Pacific Rim Uprising is the new sequel to the 2013 film Pacific Rim by Guillermo del Toro. The new science-fiction action film was written and directed by Steven S. DeKnight in his feature-film directorial debut; co-written by Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder, and T.S. Nowlin. It stars John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Jing Tian, Cailee Spaeny, Adria Arjona and Zhang Jin, with Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman returning in their roles from the original film. Boyega also has a role of producer on the film.
Ten years after the Battle of the Breach, the oceans have become restless once again, but the Jaeger program has evolved. However, a mysterious organization has reopened the Breach for the Kaiju and a Jaeger has gone rogue. The Breach is an interdimensional portal which allows Kaiju to enter our plane of exstence. Kaiju is Japanese for “Giant Beast.” Jaeger is German for “Hunter” and refers to humongous robot warriors, hundreds of feet tall, piloted by humans inside them, designed and built to fight the Kaiju.
Jake Pentecost, son of Stacker Pentecost (portrayed by Idris Elba), rises up to stand against the evolved Kaiju and a mysterious rogue Jaeger to prevent humanity’s extinction and preserve his father’s legacy, given one last chance to live up to his father’s legacy by his estranged sister, Mako Mori (portrayed by Rinko Kikuchi)-who is leading a brave new generation of pilots that have grown up in the shadow of war.
As they seek justice for the fallen, their only hope is to unite together in a global uprising against the forces of extinction. Jake is joined by gifted rival pilot Lambert (portrayed by The Fate of the Furious‘ Scott Eastwood) and 15-year-old Jaeger hacker Amara (portrayed by newcomer Cailee Spaeny), as the heroes of the PPDC. The PPDC (Pan Pacific Defense Corps, an organization created by the United Nations) represents an international alliance of twenty-one countries across the Pacific Rim, bound together by the shared goal of containing, combating and eliminating the Kaiju. Rising up to become the most powerful defense force to ever walk the earth, they will set course for a spectacular all-new adventure on a towering scale.
The work of an actor on any movie is generally all about showing up places and waiting for the cameras to roll, but that wasn’t John Boyega on the set of Pacific Rim Uprising. He has taken a step up in the film world, earning his first producer credit. Playing Finn in the new Star Wars movies, both The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, his recent work on Pacific Rim Uprising was a very different experience.
“You’re much more exposed to the ins and outs of the workings of setting up a production like this when you’re producing as well as acting,” Boyega said in an interview with Cinema Blend. “A lot of the challenges on set are much more consistent. You hear about the potential things that could slow down a schedule, so it affects the experience of the whole thing, but it’s beautiful. You meet filmmaking in its raw form. It’s transparent and you know everything, and that to me is a different experience than obviously working as just an actor. But it was fun, I loved it. I really, really enjoyed it.”
The $150 million Universal Pictures production has a runtime of 111 minutes; a rating of PG-13 (for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, and some language); and opens March 23, 2018 in 2D, Real D 3D, IMAX 3D, and IMAX release.
