FILM · 2013 · USA
Pacific Rim
- Directed by
- Guillermo del Toro
- Runtime
- 131 min
- Studio
- Double Dare You, Legendary Pictures
116 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
Using massive piloted robots to combat the alien threat, Earth's survivors take the fight to the invading alien force lurking in the depths of the Pacific Ocean. Nearly defenseless in the face of the relentless enemy, the forces of mankind have no choice but to turn to two unlikely heroes who now stand as Earth's final hope against the mounting apocalypse.
116 Interesting Facts About Pacific Rim
Interesting Facts (29)
- #001
In Hungary, trailers for the movie couldn't mention the name of the main robot, Gipsy Danger, because it was offensive to the Roma, a large ethnic group in the country. The name is spoken freely in the Hungarian dubbed version, but it's left in English. It's a reference to a type of airplane engine, not the people in question.
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The rolling end credits include "SPECIAL THANKS" to other genre directors who presumably inspired Guillermo del Toro: James Cameron (Avatar et.al.); David Cronenberg (The Fly et.al); Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity); Alejandro G. Iñárritu (The Revenant).
- #010
Charlie Day's Dr. Newt character talks about the Kaijus having a secondary brain, similar to that of the dinosaurs. This theory about dinosaurs was taught as late as the 1990s, but has since been debunked by the scientific community. Also, only a few dinosaurs like the Stegosaurus were thought to have a secondary brain, because their skulls/brain were so small in relation to their bodies. Most of the Kaiju in this film had large heads, so that hypothesis doesn't translate for multiple reasons.
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Otachi is the creature in the film with the most 'surprises' for the audience: its front limbs reveal to be wings, its neck can engorge to spit the creature's signature acid attack, and the snake-like lower jaw splits in two. Another unexpected element is that Otachi's tail can detach, move and fight by itself -- a feature probably conceived by exaggerating the tail-detachment defense mechanism of lizards. The tail was originally part of the discarded Meathead design -- Wayne Barlowe and TyRuben Ellingson had suggested the concept of a 'fighting tail' with legs of its own. With Meathead ultimately not appearing in the film, its fighting tail was 'inherited' by Otachi, although its ability to detach and engage in combat on its own was never seen in the film. This was among Velasco's final additions to the design, which also include the bioluminescent spots alongside the creature's hide.
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According to Travis Beacham, in an earlier version of the script Mako and Raleigh spoke two different languages for most of the film. After connecting as pilots they gradually began to understand each other, and before the end they heard each other speaking in their own languages. The only remnant of the language barrier is Raleigh speaking Japanese to Mako and Mako being surprised that he knows her native language.
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In March 2013 the YouTube channel "Dumb Drum" made a "sweded" version of the film's theatrical trailer. Less than two weeks later, Guillermo del Toro commented on the video at WonderCon 2013, calling it a "masterpiece" and saying it inspired him in making the film's second trailer. He also invited its makers to the Hollywood premiere. When the film's first showing arrived on home video, Legendary Pictures contacted "Dumb Drum" and asked for their help promoting the film. In October 2013 they released several "sweded" versions of scenes from the film. These new videos were prepared to be shared on social media sites in fifteen-second intervals.
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Another rule meant to maximize the film's audience was that, despite the brutality of the fights, there would not be too much blood and gore. The solution was found in tinting the monsters' blood a blue, bioluminescent shade. Costume designer Kate Hawley sent Production Designer Andrew Neskoromny a photograph of a factory in Asia depicting the process of dyeing indigo fabric. Neskoromny said: "Everything gets stained: people's clothes, fingers, nails, just about everything. And I said, 'Oh yeah, that looks great. We should do some of that.'" Hawley further elaborated the concept: "The idea is that the blue blood gets into people's bodies and you see little blue particles coming out of their respirators like a poison."
- #022
The Kaiju are also "attacked" by parasites living in the outer layers of their skin. The creatures' practical construction was given to Spectral Motion. The skin parasites, affectionately labeled "Rollie-Pollies," were designed by Mike Elizalde and Alex Palma. The inspiration for the design and name came from isopods. Other crustaceans were also used as references for texture and color scheme. The parasites were built as full-scale animatronics; they were sculpted by Joey Orosco and Mario Torres and painted by Russ Lukich. The mechanism allowing arthropod-like movement was designed and built by Mark Setrakian. Throughout the film, digital versions of the parasites can be seen crawling on the skin of Leatherback and other kaiju.
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- #024
Some designs were derived from early incarnations of other characters. Zorluk is a Kaiju briefly seen in the prologue, with a distinct protrusion emerging from its lower jaw. It is first seen roaring as it passes in front of the camera, then fighting a Jaeger in a night-vision shot. Designed by Simon Webber, this creature was originally conceived as the Monster that attacks Sydney and breaks through the anti-Kaiju wall with its giant blade-like horn; however, the design was ultimately developed independently and was given the name Bowser before receiving its name in the film.
- #025
Two Monsters emerge from the breach and attack Hong Kong. Otachi (Category 4) is the name given to the flying creature with a reptilian head and two blade-like crests. "We designed the face to be really, really evil," del Toro said. "It has a sort of evil intelligence to its eyes." Otachi was designed by Guy Davis, who based the creature's first drawings on a crawling bat. The protrusions on the creature's head were designed inspired by the skull of a Brontotherium. Early versions of the monster had jaw tendons as well as numerous eyes on the sides of the head and a hammer-shaped tip on the tail.
- #026
Scunner (Category 4) was designed by Simon Webber and conceived essentially as 'a bull monster.' During the fight with Gipsy Danger there are shots reminiscent of a rodeo, and Scunner's behavior was based on that of bulls: it charges its opponent and tries to use its horns as cutting and piercing weapons. The monster's basic body archetype is the same as that of Axehead and Knifehead, but it has differently textured shoulders. It also has three mole-like claws on its main arms.
