58 hidden details in Mortal Kombat (1995)
Paul WS Anderson’s Hollywood debut saw him adapting successfully “Mortal Kombat”, the infamous videogame arcade of the early 90’s. Considered by many now an under-rated and cult gem of martial arts, during the film’s 25th anniversary (August 2020), “Mortal Kombat“ (1995) has got a serious re-evaluation.
Rotten Tomatoes wrote a championing editorial to alter its rating (originally at 35%, now sitting at a rather more comfortable 47%) whereas its Metacritic score remains a solid 60, followed by an 8.3 user rating! Officially recognized as peak 90’s creation, its re-evaluation has included a wider acceptance of its groundbreaking soundtrack, tongue and cheek approach, respect to the source material and aggressive martial art sequences that remain novel so many years later. Bringing for the first time, wire-fu sequences in Hollywood, it proved unexpectedly to be a massive hit (for a genre film), spending three weeks at the top of the US box office and showcased tremendous (for the time) visuals with an exotic flair.
What is most surprising though is the effort that was put into this production as noted by the famous film critic Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune and it shows. There are so many nicely hidden details which could escape the common eye. Here are 58 hidden details from the movie adaptation of “Mortal Kombat”.
1. The Mortal Kombat logo appears quite a few times throughout the movie
2. The opening fight is a flawless victory. Chan (Liu Kang's brother) never lands a hit on Shang Tsung.
3. When Shang Tsung taunts Liu Kang in his nightmare, he morphs into an eyeless skeleton. When he is defeated at the end of the film, and dies, he reverts to his original form, his youth and power maintained by the enslaved souls, now gone, leaving behind the same figure that we saw in opening sequence.
4. When Liu Kang wakes up from his nightmare, you can see his bike in the corner of the room, hanging, a common practice in New York (since the flats are tiny) indicating that he lives there.
5. Kano, portrayed by the late Trevor Goddard, exaggerated a British accent but the American filmmakers thought he was Australian and since it was a hit with everyone else, from that moment on, the character in the future incarnations became Australian.
6. There is a Steven Spielberg lookalike on purpose in the Johnny Cage movie set. Spielberg was supposed to do this cameo but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts.
7. The set decoration for the Order of Light has traditional items from Thailand (where the film was shot) instead of China (where it is supposed to be set) like bells, candles and flowers. Even the boat that drops Liu Kang at the temple has Thai inscriptions at the bottom.
8. The extras of the Order of Light are a combination of extras and actual monks.
9. Every appearance of Raiden is done via teleportation - in one shot he is not there, in the next one he is accompanied by appropriately thunder like effects.
10. Even the movement of lights has a low ambient sound when they occur within the frame to further heightened the otherworldly atmosphere e.g., the lighthouse at Pier 40 in Hong Kong.
11. Shang Tsung dresses only in black (Darkness) whereas Raiden in white (Light) no matter the setting (beach, temple, club, forest) or time of the day (day, dusk, dawn, night).
12. Shang Tsung mocks subtly Raiden each time these characters share the screen together.
13. The banners throughout Shang Tsung's island are written in Mandarin and they actually spell Mortal Kombat!
14. Throughout the film, you can see hooded figures - the silent monks. These are taken directly from the videogame. They are called silent because their lips are stitched together. However, since the film had a PG-13 film, this detail was considered to be gruesome so it was omitted (bottom left still).
15. There is a running gag regarding Johnny Cage’s luggage. As the film progresses, he subsequently loses all of them - one gets thrown in the water by Liu Kang, the majority of them get wet during his attempt to disembark from the boat alone, and the remaining ones fell off a cliff (see pictures below clockwise).
16. When Liu Kang throws the suitcase in the water, this is a homage to Bruce Lee's “Enter the Dragon” where Lee leaves a guy stranded on a boat due to his disrespectful manners (see top left pic on the collage above).
17. When we first see the Shang Tsung's palace garden, there are faces carved in the walls (a homage to the forest arena of the game) and holes were light comes through - indicating that the place is very high up. Also in a blink and you will miss it moment, there is a waterfall on the right side.
18. The palace’s garden displays statues of previously defeated warriors. One of them seems to resemble Achilles (with the helmet and spear), the Greek hero of Homer's “Iliad”, indicating that maybe the Mortal Kombat tournament could be thousands of years old.
19. During Kitana's introduction, you may noticed that there is a silent monk next to her indicating her important status. He is barely visible though due to the lighting palette of the set.
20. When we enter Shang Tsung's throne room for the first time during the banquet, a massive door of stone with the MK logo opens. You can notice at the top of the door, when it opens, a small amount of debris and dust falls down while the rock door has a few cracks. These are nice touches that attempt to make the sets look more realistic and old since this tournament has being taking place for hundreds (if not for thousands) of years.
21. Sets are lifted entirely from the videogame's fight arenas - Scorpion's lair, Shang Tsung's palace gardens, Goro's lair, Shang Tsung's throne room.
22. As the film progress so do the fighting powers of Subzero and Scorpion to raise the narrative stakes. Subzero at first freezes a gun, then a human being and at the finale he creates a massive ice orb. On the other hand, Scorpion shows his live spear, then his teleportation skills and finally his fire ability.
