Speaker 1: Hello, everyone, Welcome to another edition of Nerdificent, your favorite
Speaker 1: podcast that covers everything nerdy. I am one half of
Speaker 1: your host, Danny Fernandez, sitting across from me. If you
Speaker 1: want a way, how's it going, every body, It's gonna
Speaker 1: be a fun app. We got a lot of fun
Speaker 1: things to talk about. But first let's talk about our guests.
Speaker 1: He's great. He's the host of Mortal Podcast, so perfect
Speaker 1: for bringing him on here. He's also TV writer Ben Meckler,
Speaker 1: Dog good, How are you good? Good? Ben? So we're
Speaker 1: covering Mortal Mortal Kombat and you have a Mortal podcast.
Speaker 1: How long has it been going on for? I just
Speaker 1: released the tenth episode. My guest was Iffy Hell and uh,
Speaker 1: I just decided to I'm like, okay, well, so I'll
Speaker 1: pause for a minute and call that the first season
Speaker 1: because because we got through all the characters that are
Speaker 1: in Mortal Kombat one. Yeah. I know you asked me
Speaker 1: on it last month and I was like, this is
Speaker 1: actually not my background, and You're like it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: The whole the whole premise of the podcast is that
Speaker 1: I I've spent my whole life knowing way too much
Speaker 1: about Mortal Kombat. And keeping up with the story, and
Speaker 1: so every episode, I have a friend who ideally, I've
Speaker 1: had a couple of people who were like, no, almost
Speaker 1: as much as I do about it, but ideally a
Speaker 1: friend who knows nothing about Mortal Kombat at all, and
Speaker 1: I kind of combat explain um the entire lord like
Speaker 1: twenty seven year continuitous Mortal Kombat, Laura, from the perspective
Speaker 1: of a single character, if you we have been doing
Speaker 1: this podcast wrong. We have been bringing on experts every week,
Speaker 1: and we should be bringing on people that know nothing
Speaker 1: so that we could just explain to them what it is.
Speaker 1: Bring on some real du faces, like my guess. Can
Speaker 1: you imagine last week when we had a COI like,
Speaker 1: and we just brought some that has no idea what
Speaker 1: who Spider Man is? It would be somebody that would
Speaker 1: be like legitimately would probably just be someone's mom or something.
Speaker 1: Nobody you knows mom. I'm very certain anyone you guys
Speaker 1: knows his mom's will know about Spiderman. I bet she
Speaker 1: would know Spiderman. I bet she would know, but I
Speaker 1: don't think she would know Peter Park Like. I know
Speaker 1: that sounds crazy, but I bet if I were like,
Speaker 1: what spider Man's real name. Obviously, if I said Peter
Speaker 1: would John spider Man. Anyways, Yeah, yeah, we've been starting
Speaker 1: our podcast out with what you're geeking out about? What
Speaker 1: are you getting out about this week? Uh, this week,
Speaker 1: especially because today there was a big game. I'm geeking
Speaker 1: out about the US women's soccer team. Yeah are I
Speaker 1: have not been a fan of the sport for long, admittedly,
Speaker 1: I just started watching during this World Cup a little
Speaker 1: more regularly. And they're just really strong and fast, yeah,
Speaker 1: and intense and cool and uh, I love them and
Speaker 1: they're my heroes and I'm geeking out. It's funny. It's
Speaker 1: been a known fact that the women's soccer team, the
Speaker 1: US women's soccer team is just way better than comically better. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like they have succeeded, Like this wouldn't be like their
Speaker 1: first try, Like it's not. It's kind of not a
Speaker 1: surprise that they're doing well because they have consistently done
Speaker 1: well in the Women's World Cup, which again is is
Speaker 1: the World Cup. It's just for women, and consistently the
Speaker 1: US is like one of the greatest teams in the world.
Speaker 1: Yeah we are. Yeah, I'm so excited. Thanks for bringing
Speaker 1: that up. Yeah, it's awesome, and then I look forward
Speaker 1: to seeing them playing in the finals this weekend. So wait,
Speaker 1: people will have it. We're in the future now the drops.
Speaker 1: So I am really enjoyed watching them when in the finals.
Speaker 1: And I hope that this doesn't sound comically ignorant when
Speaker 1: this episode air's Yeah yeah, no, um they've The US
Speaker 1: women's World Cup team has won three World Cups? Yeah
Speaker 1: what years it was? The one that has shown me
Speaker 1: is uh the last one is in two thousand fifteen,
Speaker 1: looks like which was the last World Cup? Yeah? Ok,
Speaker 1: yeah yeah, and then before that was eleven, and I
Speaker 1: think they won that one. What win was Mia Hammond?
Speaker 1: It oh, because that spawned so many girls named Mia.
Speaker 1: Everybody I knew that was having babies then named their
Speaker 1: daughter Mia. So we won in two thous Okay, So,
Speaker 1: so the women's team won the last World Cup and
Speaker 1: is still paid less than the men's US team, which
Speaker 1: is worse and way less people watch their games, but
Speaker 1: just makes sense for for the whole it just so
Speaker 1: you can know. So two thousand fifteen they won. In
Speaker 1: two thousand and eleven, they got second place, in two
Speaker 1: thousand seven, they got third place in two thousand three
Speaker 1: before that third place they won at that and so
Speaker 1: they haven't not got top three and they they're just
Speaker 1: one of the greatest teams in sports in the world
Speaker 1: historically from the last I'm gonna look up US Men's
Speaker 1: World's Cup us rrible mention over and over, big fat doughnut,
Speaker 1: Big fat donuts. This is very painful for me. Um.
