Mortal Kombat (1995)

Mortal Kombat (1995) shouldn’t work as well as it does, and that’s exactly why we had to revisit it. The CGI gets clowned, the dialogue gets cheesy, and yet the movie still feels like it has a pulse. We sit down to rewatch this classic video game adaptation and figure out what gives it that hard-to-fake 90s charm.

We get into Paul W.S. Anderson’s early action style, why wide shots matter, and which fight scenes actually hold up when you’re paying attention. From Johnny Cage vs Scorpion to the “how did Goro lose that fast” debate, we argue our way through the movie’s biggest moments, best choreography, and weirdest choices. We also talk casting wins and whiffs, including Raiden, Sonya Blade, Shang Tsung, and the one character every Mortal Kombat movie somehow nails: Kano.

This episode is a Flawless Victory.. hehehe

We would love to hear from you! Send us an email and maybe it will be read on the podcast! werecommendmailbag@gmail.com

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2199769

Music produced by Joey Prosser. X @mrjoeyprosser

Transcript

Cold Open And First Impressions

SPEAKER_01 0:02

Hello and welcome to the We Recommend Podcast, a movie podcast where every week we recommend a movie for you to watch and then come back here and listen to us discuss. I'm Jesse. I'm Dakota. I'm Devin. Finish him. Fatality. Flawless victory. Cause this week we recommend Mortal Kombat! Yeah. That was good. I liked yours. Yeah, you're you're well. So Devin over here is probably the uh the uh uh what Mortal Kombat guy.

SPEAKER_03 0:41

This movie made me a fan of the franchise.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Oh, so you this is like what got you into the games.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Yeah. Okay, yeah. So I I first want to ask, um, we'll start with Dakota. Is this a good movie?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Um for a Mortal Kombat movie game, sure.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

For a Paul W.S. Anderson movie, sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Yes. When I realized he directed, I was like, oh, that makes so much sense. Especially since I've been going back through the old Resident Evil movies. I will say he had a knack for action, though.

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Oh, yeah. And this one for danger.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

He he can do like I think what it was um we'll get into it, but I have it's been a long time since I've seen this. And I was like, you know, some of this casting is pretty good, you know. And then uh Raiden came up, I was like, this wasn't the best one right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Don't you talk about Highlander that way? No. Well, you mean his ha ha ha ha.

unknown 1:33

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:34

What was that? He's a great writer. He is a great Raiden. It's like, he, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Some lines, but it's 90s cheese, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Dude, when I saw that, I was like, what is happening? I did not it's been so long since I've seen it, so I was like, that's not how I remember him. That is not how I remember Raiden. But I think I'm very picky.

SPEAKER_03 1:55

It's a good twist on Raiden.

SPEAKER_02 1:56

About Raiden, because even with the reboot one, I didn't really like him. Really?

SPEAKER_03 2:00

I thought he was more serious. I uh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:03

I think it's just because I just think of Raiden. I feel like he didn't he doesn't do enough really. And I just when I think of him, it's not either of those versions.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Yeah. So what do you think?

SPEAKER_03 2:16

You think this is a good movie, bad movie? Uh I think it's the best movie ever made. That's okay. I mean five out of five. Five out of five, ten out of ten. Nothing can bring it down for me. Really? Yes, nothing. What about Reptile? What about Reptile? He's amazing. Yeah, what about those effects? Oh, before yeah, well, that's rough. But it's 90s like that.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

To give the movie a break, like everything outside of the CGI looks great, I think. Like the sets and everything. Goro uh has not aged. I'll have I'll have nightmares about his cylindrical body.

SPEAKER_02 2:49

When I when he came up, I was like, oh, this is where a lot of the budget went.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

And so, like, I I watched this as a kid a lot. Loved it as a kid. I haven't watched it since I was a kid. I was so excited for Goro to show up, and I was like, ugh.

SPEAKER_02 3:03

I give him credit, though.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

Like, that's all I would give them.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Yes, I can agree. I'm like, you know, you went with an actual puppet, yes, and I could see what you did. I appreciate what they tried. Love it. Because I had the same thing. He came up, I was like, ooh, ooh, no.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

But it still is like, you know what? I'm here for it still. Yeah. I mean, like, the ball is on them to have him fight somebody in a wide

Paul W.S. Anderson Then And Now

SPEAKER_01 3:24

shot. And this is what kind of one I want to talk about, Paul W. S. Anderson, because I give him a lot of shit because I think all his movies are bad and he's only getting worse. Yes. Right. Um, because I do kind of low-key love those Resident Evil movies. But if you go, if you watch this and like read about how he wanted to film it, which so he had all the actors um doing their fights, but he did them in wide shots. He wasn't doing close-ups. And all the actors were like, dude, do some close-ups. We are exhausted. And then if you cut to him doing like the later Resident Evil movies, it's like, can you pan back a little bit? So we're not just seeing like cut, cut, cut, and like regular shots. And yeah, but like compared to like what he does now, this is great. And like it kind of made me respect him as an early filmmaker, which this was his second movie ever. He did like a movie with Jude Law, which was like these guys steal a car, and uh so you think Mortal Kombat, like everyone complaining about not doing uh close-up shots is what memes like, well, I'll just do them all the time now. Well, no, like it this because this was his first big budget action movie, and he, you know, a lot of people on the set were like, Yeah, you may want to do it kind of like this and like this, and then I don't know, it sounded like a good set. Um, but and I just thought it was interesting. I was like, wow, he was he there was actual potential with him, and then you know, now we're like got Monster Hunter. I never watched that. It's not oh I watched five minutes of it and I was like, What why does he keep why does he keep getting to do this? And it's because he's tiny budgets, he knows how to stretch a budget, and his movies make money.

SPEAKER_02 4:54

Oh, he doesn't have to pay for a leading actress because it's his wife.

unknown 4:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

And I can't, you know what? Don't I wish she didn't get with him because she was such a great actress and now she doesn't do anything.

SPEAKER_02 5:04

I was like, oh, I never seen her anymore. Fifth element. Fifth element. Oh my fucking god, you're right. No, I just don't think of her like that. Well, not

Best Fight Debates And Wide Shots

SPEAKER_02 5:12

anymore. Out of this movie, which fight do you think was the best?

SPEAKER_01 5:17

Or favorite, I guess. Uh Liu Kang's first move, first fight with the one guy um with the sticks at the very beginning. It was just it was a flat out great like fight with no gimmicks, and it was pretty good. You think that's the best fight? It was the most uh so alright, the Scorpion fight's probably the best.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

Yeah, with uh Luke Cage.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

But when he's sitting there, I looked at, I was like, this might be the best fight. In terms of no distractions, it's that first fight. It's just flat out a good, it's two people who know how to fight fighting and it looks great. And there's no gymnastics in it.

SPEAKER_02 5:55

Come on, what was wrong? I feel like that one's like there's a lot, I felt like there was less cutaways in the Luke Cage fight than there was with the uh Liu Kang one. I feel like we were focused a lot, a lot more wide shots, and it was a lot. I'm like, I don't know the actor if he knows how to fight or what, or if they just had behind the back shots and it was like the stun double, but I was like, there's I feel like there's a lot less cutaways in there.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

Yeah, there's a Johnny Cage.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Scorpion Johnny Cage, like when they're on that bridge just fighting, like there's no wasted motion.

SPEAKER_02 6:25

They are going and everything felt like it was yeah, it felt like there were stakes.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Like they hit one of them had to win for their side. And then when uh Cage knocks them back and he flips, and then Scorpion like hits his shins on the little bamboo sticks.

SPEAKER_02 6:38

I was like, oh, yeah, ooh, I felt like that was uh I just went sitting here and was like, this is this is a good fight. Yeah. I looked over girlfriend and I said, I'm saying I think this is the best fight in the whole movie, probably.

SPEAKER_01 6:49

Because I start to remember the other ones. And it's just like too bad that Scorpio decided to uh take off his face and uh become a statue. Yeah, he became a big thing. He became uh he's like, I can't move now. Why did I do that?

SPEAKER_02 7:02

He was trying to audition for Army of Darkness. Um yeah, there's there's a few parts I don't like that they've done that he did with this.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Um making that actress, Billy Madison actress. Yeah, is that all else she was in? She's she's in uh I know what you did last summer. I know what you did last summer. Oh. She was Miss Oregon, I learned today. Yeah. Um, and she's in she's like she does she did a few um Adam Sandler movies. She's funny in those, she's great in those.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Do you think she was a good Sonya?

SPEAKER_03 7:34

No. No, okay. She's terrible. Why? Uh her fights.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:39

So it was her and her like and I think uh her acting.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

Yes, because there's that scene where she's like and I could just tell. I was like, I could tell you're you're you're trying.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

I don't think she had long to train either.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

I think like well it wasn't the training, it was just her like she didn't want to use it.

SPEAKER_01 7:53

She didn't want to use a stunt double either. Because every nobody else was, and she wanted to be the same.

SPEAKER_02 7:57

Well, I can understand you know trying to do that, but you better you better do some Keanu Reeves, John Wick training then and start getting like a little bit of a little bit more.

SPEAKER_01 8:03

Like the way she was holding her hands up, like kind of like that, whereas like her there. I it's hard to see in a podcast because there's no visuals.

SPEAKER_02 8:11

It looks like he's got a strong hand right now.

SPEAKER_01 8:12

I got two strong hands on it. Um But yeah, I think like in terms of casting though, everybody else was pretty solid. Uh and uh they keep nailing Kano's in these movies. It's not hard.

SPEAKER_03 8:24

Well they die when they get the role, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:27

That Kano, I was like, man, they did a really good job with his eye. Oh, he does nothing with it. Cool.

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Yeah, that's insane.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

I was like, this did a better job than the reboot. Oh, he doesn't do anything with it.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

And I love the Kano in the reboot, though. Yeah, he's a great charismatic. Sonia's so good in the reboot. She looks she looks like Rachel McAdams and Charlie Strong combined. The best Sonia.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

She was much better because this one tried in the original, was trying too hard. Like, I'm a badass.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, no, you're not.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

It's like don't don't try, just let it happen.

SPEAKER_01 8:56

You know, it's because Michelle Rodriguez didn't pop up yet. Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_03 9:01

I let her pass a Sonia.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

She she kind of she would have that attitude of Sonia. Yeah. She kind of thought of that. She kind of perfected the uh I'm a badass girl. She did. Like uh cliche and who would she be good as now?

SPEAKER_02 9:14

Like if we did cast her now, who do you think Melina? She could make a good Melina. I feel like she's got the because I watching the reboot one.

SPEAKER_01 9:24

Hollywood come at us. We got we got the ideas.

SPEAKER_02 9:26

I mean, if you if he can make one, we could definitely do this. You got look, you got fans who are uh fans of video games making movies now. Let us have it.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

Yeah, I know. He he probably shouldn't get any more video game movies. He's getting House of the Dead. Oh, dude, look, I'm hiding for it. I don't that I am for because it would be better than new ballot bowls uh versions. Yes. He's also a guy, he's also a very, very bad director. He's way worse. Um, that makes video game movies because that's the only thing that they did back then was get the worst directors to make these movies.

SPEAKER_02 9:58

I think that is a perfect movie for him because it it's an arcade game. What are you staking? Yes, that would have been much better.

SPEAKER_01 10:05

Um just watch his movies, bro, and I'll just go ahead and let you know it's not gonna be good. Who? Paul W. S. Anderson. I have watched his movies.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Yeah, I'll still be there day one. I mean, I love how do you think is gonna be wrong with it?

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Like how what are the like there's no real lore or anything he has to mix. It's just gonna be a zombie movie. When was the last time you watched one of his movies? Today. Resident Evil.

SPEAKER_01 10:25

Like the first one? Yeah. Or like any of the other ones afterwards. After three, it it's it gets over the top crazy.

SPEAKER_02 10:33

I know that, but that doesn't surprise me because you keep because it's one of those that keep upping the stakes, and that's what happened.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

Let's see. Let me go to spemography. Let me let me see which one of these uh There was something else I was gonna ask you, David.

SPEAKER_00 10:45

I don't remember what it was now.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

He did Pompeii. You all remember Pompeii? I never watched that. That's bad. Three Musketeers. What Death Race, though? Death Race is coming child's in there. Lou Kane's in there. Yeah. Um that was a good movie. I guess that you know what you actually might be a bigger fan of him than uh I thought, because he did Alien vs. Predator, the original. Oh, PG 13. Alien vs. Predator. That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 11:10

It's just fun to watch it. Like when you go into it, like realizing this isn't gonna be a serious movie. This is a movie because it's Alien vs. Predator. Yeah. And do you like Event Horizon? He didn't Event Horizon?

SPEAKER_03 11:20

That's a good one.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

That is a good movie. Everyone talks about how they wish they could get the original cut of that, but it's destroyed because it was in those salt mines and didn't preserve.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

I I w I've watched that a couple times. It's trippy. I'm not as big of a fan as Event Horizon.

SPEAKER_02 11:35

That's uh the best Warhammer movie ever.

SPEAKER_01 11:37

So um what is everybody's like relationship with these these games? Uh

Our History With Mortal Kombat Games

SPEAKER_01 11:44

I can start. I played I had the Sega Genesis, I had one and two, I sucked at the games, and I'm bad at fighter games, but I absolutely love all the characters.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

Uh yeah, I too played all the games. Uh go back all the time and play Shalin Monks. MK11 is my favorite fighting game.

SPEAKER_02 12:04

That was before they rebooted, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:06

No, because when they started, they had nine, ten, eleven. Eleven's when they do the gear pieces like Injustice 2.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Well, yeah, isn't it before because after 11, don't they go back to Mortal Kombat 1?

SPEAKER_03 12:16

Oh yeah, Mortal Kombat 1 is terrible, but 11, I love it.

SPEAKER_02 12:20

Maybe I don't remember 11 story. Was 11 where it kind of focused more on Johnny Cage? Or was that 10?

SPEAKER_03 12:26

That's 10. Okay. With the whole combat kids. Johnny Cage, Cassie Cage.

SPEAKER_02 12:31

Oh, yeah, we don't really see them again, do we? No. Well, you see Cassie, but you don't see like Kung Jin and well, you see Takeda in one, but my uh well, Mortal Kombat was my first thing into it, but I never had any of the Mortal Kombat games. But somehow, I guess growing up, some people had them here and there. And I specifically do remember uh when I used to take uh uh karate, they were having like some walk-in type of thing to sleep over, and they had Mortal Kombat there, and I played it all night, and I just remember laughing at Bo Rai Cho. Bo Rai Cho.

SPEAKER_04 13:06

Because every time he got hit, he'd be like the drunk.

SPEAKER_02 13:09

Yeah. And that was like probably I just had little interactions with Mortal Kombat growing up, and then I think I really played it when uh what was the one after Annihilation that was kind of like going back in time? Eight.

SPEAKER_03 13:26

Talking about the games?

SPEAKER_02 13:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

We had Daily Alliance, Deception, and then they rebooted it with like nine.

SPEAKER_02 13:34

Nine. That was the one I really played the most of.

SPEAKER_03 13:36

Yeah, that's one like Well you had Armageddon too.

SPEAKER_02 13:38

Yeah, see, I didn't have a PS2 or anything like that to get it. And that was probably my first full playing a Mortal Kombat game.

SPEAKER_03 13:45

Yeah, nine is like the reboot and they go back in time and then. I like that. Which one had chess?

SPEAKER_01 13:50

Chess? Deception. Is that it? I'm pretty sure. Man, I love that. I wish I was better at the game. But I I love chess. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:57

It would have been great if I could actually win any of the fights. I only played the chess part because that's the only like the easiest way to do the uh fatalities. But and Armageddon had motor combat. Like Mario Kart.

SPEAKER_02 14:09

Really? Yeah. What?

SPEAKER_03 14:10

It was awesome.

SPEAKER_02 14:11

That's awesome. Back when they used to do a lot of that stuff.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:13

I saw a rumor it says Injustice 3 is their next game, and I'm like, can we do something different?

SPEAKER_03 14:18

Yeah, I see they debunk it. I don't know why they don't remake Shaolin Monks. It's like perfect. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 14:24

Maybe they don't want to do like because if they start down that road, then it's like, are we gonna have to reboot all of them though?

SPEAKER_03 14:30

Well, it it would originally had a sequel, but they ran out of budget or time and they didn't do it.

