In less than a day, a development draft for the Pacific Rim series was completed, a comprehensive entertainment and cultural development proposal.
Naturally, the content was quite simple. As this series was entirely new, most of what was in the draft was theoretical. The only concrete element was a screenplay outline for one film.
This film, of course, would be the later released Pacific Rim.
However, this time, Boss Huang had no intention of directly copying. Instead, he completely revised the plot for the entire Pacific Rim series, retaining only the world-building framework.
Huang He had always felt that the plot of the Pacific Rim series had significant issues. The second installment was beyond salvaging, with a garbage plot.
But the problems with the second installment's plot were rooted in the first. It was as if the producers of the first film had no intention of making a sequel, as the plot was so complete that it hardly needed one.
Yet, a sequel was pushed out, resulting in the disappointing follow-up.
Furthermore, the plot of the first film could only be considered passable, fitting the needs of a standard special effects blockbuster. The true essence of the Pacific Rim series, in fact, lay in the visceral mech battles.
Therefore, Huang He decided to redesign the plot of the first film entirely. Based on his ideas from his previous life, he spent just one day outlining the plot.
Initially, the plot of the first film began more than a decade after the monsters' first attack. The advantage of this approach was that it could immediately jump into intense mech combat, preventing audiences from enduring thirty to forty minutes of exposition before the mechs appeared, allowing them to quickly get into the story.
However, the drawback was that many viewers were left confused. They couldn't understand the plot from the brief narration. Why were there monsters? Why were there mechs? Why was humanity suddenly defeated? Why did the last few mechs end up in Hong Kong, and so on?
While this plot might be acceptable to younger audiences who were good at filling in the blanks, it felt too disjointed for many middle-aged viewers. Moreover, to establish a new series, at least three installments were needed. Therefore, Huang He adjusted the first film to commence at the beginning of the war.
The story would begin on December 21, 2012, on a beach in Hawaii, featuring beachside swimwear scenes.
This would be followed by subtle hints of discord amidst a seemingly peaceful atmosphere. Then, just as the audience felt something was amiss, a colossal monster would emerge from the sea, wreaking havoc in Hawaii and leaving a trail of blood.
Thus, the movie would unfold.
Afterward, Huang He divided the screenplay into four parts.
The first part would be the conventional warfare segment, covering the first 30 minutes of the film. This segment would be balanced, with approximately 15 minutes dedicated to showcasing the tragic plight of ordinary citizens during the monster's rampage, their terror, and their escape. The protagonist would also be introduced here – a handsome, muscular young American. He would lose his older brother in this battle.
Within this segment, there would be a brief subplot where this young American risked his life to save a little Chinese girl. This girl would be the film's female lead and the protagonist's future partner.
It must be clarified here that some might find it problematic that Huang He, a Chinese person, investing in and producing a film that cast an American as the protagonist, labeling it as subservient.
If Huang He were just an ordinary young man from his past life, he would have likely voiced similar criticisms.
However, now in the position of an investor, this decision was unavoidable. This would not be a film primarily targeting the Chinese market; its major box office revenue was expected to come from North America.
After all, China's film market at that time only generated a meager RMB 1 billion annually. If Huang He solely aimed for self-amusement and showcasing Chinese pride without regard for economic benefits, such a choice would be perfectly fine.
However, considering box office profitability, the protagonist had to be a white American. Otherwise, the American film market would not open up to this movie, and it might even struggle to be screened in most American cinemas.
Of course, some might still argue that Huang He was driven by greed, hoarding wealth but still catering to foreigners.
This would also be a misunderstanding of our Boss Huang. Our Boss Huang would be delighted if foreigners fawned over him, so he wouldn't do something like that.
His decision was actually based on cultural dissemination. If a film only caters to the Chinese market, it would be impossible to spread Chinese culture to the world.
Therefore, enduring the indignity of casting a foreigner as the protagonist was necessary to gain this channel for dissemination.
And once the "white skin" was in place, the next step would be to embed the "yellow core."
The first 30 minutes would feature half character development for the protagonist and half intense war scenes. To compensate for the lack of mechs in the early stages and to highlight the futility of conventional human weaponry, these 15 minutes of combat would showcase humanity's top-tier armaments.