- #027
Raiju (Category 4) is an armored creature with three-part head armor that splits in two to reveal the Monster's true foal-like head. "His feet were sculpted bent," del Toro said, "so it doesn't mean walking on two legs. I always told [the designers] to think of the body horizontally so it could move like a giant iguana." Raiju, whose other nickname is 'Croc,' was designed by Francisco Ruiz Velasco, who gave the monster a crocodile appearance combined with the armored plates of a pangolin.
- #028
Leatherback (Category 4) is the gorilla-like Kaiju that attacks Hong Kong alongside Otachi, and del Toro's film is most closely associated with these creatures. The director said, "I really, really respond to him on a visceral level," and "He's absolutely brutal but I find him kind of adorable." Leatherback's skin is covered in armor, and a special organ on its back generates the biological equivalent of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The twin humps on its head slide and move; at the back of the head, a writhing set of bioluminescent tentacles emerges that moves faster as the creature becomes stressed. Leatherback was designed by David Meng, whom del Toro called "one of the best designers of monsters in the world." Meng also built the creature's maquette. After a long brainstorming session with the director, "we ended up with like a gorilla, which is always fun to animate." del Toro added: "A design needs to have a clean, distinct silhouette above all, and then have a personality that makes it unique. Leatherback was born with all of it." Leatherback is a brute, with enormous and powerful arms. Del Toro commented on the nature of the monster, saying that "What we wanted with him was to feel like a henchman, like a pure-muscle charging monster; so his attacks look a lot like a monkey's. The fists are used like maces. He'll jump on top of the enemy's shoulders and body and start attacking it." According to Supervising Sound Editor Scott Gershin, the sounds Leatherback makes were specifically designed to be the most terrifying sound among the Kaiju: "Leatherback has a lot of presence in the low frequencies. I didn't want it to be high, but I wanted it to be dense. When you hear it, the first thought that comes to mind is, 'oh, damn, this is not good.'".
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Production Story (53)
- #030
Raiju (Category 4) is the armoured creature with the tripartite head armour, which splits open to reveal the Monster's real foal-like head. Mainly inspired from reptiles (iguanas most prominently), it was conceived to be an aquatic character. "His feet were sculpted bent," del Toro said, "so it is not meant to walk [on two legs]. I always told [the designers] to think of the body in horizontal, so it could move like a giant iguana." Raiju, whose other nickname was 'Croc', was designed by Francisco Ruiz Velasco -- who gave the monster the appearance of a crocodile combined with the armored plates of a pangolin.
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The Kaiju were basically described as "living weapons. They are blind instinct combined with tactical intelligence, capable of making instant decisions in battle." All the designs followed common, basic guidelines. As 'living weapons' they are 'newly manufactured' and are deprived of any kind of deformities. "Every element should be used as a weapon," del Toro said. "If we create a Kaiju with three or four tails, I want to see it use them. If the Kaiju has a mouth on the end of the tail, then I'm going to use it to fight the robot with both ends."
- #033
According to Travis Beacham, in an earlier version of the script Mako and Raleigh spoke two different languages for a majority of the film. After connecting as pilots, they slowly began to understand one another, and before the end they heard each other speaking in their own respective languages. The only remnant of a language barrier is when Raleigh speaks to Mako in Japanese, and she is surprised he knows her home language.
- #034
Leatherback (Category 4) is the gorilla-like Monster that attacks Hong Kong alongside Otachi, and the creature of the film del Toro relates to the most. "I really, really respond to him on a visceral level," the director said. "He's absolutely brutal but I find him kind of adorable." Leatherback's skin is armour-plated, and a specialized organ on its back produces a biological equivalent of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The twin crests on its head shift and move, revealing a writhing array of bioluminescent tentacles in the back of the head, which move more rapidly as the creature is stressed. Leatherback was designed by David Meng, "one of the best designers of monsters in the world," according to del Toro. Meng also sculpted the maquette of the creature. After a long brainstorming with the director, "we ended up with like a gorilla, which is always fun to animate." del Toro added: "a design, first and foremost, has to have a clean, distinctive silhouette and then have a personality that makes it unique. Leatherback was birthed having it all." Leatherback is a brute, with enormous and powerful arms. Del Toro commented on the nature of the monster, saying that "what we wanted with it was to feel like a bouncer, like a pure muscular charging brute -- so its attacks are very ape-like. The fists are used like maces. It'll jump on top of an enemy's shoulders and torso and start pounding down on him." The sounds Leatherback makes were specifically designed to be the most intimidating among the Monsters, according to Supervising Sound Editor Scott Gershin: "Leatherback has a lot of low-end presence. I didn't necessarily want it to be loud, but I wanted it to be intense. When you hear it, the first thought you have is, 'ah, shit, this isn't good'."
- #035
Guillermo del Toro is a huge fan of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (2005), and he offered Charlie Day a role in this movie in exchange for a cameo in the show. He appeared as Pappy McPoyle in The Maureen Ponderosa Wedding Massacre (2012) and McPoyle vs. Ponderosa: The Trial of the Century (2016).
- #036
In March 2013, YouTube channel "Dumb Drum" created a "sweded" version of the film's theatrical trailer. Less than two weeks later, Guillermo del Toro commented on the video at WonderCon 2013, calling it a "masterpiece" and saying that it inspired him to create the second trailer for the film. He also invited the filmmakers to the Hollywood premiere. When the film was released on home video, Legendary Pictures contacted "Dumb Drum" and asked for their help promoting the release. In October 2013, they released several "sweded" versions of scenes from the movie. These new videos were made fifteen-second intervals for sharing on social media websites.