Speaker 1: But the wage gap is real. It's real. It is tangible. Yeah. God, Okay,
Speaker 1: let's move on before I get blow an artery. What
Speaker 1: are you geeking out about? You know what I'm geeking
Speaker 1: out about is dream Works has lined up a new
Speaker 1: series called Kipo and the Age of Wonder Bees that's
Speaker 1: going to be on Netflix. And somebody here wrote for it.
Speaker 1: That person has bent it's me. I wrote for it. God,
Speaker 1: it's such a good show. And I'm really it's it's
Speaker 1: an animated show. I should have said that. Did I
Speaker 1: say that? Yeah? So I think it comes with the Yeah, um, guys,
Speaker 1: it's so cool. I think I'm allowed to say pretty
Speaker 1: much nothing other than it comes out. But like you
Speaker 1: created it, Rad Secris, Uh, and it was developed by
Speaker 1: Bill Wilkoff, and Uh, it was really, really, really great
Speaker 1: writing staff was the most fun I ever had working
Speaker 1: on a TV show. Um, there for a while. I
Speaker 1: was there for a year and a half, and I
Speaker 1: don't think I'm allowed to say, well, I was there,
Speaker 1: But there's a lot of really great ship. Yeah, very exciting, definitely.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you all have started a Twitter,
Speaker 1: Instagram or whatever for the show, but people should follow it,
Speaker 1: or you guys should create one and people should follow it.
Speaker 1: It'll it'll be out there eventually. Until then, you just
Speaker 1: have no choice but to follow me on social media
Speaker 1: for me to direct you towards more. Check out some
Speaker 1: of the Yeah, go check out some of the It's
Speaker 1: set in a post apocalyptic time. Uh, it's a girl, right,
Speaker 1: that's true. This is in I want to You should
Speaker 1: see Ben's face right now. I'm trying. This is what
Speaker 1: I'm reading from Hollywood Reporter then, so it's okay. It's
Speaker 1: not any of our private conversation waiting for me to miss.
Speaker 1: I know you can see his face when I asked him,
Speaker 1: he started a sweat. Um. Yeah, it's post apocalyptic. She Anyways,
Speaker 1: this is from the Hollywood Reporter that DreamWorks gave them,
Speaker 1: so you're fine. Anyways, the animation is really beautiful. Check
Speaker 1: it out. Postocalyptic, lots of big cute animals and other
Speaker 1: surprises coming. If you what are you seeking out about?
Speaker 1: I'm geeking out about the new season of Apex Legends.
Speaker 1: We got a new map change, we got a new hero,
Speaker 1: Uh Watson, She's amazing, she'll zapp you good. And that
Speaker 1: that gets me hyped, and I think the runner up
Speaker 1: behind that for me is definitely con season. We're getting
Speaker 1: ready for San Diego Comic Con. By the time you're
Speaker 1: hearing this, I would have already done our t X
Speaker 1: and Anime Expo and Danny's uh and Danny's and then
Speaker 1: after that, Uh, we have a twitch Con. So I'm
Speaker 1: soups excited. And you know, any of the nerd fam
Speaker 1: or Salt squad who plans on being down in San
Speaker 1: Diego for twitch Con, let me know. I'm gonna put
Speaker 1: a channel for it in the discord so we can
Speaker 1: do one big Salt fan meet up and NERD fan
Speaker 1: meet up where nerdificent or Salt fan shirt or um
Speaker 1: or I'm a tickle on the subject of salt. I
Speaker 1: saw a custom video game controller today where by pouring
Speaker 1: salt you can quit out of a match. Online. Really
Speaker 1: it had a I don't know how that it worked,
Speaker 1: but it had a sensor that you could pour salt
Speaker 1: onto and it would quit you out of now, man,
Speaker 1: I need that. Well. Speaking about quitting, uh, quitting out
Speaker 1: matches and being salty, we're talking about Mortal Kombat. Mortal
Speaker 1: great game. I really hope to play something. Oh yes,
Speaker 1: if my little brother was exactly that person that if
Speaker 1: you were beating him, he would just turn off the game.
Speaker 1: Yeah tactic. And you know what I did. I already
Speaker 1: said this. I threw his buzz light ear in the pool.
Speaker 1: And it was really funny, like to get back at him,
Speaker 1: and he deserved it. And it was really funny as
Speaker 1: I was talking to one of the animators for Toy
Speaker 1: Story four and we were saying that we both had
Speaker 1: that chrome buzz light ear. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: remember people out there, remember there was a chrome member
Speaker 1: one that one came out. Um. I may have also
Speaker 1: thrown that in the pool. Whatever he deserved it. Please
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat. All right, let's get the nitty gritty out
Speaker 1: the way. First. Mortal Kombat is media franchise sent around
Speaker 1: a series of video games originally developed by Midway Games
Speaker 1: Chicago Studio in the development of the first game was
Speaker 1: originally based on the idea that Ed Boone and John
Speaker 1: Tobias had of making a video game starring Sean Claude
Speaker 1: Van Damn, but that idea fell through A fantasy theme
Speaker 1: fighting game titled Mortal Kombat was created instead. Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: was the first ever fighting game to introduce a secret
Speaker 1: fighter uh reached at the player fulfilled a set of requirements.
Speaker 1: The original game has spawned many sequels and spinoffs, consisting
Speaker 1: of several action adventure games, films, animated and live action,
Speaker 1: with its own sequel and television series, as well as
Speaker 1: a comic book series, a card game, and a live
Speaker 1: action tour. Along with Street Fight and Second Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: has become one of the most successful fighting franchises in
Speaker 1: the history of video games and one of the highest
Speaker 1: grossing media franchising of all time. Ben, what was your
Speaker 1: introduction Immortal Kombat? Like? What do you remember was your
Speaker 1: first time you got your hands on it? I vividly
Speaker 1: remember big Foot's Arcade and South Florida, where I grew up.
