Genre: Action/Fantasy
Director: Gareth Evans
Writer: APJ and Chad Taylor
Based on the video game series
Cast: Iko Uwais, Jet Li, Ken Watanabe, Dave Bautista, Ronda Rousey, Donnie Yen, Tony Jaa, Scott Adkins, Yayan Ruhian, Manu Bennett, Winston Duke, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Julie Estelle
Plot: Amidst strife between the Earthrealm and the Outworld, the Elder Gods have sanctioned the Mortal Kombat tournament to maintain a peaceful balance between the two realms. Under these rules, the Outworld is prevented from invading Earth without winning the tournament ten consecutive times. Earth becomes vulnerable when sorcerer Shang Tsung (Ken Watanabe), himself an Outworlder disguised as an Earthling, strikes a deal with Emperor of Outworld Shao Kahn (Dave Bautista) – who aims to cheat the tournament system to conquer Earth. For every Earth fighter defeated, Kahn is allowed to bring more Outworld soldiers to Earth for his planned invasion.
Meanwhile, Raiden (Jet Li) - Elder God of Thunder - watches Kahn and Tsung with a skeptical eye. In order to adhere to rules of his fellow Gods, Raiden decides to band together a team of fighters to best the Outworld fighters and prevent the imbalance between the two realms. Raiden’s first move is to recruit Shaolin monk Kung Lao (Yayan Ruhian), descendant of legendary Mortal Kombat champion Great Kung Lao and one of Earth’s most renown fighters in his own right. Since his ancestor’s humiliating defeat, Lao’s family has preferred to stay in the shadows amongst and continues this tradition by rejecting to join the tournament for Raiden. He does, however, offer his assistance in training this new stable of fighters and introduces Raiden to his apprentice – Liu Kang (Iko Uwais).
Kang was an orphan with no clear heritage when the monks took him in and raised him to adulthood. Like his mentor, Kang has developed a swift aerial attacking style that makes him a threat against opponents of any size. Idolizing Kung Lao, Kang is hesitant to enter the tournament as he wants to follow Lao’s footsteps in a life of peace. Raiden convinces him that there will be no peace if the Outworld successfully invades Earth. With his mentor’s approval, Liu Kang says he will enter the tournament. Lao and Kang start their training.
International action star Johnny Cage (Scott Adkins) is at the premiere of his latest film, Dragon's Fist. Cage is all smiles, signing autographs, until a reporter accuses him of using a double for the fight scenes. Cage kicks the reporter in the face, mockingly asking, "Does that look fucking fake to you?" Later, Cage finds himself in jail. As he sits in a cell, time stops and Raiden appears before him. After expressing disbelief, Cage agrees to hear him out. Raiden tells Cage about the Mortal Kombat tournament, telling him that Cage can not only prove his martial arts skills, but help save the world in the process.
Kano (Manu Bennett), international fugitive and leader of the criminal cartel known as the Black Dragon, meets with Shang Tsung to sell him a shipment of cybernetic components. The meeting is interrupted by an Interpol SWAT team led by Lt. Sonya Blade (Ronda Rousey) and Captain Jackson "Jax" Briggs (Winston Duke). Shang Tsung mysteriously vanishes while Kano attempts to escape. Knowing that Tsung's ship is due to leave the Hong Kong harbor to his island, Kano leaps from a window and gets in his car and speeds toward the harbor. Blade and Jax comandeer a citizen's car and go after him in a high-speed chase through the streets of downtown Hong Kong. At the harbor, Jax leaps onto Shang Tsung's freighter and hides in a shipping container. Blade and Jax follow Jax onto the ship.
On Outworld, reknowned assassin Bi-Han (Donnie Yen) is called into the palace of Princess Kitana (Julie Estelle). She asks him to enter to Mortal Kombat tournament and kill Shang Tsung, if he is successful Bi-Han, or Sub-Zero as he is known due to his incredible control over the element of ice, can keep Shang Tsung's famed treasures for himself.
On Shang Tsung's ship, Jax and Blade are unable to find Kano. Jax, however, does recognize his favorite actor, Johnny Cage. Suddenly Raiden appears, informing Jax and Blade that it is no accident they ended up on the ship. He tells them that the Earth they know will be no more without their help in the Mortal Kombat tournament.
During the opening ceremonies of the tournament, Sub-Zero is surprised to see his former rival Hanzo/Scorpion (Tony Jaa) among Shang Tsung's chosen fighters, as he had previously killed him. Scorpion attacks Sub-Zero, but the fight is quickly broken up by Shang Tsung, telling both of them to save it for the tournament. Cage sidles up to Blade and begins flirting with her, but both are stunned to silence when the reigning champion Goro (Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson) is presented before the crowd by Outworld emperor Shao Khan.
Sub-Zero makes easy work of several opponents, but finally it is time for him to face-off against Scorpion. 200 years prior, Sub-Zero and Scorpion had fought in a fight to death, where Sub-Zero had frozen Scorpion in place before kicking him and shattering him to pieces. For the last two centuries, Scorpion resided in the Netherrealm. Shang Tsung offered him the chance to come back as a specter to serve him and get his revenge against Sub-Zero in the latest Mortal Kombat tournament.
