IT'S A LOVE STORY MAKO JUST SAY YES
SO HERE'S THE THING: Pacific Rim has all of the FUCK YEAH PERFECT EXECUTION OF A JOYFUL FUN SUMMER ACTION MOVIE excitement of Iron Man or STXI [all three of which were situations where AS I WAS WATCHING I could already see myself in the distant future relaxing on the couch and popping the DVD in for the billionth time], but on top of that it's also VERY MUCH about things that have dominated my focus for the last two years - NAMELY, FREAKISHLY COMPATIBLE PEOPLE AND/OR PEOPLE WITH MENTAL CONNECTIONS AND/OR PEOPLE WHO LITERALLY SHARE BRAIN SPACE. And all that was combined with an overarching theme of SAVING THE WORLD BY BEATING UP MONSTERS WITH THE SHEER FORCE OF YOUR LOVE, and on top of THAT the movie takes place in a world that I'm dying to see more of and to know more about, basically guaranteeing that I will never run out of ways to freak out about this gd movie and all the people in it.
IT'S THE COMPLETE PACKAGE. IT'S EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED. I'M NOT EVEN GONNA TRY TO TALK ABOUT IT COMPREHENSIVELY BECAUSE TO PRETEND LIKE I CAN EVEN BEGIN TO COVER IT ALL IS INSULTING TO ITS SIZE. What I'm saying is that if you don't care about Pacific Rim, I hope you know how to tag filter, because I'm just going to be screaming about it as the urge strikes me.
RALEIGH BECKET. JAEGER PILOTING GOLDEN RETRIEVER BOYF AND THE CLINGIEST MOTHERFUCKER YOU'LL EVER MEET. I love the COMPLETE DISCONNECT between Raleigh when he has a copilot vs when he doesn't. START OF MOVIE, RALEIGH HAS A COPILOT: Bouncing off the walls when he and Yancy get deployed at 2AM, fucking THRILLED with everything he's doing and everything he is, HAPPY AND EXCITED AND GRATEFUL AND AWED TO BE HERE. TALKING ABOUT FIGHTING HURRICANES LIKE THEY'RE A THING YOU CAN PUNCH IN THE FACE. HIGH FIVES AND GRINS AND CARELESS ARMS THROWN AROUND SHOULDERS ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY. And then five years later, he's quit the PPDC and he's working on the wall, and HE'S SO SELF-CONTAINED. He doesn't look at his coworkers, he doesn't talk to them, he doesn't touch them. After he brings Gipsy Danger to shore and collapses, we literally don't hear Raleigh say a word until he greets Pentecost. HE'S STANDOFFISH, HE'S UNENTHUSIASTIC, HE'S RELUCTANT TO EVEN BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION - although it has to be pointed out that he's making his way out of the crowd of workers before we ever hear the chopper, and he walks out to meet it like he always expected this day to come, because this is a movie about people understanding in their bones, whether they're consciously aware of it (STACKER) or not (RALEIGH), what they were put on earth to do and that there are fixed points in their lives that they are working towards - until the moment when he sees Mako for the first time and the sight of her STOPS. HIM. SHORT. And suddenly he's engaged, he's interested, HE'S SMILING, he's clapping Newt on the shoulder and joking with him. RALEIGH BECKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THRIVES AROUND PEOPLE AND SPENT YEARS SHUTTING HIMSELF OFF FROM THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soemthing else about that that is HUGE to me is that he thrives around people and she helps him regain that, but he was also very much getting by on his own - like, this isn't the story of Raleigh Becket, who lost his brother and then nearly self-destructed only to be saved by a second chance to be a hero or whatever. Jaeger pilots are the ultimate celebrities of this future, and not only did he Yancy have a great record as Rangers, but Raleigh's a DROP DEAD GORGEOUS DUDE with a sympathetic story, who lost his brother and still took out a kaiju and piloted his Jaeger home alone - he's basically on an unheard-of level of heroism in this world. And he could have done anything with that. I don't even mean that he had opportunities to make a lot of money and be famous or whatever - I mean he could have done anything, including taking the money and running away somewhere to drink himself to death. In the tie-in novel it says he quit the PPDC after Yancy died and refused all PPDC benefits.
