TedStixon

Revealing mistake: Watch closely when Scorpion breathes fire at the end of his fight with Johnny Cage. In the wide profile shot where we see the "stream" of fire shooting out and hitting Johnny's shield, if you look very closely, you can kind of make out some sort-of "structure" within the flame. It looks kind of like a pole. It looks like to accomplish the effect, they lit a "flame bar" or pole on fire so the flames would travel upwards, then comped it into the scene and rotated it using special effects to make the flames look like they were shooting sideways. Unfortunately, the pole/flame bar is still just barely visible in the film. (It's much easier to see on the Blu-Ray version, but can be made out on the DVD).

TedStixon

Trivia: Actor and stunt performer Steve James was reportedly cast (or at very least was the favorite pick) for the part of Jax, which was originally meant to be a larger role. Tragically, he passed away from cancer nine months before filming started. The part ended up going to Gregory McKinney.

TedStixon

Trivia: The producers desperately wanted the techno and electronic dance music featured in the film, but reportedly many record companies fought against it and turned down the project. One record company even suggested that instead of techno and EDM, Janet Jackson should provide most of the music, and that it should all be pop based. The producers persisted, and it eventually worked out - they got the music they wanted and the soundtrack album ended up going platinum.

TedStixon

Trivia: Reportedly, Tom Cruise happened to be near the set one day, and wandered over to see what they were shooting. A medic who worked for the crew reportedly got in Cruise's face and refused to let him pass. The cast and crew were both mortified but also highly amused when they found out what happened later on.

TedStixon

Trivia: The film had a rather peculiar tie-in produced - a thirty-minute animated short-film called "Mortal Kombat: The Journey Begins." The short film was initially released on VHS and Laserdisc in 1995. While it was described as a "prequel" to the movie, it actually takes place during the events of the film... although it contains numerous contradictions that don't fit in with the movie. The short was eventually included as a special feature on the movie's Blu-Ray release.

TedStixon

Trivia: The producers interviewed fans of the video-games in pre-production to get feedback on things like the story and costume designs. These interviews also inspired one scene in particular - Johnny Cage punching Goro in the crotch during their fight. Kids kept asking the producers during interviews if Goro "had balls," so the producers threw in the scene to answer their question.

TedStixon

Trivia: The film's iconic theme song ("Techno Syndrome") has often been misconstrued as being created for the film. In actuality, it was created for the compilation album "Mortal Kombat: The Album," which was released to promote the video-game series a full year before the movie came out.

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Trivia: During the Liu VS Reptile fight, there are some circles with symbols inside of them visible on the wall at one point. The symbols are actually a secret cheat code for the video-game "Mortal Kombat 3," which came out around the same time as the movie. They were added into the film as an easter-egg for fans of the games. They could watch the movie and pause it at just the right moment to see the code.

TedStixon

Trivia: Much of the cast suffered injuries during the filming of the fight scenes. Most notably, Robin Shou broke three ribs while filming the Liu VS Reptile fight and Linden Ashby suffered a kidney injury that caused him to urinate blood for a few days while filming the Johnny VS Scorpion fight.

TedStixon

Trivia: Christopher Lambert had such a great time working on the movie, he routinely would pay for the cast and crew to eat diner at nice restaurants after filming, and even personally funded the cast and crew's wrap party when principal photography was finished.

TedStixon

Trivia: When he was cast as Raiden, Christopher Lambert's agent only agreed for Lambert to appear on-set for a few weeks, and stipulated that Lambert would only film in or near Los Angeles. As the bulk of the film was being shot in Thailand, the producers intended to use a body-double for Raiden in wide-shots or filmed from behind, and then just film closeups of Lambert later on during reshoots, using a crew-member as a stand-in for the other cast members. However, when Lambert heard about the stipulations his agent made, he was furious. He wanted to actually work on-location with the other actors. He personally paid to fly himself to Thailand so he could properly shoot the movie, and worked on it longer than his agent agreed to, just because he wanted to.

TedStixon

Trivia: Much of the film was shot in Thailand, where temperatures would regularly rise to over 100° Fahrenheit. This caused a peculiar problem - it was so hot out that makeup and prosthetic appliances wouldn't stay on and would just "melt off." This caused some major issues during the filming of Sonya and Kano's fight scene, as Kano's face-plate kept falling off.

TedStixon

Trivia: The character Goro was mainly accomplished through the use of a large animatronic suit that would be worn by the actor. The Goro suit weighed over 125 pounds and cost roughly a million dollars. It broke down so often, cast and crew began to jokingly refer to the Goro suit as a "diva" who "wouldn't film his scenes."

TedStixon

Question: One mistake mentions a car visible in the background of the Scorpion VS Johnny Cage fight. But for the life of me, I can't find it. In what particular shot is it visible? (Or if nothing else, does anyone have the timecode for it?).

TedStixon

Revealing mistake: When Scorpion explodes, if you pay attention, the explosion doesn't really make "sense." The first "burst" looks fine, but then, midway through the shot, some of the debris in the air suddenly vanishes or fades out a few frames before the second "burst" occurs. Additionally, the way the second "burst" happens gives it away as an added effect, as it doesn't really overlap the background properly. (It looks like an explosion that was filmed on a blue-screen and then just added over top of the footage, as it doesn't interact with the environment properly).

TedStixon

Audio problem: Right before the film ends, the giant spectral Shao Khan says the line "You weak, pathetic fools! I've come for your souls!" His mouth more-or-less matches "You weak, pathetic fools!", but it doesn't match "I've come for your souls!" in the slightest. (It looks as if he's saying something else entirely, and they dubbed in a new line in ADR).

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: When Lui and the others are walking up to Raiden during the ending, we see a cute shot of Johnny putting his arm around Sonya. The movie then cuts to a wideshot, and he puts his arm around her a second time.

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: During the ending, watch Liu and Kitana closely as Raiden says the line "I've been looking for you! What took you so long?" Kitana has her arm around Liu's, but lets go and stands a few feet away from him. The camera then cuts to a medium-shot of Liu and Raiden talking. (Kitana is not visible in this shot, as she is standing several feet away.) Then, the camera cuts again to a wider shot, and suddenly Kitana is standing literally right next to Liu and has her arm around his once again.

TedStixon

Trivia: The entire Liu Kang vs "Human Reptile" fight and the second half of Johnny Cage and Scorpion's fight (taking place in the underground necropolis) were added in reshoots after test-audiences reacted very positively to the film and especially the action. The studio decided to spend extra money to add more action to the movie and give fans more of what they wanted.

TedStixon

Trivia: For many years, there was a longstanding rumor that Brandon Lee had been cast as Johnny Cage before his unfortunate death on the set of "The Crow." Director Paul WS Anderson has since confirmed that the rumor wasn't true.

TedStixon