Trivia / Mortal Kombat: The Movie

For stuff belonging to Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, head this way.

• Acting for Two: Frank Welker voiced Reptile and the Outworld Emperor. He also provided the vocal effects for Goro.
• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • Linden Ashby ad-libbed the line "Those were $500 sunglasses, asshole". It has been referenced in following games, like Mortal Kombat X:
    Goro: Johnny Cage...
    Johnny: Don't you owe me some sunglasses?
    Goro: Here's what you're owed!
  • The line is referenced again in Mortal Kombat 11 with Sheeva remembering it all too well. Made more meta when Linden Ashby's skin is chosen for Cage.
    Sheeva: I recall Goro crushing your eyewear.
    Johnny: He broke $500 sunglasses!
    Sheeva: He should have crushed your skull.
  • Kano's entire personality as a larger-than-life Australian gangster with a thing for Sonya was more or less created by Trevor Goddard and embraced by audience and developers alike. From then on, the games portrayed Kano as Australian and gave him Goddard's beard and Carpet of Virility from the movie, in contrast to the bald Japanese-American gangster from the original game. Mortal Kombat 11 used the bald look for the young Kano and the bearded look for the future older Kano.
• Billing Displacement: Although he portrays the lead character of Liu Kang, Robin Shou is billed third on the poster and second in the ending credits. Top billing in the latter was given to Christopher Lambert, despite having a supporting role.
• Cast the Expert: Many of the actors cast are trained martial artists and stuntmen:
  • Robin Shou was a working stuntman and proficient in kung fu before he was cast. In fact, he was friends with Ho Sung-Pak, Liu Kang's actor in the first two games, as well as fellow martial arts actor and stuntman Keith Cooke.
  • Linden Ashby had athletic training and had experience with Karate and Taekwondo as well as boxing.
  • Chris Casamassa, a Karate champion and teacher, was originally just a stunt double, but the crew was impressed and cast him as Scorpion.
  • Keith Cooke participated in the movie as Reptile at Robin Shou's request, having known Shou within the martial arts community.
  • Francois Petit is a Karate and Judo champion and was hired as the fight choreographer before being cast as Sub-Zero. His involvement in the choreography meant Sub-Zero's screentime had to be limited.
• Development Gag:
  • Kitana's presence in this movie is this — aside from the more obvious Adaptational Early Appearance, since she debuted in MK2 — because when MK1 was being developed, her prototype character, named Kitsune, was going to be in the game as the daughter of Shang Tsung, but was scrapped from the final version.
  • Liu Kang and Sub-Zero's stances before their fight — which are totally different from the games — were based on a photo made during the motion capture of MK2.
• Directed by Cast Member: The Canadian French dub was directed by Vincent Davy, who also voiced Shang Tsung.
• Doing It for the Art: The studio couldn't afford to send Christopher Lambert to Thailand and was planning on simply filming his parts in LA and editing the rest with body doubles. When he heard this, Lambert insisted on traveling to and staying in Thailand out of his own pocket, de facto working unpaid, simply because he thought the film would be far better with him actually present. He even paid for the wrap party.
• Executive Meddling:
  • The original screenplay for the film was more faithful to the games, in that it had graphic violence and strong language making it a R-rated script. However, the deal that the producers had with New Line Cinema included that they deliver a PG-13 movie to keep the film accessible to the target audience (mostly teenagers).
  • Averted when the executives wanted a traditional movie score, but the producers instead pushed for a techno soundtrack, as it after all resembled more the game's music.
• Fake Australian: Subverted. Originally, Kano was Japanese-American. However, Ed Boon and John Tobias were so impressed with how Trevor Goddard portrayed him that they retconned Kano's history in future games to make him Australian, which they thought was Goddard's nationality. It wasn't until Goddard's death when it was discovered that he was actually born in England, as he'd claimed to be of Australian descent.
• Fake Nationality: Japanese-American actor Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as the Chinese sorcerer Shang Tsung.
• Friendship on the Set: Linden Ashby and Robin Shou became close friends while working on the film. There's even a rather cute video of the two of them playing the arcade game together.
• Harpo Does Something Funny: Paul W.S. Anderson encouraged the actors to improvise during filming and add a lot of humor. Linden Ashby and Christopher Lambert made ample use of this opportunity, which sometimes clashed with the thoughts of the screenwriter and the game developers.
• He Also Did:
