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Mortal Kombat (1995 film)

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Mortal Kombat
Theatrical release poster
Directed byPaul W. S. Anderson
Written byKevin Droney
Produced byLauri Apelian
Lawrence Kasanoff
StarringRobin Shou
Linden Ashby
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
Bridgette Wilson
Talisa Soto
Christopher Lambert
CinematographyJohn R. Leonetti
Edited byMartin Hunter
Music byGeorge S. Clinton
Production
companies
Distributed byNew Line Cinema
Release date
  • August 18, 1995 (1995-08-18)
Running time
101 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million
Box office$122,195,920

Mortal Kombat is a 1995 American action film directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. Based on the Mortal Kombat series of fighting games, the film was the first part of the Mortal Kombat film series.

The film follows the warrior Liu Kang, actor Johnny Cage, and Special Forces agent Sonya Blade, guided by the Thunder God Raiden, on their journey to combat the evil sorcerer Shang Tsung and his forces in a tournament to save Earth. The main inspiration for the film was the first title of the video game series, but also featured elements and characters from the game Mortal Kombat II.

Mortal Kombat was filmed primarily in Los Angeles, as well as on location in Thailand. The film was released on August 18, 1995 in the United States, on October 20, 1995 in the United Kingdom and on December 26, 1995 in Australia.

The film proved very popular with fans of the games, despite receiving mixed reviews by critics upon its release, and spent three weeks as the #1 film at the United States box office and earned a total of $122,195,920 worldwide.[1] Due to its success at the box office, the film later spawned a sequel, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, released in 1997, and a television series, Mortal Kombat: Konquest, released in 1998.

Plot

Once every generation, there is an inter-dimensional martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat, designed by the Elder Gods to limit invasions between the realms of the universe. If the realm of Outworld wins Mortal Kombat ten consecutive times, its Emperor Shao Kahn (voiced by Frank Welker) will be able to invade and conquer the Earth realm. They have already won nine; so this will be their tenth tournament.

The Shaolin warrior Liu Kang (Robin Shou) and his comrades, Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage (Linden Ashby) and U.S. Special Forces officer Sonya Blade (Bridgette Wilson), were handpicked by Raiden (Christopher Lambert), 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. Each of the three has his or her own reason for competing: Liu Kang seeks revenge against tournament host Shang Tsung (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) for killing his brother Chan (Steven Ho); Sonya also has vengeance on her mind, pursuing crime lord Kano (Trevor Goddard) who killed her partner; Johnny Cage, having been branded as a fake by the media, seeks to prove otherwise to the world.

At Shang Tsung's island, Liu Kang is attracted to Princess Kitana (Talisa Soto), Shao Kahn's adopted daughter; a wary Shang Tsung orders the creature Reptile (Keith Cooke) to keep a close eye on her. Liu defeats his first opponent, and Sonya gets her revenge on Kano. Johnny Cage encounters the demonic ninja Scorpion (Chris Casamassa), who teleports Cage to his lair in the Netherrealm; there the two battle viciously, both evenly matched, with Cage the eventual victor. Liu Kang engages in a brief duel with Kitana, who secretly offers him advice for his next battle ("Use the element which brings life"). Liu's next opponent is the ninja Sub-Zero (François Petit), whose defense seems impregnable because of his freezing abilities, until Liu Kang recalls Kitana's advice and turns the tables.

Prince Goro (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson), a huge, four-armed Shokan warrior enters the tournament and mercilessly crushes every opponent he faces. One of Johnny Cage's friends, Art Lean (Kenneth Edwards) goes up against Goro as well and is defeated, along with having his soul taken by Shang Tsung. Cage comes to Tsung to request a fight with Goro. The sorceror accepts on the condition that he be allowed to challenge any opponent of his choosing, any time and anywhere he chooses. Raiden tries to intervene but the conditions are accepted. Cage faces Goro and uses guile and the element of surprise to defeat the defending champion. Now desperate, Shang Tsung then takes Sonya hostage, invoking his privilege to challenge any opponent of his choosing, and takes her to Outworld. Knowing that his powers are ineffective in Outworld and that Sonya cannot defeat Shang Tsung herself, Raiden sends Johnny Cage and Liu Kang into Outworld to rescue Sonya and challenge Shang Tsung. In Outworld, Liu Kang battles Reptile to a standstill and soundly defeats him after having absorbed many blows from the creature and becoming enraged. Kitana meets up with Johnny Cage and Liu Kang afterwards; after telling the pair about Outworld's origins, as well as her own, she allies with them as they make their way to the castle where Sonya is being held.

