'Pacific Rim: Uprising' Might Make a Deadly Change to First Movie
I'm not crying, you're crying.
Either the ending of Pacific Rim was way different than we all remember, or Pacific Rim: Uprising star John Boyega (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) is deeply confused.
Because Boyega just said that Raleigh Becket, co-savior of the world in Guillermo del Toro’s Pacific Rim (2013), died at the end of the first film.
“As you know, Pacific Rim 1 ended with Stacker Pentecost [played by Idris Elba] dying, and Raleigh [played by Charlie Hunnam] dying as well, and they feel like they’ve closed the Breach, but unfortunately the enemy has grown more intelligent and has other ways of doing things, and we are met with a rogue character,” Boyega told IGN.
Um, no. Stop playing games with our hearts, Boyega.
At the end of Pacific Rim, Raleigh makes it out alive. He gives Mako a scare because it takes him so long to get to the surface, and, when he does, he doesn’t wake up at first. But then he wakes up, and he and Mako share a lovely embrace that was the perfect, realistic end to an incredibly stressful situation.
That Boyega dropped this information so casually into the conversation is maybe the strangest part of all of this. Elba’s Stacker Pentecost definitely died because he sacrificed himself to save the world, but Raleigh made it out. And while Hunnam isn’t listed as a cast member on IMDb’s page for Uprising, it’s not too much of a surprise that he wouldn’t return for the sequel, as he’s busy elsewhere.
But the thought amongst fans up until this point was that Uprising would just write Raleigh out by saying he was busy elsewhere in the world. Killing him off between the movies wouldn’t be unheard of (think of Will Smith’s character in Independence Day: Resurgence), but Boyega’s phrasing suggests they changed the narrative of the first film, which is eyebrow-raising. Chances are Boyega was just oversimplifying things in his comments, but it’s confusing for fans of the original movie.
At least Rinko Kikuchi’s Mako Mori is still alive and kicking ass in Uprising.
Pacific Rim: Uprising premieres in theaters on March 23, 2018.
