| Director | Guillermo del Toro |
|---|---|
| Budget | $190 million |
| Box office | $411 million |
In 2013, colossal extraterrestrials called Kaiju emerge from an interdimensional portal called the Breach at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and begin to attack coastal cities along the Pacific Rim. In response, humanity constructs massive mecha called Jaegers; each is co-piloted by two or more people who share the mental stress of piloting the machine through a mental link called the Drift.
In 2020, brothers Yancy and Raleigh Becket pilot the Jaeger Gipsy Danger to defend Anchorage. A Kaiju severely damages Gipsy and kills Yancy. Raleigh manages to kill the Kaiju, but traumatized by his brother's death and the stress of solo-piloting the Jaeger, he quits the program.
Five years later, world leaders divert funding from the Jaeger program in favor of coastal defense walls due to resurgent Kaiju attacks and the rapid attrition of Jaegers. However, the walls are soon proven ineffective when a Kaiju breaks through the wall in Sydney before being brought down by Jaeger Striker Eureka, piloted by father-son duo Herc and Chuck Hansen. The remaining Jaegers are relocated to the Shatterdome in Hong Kong under Marshal Stacker Pentecost.
Raleigh, now working on constructing the wall, is convinced by Pentecost to rejoin the Jaeger program and is brought to Hong Kong, where he meets Mako Mori, director of the Jaeger restoration program. Only four Jaegers, including Gipsy Danger and Striker Eureka, remain. Pentecost informs Raleigh of his plan to destroy the Breach by detonating a tactical nuclear weapon inside it.
Raleigh searches for a new co-pilot and finds Mako is compatible. During their first test in Gipsy Danger, Mako loses alignment while recalling a Kaiju attack in Tokyo that almost killed her, nearly discharging Gipsys plasma cannon inside the Shatterdome. Consequently, Pentecost suspends Mako. Raleigh protests, having seen through Mako's memories that Pentecost had adopted and raised Mako after her parents died in a Kaiju attack, and suggests that the real reason for Pentecost suspending Mako was to protect her, but Pentecost remains unswayed.
Pentecost consults Kaiju experts Newton Geiszler and Hermann Gottlieb. Hermann predicts that while Kaiju attacks will increase in frequency, the Breach will soon be stable enough to permit passage of the bomb. Disregarding Pentecost's orders, Newton drifts with a Kaiju's brain, learning that they are bioweapons created by an alien race to help colonize Earth. At Pentecost's instruction, Newton meets with Hannibal Chau, the leader of a black market organization selling Kaiju body parts. During the meeting, two Kaiju attack the city; Hannibal deduces that the aliens accessed Newton's memories during the drift, which prompted the two Kaiju to attack Hong Kong in search of him.
All remaining Jaegers aside from Gipsy Danger intervene, but two are destroyed, Striker Eureka is disabled with an EMP blast, and Herc is injured. Mako is reinstated and the nuclear-powered Gipsy, immune to EMPs, manages to eliminate both Kaiju. Newton and Hannibal attempt to harvest one of the Kaiju's brain but find that she was pregnant; the infant Kaiju bursts out, devouring Hannibal before strangling itself with its umbilical cord. Newton and Hermann drift with the infant's brain, discovering that the Breach only opens if it detects Kaiju DNA.
Pentecost reveals to Raleigh that he has radiation poisoning from excessive Jaeger piloting. Although doing so again would prove fatal, Pentecost resolves to co-pilot Striker in the injured Herc's stead. As Gipsy and Striker approach, three new Kaiju appear to stop them, including the most powerful Kaiju yet. Gipsy kills one Kaiju, but is damaged. Pentecost and Chuck sacrifice themselves by detonating their nuclear warhead, killing one and allowing Gipsy to defeat the other and ride its corpse into the Breach. Raleigh ejects Mako from Gipsy, triggers a meltdown in the Jaeger's nuclear reactor, and ejects before its detonation seals the Breach. Their escape pods surface as rescue helicopters arrive, and humanity celebrates the defeat of the Kaiju.