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The baby Kaiju, discovered in Hong Kong, is the offspring of Otachi -- and as such, its design was reverse-engineered from that of its parent. The baby is the element of the film that most vividly represents Guillermo del Toro's surrealist style: he said: "if you think of a monster as a formidable thing, you can give it a moment where he's curious and appealing and kind of cute. Surrealism comes from juxtaposition. The Dali telephone with the lobster on top. The element that doesn't work is the element that makes the thing work." Conceived with a 'puppy quality', the creature was given big eyes and a proportionally very large head. "It's sort of cute and horrible," del Toro added, "we gave the baby two characteristics that make him unique and beautiful to look at -- translucency and iridescence. The skin is translucent and pearlescent, but it's also wrinkled like a naked mole rat, [or] like an Egyptian cat." Animating the baby creature proved to be particularly complex, according to Hickel: "messy is sometimes the hardest of all -- because there are no happy accidents. The animator is deciding every movement that it's going to make, every little wiggle and bob."
- #039
The first monster design to be approved during pre-production was Knifehead (Category 3), conceived by Wayne Barlowe. The creature is meant to evoke a giant shark, according to the director: "it's like if you took a shark and you pulled its nose way out until its head became this very sharp, pointy, blade-like shape rather than the blunt triangle that a shark normally is." The design for Knifehead ended up with an appearance reminiscent of Guiron, one of the foes Gamera fights in Gamera Vs. Guiron. Allegedly, however, it was unintentional. Del Toro explained to Ain't It Cool: "What was funny is that Knifehead came from a silhouette Wayne Barlowe did, and he had never seen Guiron. I told him, "Go after a goblin shark." He started doing that, and for him it is guiltless; he never knew Guiron. Then we started riffing on that, and we created Axehead and Bladehead." Once finalized, in fact, the digital model was also used as the base for Axehead, Bladehead and Scunner -- which bore key differences, but maintain the same basic anatomical structure.
- #040
Karloff is a monster bearing a similarity to Boris Karloff (hence its name), the actor who portrayed the Frankenstein creature and the Mummy in Universal's classic films. Guy Davis said that "[the nicknames] started with 'Karloff' (and that name actually stuck), but that was just because his head sketch reminded me of Boris Karloff." The design, in fact, features a protruding forehead region (Frankenstein-like) and wrinkled lips (Mummy-like). The back combines features of crickets and jet engines. Karloff's secondary mouth on its chest proved to be 'vaguely obscene' (due to its vaginal configuration) and thus the creature's role was greatly deminished in the film; it is only briefly seen in the prologue.
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Onibaba (whose name references the 1964 Japanese horror film) was described as basically an armoured tank, or a 'charging monster': "we wanted Onibaba to be a guy that would charge," del Toro said. "The sequence is about narrow streets, so I wanted him to charge and destroy the buildings just by not stopping." The Kaiju ultimately proved to be the most complex to animate, due to the number of moving parts and the supposed malevolent intelligence that had to be infused into its performance. Its mouth is composed of a complex system of shifting plates. Hickel commented: "it was tough because this character wasn't going to have normal eyes with a pupil that you could rotate and get a good, strong eye direction." It was necessary that the audience would understand that Onibaba was specifically chasing Mako. Hickel suggested putting the creature's eyes on stalks, whose movement would indicate where it was looking. "It still feels crablike," Hickel said, "and even kind of alien, as crabs generally do, but it clearly has intention and intelligence, and it looks onto her with its eyes." Ultimately, however, the final Onibaba design features rigid bony protrusions that house the eyes, instead of stalks. The creature also had elements of ancient Japanese architecture infused into it: "it has this ornamental element where it looks like a Japanese temple," del Toro said to USAtoday, "and at the same time he's a crustacean."
- #044
Two Monsters emerge from the breach and attack Hong Kong. Otachi (Category 4) is the name given to the flying creature, with a reptilian head and two blade-like crests. "We designed the face to be really, really evil," del Toro said. "It has a sort of evil intelligence to its eyes." Otachi was mainly designed by Guy Davis, who based early sketches of the creature on a crawling bat. The protrusions on the creature's head were inspired by the skull of a Brontotherium. Early iterations of the Monster featured jaw tendons, as well as multiple eyes on the sides of the head and a hammer-shaped tip of the tail.
- #045
Certain designs were derived from early incarnations of other characters. Hardship is a Kaiju briefly seen in the prologue, with a distinct protrusion growing from its lower jaw. It is seen first roaring past the camera, and then fighting a Jaeger in a night-vision shot. Designed by Simon Webber, it was originally conceived as the Monster which attacked Sydney and bursted through the anti-Kaiju wall with its enormous blade-like horn; eventually, however, the design developed independently and was nicknamed Bowser -- before receiving its in-film name.
- #046
To maximize the audience of the film, another rule was that there could not be much blood and gore -- despite the brutality of the fights. The solution to this issue was found in colouring the blood of the Monsters of a blue, bioluminescent tint. In turn, this idea inspired the designers into conceiving a residue of the blood, which spreads like mold; it is called 'Kaiju blue'. It was used to make a set where blue and gold permeated everything -- as del Toro desired -- for the baby Kaiju sequence. Costume designer Kate Hawley sent Production Designer Andrew Neskoromny a photo of an Asian factory. It portrayed the process of indigo fabric being dyed. Neskoromny said: "everything gets stained: people's clothes, their fingers, their nails, just everything. I said, 'oh yeah, that looks great. We've got to do a bit of that.'" Hawley further elaborated the concept: "the idea is that the blue blood had got into people's bodies; and you see bits of blue coming through their breathing masks, like a little subtle poison."
