So I rewatched Pacific Rim the other day, and also saw some videos about the sequel that doesn't exist, and it got me thinking about something.
Because a common complaint about the sequel (which doesn't exist) is that the Jaegers within it are too fast, too agile, they move like humans in mocap suits running around a city made of Lego, whereas what made the Jaegers feel so real in Pacific Rim is the sense of sheer mass they have. Their every movement is slow and laborious, the pilots are physically connected to their machines and operating them is a physically strenuous activity.
The Jaegers in the (hypothetical) sequel completely lack that weight, thanks to their speed and their ability to run up buildings like stairs, they feel completely weightless.
So why doesn't this speed problem apply to Striker Eureka?
Striker is the deuteragonist Jaeger in Pacific Rim, and it makes quite the impression. After a pre-title sequence featuring our heroes in their massive, weighty Mark III, barely surviving a battle with a Category 3 Kaiju, we're introduced to the first Mark V, and it's an immediate demonstration of how far things have advanced since Raleigh left. Striker charges into the scene, beats the piss out of a Category 4 Kaiju, and kills it. Mutavore doesn't get a solid hit in.
The entire sequence, from Striker's arrival to Mutavore's corpse hitting the ground, lasts less than thirty seconds.
Striker is fast, and consistently so. Later, during the Hong Kong battle, it full-on sprints when attempting to come to Cherno's aid.
So why does this work, and the later models don't?
Simple: Because Striker's physical superiority to the other Jaegers means something in Pacific Rim, whereas the Mark VIs don't. They're just cool robot designs. And they are cool designs, it's a shame they were never used for anything, but without the contrast of matching them with a Mark I, a Mark III, and a Mark IV, they are standard, and Striker isn't.
First off, before I get into all that, it should be noted that Striker's punches against Mutavore still convey weight, but through momentum rather than low speed. When Striker throws a punch, its fist keeps going, all that weight and all that speed take a while to slow down.
Anyway, let's talk about how Striker Eureka is the apex of humanity's achievements in Pacific Rim.
Because the four main Jaegers in the movie are all different Marks, we can observe the progress of Jaeger design from the inception of the idea to the culmination in Striker.
Cherno Alpha, the last Mark I, is huge, sluggish, and graceless, and cool as all fuck because of it. I wish we got more of Cherno. Its iconic 'head' shape is a design choice that the Russians made to protect their pilots, Cherno's Conn-Pod is in its chest, and the 'head' is its heavily-shielded reactor. As Stacker explains to Raleigh before the final battle, the Mark Is were thrown together so quickly that the radiation shielding on them was poor, and he's dying of a cancer he contracted while piloting Coyote Tango. Cherno's reactor is external and heavily armoured, but this comes with the tradeoff of making it impossible to eject.
Everything about Cherno's design speaks to its age, and so does its movement.
Gipsy Danger (henceforth referred to by her various fan-given nicknames for reasons I hope are obvious) is the baseline, the metric by which all the rest of the Jaegers are measured by the audience. As a Mark III, she's dead in the middle of the Jaegers in the film, she's the average. We're introduced to the Jaegers through her (okay we see Tacit Ronin and Romeo Blue during the opening montage, but Danger is the one who gets a full fight scene).
She's a lot lighter on her feet than Cherno, she's capable of jogging during the Hong Kong battle, and the rocket engines in her back allow her to jump, but she's still heavy and slow. Del Toro and his team really made her feel like a walking skyscraper just through her movements.
Crimson Typhoon is the Mark IV for the movie, and once again we see an increase in speed and agility. Crimson makes multiple fast attacks with the Thundercloud Formation, and is even capable some incredible acrobatic feats.
But, like with Cherno's radiation shielding, this comes at a cost. In order to make Crimson as agile as it is, they had to save weight, and the result is that Crimson is very lightly armoured compared to its counterparts. And as such, when Newt's inadvised drift allows the Precursors to learn the secrets of the Jaegers, it's the first to fall.
And finally, that brings us to Striker. The first and last Mark V. The end point of Jaeger development.
As stated above, by Jaeger standards, Striker is blindingly fast, unlike with Crimson, there's no tradeoff. It's strong and durable too. During the battle at the breach, Striker takes a heavy hit from Slattern's tails that renders several of its systems inoperable, but it still keeps fighting. It proceeds to slit Slattern's throat and almost sever two of its arms, and Slattern calls for help.
As incredibly powerful as Slattern is, it is clearly not certain that it can beat Striker in a protracted battle. There's a good chance that Striker will win. The apex of the Kaiju comes up against the apex of the Jaegers, and the monster is found wanting.
Through the design and styles of the other three main Jaegers, the movie demonstrates that the overall trend of Jaeger evolution is heading toward them being faster and more agile as people get better and better at building giant robots, but Striker gets to bend the rules a little further because of what it is.
It is the first of its kind, and the last that will ever be built. It's stronger and faster than all the rest. It's a cut above everything else humans have built because it's supposed to be, it's the ultimate Jaeger, its physical superiority has meaning that justifies itself.
And that's why a sequel kinda... can't work.
Because any Jaegers in a (purely hypothetical) sequel would have to be Mark VI. They would have to be stronger and faster and more agile than Striker, because that's the trend Jaeger design is headed in, but doing that takes away the element that made these giant mechs feel so real and powerful, and it carries no meaning of its own when all of them are like that, and not just the single best one they ever made.
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