SPEAKER_02 14:35

It was fun. I enjoyed like a lot of the DLC characters too, because you had uh the Turtles. I think Hellboy was one. Yeah. Um Well, they did they did real good with it.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

How do you feel about them like uh all the DLC characters being like just movie characters and stuff? I know some people don't like that.

SPEAKER_03 14:52

I think it's okay, but they have like a great roster that they could pull from. So I don't know why they just don't.

SPEAKER_02 14:59

I see it as like, okay, if you're gonna give us like what is it, usually four characters, you should just have all four of the movie, but you should also guarantee we're gonna have like four others that are gonna be other characters that you want to see. Or if you're gonna do four, half uh whatever movie, the other half should be the characters you want back. Yeah. But it seems like they wanna like we don't want to bring the DLC character in because it's like the next game, we're gonna have this story for them.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

So um who's everybody's favorite character in Mortal Kombat? Just in general, it doesn't have to be a movie, it could be a game. Scorpion. I like playing as Kenshi Cage for me. I was always a cage boy. That seems about right. Not Hollywood shit, you know? Loved it as a kid.

SPEAKER_03 15:42

Not a big Johnny Cage man at all, but I love him in this movie.

SPEAKER_01 15:45

Well, so I assumed everybody loved Johnny Cage because by the end of the the remake, I was like, I thought I because well at first I was like, oh, I'm just like a basic guy who likes Hollywood stuff, so of course Johnny Cage is my thing. And then whenever the end of the remake happened, they're like, I got somebody I gotta meet in Hollywood. It's like Johnny Cage and I was like, oh shit, is this a big deal for everybody or just me? And then it seems like they re and then they got uh Carl Urban. And now everybody's pumped. Carl Urban? Yeah. Uh the more movies he he's in, the better. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 16:18

I like, I mean, I feel like he's a bit old for Johnny Cage, but well, I mean they're going for the old, washed up.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

Yeah, I got that. It makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

I think I do, I've always liked Johnny Cage, and especially like now more, especially this uh, I guess say this day and age, is that I could see someone like he's not really doing his own stunts and being the actor of like, no, I'm really fucking doing my own shit. I could just respect it more. Yeah, I really love that.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

It's like a cool backstory, but I mean there's just other cooler characters to me in the universe.

SPEAKER_01 16:47

And then after uh as a kid, after Johnny Cage, it was Reptile because he's green. And then I liked Scorpion, Sub Zero, and then uh Sub Zero was my second the uh Sarax. Is that his name? Sarax, yeah, because he had a robot. That's pretty cool. And I love that he was in the the remake. I was like, they brought him in, hell yeah. Whether it was a good version of the character. And they did? What in the game? Yeah. Oh, I know what you're talking about. Yeah. Well, I mean, like in the the remake, right? Like wasn't that him? He's like in the robot suit. What are you talking about in the second movie? That's remake. Oh, is that cabal? Oh, bro. He's cabal. Cabal's good. He was great either.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

That's one more combat, but I know more than you now. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah, I played two of them when I was a little kid.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

Okay, so I have a problem with it. I really for you two guys, okay. Wow, okay, okay. Just ignore him then, Jevin B here too.

SPEAKER_01 17:38

I'm here to scoot everything along for you guys. But we do appreciate it. Cabal? Yeah, cabal.

SPEAKER_02 17:44

Uh I guess the problem is like anytime I get into a a series, especially video games, I deep dive and start learning all lore and stuff. So that's how I kind of start learning more. Because the same thing happened with like Mass Effect. Same thing with Cabal. Like, knowing when he went in there, he's like, that's how I got this. I'm in this iron lung. And I'm like, okay. Because the second time watching the reboot, I was like, I can, okay, I'll get away with this. Then I forgot how he died. And I was like, we could have not had him as Cabal yet, had him fight Liu Kang, get burned, and then become Cabal.

SPEAKER_03 18:15

Well, Cabal, he starts out as a good guy.

SPEAKER_02 18:18

Well, that's the thing. We could have had that.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

He could have been like So why would he fight Lu Kang if he was a good guy? He could have. Before he gets his iron lung.

SPEAKER_02 18:25

So he could have maybe been the Kano version. Like we didn't know what, like he maybe have been arrested, maybe did some stuff, and he could have been a good guy, then went to change, like turned or something. I don't know. There's another way you could have done it where I cause I like Cabal. And then him also was like, cool. I was like, you know, costume's not the greatest there, but like it looked right, just not the best quality as me being picky. But I did love I just didn't like him dying at the end.

SPEAKER_03 18:52

It's like stop and then Kung Lao dying too. Well, somebody good had to die.

SPEAKER_02 18:56

Um so who's your favorite character? Uh originally it was it's Sub Zero was always it, and then when I started playing him, I just really liked Kinshi's playstyle and just his concept of like using the um telekinetic sword and all that. I really just like his concept, but Sub Zero has always been my favorite.

SPEAKER_03 19:11

Kenshi was a great addition to. I'm literally having to look like he's the blind guy.

SPEAKER_02 19:17

Wow, how do you not remember that?

SPEAKER_01 19:19

Bro. He said he only played two of them. Well, and then the chess one. He's played.

SPEAKER_03 19:24

You played the chess, he played more than me. And I don't like the 3D, like Deadly Alliance, Deception. Deception is it has a great conquest mode.

SPEAKER_01 19:33

Yeah, that's where you kind of got to run around a little bit, like free roam a little bit, right? Yeah. I didn't play it a lot because I'm really bad at these games, guys. Oh, I'm terrible at fighting games. That's why I don't stick with them very long. I barely played the Injustice game. I've spent so much money to play them for like eight to ten hours. I played the hell out of MK11.

SPEAKER_02 19:52

I literally everyone plays the fighting games for the gameplay. I will play for story, and I loved Injustice's story. It was great. Same for Mortal Kombat. I'll play them, and that's my problem with them is like once you beat the story, the game really starts to play. The story is like not the main reason for playing fighting games. It's to learn the moves, and that just I'm terrible at them. It takes so long, and I'm awful at it.

SPEAKER_03 20:15

Yeah, I was pretty good at X and 11. Eleven made me I built my confidence up so much I started going to ranked and Is that is that the game that you used to bring to our place all the time?

SPEAKER_01 20:24

Was that 11 or X? Probably X. Because honestly, the most I played in like a single span of time, like you know, an hour or two, was probably when you brought it over to our house and X was a good one.

SPEAKER_03 20:35

That when they rebooted those three 9, 10 and 11, those are great games.

SPEAKER_01 20:40

Yeah. So, um all right, Mortal Kombat

What We Want From Mortal Kombat

SPEAKER_01 20:44

movies. What do you look for in a Mortal Kombat movie? Like, what do y'all want out of them? Well, good fighting. Yes. Uh I want the costumes to look accurate. I what about story-wise? Because I don't really know much about Mortal Kombat stories. I won't the tournament. Yeah, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 21:03

Are we ever gonna get one where we just focus on the tournament and that's the next movie?

SPEAKER_03 21:06

Yeah, we get it in the next one. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:07

Yeah, but the first one didn't oh so we didn't know if they were gonna get a sequel. So I was like, you could have you really.

SPEAKER_03 21:16

We're lucky to get a sequel. I know.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

And I'm so I was so upset. I was like, what if we don't get another one and we didn't even have a tournament? We focused on a Scorpion bloodline story. What are we doing here?

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Oh man, but the beginning of it though was good. That studio interference. They wanted to they wanted to marvel it. They wanted to marvel it wanted it.

SPEAKER_02 21:34

That's exactly because like at the end, he's like, take care of my bloodline. It's like you're literally trying to make a new hero so you could just like stop it.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

I will say what when he did get his armor plating, I didn't think it was the worst power. Plot armor again. Yeah, it's clever.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

It just didn't work for I don't know, like he just was not a character. Like when I was rewatching it last night, I was ignoring him so much. It's like I don't care. About you at all?

SPEAKER_01 22:01

Yeah, they meant I thought the actor wasn't bad, but I did think that they just it just was it was the classic it it's a hero's journey, right? He refused the calling, he didn't want the he didn't want the responsibility, but then he does it, and that's the story. And it's a and you know it ends where the first fight happened.

SPEAKER_03 22:19

And they went to the audience to follow somebody, which you could have just got Johnny Cage in the first time.

SPEAKER_02 22:25

All these other characters you have, and it's like, why create this new one trying to make it like Scorpion? He's gonna take over for the Scorpion role. No, just have Scorpion and their stuff going on. They they have beef for a long time. You could stretch that out as much as you want.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

So this, and I'm so glad we got here, right? Because this is something I wanted to ask. What's Scorpion's backstory? Uh he loses his family and he's on and out for revenge. So that was like legit, like in the first movie or the remake, that's what it that was pretty accurate. Like Sub-Zero is the one that kills them. Oh, you're talking about 2021.

SPEAKER_03 22:55

The new one, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that yeah, that's pretty accurate. But it's not it's not Sub-Zero. It's Quan Chi. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

He did that to cause that war, right?

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Yeah, between the clean.

SPEAKER_02 23:16

I would love if they did the Kwan Chi route. Because when I was watching that, I was like, come on, be Quan Chi, Quan Chi. I was like, I don't like that we're doing this again.

SPEAKER_03 23:23

But I respect it because you get there are two sub-zeros. So and then There is? Yeah. You got Bihon who dies and becomes noob Cybot. Then you got Kwai Liang, who becomes it's his younger brother.

SPEAKER_04 23:35

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_03 23:36

Yeah. Oh, he's in the Oh, dude. MK11. There's so much MK11, like they put.

SPEAKER_02 23:43

This next one looks like like that's like, hey, we got what we wanted, we can make what we want. Maybe this time the studio's like, oh, they it seems like they wanted what you were probably gonna do originally. So go ahead and do what you want. I feel like we're getting a tournament. We got noob showing up, uh Johnny Cage and everything, and Shao Kahn.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

I love Shao. Oh, Shao Kahn.

SPEAKER_02 24:01

I didn't realize with the original. I was like, Sheng Song, where's where's Shao Khan?

SPEAKER_03 24:06

Well, you get a statue in the first one. Badass. Badass.

SPEAKER_02 24:08

When he shows up at the very end, I've got to take your souls. I was like, did you watch Annihilation? No, I didn't have to. I didn't either.

SPEAKER_01 24:15

He's not terrible. But uh it is wild so far. The only Shao Kahn we get's uh Annihilation so far. Who's the girl in that one that wears the pink canal Annihilation? What's her character's name? Is that Melina? Is that what it is? You said the pink? Yeah. She has like one of those really bad lines. Or is it is she wearing green? Can't remember. Well, that's Jade. Just forget Illustrator. And that's uh Jade's in the new one, right? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

People giving her hell numbers. Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

She's like wearing purple or whatever. This guy's gonna be.

SPEAKER_03 24:44

Sendale. Sendale. Okay, Katana's mama. She's so good in that.

unknown 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

I know what line you're talking about. That isn't good. It's really bad.

unknown 24:51

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 24:52

I still go back and watch it.

SPEAKER_02 24:53

I'm not trying to go back and rewatch it. Because it's so fun to it's funny to think how we have a million Resident Evil movies and we couldn't continue with Mortal Kombat.

SPEAKER_01 25:06

Annihilation was really bad and it like destroyed video game movies for a while.

SPEAKER_03 25:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:12

It was just it was just a rough situation.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

I do know they tried to make a third one, uh Devastation, but I think they was going to shoot New Orleans, and I think that's when Katrina happened.

SPEAKER_02 25:22

Oh really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:23

Was it that close to the because there's an interview with Lyndon Ash, but he was gonna come back as Johnny Cage, but never came to.

SPEAKER_01 25:30

So um Did we ever answer what do we want for Immortal Combat?

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Oh, kind of. Uh I agree with Devin. Like, I want good fights. Um obviously I I pre I love what the reboot did was showing a little bit more the gore. Oh god, yeah. You gotta have fatalities.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Oh yeah, that was great. Yeah, when that bird lady gets split in half with that hat.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

I was like, eyes, because I know that fatality because I really love that uh design of that fatality. Uh I really I do like a lot of the stuff that they did. But story-wise, I still wish uh it still have feel like I've not had the Mortal Kombat movie I imagined my heads. Like ever since nine, I'm like, there's a lot of story pieces you could easily make a movie here and make it just work, and they're just not doing it. Like beginning of the reboot, great, why didn't we keep doing this kind of theme? And then after that, it it kind of went down with Cole Young. If we did not have Cole Young and did not have that at all, I feel like we would have had a really good Mortal Kombat movie. I think like so.

SPEAKER_01 26:29

If this next Mortal Kombat is gonna be a good movie, then I think the first Mortal Kombat was very necessary because with these tournament movies and like fighting movies, you have to know all the characters, otherwise, it's like, why am I watching these two people fight? You don't have to know them because if you go OG of Mortal Kombat, how many people are in there? There's not many.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Exactly. You can follow the chunk of people, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:49

But like because all the characters look so cool and they have personalities in the game. So you kind of want to know them before you're just like, oh, they're gonna die in five seconds in this fight. So if this next one's great and like we remember all these like characters that they built up in it, and then we're like, oh, we're gonna see them fight, and now we're happy, and when they win, we can cheer. Instead of like, I don't know, in this one when Sonya beats Kano, it's like I actually knew more about Kano and I would rather him win. I just didn't want him to die. It's because he's so funny every time. He's good. Cool. Should we get some facts?

Wild Behind The Scenes Facts

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Because I got some Kano facts that I wanted to talk about. So uh the guy that played Scorpion, he was supposed to originally just be a stunt uh ninja. He was just gonna be a ninja. Um, but then he was so good in his uh audition that the producers made him Scorpion.

SPEAKER_02 27:34

That must have been a great feeling.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

Oh yeah. So uh the lo they filmed in Thailand. Beautiful. Oh they were so remote that they were only accessible by boat. Cast crew and equipment had to be transported by long canoes, and outhouse was built in a secluded area near the set so that the crew didn't have to make constant trips to and from the mainland.

SPEAKER_02 27:54

I gotta say, so uh watching it, this is me being piggy gang, because right before we watched this, we watched that uh new movie with Taryn Edgington, Edgerton Egerton and Charlie Stherone. Apex? Apex, yeah. So we would watch that and it's all right. Um not bad. We wouldn't like fully focus, we were kind of doing our own side things, but a lot of the scenes they film, like I guess like CGI background everywhere. And then we started watching Mortal Kombat, and I was like, oh, back when we actually used to go to islands, everything, even though the set you can tell it's a set, I was like, at least it's real, and it's just so much better.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Yeah, that's something I brought up in my anaconda episode where I was like, even bad movies had charm, had a like whatever. So all right, if I talk about this movie and the new movie, the new remake of Mortal Kombat, I'm like, well, the 1995 one had a soul. Yes. Versus the new one, I'm like, where's where's the love in this movie?

SPEAKER_02 28:56

I do gotta say, I appreciate uh in the reboot when Sub-Zero first shows up to go hunt Cole Young and he just starts dropping all that snow and they're driving away, and there's like chunks of ice and stuff. I was like, okay, that's real, and I appreciate them doing that.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah, yeah, that was then there were some good parts and whatever. But I just think about whenever I think about old movies, I'm like, damn, they just look good even when they're bad, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:18

I think I agree with the soul thing because think of CGI. I mean, it's just kind of there.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

Yeah. It's just like you're not there, you don't have takes you out of the money in the dirt and like making something.

SPEAKER_02 29:27

It's just every little prop is like because a lot of stuff is handmade, so it feels like it's someone who put effort into it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Man, we're we're gonna a couple more years, we're gonna be those people who are like kids be like, Man, these old people always talking about the practical facts. Yeah, AI, it makes it look just as good. And that's all we're gonna get. We've gone to this point of nothing.

SPEAKER_01 29:48

Yeah. So uh the producers were rejected by both Sony and Virgin Records for producing the film soundtrack. They wanted to use electronic dance music, EDM baby. Whereas the record companies insisted on popular artists like Van Halen and Janet Jackson. The producers finally went with TVT Records, a relatively small record company at the time, and the soundtrack became the first platinum EDM record ever in history.

SPEAKER_02 30:12

I would love to be the alternate you see the alternate universe of where Janet Jackson got to do fucking Mortal Kombat sounds.

SPEAKER_03 30:19

I have this I bought the soundtrack too when I worked at Hell.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

It's carried on to like Y'all big ADM guys?

SPEAKER_02 30:26

No.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

Just displayed. Well, you can thank Mortal Kombat for that.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Did this movie do well when it came out?

