I love that Maddie just let Chimney go through what he needed to. Did she think they needed to forever date? No. But she knows her future husband and was gonna let it play out. And her little what did you learn on a call today? Like goddamn she knows Howard Han and she loves him so much.
1. Raleigh had his left arm ripped off while he was piloting the left hemisphere, then had his right arm and leg shredded while he was piloting the right hemisphere. Holy fuck he has been through it. His resilience and battle focus is enough to be recognized by Pentecost, whose solo Tokyo battle was three hours long.
2. Implied that Hercules Hansen was one of the OGs, like Cherno Alpha. Wonder what happened to his copilot before he began drifting with his son. Wonder what happened to the Jaeger he piloted before Striker Eureka.
3. Pentecost says he carries nothing into the drift, but that just means he knows how to match with anyone, right? Wonder what that final drift was like in Chuck Hansen's head.
4. Tendo Choi is in command of the bridge when neither Pentecost nor Herc Hansen is present. I forgot that he reverts to Cantonese in stress situations, love these details.
5. I enjoy the bilinguals of this film. Also really interesting choice to focus on the western rim of the Pacific Ocean: Australians, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, and a badass Marshal who strikes deals with the black market and literally anyone else who will fund the Jaeger program. We get to have industrial apocalypse, alien thriller, and cyberpunk in one film. (Side question: are the Americas' coastlines devastated?)
6. Mako's expressions are so. Agh. Her face shows what she's feeling with unshielded honesty (she feels so much, like Raleigh) but she carries herself like Pentecost: deliberate, controlled. Very much his student (daughter).
7. Newt and Hermann are obsessed with their scientific theories being right, even if it means the possible doom of humankind. Iconic Academics. Also they must be important enough to have helicopters on call, since they run out of one to get to the bridge in time for the final fight.
8. Final goodbyes between Stacker Pentecost and Mako Mori.
9. Mako and Raleigh are two of many orphans who had no intention of surviving the war that took their families. Raleigh's last sacrifice was simultaneously the most selfless and selfish thing to do. Good for him to have survived, Mako would've found it hard to forgive him.
The one thing I always think about is the fact that White Star, that crazy bastard, had so much more than just 6 ancient powers -- but it was only revealed AFTER he was killed. And all of those went to Cale Henituse, as if it wasn't enough that the guy already had NINE!!
By the end of Part 1, he had, AT THE VERY LEAST, 7 ancient powers (not counting the Fire-Suppressing Water which was used up), 7 embraced ancient powers (because the Annual Rings of Life combined into 1, and this is not counting the White Star's other unnamed ancient powers), and 2 ancient artifacts. This also doesn't even count his 3 abilities or the divine items in his possession.
You think it's crazy for the people of that world to possess more than 1 ancient power? Well Cale Henituse is a powerhouse of more than 14 ancient powers, literal nature incarnate. God of Nature in human form. A natural multidimensional disaster.