Speaker 1: I did not have enough quarters to play a lot
Speaker 1: of games, and I wasn't good at them because I
Speaker 1: was like, I had to have been five or six. Uh,
Speaker 1: I have this memory. But because I could play like
Speaker 1: a game for like five seconds and I was out
Speaker 1: of quarters, I would just stand in front of Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat Kay Cabinet and watch the like character profiles flipped
Speaker 1: by and yeah, that's like a that is a struggle story. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I would just watch it in a tract mode, which
Speaker 1: is what they call the arcade games, and they just
Speaker 1: start going through screens trying to attract people to play,
Speaker 1: and I was like, Cabinet, you've convinced me I would
Speaker 1: like to play. I just can't. I don't have the
Speaker 1: I don't have coinage. So I would just study the
Speaker 1: like little character profiles and I became very invested in
Speaker 1: them because I was like right into thunder God who
Speaker 1: controls the like for he had a really weird character
Speaker 1: problem like Mortal Kombat two and three, but it was
Speaker 1: like he controls the power of the wheels, and I
Speaker 1: was like, what are the wills and what? And then
Speaker 1: it would be like sub Zero, He's a ninja who
Speaker 1: could control ice and it's very mysterious, like well, what
Speaker 1: a mystery? And uh, I vividly remember standing there, and
Speaker 1: then I remember that by the time World Combat four
Speaker 1: came out, there was a new arcade in town called
Speaker 1: Blockbuster Golfing Games, and I wanted to go there as
Speaker 1: soon as it opened because I heard the Mortal Kombat four.
Speaker 1: So I know that I had to have become obsessed
Speaker 1: enough at a young enough age that by the time
Speaker 1: the fourth one came out, I was like, I'll drive
Speaker 1: a crawl. I will make my mom drive me across
Speaker 1: town so I can see the cabinet. I probably play
Speaker 1: like two times. So you you are a legit Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat fan's even before the podcast you're like, oh, no,
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat is my jam. Yeah, admittedly, Like I mean,
Speaker 1: I worked at a lot of nerdy places in my time.
Speaker 1: It's been a lot of time working at nerdicet, and
Speaker 1: I always kind of felt like odd man out, So
Speaker 1: I'm not. I feel like I'm not nerdy enough about
Speaker 1: enough things compared to a lot of my friends. With
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat, I'm like, uh, painfully nerdy about I know everything.
Speaker 1: It's like it's like having your things, like, because I
Speaker 1: have maybe like five, I don't I can't be nerdy
Speaker 1: about everything I have maybe four or five things that
Speaker 1: I know a lot about, and that's what you're brought
Speaker 1: in for as like the expert, Like you'll be on
Speaker 1: panels for that specific thing. Yeah, oh man, So yeah,
Speaker 1: I think my earliest memory of Mortal Kombat was definitely
Speaker 1: going to be Ultimate Mortal Kombat three. Like I definitely
Speaker 1: dabbled in m K one and two and three, but
Speaker 1: Ultimate Mortal Kombat three is when I remember getting hands
Speaker 1: on getting like really try and get good with Syrax.
Speaker 1: I was like, you're definitely going with the cyber ninch
Speaker 1: and I kept I remember, I was trying so hard
Speaker 1: to get the move where he opens his chest and
Speaker 1: shoots a missile out and I could not get it.
Speaker 1: It's really hard. Yeah, I still care. So so that
Speaker 1: was where I kind of like really got into it.
Speaker 1: But like there's, like doing your podcast, there's like deep
Speaker 1: lore that has actually built up from the first one
Speaker 1: and continued that I was really unaware of. I think
Speaker 1: they've been more dedicated with that franchise to keeping like
Speaker 1: a continuitous story over almost three decades now then anything
Speaker 1: else I can think of, And it's all the more
Speaker 1: impressive considering like it is just a fighting game. Like
Speaker 1: it's just a very violent fighting game and you generally speaking,
Speaker 1: like they'll have stories, but not not as intense as
Speaker 1: like an RPG. Yeah, they go hard. Yeah, So let's
Speaker 1: talk about like the actual game it came out. It
Speaker 1: was a two D fighting game that had a joystick,
Speaker 1: so that was originally help people played with five buttons.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So do you still play the like
Speaker 1: the no, the original ones? I mean I also Ultimate
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat three was like my favorite. I think it
Speaker 1: was because that wasn't was the one that opened the
Speaker 1: world up the most, but it was also like joystick
Speaker 1: two D fighter. Um, but I never really had that
Speaker 1: at home. I mean, all the consoles that I've owned
Speaker 1: at home, they haven't really done re releases, especially since
Speaker 1: I have had consoles that I owned myself. I might
Speaker 1: have gotten like one of the Midway Arcade treasures or something,
Speaker 1: but I never had like a fighting stick at home.
Speaker 1: Well we but we have so many barcades now, Like
Speaker 1: is that do you seek out Mortal Kombat when you
Speaker 1: go to it? Is I gravitate directly towards it. I
Speaker 1: went to a friend's engagement party recently that was at
Speaker 1: a barcade and dragged my wife over the Moral Combat
Speaker 1: four cabinet and we played a bunch and it was great.
Speaker 1: Anytime I know that Moral kombats in arcade, it's the
Speaker 1: very first thing I gravitate towards, and I'm still not good.