Various war machines, bombers, missiles, armored vehicles, and weapons would be deployed in rotation, along with brave American soldiers fighting desperately. It would be a genuine 15-minute battle.
Finally, through human ingenuity, the war would be won, but not without cost. Seven American cities would be destroyed in the conflict, resulting in over three million casualties, including more than 20,000 regular troops. Humanity would achieve a hard-won victory.
With this, the first part of the plot would conclude, transitioning to the second part: the research and development phase.
The protagonist, carrying his brother's ashes, would be led by his heartbroken parents to their home in another city to live with his grandparents. He would hope for a chance to heal and return to a stable life, but six months later, a second monster would appear.
As fate would have it, this monster would target the protagonist again. His parents would tragically sacrifice themselves to save him, after which the protagonist would fall unconscious.
Upon waking, he would learn that the second monster had been defeated, but humanity had paid an even more terrible price. Over ten cities were destroyed, and over fifty thousand regular troops perished. The only good news was that due to timely evacuation, civilian casualties were only in the hundreds of thousands, though this included the protagonist's parents.
Following this would be a rapid montage of events, including the third and fourth monsters attacking Australia and Japan respectively. The main cities in Australia would be annihilated, and the monster would only be narrowly defeated with the help of the Chinese fleet.
Japan, refusing Chinese aid, would opt to detonate a nuclear bomb on its own soil, using it to defeat the monster.
Subsequently, a United Nations meeting would be held. After analyzing data from the monster defeated in Australia, the Chinese representative would state that only by constructing giant robots of equivalent size to the monsters could humanity stand a chance.
The Americans would dismiss this as nonsense until the fifth monster attacked China, and the Chinese-built robot, Jianxia (Swordsman), would appear to defend against the attack.
Although Jianxia, due to technical immaturity, would be destroyed by the monster, it would hold the monster at the coastline. Combined with the valiant efforts of various Chinese forces, the monster would be successfully defeated.
Therefore, apart from significant losses near the coastline, China itself would suffer almost no damage.
This outcome would finally convince the world, and led by the United States, nations would contribute their technologies to establish the Earth Defense Force. Research institutes would be set up in various locations, fostering collaboration and commencing the development of mechs.
This part of the plot would be primarily driven by a Chinese scientist and an American scientist. In terms of screen time, the American scientist would have the most, naturally to cater to the American market. This American scientist would also adopt the protagonist, an orphan.
Next would come the third part of the plot, titled "First Battle."
While humanity worked on developing mechs, research into the monsters would also be ongoing. Finally, a nuclear submarine would discover a portal deep in the ocean, confirming that the monsters were emerging from this portal, signifying an attack by an extraterrestrial civilization.
The portal required energy to transport monsters, and simultaneously, it was continuously expanding. This explained why the monsters appeared with increasing frequency and grew stronger, as the portal could accommodate more energy for them.
This discovery would heighten humanity's urgency for the mech project. Meanwhile, global efforts would be concentrated on desperately defending inland from monster attacks, while the protagonist would be living a mundane university life.
During the twelfth invasion, a monster would once again arrive in the city where the protagonist was. The protagonist would be supposed to seek refuge in a newly constructed underground shelter. However, remembering his neighbor's dog trapped inside, he would run to save the dog, intending to take it with him to safety.
There's no need to question why the protagonist would make such a foolish decision at this point. In American films, children always rank higher than dogs, dogs higher than women, and women higher than men. Therefore, abandoning the lives of many humans to save a dog is a very American thing to do.
While rescuing the dog, the protagonist would encounter a convoy transporting a mysterious item. This item, surprisingly, was an aircraft carrier being transported along the coastline.
Then, due to a series of coincidences, the aircraft carrier would be destroyed by a monster and run aground on the shore. The protagonist, inexplicably, would make his way to the cockpit and jump inside, becoming the pilot of this mech.
Yes, this would be humanity's first-generation war mech: the Ranger. He would be joined by the Ranger's intended pilot, a Chinese girl named Jin Tian, who was unable to move her arm due to an injury sustained in battle.
Ah, as everyone likely guessed, this Jin Tian would be the Chinese girl whom the protagonist had rescued before.