FAQ for
Mortal Kombat (1995)

The movie Mortal Kombat is based on the highly successful games Mortal Kombat from 1992 and Mortal Kombat II from 1993, which spawned various more sequels. These games were the first in their kind that had real life martial artists/actors who modeled for the characters, and they were also one of the first games to introduce "gore", and the first games that introduced "fatalities", these were preformed, by doing moves, on the joypad, like example, a fireball in Street Fighter, the following fatality is for Liu Kang, which was said, to be the easiest fatality to pull off:

360 degrees toward (Liu Kang does a spinning kick and an uppercut).

Some were. However, these similarities were more obvious in the game, but they were also in the movie.

*Liu Kang (Robin Shou) = Bruce Lee

*Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) = Jean-Claude Van Damme

*Raiden (Christopher Lambert) = James Pax (Big Trouble in Little China)

*Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson) = Cynthia Rothrock

*Kano (Trevor Goddard) = Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator)

*Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) = James Hong (Big Trouble in Little China)

Various of them were.

*Liu Kang = Robin Shou, a Kempo expert and gold medallist.

*Shang Tsung = Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, created his own form of self-defense.

*Scorpion = Chris Casamassa, a Karate expert and champion.

*Sub-Zero = François Petit, expert in various martial arts.

*Reptile = Keith H. Cooke, expert in Wushu, Kickboxing and champion.

*Fighting Monk = Hakim Alston, expert in Kickboxing and Tae Kwon Do and champion.

*Art Lean = Kenneth Edwards, expert in Kung Fu and trainer.

*Chan Kang = Steven Ho, a Kung Fu expert and champion.

---- Various people claim that Christopher Lambert (Raiden), Talisa Soto (Kitana), and Linden Ashby (Cage) are martial artists as well. Various actors in various action films have to participate in training prior to shooting their scenes, but that does not necessarily make them martial artists. They are actors who took some martial arts training.

* A scene in which the heroes were allowed to mourn for Art Lean after he was killed by Goro. In the same scene there was a statue of the original Kung Lao.

*The ninjas were originally planned to be Tarkatas, like Baraka.

*A fight between Sonya Blade and Jade.

*Liu Kang: Phillip Rhee, Jason Scott Lee, Russell Wong, and Dustin Nguyen lost to Robin Shou.

*Sonya Blade: Cameron Diaz was cast, but dropped out because of a broken wrist.

*Johnny Cage: Jean-Claude Van Damme refused in order to do Street Fighter. Brandon Lee was cast but died while filming The Crow.

Some were in various scenes.

*Linden Ashby (Cage): -fight double: J.J. Perry -stunt double: Brad Martin

*Chris Casamassa (Scorpion): -acrobatic double: Mitch Gaylord -fire stunt double: Jeff Imada

*François Petit (Sub-Zero): -acrobatic double: Mark Caso

*Talisa Soto (Kitana): -stunt and fight double: Dana Hee

In 1997 this movie spawned a sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, which was highly anticipated, but also a disappointment. In 1998 it was followed by a series, Mortal Kombat: Krusade, which was renamed Mortal Kombat: Conquest. After finishing the first season there never came a second, despite the huge amount of fans who were eagerly awaiting one.

Since 2003 there have been rumours about a third Mortal Kombat film, which might be called Mortal Kombat 3: Domination or Mortal Kombat: Devastation. Production keeps getting postponed, however, and though it's almost sure that this movie will get made eventually, it's not happening at the moment.

It was very successful and a box office hit all over the world. Mortal Kombat is also considered (one of) the best videogame adaptation(s) ever so far.

This question will raise mixed feelings. The overall story was very true to the first and second Mortal Kombat game. Paul W.S. Anderson did a good job incorporating most of the characters in a solid story.

Some fans, however, will complain about the fact that some characters who were very popular (mainly Scorpion and Sub-Zero) did not have enough screen time and background information in the film.

In a realistic sense, it is impossible to have many lead characters with huge background stories. That works for thrillers such as The Usual Suspects, but this was still an action/fantasy-film.

Not to mention the original games really had no story at all, they were strictly 1-2 player fighting games. As the game sequels progressed more background was told about the characters and once the games started getting into the 3-D realm, they developed stories. But when this film was made, there was pretty much no story, so this film was actually very good at making a story out of nothing. But as stated above that Scorpion and Sub-Zero were slaves under Shang Tsung's power whereas in the games Sub-Zero was actually a good guy and Scorpion was a villain but a Rogue, he held no alligiances.

People who enjoyed the film as it is and who also know the game are very happy about it.

Some did.

Robin Shou returned as Liu Kang in MK2.

Talisa Soto returned as Princess Kitana in MK2.

Chris Casamassa returned as Scorpion in the series.

Keith Cooke returned as Sub-Zero in MK2.

J.J. Perry (a stunt double) returned as Scorpion/Cyrax in MK2 and as Sub-Zero and a stunt double in the series.

Dana Hee (a stunt double) returned as Mileena in MK2 and as Siann and a stunt double in the series.

Mark Caso (a stunt double) returned as Raptor and a stunt double in MK2 and as a stunt double in the series.

Dennis Keiffer (stunts) returned as Baraka in MK2.

No. To make the movie PG-13 there was no gore. It contains lots of violence and even fatalities, but only the ones without blood. The only moment blood is visible is on Shang Tsung's mouth after Liu Kang punches him during the final fight.

Robin Shou & Keith H. Cooke: Beverly Hills Ninja.

Robin Shou & Hakim Alston: Red Trousers: The Life of the Hong Kong Stuntmen.

Chris Casamassa, Hakim Alston, Gerald Okamura, Chris Torres, Earnest Hart Jr., & Dennis Keiffer: Shootfighter.

Chris Casamassa, Hakim Alston, & Richard Branden: WMAC Masters.

Chris Casamassa & Keith H. Cooke: China O'Brien II.

Chris Casamassa, Steven Ho, Sidney Liufau, Gerald Okamura, Steven Ito, & J.J. Perry: Blade.

Chris Casamassa, Dana Hee, Dennis Keiffer, Brad Martin, Steven Ito, & Takis Triggelis: Batman & Robin.

Dana Hee, Steven Ito, & Dennis Keiffer: Soldier.

J.J. Perry & Dennis Keiffer: Wild Wild West, Fist of the North Star, Deadly Ransom, Today You Die, Black Dawn, & Fatal Blade.

J.J. Perry, Dennis Keiffer, Brad Martin, & Jeff Imada: Serenity.

Halcyon and On and On - Orbital

That is explained in the second movie. He uses queen sindel of outworld to exploit a loophole and is able to break through even though he lost the tournie.

In the Mortal Kombat games Kitana is the princess of Edenia. In the films Kitana is said to come from Outworld. We do not have any frame of reference to say how long people from Edenia/Outworld can live.