Speaker 1: One thing I wanted to on a highlight because, like
Speaker 1: you said, it's typically a fighting game. You know, what's
Speaker 1: your what's your punch strong strong punch, uh kick strong
Speaker 1: kick type moves that you string in the combos. But
Speaker 1: one thing that set Mortal Kombat apart from other fighting
Speaker 1: games is they introduced these things called fatalities, which was
Speaker 1: you know, uh, which is I think one of those
Speaker 1: things that started off in a nerdy way and transcended it,
Speaker 1: which is the line finish him. Apparently it was. The
Speaker 1: original idea was that it was going to give gamers
Speaker 1: a free hit at the end of the fight, and
Speaker 1: it basically evolved into fatalities, and from that it evolved
Speaker 1: into other things. So the fatalities, it would do some
Speaker 1: extra gruesome way to to finish off an opponent, like
Speaker 1: I think, um, the one I remember that kids were
Speaker 1: talking about in school was Scorpion pulling off his mask
Speaker 1: and blowing fire and lighting the personal it's a great one.
Speaker 1: And the other cool thing about like like they kind
Speaker 1: of like buried storytelling details in those fatalities because like
Speaker 1: no one really knew, you know, if you sat down
Speaker 1: and started playing the game, he picked Scorpion, you started playing,
Speaker 1: he's just a human ninja wearing the yellow suit. And
Speaker 1: if you actually get to the fatality, yeah, he pulls
Speaker 1: his face off and revel City as a skull Underneathan
Speaker 1: breathes fire and you're like, wait, is he not a person?
Speaker 1: And there weren't necessarily answers for like a whole game. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but but the answer is no, he's not a person.
Speaker 1: He is a revenant. Yeah, in the hopes I gotta
Speaker 1: ask you if he since you grew up around here,
Speaker 1: I've had two guests on my podcast that also grew
Speaker 1: up in the l A area, and they had insane
Speaker 1: rumors going around at their school about fatalities that were
Speaker 1: not actually in the Moral Kombat games, but they were
Speaker 1: like rumors going around that were like, I I can't
Speaker 1: even repeat the horrific stuff these little kids were talking about.
Speaker 1: Theorizing Yeah, no, I was gonna say something like having
Speaker 1: your but pulled out of it like a lot of
Speaker 1: that was. That was the one I heard, is that
Speaker 1: Sonja Blade can like rip your genitals. Yeah, it's only
Speaker 1: as the male character. Yeah, that's not a fatality. It's
Speaker 1: not it's not a fatality. I went. I went through
Speaker 1: my whole life assuming that that was. I think it's
Speaker 1: like a southern CALIFORNIATI are you from around here? Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: County Okay. And then but I was in Texas for
Speaker 1: high school. So it's clear that Mortal Kombat genital mutilation
Speaker 1: rumors were going around here because they were obviously the rumors.
Speaker 1: I think the rumors everywhere because it was such a like,
Speaker 1: uh taboo thing that kids had access to those things
Speaker 1: when we were younger. But in Florida, I can't remember
Speaker 1: a lot of rumors going around about like genital mutilation,
Speaker 1: people puppeteering like severed genitals, but apparently a thing every
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe it was just on one of our cabinets
Speaker 1: and y'all just didn't get it, because I think it's
Speaker 1: weird that all of us down here know about that. Honestly,
Speaker 1: maybe I'm dominant, isn't there, And I just don't know
Speaker 1: what The one thing I love about fighting games and
Speaker 1: also anime is I think that our parents didn't realize
Speaker 1: what we were watching like they would. I think with
Speaker 1: fighting games, like they weren't really paying attention and so
Speaker 1: they would just be like, um, they would never put
Speaker 1: that in there kids, you know game because video games
Speaker 1: are for kids, and anime, like they look at cartoons
Speaker 1: and animation is like for kids, and so I think
Speaker 1: if they actually knew what we were exposed to, that's
Speaker 1: how so many young kids got to watch Evan Gelian
Speaker 1: even though then for kids because their parents are like, oh,
Speaker 1: it's just cartoons, they would the people making this would
Speaker 1: never put that in there. I just watched the first
Speaker 1: episode of that show. We actually have to take a
Speaker 1: really quick break and then we're going to we're already in,
Speaker 1: but then we're gonna hop back into Mortal Kombat right
Speaker 1: after this, and welcome back to Nerdificent. You know it's
Speaker 1: me if you wide away across from me as always,
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez and guesting with us to talk about one
Speaker 1: of combat. Ben Meckler A mac dog. How you doing.
Speaker 1: I don't know if I've ever gotten dog feels like
Speaker 1: one who calls you mac dog, but it flows so well,
Speaker 1: so I will never I addam Eington to people's names,
Speaker 1: so you would be like Meckington or whatever. Because my
Speaker 1: sister in law's Alexis, I call her Lexington. I think
Speaker 1: because my first name is so short and I've rarely
Speaker 1: gotten nicknames. Well there you go. Yeah, I get Ferny
Speaker 1: a lot. So I just like took that great. I
Speaker 1: hated it growing up, and then I just used it
Speaker 1: against them. Um okay, so who is did you gravitate towards?
Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about the characters with their particular
Speaker 1: ones that you gravitated towards in the beginning that changed
Speaker 1: over time. Yeah, I kind of was just thinking about
Speaker 1: this actually, So, I mean I always gravitated. I was
Speaker 1: always like a monster kid. I love monster movies. And
Speaker 1: so in Mortal Kombat, you know, you have like soldiers
Speaker 1: like Sony Blade and like Hollywood movie stars like Johnny
Speaker 1: Case next to actual like monsters. Uh, so I always
Speaker 1: gravitated towards them, like to Reptile, who's essentially a dinosaur
Speaker 1: ninja and Goro, who's like a half dragon prince. It
Speaker 1: looks like a giant forearmed ogre um. And then as
Speaker 1: they started adding like robots and other sorts of fantasy creatures.
