MORTAL KOMBAT
*CUT TO THE CHASE*NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy
Japan, 1617 – Hanzo Hasashi (Hiroyuki Sanada) is living peacefully in his compound with his wife Harumi (Yukiko Shinohara) and son Satoshi (Ren Miyagawa), as well as other members of the Shirai Ryu clan. As he goes to gather water, assassins from the Lin Kuei clan, led by Bi-Han (Joe Taslim) invade and kill the other villagers. Bi-Han goes to Hanzo’s home to threaten his family with his ice powers. When he hears Harumi scream, he runs back to his home and finds her and Satoshi frozen to death. He can only briefly mourn before he must defend himself. Using his own blade, he fights off and slaughters the other assassins before going after Bi-Han. The two fight heavily until Bi-Han drives a blade deep into Hanzo’s shoulder. He tells his killer to remember his face. Hanzo then hears the sound of his baby daughter crying in his home. He tries crawling toward the house, but he dies. We see a dragon-shaped mark on his arm before his body burns up and disappears. A bolt of lightning strikes, and out steps Master Raiden (Tadanobu Asano). He takes Hanzo’s daughter with him to another realm.
Text appears stating that Earthrealm is under threat of attack from Outworld, unless selected champions from the Hasashi bloodline can step forward. Jump ahead to the present day, where Cole Young (Lewis Tan) is set to compete in an MMA fight, with only his wife Allie (Laura Brent) and daughter Emily (Matilda Kimber) to support him. During the fight, Cole gets in a few hits but is ultimately pinned down by his opponent. Despite Emily’s attempts to lift her dad’s spirits, Cole ultimately taps out before he is choked into unconsciousness. After the fight, Cole is approached by a man named Jax Briggs (Mechad Brooks), who notices that Cole has a mark on his chest similar to the one seen on Hanzo. Cole dismisses it as nothing more than a birthmark. Meanwhile, Cole is also plagued by a vision of Hanzo surrounded by flames.
In Outworld, Bi-Han, now going by Sub-Zero, approaches his master, Shang Tsung (Chin Han), as they are making plans to overtake Earthrealm. They know that a descendant of Hanzo is alive, but Sub-Zero sees no threat.
Cole and Allie take Emily out for dinner when it appears to start snowing despite being July. The table around Emily freezes, and Sub-Zero starts making his way down the street. He brings hail down on the people, but Cole gets Emily to safety. The family is saved by Jax, who drives them away and shows Cole that he has the same dragon marking on his body. Jax gets the Youngs to safety and tells Cole to find Sonya Blade (Jessica McNamee). Jax goes off to face Sub-Zero on his own, but the foe proves to be a real threat when he freezes Jax’s gun before freezing and shattering both of his arms and leaving him for dead.
Cole has Allie and Emily get somewhere safe while he seeks out Sonya. He tracks her down to a junkyard where she initially attacks him until Cole shows her the mark and says Jax sent him. Sonya brings Cole into her trailer where she explains to him that Sub-Zero has been after other people who bear the mark. Sonya doesn’t have it but Jax does after they came across a superpowered target that Jax fought who already had the mark, and after killing the man, the mark passed itself onto Jax. Sonya’s research has led her to find out about an ancient tournament known as Mortal Kombat. Sonya has captured a ruthless mercenary named Kano (Josh Lawson), who also has the mark and worked for the Black Dragon clan. Moments later, Sonya’s home is attacked by Shang Tsung’s henchman, Reptile. The creature uses camouflage to attack, but Kano gets free and punches his fist through Reptile’s chest, pulling out his heart.
With her research destroyed in the attack, Sonya doesn’t know what the next move is until Kano states that he knows she is trying to make it the temple of Raiden, and he knows where it is. Sonya lies to Kano and offers him $3 million to help guide her and Cole to the location. They head off into the desert where they are met by one of Raiden’s champions, Liu Kang (Ludi Lin), who has fire abilities. He explains to them the urgency of defending Earthrealm since they have lost nine of the Mortal Kombat tournaments, and one more loss means Shang Tsung can arrive to conquer it. Liu Kang shows that he has rounded up the remaining champions that he could, including Jax, who is still unconscious from his fight with Sub-Zero. Liu Kang assures Sonya that the other people working in the temple will do what they can do heal Jax.
