This scene interests me on a lot of levels. (The most superficial being that I love seeing men terrified and crawling on the ground, so, win there)

But this scene is funny to me because Newt does the classic thing that people (mostly women) do in horror movies, where they break a heel or fall over or something when running from a monster, and instead of getting back up and sprinting, they do this. I think it’s always a ridiculous trope, because survival instincts take over in a situation like this and really you’d get up and sprint. But what if there’s a reason for it here?

In the novelization, it’s explicit when Newt meets Otachi that he’s still ghost-drifting with her, still partially thinking with/for/like her. What if the same thing is going on here? What if the reason he doesn’t even appear to trip so much as throw himself down onto the ground and then crawl around like this is because that’s how Baby Otachi moves? You’ll notice in that first gif that Newt goes down at exactly the same time as Baby Otachi does, and then his crawling on all fours closely echoes what the kaiju is doing behind him.

When he turns over in the final gif, it’s like an assertion of some part of him through the foreign impulses in his brain—he may be down and crawling like the monster, but he’s at least going to look at it and see that it’s not him.

Why are the K-scientists German?

Fitting into the extremely WW2 feel of Pacific Rim, my theory is that the K-scientists nationality is actually based two different historic events.

The first is The Manhattan Project.The Manhattan project was the beginning of the atomic age. Supported mainly by the United States government it brought together a diverse group of scientists from 1942 to 1946. They worked to create and test the worlds first Nuclear bomb. Many German scientists saw the Nazi regime gaining popularity in their native country and escaped to the United States. Of these Edward Teller, Otto Frisch and Felix Bloch were all a huge part The Manhattan Project, the bomb and ultimately the technology that would end the war. All these men fled because of antisemitism. Travis Beacham the screenwriter on Pacific Rim confirmed that Hermann was of Jewish descent but non-practicing. He is a cooperative respectful man who has obviously had some disagreement with his father(land).

The second is a ittle known US military initiative called Operation Paperclip. Paperclip was created by the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and its sole purpose was to find and recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany at the end of WW2.These scientists were often suspected Nazi sympathizers. They came to America with checkered pasts and had their backgrounds wiped at the door. Newton has essentially tattooed his arms with the Kaiju equivalent of the swatsitka and his methods are almost constantly being called into question.Also it is fairly clear that although he was born in Germany Newt has a thick American accent. He is a German working hard to assimilate with the American “normal” Using words like “Dude” and “Man.”

Operation Paperclip was original undertaken because the United States and its allies worried that the German scientists would be used by other nations (especially the soviets) to create weapons.However, without the knowledge brought over by these ex-Nazi Rocket scientists NASA would not exist.It’s debated that Newton’s first solo drift with the Kaiju hivemind was the reason the precursors were able to defeat Cherno Alpha and Crimson Typhoon. He accidentally gave them information they needed to defeat the PPDC.He both damaged and helped the world with his science background when it was used by the wrong side.

According to outside movie sources Hermann Gottleib was born in Garmisch-Partenkirchen Germany and Newton Geiszler was born in Berlin.One of the first area’s that was cleared of important scientists (in a move codenamed Operation Overcast) was Berlin. And the area where the scientists were detained and ultimately snuck out of the country? Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

In fanfic (and the “drift space” feature on the DVD while we’re at it), I hate it when the K-Sci boys’ maturity is restricted to two extremes: Newt is so childish that he wears footy pajamas, eats nothing but sugar and hot pockets, and only watches anime and cartoons. Meanwhile Hermann wears nothing but matching flannel sleepwear (with a collar) to bed, is vegetarian or staunchly nutrition-oriented, drinks tea, and will only listen to classical music.

Nobody is made of that many extremes, not even “social outliers” like Newt and Hermann. I know tons of grown-ass nerds who make good money and do responsible things like pay their bills, take their meds (NEWT STUDIED NEUROCHEMISTRY MOST LIKELY, HE FUCKING TAKES HIS MEDS AND UNDERSTANDS WHY HE NEEDS TO), and understand their duties at work while also buying a fuckton of collectibles and going to cons. Newt is that dude at a con in a ‘This is the hammer” t-shirt, docs, and a utilikilt. He can be allowed to be a grown ass man and still have a sense of fun, childlike wonder at the world, naivete, and even a few stuffed animals- but don’t infantilize him.

By the same token, some of the staunchest conservatives, brainy science dorks, and old-before-their-time academics (including my former quiz bowl associate who rocked a young republican combover at age 17) are also the biggest dorks, sexual innuendo-spouters, pungeon masters, and stuffed animal fanciers. I can see Hermann being a member of an R2D2 build club (he takes his droids out to hospitals and childrens’ events) and a huge coffee-swiller (my cousin, who is a nuclear physicist, insists that making a good, properly timed and pressed cup of coffee is one of the most difficult regular tasks that he participates in).

Seriously, infantilizing Newt bothers me almost as much as making Newt out to be some loser with no friends because come on. Even if you downgrade the extended canon (which I know some people consider ridiculous and trope-y) and say he’s got like, one PhD and hasn’t been teaching at MIT for as long, that’s still a PhD and a teaching job at a college. And you don’t get to be part of the research division at an organization like the PPDC, and presumably pretty important in the research division if the Marshal is turning directly to you for Kaiju information, if you’re massively irresponsible, be it just in general or with your mental health. He can still be a nerd, and even make massively stupid or impulsive decisions (like Kaiju Drifting) while having some level of maturity. The two are not mututally exclusive.

As for Hermann, I feel like Hermann is like a cat. He has this reputation of being standoffish and aloof and mature, but when he’s actually in your life you realize he’s a dork. He probably plays real time strategy games and watches MST3K when he has time and listens to Doctor Who radio dramas. Definitely agree with him being a coffee drinker.

The other problem with relying on such narrow views of them as characters is it kind of diminishes the relationship potential? The ways in which they’re opposites are interesting and occasionally hilarious, but the ways in which they’re similar, or even sort-of-similar but not (say they both like classical music but Newt prefers Beethoven and Hermann prefers Mozart, or the other way around, I honestly don’t know shit about classical music so someone who knows more should tackle that) are really interesting. They not only explain how they managed to put up with each other for five years in tight quarters and high-stress situations, it explains how they’re Drift Compatible (if you believe they are, which I do, NO ONE CAN CONVINCE ME OTHERWISE).