Mortal Kombat
Directed by	Paul W. S. Anderson
Produced by	Lauri Apelian Lawrence Kasanoff
Written by	Kevin Droney
Starring	Christopher Lambert Robin Shou Linden Ashby Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa Bridgette Wilson Talisa Soto Trevor Goddard Chris Casamassa François Petit
Distributed by	United States: New Line Cinema Canada: Alliance Communications Australia: Village Roadshow
Release date(s)	Argentina & Israel July 13, 1995 United States August 18, 1995 United Kingdom October 20, 1995 Australia December 26, 1995
Running time	101 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25,000,000
Gross revenue	$122,000,000
Followed by	Mortal Kombat: Annihilation

Mortal Kombat is a 1995 action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson that was based on Mortal Kombat series of fighting games. The movie was filmed in Los Angeles and on location in Thailand.

A sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was released in 1997.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Marketing 4 Box office and critical reception 5 Behind the scenes 5.1 Production 5.2 Casting 5.3 Soundtrack 5.4 Mortal Kombat II references 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Plot

Once every generation, there is a martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat, which was designed by the Elder Gods to limit invasions between realms. If Outworld wins it ten consecutive times, the Emperor of Outworld known as Shao Kahn will be able to invade and conquer Earthrealm. Liu Kang and his comrades, movie star Johnny Cage and Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, were handpicked by Raiden, the God of Lightning and Earthrealm's defender, to overcome their powerful adversaries in order to prevent Outworld from winning their tenth straight Mortal Kombat tournament and condemning Earthrealm to eternal damnation.

Each combatant has their own personal motive for competing in the tournament. Liu Kang seeks revenge for the death of his younger brother, Chan, who was killed by tournament host Shang Tsung in battle, and Liu blames himself for not being there. Sonya is after crime lord Kano, who killed her partner. Cage has been targeted by the media as a fake, and is competing to prove otherwise.

Upon arriving at Shang Tsung's Island, Liu Kang sees and falls for Princess Kitana. Upon seeing this, Shang Tsung orders Reptile to keep a close eye on her.

Liu Kang defeats his first opponent, while Sonya finally gains revenge and kills Kano in battle. Meanwhile, Johnny Cage encounters Scorpion, who teleports Cage to his lair in the Netherealm where the two engage in a vicious battle, in which Cage eventually emerges victorious. Liu Kang engages in a brief duel with Kitana, who secretly offers him advice for his next battle. Liu Kang is later confronted by Sub-Zero, and cannot seem to defeat him, until he recalls Kitana's advice that allows him to emerge victorious.

Finally, Shang Tsung gives Goro, a huge, four-armed Shokan warrior, permission to enter the tournament, and he crushes every opponent in his path. Cage demands a fight with Goro, and defeats him by kicking him off a cliff. Shang Tsung then takes Sonya hostage, saying that the battle with Goro gives him the right to challenge, and he has chosen Sonya, knowing that it will be an easy win. Raiden tells the pair that Sonya herself cannot defeat Shang Tsung, but they are capable of doing so. He sends them to Outworld, staying behind because his powers are useless there.

Upon their arrival in Outworld, Liu Kang defeats Reptile in a brutal fight and he and Johnny Cage meet Kitana, who tells them of Outworld and of her past, and allies with the two, thus confirming Shang Tsung's suspicions about Kitana. The three disguise themselves as Outworld servants and infiltrate the castle tower where Sonya is being held captive. Shang Tsung tells Sonya that if she refuses to fight, Earthrealm will automatically forfeit Mortal Kombat. Liu, Kitana and Cage reveal themselves, and Kitana informs Shang Tsung that interfering with the tournament is treachery to the Emperor and will cause him to lose the keys to Earthrealm.

Shang Tsung challenges Cage, but Liu intervenes and challenges Tsung, who accepts. After a long and brutal fight, Shang Tsung morphs into Chan, Liu's brother, who claims that he forgives Liu for letting him die, but Liu is not fooled and finally acknowledges that he is not responsible for his death, accusing Shang Tsung of killing Chan. Tsung is killed when Liu shoots a fireball at him, causing him to fall from a balcony and plummet onto a floor of spikes. Upon his death, thousands of innocent souls that Shang Tsung took over the years are released, and Liu meets with Chan's spirit, who says that he will always be by his side until they are reunited in the afterlife.

The warriors return to Earthrealm, where a victory celebration is taking place at the Shaolin temples. However, the euphoria is cut short when Kahn suddenly appears, saying that he has come to take their souls. The final scene consists of Raiden confidently saying "I don't think so," as he and the warriors enter their fighting stances.

[edit] Cast

• Robin Shou - Liu Kang
• Linden Ashby - Johnny Cage
• Bridgette Wilson - Sonya Blade
• Christopher Lambert - Raiden
• Talisa Soto - Princess Kitana
• Trevor Goddard - Kano
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa - Shang Tsung
• François Petit - Sub Zero
• Keith Cooke - Reptile
• Chris Casamassa (voiced by Ed Boon) - Scorpion
• Gregory McKinney - Jax
• Kevin Michael Richardson with vocal effects by Frank Welker - Goro

[edit] Marketing

A novelization of the movie by Martin Delrio was released through Tor Books. In 1995, several months before the movie's release, Threshold released a tie-in animated film on VHS, Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins. It featured traditional animation, motion capture and CGI to explain the origins behind some of the movie's main characters. The video also featured a fifteen-minute behind-the scenes documentary of the theatrical release.