Inside the castle tower, Shang Tsung challenges Sonya to fight him, knowing full well that her refusal to accept will result in Earthrealm forfeiting Mortal Kombat. All seems lost for Earthrealm until the three Outworld monks inside the tower reveal themselves to be Kitana, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage. Kitana berates Shang Tsung for his treachery to the Emperor as Sonya is set free. Shang Tsung challenges Johnny Cage, but Liu Kang demands to fight Shang Tsung. During the lengthy battle, Liu Kang faces not only Shang Tsung, but the souls that Shang Tsung had forcibly taken in past tournaments, and the image of his brother, Chan (actually a transformed Shang Tsung intending to lure Liu Kang to his death). Liu Kang rises above the challenges and takes on Shang Tsung with renewed determination and ultimately fires an energy bolt at Shang Tsung, knocking him from the battle platform and impaling him on a row of spikes below, killing him. Shang Tsung's death releases all the captive souls, including Chan's. Before ascending to the afterlife, Chan tells Liu that he will remain with him in spirit until they are once again reunited.

The warriors return to Earthrealm, where a victory celebration is taking place at the Shaolin temple. The jubilation abruptly stops, however, when Shao Kahn's giant figure suddenly appears in the skies. When the Emperor declares that he has come for everyone's souls, Raiden exclaims the final line of the movie, "I don't think so!" as the warriors take up fighting stances to defend themselves.

Cast

A former Shaolin monk. He enters the tournament to avenge his brother's death. Among those who auditioned for the role of Liu Kang were Jason Scott Lee, Russell Wong, Dustin Nguyen and Phillip Rhee.
A Hollywood superstar that enters the tournament to prove to the world that his skills are for real. Jean-Claude Van Damme turned down the role of Johnny Cage to star on Street Fighter. Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp and Gary Daniels were also considered for the role. Brandon Lee was originally cast, but died in a accident while filming The Crow. Linden Ashby trained in karate and taekwondo especially for this film. 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 Ashby while shooting Johnny Cage's fight scene with Scorpion.[2]
An agent of the law in hot pursuit of the criminal that killed her partner. Cameron Diaz was originally set to play Sonya, but she broke her wrist during a martial arts training prior to shooting and was replaced by Bridgette Wilson, who was jokingly nicknamed "RoboBabe" during production by director Paul W. S. Anderson.[2] Wilson performed all her own stunts, including fight scenes.
God of thunder and protector of Earthrealm who guides the warriors on their journey.
A mercenary that joined forces with Shang Tsung.
The stepdaughter of the Emperor who decides to help the Earth warriors.
A powerful and greedy sorcerer. 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.[2] He had previously appeared alongside Talisa Soto in Licence To Kill.
One of Shang Tsung's warriors. As his name implies, he possessed the ability to freeze. The rivalry between Sub-Zero and Scorpion is only quickly mentioned by Shang Tsung at the beginning of the movie.
One of Shang Tsung's warriors. His trademark spear from the games was changed to a snake-like harpoon that shot from a slit in his palm. The character was voiced by Ed Boon, co-creator of the Mortal Kombat games. Chris Casamassa was originally hired as a background ninja/stuntman, but during his audition demo he impressed the producers so much that they gave him the part of Scorpion.
A creature who is serving Shang Tsung. Reptile's lizard form was rendered with the use of computer-generated imagery, while the character's human form is portrayed by Keith Cooke.[3] Reptile's vocal effects are provided by Frank Welker.
The undefeated Mortal Kombat champion. His vocal effects are provided by Frank Welker.
  • Gregory McKinney as Jax:
Sonya's partner at the beginning of the movie. Steve James was originally cast to play Jax. But the actor died a year before production on the film began.
  • Frank Welker voices Shao Kahn, the Emperor of Outworld, who appears at the end of the film. Welker also voiced Reptile and Goro. Steven Ho played Chan Kang, Liu Kang's younger brother who is killed by Shang Tsung. Peter Jason appears as Master Boyd. Other martial artists to appear in a credited on screen role are Kenneth Edwards and Hakim Alston. Sandy Helberg is briefly seen in the beginning of the film as the director of Johnny Cage's latest movie. Originally, this part was to be a cameo appearance by Steven Spielberg, but scheduling conflicts forced him to back out. The "director" character in this scene still resembles Spielberg.[4]

