Pacific Rim’s Touching, Untranslated Line Of Dialogue

By Rudie Obias | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Mako Mori DriftWith the release of Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim this past weekend, genre fans were delighted to see an American summer blockbuster pay homage to Japanese monster movies and giant Mecha Japanese Anime. Pacific Rim is not only a thrilling and jaw-dropping film, it’s also Guillermo del Toro’s personal love letter to Japanese genre movies. The film is a hodgepodge of film influences and cultures that are seamless combined to make one exciting and heart-pounding science fiction epic. But there’s one small, touching character moment that most viewers won’t have — couldn’t have — noticed.

SPOILERS FOR PACIFIC RIM BELOW!

At the very end of the film, during the epic Category 5 Kaiju battle underwater with the Australian Striker Eureka and the American Gipsy Danger, Stacker Pentecost selflessly sacrifices himself (and Striker Eureka) so Gipsy Danger can seal the inter-dimensional rift at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, thus cutting off the Kaiju’s access to Earth. It’s one of the best moments in the movie, and is reminiscent of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s death scene in the original Star Wars or Gandalf the Grey’s fall in the Mines of Moria during The Fellowship of the Ring.

Mako Mori’s last words to her surrogate father were not subtitled for Western audiences, but Pacific Rim co-screenwriter Travis Beacham recently revealed what she said via Twitter:

This was a very touching and heartwarming end to one of the film’s best relationships. Pacific Rim is not only a movie that features epic battle sequences between giant alien sea monsters and human-controlled mechs, but it’s also a touching tale of survival and how humanity comes together in the face of certain doom. While the film is pretty broad when it comes to its characters and emotions, Pacific Rim has a pointed sincerity that has proven to work with general audiences again and again.

Hopefully, Pacific Rim will perform well enough Internationally so Legendary Pictures will greenlight a sequel. It would be a shame not to further explore the vast world Guillermo del Toro and Travis Beacham created in Pacific Rim. It would also be nice to see Stacker Pentecost live on in Mako Mori and Raleigh Becket’s neutral drift. But as it stands right now, I’m not completely sure how you’d make a sequel to Pacific Rim. Its ending is pretty tidy and satisfying.

Whether we get to see a Pacific Rim 2 or not, screenwriter Travis Beacham has another promising science fiction project lined up. He’s developing a new science fiction TV series called Ballistic City for AMC, collaborating with Oblivion director Joseph Kosinski.

In the meantime, you can check out Pacific Rim‘s stunning opening and closing credits below.