Liu Kang brings Cole, Sonya, and Kano to meet Raiden, who is unimpressed by them. Before they begin training, Shang Tsung arrives at the temple with Sub-Zero and his demonic henchwoman Mileena (Sisi Stringer). As Sub-Zero attacks Liu Kang, he is saved by his cousin, Kung Lao (Max Huang). Shang Tsung prepares his own attack, but Raiden steps out to remind him that it is forbidden to claim victory before the tournament has begun. He then creates a forcefield around the temple to prevent the Outworld villains from continuing their attack, forcing them to leave.
Liu begins to train the champions by helping them unlock their inner power, or “arcana”, which is why he has fire powers, and Raiden has lightning powers. Sonya is not allowed to join the others because she is not one of the chosen champions. She goes to Jax’s side, where he is awake and discovers he has mechanical arms. Although he attempts to make use of them, he feels useless and weaker with them. Cole and Kano get their asses beat by Liu Kang and Kung Lao. Liu Kang tries to help Cole achieve his arcana by figuring out what it is that drives him.
The fighters have dinner, where Kano runs his mouth too much, and Liu Kang and Kung Lao antagonize him by stating he is impulsive and powerless, making him an unworthy fighter. Kano snaps, which actually activates his arcana and causes him to fire a laser beam from his right eye.
Cole later talks to Raiden about the dragon marking. Raiden explains to Cole that he is descended from Hanzo’s bloodline, specifically from the baby that Raiden rescued in the beginning. He also tells Cole that the vision he sees is Hanzo wandering through Hell, waiting for the day he can get his revenge on Sub-Zero. When Cole feels that he is not a worthy champion, Raiden opens the portal to send him back to Earthrealm to be with Allie and Emily.
Shang Tsung gathers more fighters for his next attack, including the demon Nitara (Mel Jarnson), the monstrous Prince Goro (Angus Sampson), the brutish Reiko (Nathan Jones), and the mercenary Kabal (Damon Herriman), who has a personal grudge with Kano since they used to work together with the Black Dragon clan, and Kano left Kabal for dead, forcing him to wear his special new suit. Kabal does also feel that Kano would be a good ally for Shang Tsung’s army.
Kabal meets Kano at the temple and convinces him to defect and join forces with Shang Tsung. He uses his laser to destroy the forcefield. Shang Tsung and his minions attack the temple, while Goro goes after Cole and his family. In the attack, Sonya fights Mileena, but the latter chooses not to kill Sonya because she is not a chosen one and feels her death would be a waste. Kabal fights Liu Kang and overpowers him. Jax fights Reiko but is overpowered, and the brute knocks him and Sonya out before attempting to crush them under a boulder. Jax tries to lift the boulder off Sonya, which helps him find his arcana and causes the arms to grow in size and strength. Nitara swoops down for an attack, but Kung Lao fights her and performs a fatality by using his metal hat as a buzzsaw, slicing Nitara in half down the middle (“Flawless victory!”). Meanwhile, Goro is laying Cole into the dirt, until he starts to make his way toward Allie and Emily. Feeling the need to protect his family, Cole’s arcana is unlocked, with his body being covered in golden armor and allowing him to create blades to help him fight Goro, first slicing off one of his four arms and then impaling him through the eyes to kill him. Raiden senses this and summons Cole back to the temple, revealing his bloodline to Shang Tsung and Sub-Zero. Raiden prepares to bring the champions to the Void for protection, but Shang Tsung grabs Kung Lao and sucks his soul out, killing him and forcing Liu Kang to watch.
