What Pacific Rim 2 Will Be About

Fans of Pacific Rim have certainly been looking forward to the upcoming sequel, but up until now, we haven't actually known exactly what the movie would be about. Now we do. The official plot synopsis has been released that details how John Boyega's character of Jake Pendergast fits into the larger story, how he becomes a Jaeger pilot, and how it connects to the original film.

The fact that John Boyega was starring in the film as Jake Pendergast, the son of Idris Elba's character from the first movie, was about the only thing that was officially confirmed about Pacific Rim: Uprising. Now, the studio has released a synopsis that explains that Jake Pendergast was a once-promising Jaeger pilot in his own right, but Jake abandoned his training and became involved in the criminal underworld. However, Jake will be given another chance to prove himself when a new threat appears to threaten the cities of the world. Jake will be approached by his estranged sister, fan favorite Mako Mori, who is leading a new generation of Jaeger pilots against the threat.

It's also confirmed that Scott Eastwood, who was previously announced as a member of the cast, will play a rival pilot by the name of Lambert, while Cailee Spaeny will play a "Jaeger hacker" named Amara. The return of Burn Gorham and Charlie Day from the previous film is also mentioned, along with the addition of actresses Adria Arjona and Jing Tian.

So that basically gives us our set up for Pacific Rim: Uprising. Mako Mori has more or less taken over as the head of the Pan Pacific Defense Force following the death of her father, and in need of additional pilots, she goes looking for her brother. Interestingly, the synopsis doesn't really explain exactly what the new antagonist is. It's simply referred to as an "even more unstoppable threat." The word Kaiju isn't actually used to describe it, which makes one wonder if it will be something different. Clearly, it will need to be a threat physically large enough to require the Jaegers to fight it, but maybe it will be something other than bipedal monsters?

Of course, the name missing from all this is the character of Raleigh Beckett, played by Charlie Hunnam in the first Pacific Rim. Due to the way that Pacific Rim: Uprising's status went from "not going to happen" to "must happen now" basically overnight, Hunnam was caught somewhat flat-footed. It sounds like the schedule wasn't going to work for him, or at the very least it appeared it might not work, as such, he was written out of the sequel. Although, it sounds like he would have been willing to appear, so perhaps Pacific Rim: Uprising won't tell us he's dead, just in case they want to bring him back in a future sequel.

Pacific Rim: Uprising is set for release on March 23, 2018, so we can expect to get our first look at the movie in the near future. Be sure to keep up to date on everything coming out in theaters next year with our complete 2018 movie schedule.