In 2018's Pacific Rim: Uprising, John Boyega's Jake Pentecost was charged with leading the next generation of Jaegers against the invading Kaiju. As the son of the legend, Stacker (Idris Elba), the baton was passed to him, but victory in this film couldn't have been achieved without a young girl named Amara (Cailee Spaeny).
She was a junker who knew a lot about gadgets and technology on the whole, which made her an easy fit into the Pacific Rim world. Amara effectively becomes like the franchise's Iron Man before this film in the prequel comic, Pacific Rim: Amara, by Cavan Scott, Zhang Ran and BigN.
How Did Amara Become a Junker?
Amara lost her parents at the Santa Monica pier in 2024 when a Kaiju viciously rose from the ocean and attacked. Amid the fleeing crowds, she was rescued by Scrapper, a mech that an old man named Kai operated. Kai took her back home. He and Hannah, another woman Kai rescued years earlier, decided to raise Amara. Kai wasn't keen on it but Hannah wanted a daughter, and for the next six years, she'd learn from him.
Kai was a tech genius and an industry stalwart before his business tanked, and since then he tried to survive in a rapidly-advancing world that grew beyond him. With mankind ushering in the age of Jaegers, a bitter Kai simply wanted to stay off the radar, so he passed his knowledge down to Amara similar to how Tony learned from Howard Stark. And like Kai, she quickly began to use spare parts to make inventions, even helping improve their robotic dog, Twitch.
What Did Amara Use Her Skills For?
Unfortunately, Amara loved bailing on Kai as she just wasn't mature. She stole turbo boosters and other parts from him to turn her Kawasaki bike into a rocket, which pissed Kai off as he wanted to protect her and Hannah. He knew there were mech-czars out there who'd want his expertise to build weapons and such, which is why Amara's stubbornness didn't help.
It came to a head when she went on a racing circuit and almost got killed. Kai brought his Scrapper to save her but sadly, she'd disable the immobilizer and steal that too to try to race, later on, proving she didn't learn her lesson. It caught the eye of Bronislav and Garza who wanted Scrapper in their races and gambling rings, causing them to kill Hannah and steal the bot. Amara couldn't help but feel responsible because if it weren't for her, Hannah wouldn't have been in danger. Had she used her talents to help Kai in the shop, this tragedy wouldn't have occurred.
What Turned Amara into a Builder?
Kai and Amara took the war to the mech-czars as they wanted Scrapper back. Amara stole an arachnaut -- a spider bot -- and jumped into the race to stop the villains, looking to make it up to Kai. Unfortunately, while Amara's able to commandeer their bot again, taking it back from Yaozu, Kai ends up dying in the fight. Amara's heartbroken as once more, she's lost her family but this time, she has no one to blame but herself. The loner digs deep, though, and after killing her enemies, she heads home to rebuild Scrapper on her own, hoping to honor Kai. It's bigger, better, faster and stronger, which is what Amara now wants to be in this cruel, cold world. She knew other mech-czars were out there, as well as other racers who might harbor ill-will towards her, which is why she became a recluse like Kai.
It's only when she started venturing out more for parts that she met Jake, who spotted her potential as a pilot. She had an engineer's eye but also, due to a past based on losing parents, she developed a resilient mind which Jake would later connect with (aka "Drift") so they could fight the monsters in Uprising.