Speaker 1: That was always where I gravitated. I know a lot
Speaker 1: of kids when I was younger were super into like
Speaker 1: Scorpion and sub Zero. I think once I actually started
Speaker 1: trying to be good at playing those games, I gravitated
Speaker 1: towards sub Zero just because he was like pretty easy
Speaker 1: to pick up, and I'm just not good at video
Speaker 1: games as much as I like them. Um. But most recently,
Speaker 1: I've started getting really into playing as Luke Kang in
Speaker 1: the NU Mortal Kombat, which I was surprised I liked
Speaker 1: him so much because I always thought he was so
Speaker 1: four because he was kind of like because like it's
Speaker 1: like picking Luke Skywalker in a Star Wars game. It's like, well,
Speaker 1: he's the he's just not super interesting. Yeah yeah he is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but he's just like he's like a prototypical hero. But
Speaker 1: because Mortal Kombat storytelling is so like wow yeah no
Speaker 1: mk Levin, Luke Kang looks straight up like Han solo
Speaker 1: cause player. Um yeah, I've gotten into playing I said recently,
Speaker 1: because they've just taken him on such an insane journey
Speaker 1: where he started as kind of like a boring prototypical
Speaker 1: hero and has now gone through some truly insane ship.
Speaker 1: He's been dead and alive and alive and dead over
Speaker 1: and over again, good and evil that I find him
Speaker 1: a lot more interesting now than I did before. But
Speaker 1: I think that's like something more. Kombat always been really
Speaker 1: good at changing characters and evolving them. If he who
Speaker 1: are the ones that you were into as always a
Speaker 1: Scorpion guy, Scorpion, and then which was anyone who were yellow? Yeah? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I got it. Yeah, that was there my guy. I
Speaker 1: loved him. I was big, big, big fan u And
Speaker 1: even when I came back from Mortal Kombat ten, I
Speaker 1: went back to Scorpion. I just love the flame and
Speaker 1: the teleportation. You know. I was actually, uh, do you
Speaker 1: know much about cyrax Is? Like backstory? No, what's what's
Speaker 1: his deal? So when you came on my podcast, you
Speaker 1: were joking about being like the one guy who didn't
Speaker 1: fit in with the rest of Scorpions Clan uh in
Speaker 1: Japan the share I are you, Yeah, cyrax is that
Speaker 1: but for the Linn quit for the Chinese Ninja clan
Speaker 1: uh sub Zeros clan. Yeah, he's like not Chinese. I
Speaker 1: don't know. I think he can accident in MK nine,
Speaker 1: but he's like not from there. He is like the
Speaker 1: odd man out where you never really get a full
Speaker 1: backstory on like where he came from or what he's
Speaker 1: doing with those guys. Um, But he's kind of awesome.
Speaker 1: And he's also like the tragic monster of the Cyber
Speaker 1: Ninjas because he is the one who did not want
Speaker 1: to be turned into a robot, but was forced into
Speaker 1: a cyborg body. So he just like woke up one
Speaker 1: day and looked at himself. I was like, oh God,
Speaker 1: what if I had become and my body has literally
Speaker 1: been discarded? So I'm like this forever. Now. One thing
Speaker 1: I like about Cyrax two is I went back to
Speaker 1: his original art. Now he's very robot, but really these
Speaker 1: dudes were just in dirt by gear and they a helmet,
Speaker 1: and I like that they three different colors. Yeah, in
Speaker 1: the that was the span of the creativity and making
Speaker 1: these robo guys. Do you know how many Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: characters there are? I should because I'm trying to do
Speaker 1: all of them, but it's got to be in the
Speaker 1: fifties or sixties. I'm looking at a poster with them
Speaker 1: and it looks no joke like the Infinity War posters,
Speaker 1: just like all of them stuffed on there. That's not
Speaker 1: even up to date because I know that art is
Speaker 1: from like a few games ago. Yeah. Yeah. In the
Speaker 1: spirit of Mortal podcast, I'm gonna just do a slight
Speaker 1: deep dive into the cy rex by backstory so apparently. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so you're right. Cyrax was a member of the Lynn
Speaker 1: Quake Lan with sub Zero, Sector and Smoke, and when
Speaker 1: the clan decides to utilize modern technology by converting its
Speaker 1: members into soul, is Cyborgs initiative? Yeah? Yeah, sub Zero
Speaker 1: was like, I'm out failed, which sucks because Smoke was
Speaker 1: like his best friend. He was like later, so did
Speaker 1: Smoke get turned into a robot? Although in the new
Speaker 1: timeline because there's two different timelines. Yeah, it's kind of
Speaker 1: like the Star Trek reboot, and like their side timelines,
Speaker 1: Smoke did not get turned into Cyborg and sub Zero did.
Speaker 1: Whoa yeah, but then Smoke died and sub Zero got
Speaker 1: on Cyborg somehow. I love it. Yeah, man, let's tell
Speaker 1: the audience original roster the original roster was, and their moves,
Speaker 1: all of the moves, okay, not all of the don't
Speaker 1: just give me give them give me their signature move
Speaker 1: a what they look like radon thunder god. Uh, he's
Speaker 1: got lightning in his eyes, and so of course his
Speaker 1: moves are all lightning based. His most iconic probably is
Speaker 1: going completely horizontal and flying across the screen, and flying
Speaker 1: with your body across the score does not look good anymore,
Speaker 1: but it's of its time. It's perfect. I love it. Um.
