Mortal Kombat Movie Marathon

The Mortal Kombat franchise was created when co-creators Ed Boon and John Tobias stayed up all night watching kung-fu movies… at least that’s what *I* like to believe. There are so many MK characters that look like movie characters it’s weird. I’m certain there are a lot more than this but this is just what I’ve noticed. Inspired by, ripped-off from, or total BS from my head… You decide.
*SPOILERS*

Starting with the most obvious, we have Bruce Lee from “Enter the Dragon” and Liu Kang. They’re both trained as Shaolin monks. They don’t like wearing shirts. They also go WHAAAAAAAA!! when they throw a punch. Still, it’s a very common fighting game character archetype. What’s more interesting is that the plot of Enter the Dragon is very similar to the “plot” of the first Mortal Kombat. I.E. the main bad guy throws a tournament on his island inviting fighters from all over the world.

The main bad guy from Mortal Kombat is Shang Tsung. His movie equivalent isn’t from ETD though, it’s Lo-Pan from “Big Trouble in Little China.” They’re evil and impossibly decrepit-looking. They sit on their asses until it’s absolutely necessary to stand. And they steal people’s life-force to regain youth

Speaking of Big Trouble in Little China, here are some Raidens from said movie. OK they are actually called Thunder Lightning and Rain. That’s kind of weird, there’s also an MK character called Rain but he looks nothing like the other Rain. Actually he was supposedly named after Prince’s “Purple Rain” which makes a very silly visual pun.

Anyway, aside from dressing exactly the same and using lightning attacks, they also have the same moves when charging their lightning, if you compare it with an MK cut scene like the intro to MK Deception.

The three cyborgs, (Sektor, Smoke, and Cyrax) were actually said *by Midway* to be based off of a favorite sci-fi character. No name was mentioned but I think it’s pretty obvious that it’s the Predator. The Predator is a high-tech hunter from space that just likes hunting people with lots of cool traps. It’s been a while since I saw the original but I know in AVP he has this net he can shoot at prey. The cyborgs are all assassins which is almost the same as a hunter right? Cyrax, (the yellow cyborg) also shoots a net to trap people in, which is like the most annoying thing in the game. Still Predator looks most like Smoke, (the blue one.)

So Blaze and the Human Torch from “The Fantastic Four…” If I cropped the pictures a little more you wouldn’t even be able to tell which is which.

Here’s an interesting one; Kenshi and Neo from “The Matrix Revolutions.” They were both blinded by their worst enemy but still see with some kind of extrasensory vision. They have psychokinetic powers. Over their eyes they wear red headbands. I guess physically they look similar too. Also Neo stopping bullets and Kenshi’s “Telekinetic Push” have the same, (fun to practice in the mirror), stance.

Neo actually does this once or twice while outside of the matrix so it’s a legitimate power and not just “bending the rules” of the matrix. The weird thing is that Kenshi first appeared in Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance which was released in 2002. The Matrix Revolutions was released a year latter so I don’t know how to explain that one. Maybe The Matrix copied Mortal Kombat?

I’ve saved my favorite for last. It’s Kobra and Johnny from “The Karate Kid.” Look at that, they’re wearing the exact same gi! (If you’re using Kobra’s alternate costume.) Kobra also uses karate and Johnny is on the Cobra Kai Karate Team. Cobra… Kobra… Get it? They also both have cobras on the backs of their gis. I like to think of this as what Johnny looks like as an adult... with a big knife.