25 Cool Facts You Never Knew About The Failed Mortal Kombat Movies
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The hated Mortal Kombat movies are filled with brutal action, but the real dark secrets happened behind-the-scenes.
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The 90s were particularly fertile when it comes to terrible movies based on video games. Some people might argue that the genre has yet to produce a good movie, but the 90s were on a completely different level: Super Mario Bros, Street Fighter, Wing Commander and Double Dragon were all part of the first wave of video game movies. The difficulties that come with adapting a story that is supposed to be interactive became apparent with the lack of critical or box office success, and yet, in the middle of it all was the surprising Mortal Kombat.
While the movie wasn’t a critical darling, it did something its contemporaries could not: It stayed at the top of the chart for three straight weeks. The characters were relatively true to their roots, and the action was at least in line with what you would expect from a fighting game. A sequel was ordered, but it failed to follow the original’s formula. By trying to cram too many things in a short running time, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation signalled the end of this short-lived movie franchise.
This article will take a look at everything that went into producing an unexpected hit, but will also examine the many reasons why the sequel destroyed what the original was building on. If you have ever wondered why the Mortal Kombat movies failed despite such a promising start, you have come to the right place!
25 Persistence Is Key
The idea for a Mortal Kombat movie was conceived when Hollywood producer Lawrence Kasanoff first laid eyes on the arcade game. He was visiting Midway, who had been working with him to produce a game from Terminator 2. The team showed him their newest product, and Kasanoff was smitten. He immediately proposed to turn it into a movie, but Ed Boon and John Tobias were unconvinced. In fact, it took three months of constant nagging before Midway relented. Why were negotiations this difficult? The Super Mario Bros. movie had come out recently, and the effect of that box office bomb were still being felt, leaving Midway unconvinced about the fate of their intellectual property. In fact, even Kasanoff’s bosses at New Line studio were reluctant, telling him they hated the script, but that they trusted his judgment. It’s a miracle the movie got made at all.
24 Basic Necessities
In order for any project to be successful, it needs to properly take care of the basic stuff. Mortal Kombat’s production wasn’t off to a good start when it landed on the remote island off of Thailand that was going to be its primary set. The island was so far from civilization that equipment had to be carried by long boats every morning, and the area lacked anything in terms of amenities. In fact, things were so dire that even going to the bathroom was a problem: the crew could either do their business right there in the jungle, or take the boat back to the mainland every time. Thankfully, the dedicated crew saw fit to build an outhouse in a secluded area, just so that the team wouldn’t have to ‘go’ straight on the floor, which shows that the real heroes don’t always appear on screen.
23 Last Minute Decision
The role of Sonya Blade, the main female character, went through a string of bad luck before things turned around for the producers. Bridgette Wilson was first given the part, but the pre-production took so long that she eventually left to do Billy Madison with Adam Sandler. Eventually, they were able to get Cameron Diaz, still relatively unknown at the time. She went through the entire martial arts training required, but broke her wrist shortly before filming began. Being unable to push back their schedule, the production asked Bridgette Wilson again, who had been able to finish her other projects in the meantime. She had to learn martial arts on set, in between takes, but she was able to commit to the movie after all.
22 Who Wants To Be Johnny Cage?
Before anyone ever had to go number 2 on the ground, the movie had to find its stars. The Mortal Kombat movie focused on four main characters. Liu Kang’s casting was fairly straightforward if a bit long: Robin Shou had to audition seven times before he was awarded the role. The part of Johnny Cage, however, went through some difficulties. Brandon Lee was going to don the sunglasses, but he accidentally died during the filming of The Crow. The producers then asked Jean-Claude Van Damme, the real life inspiration for Johnny Cage, which would have been perfect! However, Van Damme preferred to go with a different fighting game, and played Guile in Street Fighter instead. Finally, the producers settled on Linden Ashby, who wasn’t a big name, but had the advantage of being willing and available.
21 From Scottish To French
The last difficult part to cast was that of Raiden. The God of Thunder looks very much Asian in the Mortal Kombat video games, but the producers wanted to go in a different direction. Originally, they asked the very Scottish and not Asian at all Sean Connery, who would have been a gigantic catch. However, Mr. Connery took one look at the script and decided, literally, that he didn’t want to stop playing golf to star in a movie based on a silly game. Instead, they settled on their second choice, famous Frenchman Christopher Lambert, who was a co-star of Connery in Highlander. He might not have been as big of a star, but as we will learn in the next entry, he was a much nicer guy.