- #047
Scunner (Category 4) was designed by Simon Webber and conceived as basically 'a bull monster'. During the fight with Gipsy Danger there are shots reminiscent of a Rodeo, and Scunner's behaviour was based on that of bulls: it rams its opponent and tries to use its horns as slashing and perforating weapons. The basic body archetype of the monster is the same as that of Axehead and Knifehead, but sporting differently textured shoulders. In addition, the main arms feature three mole-like claws.
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The final, most formidable foe faced by Gipsy Danger in the film is named Slattern -- the first Category 5 Kaiju. It is allegedly beyond what the Jaegers were ever prepared to battle. Del Toro commented on the character, saying that "I wanted very much the final Kaiju to be the devil. I always loved very much that moment in Fantasia when Chernabog opens his wings in Night on Bald Mountain." The monster had to invoke a majestic vibe, inspired by Dragonslayer (which is referenced when the Monster enters the scene). "I introduce it almost like a building coming out of the water," del Toro said. "It is really, really quite gigantic." Slattern was initially conceived by Guy Davis, who nicknamed him 'Executioner'. "My initial idea was that while Slattern would be an executioner," Davis said on his Tumblr blog, "he would be more agile than a brute; swift and moray-eel like in the water and almost gremlin-like using the many chest arms to pick apart the jaegers as he fought." Del Toro said: "I wanted him to come out from the depths of the ocean, and his head to not be horns but evoke that. It has a real mean intelligence. He is the only Kaiju whose head looks like a real crown, so it has majesty. I wanted very much to have him be clearly the king of the Kaiju." Davis added: "His head design would subliminally have the feel of a "skull and crossbones", with the lower jaw shape mirroring the top horns and his eyes clustered in the middle like a face. Guillermo liked the initial form and idea but wanted the eyes moved to the sides, which worked great since now the center spot could be similar to a nose cavity on a skeleton and give the head a hammerhead shape. I also thought it gave him more personality and kinda made him look a bit like a monster caricature of Jack Palance."
- #049
Each monster design in progress got a pet name -- something that aided the designers in seeing the creatures as actual characters. According to Davis, it was "just a way of giving the kaiju a quick identity if we needed to reference it or find the design." The creatures, in fact, had to be 'actors' and as such, able to display a range of emotions. "If you see a lion in repose," del Toro said, "the lion looks majestic, noble, beautiful. But if that lion is on top of you and about to bite you, he looks like that [makes a snarling expression]. Not pleasant at all. And yet, it is the same animal." Homaging the Japanese cult films, every monster was to be designed as if it had to be performed by a man in a suit. "One of the rules I gave to the Kaiju designers," del Toro said in a featurette, "is, I wanted to think how a man in a suit would fit in there. The Kaiju are trying to honor the spirit and the feeling of the classical Kaiju. We are keeping them mostly two-legged, not humanoid, but sort of with a silhouette that reminds you of those classical ones."
- #050
Reckoner is the name given to a Kaiju whose remains served as the base for the creation of a temple that would house a 'Kaiju cult'. This has a direct connection with Hannibal's black market, according to Guillermo del Toro -- who said that "the temple and black market speech Hannibal gives are indicative of religious and social changes that the Kaiju brought on society." Reckoner is actually never shown alive throughout the film, and as such was the only monster to be literally built as a physical set. Production designer Andrew Neskoromny commented: "it has a bit of traditional Chinese temple architecture combined with some bone. It's as though they took the bone, carved it out, and put a staircase up through it, so the pieces of the bone skirt the side of it."
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The first monster witnessed by the audience is Axehead, or Trespasser -- being the pioneer monster to cross the breach. The creature is only seen in the prologue of the film, and curiously enough is the last Kaiju to be heard: its roar is audible at the very end of the film's credits. Axehead's fundamental in-film purpose is to serve as an introduction to the audience of the design style that the spectators are going to see throughout the film. When it roars, an orange, bioluminescent glow can be seen coming from its mouth cavity. "That's something that carries across all the Kaiju in the film," Hickel said. "A kind of interior bioluminescence. And many of them have markings on their skin that are also bioluminescent." The creature attacks the Golden Gate Bridge -- a landmark destruction that Hickel initially wanted to avoid. Ultimately, however, "it establishes Guillermo's design imprint and what's unique about his vision for this film: this big, protruding axe crests from the head, the colouring of the creature, and the bioluminescence. All those things are more unique and less expected, so it hopefully gives the audience both messages: yes, the film is going to have the thing they came to see, Godzilla-size monsters wreaking havoc, and yet it's not going to be Godzilla; it's going to be monsters they've never seen before, that look different than they expected." The Axehead digital model was created starting from Knifehead's, which was modified in order to accommodate the namesake Axe-shaped crest on the head, as well as different -- more prominent -- claws on the arms and other cosmetic differences.
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Marks the first collaboration between Guillermo del Toro and the digital effects veterans of Industrial Light & Magic. With the exception of Reckoner's bones and some Kaiju organs, as well as parts of Otachi's carcass, every Kaiju of the film was brought to the screen using solely computer generated models. Said models were obtained from scans of physical maquettes all sculpted by Simon Lee and David Meng and painted by Casey Love. Despite there being the possibility of using general muscle systems for the creatures, the visual effects artists decided against it. We chose to do that because the Kaiju were so radically different from one another," Hal Hickel, effects animator, said to fxguide. "It didn't seem economical for us to set up an overall muscle system for the show because it didn't seem portable from one to the next. I thought, we don't need a huge amount of muscle detail we need large masses that do certain things at hero moments, so to me that said shapes."
