Update: As many have pointed out, the older Mortal Kombat movies did feature fatality moves. Presumably the hype interviews for this movie over-reached in trying to emphasise that their fatalities would be.... more fatal somehow?
Original: The Mortal Kombat reboot movie is due for release April 16 this year, and Entertainment Weekly has the first shots of the film alongside a bunch of plot details. If you're surprised that this particular franchise has reached a point where directors talk solemnly about the lore and gore, you're not alone. "Blood represents a connection," says director Simon McQuoid. "Blood represents who we are. Without getting too overcomplicated, what we did is use blood executionally."
Got it. The movie begins with a fight between Hanzo Hasashi (played by Logan actor Hiroyuki Sanada) and Bi-Han (Warrior's Joe Taslim), who will respectively become Scorpion and Sub-Zero. "[Hanzo's] the leader of a ninja clan and he's strong, but also… at the beginning, he's a peaceful family man," says actor Sanada. "It is like a family drama with excitingly brutal fighting. That's the image of this movie for me."
There's a fairly detailed rundown of the plot in Entertainment's piece, should you wish to know what motivates Jax, a man with two giant metal arms, but suffice to say the roster also includes: Kano, Kung Lao, Liu Kang, Mileena, Raiden, Shang Tsung, and Sonya Blade. Best of all there's a new character, Cole Young, who knows nothing of his heritage beyond, and I'm not making this up, a birthmark on his chest that is the Mortal Kombat symbol.
Joking aside I will watch this movie at some point, and probably greatly enjoy it. One interesting element here is that the movie will feature fatalities. These have apparently never, and I can't quite believe this, been featured in a Mortal Kombat movie before.
"There are some crazy fatalities," says actor Lewis Tan, who plays Cole Young. "We've picked a couple of iconic ones. There's a lot of really cool signature moves that you'll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can't wait to see on the big screen. They're brutal, man."
The film is "definitely not gonna get a PG-13 rating," acknowledges director McQuoid. You'll be able to unravel the mystery of the MK logo birthmark when the film releases in theatres and on HBO Max April 16.