20 The Pit
While Christopher Lambert was by every report a complete joy to work with, one of his colleagues was a bit more difficult. Despite the fact that he isn’t even a real person, Goro was the source of many problems on set. First of all, the gigantic puppet ended up costing a million dollars, which is considerable on a budget of 20 million. Second, it required sixteen puppeteers at all time to move its various articulations and facial features. Finally, despite all the care in the world, the puppet kept breaking down at every turn, to the point where they didn’t even bother bringing it to Thailand. Instead, all of its scenes were shot in an LA studio, on a set which was supposed to have a cute little pond. The director opted to leave the pond dry, because any contact with water would basically short circuit the million-dollar disaster.
19 The Definition Of Class
Christopher Lambert, because he had been in the Highlander movies before, was the highest paid actor on the set. With the small budget allocated to Mortal Kombat, director Paul W.S. Anderson could only afford to shoot some close-up shots of Lambert in Los Angeles before the production moved to Thailand. There, Anderson planned on using a double for all the wide angle shots necessary, and pray for the best. When Lambert caught wind of that, he decided it was unacceptable. Instead, he paid for his own flight to Thailand, and kept working on the movie without asking for more money. Once it was all over, Lambert decided he could be even nicer, and offered to pay for the wrap party. Rumours that the rest of the cast petitioned for Lambert to be declared a saint are unsubstantiated.
18 Who Are You Again?
While the movie was still being shot in Los Angeles, the production team was trying to save money to be able to extend the shoot in Thailand. This means that some people had to work more than one job, which includes the on-set medic, who also doubled as the set security guard. One day, Tom Cruise wandered in from a nearby studio, wanting to take a look at the fancy action movie being shot. The medic/guard wasn’t having any of it: Tom Cruise was not in Mortal Kombat, therefore he could not see the set. Despite the assurance that, yes, he was the Tom Cruise, our brave medic did not budge, and sent Ethan Hunt himself back on his merry way.
17 Battling Censors
Despite the pain they went through to get the best fight scenes possible, one might notice that no human ever dies on screen. There are deaths, of course (who could forget poor Art Lean?), but the execution is never shown explicitly. That is because doing so would have given the movie an automatic R rating, which is death for a movie aimed at teenagers. With the studio aiming for a PG-13, but still trying to stay true to the product, the decision was made to get the gore elsewhere. Showing a non-human or a monster dying on screen was all right, so Goro and Scorpion both met a fairly graphic demise for the sake of violence, while the human contingent got away pretty much unscathed.
16 Leave It To The Experts
Once the first cut of the movie was made, the producers wanted to make sure that their film was going to be a hit. To be successful, it would need to satisfy the fans of the game. They thus assembled a bunch of kids who were fans of the Mortal Kombat series and asked for their opinion. The group liked what they saw but wanted more fights. They also had some comments on how closely the movie was following the game, and their voices were heard. Among the changes enacted because of their input, we ended up with a Kano that looked closer to the real thing, Reptile was added in a series of reshoots, and Johnny Cage defeated Goro with a punch to the balls just so he would use an actual move from the game.
15 Suffering For Their Art
When the set medic was not busy turning Tom Cruise away, he had his hands full with on-set injury. From looking at the list of injuries, this had to have been one of the most painful shoot in history, Jackie Chan movies non-included. Bridgette Wilson dislocated a shoulder during a fight scene, but popped it back into place and kept going about her day. Robin Shou, who played Liu Kang, broke at least five ribs in two different fights. Linden Ashby, playing Johnny Cage, broke ribs as well, and even injured his kidney during the fight scene with Sub Zero, to the point where he was peeing blood for days. Years later, the director even commented that at some point, the actors were “eating Advil like they were M&M’s.”
14 You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid
The reshoots ordered after the focus group did not require the participation of the entire cast and crew. Therefore, Robin Shou was put in charge of fight choreography on top of his role as Liu Kang. He was given the job because of his experience working on action movies in Hong Kong. It is that experience which gave him an idea to make the fights more exciting: Shou introduced wire work to mainstream Hollywood a few years before The Matrix made it mainstream. While the technique of suspending fighters to wires had been used for a long time in Hong Kong, Mortal Kombat was actually the first time this trick was used in an American movie. Needless to say, the fights created during the reshoots are the best in the movie.
13 Making Music History
With the entire movie committed to film, only one thing was left to do: releasing a soundtrack. Indeed, in those days, a movie was incomplete without the accompanying soundtrack being released on cassettes and CD. The producers were adamant about including electronic dance music on their soundtrack, but the genre wasn’t trendy yet. The labels they negotiated with, including Sony and Virgin, wanted well-known artists. They proposed Van Halen and Janet Jackson, but the producers resisted. Eventually, they went with TVT Records, a much smaller label, which gave them the creative liberty they were seeking. Led by that “MORTAL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAT” song (actually called “Techno Syndrome” by The Immortals), it became the first EDM record in history to hit platinum status.
