Humanity prevented the Kaiju from overwhelming Earth in 2013's Pacific Rim, but it wasn't a permanent victory. After a decade of inactivity, these giant beasts will rise again in next year's Pacific Rim: Uprising, and just like the Jaegers, they will have improved during the peace period, making them even more difficult to defeat. John Boyega, who stars in the movie as Jake Pentecost, had this to say about the Kaiju's changes:
The Kaiju have found a new way. They are way more intelligent than we thought they were. The monsters you saw in the first movie were the test run, to see how the planet would hold up. The breach we thought was closed is not their only way into our world. Their plans are more specific. Jake leads the team in trying to build up a new defense against that.
As if the conflict we watched unfold in Pacific Rim wasn't devastating enough, now we know that it wasn't even showing the Kaiju at their finest. The first movie presented them more as mindless beasts, but with their test run over, now we'll see just how truly smart they are. While the Kaiju's endgame remains the complete annihilation of humanity, John Boyega's comments to EW suggest that that they'll go about their assaults differently. What exactly their plan of attack will be, but this is just one of the ways Pacific Rim: Uprising will raise the stakes from what its predecessor offered.
Fortunately for Pacific Rim: Uprising's protagonists, they won't be entirely defenseless against these new and improved Kaiju. John Boyega's Jake Pentecost, the son of Idris Elba's Stacker Pentecost (who sacrificed his life in Pacific Rim to save the world), will co-pilot the Gipsy Avenger Jaeger with Scott Eastwood's Lambert. Gipsy Avenger is the upgraded form of the Gipsy Danger from the first movie, with its enhancements including LCD screens, holographic images showing what's happening outside, a better gravity sling and a scanning system that makes the "drift" (the neural process that mentally connects the two pilots of a Jaeger) easier to handle. The new Jaeger force will also include Saber Athena, Guardian Bravo and Titan Redeemer, and each of these mechas will put their unique talents to the test when they go up against these more formidable Kaiju in a battle that will end with humanity's continued survival or extinction.
Directed by Spartacus' Steven DeKnight, Pacific Rim: Uprising's main cast also includes Cailee Spaeny, Adria Arjona, Jing Tian, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Burn Gorman, Karan Brar and Zhang Jin. The sequel opens in theaters on March 23, 2018, and stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates about its plot, characters and more. You can also look through our 2018 movie premiere guide to find out what other movies will be released next year.