  • François Petit, who plays Sub-Zero and does all of his gymnastic stunts, etc., was also a legendary Back-Alley Doctor/chiropractor of sorts who would work with WWE after this movie, and fix wrestlers up after matches if they injured themselves. Stories of his alleged antics include popping the shoulder of Mick Foley back in after his first fall in the infamous King of the Ring Hell in a Cell match, and doing open heart surgery with his bare hands; according to Vince Russo he was also once in a drag-race with Warren Beatty.
  • Robin Shou also assisted in choreographing the fight scenes. Shou was primarily responsible for choreographing the Johnny Cage and Scorpion fight.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The trailer shows a clip of Liu Kang confronting Shang Tsung with dialogue that wasn't used in the final film:
  Liu Kang: You can't run from me, Shang!
  Shang Tsung: I don't need to run!
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Christopher Lambert dubbed himself for the French release.
• No Stunt Double: The actors did their own stunts:
  • Robin Shou was already known as a stuntman and fight choreographer, in fact he was friends with actor who played the motion capture of Liu Kang for the first game.
  • Linden Ashby actually did a lot of the fighting himself, and one particular injury where he got kicked in the shoulder blade was kept on camera.
  • Bridgette Wilson-Sampras performed all her own stunts, refusing to use a double. She dislocated her shoulder during one scene, but they were able to fix it on set, without any recurrence. Especially impressive since, unlike Robin Shou and Linen Ashby, she had no prior fight training.
• Not Screened for Critics: The film was never screened for critics prior to theatrical release.
• On-Set Injury:
  • During filming of the battle between Liu Kang and Reptile, Robin Shou fractured his ribs after multiple takes of hitting the pillar.
  • Bridgette Wilson dislocated her shoulder while performing a stunt; she was quickly able to continue working when paramedics put it back into place.
  • Linden Ashby recalled urinating blood after being kicked in the kidney.
• The Other Marty: Cameron Diaz was lined up to play Sonya and had gotten as far as training for the action sequences, but suffered a wrist injury while doing so and backed out to be replaced last minute by Bridgette Wilson. This becomes evident as the movie really dances around Sonya's action sequences, as Wilson didn't have the same training time. They reorganized the shooting schedule to push Sonya's fight scenes back as far as they could, but the lack of preparation shows.
• Practically Different Generations: Not in the sense of canon, but in the real-life sense of the actors Robin Shou and Steven Ho. While Liu Kang and Chan's ages are never specified in the plot, the actors and their ages are barely identifiable unless the audience knew how old both actors were at the time. Robin Shou was in his mid-30s when he played the part for Liu Kang. Steven Ho, however, was in his early 20s when played Chan. Meaning that there was a 10-to-15-year gap between the two actors.
• Promoted Fanboy:
  • Paul W.S. Anderson was a fan of the original game, which helped him secure the job. While other directors had looked down on the project, Anderson pushed hard for the job and did his homework with the game's lore and visual effects, which he had no background on, which impressed both New Line brass and Boon and Tobias.
  • Christopher Lambert is an avid gamer in real life. Not only he managed to score a key role in this movie, but 26 years later got to reprise the role in Mortal Kombat 11 as one of Raiden's DLC costumes.
• Release Date Change: The film was originally due for a May 1995 release, but was pushed to August after test screening audiences loved what they saw, but thought there weren't enough fights.
• Role Reprise: Just like in the games, series co-creator Ed Boon provides Scorpion's "GET OVER HERE!", as well as his other lines this time.
• Star-Making Role: Robin's journey to become the Chosen One on the Hollywood Silver Screen... all started when he took the role of Liang in a Lifetime TV Film in which he made love to Half Pint named Forbidden Nights... Don't worry, It Makes Sense in Context. As it turns out, Marcia Ross, the casting director of the TV Film and a good friend of Robin Shou, had a friend that called Robin immediately after he finished The Most Wanted in Hong Kong and returned back to L.A. This ended up being the Career Resurrection he need as he was done being in B-Movie Hong Kong films. An excerpt from Robin after he finished his Main Villain role as Yip Foon in The Most Wanted revealed what lead up to the role as the Chosen one... as well as him auditioning with his mullet at the time.
  Wow, this was my last film (The Most Wanted) in Hong Kong before I said, "enough it's enough." The reason? I didn't feel I was going anywhere. Not that I wasn't progressing as an actor, but the films were not the kind of films I want to do. I was tired of the same "cookie cutter" plots and action. I started to grow my hair. I didn't want to look like Andy Lau or Tony Lueng. They had the same clean cut "pretty" pop-star look. I was sick of it. I wanted to play characters not a pop star. I don't know where this rebellious mentality came from, but I was determined — even though I didn't know what the heck I really wanted.
  