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Every monster also had to display a 'hidden feature' that would 'surprise' the audience, so that the spectators would never really 'get used to' the character. Bioluminescence had to be a common trait: the creators of the Kaiju would thus be able to track and recognize each model. In regards to the creatures' massive size, Barlowe said that "a while back, when I was working briefly in the paleo-art world, I read a book that delved into this very subject. The conclusion was that, of course, there are structural limits to the size animals can grow to on our planet given its gravity. As you have suggested, the biomechanics simply would not allow for a creature to reach the sizes that re depicted in Pacific Rim. The bone proportions would be ridiculous. It's a bit like the depiction of angels to lift a mass the size of a human, wings would have to be roughly 30-40 feet from tip to tip or thereabouts. Not practical to show in movies. In this case, the kaiju are not born of this world and so, we can willfully suspend disbelief and sit back and enjoy the ride."
- #055
The monster's main weapon is the group of tendril-like tails. The animators were instructed to base the movements on kung-fu masters using magical canes. Hal Hickel commented: "[del Toro] wanted a similar sort of feeling for the way Slattern swirls his tails around in the water in a circular way. You don't quite know what it's doing with them, and then suddenly they can just splash out and strike." The final design was given crocodile-esque scales, as well as a crocodilian color scheme, and a peculiar, ram-like protrusion on its chest -- added by Barlowe -- which can be used as a close-range weapon, although it is never used to effect in the film.
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Guillermo del Toro did not shoot the film with 3D in mind and was initially opposed to the idea of converting it into the format when the studio suggested it. He agreed only on four conditions - that the scale of the kaiju and jaegers be maintained in 3D without overemphasizing the effect and miniaturizing them, that the conversion be given a generous 40-week schedule to ensure its quality, that the CGI elements were rendered natively in stereo 3D, and that he be allowed to supervise the conversion process.
- #058
Mutavore (Category 4), known as Bladehead during production, is the first Monster to break the anti-Kaiju barrier in Sidney. Designed by Wayne Barlowe, "it has this massive, blade-shaped head it uses to just bludgeon its way through the protective wall around Sydney," said Hickel. "And it kind of cuts through the wall as if it's warm butter. It doesn't actually look like it has a mouth until it opens it and starts roaring. It's this weird little split line through the front of its blade head. It's a very, very odd design, which I like a lot, actually. It's one of my favourites." The creature always retained certain traits, such as the shape of the head and the eyes on the lower jaw. Early iterations featured secondary mouths and limbs, eventually discarded for the final design. The digital model was, again, obtained starting from the Knifehead model.
- #059
The first monster design approved during pre-production was Knifehead (Category 3), designed by Wayne Barlowe. According to the director, the creature was intended to evoke a giant shark: "It's as if you took a shark and pulled its nose out until its head became a very sharp, pointed, blade-like shape instead of the blunt triangle a shark normally has." Knifehead's design ended up resembling Guiron, one of the enemies Gamera fights in Gamera vs. Guiron. However, this was claimed to be unintentional. Del Toro explained to Ain't It Cool News: "What was funny is that Knifehead came from a silhouette Wayne Barlowe did, and he had never seen Guiron. I told him, 'Go for the goblin shark.' He started doing that and for him it's innocent; he never knew Guiron. Then we started working on it and created Axehead and Bladehead." In fact, after the digital model reached its final form, it was also used as the basis for Axehead, Bladehead and Scunner, which carry significant differences but retain the same basic anatomical structure.
- #060
(At about 1 hour 25 minutes) The interior of the building that Gipsy's fist smashes through was created using miniatures. Many components of the office cubicles were made using 3D printers. The lighting was practical and built to scale. Once the set was ready, a large green mandrel was wedged inside it. This was digitally replaced by Gipsy's fist.
- #061
The sound of the Kaiju's roars was made up of layer upon layer of animal roars and growls that were filtered, sped up and slowed down to create the roar of the alien giants. Then, to add a sense of emotion and intelligence, supervising sound editor Scott Martin Gershin and director Guillermo del Toro added samples of their own voices.
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The computer is voiced by Ellen McLain, who also voices the artificial intelligence GLaDOS in Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011). This is actually a miniature version of GLaDOS, because Guillermo del Toro was such a fan of the games that he approached the developer, Valve, and got approval. In an interview with the Toronto Sun, del Toro said: "I really wanted to have her because I'm a big Portal fan. But I'm winking. She's not cake-obsessed. She's not trying to destroy humanity." He further explained, "Look, there's no other AI but GlaDOS, but in the movie, which opens July 12, McLain's voice is modulated a little to sound less like her distinctive tone. Portal's unforgettable villain. The filter we used is a little less GLaDOS. I wanted the filter in the trailer to be literally GlaDOS." The GLaDOS voice itself was inspired by the computer in The Thirteenth Floor (1999).
- #064
In Hungary, the name of the main robot Gipsy Danger was not mentioned in the film's trailers because it was considered offensive toward the Roma, a large ethnic group in the country. The name is spoken freely in the Hungarian dubbed version, but was left in English. This is a reference not to the people in question, but to a type of aircraft engine.
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Cherno Alpha probably takes its name from Chernobyl, the small town in Ukraine where a reactor at the nuclear power plant underwent a meltdown in April 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Although the reactors at Chernobyl did not have a cooling tower of this kind, Cherno's head resembles a tall cooling tower.
- #067
- #068
The Kaiju are essentially "living weapons. They are blind instinct combined with tactical intelligence, able to make instant decisions in battle." All the designs followed common, basic guidelines. As 'living weapons' they are 'newly manufactured' and free of any deformation. "Every element should be used as a weapon," del Toro said. "If we create a Kaiju with three or four tails, I want to see it use them. If a Kaiju has a mouth at the end of its tail, then I will use it to fight the robot with both ends."
