MovieChat Forums > Pacific Rim (2013) Discussion > basic error in Jeager design concept

basic error in Jeager design concept

posted 10 years ago by marfrie56
49 replies | jump to latest

I've read the threads about WHERE IS THE MILITARY and how ididotic an idea a giant robot is to fight a giant monster, and while I agree, I also see the point of the responders to that critique - this is a movie about giant robots and giant monsters, so you need both.
My critique is on a more detailed level.
Okay, you want a giant robot to fight the giant monster - but why do you need a human pilot inside the robot?
We have drones in Pakistan that can drop bombs - the pilots are in the midwest somewhere in an office building.
We even have robots on Mars.
The Jeagers - once you accept the necessity of their existence in the first place - and once you accept that technology has advanced to the point that they could even exist in the first place - could be controlled by the very same guys you see in the control room, miles away, relatively safe from the kaiju.
I realize the human element is important to develop the empathy for the characters that make the movie somewhat compelling - but it's a ridiculous plot hole nonetheless.
Okay - just my 2 cents.

[–] ryoko8472 9 years ago

while I didn't read ALL of the responses I read a fair amount so here I go.in both live action and animated kaiju related and non kaiju related mythos there have been giant robots to fight the giant opponents. I will start out by asking how many kaiju films and other things BESIDES pacific rim have you watched??
moving on from that I will start with examples from the most famous Kaiju studio
toho
assuming my count is correct(it may not be) there have been a total of five movies with giant robots to fight the monster the first two were evil and the human element was more like a remote control than an operator(godzilla vs mechagodzilla and terror of mechagodzilla) I might be wrong about them being separate movies and these two were controlled by aliens that were using humans and the "remote" was later revealed to have been cybernectically enchanced and both the robot and the human didn't do well but showed that while robots can outperform organics the organics can be too unpredictable to for a robot by itself to take on

the other three
were good guys(for lack of better terms)
first came godzilla vs Mechghidrah(sometimes called Godzilla vs King Ghidorah.bah!!)
first our um "antagonist" defeats his nemesis settling a decades old conflict but then japan ONCE MORE is in danger so the japanese decide to try to fight fire with fire and cyberize the former threat and use it to defeat him this one had a human operator and fared much better because IN MY OPINION the human element decides to do things that are sometimes not entirely rational like repairing things when a computer would not
godzilla vs mechagodzilla2 (not quite clear what it was the sequel to as i counted two before it in the old school but as I said I am not 100% sure about some things)this came just two years after the semi success of mechaghidorah
again this had a human pilot and even saw the point at which the computer would just give up and the humans fought on anyway.
(2002 godzilla X mechagodzilla I have not seen this makes my count off i think)
these are the TOHO EXAMPLES.

many many many animes with Mechas with human pilots too much
while I can't speak to tech end of it about the design of them and making the mind meld tech and such...I CAN address the need for the human pilot because in spite of what they say about needing no emotion and being centered in the drift....humans have something computers/robots don't have....
something to fight for attachment....but more than that THE DESIRE TO SURVIVE that is why the human pilots and on site. there is one tech thing I can address radio waves travel at the speed of light yes but can be blocked thus slowing reaction time. There is one thing that I found odd about the tech. If you can build giant robots which means your tech is more advanced no emp shielding?? or something to collect the emp energy(you can say ridiculous but then again I have seen the jaegers called ridiculous so can we roll with it??) and turn it into energy for the weapons or reactors and or cores. THAT is my number one beef out of all of it.

[–] lexob9 8 years ago

increased weakness against EMP would be amongst reasons not to use remote control from distance cause one burst and connection is fried and robots are lost

also as it seems originally they were using analog technology as they mentioned in the film. meaning with nuclear energy and mechanical parts. as i know remote control requires digital technology

only recently they moved to digital and as it turned out it wasnt a great idea. also its not like they had ages to perfect technology. they had limited time and resources and they did the best they could with what they had

[–] Mali-27 8 years ago

You are forgetting few things.

1) Network LAG! Even now, when you have optical cables there is still a lag.
2) Input LAG! Jaegers are not cars. In car, you need to only watch your position and speed. In combat robot that relies on melee fighting style it is absolutely imperative that you "feel" every move. When you go for a punch, you need to be aware of the shift in balance. You need to move fluidly. You need to feel when Kaiju fights back. This increases tremendously the amount of data you need to transfer.
3) Jamming! There are many things that can disrupt your signal. Or even Kaiju could develop some sorf of active jamming (like they did with EMP).

[–] billy_bob_stapel 8 years ago

weight is the issue...like that one poster said. everything else is redundant then. the only way they could "build" something like that would be sorta a giant tank with a turrent on top, thats about it. more practical in fighting aliens of that size would be dropping hydrogen bombs, neutron bombs and all sorts of other missiles from stealth bombers or preparing massive minefields at all coastal regions. For the flying Kaijus you need fighter jets. simple as that.

In this movie they also showed the jets flying so close to these Kaijus, no wonder they got taken down. that always bothers me in movies. they really underestimate current weapon technology. you see the jets always flying so up close...thats retarded. In RL fighting jets nowadays have SOOO much reach. Missiles have different range up to 400 km for point A to B with flat trajectory.

they could just bombard these things from miles and miles away. Same with Artillery. Instead of just building walls, like they tried in the movie(damn that was dumb) they should build moveable artillery lines, with tanks etc. There are also issues with the alien biology, assuming they follow rudimentarily biological laws, after all they also succumb to gravity, meaning they would just crush under their own wait, their organs would collapse etc...

anyway. I LOVE giant robots fighting other giant robots or aliens, demons etc. It is rather pointless starting a scientific debate on that, it is simply not possible unless those Robots would be the size of a car or a heavy truck, sorta like ED 209 in Robocop but even that is not a feasible design for warfare. At least not for bipedal locomotion.

point is...
Its sci fi fantasy. My problem was the stupid plot of the movie not so much the technical BS that they show you. Just call it space magic and thats fine.