23. When Subzero throws his ice-grenade at the henchman causing him to explode upon impact, the effects team added a wave of (real) air on Tsung's cape despite the ice and the object being CGI.
24. Goro's belt has a variation of the Ying Yang symbol.
25. When Goro walks, there is a thumping sound to indicate how heavy (and big) he is.
26. All the candles in Goro's lair are real.
27. In Goro's lair, when Kano throws away his food, you can hear rats squabbling over it (left speaker in you have a surround system).
28. There is a pond on the right side of Goro's lair (behind Kano) indicating that it is indeed subterranean.
29. In the first fight of the tournament, Liu Kang does a traditional Kung Fu salute.
30. When Scorpion's spear has been tangled around a tree, the actual tree is moving to give more weight to the CGI element.
31. During the fight between Kitana and Liu Kang, there is a silent monk on the right of Shang Tsung with a book and a quail. From a visual storytelling perspective, he is there to record the outcome of each fight.
32. The same beach is the now famous Railay beach (packed with tourists).
33. The skirmish between Subzero and Liu Kang goes back and forth in a 2-D environment resembling the format of the game.
34. The shot of Subzero's ice stance was the shot the producers suggested in a promotional card to get a Best Visual Effects nomination at the 1996 Oscars.
35. The producers used micro cameras placed on the actors' chest to give a first person perspective of getting hit.
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6. Most of the fighting sequences include contact without any stunt doubles.
37. When Goro is defeated, leaves start falling indicating Shang Tsung's loss of control over the outcome of the tournament.
38. Liu Kang performs his signature moves when he is in outworld (bicycle kick and fireball).
40. Just before Reptile transforms, you can hear a voice yelling "Reptile". This is the voice of Shao Kahn from the videogames when you select this (or any) character.
41. The reason for Liu Kang's surprised face in his fight with Reptile is to show surprise at how fast Reptile can moves, a trademark of the fan favourite videogame character.
42. At this shot, Robin Shou broke three ribs.
43. During the Reptile fight in Outworld, the same design from the Evil Tower arena in the Mortal Kombat II (1993) game can be seen in the background.
44. In one of the walls during this fight, there is a cheat code for the Mortal Kombat II (1993) game.
45. Paul WS Anderson kept close up shots for Shang Tsung due to the expressive facial features of Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa.
46. Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa almost never blinks in the entire duration of the film to give his character an otherworldly feeling and a snake like charm.
47. Liu Kang wears less clothes as the film goes on - his outfit is a leather mid waist jacket, a long sleeve polo shirt, a singlet, a pair of pants and shoes. During the first fight with Shang Tsung's henchmen in Goro's lair, he has ditched the leather jacket. During his fight with the other tournament combatants, he wears only the singlet. By the time he fights Shang Tsung, he wears only pants and shoes.
48. In the final fight between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung, when Shang Tsung is walking with boots, there is an echo sound suggesting that the place is built from stone and it is quite vast and hollow.
49. Just before their fight, Liu Kang and Shang Tsung pay respects to each other, a common gesture in martial arts sparring matches. If you listen closely though, you can hear Shang Tsung's medication grunt engulfing the surround system when he is doing his salute.
50. After paying respects before their fight begins, Shang Tsung attempts to strike an elbow hit. Liu Kang’s surprising reaction indicates just how fast (and deadly) really Shang Tsung.
51. The attempted elbow hits and blocks between Shang Tsung and Liu Kang are done to be identical on purpose showing they are both equal in physical strength and that Liu Kang can counter remarkably well the sorcerer. Only when Liu Kang attempts to kick Shang Tsung in the face, the fight breaks momentum with Shang Tsung kneeing him in the face!
52. When Shang Tsung summons six additional warriors to fight Liu Kang, they seem to be coming from different eras - there is a samurai among them.
53. Just before Shang Tsung morphs into Chan, there is a-blink-and-you-will-miss-it smirk on his face showing his confidence and arrogance.
54. When Shang Tsung morphs into Chan to trick Liu Kang, he never blinks as Chan, a trademark of the sorcerer.
55. When Shang Tsung is defeated, a soulnado of all the defeated warriors is released. If you look closely, the souls in the background are actually those of the six warriors that Liu Kang defeated earlier.
56. Once the soulnado is closed, Shang Tsung's body has disappeared completely indicating that he might return for the sequel as he is (kinda) immortal in the videogames or just a too hard to get rid of villain!
57. Frank Welker (Optimus Prime in the animated Transformers series) voiced Shao Kahn at the end of the film.
58. The film incorporated 18 special moves, finishers, brutalities and friendships throughout its duration. Here is the full list:
Johnny Cage's shadow kick
Johnny Cage's friendship move (signed autograph)
Johnny Cage's crotch punch
Stage Fatality (spikes)
Liu Kang's fireball
Liu Kang's bicycle kick
Brutality (Liu Kang to Shang Tsung)
Raiden's teleportation
Reptile's acid spitting
Reptile's camouflage
Scorprion's spear
Scorpion's teleportation
Scorpion's first fatality (flaming skull)
Shang Tsung soul sucking fatality
Shang Tsung morphing into various defeated opponents
Shang Tsung teleportation
Sonya Blade's leg grappler
Subzero's ice ball fatality