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Each monster also had to display a 'secret feature' that would 'surprise' the audience, so that viewers could never truly 'get used' to the character. Bioluminescence was to be a common feature: the creators of the Kaiju would thus be able to track and recognize each model. Regarding the creatures' enormous size, Barlowe said: "A while ago, while working briefly in the world of paleo-art, I read a book that examined this subject in depth. As a result, it turned out that, given gravity, there are structural limits to the size animals can grow to on our planet. As you also suggest, it absolutely would not allow a biomechanical creature to reach the dimensions shown in Pacific Rim. The bone proportions would be ridiculous. It's a bit like this: to lift a mass the size of a human, a depiction of angels would require wings of about 30-40 feet from tip to tip. In this case, the kaiju were not born of this world, and therefore we can willingly suspend disbelief and sit back and enjoy the ride.
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Each ongoing monster design was given a pet name; this helped the designers see the creatures as real characters. According to Davis, it was "just a way of giving the kaiju a quick identity if we needed to reference it or find the design." The creatures actually had to be 'actors' and therefore able to display various emotions. "If you see a lion in repose," del Toro said, "the lion looks majestic, noble, beautiful. But if that lion is on top of you and about to bite you, it looks like this (he uses a snarling expression). Not pleasant at all. But it is still the same animal." Homaging the Japanese cult films, every monster was to be designed as if it had to be performed by a man in a suit. "One of the rules I gave the Kaiju designers," del Toro said in a featurette, "was that I wanted to think about how a man in a suit would fit in there. Kaiju tries to honor spirit and emotion. We mostly keep the classic Kaiju bipedal, not humanoid but with a silhouette that somewhat recalls the classics."
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It marks the first collaboration between Guillermo del Toro and Industrial Light & Magic's digital effects masters. Aside from Reckoner's bones and some Kaiju organs, as well as parts of Otachi's carcass, all the Kaiju in the film were brought to the screen using only computer-generated models. These models were derived from scans of physical maquettes, all made by Simon Lee and David Meng and painted by Casey Love. Although there was a possibility of using a general muscle system for the creatures, the visual effects artists opposed it. We chose to do this because the Kaijus were so radically different from one another. "Hal Hickel, effects animator, said to fxguide." Setting up a general muscle system for the series didn't seem economical to us because it didn't appear transferable from one to another. I thought we didn't need a lot of muscle detail, we needed big masses that do specific things in heroic moments, so for me, shapes."
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Karloff is a monster resembling Boris Karloff, the actor who played Frankenstein's creature and the Mummy in Universal's classic films (and whose name it takes). Guy Davis said, "[The nicknames] started with 'Karloff' (and the name really stuck), but that was because his head sketch reminded me of Boris Karloff." The design actually features a protruding brow area (Frankenstein-like) and wrinkled lips (Mummy-like). The rear section combines features of a cricket and jet engines. Karloff's secondary mouth on its chest (due to its vaginal configuration) turned out to be "faintly obscene," and for this reason the creature's role in the film was greatly reduced; it is seen only briefly in the prologue.
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Two monsters emerge from the breach and attack Hong Kong. Otachi (Category 4) is the name given to the flying creature with a reptilian head and two blade-like crests. "We designed the face to be really, really evil," del Toro said. "It has a sort of evil intelligence to its eyes." Otachi was designed by Guy Davis, who based the creature's first drawings on a crawling bat. The protrusions on the creature's head were designed with inspiration from the skull of Brontotherium. Early versions of the monster had jaw tendons as well as numerous eyes on the sides of the head and a hammer-shaped tip on the tail.
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Reckoner is the name given to a Kaiju whose remains served as the basis for the creation of a temple that would host a 'Kaiju cult.' According to Guillermo del Toro, this has a direct connection to Hannibal's black market. Toro said, "Hannibal's temple and black market speech is an indication of the religious and social changes the Kaiju bring to society." Reckoner is in fact never shown alive at any point in the film, and for this reason it was the only monster literally built as a physical set. Production designer Andrew Neskoromny commented: "There's traditional Chinese temple architecture combined with a certain amount of bone. It's as if they took the bone and carved it and put a staircase inside it, so that pieces of the bone surround its edge."
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Scunner (Category 4) was designed by Simon Webber and was basically conceived as 'a bull monster.' During the fight with Gipsy Danger there are shots reminiscent of a rodeo, and Scunner's behavior was based on that of bulls: it charges its opponent and tries to use its horns as cutting and piercing weapons. The monster's basic body archetype is the same as that of Axehead and Knifehead, but it has differently textured shoulders. It also has three mole-like claws on its main arms.
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Raiju (Category 4) is an armored creature with three-part head armor that splits in two to reveal the monster's true foal-like head. "His feet were sculpted bent," del Toro said: "So it doesn't mean walking on two legs. I always told [the designers] to think of the body as horizontal so it could move like a giant iguana." Raiju, whose other nickname is 'Croc,' was designed by Francisco Ruiz Velasco, who gave the monster a crocodile look combined with the armored plates of a pangolin.
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The monster's main weapon is its cluster of sprout-like tails. The animators were instructed to base the movements on kung-fu masters using magic staffs. Hal Hickel commented: "[del Toro] wanted a similar feel for the way Slattern spins its tails in a circular motion in the water. You don't know exactly what it's doing with them, and then suddenly they can lash out and attack." The final design was given crocodile-like scales as well as a crocodile color scheme and a strange, ram-like protrusion on its chest added by Barlowe; although this protrusion is never used for effect in the film, it could be used as a close-range weapon.
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Mutavore (Category 4), known as Bladehead during production, is the first Kaiju to breach the anti-Kaiju barrier in Sydney. Hickel said of the creature, designed by Wayne Barlowe, "it has this massive, blade-shaped head it uses to just bludgeon its way through the protective wall around Sydney." "And it goes through the wall like it's warm butter. It doesn't really appear to have a mouth until it actually opens up and roars. There's a strange little slit line that runs across the front of the blade head. It's a very strange design, actually I love it. It's one of my favorites." The creature always retained certain features, such as the shape of the head and the eyes on the lower jaw. Early iterations had secondary mouths and limbs, which were ultimately dropped for the final design. The digital model was again built from the Knifehead model.
