So here comes the SPOILER: In the Climax, in which the heroes are trying to blow up the wormhole that’s letting the alien monsters into our world, their plan to nuke it goes astray. This is a great moment in itself, since it immediately and impossibly ups the stakes. But fortunately for all humanity, it turns out that one of the Jaegers—the machines used fight the monsters—runs on nuclear power. Enter: a spur-of-the-moment Plan B.
Pacific Rim (2013), Warner Bros.
This twist works because it was prominently and repeatedly foreshadowed. Earlier in the movie, the Jaeger’s antiquated nuclear power source is emphasized when it keeps running even after the other digital Jaegers are knocked out by an EMP. This sequence left viewers in no doubt of the nuclear core’s existence.
But then del Toro cleverly reinforced this foreshadowing in several smaller ways—in essence, creating a 1-2-3 punch. One subplot features a prominent character who is dying of cancer from radiation as a result of his own time spent in a nuclear-powered Jaeger. And then, finally, as the heroes gear up for the Climax, viewers are subtly reminded of the nuclear power system when the camera lingers on the nuclear symbol on the Jaeger’s back.
None of this is quite blatant enough to let viewers guess what’s going to happen in the Climax. But it’s also set up so perfectly that when the events of the Climax do play out, they make perfect sense.
