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Pacific Rim | 2013 | PG-13 | - 2.7.4
Aliens rise from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and kill millions of people, but humans use their ace in the hole to fight back: an army of giant robot fighters called jaegers. As the human-alien war continues a retired pilot (Chris Hunnam) comes the aid of a tireless commander (Idris Elba) and co-pilot (Mako Mori) to try to defeat the water dwellers. Also with Diego Klattenhoff, Charlie Day, Ron Perlman, Heather Doerksen, Ellen McClain, Robert Kazinsky and Max Martini. Directed by Guillermo del Toro. Several scenes feature English subtitles during conversations in Japanese and Russian. [2:11]
SEX/NUDITY 2 - We see four slash marks scarred over on a man's bare chest (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A few scenes show men stripped to the waist as they are fitted with electronic arm gear or as they emerge from a training simulator. Male and female soldiers wear form-fitting rubberized work suits that reveal the curves of their torsos, thighs and buttocks. A woman wears a tank top that reveals bare shoulders, arms and cleavage.
► A Chinese medicine shop owner asks a visitor if he wants an aphrodisiac, making a gesture to suggest an erection; the visitor declines. We hear that a man dated a woman who turned out to have a boyfriend that became angry about the date. A bullying male soldier calls a female soldier someone's "little girlfriend" (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details).
► A man and a woman hug twice. A man and a woman who have suffered family losses are joined through a neural bridge in order to operate a robot and the connection forces them to share everything about themselves; while not sexual, it is implied that they could fall in love under the right circumstances.
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VIOLENCE/GORE 7 - Giant black, scaly, reptilian monsters (kaiju) rise up from a lava-spewing fissure in the Pacific Ocean to kill millions of humans and destroy and devour resources; knifehead kaijus are plodding rubber-like monsters that penetrate giant defense robots through the body, sending sparks flying; leatherbacks spit electro-magnetic charges as they lumber slowly and gnash their teeth; otachi monsters are like a Chinese dragons, with multiple clicking jaws, an acid-spewing neck gland and spreading vampire wings.
► A crew walks inside a dead monster through a hole they cut and we see a lot of slime and glowing geometric structures; they hear a heartbeat and find that the monster is pregnant as a smaller monster bursts through the cut, crawls after the shouting scientists and hangs itself on its own bloody umbilical cord that wraps around its neck; a man sticks a knife into it, it revives, swallows the man and then dies again (we see one of the man's red shoes on the pavement, but later the man escapes).
► A fishing trawler in the winter Alaskan waters is confronted by a giant reptilian monster until a jaeger (a giant army robot fighter) shoots the monster with cannons to stop and kill it amid flames and glowing monster-slime, but another monster appears and smashes the army robot; the co-pilot is ripped away and out a hole smashed by the monster and we hear that the co-pilot dies while the pilot, his brother, is still mentally connected to him; the survivor crawls out of the robot wreckage with a bloody nose and face, deep cuts on his shoulder and bloody slashes on his side (he grunts a garbled "Damn it!," collapses to his knees on a beach, falls to his back, and a man and a boy see him and run to get help).
► A reptile throws a robot into a wall with a loud crash and another reptile tosses a robot toward the audience, over a bridge and into a rail yard; the reptile follows and fighting continues as the last robot picks up train cars and bashes the shrieking reptile with them until it dies in a glowing heap; the robot picks up an ocean liner and walks through the city, slamming another reptile with the ship until the beast falls dead. The ship smashes the glass walls of two high-rises with a loud crash. Giant robots fight with reptiles by punching, kicking, cutting the lizards with spinning blades, whirling routers and large swords in several scenes. Reptiles are stabbed after a leg or a head is cut off and several die in a pile of glowing blue slime. In a few robot-reptile fights, monsters fall dead, get back up, fight again and fall dead a second time.
► Three jaegers fight one kaiju and two of the jaegers are broken apart (we hear that their pilots all died); the remaining jaeger punches the monster in the head 5 times, hits it with train cars and kills it, then twists the head off another monster as we see sparks, electric bolts and slime fly; the jaeger extends a large sword and slices another monster in two lengthwise as the monster jumps overhead (we see only sparks and bolts of blue light as it shrieks). Two jaegers go under water and we see lava fill the screen at a rift in the pacific floor as kaiju monsters appear and the two robots fight them; one robot, whose pilots agreed to a suicide mission, is disabled and the pilots blow it up with a loud explosion that cause rolling waters that clear out all the monsters from the rift.
► In several scenes, we see the aftermath of major cities of the world left in smoking rubble. In a few scenes, we see giant reptiles smashing skyscrapers with a lot of loud breaking glass and hundreds of cars being thrown through the air accompanied by loud stomping and crowds of men and women running and shouting; one large crowd enters an underground bunker that becomes dim and silent.
► Ironworkers weld girders, high in the air, completing a wall around a city while news reports indicate that at another city, monsters walked right through iron walls; we see a giant stomping reptile walk through the wall as crowds of people run and scream. Many times, huge claws and monster faces full of snapping jaws, dirty teeth, electric bolts and glowing blue spit lunge toward the audience.
