Trailer
Plot summary
The Mortal Kombat tournament is fought once a generation between representatives of Earthrealm and the otherworldly dimension of Outworld. Outworld has already won nine times, and a tenth victory would let its emperor invade and conquer Earth. Raiden, the god of thunder and Earthrealm's defender, gathers three warriors to prevent that. Liu Kang, a Shaolin monk, wants revenge on the tournament's host, Shang Tsung, who killed his brother Chan and took his soul. Sonya Blade, a Special Forces officer, pursues the crime boss Kano, who killed her partner and draws her toward Shang Tsung's island. Johnny Cage, a movie star, enters to prove that his martial arts skills are genuine. As a god, Raiden is barred from competing and can only advise them.
Cast
- François Petitas Sub-Zero
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Mortal Kombat (1995)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Goro was a $1 million animatronic created by Tom Woodruff Jr. and Alec Gillis and operated by 13 to 16 puppeteers. It broke down so often, and its interior operator could last only two minutes at a time due to lack of oxygen, that the character's screen time was severely cut from what was planned.
- Cameron Diaz was originally cast as Sonya Blade but dropped out with a wrist injury and was replaced by Bridgette Wilson. Wilson, who had accepted a role in Billy Madison after losing the Mortal Kombat audition to Diaz, had to fly to the set the morning after her last day filming Billy Madison.
- Robin Shou fractured two ribs when he was thrown into a pillar in the fight between Liu Kang and Reptile. He told only Keith Cooke, the actor playing Reptile, to avoid his right rib cage, kept quiet for fear the production would be shut down, and finished the scene before going to the hospital.
- Jean-Claude Van Damme, whose Bloodsport performance inspired the Johnny Cage character, was offered the part but turned it down because he was busy filming Street Fighter, another fighting-game adaptation. Coincidentally, both films were shot in Thailand.
- To keep a PG-13 rating while staying close to the game, the producers questioned the rating board about its limits. They learned the rating forbids onscreen death only of human characters, so all the deaths of non-humans in the film were shown on screen.
- Fight and stunt coordinator Pat E. Johnson gave Robin Shou, a former Hong Kong stuntman, free rein to add his own ideas to the choreography. One of Shou's innovations was wirework, which made Mortal Kombat one of the first Hollywood films to use it.
- Reptile was omitted from the script and added back only after focus groups were unimpressed with the film's early fight sequences. His fight with Liu Kang was shot on a set in a hangar at Van Nuys Airport, and neither Shou nor Anderson knew what the lizard form would look like until after filming.
- The temporary orchestral score used at the first test screening was disliked by an audience used to hearing techno music during gameplay, so composer George S. Clinton built a replacement he called "Techno-Taiko-Orcho": a techno core with taiko drums, shakuhachi and a Tuvan throat singer over an orchestra.