LET ME REITERATE: RALEIGH BECKET COULD HAVE DONE WHATEVER THE FUCK HE WANTED AND NOBODY WOULD EVER HAVE JUDGED HIM FOR IT, AND HE REFUSED SURVIVOR BENEFITS AND WENT TO WORK ON THE WALL FOR RATION CARDS. Raleigh Becket could have bought a mansion and had hot model girlfriends and been all over TMZ all the time. Raleigh Becket could have gotten a cushy talking head job on a cable news network. Raleigh Becket could have gone to live in the woods and never spoken to anyone again. But when he couldn't be a Ranger anymore because he couldn't have someone else in his head, and when he couldn't see himself in the PPDC if he couldn't be a pilot, he did literally the only other thing he could to keep protecting people from Kaiju, and he went to work on the wall.
He was broken, but he wasn't destroyed. He was functioning the best he could, and he could have gotten by like that for a long time, and he would have been okay, if not great. He didn't need to be saved, or redeemed. He could hold his own alone [and he's used to doing it, by the time we see him again - the way he holds his ground against Chuck in that cafeteria scene is v. important to me and my heart, HE'S SO FUCKING STEADY ABOUT IT], but he couldn't thrive alone.
And Mako's the same - she is broken, but she has found ways to go on, she has made herself as whole as she can. NEVER OVER HER LOOKING UP AND SQUINTING INTO THE LIGHT AS PENTECOST STEPS OUT OF COYOTE TANGO LIKE HE IS LITERALLY THE SUN RISING ON A NEW STAGE IN HER LIFE. This isn't a story about two people who need each other to be okay or to survive, it's a story about two people who need each other to be the best and happiest they can be. SHE WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A FUCKING MIRACLE WITH OR WITHOUT HIM. FIFTY-ONE DROPS, FIFTY-ONE KILLS. You just fucking know Pentecost did everything he could to discourage her from becoming a Ranger, and you know he made sure her instructors were harder on her than they were on anyone, and she wanted it that fucking badly that she still came out on top with a FLAWLESS RECORD. She's 22 and she's in charge of restoring and upgrading a trillion-dollar piece of equipment. She was always going to avenge her parents one way or the other, just like Raleigh was always going to do whatever he could to protect people from the Kaiju, but what they could do together was so much more than what they could do apart.
Even though Mako gets the most developed backstory in the movie, she's still the one I'm most nuts to learn more about/the primary reason I will actually read the novelization all the way through, BECAUSE I HAVE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HER DAD THE SWORDMAKER, I HAVE TO. FYI, to anyone I haven't screamed at about this yet: Mako comes from a family of swordmakers, and she continued that tradition by CONCEIVING AND DESIGNING GIPSY DANGER'S SWORD. That scene where Raleigh's like WE'RE FUCKED, AND NOT IN THE WAY I WISH WE WERE and she's like NAH I GOT THIS and whips out the sword? SHE'S NOT JUST USING IT IN A WAY HE DIDN'T THINK OF - HE LEGIT DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THERE, BECAUSE SHE TOOK THIS JAEGER THAT HE KNEW LIKE A LITERAL EXTENSION OF HIMSELF FOR YEARS, THE CLOSEST THING HE HAS TO A HOME IN THE WHOLE WORLD PROBABLY, AND SHE MADE HER FUCKING MARK ON IT BEFORE SHE EVEN MET HIM. I have a lot of feelings about this, you guys, about the Jaegers as home and as an extension of self and "she's one of a kind" and the love and ownership they both feel for Gipsy Danger and how this is maybe the only clear instance in the entire movie of them willingly shifting their focus away from each other because they're looking on this beautiful thing that belongs to them and that they belong to like they belong to each other:
I'VE HAD THIS OPEN IN A TAB FOR DAYS. LITERALLY DAYS. I JUST KEEP STARING AT IT. I CAN'T NOT. I FEEL SO MUCH AND NO MATTER HOW LONG I STARE AND FEEL I CAN'T PUT ANY OF IT INTO WORDS.
