Decoding Mortal Kombat 2: Unraveling the Film’s Most Perplexing Moments

The “Mortal Kombat” film series has never aimed for critical acclaim but rather to captivate its dedicated fanbase, and “Mortal Kombat 2” succeeds in doing just that after fine-tuning its approach from the first installment. Crafted with avid fans of the video game series in mind, this sequel has even managed to surprise some critics with its quality. It stands out as possibly the best in the “Mortal Kombat” movie franchise, though it still includes several moments that might leave both newcomers and seasoned fans puzzled.

Many casual viewers might not remember the 2021 release of a new “Mortal Kombat” movie, partly because it hit theaters and HBO Max simultaneously during COVID-19, resulting in a somewhat muted reception. If you missed that film, expect to feel a bit lost during the sequel. However, even those who watched the original might find themselves confused at points. Whether it’s due to forgotten plot elements from the first movie or gaps in knowledge about the broader franchise lore, “Mortal Kombat 2” has its share of perplexing scenes that beg for clarification.

One standout element from the 2021 “Mortal Kombat” was Cole Young (played by Lewis Tan), an original character who seemed out of place. Fans weren’t thrilled with his inclusion, given the extensive roster of characters in the games, and questioned the need for a new creation. Cole Young was essentially designed to serve as a conduit for audiences to enter the mystical world of “Mortal Kombat.”

Anyone who watched 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” may remember Cole Young (Lewis Tan) sticking out like a sore thumb. He’s a completely original character made for the film, and fans didn’t exactly take kindly to him. The “Mortal Kombat” games have a massive roster, so many felt it was unnecessary to create a wholly new character. The real reason Cole Young was made for “Mortal Kombat” was to act as an audience surrogate to this mystical world. 

For “Mortal Kombat 2,” we basically have dual protagonists in the form of Kitana (Adeline Rudolph) and Johnny Cage (Karl Urban). Kitana provides the emotional core while Johnny is now an audience surrogate, as he’s recruited to join the upcoming tournament. Where does this leave Cole Young? We briefly see him spar with Liu Kang (Ludi Lin) and Jax (Mehcad Brooks) before he goes off to fight the villainous Shao Kahn (played by 6’8” British actor Martyn Ford).

While Cole gets some hits in, Kahn is immortal at this point and promptly swings his hammer down on Cole’s head, turning his brains into a red puddle. Cole goes from a protagonist to cannon fodder, and it’s likely due to his mixed reception from fans after the first film. Besides, “Mortal Kombat 2” has a stacked cast as it is, with many characters barely getting time to shine. Someone had to be used to showcase the stakes, and that fell on Cole.

In the “Mortal Kombat” games, fighters have all kinds of special abilities. The 2021 “Mortal Kombat” film saw fit to introduce the concept of arcana, which is a type of inner supernatural prowess that bestows Earthrealm champions with unique abilities once they undergo intense training or experience some kind of immense emotional experience. For example, Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee) gets her energy rings after killing Kano (Josh Lawson). 

In essence, it’s a way to explain why characters have certain powers rather than just saying, “They can just do that.” And much like the new character of Cole Young getting introduced, fans didn’t care for it. While studios and screenwriters seem to want to go out of their way to ensure everything makes sense, fans are usually more than happy to suspend their disbelief and not put too much thought into how things work as long as it’s enjoyable. Arcana isn’t mentioned at all in “Mortal Kombat 2.” Johnny Cage is still told he must work to receive his special power, so the idea is present, but the sequel is very careful not to add unnecessary lore, knowing full well that most of the fanbase is there just to watch some bloody fights. 

Screenwriter Jeremy Slater spoke with io9 about how the first “Mortal Kombat” had to prove it could work with both fans and casual audiences. Since fans hated it, the whole arcana thing was dropped here. He said: “We’re very careful in the movie to never contradict the idea of arcana. But that word is also never mentioned in the movie very deliberately because we’re just sort of like, ‘Forget about it.’ You’re here to have fun. I don’t necessarily need midi-chlorians in ‘Star Wars.’” Hey, no arguments here.

Earthrealm’s protectors are down a fighter, so according to the elder gods, they must recruit … a washed-up actor from the ’90s? Yes, it’s all an excuse to get Johnny Cage in the game, and Karl Urban certainly has a ton of fun in the role. Of course, he has to quickly get filled in on everything about the “Mortal Kombat” universe, and he dips out of there as soon as he can. That doesn’t stop him from getting whisked away into a fight with Kitana. It begs the question: Why is Johnny fighting in the first place?