Speaker 1: Let's see who else we got. Uh. Well, the first
Speaker 1: you mentioned that Mortal Komba had the first ever hidden character. Uh,
Speaker 1: that was reptile. Um. He I think he actually, you know,
Speaker 1: he may have appeared in the background of the first game,
Speaker 1: been playable in the second, but were just pot acid.
Speaker 1: He's as a terran um lu Kang. Of course, he
Speaker 1: has a lot of Bruce Lee inspired moves. He's very
Speaker 1: much inspired by Bruce Lee. He can throw fireballs, which
Speaker 1: Bruce Lee, to my knowledge, was not able to do.
Speaker 1: Son you blade. He was in the US Special Forces
Speaker 1: in the military, so a lot of guns stuff shooting guns.
Speaker 1: Johnny Cage Hollywood movie star, so of course he could
Speaker 1: do a kick where he slid forward on green energy blasts,
Speaker 1: just like Jean Claude van Dam who he's inspired by
Speaker 1: because they couldn't actually do a j CVD game, so
Speaker 1: they made Johnny Cage as a parody of Jean Claude
Speaker 1: vandam he like stands out so much from the other character.
Speaker 1: It's hilarious that he was literally created as like a goof.
Speaker 1: They're like, what if his missical island of monsters and
Speaker 1: ninjas in a fighting tournament, and what if the Hollywood
Speaker 1: actor went there to prove that he doesn't use visual
Speaker 1: effects in his action movies. And now he's like the
Speaker 1: most sympathetic character in the whole series. He's wound up
Speaker 1: becoming like a great guy and a good dad, and
Speaker 1: he has like a tragic romantic storyline in the most
Speaker 1: recent game. It's kind of great. Who else the first
Speaker 1: sub zero who eventually became noopsibot um behn was in there. He's,
Speaker 1: of course suberiously throws uh you know, freezy balls. Scorpion
Speaker 1: naturally revenant undead ninja who was there to kill Behond
Speaker 1: to get revenge for allegedly murder during his entire clan.
Speaker 1: Uh Scorpions got fire moves because he's a little demon
Speaker 1: from Hell, so a lot of hell fire moves. Um Goro,
Speaker 1: who was one of the sub bosses where he was
Speaker 1: thus sub boss big fore armed half dragon Shokan Prince
Speaker 1: pick you up in a punch you with his top
Speaker 1: arms while he held you up with his bottom arms.
Speaker 1: Shank Sung sorcerer who hosted the first Mortal Kombat tournament
Speaker 1: on his island, which had the very clever name of
Speaker 1: Shank Song's Island. Ah. He is a sorcerer who can
Speaker 1: steal your soul. So one of his iconic moves is
Speaker 1: stealing your soul. You know that that um Dream Daddy game? Yes,
Speaker 1: I do. This is like the original Dream Daddy. Yeah.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of daddy's. Only one mommy was
Speaker 1: just Sonia Blade, I mean originally. Now there's a lot
Speaker 1: of mommies. Yes, I think I got everyone. Yeah. If not,
Speaker 1: somebody will write you. Yeah. If not, someone can just
Speaker 1: be mad at me and I'll just say, yo, buddy,
Speaker 1: how have you made ten episodes of a podcast about this?
Speaker 1: Eat stuff? Wait? So let's talk about the if he's
Speaker 1: something happened? Yeah, yeah, the movie. I was trying to
Speaker 1: read off the cast of the movie, which had Christopher
Speaker 1: Lambert as Raiding Robin Shoe as lu Kane uh Lyndon
Speaker 1: Ashby as Johnny Cage, Carrie Hairoi Tagawa as Shang Zung,
Speaker 1: who most recently came back for MK Levin. Yeah. Everyone,
Speaker 1: everyone has been so hyped about Oh my gosh, h
Speaker 1: Bridget Wilson Sampras as Sonya Blade and Talisa Soto as Katana.
Speaker 1: Trevor Goddard as Kanoh sorry, Kano was also in the
Speaker 1: first game. Yeah, I will admit that. Chris Casa Massa
Speaker 1: as Scorpion, France as sub Zero. I don't know a
Speaker 1: lot of these actors. Keith Cook as Reptile, Hakim Alston
Speaker 1: as the Fighting Monk. Yeah, you have long left behind
Speaker 1: recognized not play. These are NPC what's known as an extra.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that movie, Yeah, it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: looking back on it, it's probably not great, you know,
Speaker 1: but when I saw it as a kid, I remember
Speaker 1: coming out of that theater swinging my fist ready to fight.
Speaker 1: I was so into, probably scared the stuffing out of
Speaker 1: some people coming into the theater. I'm realizing how much
Speaker 1: I default to discussing. I don't remember what was the
Speaker 1: plot of this movie is. It was basically a remake
Speaker 1: of Entered the Dragon. Um, it was just that a
Speaker 1: bunch of people get summoned to an island for a
Speaker 1: mysterious fighting tournament that winds up having the fate of
Speaker 1: the world at stake. Um as you do. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: the hero onto it's got to be in the history
Speaker 1: of action movies. It's got to be one of the
Speaker 1: great uh like meetups of hero ensembles. It's literally like,
Speaker 1: all right, there's this guy Luke Kang who's partnered up
Speaker 1: with a thunder god name Raydon, who's on his way
Speaker 1: to this island to get revenge on the person holding
Speaker 1: the tournament for killing his brother. He teams up with
Speaker 1: a Hollywood actor trying to prove that he doesn't use
Speaker 1: visual effects in his movies, and uh, someone from the
Speaker 1: military who's tracking down a mercenary who killed her partner
Speaker 1: who's going to the island to try to get rich,
Speaker 1: and the three of them become buddies. Yeah, yes, yeah, man,
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's crazy, just kind of like looking back,
Speaker 1: because this is one of those movies that fell for
Speaker 1: the Hollywood trick of like we're not going to have
Speaker 1: them in their costumes from the game. That would be lame,
Speaker 1: so we're gonna have them wear regular clothes to a
Speaker 1: fighting tournament, like this is the one time you can
Speaker 1: actually probably and probably should have them wear what they're
Speaker 1: wearing in the video game. They at least put all
Speaker 1: of the villains in their costume, which kind of works
Speaker 1: I think for a movie, because it was like the
Speaker 1: heroes are not from a magical world and they're being
Speaker 1: dragged into uh an insane world of monsters and stuff.