MAKO MORI AND RALEIGH BECKET WERE ALWAYS GOING TO FIND EACH OTHER AND IT'S AMONG THE GREATEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN IN FICTION.
This entry was originally posted at http://dudski.dreamwidth.org/1458381.html because FUCK LIVEJOURNAL, FOR SERIOUS. You can comment over there or over here, I really don't care, but eventually you're all going to join me on DW, let's be real.
IT'S THE COMPLETE PACKAGE. IT'S EVERYTHING I EVER WANTED. I'M NOT EVEN GONNA TRY TO TALK ABOUT IT COMPREHENSIVELY BECAUSE TO PRETEND LIKE I CAN EVEN BEGIN TO COVER IT ALL IS INSULTING TO ITS SIZE. What I'm saying is that if you don't care about Pacific Rim, I hope you know how to tag filter, because I'm just going to be screaming about it as the urge strikes me.
RALEIGH BECKET. JAEGER PILOTING GOLDEN RETRIEVER BOYF AND THE CLINGIEST MOTHERFUCKER YOU'LL EVER MEET. I love the COMPLETE DISCONNECT between Raleigh when he has a copilot vs when he doesn't. START OF MOVIE, RALEIGH HAS A COPILOT: Bouncing off the walls when he and Yancy get deployed at 2AM, fucking THRILLED with everything he's doing and everything he is, HAPPY AND EXCITED AND GRATEFUL AND AWED TO BE HERE. TALKING ABOUT FIGHTING HURRICANES LIKE THEY'RE A THING YOU CAN PUNCH IN THE FACE. HIGH FIVES AND GRINS AND CARELESS ARMS THROWN AROUND SHOULDERS ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY. And then five years later, he's quit the PPDC and he's working on the wall, and HE'S SO SELF-CONTAINED. He doesn't look at his coworkers, he doesn't talk to them, he doesn't touch them. After he brings Gipsy Danger to shore and collapses, we literally don't hear Raleigh say a word until he greets Pentecost. HE'S STANDOFFISH, HE'S UNENTHUSIASTIC, HE'S RELUCTANT TO EVEN BE HAVING THIS CONVERSATION - although it has to be pointed out that he's making his way out of the crowd of workers before we ever hear the chopper, and he walks out to meet it like he always expected this day to come, because this is a movie about people understanding in their bones, whether they're consciously aware of it (STACKER) or not (RALEIGH), what they were put on earth to do and that there are fixed points in their lives that they are working towards - until the moment when he sees Mako for the first time and the sight of her STOPS. HIM. SHORT. And suddenly he's engaged, he's interested, HE'S SMILING, he's clapping Newt on the shoulder and joking with him. RALEIGH BECKET!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THRIVES AROUND PEOPLE AND SPENT YEARS SHUTTING HIMSELF OFF FROM THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Soemthing else about that that is HUGE to me is that he thrives around people and she helps him regain that, but he was also very much getting by on his own - like, this isn't the story of Raleigh Becket, who lost his brother and then nearly self-destructed only to be saved by a second chance to be a hero or whatever. Jaeger pilots are the ultimate celebrities of this future, and not only did he Yancy have a great record as Rangers, but Raleigh's a DROP DEAD GORGEOUS DUDE with a sympathetic story, who lost his brother and still took out a kaiju and piloted his Jaeger home alone - he's basically on an unheard-of level of heroism in this world. And he could have done anything with that. I don't even mean that he had opportunities to make a lot of money and be famous or whatever - I mean he could have done anything, including taking the money and running away somewhere to drink himself to death. In the tie-in novel it says he quit the PPDC after Yancy died and refused all PPDC benefits.