Production

The original script was written to be a hard R-rated movie with graphic violence and gore.[citation needed] However, unlike the games, the MPAA rated this film with a PG-13 rating. Robin Shou said that in the original script he "was supposed to fall in love with Talisa Soto [Kitana]. I was looking forward to it, but they thought we have so much action, we don't want to add romance to it. They cut it out."[5] Also scripted but not filmed were a short battle between Sonya and Jade, another of Shang Tsung's servants, and a scene where Shang Tsung allowed the heroes a night to bury Art Lean and mourn his loss. They buried him in the Garden of Statues, underneath the statue of Kung Lao; this is the only place where Kung Lao appears in any of the movies, although Liu Kang claims he is Kung Lao's descendant in the film before his final battle with Shang-Tsung. In Mortal Kombat canon, Liu Kang is the close friend of the current Kung Lao, who is in fact a descendant of The Great Kung Lao. Originally not included in the movie, Reptile was added in response to focus groups being unimpressed with the original fights in the film.[6] Robin Shou and Paul W. S. Anderson noted that neither knew what Reptile's lizard form would look like until after filming, making the pre-fight sequence difficult to shoot.[7]

Although the movie was primarily based on the first game in the series, there are several notable elements that were incorporated from the second game, Mortal Kombat II. Outworld was seen in the movie, but was never mentioned in the first game (only mentioned in the video game's manual). Similarly, Shao Kahn is seen in the final scene of the movie, but was not even referenced in the first game. Jax and Kitana were introduced in the second game as well. Shang Tsung did not regain his youthful appearance in the game series until the second game, but has it throughout the film. In his match with Reptile, Liu Kang uses his "Bicycle Kick" special move, which was first introduced in the second game, as was Reptile's ability to turn invisible. Shang Tsung's ability to steal the souls of fallen victims - which is seen twice in the film - was first seen in MKII as one of his Fatalities. After killing Scorpion, Johnny Cage drops an autographed picture of himself near his remains, in a reference to his Friendship move in MKII. When Reptile assumes his human form, the voice of Shao Kahn - sampled directly from the second game - can be heard announcing "Reptile". The Shadow Priests, seen before the final battle, were first seen in the second game as part of two of the backgrounds.

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.[2] 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.[2] 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.[2] The film was originally scheduled for a May 1995 release, but was pushed to August.

Filming

The Shooting of Mortal Kombat Began in January 1995 and ended in April 1995

Other media

The Journey Begins

In 1995, several months before the movie's release, Threshold Entertainment released a tie-in animated film on VHS and Laserdisc, 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 15-minute behind-the scenes documentary of the theatrical release. The film is included as a special feature on the Mortal Kombat Blu-Ray, released on April 19, 2011.

The film featured Liu Kang, Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade – also the three main characters in the live action movie – traveling on a mysterious boat en route to the Mortal Kombat tournament. On the way they meet Raiden, who provides them with some hints about how to survive the tournament and defeat Shang Tsung and his army of Tarkatan minions. Upon arriving at the island where the battle takes place, Rayden retells the origins of Shang Tsung, Goro, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and the Great Kung Lao in between fight scenes.

Mortal Kombat: A Novel

A novelization of the movie by Martin Delrio was released through Tor Books. It is based on the early version of the film's script and such it includes the deleted/unfilmed scenes.

Soundtrack

Untitled
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
Allmusic[8]

Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the compilation album which accompanied the film. The theme was composed by Praga Khan and Oliver Adams. Mortal Kombat was nominated for the Motion Picture Sound Editors, USA Golden Reel Award.[citation needed] It won the BMI Film & TV Awards BMI Film Music Award.[9] The soundtrack went Platinum[10] in 10 days reaching #10 on the Billboard 200,[citation needed] and its popularity inspired the album Mortal Kombat: More Kombat.

Three songs from Stabbing Westward were included in the movie, but were omitted from the soundtrack: "Lost", "Lies" and "Can't Happen Here", all of which appear on the album Ungod. Metal vocalist Burton C. Bell is the only artist on the album to appear twice; once with his primary band Fear Factory, and again fronting the side-project GZR.

Mortal Kombat: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
No.TitleArtistLength
1."A Taste of Things to Come"George S. Clinton0:48
2."Goodbye (Demo)"Gravity Kills3:11
3."Juke-Joint Jezebel (Giorgio Moroder Metropolis Mix)"KMFDM5:16
4."Unlearn (Josh Wink's Live Mix)"Psykosonik4:50
5."Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental)"Traci Lords6:26
6."Halcyon + On + On"Orbital9:24
7."Utah Saints Take on The Theme from Mortal Kombat"Utah Saints3:00
8."The Invisible"GZR3:43
9."Zero Signal"Fear Factory5:57
10."Burn"Sister Machine Gun4:45
11."Blood & Fire (Out of the Ashes Mix)"Type O Negative4:28
12."I Reject"Bile2:47
13."Twist the Knife (Slowly)"Napalm Death2:51
14."What U See/We All Bleed Red"Mutha's Day Out4:10
15."Mortal Kombat (Techno-Syndrome 7" Mix)"The Immortals3:24
16."Goro Vs. Art"George S. Clinton feat. Buckethead2:59
17."Demon Warriors/Final Kombat"George S. Clinton3:49

Reception

Box office

Mortal Kombat opened on August 18, 1995, and cruised into the top box-office spot with $23.2 million,[citation needed] 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 $70 million in the U.S., and earned an estimated $122 million worldwide,[1] while the soundtrack went Platinum[10] in less than two weeks.