► A pilot picks a fight with another pilot and they fistfight in a hallway until their commander stops them. A tryout for robot pilots includes martial arts duels with Asian bo staffs; pairs of men and one male-female pair fight with bo staffs and grunt; everyone falls at least once, but no one is hurt and in the final match, the winner is paired with a pilot.
► A female robot pilot has a flashback while operating a robot and we see her as a little girl (about 6): kaiju reptile stomps through her city, chasing her in smoke and dust, leveling the city entirely, and we hear that her whole family was killed; she collapses inside the robot head after she is disconnected from the robot weapons that she tried to aim at the flashback (she stares into the distance); she is suspended from duty and but returns later. In an underground bunker, people hear stomping feet overhead and a monster claw breaks through the ceiling; a kaiju reaches for a man, misses, and then sends in a long glowing blue tongue (looks like a flower, pistils and stamens); the man and the crowd in the bunker escape. Before a final battle, two pilots say tearful goodbyes to their families and pets, knowing that they will not return.
► Pairs of robot army pilots are wired together neurologically and bound in tight harnesses within robot heads with each pilot operating one leg and one arm of a giant robot (jaegers); their feet are snapped into large metal vices in order to move the heavy robot feet as the pilots walk and the physical and psychological pressure is intense (we see a lot of sweating and fidgeting from the pilots, their faceplates fog up and their breathing is labored and at times they lose control of one of their own limbs). Army pilots train to operate giant robot fighters being fitted with heavy electronic coils and blades on their arms and flashback sequences show the men exhausted after training; two pilots each operate the jaegers in combat, suffering recurring nosebleeds from the intense effort. A scientist dissects slimy alien body parts and tosses small multi-tubed blobs onto a table; we see glass tanks of yellowish liquid behind the scientist and the contents are indistinct, blobby bluish alien parts; one tank contains a large blob with tentacles and what looks like an elephant nose; we hear it is a secondary brain like that supposedly of dinosaurs. A black market dealer shows a scientist different bins of large parasitic bugs with many moving feet, and carts of slimy blobs (kaiju and other organs); the dealer twirls a balisong knife and sticks the blade up the visitor's nose, causing some bloodshed and a shout; as loud stomping is heard outside, six men point handguns at the scientist's head and one man throws him into the street.
► Robot pilots and scientists in pairs wear headgear that establishes a neural bridge through which all their life experiences are shared; we see blurred flashbacks of children playing, families interacting and the destruction of cities by giant reptiles as they stomp through the streets; two scientists mind-meld with a reptilian brain and we see gray and blue flashbacks that include geometric shapes and snapping teeth.
► Scientists experimenting with new headgear for mind melding suffer several slight nosebleeds during melds with each other and alien brains and they suffer convulsions on their first meld.
► We hear that a pilot was exposed to lethal doses of radiation and we see blood drops fall to his shoes in close-up; the camera pans to the handkerchief he holds to his nose (no blood is shown). A man's forearms are covered with tattoos of the kaiju. A scientist walks with a cane and a limp. A senior robot pilot wears his arm in a sling from injuries we hear he suffered in battle (no blood is seen).
► We hear that modern kaiju monsters are dinosaurs sent to clear the planet of vermin (humans) so that a master race of aliens can claim the planet's energy sources; we also hear that previously dinosaurs found few people on Earth and no developed energy sources, so they ate up all the people and natural resources, thereby causing the Ice Age.
► A jaeger carries a thermonuclear bomb into a rift in the ocean floor, along with the carcass of a kaiju; the jaeger has lost its right arm and its right knee is practically severed, but it keeps going and stands towering over a cliff at the bottom of the rift and until several of the alien master race look up from the cliff (the aliens are about 8 feet tall, bipedal, with four arms and each with a face like the proverbial insect-like alien "grays."
► Escape pods carry pilots to the surface of the Pacific Ocean before a bomb explodes in a rift on the ocean floor and we hear that the rift is sealed.
► The man with a bloody nose runs to a toilet or bin, kneels down and vomits; we hear him grunting briefly, but don't ever see vomit.
LANGUAGE 4 - 1 obscene hand gesture, 6 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 11 mild obscenities, name-calling (kaiju groupie, Elvis, stupid, old man, little girlfriend, disgrace, moron, genius, jerk, egotistical), stereotypical references to soldiers, disasters, heroes, Russians, Americans, Australians, Japanese, the British, scientists, families, frightened crowds, martial artists, 4 religious profanities, 12 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - An army commander swallows a pill form a metal box several times when he begins to suffer nosebleeds and we hear that the meds are for radiation poisoning, and a Chinese medicine shop sells medicinal herbs and aphrodisiacs (we see no purchases or use).
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Global disasters, war, sadness, death, family, heroes, cooperation, trust, determination, courage, justice, survival, sacrifice, victory.
MESSAGE - War is bad and people must work together globally to survive.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
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