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Like it was like 40 20 to $40 million budget. I think it hit like $121.

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Oh, that's pretty good. Yes, this movie did great. Um so the budget was $18 million. Okay. Um, which looked great for $18 million. Uh opening weekend was $23 million. Worldwide gross, $122 million. Boom. And in America and in Canada, $70 million. Total gross. And that's why he got to keep making movies. So the guy that plays uh Shang Sung, uh, they that was the filmmaker's first and only choice for the role. He came to the audition in a costume and read his lines while standing on a chair. Shang Shang Sing Shang Sung was depicted as relatively younger in the film in order to avoid the excessive makeup that would have been required to duplicate his aged appearance in the game. Is he really old in the game?

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Yes. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

When he steals souls is how he gets younger, right? Yep. Man, he can turn into anybody. Boyvin stealing souls. Um, so like this guy has been acting for a while and he's always good. I don't know if y'all can. Yeah. Oh, yeah. He's in Johnny Tsunami. Yeah. Oh God. Um, but yeah, he's he's great in every every time he shows up. Um so Ed Boone, co-creator of the original video video game Mortal Kombat, starred as the voice of Scorpion. Get over here. Get down here. It's like, is that the only way he can talk? Is if he adds the word here. If he doesn't say here, he can't talk. Is that like the okay?

SPEAKER_00 32:00

I just wasn't sure.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

It's how demons talk, I guess. Um, so uh the guy who played Sub Zero was the highest ranking martial artist on set. Director Paul W. Sanderson credits Chris Christopher Lambert for smoothing over his first job on the big movie. Lambert, a veteran of several Hollywood blockbusters, Highlander baby only can be one. Anybody? No, nobody was big into that as a kid. I did the show. So growing up. He was in like big Hollywood blockbusters and he was like one of the most experienced persons on the set.

SPEAKER_02 32:30

That kind of makes me sad because I feel like he didn't really fight much when he finally did the Liu King fight. It just came to him making a giant ice force ball.

SPEAKER_01 32:38

Yeah. Like, why are we Well, no, I'm talking about Sub Zero.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Yeah, Sub Zero. No, no, no, I'm talking about Raiden now. I know, but I'm just saying like Raiden, I'm or not Raiden, but Sub Zero, like him being the best and I'm like that's really the best highest ranked one, and that's what you give him to that badass move, or like I do have like a little fact about that in a second with him.

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Um uh but to finish this Christopher Lambert one, so since he was on Hollywood Blockbusters, he never got overwhelmed by large scale of a production, and his laid back attitude positively influenced the others, less experienced people on set. Even Ed Boone, co-creator of the original video game, admitted that Lambert did a great job despite not being Asian like the characters depiction in the game. Uh, since Lambert was the most experienced actor on the set, the production could only afford him for a few weeks of close-ups in an LA studio. A stand-in would be used for the wide shots filmed in Thailand. However, Lambert believed that the movie would be better if it was him all the time. So he came to Thailand for no extra charge. Um, and he even paid for the rap party afterwards. So I wanted to get put this in here because he is weird in the movie, but we this movie wouldn't even be nearly as good as it was if it wasn't for him, probably. And the presence and stuff that he was willing to hop on a canoe, go hang out for a few lines, and then paid for the party for everybody. What a fucking G.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

I feel like that's what I would be like if I was ever an actor and I saw it's like, this is cool. Yeah, I'll just go there. Why not? I'm an actor. What else do I have to do?

SPEAKER_01 34:01

Why would I not want to hang out on a beach in Thailand?

SPEAKER_03 34:03

Yeah. And go talk about see what else this movie is. It's like enjoying life, really. Just like movies and you want to be a part of it.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

Yeah. It's like in every and that just makes me appreciate every time he goes, hee hee hee hee.

SPEAKER_02 34:16

Sorry.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

I do like his writing.

SPEAKER_02 34:18

This cracks me up. Now I have like a different appreciation. I was like, what a goofball. But it's so funny because I'm just like when that scene happens and he goes, sorry. I was like, was he not meant to laugh there? And then just like, let's just leave it in.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Yeah. I mean, it's all it's honestly, it's very uh it's it's very of now times in movies where everything's gotta be a little jokey and a little quippy. But it had it in a very small well, though this movie does have it with Johnny Cage.

SPEAKER_02 34:44

Yeah, but it's like his works because he's just not taking anything seriously. He's not making jokes. That is Johnny Cage.

SPEAKER_01 34:49

And it makes it makes sense for Raiden because he's a god, right?

SPEAKER_03 34:54

Well, he's supposed to be serious. Yeah, he is more serious than the game.

SPEAKER_01 34:57

Yeah, but you know, it's like once you're a god and you've seen so many of these fights, you gotta you gotta learn how a good time. The final fight.

SPEAKER_03 35:02

Yeah, when Earth is on the line.

SPEAKER_01 35:04

Yeah, but he could just electricity power somewhere else. He can't interfere with mortals, dude. Did you watch this movie? He can't interfere, so he's gotta have a good time while he's watching everybody. I don't know. I guess like I'd be panicking a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 35:16

God, it's a good thing you never had kids. Natalie, why are you so upset? Let's just have a good time with this while you're pushing a baby out.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

Well, he just like fell and hit his head. Let's have a good time. Um, all right, so you remember around six minutes in the movie whenever uh Johnny Cage is having his fight, and then there's a director in it? Anybody else think that that looked weirdly like it was gonna be Steven Spielberg? It was supposed to be Steven Spielberg. Okay. When I saw it, I was like, what are they trying to make this guy look like Steven Spielberg? And then I read the thing and I was like, oh, he just couldn't do it because uh he uh time constraints, so he wasn't able to be in the movie. But that would have been hilarious. Who?

SPEAKER_02 35:54

Steven Spielberg. He's still good. What was the last movie you came out that was great?

SPEAKER_01 35:58

Uh Bridge of Spies was pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 36:00

I don't even know what you're talking about.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

Yeah, well, watch the movies. Exactly. Uh a problem I had while doing this movie is I very early wrote down Luke Cage instead of Johnny Cage, and then I made it halfway through the movie and realized what I was doing and had to go back and pretend.

SPEAKER_03 36:13

He's been saying Luke Cage during this episode. Have? Yes, you have. I ain't called you out, but that's a smile and boy.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

When you go back and do this, just let me know. It happens.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

Cool. Just let me, I wanted to correct you and make sure you didn't look at your.

SPEAKER_01 36:28

Hold on, say Johnny real quick. Johnny? Okay, I'll add that in. I'm not doing that at all. That would be too much. That's so much work that I have to do all tomorrow. Okay, so the character Johnny Cage in the games was really originally based on Jean-Claude Van Damme. Uh he was asked to play Johnny in the movie, but turned it down to do Street Fighter. Oh. Ooh. Lame.

SPEAKER_02 36:51

Link that movie, right? Uh never seen it. I liked it.

SPEAKER_01 36:56

I liked it as a kid, and his dance is fantastic. Go back and watch it.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

I should, especially since we're getting that new one now.

SPEAKER_03 37:01

That one looks like the best one we'll get.

SPEAKER_02 37:03

It looks like they're like, hey, they made a Mortal Kombat movie. People seem to want to really just lean into the part of it being a video game movie. And Street Fighter's like, our first movie, we'll lean right into it.

SPEAKER_01 37:13

I just I think you know, there's a lot of charm in that original Street Fighter movie. Never seen it. A lot of charm. As in it's bad, and I only watched it as a kid, so I don't want to re-watch it.

SPEAKER_04 37:22

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

I was also a very big John Claude Van Damme fan.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:26

Guy. Oh, yeah. I had like my because you know, we had a ton of EHS movies and they all had like 90s action, 80s and 90s action movies. So, you know, like Steven's all and John Claude and all that. Yeah, well, uh, watch Under Siege. That's all I gotta say.

SPEAKER_00 37:43

You see him as karate these days?

SPEAKER_03 37:44

Uh dang, man. We're talking about him and his prom, man. Was he still in his top?

SPEAKER_02 37:50

He is a master of bullshit though.

SPEAKER_01 37:52

Oh god. Yeah, well, I'd like to see you meet him in real life and fight him. I honestly could probably kick his knee and he'd explode.

SPEAKER_02 38:01

Same for me, but that is true. Y'all are at an equal disadvantage.

SPEAKER_01 38:05

Exactly, but he ain't gonna just touch me and I flip around. Um, and this next one, uh, already kind of said everything about filming this fight scenes. Um, so since Paul W.S. Anderson had no experiencing filming fight scenes, he shot the first fight sequence in wide continuous shots. After multiple takes, the actors were completely exhausted. So uh Robin Show plau Kang um told Anderson the secret of the trade. Wide shots are generally used for only a few seconds, whereas the rest of the sequence scene is filmed as series of short close-up shots for the impacts. Anderson realized his mistakes and credits Castin Crew for with teaching him a lot. I was very fortunate to be working with people who were supportive and didn't bite my head off when I made the them repeatedly do fights and wide shots. I'm not gonna lie, it seemed like a really fun. Like a great cast too to work with.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

Yeah, everyone seemed uh what was funny was uh uh Lu Kang's hair. I was like, man, they like nailed it, I feel like, from his uh he's perfect as he was really good. And that was another thing, is like if you look at everyone's physique in this, I was like, this is it kind of gets like, man, it's funny how we have changed our viewpoints on what's a normal, good looking physique. Because everyone here is not super ripped where they're like to that point of like where Hugh Jackman does his roles and he's like, I just hate doing that because I'm like not drinking for three days.

SPEAKER_01 39:28

Everyone's like every vein didn't have to pop out of everybody's body.

SPEAKER_02 39:33

It's more of like this is like your fit, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 39:35

And well, because you're doing like martial arts, you're not like you know, throwing people everywhere. I mean, because I mean, like Goro, I mean, his physique was kind of he's he's not a real thing, he shouldn't be physique. So, you know, and that's and that's why Johnny Cage, with his athletic ability or nutshot, uh was able to beat him because you know he's a little more agile. Poor Art Lean. Oh, RP. RP. Sonia was really uh messed up by that, even though she never talked to him for one second. So in the original Mortal Kombat game, the character of Kano was Japanese American. However, Ed Boone and John John Tobias were so impressed with how Trevor Goddard portrayed him in the movie that they retconned Kano's history in future games to make him Australian, which they thought was Goddard's nationality. They later learned that Godard had a Cockney accent, which they had they and many viewers confused for Australian, and that Godard himself was actually born in England. However, Godard had gone along with this and claimed to be Australian descent until his death in 2003, probably because it made it easier for him to land movie roles. That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 40:36

Yeah, Crocodile and D made everybody want Australians.

SPEAKER_01 40:38

He was literally just like, I'm not gonna, I'm just Australian now. But um it's so this this completely changed the video game character. That's that's so awesome how good the performance was that it was that like a good thing in your life. I think that's good. Yeah, a better version. I didn't know that. Yeah, I just I I just think it just shows how good how funny it was.

SPEAKER_02 41:03

I mean, when you could do that, I mean it's not because how many games have been out by that point?

SPEAKER_01 41:07

Two. Two?

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Yeah, so like it doesn't really change that much because two games and maybe three, I'm not too sure. But yeah, JC, do me a favor, do an Australian accent. Without saying shrimp on the Barbie. Oi, mate. Okay, so you're doing New Zealand from the boys or uh man tried. I'm not hating on it. All right, I can never do an Australian accent because I always try and reference it to something. I'm like, I I can't do it. I don't I don't know how to do it. Where the fuck is their accent from?

SPEAKER_01 41:36

How do you what is it they're doing? Well, I think there's so there's a continent called Australia, and that's where they come from, and that's where it's from.

SPEAKER_00 41:42

What was that accent again? Oi, mate.

SPEAKER_01 41:45

Probably some uh shrimp on the Barbie. Can't even do that, right? That's good. That's pretty good. All right, Devin, you're go. What? Yeah, Australian, let's go. Dingo ate your baby. Shit. You can host now.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

I mean, it is his like franchise, but never letting him host.

SPEAKER_00 42:05

Hold on, whoa. What about yours? I don't need to do it. What no? We're going around the table. Uh, I lost it. Are you nervous? Say shrimp on a Barbie. Uh put some shrimp on the Barbie, mate. Yeah, that was good. You're gonna make fun of me.

SPEAKER_02 42:22

I said I see our I'll bring this up the chair.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

So at around 50 minutes, Johnny Cage defeats Scorpion, throwing an autograph photo of himself at his corpse. In Mortal Kombat Games, this is Cage's friendship finishing move. I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03 42:37

I never got it when I was a kid, but when I went back and read facts, I was like, oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 42:41

I saw it when that's night and I was like, that's that's hilarious. Because I know some of the later ones he because I I think I went on a spree of watching a bunch of old fatalities and stuff and babalities and all those other ones.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

I was I don't think in the history of playing those games I ever did one fatality. I didn't know how. Oh, uh when I started easier in the newer games. Are they? Yeah. It's like I was always upset. I was like, just make it one button.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Should be at the end. Do you want to do the fatality?

SPEAKER_01 43:05

Because I'd always just like ended up trying to do the mashing of the buttons and then it just like hit them and they fall down. I'd be like, fuck. Yeah, you'd have to really get luckier. Except uh I was a kid and it didn't cuss back then, so it's like, golly gee. Wally bonkers.

unknown 43:17

Wally bonkers.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Um, so um so Johnny Cage, and this is something that was kind of driving me nuts throughout the film. Johnny Cage is the only good guy in the film to have a true flawless victory in the Mortal Kombat tournament while battling Goro. Ironically, his opening move on Goro is a low blow or nut punch, which didn't work on female opponents or bosses like Goro in the original game.

SPEAKER_03 43:38

It's also not true.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, there's not.

SPEAKER_03 43:41

There's a see, a lot of people got confused at the end why Luke Kang says flawless victory.

SPEAKER_02 43:45

Yeah, that wasn't a no.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

It was. Because round one, Liu Kang takes it.

SPEAKER_02 43:50

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 43:50

Round two, Shankson's kicking his ass. Then when they're fighting in round three and he gets it makes sense why he says flawless victory.

SPEAKER_02 44:00

See, I didn't think about rounds.

SPEAKER_03 44:01

I was like, but there's some it's it took me years to understand because it used to bug me. I was like, no, he hit you. So glad Devin's in this episode. Jeez. Just wouldn't have done it. It wouldn't have been good. Shang Shang Song says follows victory when Goro fights Artleen. Yeah. Also not true because Artlene landed some hits.

SPEAKER_01 44:16

I know. That's why I was like, I just kept watching me like we're just saying it to say it. You don't have to say it.

SPEAKER_03 44:22

Because they say when they just beat the dog shit out of one person.

SPEAKER_01 44:26

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, I doubt that Goro took any damage at all from Artlene. Poor guy. Yeah. Who said that that guy should come in and be in this tournament? I don't I want to know his backstory. I want like a 30-minute like short on the DVD to be like, Artlene, you are one of the people that should be in this tournament. And it's like, what do you do?

SPEAKER_03 44:46

There's people that would want Artlene in a game over Cole Young. Is he in a game? No.

SPEAKER_02 44:51

Oh. Wait, who is this person you're talking about?

SPEAKER_03 44:54

The black guy, the black bald headed guy. Like Art Leen.

SPEAKER_02 44:57

So I was like, is this supposed to be Jax? What are we doing right now?

SPEAKER_03 45:00

Jax is in the movie though. He's with Sonya.

SPEAKER_02 45:02

So that was Jax? But the other Arlene guy, because uh doesn't Jax have like this thinner, like the yes.

SPEAKER_01 45:08

So I thought that was him, and I was like, so when he's killed him off, he's recasted in Annihilation, right? Yeah. Yeah. So he is in Annihilation with his big old arms. He is. Is he good?

SPEAKER_03 45:20

No, a lot of people say he's the best part of Annihilation. Really? I remember thinking he was really cool as a kid. When he takes his arms off, that's when people get pissed off.

SPEAKER_01 45:27

Oh, really? Oh god. I've got to go back and watch this. So this is gonna be my last one. The guy that plays Liu Kang would rate fights from one to three according to the amount of ribs that got bruised or broken. For the reptile fight, he had a maximum score of three. Two of them were broken when Keith Cook, Reptile, threw him against a pillar on the tenth take. He didn't tell the crew, asked Cook to avoid hitting his painful right side, finished the fight, and then went to the hospital. Lyndon Ashby, who played Johnny Cage, wasn't spared either. According to Paul W.S. Anderson, Ashby was at one point in so much pain from getting kicked around in the Johnny Cage Scorpion fight that he was eating Advil like they were MMs. So they uh back in the day when they were just harming each other just to have these fights. It was great.