It seems like a dumb rule that the gods just get to decide who gets chosen for the tournament, but it is a convenient plot point one can’t really argue with. The real world reasoning for why Johnny gets a fight right away likely comes down to the same explanation behind Cole Young’s limited screen time and the lack of arcana references — correcting the mistakes of the first film.

2021’s “Mortal Kombat” is all set-up for a tournament that doesn’t even take place until the sequel. More than likely, “Mortal Kombat 2” didn’t want to waste the time of fans any more than it always did with the first film. Rather than getting bogged down in exposition, the existing champions fill Johnny in on what’s going on and then we get right into a fight — and not just any fight, but one between two popular existing “Mortal Kombat” characters like Johnny Cage and Kitana.

Several characters who died in 2021’s “Mortal Kombat,” namely Kung Lao (Max Huang) and Bi-Han, aka Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim), return for the sequel. This is done via dark magic performed by the necromancer Quan Chi (Damon Herriman), who brings them back to life as revenants. This effectively means that their previous personalities as seen in the first film are gone. Now, they work on behalf of Quan Chi and Shao Kahn. However, there’s an odd wrinkle to all of this. Quan Chi also brings Kano back from the dead, but he’s just the same Kano from before. There’s a quick line about how Quan Chi couldn’t be bothered to complete the spell and turn Kano into a revenant, so he retains his personality and memories. This means he’s still his very annoying self, and Quan Chi gives him a magic eyeball that shoots lasers to get him to shut up. 

Screenwriter Jeremy Slater spoke with ComicBook.com about utilizing resurrections in this way, revealing that a lot of thought went into how the process would work, even if it might seem otherwise. “How do we use something that could be a liability — the sort of the resurrections — and make that a strength in this universe that, yes, there are, there are ways to bring people back, but sometimes there are consequences to those ways, or sometimes it’s not as, as clear cut or as simple as you may hope,” he said. The ending of “Mortal Kombat 2” sees the good guys who are left standing wanting to bring their fallen comrades back to life. It’s unclear why this is seen as some heroic mission since Kano is proof positive resurrections can be done with no alterations to a fighter’s personality, but that’s a question for “Mortal Kombat 3” to answer. 

There were plenty of characters with more meaning than you may have realized in “Mortal Kombat,” and the same is true of the sequel. One of these characters is Lord Raiden (Tadanobu Asano). In “Mortal Kombat 2,” Shao Kahn wants to receive the powers of a god via the Amulet of Shinnok, but in order to do that, Raiden must be killed. As such, Kung Lao attempts to assassinate Earthrealm’s protector, but only manages to incapacitate him by slitting his throat.

It’s a brutal moment that no doubt shocked a lot of viewers, especially those not familiar with the franchise, who were likely very confused that Raiden was able to shake this off — even in a world like this one, getting your throat cut seems permanent. The explanation? Raiden is an elder god and protector of Earthrealm who is, by extension, immortal (or close to it, at least). His human-like body is merely a vessel to contain his immense power as the God of Thunder. In the event he loses his mortal body, he’d simply assume another form.

While Raiden recovers, his powers are stored within the amulet that Shao Kahn imbues within himself, making him immortal so that he’ll win the tournament no matter what. Raiden eventually recovers once the amulet is destroyed. Along with the other survivors, he embarks on a mission to revive their allies, and, hopefully, he retains his benevolent nature going into a prospective sequel, lest he turn into Dark Raiden. 

The final battle in “Mortal Kombat 2” is a two versus two bout: Shao Kahn and Kitana, representing Outworld (although Kitana is chained up due to some earlier treason), take on Sonya Blade and Liu Kang, representing Earthrealm. Shao Kahn starts focusing all of his energy on Liu Kang, who’s easily Earth’s best fighter and probably could have beaten Kahn in a fair fight. But Kahn’s still immortal at this point, and, eventually, he lands a fatal blow. But Kang doesn’t just slump over once he’s a corpse. It’s almost like he transcends the mortal realm and disappears into flames while admitting that he wasn’t the chosen one meant to kill Kahn once and for all.