Speaker 1: How insane Goro look the Goro puppet in that movie is,
Speaker 1: isn't is just terrifying to look at. They also like
Speaker 1: toned it down a lot, like there wasn't like the
Speaker 1: violence was not, like it was free of blood and gore. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a PG thirteen, which actually wound up bumming
Speaker 1: me out as a kid because I did not ask
Speaker 1: to go see it because I assumed it was rated R.
Speaker 1: I was like six, maybe five when it came out,
Speaker 1: so I just like didn't even ask my mom, even
Speaker 1: though it was all I wanted to see, And then
Speaker 1: when it finally came out, I had to wait till
Speaker 1: I could go see it at like a friend's house
Speaker 1: or even watch it like an after school program or something.
Speaker 1: But it's better than people remember. It's like a pretty
Speaker 1: good movie, yea, for like a video game movie. It's
Speaker 1: like a fun action flick. Here just so you were
Speaker 1: just so people were wondering how games ended. I went
Speaker 1: and found the final text for if Raydon wins the
Speaker 1: first Mortal Kombat, and this is the text that it
Speaker 1: uh that it reads you. Raden's victory comes as no
Speaker 1: surprise to him. He was never impressed by Shank Sun's
Speaker 1: and fear sorcery, Grol's brute force, or the challenge of
Speaker 1: the other contestants. He quickly becomes bored with his mortal
Speaker 1: competition and soon invites other gods to participate in the contest.
Speaker 1: The ensuing battles rage on for years, and the wars
Speaker 1: results in our world's final destruction. Have a nice day,
Speaker 1: that's that's that's what you said at the end of
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat the world the world ends, have a nice day.
Speaker 1: But not even that. I like that. They were just
Speaker 1: like a frightened wins. I don't know what could happen.
Speaker 1: He gets bored, invites every god in the world to
Speaker 1: enter a fighting tournament that becomes a centuries along war
Speaker 1: that ends all of that kind Yeah, also, we got jokes, okay,
Speaker 1: by So after this amazing film that Ben says still
Speaker 1: holds up because you want to watch it tonight. Um,
Speaker 1: we had the cartoon Mortal Kombat Defenders of the Realm.
Speaker 1: Do you remember watching the good? Yeah, but I thought
Speaker 1: you would have like an air of nostalgia around it. No,
Speaker 1: it's just bad. I didn't like it then and I
Speaker 1: don't like it now. I weirdly as a kid like
Speaker 1: didn't whoa And IMDb it has three out of five stars,
Speaker 1: so people don't agree with you, Ben, Three is what
Speaker 1: it's more than two. That's like almost half. It's barely passing,
Speaker 1: but it is passing. Yes, I'll give you that it
Speaker 1: is passing. Um, look, you know how the Internet is.
Speaker 1: I'm willing to stand up to the Internet movie database
Speaker 1: and say that also looks like the Infinity War poster.
Speaker 1: It's so funny, like everyone copies that stands with having
Speaker 1: like a main character in the middle and then they're
Speaker 1: all kind of like winged out. Yeah. I do love that.
Speaker 1: It's from an era though, where they were like kids
Speaker 1: like things that are not for them. So we'll just
Speaker 1: make animated shows anyway. Like around the same time they
Speaker 1: were doing like Ambo, the animated series where I think
Speaker 1: the intro is like a full minute and half him
Speaker 1: putting knives on his belt. Crease Summer played Katana. She's
Speaker 1: amazing if you all don't know she's she's like every
Speaker 1: She's like a tear of strong. She's voiced everybody ever.
Speaker 1: So there was also She's Sorry, She's Susie Carmichael on
Speaker 1: The Rugrats. She's Penny and Inspector Gadget anyways, that's really cool.
Speaker 1: And then also Ron Perlman played Striker. Yeah, Striker who
Speaker 1: is Everyone makes fun of Striker for being just a
Speaker 1: straight up NYPD riot com Hi, just shooting guns at dragons. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can find those worlds. Sorry, I mean to cut
Speaker 1: you off. Yes at all. Um, I was gonna say
Speaker 1: that the animated series not great. Um. There was also
Speaker 1: a live action show, right that came out after that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was Mortal Kombat Conquest and my directing team true
Speaker 1: In film school, Chip Chalmers directed a couple episodes and
Speaker 1: I made him give me a VHS copy of one
Speaker 1: of his episodes so I could watch it, and he
Speaker 1: was like, why do you want this? It's because I
Speaker 1: love Mortal Kombat. I want to see it. He's like
Speaker 1: all right, whatever, have you asked him to be on
Speaker 1: your podcast? He I think it's back in Florida Skype. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe maybe he should be. And then there's also one
Speaker 1: or Premier ordered a web series that was inspired by Rebirth,
Speaker 1: titled Mortal Kombat Legacy, and that series was on YouTube
Speaker 1: and also Machinima I believe. Yeah, that was an interesting
Speaker 1: because I remember in college that short came out Rebirth,
Speaker 1: and I was so hyped because it was like a
Speaker 1: gritty reboot of Mortal Kombat, which at the time I
Speaker 1: think everyone's getting really sick of gritty reboots, but it
Speaker 1: worked for something that began pretty dark and gritty in
Speaker 1: the first place. Maybe not, I guess Mortal Kombat is
Speaker 1: kind of still pulpy and goofy around that time. But um,
Speaker 1: it was really really hyped about and then for whatever
Speaker 1: is And I never actually brought up watching that web series,
Speaker 1: but they did like two seasons. It did pretty well.