SPEAKER_03 46:10

They really gave it their own. Like I love that.

SPEAKER_01 46:12

Well, that's like when you get when you're stuffed.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

You can really feel it.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

That's why I liked his fight a lot.

SPEAKER_03 46:16

Sepsonius. There's some things we gotta talk about when we get to that fight.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

I mean, it's like, you know, she tried though. I respect it. I respect it. I respect that she wanted to be like with all these people who had this training, and she wanted to try. Just someone should have stepped in and be like, go we we got somebody here for you. Yeah, let's yeah, train a little harder. But you know, you got to see her face in all the fights, and that's something that you don't get in like uh, I don't know, taken three or something.

SPEAKER_02 46:45

I have not seen that one.

SPEAKER_01 46:46

So, um anything else before we get in the plot?

Plot Begins And Dream Setup

SPEAKER_02 46:49

We haven't been doing that already?

unknown 46:50

No.

SPEAKER_01 46:51

That was just facts. That was facts. Oh damn. Hey, well, I got you know, we don't always three get to do this, so I figured go all out. I'm with it. And there's like once you go through the plot, there's really like a whole bunch of um all right. So before we get in the plot, I'd like to have everybody at home think, what is the point of Mortal Kombat? What's it trying to say? Probably not a lot. But if you uh if you have anything else you want to say about Mortal Kombat, your favorite character, what you think you want in a Mortal Kombat film, uh you can go to our link in the description at the top, click it, and you can just text us from your phone, some fan mail, or go to the very bottom at were recommend mailbag at gmail.com, and then you can leave us some fan mail that way. All right, let's get into the plot. Mortal Kombat 1995. Begin. Is that how they say at the beginning of the is it begin? Fight. Fight. All right, um, let's go back. Mortal Kombat 1995 begin. No, I did it again. All right. Well, now it's just funny. So I'm gonna leave it all there. Just keeping it. Just keeping it. All right. Um, as soon as Dakota stops being rude and gets off his phone.

SPEAKER_02 47:55

I'm trying to find my recommended movie. I forgot to look before I left.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

Do you have a recommended movie? Like a double featured? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, I got a good one. Y'all gonna hate it. All right, so um the film begins with two men fighting on an ancient structure. Uh, it's kind of like the temples. Um uh the men are Chan and Shang Sung. Shang gets the upper hand and breaks the other guy's back, and then he lifts him up, looks right at the camera and says, You are next. I was like, oh shit, we're just immediately looking at the camera because it's great.

SPEAKER_02 48:24

Oh, so his face. He's not even pointing out one of the iconic lines there. You stole this is mine.

SPEAKER_01 48:29

Oh yo. I actually had it uh in parentheses. So you should have been sooner before later. I say it after sometimes. Um, so that's fine. I get it. You haven't been on a few years. That's I understand. Um, so then we see it's a dream. Chan's brother Liu Kang. Turns out his brother is really dead. Green ass room. It is green. Um, and then also I love uh I love the comical letter that he gets. It's just a lot brother dead. Brother dead, come back. I missed that. I must have looked away for a second. I was like, dang, you couldn't put anything else. Hey son, how are you? Uh your brother's dead. Come back if you if you don't mind. Uh I miss you and love you. But it said, brother dead, come back. So good. Better not be fat from the McDonald's burgers.

SPEAKER_03 49:14

You had to spend like X amount of dollars per letter or something.

SPEAKER_01 49:18

Monks just, you know, have a hard time, you know, sending letters,

Sonya Hunts Kano In Hong Kong

SPEAKER_01 49:22

I guess. So uh we cut to Hong Kong where um American Special Forces led by Sonia Blade go to the nightclub to find Kano. He talks to Shang Sung, who wants to keep who wants Kano to lead her to somewhere. He is not allowed to harm her. And this is the most American nightclub in Hong Kong I've ever seen in my life. It is nothing but Americans playing heavy metal music. Yeah. And I was like, what are we in the world?

SPEAKER_02 49:50

It's also the most American police ever. She's just trying to get these are innocent people at this thing, and she's just head knocking everybody trying to get through them. I had to rewind them with her butt of her gun. I'm like, girl, calm the hell down.

SPEAKER_01 50:01

I had to rewind it to see if I read Hong Kong. I was like, this m is this like in a is this actually in America and I just miss miss read something? And then I was like, whoa, no, this is this is Hong Kong with all these just white people.

SPEAKER_03 50:16

You didn't see it when they like started shooting and nobody's running.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

Yeah. That was like, what the hell? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 50:20

They were just all bad like that. We're not scared to do that.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

The music's loud, that's why they had like meadow music, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

We'll tell John like that.

SPEAKER_01 50:27

So uh we cut to Los Angeles where Johnny Cage fights the men, but it's a movie. Hell yeah. Yeah. Perfect. This is where you're supposed to fall down. Yeah. Um he are Yeah, that is such a good line. This is where you're supposed to fall down. Give me some people who know what they're doing around here. So he argues with the director after a stunt man messes up a scene. He then is approached by Master Boyd. Is this anybody in a game? Is this supposed to be his trainer?

SPEAKER_03 50:50

No, he's not in the game, but I took it as somebody that trained him.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

I didn't I didn't think it was anybody in the game either, but I just want to make sure. Since I don't know anything, I'm a damn idiot, right, Dakota? I'm glad you agree. Okay. So Johnny Cage is being called a fake in the papers. He wants to prove himself, and luckily, Master Boyd has a friendly little tournament he can join.

SPEAKER_02 51:07

A friendly little tournament.

SPEAKER_01 51:09

It's like, I feel like when you're saying to somebody you have to join a tournament you want to join a tournament? Like, yeah, sure. By the way, there's someone with forearms. Just to let you know. Also, you'll be going to another, you might actually accidentally go to another dimension. Why would he tell him that? I don't know. Just not everybody just assumes you're gonna die in a tournament.

SPEAKER_02 51:29

He obviously didn't watch the movie because it was not his real master. What? It's did you not see where it was Shang Sung as him?

SPEAKER_00 51:38

No, I didn't. Oh.

SPEAKER_03 51:40

Oh sorry.

SPEAKER_01 51:44

Oh shit. Did I I really did not see that? Did you watch the movie? I did. I was probably typing something out of the street.

SPEAKER_03 51:49

You used to say that to Jason, not the not the host, though. This is wild.

SPEAKER_01 51:53

Of movies. You know what the great part about being a host and someone who edits the podcast? Listen. I can edit all this shit out. He won't though, because it's too much work. It is also very funny that I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_02 52:03

Which is sad. I just realized that means his master's dad because he took his soul.

SPEAKER_01 52:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 52:08

Oh shit.

SPEAKER_01 52:08

Yeah, my bad. I did see that. Damn. I should have put that in my notes. So cut to the temple of life. Hey, cut to the temple of light. In China, when Liu Kang comes to the temple surrounded by monks, the same place Chan died, Liu Kang's grandfather gave Liu and Chan the idea about the tournament, but Liu doesn't believe. So Liu Kang doesn't really want to fight. He's like he doesn't believe in any of this stuff, but he's the chosen one. Um, there is an argument because and now he wants to fight for revenge. There's arguments because Liu Kang left the temple, and then like all the monks are like, This isn't right.

unknown 52:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

He's still ripped, though. Let him fight. Yeah. And then uh Raiden shows up and everybody like bows to him, and then Liu Kang just thinks he's like a beggar or something, and it's great. And he's like, Grandfather, get up. I mean, he has a valid reason.

SPEAKER_02 52:56

He's like, Look, I got out of here because I mean it's like technically if you look at it, if it's not real, it's just another cult.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

But then he like walks in and his eyes glow a little bit.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

He still didn't believe him. If you are Lord Raiden, I don't know. Dude, when he flipped, you did you not hear that thunder?

SPEAKER_01 53:08

Look, I just want to say when he's like, prove that you're somebody and he flips him, I mean, come on, man.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

You could have just did your teleport move real quick, and I think that would have covered it.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Yeah, it's like you could have shown him a little bit more than just just that. I feel like if we're just wanted to get this guy to the point to where it's like, hey, this is a serious tournament, you're like for something, you know, with some lightning. But I get it, we're uh it's a movie.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

So but you get where he's coming from, though. Like if he's supposed to be a god, why don't you say my brother?

SPEAKER_01 53:34

Yeah. You cannot interfere with mortal affairs. Um, but yeah, Luke Kang wants to go to kill the tournament to kill his brother's killer. Um, and it's something that's very aggravating in movies when someone has a good point, why didn't you protect my brother? And then Raiden says, Why didn't you? And it's like, bitch, I was on the other side of the world. You were here. Closer, yeah. You're a god. Like, I don't know. I didn't think this was real because I've never seen anything like this. Maybe I don't know, help a brother out here. Let me know.

SPEAKER_02 54:09

Even though I can shoot fireballs out of my hand, the first time I had it happen was when I was jerking off and it got really hot. What? Did you know Luke can shoot fire? I know.

SPEAKER_01 54:19

Do you think he could shoot it out of his penis?

SPEAKER_02 54:21

Oh. All right. Be like that scene to the boys.

SPEAKER_01 54:25

Devin's like, is this really what we're doing with Mortal Kombat? That's where we're going. All right. So people start

The Boat Ride To Tournament Island

SPEAKER_01 54:30

showing up for the tournament. Jotty Cage meets Artlene. It's like, at first I thought he said Arlene, and I was like, what why is this a Mortal Kombat character? And then I was like, oh, it's Artlene. And he meets Liu Kang. He's uh racist towards him and because he's like wants him to carry his bags and stuff, which is great. Uh but great. I mean, not great. And then Sonia and Jax are watching from a distance looking for Kano. A mysterious boat shows up and people get on board. Sonia and Jax see Kano. Kano, Sonia runs after him and boards the boat. She runs into Shang Sung but being ominous as hell. Luke and oh, I left a Luke in. Johnny and Lou shows up, and then Scorpion and Sub Zero walk in. Um, and like we learned, they're slaves of Shang Song.

SPEAKER_03 55:14

That was weird. And they're mortal enemies, but slave understands.

SPEAKER_02 55:17

Yeah, I was like, you know, I could go with the slave thing if you want. And slaves. But no, I was just not happy. And also in this moment, how many times do you think about Sonya when she just missed someone? Like when she just first met uh Liu Kang on the boat, and she's like, How are you doing? He's like, Where's Kano?

SPEAKER_03 55:37

It's like, this dude, what what do you do? He just wants Kano, I know, but he's a random dude.

SPEAKER_01 55:42

Yeah, she is just like everybody knows Kano. I know it. And like the second she gets down there, she's like, Oh, you're not Kano. Well, to think about it, at this point, she has no idea why anybody's there. She thinks this could be a whole boat of smugglers and things like that. So they're like, Well, Kano's on this boat. I'm sure everybody here knows Kano because he's a big underground in the underground world, which is where she's there, like uh, you know, investigating.

SPEAKER_02 56:04

If a boat comes up out of the mist. And also, it is 95 when this movie came out. Does that boat look like it belongs in modern times at that time? Dragon on the fruit.

SPEAKER_01 56:16

It's an underground smuggling boat.

SPEAKER_00 56:17

That's not how those look.

SPEAKER_01 56:19

They still use under the radar, so they can't have like mechanical equipment. So you can have yeah, it's all manual.

SPEAKER_02 56:26

I I'd think it's we just had pirate boats floating around with people who were smugglers. Makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 56:30

Sure. Yeah. It's not an American.

SPEAKER_02 56:35

Almost like the Orca from Drake. Do you think it was older had no mechanical equipment?

SPEAKER_01 56:39

Do you think in China there in 1995 there would be not a single boat that looked like this?

SPEAKER_02 56:44

In China.

SPEAKER_01 56:45

Okay. I mean, look at the boat. I'm sure there's plenty of plenty.

SPEAKER_02 56:49

How many pirate ships have we found that are still intact like that? That is a full pirate ship.

SPEAKER_01 56:53

Oh, we don't because they all broke down. It looks like a Chinese boat. No, it doesn't. It had a dragon on it, from wood.

SPEAKER_02 57:00

Mm-hmm. How many how many have that?

SPEAKER_03 57:03

I'm sure there's plenty of boats that look like that. Especially in 95.

SPEAKER_02 57:05

I guess still, you know, oh yeah, because China was a very underdeveloped country, and you know, they have way too much. But they could have built a boat to just make it look like that. You don't build boats like that.

SPEAKER_01 57:15

You just get one that's like the orca. If anybody at home has a boat like that, uh please send in some fan man.

SPEAKER_02 57:21

It lived in China around 1995.

SPEAKER_01 57:23

Could you uh give us some reference photos? I'm just saying it's not the cra that's not if you're watching this movie like there would never be a boat like this in the history of 1995.

SPEAKER_02 57:32

Smugglers, so we need to get across the ocean super fast. We're only gonna use the wind to get there with no mechanical parts. That makes so much sense. Oh, that then we only have to cut in a few people with our money that we're trying to uh get from smuggling.

SPEAKER_01 57:46

I'm just gonna say it's a weird thing to be really upset about. Yeah, it's another thing.

SPEAKER_02 57:49

You started arguing with me, so Upton and Upton is here to get you.

SPEAKER_01 57:52

Oh Lord. Oh, yeah. This is our our uh friendly lawyer here, Upton and Upton. Um, so we get to see Scorpion and Sub Zero's little powers. You got some ice powers, and then like Scorpion's just like, here's my little friend in my hand.

SPEAKER_02 58:08

I hate it. Love it. Love it. Well, you hate it. So I I would have been fine with it. The CI look better, it'd be great. No, the CGI doesn't bother me. It's like when later you find out it's a living thing, I was like, no.

SPEAKER_01 58:22

Is that not what it is in the game? No. I don't really know what it is. It's supposed to be like what the reboot was. Yeah. Yeah. Oh man, I do God, I just wish the whole reboot was just subzero versus Scorpion. Scorpion.

SPEAKER_02 58:35

That's the thing, is that even if they didn't have that opening scene or just mention it in flashbacks, they could have had a spin-off of just that of their clan rivalries. Yeah, that'd have been great.

SPEAKER_01 58:45

So, um, but luckily after all this, Raiden shows up being all lightning and whatnot.

The Tournament Rules And Stakes

SPEAKER_01 58:50

Uh, he's mad because they aren't allowed to fight until the tournament. He's like, come on, guys, get your shit together. So uh Johnny is flipping his shit. Raiden explains their current situations. Once every generation, there's an interdimensional martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat.

SPEAKER_03 59:05

You said uh Shang Sung tried to kill them before the tournament. Well, he was gonna have Scorpion and Sub-Zero, like kind of thing. They did that and still had the tournament, which they could have done in the reboot.

SPEAKER_02 59:16

Yeah. Yeah, that's exactly. I thought the same thing. I was like, what they they did it.

SPEAKER_03 59:20

Yeah, no, yeah, definitely. Just leading up to the kill them before the tournament. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

It's all good. No, you're good. So once every generation, there's an interdimensional martial arts tournament known as Mortal Kombat, designed by the older gods to limit invasions between the realms of the universe. If the realm of the outer outworld wins Mortal Kombat 10 consecutive times, it's Emperor Shao Kahn will be able to invade and conquer the Earth Realm. They have already won nine, so this will be their tenth tournament. The Shalon Warrior Liu Kang and his comrades, Hollywood movie star Johnny Cage and U.S. Special Forces Sonya Blade were handpicked by Raiden, the god of lightning, and Earth Realm's Defender to overcome their powerful adversaries in order to prevent Outworld from winning their 10th straight Mortal Kombat tournament. And they all take it pretty well. Well, Sony, say something about a couple warriors on a leaky boat.

unknown 1:00:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:17

I mean, you know, some people some people just think that interdimensional tournaments are normal, and they luckily found a few people that thought that.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:27

They just went along with it because they're like, ah, they're crazy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:30

It's like somebody, if you saw those two people, they have little powers, and then an electric lightning guy comes up, and then he just spews all this, and it's like, Can I get off? Do I have to be here? If I was Sonya, I'd be like, yo, I just like hunt killers. I don't do this. She was desperate to get to the Kano man. And in the game, she's allowed to use her guns, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:00:52

Yeah, she does.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:53

Yeah. Yeah. She should have brought it up. She should have she should have brought something for this.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:58

I always think about when they try and translate like that fighting into real life. And I kind of like the the concept of Kana. If they wanted to give like the energy that they use, not the marking. If they wanted to say it's like, yeah, if you have this energy, like it would have been cool if like, you know, Kano unlocked it and Sonya tried to shoot him, and it's just like kind of shows it gives you some a little bit more durability. And like that's why in the games they it gives them more durability, so that's why when they get their livers exploded, they're still alive.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:29

Reboot had they had the markings at Little Dragon. You know what other movie has it? Annihilation. The second one. It's a 95.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Is any of that in the games?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:38

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:39

No, that's why I hated it.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:42

It's the symbol of the game. Yeah. No, it's not in anything. And it's I mean, the only reason they did the symbols is so that like they could have fish out of water type people in it. It's like, you know, so that it wouldn't be like Raiden knew these people and got them to join. It was they had to travel to this place and learn all this so that the audience at home would know how all this worked. I didn't know. I think they did that shitty.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:06

Away, like uh because I was thinking of the sequel. Yeah, I'm cutting you off. Yeah, that's fine.

unknown 1:02:10

That's fine.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:11

You just love the sequel to what?