Earlier, Kang fought Kung Lao, his former friend turned into a revenant and fighting on behalf of Kahn. He swore to find a way to save him even if he had to kill him in the moment. The most likely explanation is that Kang descended into the Netherrealm to locate his friend and save him for real. This could set the stage for Kang getting turned into a revenant later. Or perhaps “Mortal Kombat 3” will adapt elements of “Mortal Kombat 11” where Kang turns into a revenant, but Raiden merges with his soul, transforming him into Fire God Liu Kang, allowing him to control both lightning and fire. 

Many characters switch allegiances at various points in “Mortal Kombat 2.” We discover that Kitana has been working with the protectors of Earthrealm for quite some time, but that makes sense given Shao Kahn killed her father and she was looking for payback. Quan Chi resurrects Kano as his normal self in order to locate the Amulet of Shinnok and then he … just sort of leaves him alive? He doesn’t really want anything to do with Kano, which proves to be a mistake.

Kano later offers his assistance to Johnny Cage to locate the amulet once Bi-Han takes it into the Netherrealm so that they can destroy it and strip Kahn of his immortality. In 2021’s “Mortal Kombat,” Kano starts as a warrior for Earthrealm before defecting to the bad guys. Sonya then kills him, so one might assume he’d be hesitant to join the team that’s responsible for his previous death. So, why exactly does Kano join forces with the good guys?

If you were expecting something deep, prepare to be disappointed, as his reasoning is about as shallow as it gets. Kano mentions wanting to fight against Kahn because Outworld is a total bummer. It’s really sad and depressing, and he’d rather fight for Earth because it has such novelties as beer and air conditioning. Listen, it’s not the deepest of character arcs, but it’s an arc all the same. The actual, real-world reason is that Josh Lawson’s Kano was one of the best parts of “Mortal Kombat,” so having a character that fans seemed to unanimously like on the right side made sense.

“Mortal Kombat 2” avoided a huge mistake when it came to Johnny Cage – the filmmakers resisted the urge to make him overpowered. In fact, he’s painfully (and often hilariously) weak throughout much of the runtime, as he doesn’t stand much of a chance against Kitana and clumsily works his way through a fight with Baraka (CJ Bloomfield). This is all part of his journey where he thinks his best days are behind him, but he has to recognize his inner strength.

This comes full circle when he and his allies are trying to get the amulet from Bi-Han and destroy it. Scorpion (Hiroyuki Sanada), Jade (Tati Gabrielle), and Kano have him pinned down. Johnny lacks a signature skill throughout the film, being told that it could take months of training for him to get a special power. But, at that moment, a green aura suddenly forms around him, and he kicks the amulet so hard it breaks. It’s a confusing development for casual viewers, but hardcore fans of the “Mortal Kombat” franchise will no doubt recognize this as Johnny’s signature move in the video games — the Green Shadow Kick.

While performing this move, one foot remains on the ground while the other connects with an opponent’s torso, which just so happens to be where Bi-Han’s holding the amulet. Johnny finally earns his own special power, and not a moment too soon. Of course, Johnny has numerous other attacks in the games, including Forceball, which involves launching a green bolt of energy at an opponent, and Red Shadow Kick, which is basically a suped-up version of the Green Shadow Kick. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of his special attacks in the next film. 

Anyone waiting through the lengthy credits of “Mortal Kombat 2” may be disappointed to see that there’s no post-credits scene. This may not come as a surprise to some. 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” doesn’t have a post-credits scene, either. Instead, that film ends with the tease that Cole Young will look for Johnny Cage (which is weird in retrospect because Sonya and Raiden are ultimately the ones who recruit Johnny for the tournament). There’s some stuff intended to set up the next installment, but it’s all within the normal runtime of the film, and “Mortal Kombat 2” does something similar.

Instead of a post-credits scene, the sequel’s final scene involves Kitana and Jade approaching the Earthrealm warriors who are still alive. They’re going to work together to bring their fallen friends — which would presumably include Jax, Liu, and Cole — back to life. Of course, this shouldn’t be that difficult as Kano was brought back to life as a non-revenant no problem. Will they encounter an unexpected hitch in the third film that prevents the same technique from being used?

Still, even with these hints about the direction of the third entry, many viewers were no doubt confused about the lack of a post-credits scene. After all, it’s become the norm with movies based on existing properties. The real reason the film doesn’t have a post-credits scene is that “nothing is set in stone,” writer Jeremy Slater told Under The Radar. “How the second movie does will determine whether we get a third movie, how big and expensive that third movie is. We’re developing it, but we’re also knowing we’re going to have to pivot and probably change that script based on the reaction to part two.”