Godzilla Vs. Kong had already built up enough hype on the heels of its action-packed trailer, but when director Guillermo Del Toro weighed in on the action, things really got out of hand. The director caused a mini-frenzy when he speculated how the Jaegers of Pacific Rim would fare against the beasts, then realized his mistake and denying Pacific Rim 3 is happening.
While we can be sad that one of cinema's only offerings for giant robots vs. kaiju won't be returning soon for a third installment, I do have to wonder if a Jaeger would actually stand a chance against Godzilla and King Kong in the MonsterVerse. I went ahead and did some digging by looking at past matchups, and came to a consensus about how it would fare with each combatant.
Jaeger Vs. Godzilla
This is a matchup that is in the wheelhouse of what the average Jaeger is meant to do. In Pacific Rim, these machines are built specifically to defend the Earth against kaiju similar to Godzilla, though they vary in size. It's not at all rare to see kaiju as tall, if not taller than Godzilla, but the OG doesn't have the name "God" in his name for nothing.
When you look at the weight of the average to even above average kaiju compared to Godzilla, it's not even close. Pacific Rim's Mega-Kaiju comes in at 7864 tons. The modern Godzilla weighs 99,634 tons as of 2019. That's 12 times the weight of one of the larger kaiju in the Pacific Rim universe. Or, in human terms, it's the weight difference between a 300-pound NFL lineman and a toddler.
We've seen Pacific Rim's Jaegers in action and know that they can struggle to take on the kaiju of their own universe. They are drastically undersized compared to Godzilla when it comes to weight, so one swipe could foreseeably obliterate even the biggest and most expensive Jaeger with ease. It would take a team of Jaegers attacking quickly (to take advantage of his slow movement) and also from a distance, paired with the might of the world's army, to stand a chance. Even then, it seems the most that could be done in battling the current Godzilla is to piss him off enough so he just leave, but he's too dense just to be killed through these means.
So as it stands, no individual Jaeger is capable of going toe-to-toe with Godzilla. A fleet could stand a chance, and of course, if the lore created some massive 12-pilot operated machine to take it on, now we're talking. But in current lore, no one Jaeger could stand toe to toe with the King of Monsters and last that long.
Jaeger Vs. Kong
A lot of the problems you see with a Jaeger taking on Godzilla could re-emerge in a fight with King Kong. Current Jaegers are just too puny in comparison to these beefy juggernauts that Legendary is churning out, and nothing's changed in a matchup where they're taking on the biggest and baddest resident of Skull Island.
The major difference is that where Godzilla is a hulking behemoth that relies on his stamina, overall toughness and some feisty atomic breath, Kong is a more humanoid fighter. He's way more agile and capable of operating in the way that a Jaeger would and does in the Pacific Rim world. The only difference between these machines and the giant gorilla is the latter can do his thing with one brain and is, once again, massive in comparison.
In short, I believe Kong would absolutely obliterate numerous Jaegers before they even had a chance to mount a decent attack on him. He's too fast, too powerful and too big for many of their attacks to be meaningful or impactful. I know Kong could be captured by humans in past adventures, though it's worth noting this one is far bigger than those iterations.
With that being said, there is a history of humans being able to trap Kong in captivity, and this is even shown to happen in the Godzilla vs. Kong trailer. While we don't know if Kong let himself be put in chains willingly, we do know that it was possible, and humans are a lot smaller than Jaegers. I don't think it's crazy to think some Jaegers loaded to the gills with chloroform might find a strategic way to subdue Kong, and at the very least, pacify him if he's having a rough day. Overall though, these Jaegers stand no chance of surviving a fight against Kong, even less so than against Godzilla.
Could Humans Of The Monsterverse And Pacific Rim Collaborate To Make A Bigger Robot?
If there's one thing the humans of Pacific Rim and the Monsterverse have in common, it's that they're both capable of technology far beyond what humanity has achieved in reality. Pacific Rim lore eventually shows humans integrating kaiju biology with Jaeger technology. The work done by Shao Industries would have to be of interest to the Monsterverse, which has its own share of fancy scientists.
I've harped on and on about how the Jaegers we know in Pacific Rim are undersized, but they aren't the only humans around that can construct massive robots. In fact, the Godzilla lore is chocked full of mecha beasts that have stood toe to toe with Godzilla, though again, this Godzilla is much bigger. Still, it's more or less an open theory now a mech may come into play in Godzilla Vs. Kong after a clip in the trailer seemingly shows something massive and shiny in the background.
We don't know whether this massive mech will appear in Godzilla Vs. Kong (though we have theories), but if one could indeed be built, then I think it's logical to assume a massive Jaeger is possible in the MonsterVerse with the right amount of ingenuity. In the hypothetical situation that a Jaeger big enough can be created, I still can't imagine a duo or however many humans it would take to operate such a machine could emerge victorious over a single sentient being, especially ones as clever as Kong and Godzilla. I'd still give them a better shot, though, than with a regular Jaeger, and I can't deny I'd like to see how it would all shake out.
Of course, the odds of this dream-team matchup actually happening feels super unlikely given the confirmation that no plans are in place for Pacific Rim 3. There's also no guarantee Godzilla or Kong escape this encounter alive, though I'd like to think Legendary won't traumatize its audience watching one of these iconic characters get obliterated.
Obviously this is all speculative on how Jaegers would fare against Godzilla or King Kong. If you have different thoughts on the matchup, I'd love to read about them down in the comments. For everyone else, be sure to read more on Godzilla Vs. Kong and learn how the larger-than-life blockbuster is already breaking records for Warner Bros.