SPEAKER_02 1:02:12

Uh with a reboot. How you could kind of explain it is like you can have like the con on anybody, but the mark is what you just you're going to it's like we can't have everybody running around. You're just gonna go to the tournament and it allows you to unlock it. Like I was trying to think of it as like it's just an invitation, and that it sees it as survival of the fittest. So anytime someone beats you when you were selected for the tournament, well, you're obviously better. Them kind of like predator hunting type thing. Yeah. So that's what's my head canon. It's like, maybe if they explain it like that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:39

Do you know what it reminds me of? Highlander. Why? So uh because uh you cut the head off when you get their power. Oh yeah. Okay. Which is funny. Christopher Lambert's in that, and he is in, he plays Raiden in the 1995 Mortal Kombat, which we're talking discussing right now. So then we get a bunch of bad CGI lights, and then uh we see Shao Kahn's face in it.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:01

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:03

Shao Kahn's badass, man. So I don't really think I ever played with him in the games. Is he like is he like an overpowered character in the games?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:12

Isn't he uh you can play with him in like trilogy, I think. That's when they have like all the characters at that point.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:18

Sub boss is another. Was he in one and two?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:20

He's in two.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:21

He had to be, right? He's a boss. I feel like I remember seeing him as a big thing. I think the reason I never fought him or fought as him is because I couldn't get far in the game. You probably couldn't get past a sub boss. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think I get past like three fights. It's tough. So the fighters all arrived. Johnny Cage brought a comical amount of luggage. They climb a ridiculously high mountain. Johnny's still trying to carry all his luggage up. Gucci baby. He figured they could. Someone could have grabbed a bag or something. No, because he might be racist. He was racist to Luke. He was. He was not a very good guy. And he was my favorite character as a kid.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:54

Did I call Kung Lao Liu Kang earlier?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:57

I don't know. I kept hearing Luke Cage and stuff like that. I don't know. I'm

Reptile Shows Up Looking Rough

SPEAKER_03 1:04:00

just hearing words defenders or something. Dude, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:04

So they enter a temple with a bunch of cool characters. Liu Kang makes eyes at someone who we will soon learn is katana. They do this in front of a weird creature statue that I'm sure won't come alive. Then Shang Sung comes by and talks to her, and then turns out the statue is alive and looks bad, and its name is Reptile.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:20

Reptile's awesome, though.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:21

What, Dakota? I love reptile. Have y'all ever seen Monsters Incorporated? Yeah. Looks exactly like that monster in there. Hey, I'm just glad he got work before Monsters Inc., you know. That's another good thing about MK11. They got the. I missed Jason. He would have laughed at that joke.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:39

MK11, they got the crypt and they have that reptile statue in the crypt. That's funny. It's great.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:46

So is like Katana actually that old?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:49

10,000 years old? You hear it a lot in a movie. She wears it well. She's a Dinian. They don't really yeah. Okay, so like her realm. The Denian, that's her realm that got taken by Shane. Oh, Shao Kahn.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:59

Um, damn it. I was like, look at it. You just need to stop because I would never wow. Think of someone who's just seen a lot more in life. That's why it's like it as I've gotten older and I see those dudes who date someone who's like 20 years older than that.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:16

But she ain't from Earth Realm though, it's different.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:17

Yeah, she's seen a lot more in life. She's a Danian man. So that means they have nothing to in common to talk about.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:22

She's beautiful. There's no stress and shit in Dania, I guess, until their realm's on the line and then they there's no stress.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:27

Did she get kidnapped?

SPEAKER_03 1:05:29

Do it. Did her world get taken?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:31

Yeah, no. There's no stress. I don't know. Dakota. Liu Kang and her have so much to talk about. What are you talking about? Her age does not matter to Liu Kane.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:39

No, who else thought that? It was a little island out in the ocean. Dude.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:45

They look like adults, okay? They can hang out together.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:49

Man, you should really talk some anime people then. Because they say the same thing about those little girls who look like they're Should I look up how old the actress was?

SPEAKER_01 1:05:57

No! Okay, because it would Okay. Well, I'll see you in court later. Our heroes sit and have a meal. Right? Looks delicious. Love this. There's so much food. I love movie food, man. Like, especially like when Kano's just eating it. Kano's.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:17

Was he sitting in Goro's chair? Because I didn't realize how large it was. I was like, wait, that thing is like comically huge because his arms were up here for the armrests. I think it was Goro. Goro probably does sit there with that.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:27

But Goro's sitting in his throne.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:29

Not when he walks in.

unknown 1:06:31

Right?

SPEAKER_02 1:06:31

What?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:32

Goro's sitting in his throne.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:33

And when Kano's eating? Yes, they're talking. Yeah, they're talking.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:36

He's like, Goro Goro's thing.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:38

Did you even watch the watch? 95.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:41

Mortal Kombat.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:42

Got his ass. We're going to have this video.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:44

All right, so I thought we were good.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:47

They're sitting, they're having their delicious-looking meal. Oh, and whenever they come in, I'm like, man, they are they're gonna feast. Nobody's gonna knock over all this food on the ground. Because why would you bring a bunch of food in if you're just gonna have a whole bunch of people throw it all on the ground? So Shang Sung welcomes everybody and tells everybody the tournament begins tomorrow and that some will have the honor to fight uh last time's champion Goro. Prince Goro. So then all the shirtless dudes run into the room and destroy their meal. Like, what the fuck? Let like why'd you even make the food? Sorry, that's why even bring it out.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:26

I'm not talking about that scene where Kano was eating by himself. No, we're not talking about it. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:30

I'm making sure we're not sure. Sub Zero about to make an introduction. Yeah, Sub Zero's about to make his introduction.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:34

I agree with you though. Like, why do you destroy that? It's like anybody can eat anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:40

No, we just don't care. Move the tables to the side, please. Come on. So then Sub Zero comes in and they're like, hey, you uh you fight him. Guy seems pretty excited to fight him. He immediately dies. It rolls though. Pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:56

How do you block that?

SPEAKER_01 1:07:56

I was like, it's very hard combo. So Shang Sung looks directly into the camera and says, flawless victory. Uh all the normal people seem pretty chill with it. That is flawless victory. Is that a joke? Yeah.

unknown 1:08:09

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:09

Everybody sings pretty chilly. That was good. I'm sorry. It's okay. This name Jason Harris. Oh. That's my favorite part about Jason.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:17

He's like, I can't do it. I can't. He's got a deep voice. I can't mimic.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:21

Don't make fun of Michael Heroes. I'm not making fun of him.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:24

It's like try and mimic Shane's laugh.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:26

Wow, it's fun. Like, you never think, like, hey, when's the last time Dakota's gonna be on the podcast? I've only known you longer than him, and I don't get invited on. All right. So the three heroes go after Shang's song. They see a giant monstrous shadow. Um, it's the Goro. So they're like, oh he's like he sounds like uh the creature from Labyrinth. I don't know if y'all ever seen that. I've never seen it. Okay. Um, so Sonya uh and I love that uh Johnny Cage is like, Sonya, uh, you go figure out what that was. Yeah, a little weight right here.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:02

I don't know why I thought that was even funnier. It's like Johnny knows how to fight. It's just like, what the fuck was that?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:07

Yeah. So uh they fight, which this is the first time that they're like, oh, something's weird here. It's like you just saw a guy turn into ice and break it and just you know, break into shards of ice. That this is where you're like, I draw the line here.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:21

Well, wait a minute. On the boat, like Johnny is like, we got a guy that freezes things. Yeah, but this is more of these.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:27

This was like the first time he was scared. It's like, oh, are you serious? So um they find Kano who is chomping down and talking to big old Goro, who's a giant and has four arms and uh looks so good. Um Kano talks shit about Shang Sung and then Goro verbally jerks him off.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:45

Uh right?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:53

He is. He just like he just like talks him up so much. I'm like, geez, you love him, I dick. Okay, so he's got it. Does make sense. I just never heard that one.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:02

One hand on his dick, one hand up his butt, one another in his mouth. What's he do with the fourth arm?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:08

Uh belly button. So uh Shang Sung shows up and tells Kano he can leave after fighting Sonia, but not to hurt her because he has plans for her. He warns Goro of Liu Kang because you know he's the chosen one. He then warns Goro of Princess Katana, who is 10,000 years old, and this is not the last time we'll hear about it. No, it isn't. And that him and Liu Kang can't join together for some reason.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:34

Um Was that literally Shang Sung's plan the whole time? Was just he just wanted her to Sonya? Yeah. Because I was like, he's being creepy. Like he I was like, is she got like some weird different story that they had here that she's like, I just sent it to some bloodline too?

SPEAKER_03 1:10:50

This is you know why he wants her. This is a beater, right? It's this it's the story of the second.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:53

Yeah, when I was sitting there's like, am I did I miss something?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:55

Because it seems like all he wants to do is just it's the story of the second game, I believe, right? Because Shang Sung knocks her in the in the game. And isn't it to fight her so that they can win the realm pretty easily? Isn't that something that came directly from the game? I do remember like the background of the the arena where she's like tied up in the room.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:15

Because I played MK2 yesterday with my brother. It's her and Kano both tied up while uh Shao Kahn's on his throne. But I don't know why Kano got Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:23

I didn't I don't remember.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:24

I remember why Kano was tied up too.

unknown 1:11:25

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:27

Didn't have enough shrimp for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:30

I guess uh he got ate by a dingo in this one. Anyone? So as the three leave, Sang Sung hears them and send men to find him. Lou sees Katana and runs after her, and he is sprayed in the face by Reptile. Uh and Johnny's like, what's wrong? It's like, uh, I can't see. Yep. Great addition there, Jesse. Johnny and Sonia join now to look for Katana. They just show up right in time after he gets sprayed by a reptile.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:58

No, he's not blinded.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:59

Yeah. So they can't find her and fight some random dude. Uh they win pretty easily. Raiden shows up. Oh, like a bunch of dudes run in because they end up right back to where Kano and them were. They come in, they fight him, and Johnny's like, hey, that was pretty easy. And then uh Raiden comes in, shows up, and congrats them. Then more men show up, uh, but Raiden shows them lightning and they don't attack. So they fight all those people. They come in very loud and then they talk to Raiden, and then he's like, Well, what about them? And they're like, ugh. And it's like, wow, they're very sneaky. They just showed up and they didn't show it up. They're ninjas. That was a joke I made to my wife. So it didn't work here. Uh he says, because Shang Sung is a former champion, he's allowed to fight if he pleases. He uses the power of souls he has defeated. So he's like dangerous and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:46

Yeah, but I feel like Shang Sung would be very hard to be because having generations worth of fighters, I'm like, I feel like you're just gonna be unstoppable.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:54

Yeah. Um turns out though, he's uh pretty stoppable. Not the best fighter. No, he talks too much. Classic movie villains. So the tournament begins.

Tournament Starts With First Wins

SPEAKER_01 1:13:04

Oh, I got so incredibly pumped when I was taking my notes and watching this. I'm like, let's go. It's the tournament. I'm so excited. I haven't seen a Mortal Cat combat tournament in forever. Because we won't see it again in the reboot.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:17

You'll see it next week if you go to a movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:19

Can't wait.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:20

God, I'm so pumped.

SPEAKER_01 1:13:21

Um, so yeah, Liu Kang it it's hit he is to fight. First, uh, Liu Kang knocks the guy out, and then you know, Shang Sung just like uh sucks his soul out of his body. Uh fatality. Something like that. Yeah. You know, it happens every day. No one seems super like, oh, that's weird. Um, but I love this fight with the sticks. I mean, come on. Two people with sticks is hitting each other, it's great. The other guy, that like it was a good fight. You know what I'm saying? It was all right. Oh, looking at me like I'm an idiot. This was a great combat.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:55

It was too much slow-mo, I guess, for me. Um that much comment slow-I feel like it does a lot with him going when he's stretching. No, like when he got done from the sand and stuff, and like when he had the staff.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:08

I don't know. This reminds me, it's just like high quality 90s fight scene.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:12

Oh, I'd take it. Good intro to the tournament.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:16

It was it was obviously two actors and a snunt double that just they knew how to fight and they did a great job.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:23

So I was wondering that. I was like, do we I was like, back in the day of like people that would hire people who could fight and not just use random CGI crop.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:33

Yeah. Well, it's because uh usually the issue was they could fight, but they can't uh but I thought uh this guy did a pretty good end of it. With buffed up dudes Yeah, John Call Van Damme, he can't he can fight. Who cannot act. But he can't act. They can act. Steven Segal, he could fight back then, can't act.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:53

Uh Dolph Lundren. Arnold couldn't fight, couldn't act. He was just fun to watch. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:59

You could do that. Charismatic.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:01

And you couldn't give these people at least a chance, because that's what makes I think makes it more fun. I saw a joke of like it's like Hollywood finally learned it's a lot easier to get regular actors jacked than have jacked uh res dudes try and act. It is hard to act.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:15

I mean, I can't do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:17

I'm doing it right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:18

I feel like Devin, you'd probably be pretty good. I think I could act.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:21

You got a lot of charisma. I can see it. If I could set my nerves to the side, I think I could do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

There's times like you could do it, especially like when you're trying to when you do your jokes and you're just like, what, what?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:34

So it's Sonya is up next and she's facing Kano. And I know this fight is gonna be fucking good because Kano's in it. So they fight. Sonia looks real natural in her stance. Um she headlocks him like a Hurricane Rana style headlock. Um, and uh she then breaks his neck and that's it.

SPEAKER_03 1:15:53

I hate that part when she does a kick to him and she falls. I'm like, Sonia would never fall because she's special forces and is a badass. Yeah. That's why I hate this Sonya.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:05

Does she always have that um because I forgot, like with the reboot when she gets her conna and she starts shooting that purple stuff, pink, whatever, off of her arms. Has she always had something like that?

SPEAKER_01 1:16:16

In the older games, yeah. Really? Okay. I just remember her having a gun. That's about all I remember.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:20

Also, that's all you would need.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:22

I was like, man, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:27

She had it when she was she used it one time on that one guy and then left it. Oh, wait.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:31

Sub-Zero broke it in half. Yeah, that's right. Damn it, guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:35

Did y'all watch the movie? I knew it because I brought it up. I just didn't want to bring it up to embarrassing.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:40

Sub Zero does it in this movie and he did it in a reboot to Jax.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:43

That was a really cool scene. That was badass.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:45

Along with his arms.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:47

Badass.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:48

Hey, great way of him getting his arms. Still don't like how they gave him his arms. Up until that point. Him losing his arms, great. Getting his new arms, not great.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:58

So now it's Johnny Cage's

Johnny Cage Versus Scorpion

SPEAKER_01 1:17:00

turn. And uh he's out in the forest for some reason. Taking a nice walk. I mean, where was it? Like, everybody was just like, ah, we don't want to see this fight. This fight's gonna be too cool. I don't want to watch it. So um he's in the forest and he is to fight Scorpion who shouts out a thing from his hand, uh get over here. So good, right? I mean epic. Right. I think it is.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:24

As a fan of Scorpion, how do you feel about the alive spear in his hand?

