a last resort instead.
I hate to be critical, but you do realize you’re being nitpicky about a movie with GIANT ROBOTS PUNCHING MONSTERS
Thank you for bringing this up, I thought the same thing- why hide the most obvious awesome weapon until the end?
Also, while I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I still cant get past how many plot devices it shared with Independence Day. Spoilers ahead! >>>>>>> Hero pilot lost his partner early on to the aliens, how the aliens were underestimated, how in the end they get beaten by a nuke (That they just STARE AT), using the alien’s own technology to cloak themselves to get in to their mothership/homeland, the big speech before the final showdown, the inexplicable survival of the duo to plant the bomb, etc. Just made me laugh. Either way, aliens got smoked, mankind won, and giant robots got to smash giant monsters. I was contented.
Honestly, there was a guy cosplaying The 11th Doctor for the entire movie. I think the least of their worries was who did/did not know about the sword. Just sayin’.
http://31.media.tumblr.com/056c743a38decfcd29353f3ad2d366ca/tumblr_mqrjl5j64M1qi2832o1_500.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5JkBR9aU6I0/T4yHbebI0RI/AAAAAAAAJ6I/YnbiH7ooLuI/s1600/Doctor-who-central-park-11.jpg
Well that explains everything then. Clearly It was the Doctor that got the sword there. The Doctor has saved us once again.
My explanation: He watched Gaogaigar or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and thought that the same rule applied. Said rule being “Anyone who uses a sword/the Will knife will immediately get their ass handed to them on a plate made out of the robot they are piloting.”
Kaiju blood is poisonus, can’t have it bleeding all over a city
They even get scores based on how much collateral damage will happen in the comic. Using the sword asap is basically the opposite of their training.
People keep complaining about the toxic blood, but some of the other Jaegers had slicing weapons, too. The Chinese one had spinning blades, and the Aussie one during the last fight had blades of some sort on both the hands as well. Seems like an apocalypse would be worse than a little (or even a lot of) Jaeger blood.
Either way, Raleigh should’ve known about the sword. And it probably would have been more useful from the beginning of the fight.
They could have solved the plotholes while keeping the homage to having another group of choppers airdrop the sword, the plasma cannon having immense power drain ammo issues and only close range, and the fact that new power was non EMP shielded (which to be fair is and can be done to Milspec gear) while the nuclear was old cold war paranoia protected… Hindsight eh? I still loved the movie even though in Afghanistan all you can find is a cheesy camera copy the locals sell for $3. Gonna buy this on Blu-Ray and have a Kaiju movie night out here.
The writer behind 8bit theater has a kickstarter for Atomic Robo.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tesladyne/atomic-robo-needs-you-tesladyne-recruitment-drive
I have GOT to see this movie. We watch and love the latest Sentai and Kamen Rider series and this sounds like a big-budget Sentai one… :)
Maybe they both didn’t know about the sword and mako found that feature in the middle of the fight.
Oh, I just had a realization!
What were they doing when they broke drift the first time? Going through all the basic functions, first the arms and such. What did they not get around to doing? *Weapons checks*. What did they not have a chance to do before the fight? Go over stuff again.
Honestly, I’m glad we’re having this discussion. It means the movie was interesting enough to talk about this. It’s like Inception- smartly made, but not actually all that smart. And that’s fine! It’s an action movie, where critics complain it’s not as deep as Schindler’s List.
Did no one see the lack of, appearing, then disappearing gloves that the nerd-guy had?! He was playing with the Kaiju body part with his bare hands, then he had gloves, and ended with no gloves… Seriously… That was the only thing that bothered me.
Couples points, since I’m a huge Pacific Rim nerd, and everyone else is doing it.
It’s understandable he forgot about the sword. Sure, he drifted with Mako, but he was a little busy dealing with the whole “Fighting for his life” thing, which often makes things skip your mind. Also, the sword was never tested in weapons check because Mako nearly blue up the base.
They generally avoid the “splatter kaiju blood/bits everywhere” because of how unbelievably toxic and dangerous it is. It’s addressed, to an extent, in the Tales From Year Zero comic. In Raleigh and Yancy’s training sequences in it, one of the criteria is how much Kaiju Blue is spread everywhere.
To my mind, just because you know something, doesn’t mean it’s constantly on your head. The info needs to be prompted, and then it pops up.
As for why they didn’t use the sword earlier… Part Rule of Cool, part “Kaiu blood is caustic, so you really don’t want to make them bleed anymore than you have to.”
I just figured he was so used to the old layout that he didn’t look over and say “ooooo, what does THIS button do?” and never bothered to read the changelog
Man, Pacific Rim was 100% Asian female/ White Male relationship propaganda.
And god damn did it ever get to me.
And that ain’t bad, that ain’t bad at all.
Considering there’s nothing necessarily romantic between them, and the filmmakers went out of their way to make it that way…
The real question is, one kaiju got it’s chest disintegrated, and the other got its belly sliced in half, so which was pregnant?
The one whose belly was sliced was in the fight underwater, Otachi was the pregnant one they used the sword on, and that was to cut of its wing.
Only 20 hours left for the Atomic Robo kickstarter. If you don’t know who Atomic Robo is, he’s a talking robot who wears pants. He was created by Brian Clevenger(8-bit theater) and Scott Wegener.
This was so more fun affter I whatc the movie…
(spoilers) I liked pacific rim a lot but to me it didn’t deliver on what I was hoping for in a giant robot movie. there are a lot of plot holes and pointless actions that only bother me for the fact that the movie doesn’t seem to understand itself (I know that sounds snobby as hell, but pretend I know what I’m talking about, I certainly do). It’s a giant robot movie with the best of the best pilots left to defend humanity, and they kill half of them almost right off the bat, and another fourth down the line. I know the setting is that humans are on the ropes and things are getting worse, but come on, you don’t just start killing main characters like flies in a giant robot movie, especially when they hype them up as much as they did, you save that till the end for a noble sacrifice, which they did pretty nicely I suppose. I suppose what I’m saying is on the one hand they have super serious we can only barely beat these guys scenario, then flip it to the other hand and go, oh, one robot just beat two of them almost no problem, and they were totes gonna die from an orbital fall but pshh, we can’t do that, because killing them off or giving them a serious injury or problem from such a fight would be weird.
They gloss over it REALLY fast in the beginning, but basically Kaiju blood is extremely toxic. All the bots bludgeon, burn or explode (With incendiary) as opposed to giant swords/guns likely to prevent a city from getting contaminated. The same goes for in the ocean, don’t want Kaiju blood washing up on your shore.
That being said, it seems like in certain extreme cases, the ends justify the means. With the triplets and their gaint slashie robot they were protecting a massive city center, and as for gypsy danger they were A: about to die and B:probably high enough it didn’t matter.
If anything it’s kind of like nukes. Sure you could just nuke the kaijus instead of building awesome giant robots, but then the cities could never be rebuilt.
Not so toxic that Ron Perlman can’t roll around in it unscathed.
I just saw the movie. Lots of fun.
And I finally got this joke. Holy crap, my sides. It’s 3 in the morning, and I’m audibly laughing like a loon.
also, the movie does seem to have an awful amount of holes in it like this
At some point it seems like the whole “Kaiju blood is toxic” thing got forgotten completely.