  Anyway, Kam Tin Wong called me in for an audition. I told myself I wasn't going to cut my hair... no matter what. I went in and Kam Tin Wong explained the character — a bank robber from China who used an AK-47 and had killed several cops. I said okay, but I'm not cutting my hair. He looked at me for a few seconds and said, "Okay, you don't have to cut your hair." I said cool, I'll do it then.
  
  Looking back, one of the main reason I did this film was Kent Cheng. He's an excellent actor and very talented. I always wanted to work with him. We got along really well. Even though he wasn't an action guy, he held his own. I was very impressed with his work attitude. I hope we can work together again one day.
  
  Anyhow, back to, "I wasn't satisfied with myself or where I was going..." The whole point of leaving L.A. was to find myself. And here I was back at where I started. Well, the next logical thing was to go home. So I did. I wanted to take a little break to get away from filming. But, when I arrived in L.A., a Hollywood agent — who is a friend of my very good friend, Marcia (the casting director from Forbidden Night) — called . He told me there was this project named "Mortal Kombat" and I should go audition because I would be perfect for the part of Liu Kang. So I did and the rest is history...
  
  And, by the way, when the producer and casting director of "Mortal Kombat" saw me, their respond was, "I really like the hair".
  
  Funny how things works out.
• Throw It In!:
  • Liu Kang was supposed to duplicate the acrobatic flips of Sub-Zero's down the ramp during the fight, but Robin Shou couldn't pull it off successfully. After a few takes, instead of the acrobatics, he just ran down into the ramp yelling like a maniac. That's the shot that got used. Shou also did multiple takes of being thrown at a pillar during the fight with Reptile, they used the one where he broke a rib by hitting it on the side.
  • Raiden's laughter and "sorry" after telling the heroes that the fate of the world is in their hands was an ad-lib by Christopher Lambert.
  • Many of Johnny Cage's one-liners were ad libs by Linden Ashby, including "Those were 500 dollar sunglasses, asshole!" During the fight with Scorpion, one kick to the back actually hurt Ashby as it landed on his shoulder blade, which is clearly shown in the movie.
• Uncredited Role:
  • While Frank Welker is credited as the voice of Shao Khan, the on-camera actor is left unbilled.
  • Goro was physically portrayed by Tom Woodruff, Jr. and voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson, both of whom were uncredited; Welker being the only one billed for the role much like with Shao Khan (Richardson did Goro's spoken dialogue while Welker did the nonverbal fight noises like growls and grunts).
• What Could Have Been:
  • Cameron Diaz was originally cast as Sonya. She broke her wrist while training and was replaced by Bridgette Wilson. Christina Applegate, Dina Meyer and Sharon Stone were also considered.
  • Michael Jai White was slated to play the role of Jax. Ultimately, he left in order to do Tyson. He would eventually end up portraying Jax in Mortal Kombat: Rebirth and Mortal Kombat: Legacy.
  • The filmmakers wanted Jean-Claude Van Damme to play Johnny Cage, but he turned down it down to do Street Fighter. Tom Cruise, Gary Daniels and Johnny Depp were also considered.
  • Brandon Lee was briefly considered for Johnny Cage, but was never officially offered the role and died before filming started.
  • Jason Scott Lee, Ernie Reyes Jr. and Russell Wong were considered for Liu Kang before Robin Shou got the role.
  • Sean Connery was offered the role of Raiden, but he turned it down, as he wasn't interested in doing a physical role. He told the producers that he'd rather golf. Danny Glover was also considered.
  • Steven Spielberg was supposed to make a cameo appearance in the movie. However, due to scheduling conflicts, he backed out. The director in Johnny's first scene bears a pretty good resemblance to Spielberg, making it pretty obvious where the cameo was supposed to take place.
  • A fight scene involving Sonya and Jade was cut from the script during production. It made the cut for the novelization, however.
  • Sonya was originally supposed to spare Kano in defiance of Shang Tsung. It was decided that this wasn't a satisfying outcome.
  • Scorpion's death would also be different from the final form: instead of exploding after the shield toss, he falls off a platform and onto a spike, referencing the Pit stage fatality from MK. Ultimately, that death was repurposed to be used for Shang Tsung's.
  • 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."
  • Scripted but not filmed was a scene where Shang Tsung allowed the "Kombatants" a night to bury Art Lean and mourn his loss. They buried him the Garden of Statues, underneath the statue of Kung Lao; this is the only place where Kung Lao appears in any of the movies.
  • The movie was originally going to end right after Raiden congratulates Liu Kang for defeating Shang Tsung and tells everybody they did great. Then the final scene where Shao Khan appears and threatens them was shot and added.
  • Reptile's fight with Liu Kang was a late addition to the movie to keep up the action pacing before reaching the climax. This partially explains how random his presence and transformation from a statue was.
  • The stunt ninjas were planned to be Tarkatan warriors like Baraka. This idea was canceled and they became ninja warriors.
• Writing by the Seat of Your Pants: The film's script was still being written during preproduction, so Paul W.S. Anderson and the actors were able to provide a lot of input and ideas.
• Written-In Infirmity: Hakim Alston was in a motorcycle accident, the day before shooting his fight against Robin Shou, which severely damaged the skin on his hand. They had to go to great lengths to hide his injuries. For example, that's why it became a bo staff fight, so his hand would constantly be wrapped around something.

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