As noted by John Boyega, when we first meet Jake Pentecost in Pacific Rim Uprising, he really couldn’t be more different than his father.
It is here where Jake really begins to find himself, and also, in Boyega’s words, become his “daddy’s boy.”
That all changes when he is brought back into the fold of the PPDC following a run-in with the law, and is put in charge of training new recruits.
Confident that the breach that was spewing giant monsters into our world has been closed permanently, he has dedicated himself to a life of luxury — living in abandoned houses on the coast, scrapping and stealing anything he needs, and generally not caring about anything in the world.