2. The Geeky Fan Boy Nerds Save The Day
Hot-shot ace pilots and swaggering lone wolves who make their own way have long played fantasy surrogates for geekdom, a culture thats not often associated with physical prowess or social esteem. If you are the last kid picked for kickball or the guy in the corner at the school dance, theres a understandable allure in placing yourself in the role of someone whos all of that
and saves the world and gets the girl. Whats more rare is that an actual geek gets to have a hand in sorting out the mess, and when this happens its usually done as lip service, slapping some glasses on Jeff Goldblum and having him drop a few high-school Physics lessons. Credit to Pacific Rim, that uses the spastic, aggressively geeky characters of Geiszler and Gottleib as real agents of change and not just sniveling impotents or mad scientists. Sure, theres some fun had at their expense, but its also clear that they arent just back-up for the Jaeger pilotswho
are that traditional kind of escapist heroand they dont stand back in a laboratory mixing chemicals and waiting to be called on. Geiszler himself goes out in the field, and struggles as valiantly as anyone else, and in the end, its his scientific curiosity and willingness to follow that other drumbeat that pulls all our butts from the fire. Its useful to also mention that all of these characterseven the obvious jocksprobably fit some element of the geek mold, and one of the early points made is that Jaeger pilots were never the obvious choices for this kind of mission; its down entirely to how you drift. In other words, all those sidelined kids who hoped for revealed greatness and the right circumstances can relate to the way these characters leap to prominence just as the apocalypse is starting.