Question: Is it ever established why the Kaiju attack cities? Why they perceive a challenge, a threat, a resource worth taking there specifically? If they are a decent biochemical match to Earth life, and are hungry, why don't they attack schools of fish, or fishing/whaling vessels, if nothing else, they should attack the cannery row? If they are after a non-living resource, like minerals, why don't they root through the seabed or attack mines?
Question: Was there anything in the film stating why the Jaegers couldn't be remotely controlled? I get the premise of 2 pilots and drifting, but it seems like the robots weren't controlled by cables and wires and the interface could have been off-site, just like piloting drones.
Chosen answer: It is stated that due to the sheer size of the jaegers it is incredibly complex to actually pilot one. So complex that advanced mind-linking technology was developed for the sole purpose of controlling the jaegers in combat. Presumably that complexity necessitates having to actually be inside the jaeger to operate it efficiently. There is also the possibility that drifting technology has a short range or must be hardwired into the technology you wish to control.
Also, you have to consider transmission latency, the amount of data that has to be transferred, and the power of the transmitters that would be required to maintain that bandwidth. Considering that it requires two pilots to take the strain, I'm guessing that the bandwidth would be a lot more than you get from a wireless gigabit connection. And, of course, the aliens could probably figure out how to jam wireless transmissions if they wanted to. A direct connection is more reliable.
Question: When Staker takes Mako's spot he has to wear her (metallic?) protective suit. How did he instantly get it to fit him?
Answer: Stacker Pentecost doesn't take either Mako's spot or her suit, he takes the spot of Herc Hansen. The suit was just a spare one, with the implication that he had gained some weight since he was a Jaeger pilot himself.
Question: Near the ending, when Stacker removes his helmet to speak to Mako, he leaves Chuck solo. Why is the neural link or drift thing not harming Chuck since he's briefly solo?
Chosen answer: The Jaeger isn't doing anything strenuous at this time, it's just standing still.
Question: Why didn't Stacker Pentecost yell at or punish Chuck for being a jerk to his adopted daughter Mako?
Answer: Mostly because he's trying to maintain a professional distance between him and Mako. That aside, it's not unlikely that he can trust Herc to take care of that, and it really were Raleigh and Mako that needed yelling at first.
Question: How are Jaeger pilots grounded by Stacker Pentecost? They're not children and he is not their father.
Answer: Because he is their commanding officer and he makes a strategical call: he thinks Raleigh and Mako are unfit for combat. As for the whole 'grounding', that is a phrase that most likely stems from the Air Force. If a pilot is punished by not letting him fly, he is grounded.
Question: What I don't get about this movie is when ever they fight one of these giant monsters, why do they always engage in hand to hand combat for most of the fight? Its not until the end of most of the battles that they remember they have weapons to fire at these beasts and kill them which works with the category 1-3 beasts just fine. Why not just shoot the things?
Chosen answer: Most likely they only use it when they know they have a guaranteed shot and won't waste it. It can't be reloaded that easily. Like having one bullet to kill a zombie vs a sword so go for the sword save the bullet it's more valuable. That's typical military tactics. Possible firing whatever weapons could cost a ridiculous amount of money just like missiles do. It's not exactly like Yeager weapons were mass produced they are all different. Last reason is reducing extra casualties by making sure they don't miss when they fire or making firing weapons the last resort. And just for the movie's sake it would be boring as crap if they just blew the heads off in seconds.
Question: If the Kaiju are artificially created clones, why do they have parasites?
Answer: Presumably the parasites are simply creatures that exist on the other side of the breach. We see very little of the world in which the kaiju live, we only ever see the facility that is directly on the other side of the breach. The kaiju homeworld could be infested with these parasites, we just never actually see any up close.
Chosen answer: Because they are scouts for an invasion of Earth from another dimension. They are testing our response to their arrival and military capabilities and the best way to attract military attention is to attack population centers.
Grumpy Scot