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Leatherback (Category 4) is the gorilla-like Kaiju that attacks Hong Kong alongside Otachi, and del Toro's film is most closely associated with these creatures. The director said, "I really, really respond to him on a visceral level." "He's absolutely brutal but I find him kind of adorable." Leatherback's skin is covered in armor, and a special organ on its back generates the biological equivalent of an electromagnetic pulse (EMP). The twin humps on its head slide and move; at the back of the head, a writhing set of bioluminescent tentacles emerges that moves faster as the creature becomes stressed. Leatherback was designed by David Meng, who according to del Toro is "one of the best designers of monsters in the world." Meng also built the creature's maquette. After a long brainstorming session with the director, "we ended up with like a gorilla, which is always fun to animate." del Toro added: "A design must first and foremost have a clean, distinct silhouette, and then have a personality that makes it unique. Leatherback was born with everything." Leatherback is a brute, with enormous and powerful arms. Del Toro commented on the nature of the monster, saying that "what we wanted with him was to feel like a bodyguard, a pure muscle charge monster; so his attacks look a lot like a monkey's. The fists are used like clubs. He'll jump on top of the enemy's shoulders and body and start attacking it." According to Supervising Sound Editor Scott Gershin, the sounds Leatherback makes were specifically designed to be the most terrifying sound among the Kaiju: "Leatherback has a lot of presence in the low frequencies. I didn't want it to be high, but I wanted it to be intense. When you hear it, the first thought that comes to mind is, 'oh, damn, this is not good.'"
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The baby Kaiju discovered in Hong Kong is Otachi's child, and its design was therefore reverse-engineered from the parent's. The baby is the element in the film that most vividly represents Guillermo del Toro's surrealist style: he said, "If you think of a monster as something awesome, you can give it a moment where it's curious, attractive and kind of cute. Surrealism comes from juxtaposition. The Dali telephone with the lobster on it. The element that doesn't work is the element that makes the thing work." Conceived with a 'puppy quality', the creature was given big eyes and a proportionally very large head. "Kind of cute and cute-horrible," del Toro added, "we gave the baby two features that make it unique and beautiful to look at: translucency and iridescence. Its skin is translucent and pearlescent, but it's also wrinkled, like a naked mole rat, [or] an Egyptian cat." Animating the baby creature proved to be particularly complex, according to Hickel: "The mess is sometimes the hardest - because there are no happy accidents. The animator decides every movement, every little twitch and sway."
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Behind the Scenes (14)
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The Kaiju are also 'plagued' by parasites that live on the external layers of their skin. Practical construction of the creatures was assigned to Spectral Motion. The skin parasites, affectionately labeled as 'Rollie-Pollies' were designed by Mike Elizalde and Alex Palma. Inspiration for the design -- and the name -- came from isopods. Other crustaceans were also used as reference for texture and colour scheme. The parasites were built as full-size animatronics -- sculpted by Joey Orosco and Mario Torres, and painted by Russ Lukich. The mechanics that allowed the arthropod-like movement were conceived and built by Mark Setrakian. Digital versions of the parasites can be seen crawling on Leatherback and other kaiju's skin during the film.
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A life-sized version of the robot cockpit was built on a soundstage at Pinewood Studios in Toronto, Canada. It weighed about twenty tons and stood nearly four stories high. It was built on a gigantic hydraulic gimbal, which would move, shake, vibrate, drop and rock the entire set as if it were actually being piloted. A smaller version was also built with a smaller gimbal, allowing for different movements. The VFX team used some of the Conn-pod footage for reference while animating the robots. The set was also redressed to depict the interior of each robot differently.
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The sound for the Kaiju's roars were comprised of layer upon layer of animal roars and growls, which were filtered, sped up, and slowed down to create the roar of alien behemoths. Then, to add emotion and a sense of intelligence, supervising sound editor Scott Martin Gershin and director Guillermo del Toro added samples of their own voices.
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(At around 1 hour, 25 minutes) The inside of the building that Gipsy's fist smashes through was created using miniatures. Many of the components of the office cubicles were made using 3-D printers. The lighting was practical and done to scale. Once the set was ready, a large green mandrel was rammed through it. This was digitally replaced with Gipsy's fist.
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Contains a major spoiler — show
During a NerdHQ panel in 2013, Robert Kazinsky talks about the fight scene between Chuck and Raleigh in the hallway, and how Charlie Hunnam broke his nose during that sequence. Kazinsky says the shot where Hunnam broke his nose remained in the film, and he also proudly states that he kept standing after it happened.
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Characters & Cast (1)
Easter Eggs & References (13)
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In the beginning before facing the Kaiju Knifehead, Gipsy Danger performs its "neural handshake" and then afterwards slowly puts her hands together like she's praying (with elbows out), except her left hand is closed and her right hand is covering it. This is a centuries-old greeting/salutation in martial arts between peers and combatants and was a sign of mutual respect (Specifically Chinese styles such as Wushu, Shaolin, and Wing Chun utilized this salutation) The closed fist represents the preparation to fight and the act of covering the fist is similar to keeping a sword sheathed until combat.
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The computer is voiced by Ellen McLain, who also voiced GLaDOS, the A.I. from Portal (2007) and Portal 2 (2011). This is in fact a cameo by GLaDOS, as Guillermo del Toro was such a fan of the games that he approached the game's developers, Valve, who approved. Del Toro said in an interview for the Toronto Sun, "I wanted very much to have her, because I'm a big Portal fan. But just as a wink. She's not cake-obsessed. She's not out to destroy humanity." He further explained, "Look, there's no A.I. I'd rather have than GlaDOS, but McLain's voice in the movie, due in theaters July 12th, has been modulated a bit to be less similar to the distinctive tone of Portal's unforgettable antagonist. The filter we're using is slightly less GLaDOS. Slightly. The one in the trailer I wanted to be full-on GlaDOS." The GLaDOS voice itself is inspired by the computer in The Thirteenth Floor (1999).
