{ { Infobox film
| image = Pacific Rim - Uprising (2018 film).jpg
| alt = The four Jaeger robots are preparing for battle in the destroyed city with the weapons. The film's tagline, "Rise up", is displayed along the top. | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Steven S. DeKnight | writer = | based_on = | producer = | starring = | cinematography = Dan Mindel | editing = | music = Lorne Balfe | studio = | distributor = Universal Pictures | released = | runtime = 111 minutes<ref>{ { cite web|title=Pacific Rim Uprising" (12A)|url=https://bbfc.co.uk/releases/pacific-rim-uprising-2018|publisher=British Board of Film Classification|access-date= March 13, 2018 }}</ref> | country = United States | language = English | budget = $150–176 million | gross = $290.9million }}Pacific Rim Uprising is a 2018 American science fiction monster film directed by Steven S. DeKnight (in his feature-film directorial and writing debut), and written by DeKnight, Emily Carmichael, Kira Snyder and T.S. Nowlin. It is the sequel to the 2013 film Pacific Rim, the second film, and second installment overall in the Pacific Rim franchise. Guillermo del Toro, director of the first movie, serves as a producer; while production studios Legendary Pictures and Double Dare You Productions developed the movie. The sequel stars John Boyega, as well as Scott Eastwood, Cailee Spaeny in her film debut, Jing Tian, Adria Arjona and Zhang Jin, with Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, and Burn Gorman returning from the original film. The film takes place in 2035, ten years after the events of the original film. The story follows Jake Pentecost, who is given one last chance to live up to his father's legacy after Kaiju, giant sea monsters, are unleashed back into the world and aim to destroy it.
Principal photography began in November 2016 in Australia. Pacific Rim Uprising premiered in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 15, 2018, and was released in the United States on March 23, by Universal Pictures (unlike its predecessor, which was released by Warner Bros. Pictures). With a gross of $290 million worldwide, the film was a box-office disappointment. It also received mixed reviews; many critics considered it inferior to del Toro's film and criticized its story, while praising its visual effects, action sequences, and performances of Boyega, Eastwood and Spaeny. It was followed in 2021 by a 14-episode animated series on Netflix.
Plot
In 2035, ten years after the Battle of the Breach, in which the portal created by the Precursors (through which they sent Kaiju) was closed, former Jaeger pilot Jake Pentecost—son of Stacker Pentecost—makes a living by stealing and selling Jaeger parts on the black market in Santa Monica, California. After he tracks part of a disabled Jaeger's power core to the secret workshop of fifteen-year-old Jaeger enthusiast Amara Namani, both are apprehended by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps (PPDC) following an altercation between Amara's small, single-pilot Jaeger Scrapper and the law enforcement Jaeger November Ajax. Jake's adoptive sister and Japanese Senator Mako Mori persuades him to return to PPDC as an instructor to avoid prison, with Amara as his recruit.
Arriving at the China Shatterdome, Jake starts training Jaeger cadets with his estranged former co-pilot Nathan "Nate" Lambert. Nate and Mako explain that the Jaeger program is threatened by the Shao Corporation's new drone program, which offers to mass-produce Jaeger drones developed by Liwen Shao and Dr. Newton 'Newt' Geiszler. Mako is due to deliver a final assessment to determine the approval of the drones at a PPDC council meeting in Sydney, but is accidentally killed by a rogue Jaeger, Obsidian Fury, during an altercation with the latter and Gipsy Avenger, Jake and Nate's Jaeger, before she can. Her death prompts the PPDC council to authorize and deploy the drones immediately. Obsidian Fury escapes into the ocean before backup Jaegers can apprehend it.
Moments before her death, Mako had transmitted the location of a defunct Jaeger production facility in Siberia. Jake and Nate travel there in Gipsy Avenger, but Obsidian Fury destroys the complex and engages them in battle. Although Obsidian Fury initially has the upper hand, Gipsy Avenger is able to overpower the Jaeger. Upon removing its reactor, they find that Obsidian Fury was controlled not by humans, but by a Kaiju's secondary brain, which testing shows was grown on Earth.