SPEAKER_03 1:17:31

Is it that big of a deal? You're talking about in this movie. I like it. As someone who doesn't have a shit. I give it a pass because it's 90s, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:38

Like you could have even fit. It just takes away because fighting with the spear thing is cooler than it's like he just stands there and it does all the work. He's not doing anything.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:50

That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:50

That's what I didn't like.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:52

He don't do too much in like you 95, he didn't do much with that spear other than get over here or a fatality.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:58

Do you know why they did it that way? It's easier to CGI someone standing still. Yes. That's it. That was it, I'm assuming. That's probably all it was. They didn't want him moving around because it'd just been impossible for him to you know, CGI it.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:10

I do think how that thing lives in there though.

unknown 1:18:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:18:13

Once he feed it.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:15

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:16

Could be just a parasite and then just I thought it was interesting that it had a reach. Yeah. I was like, eh, I thought this thing could just go forever, right? I mean it already went so far. Do you think it like just it's it's from hell and then it just comes out of the way?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:28

It's also very weak because Johnny Cage uh dodged it and it immediately hit a tree.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:37

Can Johnny go that fast? Do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:39

Can Johnny run that fast?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:40

Oh no. So turns out everything in this movie isn't like perfect, you know? Yeah. And you're just supposed to have fun with it.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:48

I mean, I did.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:49

It's just like I can't tell. I cannot tell. Keep laughing. Yeah. You gotta legit laugh at me. It's pretty good. So then he transports to his lair, right? Is that Scorpion's Nether Realm? Nether Realm. Nether Realm. Cool. Uh is he from hell?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:04

He goes there once he dies.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:06

Yeah, when he died, he uh made a deal or something. And he has lava in his body? Hellfire. Hellfire. Cool. Just wanted a clear thing.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:14

Did you watch the reboot as well? Because he mentions it.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:16

Uh Hellfire's hot. I was also playing Pocopia at the same time. Oh, yeah. So they fight. Uh Johnny gets his butt kicked a little and then uh does some gymnastics to get away.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:26

A little? That you got this is one of the best fights in the movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:29

I'm playing it. I will say there is a uh, well, I thought like I would read it and then we'd talk about the fight type of situation. Um but I will say there is one point where you know he gets Johnny knocked down on the ground, he's like beating the shit out of him. And then there's like a POV POV shot from Johnny's perspective where he just got Scorpion just kicking the hell out of him. And then when I was watching this morning, I was like, you know how he kind of like tightened up because you start getting into it?

SPEAKER_03 1:19:53

I was like, this fight rules. This fight. He did some of that combo where like he hits him, does something else, then he trips him.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:01

Yeah, it was pretty good. Um, but then he does some gymnastics, which uh I will say this. If you guys have you guys ever seen Jurassic Park uh two? Yeah, The Lost World? It's been a well, I don't think I've ever seen that one all the way through. So don't put gymnastics in your movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:15

What was wrong with it? They're fighters. What's wrong with having gymnastics? They're using their environment to their scorpion.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:20

Oh, get over here while he's flipping a bunch. I mean, he could have just like get over here. It was dead. It died. Did you watch the movie? Oh, yeah. Did you watch the bunch? What's happening? Get up and beat him up while he's flipping for five minutes. He kicked him to the chin, man. It was not just run up and climb up it. You didn't have to do gymnastics up there. What do you you mean the spot where he couldn't just climb up? You know what? I'm being in I'm being Dakota. He did parkour. I am being Dakota. Well, no, it's just not 90s. I thought it was fun. I just thought it was silly, and I thought everybody else would thought it was silly, not the coolest thing they've ever seen in their life. I mean, I it wasn't the greatest, but it I could reason it away. And then I guess you know. All right, but so uh he goes to do he does gymnastics to get away, but then falls into a pit of bones because Scorpion kicks a thing and says, Get down here. Is that something he does in the games? He says different other things. Um and then we also uh so he falls down, and um uh, you know, after seeing all this crazy things, Johnny Cage is super weirded out by skeletons. He falls down, he's like, which is always a good bit in movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:24

He's like, Well, if a lot of people die here, I could be the next one.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:27

Um, and then we get a great jaws shot, you know, where it's uh like the camera zooms in, but it's also like the focus is being pulled out. Um, or no, it's being dollyed in and then the focus is being pulled out, and it's you know, like in Jaws. Y'all seen Jaws, right? Been a minute, but yes, you know, like it's the scene on the beach where you got uh the the the main character and they're like shark and then it like it zooms in and it pans out and like the background gets kind of funky. Oh, like when he I could explain it better if I could think of all the words I'm wanting to say, but I can't right now. But anybody listening at home, you know what the jaw shot is. Um and I just thought, hey, that's some good filmmaking by Paul W. S. Anderson there. So oh, so Scorpion then reveals he is a bone daddy and that he can shoot fire.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:11

Yes, that's a that's a thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:12

You ever heard Toasty? No, like I get it, but I mean, I don't think that's what yeah. I was happy with that. That is a thing, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:19

That was always his thing. I love that they added it in.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:22

But problem is this makes him an unmovable target. So then Johnny Cage easily wins by slowly throwing a spear at him and then hitting him with a saw shield.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:32

Hit him, or he saw them.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:33

He saw the I will say, fucking really. I loved it. It looked great. I mean, it's so you know, I wish he could have moved a little bit so it'd be a little bit more dramatic instead of just standing there, but like the hellfire oozing out of him, his half of his half his skull's gone. Well, screaming. I realized where and the transition from face to skull looked great. That was good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:55

Uh whatever this latest Doom game that came out where they got the idea for the recent shield, because it literally has a chainsaw blade on it when he uses it, and it's like that's the newer one's pretty good.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:07

They look good.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:09

Super fast pace. And then a uh Scorpion explodes in fire. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:14

Like a bomb, he had to run away. Like Predator.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:17

He did get a photo though.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:18

So um satisfied with Scorpion in this film? Yeah. Because I mean I know he's like most people's favorite. And I think they did a pretty good job with it. Oh, the fight, I thought. It helps his fight isn't shit, and it's really great. And the other thing. And they stop doing these shots and the setting was pretty good. So uh Luna said zeros. Uh he has to fight Katana. Um, Liu Kang engages in a brief duel with Katana, who secretly offers him advice for his next battle. Use the element which brings life. Um, so here's just something I want to say to uh Shang Sung. Like you said to not let them meet each other, and then you force them to fight each other.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:56

Yeah. And then you're like, hey, stop talking. I guess he was just testing the seed.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:00

It was like 10 minutes ago in the movie. I'm like, you didn't want them to fight. You didn't want them to even look at each other and talk to each other. Someone's probably like, look, Katana, he's just Lu Kang for his killer's killer. And then just like let them fight for five minutes where they're obviously not talking in. Oh, sorry. I was trying to I was listening to you. I know. I'm just trying to have a podcast over here, Dakota. Yeah, what would you like to say?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:21

I did say it.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:22

What'd you say? I said for the audience at home.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:25

He said he looks like Katana, I don't want you to fight, but he's just Lu Kang for his brother's killer.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:32

Wow. Hey, could you explain to me why that's funny? Did you not pick it up? No, wait. Because he's Liu Kang for his brother's killer.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:39

Looking Luke.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:41

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:43

Okay. Thanks for bringing it. It almost went over my head. Wow. I think I'm the hair stopped that. I literally hear people uh shutting off the podcast now. Not even out yet.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:54

This I do like the setting of this fight, though. Something about that rock in the middle of the damn ocean or sea or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:02

I loved it. I all the beach fights look, I just, you know, fight on the beach, man. It looks great.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:06

It really could have just not brought Katana in this because it was. I was like, you're not letting her do anything.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:11

Well, she had to she had to say use the element which brings life. Raiden could have said that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:16

Raiden could have easily said that because he's like, I get I get what it is.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:19

Raiden's

Sub-Zero Goes Down Fast

SPEAKER_01 1:25:20

a little bit of a stinker though, you know. He's trying not to tell he wants to tell people stuff, but then also at the same time, he doesn't want to tell them anything. Yeah. Um, so yeah, Shang Sung stops the fight and says, Hey, stop talking. Why did I do this? So next, Liu Kang and Sub Zero fight. Uh Lou is uh crushing it until Sub starts getting cold. Um he makes a frozen shield around him. Uh Katana then walks in to tell him to use the element that brings life. Uh turns out water. She didn't tell him.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:45

She just looked at him and he had a mental flashback. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:25:48

Well, no, he saw the ice in the water real turned ice. She could have just said water. Yeah, you can't give, you know, he got a thing for himself. You know, we can give him a tip, but just the tip. Then he gives then he gives Sub-Zero a tip.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:02

That's you that's usually what Scorpion gives.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:04

My fucking head hurts.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:07

So he throws the water that turns into an icicle and it kills Sub Zero pretty easily and he freezes over. But uh, I thought the uh icicle was a big ass icicle. I thought that was pretty cool though. It was a cool idea, but then Sub-Zero freezing over. I'm like, God, his name is Sub Zero. Fun little fact about this fight is uh you know how that Sub-Zero flips all the way down the room. I was gonna bring up uh Liu Kang was supposed to do the same thing, but it was he couldn't do it. He was struggling, he's like, you know what? I'm just gonna run.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:36

It's like what do they do?

SPEAKER_01 1:26:36

He's like, we just want you to run and then just go, she's like, what the hell? Yeah. Uh yeah, compared to the Scorpion fight, this one uh bit of a bummer. Yeah, yeah, that's a letdown. It should have gone longer. I will say this subzero um CGI doing like ice and particles and things like that is way harder to do. Which is fine.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:56

They could have cut it back and only had it like in a few. I feel like you could have had controlled moments of it. Because you had literally Scorpion standing still and had a whole CGI thing with that. You could have had a few little moments of doing other things with it that would have been better.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:12

All right, we're at it 130 right now. Hell yeah.

Goro Runs The Table

SPEAKER_01 1:27:15

All right, so um, it's goro time, baby. We get a montage of him winning a lot. It's him versus Artlene. Uh should go. Should go.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:24

I was sitting saying, are we like how many other people are here? This is the longest montage I have ever seen.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:29

He was busting ass, man. Well, I mean, I think at this point, right, like the whole reason that Shang Song's like, hey, all these humans are kind of winning.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:36

He was not kidding. There was a fuck ton of humans.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:39

I think it's time for Goro to fight somebody. There really need to be I there needs to be rules in this tournament. There need to have a bracket, they need to have all this. That's what the games had. And I kind of wish it had like a little bracket to like four five.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:51

It looked like it's got a scorecard.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:52

Yeah, the set the mortal Oh. Like in a new one coming back to the card. Yeah, because that was, you know, you that's how tournaments work. Well, I just also remember the mortal card. Combat 2 screen on the Genesis, it had like who you're gonna fight next and you go up the ladder. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, that's kind of what this movie is missing a little bit. Um, so yeah, uh, it's him versus Art Lean. Man, just better name for this guy, please. It's this Art Lean. Should have been Marcus or something.

SPEAKER_03 1:28:17

Uh Tyrone, maybe. What do you think? I was asking, because you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:22

I was thinking like Tupac, I don't know. Uh so this fight should go well. Um and in a comical fight, Gora wins easily. Uh finish him. Uh Sonia screams like they've all talked once.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:39

That's why I was very confused. I was like, wait, is this not Jack's?

SPEAKER_01 1:28:42

Yeah. Can I just say the balls on this film to have that puppet creature fight so much? It's that's why I can appreciate it. It's fantastic. He looks credit terrifying, uh uncanny, and I mean, real life. He is I mean it's hard dragon. I mean, he's yeah, it's just his face, there's something about his face that I never want to see it again. It's and it's just like I, you know, I'm so glad we only have two arms and not four, because man, it really makes your body look weird. Yeah. Um, but man, as a kid, this was the sickest shit ever. Yep. Oh, so good. And just to have Johnny Cage be the one as a kid, and he's my favorite, beat him. It was so great.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:24

I didn't like the way they did that.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:25

Uh, yeah, and we'll get to that. Don't worry. I have some things. So the heroes talk to Raiden, who is terrible at giving advice. Uh, they think they don't have a chance against uh Goro. Raiden says they can't they just can't be scared and must face their fears. Johnny is afraid of being fake and rushes in to fight. Um, and he has to be smart now. Sonia is afraid to admit that she even needs help uh because the whole movie, they're like wanting to help her, and she's like, get away. Um got complex. Lou fears his own destiny. He just has to believe and he has to get over his despair. Um boy, writing was all up in her ear in that same one. Yeah. Reminded me of one of those center scenes. All up in it. So uh Lou has visions of his brother. Johnny and Sonia talk. Uh Johnny wants to fight Goro because he thinks he will kill him all uh one by one, and he wants to protect Sonia because he loves her, I guess, even though we haven't really explored that at all, except for the first time. I don't understand his reasoning of thinking he could. Yep, we're about to get to the point. Yeah, just hold on. Let's go. So Johnny goes to Shang Sung to request a fight. He allows it. Shang Sun says that because of this, he gets to fight the winner of or someone of his choosing for the final battle. Seems like a real cheat there. Raiden shows up to stop it, but he's too late. Raiden calls him a fool. Johnny tells him that it's his fight after all, it's mortal combat. Um, after Johnny walks away, Raiden is giddy as hell and says, Finally, one of them understands, but his fear was being a fake and that he rushes into combat, and that's what he's doing right now. Like, how is this him being smart?

SPEAKER_02 1:31:00

No, he said Johnny didn't he say he's like it's earth round, like it's earth. I'm fighting for everybody. That's why Raiden was like, his confidence is well, I mean he's he's not fighting for himself now, he's fighting for other people.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:11

Well, just from just from the movie standpoint, right? Hey, you rushed into everything. Next scene, hey, I'm gonna fight Goro before anybody else gets to. Next scene, but he's fighting everyone else. And then Raiden's like, yeah. That's exactly what I said. Run in there. Yeah, I just watch it halfway. I mean, no, I get it. I'm just saying for this point. It well, it's just the way it's because he was so confident finally someone's listening to me. Well, if you watch the movie, you would understand that it does. Johnny was fighting for all of Earth instead of himself.

SPEAKER_03 1:31:43

Because one more loss, dude, and it's over.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:44

Yeah, I get it, but like he's really running in there. How's it one more loss, though?

SPEAKER_03 1:31:48

They won nine consecutive. They lose this.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:50

Oh, I know. Did you watch the movie? No, I thought you meant like one more battle before the ending. It is gorgeous. So I don't understand. Like, doesn't the battle end once all the all the Earth people are dead? But then like Shang Shun's like, oh, even there's like a few of you left, like I get to just do the last fight.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:05

Yeah, that's why you need a bracket scorecard. Exactly. Get you.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:08

Um, I don't know. I just thought his it just it's ironic that his thing is don't run in there immediately, and then he immediately is like, I want to fight the biggest badass guy. Um But you know,

Johnny Versus Goro And The Cup Lesson

SPEAKER_01 1:32:20

to each of their own, I guess. So time for the epic battle between Goro and Johnny that definitely won't be determined by a nutshot. So Johnny enters wearing some cool ass shades. Goro enters by roaring a lot. He's got a fan club, don't he? He's got a great ponytail, too. Yeah, Goro. Damn twins. So um the battle starts, and Johnny Johnny immediately hits him in the balls. God. How many balls do you think he has?

SPEAKER_03 1:32:44

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:49

It's like then his face.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:52

His face is so terrifying.

SPEAKER_03 1:32:55

Two hands on it, the other two are out here laughing about. Somebody help me. T poses. Ponytail a mess. God.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:01

Then he's fucking stumbling. Do you think he goro shaves the rest of his head, or it only grows in that one spot? Probably just grows in that one spot. That's what I was thinking, too. I'm glad you see you come here for the important questions. Yes. Um, so Johnny runs away to the giant cliffside, uh, and it looks great and doesn't look like CGI at all. Uh, where they fight, and Johnny just like easily beats him by kicking him off the cliff. Not much room for that big ass fire. Yeah. I like that there's one point in this fight where he kicks them in the head and Goro does a complete like flip. Yep. And I'm like, bro, you're built like a tank. It's you know, I had so many issues with the remake of how easily they killed uh Goro. And then while watching this, I was like, ooh, I thought I remember this being a lot longer of a fight.

