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Kaiju F-35 Lightning Emerges From the Mist, Ready to Find Jaegers

To me, some of the most jaw-dropping movies ever made are the two Pacific Rims. Largely underappreciated by movie fans around the world, they remain to me visual fiestas, with crazy ideas knitted together in a story that, despite its outlandishness, somehow sticks.
F-35A Lightning II during She Flies with Her Own Wings air show 21 photos
Photo: USAF/Capt. Kippun Sumner
F-35A Lightning II during She Flies with Her Own Wings air showF-35 Lighting IIs over the Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex (JPARC)F-35 Lightning II pulling a multiverse-like stuntF-35 Lightning IIs during refueling mission42 F-35A Lightning IIs on massive elephant walkF-35 Lightning II on hot pit refueling in JapanF-35A Lightning IIs over the UKF-35A Lightning IIs on an elephant walkF-35A Lightning II with the 495th Fighter SquadronF-35A Lightning II at Thunder and Lightning Over ArizonaF-35A Lightning II on vertical ascentF-35 Lightning buzzing the CN TowerF-35A Lighting IIF-35A Lightning IIF-35 LightningF-35A Lightning IIF-35A Lightning IIF-35A Lightning IIF-35A Lightning IIF-35 Lightning cruising subsonic into the sunset
As a quick and simplistic recap for those who’ve seen the movies and a short sum-up for those who haven’t, the story centers on the fight humans are waging, using giant, mind-controlled robots called Jaegers, to keep the planet safe from huge sea monsters collectively called Kaiju.

These Kaiju come into our world through an interdimensional portal located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a dreadful place, and Pacific Rim does not do a particularly explicit job at depicting the way in which these monsters actually move through it to come over here. That means we pretty much had to imagine the emergence of the monsters into our world.

For some reason, I personally imagined the whole thing in the same way you see in the main photo of this piece: a dark, menacing monstrosity emerging from below or behind a hazy wall of whatever, on the lookout for the enemy to engage.

The difference is this image does not show an instance from the movie, but a real-life F-35A Lightning II emerging from a cloud of water vapor. It’s an F-35 we’ve featured here on autoevolution before, the one flown by Maj. Kristin Wolfe for the plane’s own Demonstration Team.

This shot was captured back in May, and only recently made public by the USAF. At the time, the fifth-generation aircraft was flying for the She Flies with Her Own Wings air show at the Hillsboro Airport in Hillsboro, Oregon. This particular event is described by the Air Force as “an all-female air show including female performers, maintenance personnel, emcees and air bosses.”


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About the author: Daniel Patrascu
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Daniel loves writing (or so he claims), and he uses this skill to offer readers a "behind the scenes" look at the automotive industry. He also enjoys talking about space exploration and robots, because in his view the only way forward for humanity is away from this planet, in metal bodies.
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