Pacific Rim Official References

Pacific Rim worldbuilding according to writer, Travis Beacham. (I'm not Mr. Beacham. I'm just compiling his answers and reblogging his posts)

[travisbeacham]

In the DVD extra, it says that Hermann Gottlieb is the son of the inventor of the Jaeger program. Unless I'm mistaken, though, isn't that Jasper Schoenfeld? Because that seems to be a pretty big part of TFYZ to disregard if the Extra is to be taken as canon.

His father was a close friend and colleague of Dr. Schoenfeld’s. I wouldn’t say Lars “invented the Jaeger,” but he worked on the project.

[travisbeacham]

Hi Travis! Firstly, thank you muchly for a. getting this wonderful verse together and giving it to us and b. being here to answer questions even if some answers are horridly teasing (I am nawing on my wallet in wait for Kaidanovsky material. Comic book pls???) Basically I just wanted to ask if what del'Toro said about the Kaidonovsy's being ex-prison guards was true? (taken from youtube, just paste this after the usual youtube link [watch?v=FVuWZAfy7e4#t=188])

One of them is a former prison guard.

[travisbeacham]

Hey, my question is a bit simpler than many others, but: What kind of songs one would find on the characters' iZunePodPlayers?

Just a few…

Raleigh — Wilco, Mumford & Sons, the Beatles (“Blackbird” is his favorite)

Mako — the pillows, Neutral Milk Hotel, Ratatat, the Clash

Newt — Arcade Fire, Sex Pistols, LCD Soundsystem, Ben Folds Five

Stacker — Nina Simone, Yo-Yo Ma, Django Reinhardt

Tendo — Johnny Cash, Shovels & Rope, the Black Keys, Devotchka

[travisbeacham]

Considering the story of Yuna and So-Yi, can western fencing be used to test drift compatibility along with other martial arts?

Basically anything that requires a high level of mutual attention and coordination can be used to evaluate it.

In the early days, enlistment teams would go around to high schools with questionnaires and an X-Box.

[travisbeacham]

Hi, I'm not sure if you already answered this (sorry if you did, it's just that I can't find it anywhere) but, are the Matador Fury pilots men or women? Or is it piloted by a man and a woman?

The Matador Fury pilots are both men.

[travisbeacham]

Hey Travis! I'm just curious as to how the Beckets traveled. Raleigh comes off as very working-class in the movie (Which was neat! Working class hero who isn't a redneck!) But families these days have to be pretty rich to do world travel. Were the parents embassy workers or something?

His father was a hydraulic engineer. Dams and the like.

[travisbeacham]

According to the official novelization, Herc and Scott Hansen piloted Lucky Seven. Canon or not?

Yes.

[travisbeacham]

What kaiju did Newt's original piece of brain come from? Was it Mutavore?

Donald Trump. Turns out he was a kaiju.

Nah, it came from Mutavore.

[travisbeacham]

Is there anything you are comfortable telling us about the organizational structure and policies of the PPDC? Do all employees have military ranks, or is there also a civilian side?

The PPDC has it’s own rank structure. Additionally, pilots who were recruited from national militaries are sometimes referred to by their previous rank in that organization.

[travisbeacham]

Via canonness of the novelization: is the Mako/Raleigh kiss at the end of the book canon? Thank you!

No. The film version of events is what we’re going by.

[travisbeacham]

Hey Travis, thanks for the answers and whatnot. I read a lot of them, but I do miss some, too, so I apologize if this has been asked already. Anyway, I get why Stacker would know some Japanese, but I've been wondering since seeing the film when/why Raleigh would have learned. Simply during down-time in Alaska? Or is there more to it? 「違うって？」made me laugh out loud in the theater, by the way. :)

Raleigh’s smarter than he looks. And he ended up living all over the world when he was growing up.

[travisbeacham]

Would Jaegers be used in disasters like the Costa Concordia?

Probably not. They wouldn’t want to risk resources being held up somewhere in the event of a kaiju attack.

[travisbeacham]

The novelization says that Tendo's wife is Alison from munitions. Should that be looked at as canon? If so, what did she do? build ammunition, design it, or something else?

That’s consistent with what I know about her. I think she’s one of those people on the floor who literally loads the giant ordinances into the Jaegers. Kind of a Rosie the Riveter type.

(Yeah, I know what I said yesterday about not saying things. Sometimes I say things. I contain multitudes.)

[travisbeacham]

Re: Yancy - Anything about his characterization. He seems to be something of a foil to his brother and his appearances in the film and comic were fairly brief. All we know is that he's three years older than Raleigh and not exactly a morning person, what are some other aspects of his character?

In general, I think the most telling thing I could say about him is that he was better than Raleigh at a lot of things. Not in a way that he lorded it over his brother or anything. He just was. And Raleigh knew it. That’s part of why Raleigh doesn’t quite know what to do with himself after Yancy dies. He’s lost his reference point.

[travisbeacham]

What is the point of Romeo Blue's chest fin? (No offense but it really bugs me D:)

It protects the conn-pod. (And no worries. No offense taken.)

[travisbeacham]

Before the Breach opened, were there any odd sensor readings (say, from underwater seismic monitoring stations) or other indications that something strange was happening?

Anomalies were observed by various ground-based gravitational wave detectors in the weeks leading up to K-Day, but it was headline news only in the most rarefied academic circles.

[travisbeacham]

There are species with only one sex, and there are some with up to seven. The Kaiju are other-dimensional, Frankenstein-esque, monstrosities, they just don't make sense to earth biologists, who only had about 12 years to study them.

It gets even more complicated when you bring the Precursors into it. They’re a highly complex civilization with a variety of socio-physiological distinctions. Human categories like “male” and “female” fail to describe it on any level. They do have what can be thought of as cultural “genders” and biological “sexes,” but both are clumsy, insufficient analogies. They’re just the only terms we have to talk about it.