SPEAKER_03 1:33:51

I think the reboot catches more heat because it's a new guy that kills Goro. But at least he had a power. The one who killed the great Kung Lao like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:03

Yeah, no. It should have been someone else.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:05

Somebody else. I'm pretty sure Goro's coming back though, right? They all get sucked up at the end. Unless, I mean, unless they would only be um secret.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:13

The way on she, because he's the one who messes with uh thing in the back, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:34:16

Just like the way that the movie ends, it really makes it seem like a lot of those people are coming back.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:21

Well, no, Shing Sung and Quan Shi work together. That's why I said death is only one portal. Technically, it's true, because that was the whole thing in uh one of the games, is that they were like everybody was dead and they were off. Well, no, like the after the reboot, right? It was the one that mainly focused on Johnny Cage because everyone was like Oh, they were revving it.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:39

Yeah, you're right, that's X. And I understood everything of that. Yeah, so then we hear Sonia screaming. Shang Sung is pulling her away. Raiden and uh Lu Chang Lu Kang try to stop him, but Shang Shen Shang Sung. Jesus. Uh Shang Sung changes the rules and takes Sonia to the Emperor's castle in the wasteland of Outworld, where Raiden can't follow. He's gonna battle Sonia for the last fight. He chose her because she has no chance against him. Lu Kang must fight, uh, Raiden says. Raiden says he thought him, he taught him everything he could, like as in nothing. Um, and now just has to have the will to win. Uh we see janky ass reptile

Outworld Rescue And Reptile Rematch

SPEAKER_01 1:35:20

listening to them talk. Johnny and Lu enter the portal. What did Raiden teach him?

SPEAKER_04 1:35:28

That's what I thought. Not to just fight for themselves.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:32

He just I've taught you everything. I talked to you one time. I gave you one piece of advice, and you still have yet to listen to me. So um, yeah, they entered uh the wasteland and it's all wasteland-like, but also looks pretty fucking. Looks great. Looks like Outworld. It does.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:50

So, like my impression of Outworld is from a mountain cliff and it's all CGI, like in the remake.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:56

Where Outworld looks just like Earth Realms, like Mount Ephraim and Sky Temple is.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:02

Well, the fighting area with where Kotal Collin was in that game. Was that not Outworld in there? Like it was a market area. Yeah. That's how I see it. I was like, this is very barren to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:13

And I love how damn that game is like I know. Good lord. We're talking about a 95 film.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:19

And they only had one person running around twice? Yeah.

unknown 1:36:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:22

I thought, but I mean, just like, I don't know. I thought this set looked great. I thought it look great. I thought it looked cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:26

It's just not what I was I was picturing for Outworld. But I was like, I mean, I think it looks good though. All those statues, like, was that all supposed to be like is it a specific reference to any creature?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:38

This is Katana's world that was lost, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:36:41

Outworld merges with other realms once they well, the statues were they were supposed to be a reference to another, like are you talking about like the demon-looking statue?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:49

Yeah. Oh, yeah, no. That is once we get to the reptile part, which we're about to get there, I need some uh help with the lore.

SPEAKER_02 1:36:55

I don't think that's not a thing.

SPEAKER_01 1:36:57

I don't think that's a thing at all. Okay. Uh I didn't think it was either, but I was like, is this is this what this is? Is this how it's supposed to be? No. But I'm so happy reptile's in this, especially kid me. I was like, hell yeah, he's green and he looks like the other two characters. Correct. And his mask is awesome. Yeah. So they sent a present, and you know, Lou just finds Reptile. He's like, I know now. And throws on a statue, and uh that like sucks it in, and then like the statue turns into a human that looks like Scorpion and Sub Zero but green. Um, and that makes sense to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:30

I think it's just supposed to like he's nobody knew I guess Reptile was gonna be in the movie. Yeah. So and he is a secret fighter in the first game.

SPEAKER_01 1:37:40

Yeah, and they put him in the second one.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:41

And I'll go on YouTube and I'll watch it and I'll just read the comments where people are in the theaters and like they just lost their damn minds when they saw Reptile.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:48

Maybe that was their way of hiding it. Was so like CGI because there's no actor.

SPEAKER_03 1:37:52

You gotta think back then you can just hop on YouTube and watch that trailer a million times. So I use that soundbite reptile. God, yes, let's get to it.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:01

Yeah. So they fight and uh Lou wins. Wait a minute, man. You got a lot in this spot. You can quit doing that.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:10

There's more fight in the sub-zero fight out of five.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:12

Yeah. No, yeah, there really is. Um uh well, we can talk about it. Lou King wins. No, but uh, I mean, this is the this is the part where they did his flying kicks. It's so fucking good. Yeah, it's great. Just all the throwing around, it's dark and dingy in the little room.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:31

There's a lot to his fight. You also got the badass track playing as they fight. Yeah. One of my favorite parts when they're fighting, they're just blocking, you get the sound effect that.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:39

I was, oh man, fucking sound effects back in the day with me.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:42

Then when he flips reptile on his face and he's breathing, he kicks that dust out of the side. Yeah, I thought that was like another good show. That was some of my favorite stuff. And we about bypassed all that because you know, Lu Kang wins, that's it. Yeah, we were gonna talk about it after I finished saying that.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:54

My fault.

SPEAKER_02 1:38:55

I thought it was done because you know said Luke Kang wins and then nothing else.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:57

I was like, well, let's just get the Shang Song for you. Yeah, I put it in as a joke. Jeez. My bad. Do y'all even listen to my podcast? No. It's a comedy podcast that talks about movies. I guess I need to put that in the intro. It's probably as far as as far as y'all get. Intro.

SPEAKER_05 1:39:12

Don't talk about that.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:13

That's like how most of the people get. Um, but no, yeah, uh, and this is uh what else happens, guys?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:19

In this fight?

SPEAKER_01 1:39:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:21

You get the bicycle kick. Yeah. Uh the track.

SPEAKER_02 1:39:24

Yeah. I really wish he did use his uh acid uh spit at him one time.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:29

I was curious. I was like, I thought I thought I remember as a kid him spitting more acid.

SPEAKER_03 1:39:32

That'd look badass coming out of that mask, too. Yeah, I never thought of that.

SPEAKER_01 1:39:36

I thought that was the reason that the mask was like that. I was like, all right, when's he gonna spit some acid? And then you know he kept like doing the breathing thing out of it, but it just never happened. But it was a cool fight, and then I just love it when Liu King just like really just lands on those stones and stuff. It's great. Oh, yeah. It's real physical, and that's what I like about it. Don't still it. Dakota, you got anything about the fight? Y'all want to talk about it?

SPEAKER_03 1:39:57

I just like when he answered He got a point, man. You quiet.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:01

I'm sorry, I'm thanking here. So I thought we were already past it. That's what Jesse wanted to do.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:06

Like, truly, it's like I don't want to put in my notes, like, oh, then he hits them here and then he hits them there. Yeah, I figure it's just be great.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:14

You're right, you're moving the right way.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:16

That's usually because whenever after we did our John Wick thing, that's kind of how I did it.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:20

Um what was I like how some of the actors, if you notice, a lot of them try and do like the stance of like where they're a lot of people. Because he's doing it he does that in this scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:28

There's so much love put in this movie.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:30

I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:30

And then sometimes it just miss it just miss some story points.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:33

Oh, they went crazy in theaters in this fight. You get reptile, you get the bicycle kick.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:38

Dude, I know there had to be some people who are like, I'm just so ready.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:41

Just looking things up about this movie, people like consider this his best film, LWS Anderson.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:46

I could see it, yeah. Because I went back and watched the original Resident Evil and I was like, huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:50

It's a fun watch.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:51

It is fun. First three are like you said, good.

SPEAKER_01 1:40:54

Yeah. Third one's the best, I think. Oh the third extraction or whatever extinction. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:40:59

Oh, Johnny Cage is in that movie. Boom, baby. Lyndon Nashby's a sniper or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:03

It's been a while since I use the first two are my favorite. I don't usually get to the third one because that's when it gets all apocalyptic, and I'm like, eh, I kind of lose interest.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:10

Ah man. It's just like that's one of the that's one of the better shots of those. Um, and there's not as much editing in that one. So yeah, um, so he kicks Reptile outside of the door. It's like this dope ass kick. And then he like falls back into the statue, falls down, and then he turns back into the statue, and then reptile comes out and he's like, and then he just like smashes um maggots and there's plugs and everything.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:32

Centipedes.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:33

Yeah, because those are reptiles. They're not.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:37

Well, he's dying.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:38

He's decaying.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:38

Yeah, well. But that is stuff reptiles eat, though, right? Is that what the thought is? Is that like when you die, you produce the things that you eat? I guess you usually poop.

SPEAKER_02 1:41:46

And when you die, you poop, so yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:41:48

But you do get like a little snippet that something's coming. Yeah. Because when they're walking past a statue, it shows one of those statues hanging up and like something inside of it.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:55

Oh, yeah, it did, didn't it? Yeah. Yeah, that's true. Cool little foreshadow. Man, I just want more.

unknown 1:42:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:42:01

I don't want more lore about these statues. So, uh I giggled. Um so Katana shows up just as she always does, kind of just randomly pops in. She can do whatever she wants, I guess. She's fan in the flames of war. Um, and then she she comes in and decides I get it. She uh decides to give some more exposition. So essentially, she used to live in the outworld, and it it was great until they lost their world in Mortal Kombat, and now it looks like shit. Earth will as well, unless they face their worst fear and win Mortal Kombat. Man, this movie is nothing about fear, and then like halfway through, they're like, You have to fight your fears three different times the rest of the movie. And I was like, I don't remember that. But is that how the games go? Face your fears type thing? No, I didn't think so. Um, just asking questions. So then we get a big CGI shot into a giant tower where we see Sonya chained up looking like she's on the cover of a metal uh album. Um they really went with the damsel in distress. Yeah, line with her. Bummer only.

SPEAKER_02 1:43:04

She can't fight, we gotta make her.

SPEAKER_01 1:43:05

It's like the other female is just there to talk to the main character, and the other one's just gotta get caught because you know Bowser's in another castle. I don't know. Uh I'm losing y'all. I'm losing y'all. Okay. So Sonia refuses to fight Shang-Sun because it turns out you have to accept the fight. That is the rules. Pretty willy-nilly about these rules, guys. So she says her friends will come and they will reveal that Johnny. Oh, so all right, hold on. Let me restart. So yeah, Shang Sun's like, he comes in, all these hooded people come in. She's like, hey, fight me. And she's like, no, you dummy. And then it's like, my friends will come here soon, and they're like, guess what? We're already. I thought that was kind of cool. Usually it's very, it was very comical. It was great. Um so they're hiding in robes with other rogue men. Shang Sung is um is made or is mad and challenges Johnny Cage. He's like literally anybody but Lu Kang. Uh, but Lu says no and challenges him. Shang accepts. Um Shang Sung's kind of a bitch, you know? A little bit. He's the chosen. I mean, come on, be a man. Fight the guy you want to fight. He's a weasel. I mean, that's what uh you beat Chan, you figure you beat Lu, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:44:17

Yeah, Chan was only like a child.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:19

Yeah. So y'all notice that every time that uh Lu Kang like flexes, like it's his all his muscles go so far up on him, and then like his nipples are just like way down here with no muscle on it.

SPEAKER_02 1:44:30

He's doing the trap flex.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:32

Like you don't really like see that much in movies.

SPEAKER_03 1:44:34

Part against me in this scene is when like Katana's like, you know, our great emperor wouldn't allow that. Her lore is um Shao Kahn killed our dad. That's the Emperor. Yeah. So why is he a great? Why are you showing respect like you should? Why are you talking highly about Shao Khan when he killed your dad? Yeah. Took your realm.

SPEAKER_04 1:44:54

Huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:44:55

That's true. I also have another question. Okay. Could the other guys just not join in the fight? It seems like the rules, the rules are pretty loose now. I feel like They're not supposed to be. They're supposed to be like one-on-one. I feel like if he can like make five people pop out of nowhere, the others can join the fight. Yeah, they probably should have too.

SPEAKER_03 1:45:14

They were still there.

SPEAKER_01 1:45:15

That'd have been nice. What are you guys even doing over there? Just watching this? Um, we'll get

Liu Kang Versus Shang Tsung Finale

SPEAKER_01 1:45:20

to that. So um they fight, and the first scrum Lou makes uh Shang Sing Shung bleed for the first time, and it's like one of the few times there's blood in this movie. Bleeds is on blood. Because they were they wanted a PG-13 rating, and apparently any blood, they're like, if you have blood in this, it's immediately rated R. And it's like, wow. That's crazy. Paid off though. But yeah, so it's a pretty like quick fight. Um so he decides to summon the souls of a thousand dead warriors. Classic. I hate every time I'm in a fight that happens. Uh so a bunch of dudes come out of the ground with weapons from other cultures and times. You got like a samurai. Seemed like you had a Samoan uh fighter. Um, any any ounce that y'all remember? I didn't put them in a notes. Should have. Oh yeah. Had like the two um like the uh the type of swords that I feel like I remember. Or unless it was like Mongolian type. Could have been could have been Mongolian, actually. Um so yeah, um uh then I put my notes this tournament needs better rules. But uh Liu Kang makes quick work of them. Uh I mean he's just he's he's in the groove at this point. He's like, I ain't losing it.

SPEAKER_02 1:46:30

I know it would have probably cost more CGI, but it would have been cooler if Shang Song just transformed into each individual person and Liu Kang was beating them and eventually just turns back into Shang Song again.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:40

Yeah. Instead of like they they should they could cash in on doing it in this nowhere one.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:46:46

But like, you know what I mean? Budget and technology.

SPEAKER_01 1:46:49

Yeah, it's just but I think just for the film, it was like, all right, so here's our chosen one. How do we make them even seem more badass? So it's like the guy that we know is a badass, he made him bleed, and then the guy's like, Here, here's like five other dudes, and he's like, Oh, well, he whooped them too. It's like we're building up his character to be like, this is the one. This is our Neo. So I'll ask uh, where did I get? Uh yeah, so Shang Sung says he sees into his soul and that he will die. Um and then Lu Kang, you see into my soul, but you don't own it. Hell yeah. Chills. Hell yeah. Now Liu Kang has to face his fear of being the chosen one. Shang Shung Shang Sung uh changes into Chan to speak uh to spook him. And when Lu and Chan parents died, Lu promised to take care of Chan, but Lu ran away. Um and then all of a sudden spikes start coming up from the ground on underneath. Uh Lu comes to terms with the death of Chan, and him and Shang Sung fight. So Shang Sung gets the upper hand and then decides to walk away for some reason because he essentially they fight and then he falls to the ground and he pretty much has him dead and he could just kill him. But then he's like, I'm gonna walk away because I'm a bad guy in a movie. So Lu stands up and declares himself the chosen one. And then Soul Start leaving uh and then you know, stole Soul Start leaving Shang Sung for some reason. They continue to talk, fight, and then Liu Kang summons energy and punches him onto the spikes below where Shang disintegrates and frees all the souls, including his brother. So yeah, it's like the first time we got to see his The Fireball.

SPEAKER_03 1:48:26

The stage fatality.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:27

In the original, in the um in the new one, they call it what again? Kana? Kana. Is that what they call it in the games and stuff? No, no, that's nothing new. That's just something new made. So like in the games, they don't explain why people have powers or anything.

SPEAKER_00 1:48:41

No.

SPEAKER_01 1:48:41

Yeah, because it's just a magical world and we just all accept that. Okay. Um which I feel like maybe is the way they should have gone with this. Yep. Which I guess they kind of do.

SPEAKER_02 1:48:50

I would be fine with the explanation of it. That's why I'm like, you know, you if you have the kana, give a name to the energy. Cool, that works. It interacts with different things. It could also be like we've also realized that Kana interacts with technology differently and it's made different stuff. Could have made Jax Arms, uh, Cyrax and uh what's the other one's name? Sector. Sector interacting with their stuff. You could have easily used the kana in the movies to give the reason why they have much more durability and why like Sony was like, I'll just shoot Kano and Kano has his power, and it's like, oh, he's able to like not die from it.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:20

Yeah, that's what gets me, especially with like Kano and Jax. Like there's a whole subplot there that you don't need that.

SPEAKER_02 1:49:26

See, I never knew about their technology stuff until I played nine. Yeah. And it goes back in time. So I was like, oh, this is really cool. I was so ready for that. And I was like, we're no.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:35

Because the Lynn Kway is trying to adapt, and you have the cyber initiative. That's why they talk about it. That's such a cool story. Why would you put that aside in the reboot?

SPEAKER_02 1:49:43

I hated that so much. That's one of my big complaints.

SPEAKER_03 1:49:45

That's a great. That's great.

SPEAKER_01 1:49:49

I don't know what we're talking about. So his brother and him talk in like a chance in his spiritual soul form, uh, and says that one day they will be reunited and that he'll also. Always be with him in spirit.