Sub-Zero and Scorpion fight a brutal battle. Sub-Zero tries to convince Scorpion that Shang Tsung is deceiving him into helping him take over Earthrealm, but Scorpion is too consumed by revenge to listen to him. Scorpion gets Sub-Zero on the ropes and grabs a weakened Sub-Zero by the head. Scorpion proceeds to rip Sub-Zero's head and spinal cord from his shoulders
After surprising the observers of the tournament, Liu Kang scouts his next opponent. Goro – Shao Khan’s handpicked champion – is double Kang’s size and has four arms. He easily disposes of his opponent, shoving down on the man’s head so that it is crushed into his own body. He then rips the man’s heart out, revealing the crushed skull through the middle of the man’s chest. The observers of the tournament watch in horror as Khan has a big smile and Liu Kang an emotionless look.
Johnny Cage is in the ring, ready for his next fight, when he discovers that he must go up against the supernatural Scorpion. Cage quickly realizes that he is no match against Scorpion physically, so Cage uses his agility to evade attack after attack. Scorpion begins to get frustrated by Cage's evasiveness. Scorpion begins to use more of his special abilities, throwing fireballs around the wooden fighting ring. Cage lands some solid kicks on Scorpion, who left himself wide open. The entire ring is up in flames. Cage uses the smoke to hide and suddenly hits Scorpion with a Flipkick, sending him back into a flaming beam, which breaks. A balcony then crushes Scorpion. Shang Tsung is completely disgusted that Scorpion has been defeated by someone like Cage.
Kang seeks advice from Kung Lao before the fight. Goro towers over Kang, and starts the fight by taunting him. Kang actually surprises everyone by using his stealth to exhaust Goro, but he quickly loses the upper hand once Goro gets ahold of him. He grabs Kang with one of his arms and uses the other three to mercilessly beat him. Kang tries to fight back but struggles. Goro uses his four arms to grab each of Kang’s limbs and attempts to completely split him apart but Kang’s core strength prevents it. He headbutts Goro multiple times and is able to escape. As Goro begins to become dazed, Kang begins to use his martial arts skills to assault Goro’s pressure points. With Goro on the ropes, Liu Kang punches his throat, pulls out his larynx and places back into his open mouth. Goro dies of choking on his own blood, with everyone watching in disbelief.
Angered by Goro’s defeat and the momentum of the Earthrealm fighters, Kahn resorts to plan B by bypassing the rules of the Gods and using his army of Outworlders to kill the Earth fighters outside of the tournament format. Seeing the insurmountable odds his trainees now face, Kung Lao enters the fray - making it five versus dozens. They take on the wave of enemies in an ultra-violent showdown. Lao uses his steal brimmed hat to slice opponent’s throats and scalps. Sonya uses her leg strength to grapple enemies and tear their limbs from their bodies. The momentum swings back in the favor of the Outworlders and things look dire for the heroes.
Kano notices some of the cybernetic parts he had previously sold to Shang Tsung. He uses the parts to quickly construct an explosive while the others fend off the Outworld army. Kano tells themselves that someone will have to stay behind as he has no detonator. At first Liu Kang volunteers, but the others refuse as they know they need him to beat Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn. While Blade, Jax, Kang and Cage argue, Kano simply grabs the device and heads off toward the heart of the enemy hoard. Kano takes out the bulk of the Outworld invaders with a large explosion. Blade and Jax are especially surprised by the criminal Kano's sacrifice. The surviving heroes finish off the few that remain.
Shang Tsung tries to bring order to the madness and reveals his final resolution: Kahn face off against Kang one-on-one – if Kahn wins, the Outworld can officially invade Earth. Kung Lao warns Kang that he is still wounded and recovering from the fight against the Outworlders, but Kang is not one to back down from a fight. When Kang and Kahn are about to showdown, Tsung uses the distraction to sneak attack Kung Lao and extract his soul. Liu Kang shouts in agony upon seeing this but Kahn charges towards him ready to fight. As this occurs, Raiden receives approval from his fellow Gods to intervene due to the breaking of tournament rules. He arrives on Earth and warns Shang Tsung of his punishment – leading to a sorcerer duel between the two.
Meanwhile, Shao Khan grins in excitement as he knows the odds are in his favor against an injured Kang. But since the rules have already been broken wide open, Kang is joined by Cage, Blade, and Jax as dramatic music plays. They make easy work of Shao Khan as Raiden and Shang Tsung duel it out. All of the souls Shang Tsung has consumed makes him a fairly even match for even an Elder God like Raiden. He soon realizes that after Shao Kahn's death, he is outmatched and is without an army to invade Earthrealm. He then vanishes into a ball of flames. The Earthrealm fighters stand victorious as Kang mourns Kung Lao’s death – vowing revenge on Shang Tsung.
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