[edit] Box office and critical reception

Mortal Kombat opened on August 18, 1995, and cruised into the top box-office spot with $23 million,^[1] nearly eight times the opening amount of the only other new release that weekend, The Baby-Sitters Club. At the time, it was also the second-highest August opening after 1993's The Fugitive. MK enjoyed a three-week stay at number one, grossed roughly $70 million in the U.S., and earned an estimated $122 million worldwide,^[2] while the soundtrack went platinum in less than two weeks. MK was also the first major success for a video game-movie adaptation, following the critical and financial disappointments of Super Mario Bros., Double Dragon, and Street Fighter.

The film received below to average reviews from critics, Gene Siskel gave it a "thumbs up" rating on Siskel & Ebert^[3]. Rotten Tomatoes^[4] rates it at 24% out of 21 reviews and Metacritic^[5] gives it a 58/100 rating. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it "a martial arts action-adventure with wondrous special effects and witty production design [that] effectively combines supernatural terror, a mythical slay-the-dragon, save-the-princess odyssey and even a spiritual quest for self-knowledge."^[6] Bruce Diones of The New Yorker wrote that the film "starts out promisingly: the actors look sinewy and primed for action, and the effects are convincing. But soon the movie falls flat under an uninspired good-versus-evil plot and pathetically simple-minded dialogue."^[7]

[edit] Behind the scenes

[edit] Production

• The Outworld exterior scenes were filmed at the abandoned Kaiser Steel Mill in Fontana, California. The site is now the Auto Club Speedway.
• All of Goro's scenes were filmed in Los Angeles.^[8]
• Shooting locations in Thailand were accessible only by boat, so cast, crew and equipment had to be transported on long canoe-like vessels. Producer Gerrit Folsom constructed an outhouse in a secluded area near the set in order to alleviate the problem of repeated trips to and from the mainland.^[8] The bows of the boats were fitted with ornamental dragon-head carvings and used in the movie as the fighters' secondary transport to Shang Tsung's island from his junk.^[8]

[edit] Casting

• Cameron Diaz was originally set to play Sonya Blade, but she broke her wrist during production and was replaced by Wilson.
• Gregory McKinney, who played Jax, served in the United States Air Force Presidential Honor Guard and in law enforcement before breaking into acting. He died of a brain aneurysm on April 12, 1998.
• Bridgette Wilson was jokingly nicknamed "RoboBabe" during production by Anderson.^[8]
• Despite the intensity of the fight scenes coupled with the actors performing most of their own stunts, on-set injuries were surprisingly minimal; the only notable occurrence was a mildly bruised kidney suffered by Linden Ashby while shooting Johnny Cage's fight scene with Scorpion.^[8]
• Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa was the filmmakers' first and only choice for the role of Shang Tsung. He came to the audition in a costume, and read his lines while standing on a chair.^[8] Shang Tsung was depicted as relatively younger in the film in order to avoid the excessive makeup that would have been required to simulate his aged appearance in the game.
• Christopher Lambert also voiced Raiden on the French dub of the film.
• Steven Ho (Liu Kang's younger brother Chan) was a former national karate champion who performed stuntwork for Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.^[9]

[edit] Soundtrack

• Three songs from Chicago-based group Stabbing Westward (a favorite band of MK co-creator John Tobias at the time) were included in the movie, but were omitted from the soundtrack. The songs were "Lost", "Lies", and "Can't Happen Here", all of which appear on the album Ungod.
• Goro's theme is a rendition of the band Napalm Death's song "Twist the Knife (Slowly)", except it is played three modulations higher than the standard.^{[citation needed]}
• A music video was created for the KMFDM single "Juke Joint Jezebel" and featured clips of fight scenes from the movie, but it was pulled by MTV due to complaints about its violent content.

[edit] Mortal Kombat II references

Although the movie was primarily based on the first game, there are several notable elements that were incorporated from Mortal Kombat II.

• Jax and Kitana were introduced in the second game, where Reptile's reptilian nature was also first demonstrated; he was only seen in human form in the first MK.
• Johnny Cage drops an autographed picture of himself near Scorpion's remains after their battle, which references his autograph Friendship move.
• Liu Kang uses his Bicycle Kick in his match with Reptile which was first introduced in MKII.
• The Shadow Priests, seen before the final battle, were first seen in MKII as part of one of the backgrounds.
• Outworld was seen in the movie but was never mentioned in the first game.
• Shao Kahn is seen in the final scene of the movie, but was not even referenced in the first game.
• Shang Tsung doesn't regain his youthful appearance until the second game.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Mortal Kombat at the Internet Movie Database
• Mortal Kombat at Allmovie
• Mortal Kombat at Rotten Tomatoes

v • d • e Mortal Kombat series Fighting games Mortal Kombat · MKII · MK3 (Ultimate MK3 / MK Trilogy)  · MK4 (MK Gold)  · Deadly Alliance (Tournament Edition)  · Deception (Unchained)  · Armageddon · vs. DC Universe  · Mortal Kombat 9 Action/Adventure games Mythologies: Sub-Zero · Special Forces · Shaolin Monks Information Main characters · Minor characters · Fatality Film and television Mortal Kombat · Annihilation · Devastation · The Journey Begins · Conquest · Defenders of the Realm Other Media · Comics · Live Tour · Music · Card Game · Kollection

v • d • e Films directed by Paul W. S. Anderson Shopping (1994) • Mortal Kombat (1995) • Event Horizon (1997) • Soldier (1998) • The Sight (2000) • The Glow (2002) • Resident Evil (2002) • Alien vs. Predator (2004) • Death Race (2008) • Resident Evil: Afterlife (2011)