SPEAKER_03 1:50:02

Great track playing too during that scene.

SPEAKER_01 1:50:03

And it's uh, you know what? I'm not gonna lie, it was kind of an emotional little beat here. It was good. I thought it was, you know, I just think the two actors are pretty good. Um, so um, yeah. Um and then he says flawless victory, but it but you clarifies it. He clarified it. It makes sense. In my notes, I was like, uh, but it wasn't because he got hit a lot. But you're right. Break it into rounds. So, but he does get punched. So once Shang Sung has him on the ground and then he walks away, that's round three. That's round two, Shang Sung won. Yeah, and then he walks away, and then it's like, all right, now we're round three. Yeah. Okay. So when he goes to throw them punches, he catches them, you don't get hit again. They should have just started saying rounds. Well, it I mean, they had everything, they were saying everything else. You gotta think about it. So, and the group goes home. Uh, the group is being celebrated. You got a bunch of people running around with some flags. Uh, Raiden says they did it great, but then it gets cloudy, and then Shao Kahn enters the chat, and the five are ready to fight. So badass, dude. And that's Mortal Kombat 1995. That was fun to talk about. That was really good. It's a great video. I enjoyed it. I actually like it more now after we talked about it. It's so good. Even though Dakota shit on it the whole time. I guess that's just what he does when you're here at Dakota. Evan, I don't know. Yeah. Hey, fuck me out to fucking leave. Just picking on

So What Is The Point

SPEAKER_01 1:51:30

you. So, the point of Mortal Kombat. You know, I've I've been thinking for a few days, like, man, it's such a deep movie, and there's so much being said. And I think the point of the movie is to wear a cup. To believe in yourself. Believe in yourself.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:44

Every man's responsible for his own destiny, man.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:46

Yeah. Facts. And when you're being told that you're the chosen one, just believe it.

SPEAKER_03 1:51:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:51

Buy in.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:52

Just have a big head about it. Revenge is the answer. Kill that motherfucker.

SPEAKER_01 1:51:55

I think they say it isn't, but sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:51:57

Did he beat Shang Song? He did beat. He got revenge for his brother.

SPEAKER_01 1:52:01

But he wasn't doing it for himself at that point. He was doing it for the fate of the world. Kind of like Johnny Cage was doing. That I said that I had a lot of issues with. So yeah, anything else? Any any so you got revenge? I said, believe in yourself. Responsible for your own. Responsible for your own destiny. Destiny. I think this movie has like a lot of good messages. All right. So we're going to hit up our next

The Good The Bad The Ugly

SPEAKER_01 1:52:25

category. The good, the bad, the ugly, the fine. It's where we discuss the good of the film, something we like, the bad, something we didn't like, the ugly, something that aged well, didn't age well. The fine, something that didn't age well. So the good, just the idea of Mortal Kombat in general and all the cool characters. Yes. People love tournaments. I think we all know that. NCAA basketball tournaments, people love brackets. College football playoffs. People love brackets. We love to see names in brackets. The only thing this movie was missing, but Mortal Kombat Tournament, love it. And the character. We all got for the good.

SPEAKER_04 1:52:59

Of the baby.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:00

The franchise in general. Like even though it's been so long. Million games. Still great characters.

SPEAKER_04 1:53:06

And I mean, still lasting. Everyone still knows who they are. I would say. Yeah. Good.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:12

I like it when they uh really, you know put in like people's like their special moves. Like they know what they're making and they really go all into it. Yeah. Like we got the bicycle kick. The the movie loved the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:25

Because some people are like, I don't want to do that because it's too like there's some other franchise I think that was like that. It's like, I don't want to do that because it's too goofy. This is not what I want to do. It's like, no. Like you.

SPEAKER_01 1:53:36

Hey guys. Like mics in front of mouths. Y'all are kind of talking around the mouth mics. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 1:53:42

But no, it's if you know what you're making and really go all in with it. That's why I think the Street Fighter trailer for the new one looks real good because there's a trailer? The Street Fighter movie? I didn't even know there was a trailer for the movie. This looks fun. You don't have to do too much.

SPEAKER_02 1:53:54

It's really interesting that they chose Paul Dano. Dano? Dano?

SPEAKER_01 1:53:58

Dano, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:00

He's playing like some general type of guy. Like Russian general, I think. I don't know Street Fighter.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:04

Paul Dano.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:05

He's uh he was Polka Dot Man in the Suicide Squad. He was uh Late Night with the Dead. That's his name? That's not Paul Dano. No.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:12

That's a Riddler, ain't it? Paul Dano's the Riddler, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:54:14

Yeah, my bad.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:14

Uh what is there will be Lud, Little Miss Sunshine, Prisoners, you know, those maybe Swiss Army Man, anybody?

SPEAKER_03 1:54:21

Um I don't know his name, but I know who you're talking about.

SPEAKER_04 1:54:27

The major baddie. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:35

Uh David Desmoslin, I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:54:38

Yeah, we was close though. He's in Darkness.

SPEAKER_01 1:54:41

Yeah. Um, cool. So we're gonna hit the bad. Um what was bad about this movie?

SPEAKER_02 1:54:50

I'll just go CGI effects for lizard. Well this is the CGI. Like it's funny to look at and enjoy, but obviously it's it's bad. But beyond that, and like Goro is bad, but it's still You appreciate this. Yes, because they uh like I say when I watched it, like you went all out and did a full puppet. Power team. Don't care, he looks a little weird, still cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:17

I put screenwriting mainly. I thought uh could be written a little bit better. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:55:24

Um because I go into an action movie, I'm trying to have fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:55:26

Um no, I know what you're saying. You gotta piece it together, you know? You gotta piece between the action scenes. It was just uh there is some parts where it just skimmed over a little too quick, some things. Like whenever he talks to him, and then like, oh, it's just hey, now we're gonna go fight some more. You know, just like there could have been some better scenes over them realizing what they have to do for to overcome what holds them back. I get what you're saying. Just small things like that, that was it. Um and you know, just some of the acting is pretty bad. Who who's acting was that?

SPEAKER_03 1:55:56

Yeah, they could have who's acting? Sonya. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:01

Even with uh Raiden still was better than that. Yeah, but you know, it's like everybody's doing their best, you know, and we love them for it. They are cool. So uh anybody else got anything bad that they wanted to say? Alright, so for the ugly, I put CGI and Jesus Christ Goro. I remember it being cooler.

SPEAKER_05 1:56:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:56:21

Sonya Blade. That was also one. I d honestly don't remember from when I was a kid, and now I know why. She was nothing. Good. And that actress is good in other things. So uh we're not hating on the actress, just it just doesn't work from the film. Nope. You're pretty much all right. So for the fine, um, something that age will Kano, man. Like, geez. Like when watching the remake, I was like, Kano's like one of my favorite parts of this. And then re-watching this, I was like, so this is like the one character that is translate no matter what through all movies.

SPEAKER_03 1:56:54

It feels like fine. I'm gonna just say the uh uh Reptiles arrival and when Chow Kahn pops up at the end. I mean, it's badass.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:04

CG ain't that great, but I mean Well, his like him talking too was really out of sync for what he was saying. I was like, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:11

But I love what he was saying because it's what he would say in the game.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:14

But I'm like, wait, we just had the tournament you lost. You're breaking some rules, dude.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:18

Yeah. Go watch Annihilation. That's the part. I haven't seen it. I don't remember. Exterminate. He's supposed to break the rules. That's how bad he wants Earth Realm.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:28

Why though?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:29

And he's pissed the fuck off.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:30

Is it did we ever get a real solid reason why he wants Earth Realm so much? Bad guys do bad guy things.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:36

He was so close to having it that you know, like it. I'm going to take it.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:40

Does he just want it because he's a conqueror, or is he just like there's a valid reason of like I want these fighters or something?

SPEAKER_03 1:57:45

Yeah, he's just a conqueror. You imagine winning 10 and you write there and then you lose when you're gonna be able to do it.

SPEAKER_02 1:57:50

They got the short end of that stick because I was like, well, he still has they still have nine rounds. Next term's like, no, it resets for them. They have to read him the row. I was like, I'd be pissed too.

SPEAKER_01 1:57:58

Yeah, that's rough.

SPEAKER_03 1:57:59

He wants it.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:01

It's like you think like they probably have like, you know how in NFL football, like every offseason they have rule changes. You think they have like a committee that is like, all right, maybe we should like knock down like how many wins by five. Yeah, I mean, they're called the Elder Gods. It's like also we need like better referees, and like they're just they're ruining the tournament. This is NFL bits. Uh I know more about NFL than Mortal Kombat, so that's the word I'm

Double Features To Pair With Mortal Kombat

SPEAKER_01 1:58:27

saying here. All right, now we're gonna hit up our next category double feature. It's where we recommend a movie that goes alongside this movie. Um, y'all are gonna hate mine, so I'm just gonna get it out of the way. I put the Assassin's Creed movie. That is not a bad movie. Low key.

SPEAKER_03 1:58:40

I don't think I've ever seen it.

SPEAKER_01 1:58:41

It's actually kind of good. I went and watched it years ago, and surprisingly, not a bad movie. If your favorite part of those games are the Artemis, is it Artemis sequences? Um, they make the boring parts of the game really cool, and then they take the fun parts of the game and don't make them that cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:59:00

You don't get a lot of the assassin stuff, but I do think the way of like, you know, in the games they made it where you you were learning through the going through the past of memories, but in the movie, he's like, he's still moving actually. They put him on like a robot arm, so like it's making him move in real life while he's reliving it. So it's like he's training. I was like, that's a really good concept to explain why they can do that. That's a good choice.

SPEAKER_01 1:59:23

And also the uh director is Justin Krizel, who uh made a great uh version of Macbeth. He also did a movie about the Snow Town murders, which is pretty gruesome. Um, and the movie has great fight scenes. Michael Fassbender is actually a pretty decent like choreographer. He learns choreography pretty well. And if you want to see more of him fighting, you can also uh watch uh um Haywire. Yeah, Steven Soderbergh movie who did like Oceans 12 and 11 and all those. Uh Michael Fassbender's in that? Yeah, and it's just like a it's a I I've said it on this podcast a lot. It's just got great action, and the way that he films it is like wide shots, and you see like all the hits, and it's just great set pieces. Um it could be considered boring for some people, but that's just the way Steven Soderbergh films stuff, and I liked it. So um, who wants to go next with their double feature?

SPEAKER_03 2:00:13

I'm gonna cop out. I'll say um uh Mortal Kombat. The animated one, uh Scorpion's Revenge.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:19

Was that one good? Uh, because after I watched it, it was like recommending all the.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:22

It's like my second favorite Mortal Kombat movie. It's like it's this movie, but told differently.

SPEAKER_00 2:00:28

Okay. Wait, what movie did you say again?

SPEAKER_03 2:00:30

Scorpion's Revenge. It's an animation. Animated, okay. Yeah, it's animated.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:33

I I was gonna watch because they have several on there. I didn't realize.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:36

That's the only one I've watched. I haven't seen other ones. But yeah, I'll say that one.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:41

Yeah, I wanted to see if those were worth it, but I thought I remember you saying they're not that good. Because there was maybe it was another one you said wasn't that good.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:48

I love Scorpion's Revenge.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:51

Uh Reboot, I don't really like their costumes that much.

SPEAKER_03 2:00:55

No, they're they're too big.

SPEAKER_02 2:00:57

They're too big, yeah, and they're like all super armor. I'm like, they they're that was my thing with Sub Zero. It's like your mask is too big for your face, and that rubber thing they have on his head, I'm like, it would have worked better if he just and then Shang Sung's hair. I'm like, dude, I can clearly tell this is a hardcore wig. And they're I just don't like their outfits were too like when at the end Sub Zero rips his armor off. I was like, you look more like Sub Zero now.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:18

Oh yeah, more slammed down.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:20

And I was fine with uh Scorpion's outfit because he didn't have armor, he just kind of had the hood, which is fine, but stop, don't give him armor, it just doesn't work. What did you say yours was? Oh, uh Enter the Dragon.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:36

I thought I thought one of y'all would say that the Bruce Lee. Yeah, it's a tournament too, isn't it? Yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:01:42

Um, because I was sitting here thinking of like uh girlfriend, I was like, you know, it's probably because of Bruce Lee why we had that big age of martial arts stuff for a while. Because I feel like he he inspired a lot.

SPEAKER_03 2:01:53

And he also his movies said a lot of Lou King's based off.

SPEAKER_01 2:01:56

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's a great recommendation. All

Listener Request And Next Movies

SPEAKER_01 2:02:00

right. Well, that's it. We did it. Mortal Kombat 1995. Classic. Way to go, guys. This is a great episode, I felt like. I had fun. Yeah. So, um, so a while ago, it was on our 28 Days Later episode. We had somebody comment on it, and I was like, hey, what movies would you like to recommend? And I'd like to apologize to my dog, Mark, with a C um on YouTube. He so for some reason YouTube stopped sending me is not showing comments that well. I have to like sort. I have to do a special sorting thing. So now, because I replied to him, I said, Hey, do you have any movies that you recommend? So sorry, Mark, I did not see that. But yeah, we're gonna do two of your movies that you recommended. Because he said, It's like I I asked him, like, you got any movies you want to cover? He said, I haven't dug far enough to know what you've done, but Devil in a Blue Dress for some early Denzel, the program from bad slash good sports movie, and maybe Snatch for an old-fashioned good time, but we already did Snatch and Heathers because my teens loved it. Oh, Heathers. So our next movie that we are doing is Heathers for Mark. And then after that, Mark, we're gonna do Devil in a Blue Dress because I actually own that movie and yet to watch it.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:06

Interesting early Denzel movie? Denzel. Yeah. I've been wanting to go back and watch a lot of his movies because I watched the Manchurian candidate. And that's him, right? That's Denzel?

SPEAKER_01 2:03:16

Yeah. The movie's alright.

SPEAKER_02 2:03:18

Was there another movie also where Denzel and John Lithgow were together?

SPEAKER_01 2:03:22

Man, I don't know. Off the top of my head, Denzel and John Lithgow movie. Uh Ricochet? Yes. Haven't seen that one either. Um Dev Devil in a Blue Dress is kind of like a noir movie, so I'm super interested in it and can't wait. So it's gonna have all the you know, cliches are a noir movie, but it's gonna have a Denzel in it. Um they remade Man of Fire on uh Netflix, and I don't want to watch it because that Denzel movie's perfect. I gotta go back and watch it. He's so good. Uh Unstoppable. Love Denzel. And I love uh Unstoppable was good.

SPEAKER_03 2:03:57

That's a train one, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 2:03:58

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I wasn't even expecting much from that, but that was a great movie. You should watch uh Jay Farrow. You know, he is on SNL. Um, he does they have like an SNL skit of him kind of making fun of the trailer for Unstoppable. He does such a good Denzel. That's so funny. I know Jay Farrow. Um he does the game show Quiz with Balls, and I watch that every Monday. So um yeah, join us for Heathers, and then we'll do Devil in a Blue Dress for you, Mark. Um, Heathers is a wacky ass movie. Yes, it is. So it was one of those, it's a satire. It's just later, right? I didn't realize it was a satire. I thought it was one of those like goofy 80s, like, you know, teen movies in high school. I got maybe 40 minutes in, and there was a scene where I was like, this is not a goofball like teen movie. I have to go back and completely redo my notes because I was like, I was having issues with things, and now I do not have issues with them because I know what type of movie this is all of a sudden. Uh and it ends up I absolutely love that movie now. So cool. Um, yeah, join us next week for that. And guys, thank you for joining us.

Final Thanks And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_01 2:05:00

And if if you guys at home loved hearing them, let us know by giving us good reviews, sending us some fan mail. You know, there's a link in the description at the bottom. There is an email that says we recommend at mailbag or we recommend mailbag at gmail.com. Um, leave us some good reviews. Uh type in the comments like, damn, Devin and Dakota's voice sounds so sexy.

SPEAKER_00 2:05:19

Didn't gotta lie. About my voice. Yeah, that's true. Devin, you got sex.

SPEAKER_01 2:05:24

Yeah, appreciate that. Jeez, people just squirming in their seats listening to this. Um, I can't help it. Um and uh more comments, please. That was great. So yeah, um, I'd like to thank Joey Prosser for our intro and outro music. You can follow him on X at Mr. Joey Proster. This has been the We Recommend Podcast. I've been Jesse. Devin. Mortal Kombat.