12 Is There Anything This Man Won’t Do?
While “Techno Syndrome” was regarded as the theme song of the movie, and eventually became symbolic with the entire franchise, it was not expected to become as iconic as it did. Of all people to ask for a techno-oriented soundtrack, Buckethead was hired to compose what was supposed to be the movie’s theme song. Buckethead is a guitarist famous for wearing a KFC bucket on his head, and I guess for playing with Guns ‘N Roses for a while. His song was energetic enough to fit with the rest of the soundtrack, but it was clear which song was going to be the star on that album. Buckethead’s composition was eventually included during the fight scene between Goro and the famous Art Lean.
11 More-tal Kombat
Despite its difficulties, the first Mortal Kombat movie can be seen as a success. Although a majority of critics hated it, the public liked it enough to keep it on top of the box office for three straight weeks. In the end, it made 122 million dollars on an 18 million dollars budget. This is the kind of profit which producers love, so a sequel was immediately sent into production, with a third movie to follow shortly. With the idea of striking while the iron is hot, Mortal Kombat: Annihilation skipped some vital steps on its way to movie theaters. While we will take a closer look at why it failed in the next few items of this list, what’s important to know is that it only made 51 million on a 30 million budget, and was equally ridiculed by critics and fans. Its failure was big enough to cancel all plans for a third movie.
10 All Hands Abandon Ship
The first bad sign when it comes to a movie sequel is if a majority of the original’s cast and crew decided to pass on it. You might notice that out of the dozen characters or so from Mortal Kombat, only Liu Kang and Kitana return with the same actor. Everybody else either hated the script or decided that they had more important things to do. Linden Ashby read the script and immediately wanted out. Christopher Lambert thought that it would be a better career move to commit to Beowulf, which is NOT the movie you are probably thinking of. Bridgette Wilson decided to accept a small role in I Know What You Did Last Summer instead of returning as Sonya. Even the actor playing Scorpion preferred to do stunt work on Batman & Robin, the worst Batman in history, instead of starring in Annihilation. Things weren’t off to a great start.
9 Jax Can’t Catch A Break
On top of the returning characters being played by different actors, the movie got even more confusing with the introduction of a dozen new characters. The most visible of them is Jax, a police officer who works with Sonya. Jax was originally going to be played by Steve James, of American Ninja and Game of Death fame. However, the poor guy died of pancreatic cancer before production began. The role then went to Gregory McKinney, of Babylon 5. Unfortunately, he became very sick, and eventually died of an aneurysm a few months later. The role then passed to Michael Jai White, who decided to leave on his own when he was offered to play Spawn. Finally, the production settled on Lynn “Red” Williams, and ex-American Gladiator, who had nothing else to do.
8 A Few Divergences
Once Jax was finally cast, it was time to integrate him to the ongoing story of the series. Unfortunately, the sequel was intended to be PG-13, in the same manner as the original. This posed a problem, because one of Jax’s main selling point was his awesome bionic arms, which he acquired by getting both of his original appendages ripped off from their socket. In Annihilation, Jax is instead found by Sonya on an operating table in some shady hospital, where he is laying down, recovering after getting “muscle enhancers” grafted to his original arms. The poor guy was laying on the operating table, in restraints, and still wearing his civilian clothes, having apprently spent a few days in an abandoned facility. Jax’s back story in Annihilation is kind of fuzzy to say the least. Unfortunately, it is only a symptom of a much bigger issue.
7 Too Many Cooks
As previously mentioned, the focus group which evaluated the first Mortal Kombat movie had a few suggestions, one of which was the inclusion of more characters from the popular video games. The problem is, producers went overboard trying to appease the public, and the result was an incredibly messy script. Mileena and Noob Saibot were both introduced, but neither are named during the movie. On the other hand, Kabal and Stryker are both mentioned on screen, but are never shown. Quan Chi, the powerful sorcerer, was in the script and even filmed to appear in the movie’s climax, but was ultimately left on the cutting room floor. That decision was taken so late that some posters still showed him as part of the film. Annihilation is nearly an hour and forty minutes long, and quite honestly, it would have needed twice that to make any sense of its story.
6 Sheeva’s Unfortunate Fate
One of the downsides of a script that was being tightly packed to fit in the budget and screen time allotted is that a lot had to cut from the original story. For example, Sheeva was supposed to have a much bigger role than she ended up having in Annihilation. She hangs out with the main villains for the entire movie, but her demise is as much of a let down as anything else in this production. She was supposed to have an entire fight scene devoted to her awesome powers, but the team realized that the make up and special effects required to make her four arms look real was too complicated for the time and money they had left. The fight was thus scrapped, and Sheeva instead dies unceremoniously, crushed by a cage.
Guy writes about video games on the internet. He enjoys gaming (obviously), hockey, poutine, and a bunch of other things he is less willing to talk about in public. He also collects retro games and Jean-Claude Van Damme memorabilia.
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