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. The film holds a score of 34% on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus "despite an effective otherwordly atmosphere and appropriately cheesy visuals, Mortal Kombat suffers from its poorly constructed plot, laughable dialogue, and subpar acting",[11] and on Metacritic, holds a rating of 58/100.[12]

Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it a "thumbs up" rating on Siskel & Ebert.[13] 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."[14] 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."[15]

Reboot

On September 29, 2011, it was reported that New Line Cinema (MK film rights holders), sister studio to Warner Bros. (current MK franchise holders), has hired Kevin Tancharoen to direct a new feature-length movie based on the franchise. Oren Uziel, who wrote the original short film, Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, but was not involved in Mortal Kombat: Legacy, is returning to pen the story, while no actors, nor other crew have been confirmed. Story details known state that the film will not be an extension of the game, nor of Legacy.[16]

New Line President Toby Emmerich said that the success of the video games combined with Tancharoen's vision means, "You don't have to squint too hard to see how it might make a good movie", while Tancharoen says discussions have only concerned an R-rating, with darker, brutally real martial arts.[17] Tancharoen had discussions at the 2011 Comic Con with Uziel and Mortal Kombat creator Ed Boon and to expect a very big origin story with the sensibility and realism of Rebirth and Legacy as opposed to the traditional Mortal Kombat mythology.[18] He said, "I've always been a fan of properties like Batman where you can expand the universe in different directions. Mortal Kombat is big enough that you can allow for multiple different kinds of storytelling."[19]

But as for its continuity with the web series, Tancharoen said "you won't have to have seen all ten episodes previously - or have played the videogame - to understand the movie."[19] Shooting was expected to begin in March 2012[18] with a budget of well under $100 million and a release date of August 16, 2013, coordinated with the next installment of the video game series being produced by the same studios.[20] It was later delayed due to budget constraints and the director has started working on Legacy season 2 until problems with the movie have been sorted out. Recently, Warner Bros exec Lance Sloan has revealed that the 'Mortal Kombat' movie will have a budget of between $40 million to $50 million.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Mortal Kombat at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ a b c d e f Goldman, Michael. Mortal Kombat: the Movie. Prima Lifestyles, 1995; ISBN 0-7615-0082-0
  3. ^ Goldman, Michael and Aaron, Richard E. (1995). Mortal Kombat: The Movie Behind the Scenes. Prima Games. ISBN 0-7615-0082-0.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Steven Spielberg - Best Movie Ever: Mortal Kombat - UGO.com
  5. ^ Robin Shou 6/6 | Asian American Personalities | GOLDSEA
  6. ^ Reed, Dr. Craig D. (1998-01-01). "Mortal Kombat: Annihilation - Behind the Scenes at the New Hollywood Blockbuster". Black Belt. 36 (1). Active Interest Media, Inc.: 85. ISSN 0277-3066.
  7. ^ Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins. Behind the Scenes commentary: Turner Home Entertainment. 1996-05-21. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/6303541356|6303541356[[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]]. {{cite AV media}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |format= requires |url= (help); Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  8. ^ Allmusic review
  9. ^ Mortal Kombat at IMDb
  10. ^ a b "Search Results for Mortal Kombat". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  11. ^ Mortal Kombat reviews, RottenTomatoes
  12. ^ Mortal Kombat reviews, Metacritic
  13. ^ Review of Mortal Kombat - Siskel & Ebert
  14. ^ Mortal Kombat review, Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times, August 21, 1995
  15. ^ Mortal Kombat review, Bruce Diones, The New Yorker, September 4, 1995
  16. ^ "'Mortal Kombat' Video Game Headed Back to the Big Screen". The Hollywood Reporter. 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  17. ^ "New 'Mortal Kombat' movie 'needs to feel brutal,' says director". Entertainment Weekly. 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  18. ^ a b "'Glee' director prepares for 'Mortal Kombat' film". Los Angeles Times. 2011-09-30. Retrieved 2011-10-01.
  19. ^ a b "Mortal Kombat: Legacy Coming To The Big Screen". The Fan Carpet. 2011-10-01. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  20. ^ "New 'Mortal Kombat' movie coming via partnership of Warner units". Los Angeles Times. 2011-09-29. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  21. ^ Luke Karmali. "Warner Bros Confirms Mortal Kombat Movie Reboot". IGN. Retrieved 07-11-2012. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help)
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