Knifehead

Category 3 Kaiju

**Knifehead** is an antagonist in the 2013 film, Pacific Rim.

Long ago, legions of monstrous creatures called Kaiju arose from the sea, bringing with them all-consuming war. To fight the Kaiju, mankind developed giant robots called Jaegers, designed to be piloted by two humans locked together in a neural bridge. However, even the Jaegers are not enough to defeat the Kaiju and humanity is on the verge of defeat. Mankind's last hope now lies with a washed-up ex-pilot, an untested trainee and an old, obsolete Jaeger.

## Appearance

**Knifehead** has a long, heavy sharp nose it uses as a weapon. Atop its head is a large blowhole from which it expels water when it surfaces, like a whale. It has sharp teeth and a long pointed tongue. Standing on two legs it also has a muscular tail, two excessively large arms each tipped with paws possessing three very large sharp claws. It has an additional smaller set of arms protruding from the armpits of the main arms. These smaller arms have hands with 4 digits each equipped with sturdy sharp and pointed claws. The back of this animal is protected by a thick bony shell which has pointed spikes protecting the main shoulders. There is a flex joint between the back armor and the head armor. Like other kaiju sent by the Precursors, it has bio-luminescent eyes, mouth and skin markings.

## Powers and Abilities

Knifeheads possess the following powers and abilities:

* Nose Slice Attack
* Massive size differential (cat 3)
* Evasion & planning
* Lunging attack
* Stabbing attack
* Precision aiming
* Teeth and claws

Biting, rending, scratching and tearing

## Fate

**Knifehead** is killed by a point-blank plasmacaster shot to the face from Gipsy Danger.

## Trivia

* Approximately a hundred Kaijus and a hundred Jaegers were designed, but only a fraction of them appeared in the film. Every week, the filmmakers held a vote for their favorites.
* Screenwriter Travis Beacham also wrote the graphic novel Pacific Rim: Tales from Year Zero. Released along with the movie, "Tales from Year Zero" serves as a prologue to the film and is set twelve years before its events.
* "Kaiju" is a Japanese word that literally translates to "strange beast." It is usually used to refer to giant monsters from Japanese science-fiction films, such as Godzilla (1954).
* The sound for the Kaiju's roars were comprised of layer upon layer of animal roars and growls, which were filtered, sped up, and slowed down to create the roar of alien behemoths.
* Karloff, one of the kaiju from the opening sequence, is named after Boris Karloff.
* The movie is dedicated to the memory of "monster masters" Ray Harryhausen, stop-motion animator for movies like The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), and Ishirô Honda, director of Godzilla (1954) and many other kaiju features.
* This film was sent to movie theaters under the name "Still Seas."
* Knifehead was the first Kaiju created by Industrial Light and Magic.
* Knifehead looks a lot like Guiron, a kaiju from the 1969 film Gamera vs. Guiron.
* Several identical copies of Knifehead can be seen in the Precursors processing facility.
* Knifehead is a Category 3 kaiju.
* In designing Kaiju, the film's artists frequently drew inspiration from nature rather than other works.
* Del Toro called the film's Kaiju "weapons", stating that they are "the cleaning crew, the cats sent into the warehouse to clean out the mice."
* While del Toro's other films feature ancient or damaged monsters, the Kaiju lack scars or any evidence of prior culture, indicating that they are engineered creations rather than the result of an evolutionary system.
* Knifehead, the first Kaiju to appear in the film, is a tribute to the plodding kaiju of 1960s Japanese films, and is intended to look almost like a man in a rubber suit; its head was inspired by that of a goblin shark.