Supergirl is considered one of the worst superhero movies of all time, but it shares some surprising similarities with the blockbuster hit Pacific Rim. Overall, these movies couldn’t be more different. One uses the most advanced technology to bring giant robots to the big screen, while the other is a forgotten spinoff from Richard Donner’s Superman, but they do share a common element. They both use hidden underwater interdimensional portals as key plot devices.
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Pacific Rim was the first successful attempt at adapting the Japanese Kaiju genre for western audiences. Del Toro’s imagination and artistic talents provided audiences with the engaging story of an alien invasion that could only be stopped by brave scientists and soldiers willing to risk their lives to save humanity. Supergirl, on the other hand, was a low-budget spinoff trying to capitalize on Superman's success, just as interest for the franchise was starting to decline.
Supergirl tells the story of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El. She lives with her parents in Argo, a city built on an asteroid where the remaining survivors from Krypton’s destruction live. The city is powered by a powerful device called the Omegahedron. Early in the movie, Kara encounters Zaltar, the city founder, who shows her how the Omegahedron, which resembles a small rotating sphere, can be used to animate objects. But when Kara uses the Omegahedron to make a tridimensional sculpture of a dragonfly move, the bug flies through the city’s protective shield, opening a vacuum that sucks the Omegahedron into space.
Knowing that the city won’t survive for long without its source of power, Kara jumps into a vessel known as the Binary Chute. The ship takes Kara from the inner space where Argo exists, into outer space, where she follows the Omegahedron to Earth. Her colorful journey, described by Zaltar as a Warp, ends when Kara exits the ship, emerging from under a lake in the United States wearing her full superhero outfit.
In both Supergirl and Pacific Rim, aliens arrive on Earth not through conventional space travel, but by opening a portal that is hidden underwater. In Pacific Rim, the Breach, located on the Mariana Trench, remains hidden from humanity, at least until their alien creators decide the time has come to start the invasion. The deep location also makes the portal virtually inaccessible to humans. In the case of Supergirl, the lake allows Kara’s ship to remain hidden during her adventure.
Another similarity between the two portals is how they change the traveler. In Pacific Rim, the Breach is kept open by nuclear energy, which also powers up the Kaijus and prepares them for their battles. In Supergirl, Zaltar explains to Kara’s terrified parents that, while she will be safe during her trip, the Gravitational Radiation from the Warp will change her forever. The movie doesn’t make clear what Zaltar is referring to, but he could be talking about Kara emerging as mentally older and more mature (she appears almost childlike in Argo), or the fact that she will acquire abilities similar to her cousin, Superman.
After its release, Supergirl was criticized for its slow pace, poor acting and unconvincing special effects. The audiences’ responded accordingly and the movie flopped at the box office. Problems aside, however, the director managed to come up with at least a couple of original ideas. The concept of traveling through portals that shorten unsurmountable distances, and how going through them subject any passers to a process similar to a rebirth, are all ideas that weren't seen again for another couple of decades. Pacific Rim may be remembered as the first successful western attempt at bringing the Kaiju genre to the big screen, but it wasn’t the first to come up with the idea of portals to other worlds hidden under bodies of water.