Liu Kang mourns his cousin while the rest of the heroes try to figure out a strategy for fighting Shang Tsung’s forces. Raiden presents Cole with Hanzo’s kunai that was recovered after his death, and he encourages Cole to use it. Cole decides that they should take on the villains in the style of a tournament. Raiden teleports the champions to take on their respective opponents. Jax is sent to fight Reiko with his new arms. Although Reiko tries to bring Jax down with his warhammer, Jax disarms him and uses his arms to turn Reiko’s head into paste. Sonya is sent back to her trailer to fight Kano, which ends with her impaling him through his eye, and his marking is passed down to her. As Cole is fighting Mileena, Sonya comes to help and uses her newfound arcana powers to fire a plasma beam from her arms to blast a hole through Mileena’s stomach. Liu Kang faces Kabal again and uses his own fatality, a fire dragon move that consumes Kabal and burns him to a crisp.
Sub-Zero goes to Earthrealm and finds Allie and Emily, where he freezes them alive. Cole is summoned to fight Sub-Zero, but the villain proves to overpower him. When Cole’s blood touches the kunai, this brings Hanzo back from Hell, where he is revived as SCORPION. He returns to battle his nemesis with Cole’s help. Scorpion uses his heat to revive Allie and Emily before managing to trap Sub-Zero and use his own fire powers to burn Sub-Zero to death. Before going back, Scorpion thanks Cole for freeing him and asks him to keep his bloodline alive. Shang Tsung appears once more to retrieve the bodies of his fighters, meaning they may be brought back to life, but Raiden banishes him back to Outworld. Raiden then tells his champions that they are victorious, but they must gather more fighters for when Shang Tsung plans his next attack.
Cole is at the gym where he normally fights and tells the promoter he is finally quitting and going to Hollywood. When asked what’s in Hollywood, Cole says “Not what. Who.” The camera then pans over to show who Cole is looking for: superstar fighter Johnny Cage.
The Mortal Kombat tournament is a battle between Earthrealm and Outworld, as the champions of Earthrealm must prevent the evil forces from Outworld from conquering mankind. Struggling MMA fighter Cole Young is found by Jax Briggs after seeing that he bears a dragon mark like others chosen to be Earthrealm's champions. An ice-powered assassin named Sub-Zero, who centuries earlier murdered Cole's ancestor Hanzo Hasashi and his family, is out to kill the champions, and he freezes Jax's arms off and leaves him for dead.
Cole teams up with Jax's partner Sonya Blade and a mercenary named Kano to find the temple of Raiden, where they will train for the tournament. They are found by Liu Kang, who trains them into unlocking their special powers, or "arcana". Sonya doesn't bear a mark like the others do, so she is not trained like they are. Shang Tsung, leader of the Outworld villains, attempts to attack Raiden's temple to kill the champions, but Raiden puts up a forcefield around the temple. Shang Tsung later gather Sub-Zero and other fighters like Mileena, Nitara, Reiko, Goro, and Kabal to fight. Kabal convinces Kano to turn on the others and help them attack. In the fight, Liu Kang's cousin Kung Lao kills Nitara, but Shang Tsung takes Kung Lao's soul. Meanwhile, Cole unlocks his arcana by fighting and killing Goro when he attacked Cole's family before Raiden brings him back to the temple.
After Raiden brings the others into the Void for protection, Cole says that they need to split up to fight the villains. Jax, with his new super strong mechanical arms, fights and kills Reiko, while Sonya fights and kills Kano, inheriting his dragon mark and helping Cole kill Mileena. Liu Kang kills Kabal, and Cole must fight Sub-Zero after he freezes his wife and daughter. During the fight, Cole's blood touches Hanzo's kunai, which helps bring Hanzo's soul back from Hell to come back as Scorpion to battle Sub-Zero. After freeing Cole's family, Scorpion uses his power to burn Sub-Zero to death. Shang Tsung reclaims the bodies of his fighters before Raiden asks the others to look for more fighters. Cole starts by going to Hollywood to seek out Johnny Cage.