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Cherno Alpha is likely named for Chernobyl, the small town in the Ukraine where a reactor at the nuclear power facility experienced a meltdown in April 1986, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union. Cherno's head resembles a tall cooling tower, though the reactors at Chernobyl do not have that style of cooling tower.
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Even though the filmmakers stated repeatedly that they did not want to reference any other mecha or kaiju works, they have admitted to accidentally doing so. For example, "jaeger" is also the name of one of the mech designs from the FASA mechcommander universe of the Inner Sphere faction. Also, the scene with Otachi searching for Dr. Newton Geizler is very reminiscent of the film The War of the Gargantuas (1966), during which a giant monster looks for a main human character who is hiding underground.
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In the weeks before the film's release, several popular YouTube channels collaborated with the filmmakers to produce a short video titled "Pacific Rim: Training Day." The short even features a brief cameo by director Guillermo del Toro. The collaborating channels included Jesse Cox, Press Heart to Continue, Total Biscuit, Husky Starcraft, Game Grumps, Crabcat Industries, and The Game Station.
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The last and most formidable enemy Gipsy Danger faces in the film is named Slattern, the first Category 5 Kaiju, reportedly far beyond what the Jaegers are prepared to fight. Del Toro said of the character: "I really wanted the last Kaiju to be the devil. I always loved that moment in Fantasia when Chernabog spreads his wings in Night on Bald Mountain." The monster was meant to create a majestic air inspired by Dragonslayer (referenced when the monster enters the scene). Del Toro said, "I introduce it almost like a building rising out of the water. It's really massive." Slattern was initially designed by Guy Davis, who nicknamed it "the Executioner." Davis said on his Tumblr blog: "My first idea was that Slattern, although an executioner, would be more agile than a brute; fast like in water and like a moray eel, and in combat it would use its chest arms almost like a gremlin to tear the jaegers apart." Del Toro said: "I wanted it to come out of the depths of the ocean and for its head not to be horns and not to evoke that. It has a really evil intelligence. It's the only Kaiju whose head looks like a real crown, so it has majesty. I really wanted it to be clearly the king of the Kaiju." Davis added: "The head design will subconsciously have a 'skull and crossbones' feel, the lower jaw shape mirroring the horns above, and the eyes gathered in the middle like a face. Guillermo liked the first form and idea, but wanted the eyes moved to the sides; that worked great because now the midpoint can resemble the nasal cavity of a skeleton and give the head a hammerhead shape. I also thought it gave it more personality and made it look a bit like a Jack Palance monster caricature."
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"We wanted Onibaba to be a guy that would charge," del Toro said, describing Onibaba (whose name references the 1964 Japanese horror film) essentially as an armored tank or "a charging monster." "The sequence is about narrow streets, so I wanted him to charge and destroy the buildings just by not stopping." Due to the number of moving parts and the malicious intelligence that had to be infused into its performance, the Kaiju's animation turned out to be the most complex. Its mouth consists of a complex moving-plate system. Hickel commented: "It was hard because this character wasn't going to have normal eyes with pupils that you could rotate and get a good, strong eye direction." The audience needed to understand that Onibaba was specifically chasing Mako. Hickel suggested placing the creature's eyes on stalks that would show where its movement was looking. "It still feels crablike," Hickel said, "and even kind of alien like crabs generally do, but it clearly has an intent and an intelligence and it's looking at him with its eyes." Ultimately, however, the final Onibaba design has hard bony protrusions housing the eyes instead of stalks. The creature also incorporated elements of ancient Japanese architecture: "it has this ornamental element where it looks like a Japanese temple," del Toro told USAToday, "and at the same time he's a crustacean."
Deeper Meaning (5)
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Originally, before facing the Kaiju Knifehead, Gipsy Danger performs its "neural handshake" and then slowly brings its hands together as if in prayer (elbows out), but with the left hand closed and the right hand covering it. This is a centuries-old greeting between peers and warriors in martial arts and a sign of mutual respect (Chinese styles such as Wushu, Shaolin and Wing Chun in particular used this salute). The closed fist represents readiness to fight, and the act of closing the fist is like keeping a sword sheathed until combat. The gesture is also a sign of discipline and restraint (against the misuse of one's power), showing that it is not a threat and that it has peaceful intentions without provocation.
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The baby Kaiju discovered in Hong Kong is Otachi's child, and its design was therefore reverse-engineered from the parent's. The baby is the element in the film that most vividly represents Guillermo del Toro's surrealist style: he said, "If you think of a monster as an awesome thing, you can give it a moment where it's curious, and appealing, and kind of cute. Surrealism comes from juxtaposition. The Dali telephone with the lobster on it. The element that doesn't work is the element that makes the thing work." Conceived with a "puppy quality," the creature was given big eyes and a proportionally very large head. "Kind of cute and cute-scary," del Toro added, "we gave the baby two features that make it unique and beautiful to look at: translucency and iridescence. Its skin is translucent and pearlescent, but it's also wrinkled, like a naked mole rat, [or] an Egyptian cat." Animating the baby creature proved to be particularly complex, according to Hickel: "Mess is sometimes the hardest — because there are no happy accidents. The animator decides every movement, every little twitch and sway."
Life & Family (1)
Related pages
- Pacific Rim: Uprising — Pacific Rim comes up in the facts on that page
- The Incredible Hulk — Pacific Rim comes up in the facts on that page
- Tom Cruise — Pacific Rim comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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