LET ME REITERATE: RALEIGH BECKET COULD HAVE DONE WHATEVER THE FUCK HE WANTED AND NOBODY WOULD EVER HAVE JUDGED HIM FOR IT, AND HE REFUSED SURVIVOR BENEFITS AND WENT TO WORK ON THE WALL FOR RATION CARDS. Raleigh Becket could have bought a mansion and had hot model girlfriends and been all over TMZ all the time. Raleigh Becket could have gotten a cushy talking head job on a cable news network. Raleigh Becket could have gone to live in the woods and never spoken to anyone again. But when he couldn't be a Ranger anymore because he couldn't have someone else in his head, and when he couldn't see himself in the PPDC if he couldn't be a pilot, he did literally the only other thing he could to keep protecting people from Kaiju, and he went to work on the wall.
He was broken, but he wasn't destroyed. He was functioning the best he could, and he could have gotten by like that for a long time, and he would have been okay, if not great. He didn't need to be saved, or redeemed. He could hold his own alone [and he's used to doing it, by the time we see him again - the way he holds his ground against Chuck in that cafeteria scene is v. important to me and my heart, HE'S SO FUCKING STEADY ABOUT IT], but he couldn't thrive alone.
And Mako's the same - she is broken, but she has found ways to go on, she has made herself as whole as she can. NEVER OVER HER LOOKING UP AND SQUINTING INTO THE LIGHT AS PENTECOST STEPS OUT OF COYOTE TANGO LIKE HE IS LITERALLY THE SUN RISING ON A NEW STAGE IN HER LIFE. This isn't a story about two people who need each other to be okay or to survive, it's a story about two people who need each other to be the best and happiest they can be. SHE WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE A FUCKING MIRACLE WITH OR WITHOUT HIM. FIFTY-ONE DROPS, FIFTY-ONE KILLS. You just fucking know Pentecost did everything he could to discourage her from becoming a Ranger, and you know he made sure her instructors were harder on her than they were on anyone, and she wanted it that fucking badly that she still came out on top with a FLAWLESS RECORD. She's 22 and she's in charge of restoring and upgrading a trillion-dollar piece of equipment. She was always going to avenge her parents one way or the other, just like Raleigh was always going to do whatever he could to protect people from the Kaiju, but what they could do together was so much more than what they could do apart.
Even though Mako gets the most developed backstory in the movie, she's still the one I'm most nuts to learn more about/the primary reason I will actually read the novelization all the way through, BECAUSE I HAVE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HER DAD THE SWORDMAKER, I HAVE TO. FYI, to anyone I haven't screamed at about this yet: Mako comes from a family of swordmakers, and she continued that tradition by CONCEIVING AND DESIGNING GIPSY DANGER'S SWORD. That scene where Raleigh's like WE'RE FUCKED, AND NOT IN THE WAY I WISH WE WERE and she's like NAH I GOT THIS and whips out the sword? SHE'S NOT JUST USING IT IN A WAY HE DIDN'T THINK OF - HE LEGIT DIDN'T KNOW IT WAS THERE, BECAUSE SHE TOOK THIS JAEGER THAT HE KNEW LIKE A LITERAL EXTENSION OF HIMSELF FOR YEARS, THE CLOSEST THING HE HAS TO A HOME IN THE WHOLE WORLD PROBABLY, AND SHE MADE HER FUCKING MARK ON IT BEFORE SHE EVEN MET HIM. I have a lot of feelings about this, you guys, about the Jaegers as home and as an extension of self and "she's one of a kind" and the love and ownership they both feel for Gipsy Danger and how this is maybe the only clear instance in the entire movie of them willingly shifting their focus away from each other because they're looking on this beautiful thing that belongs to them and that they belong to like they belong to each other:
I'VE HAD THIS OPEN IN A TAB FOR DAYS. LITERALLY DAYS. I JUST KEEP STARING AT IT. I CAN'T NOT. I FEEL SO MUCH AND NO MATTER HOW LONG I STARE AND FEEL I CAN'T PUT ANY OF IT INTO WORDS.
MAKO MORI AND RALEIGH BECKET WERE ALWAYS GOING TO FIND EACH OTHER AND IT'S AMONG THE GREATEST THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN IN FICTION.
This entry was originally posted at http://dudski.dreamwidth.org/1458381.html because FUCK LIVEJOURNAL, FOR SERIOUS. You can comment over there or over here, I really don't care, but eventually you're all going to join me on DW, let's be real.