It may have taken a while, but it seems like movie studios have finally learned how to respect the source material when it comes to adapting video games to the big screen. While this doesn’t always translate to a better movie, at least gamers get to see their favorite characters brought to life in a way that doesn’t completely disrespect the original experience.
Warner Bros’ long-awaited sequel Mortal Kombat II continues this trend of making up for the adaptational mistakes of yesteryear, with director Simon McQuoid going out of his way to include as much of the original lore and iconography as possible without ever getting in the way of the story. In honor of that noble effort, here are four fun Easter eggs that you may not have noticed while watching Mortal Kombat II!
While there are plenty more callbacks to the games in this 116-minute feature, these are just five of the less obvious references that stood out during our first watch. That being said, don’t forget to comment below if you think a particularly fun easter egg was missed.
Just in case you’ve yet to see the film: beware of spoilers ahead!
With that out of the way, onto the list.
4. Failed Fatality
Executing a Fatality in Mortal Kombat used to be a hell of a lot harder before you could simply pause the fight and check the in-game move list. Hell, back when arcades were still a thing, you’d even see kids running around with hastily-scrawled notes containing the secret to humiliating your friends by turning their character into a charred skeleton.
However, even with the instructions in hand, it’s sometimes hard to get some of these moves right (especially as an aging gamer). That’s why I appreciate the inclusion of a failed Fatality towards the beginning of the flick, where Kitana refuses her father’s command to execute Johnny Cage, and he stumbles around awkwardly before falling to the ground just like in the game.
While Kitana’s hesitation is explained later on, the gag is still a clear nod towards one of the most annoying aspects of the source material.
3. Ed Boon’s Cameo
Ed Boon is one of the most influential creators in the gaming industry (as well as the iconic original voice for Scorpion and several other characters), so it’s kind of frustrating that he only ever had a live-action cameo in the low-budget Mortal Kombat: Legacy web-series.
Thankfully, the new film finally gives Boon the Stan Lee-esque treatment that he deserves by having him portray a friendly bartender who addresses Johnny Cage’s alcohol-fueled depression by commenting that the character used to be “more animated”.
2. Johnny Cage’s Callback to Big Trouble in Little China
It’s no secret that the development team over at Midway used to be huge movie buffs. In fact, the entire concept behind the Mortal Kombat games was basically lifted from Bloodsport, and the character of Johnny Cage was even meant to be a digitized Jean Claude Van Damme before the actor became busy with other projects. However, some of the MK franchise’s influences are much more obvious than others.
That’s why it was fun to see Karl Urban’s Cage finally address the fact that Raiden is an obvious knock-off of Lightning from John Carpenter’s Big Trouble in Little China. Now just wait until he finds out about Shang Tsung!
1. Cheating Shao Kahn
Arcade games are known to be unfair in their attempts at extracting every last quarter from excited gamers, but it was only recently that fans discovered just how mean the original version of Mortal Kombat II could really be. As it turns out, the game that introduced us to the legendary villain Shao Kahn actually reacted directly to player input rather than the onscreen action, often making it literally impossible to land a hit during some of the boss battles. If that wasn’t bad enough, Kahn would later appear in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot as an essentially broken character that did way too much damage with nearly unavoidable attacks.
That’s precisely why it feels like such a clever little in-joke when the film presents Shao Kahn as something of a supernatural cheater. After all, in McQuoid’s movie, the monstrous conqueror rigs the tournament in his favor by stealing Raiden’s powers and essentially becoming an immortal god – with devastating consequences for our fair-playing heroes.
I never thought I’d see a videogame adaptation use a literal “god mode” as a plot device, and yet here we are!