Speaker 1: I know what you can do tonight now, Ben watch
Speaker 1: the entirety of the website. You said it like, I
Speaker 1: was like, I need something to do tonight. You're the extra. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all of the content I gotta catch up. I have
Speaker 1: to watch the entirety of Defenders of the Realm, the
Speaker 1: animated series. I gotta finish up Conquest because I've only
Speaker 1: seen Chips episode, and uh, I gotta watch the entirety
Speaker 1: of m k Legacy. Yeah. Well, if you guys want
Speaker 1: to hang out, I'll be busy for the next al Right, Well,
Speaker 1: we're gonna take a quick break, but when we get back,
Speaker 1: we're going to talk some more Mortal Kombat and we're
Speaker 1: also gonna get your thoughts on this new Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: movie that's apparently coming out in a bit. And where back,
Speaker 1: I'm still Danny Fernandez here with Iffy Wade and Ben Meckler.
Speaker 1: We were just during the break talking about Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: the album, which was a techno album based on the
Speaker 1: first game, inspired by the first game. I'm reading this
Speaker 1: directly from this article. Ben, I just like saying inspired. Um,
Speaker 1: but you said that several of your friends have admitted
Speaker 1: that they have it in their car currently at this moment. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The most recent person I could think of who told
Speaker 1: me that was Jenuine Motto. Yeah, I play I don't
Speaker 1: play CDs anymore, But that was a flex must be nice.
Speaker 1: I didn't mean for it to come out that way.
Speaker 1: You were looking derisively at my walkman while you said.
Speaker 1: What I meant to say was I play soundtracks. I'm
Speaker 1: a weirdo. I play like in my car on Spotify,
Speaker 1: I'll play like the Halloween soundtrack. I play Wild Wild
Speaker 1: West one, so good Ghostbusters And that's what if you
Speaker 1: come into my car, I'm just playing soundtracks. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: have the Tokyo Drift soundtrack in my car, you know, No,
Speaker 1: that's my jammer. But yeah, the one song it talks
Speaker 1: about is the one called Techno Syndrome, which is the
Speaker 1: one everyone thinks of when they hear Mortal Kombat, which
Speaker 1: is just screaming Mortal Kombat. I cover that song for
Speaker 1: the intro to my podcast, and with me yelling the
Speaker 1: name of every single Mortal Kombat character to the beat
Speaker 1: of the song for the entire length of it, I
Speaker 1: will say, you know what what really goes unappreciated is
Speaker 1: that portion in the middle of that from from from
Speaker 1: from from from from, Because not only is that just
Speaker 1: a fun riff, it really encapsulates, encapsulates, like techno of
Speaker 1: that time, like that goes beyond Mortal Kombat. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think I know why it sounds like a cyber goth
Speaker 1: piece of music, which was what nineties techno. Yeah, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, yeah, it sounds like the techno you would
Speaker 1: play in a spooky cyber goth castle. Oh man, I
Speaker 1: guess we can just kind of run through the games
Speaker 1: and we're gonna go, we're gonna we're gonna do like
Speaker 1: a mini just and I feel like you're the man
Speaker 1: for the job of what each game is about. So
Speaker 1: oh boy, let's do it. M K one m K
Speaker 1: one the Mortal Kombat, the tenth Mortal Kombat tournament in
Speaker 1: a row, is occurring between the realms of out World
Speaker 1: and Earth Realm. If out World wins the tournament, that's
Speaker 1: the tenth one, which means they're allowed to merge our
Speaker 1: realms and eat the souls of pretty much everyone on Earth.
Speaker 1: If Earth Winds, the world is saved. Earth Winds Mortal
Speaker 1: Kombat too. Out World is pissed that they lost, so
Speaker 1: they demanded you over tournament, uh, and they forced the
Speaker 1: fighters of Earth Realm to come to out World for
Speaker 1: another Mortal Kombat tournament. Earth Realm wins Mortal Kombat three.
Speaker 1: Outworlds like real piss now that they lost twice, so
Speaker 1: they decided to say forget the rules, man, and they
Speaker 1: straight been vade Earth Realm. Uh. So our heroes at
Speaker 1: this point are now fighting in the streets of New
Speaker 1: York as like dragons and centaurs are rampaging around in
Speaker 1: death squads. Mortal Combat four, with out World finally defeated Shinnok,
Speaker 1: a fallen elder god in the Nether Realm, yet another
Speaker 1: realm it's basically Hell, decided to tis time to shine
Speaker 1: and he's going to take over both Earth Realm and
Speaker 1: the realm of Adenia. Combat five Shannak got beat up,
Speaker 1: so he's done. And in Mortal Kombat five, Shinnok's little
Speaker 1: buddy Quanchi and Shacom, the former ruler of out Worlds
Speaker 1: little assistant Shang Song, say, uh, let's go kill our
Speaker 1: bosses and become a deadly alliance. So they do, and
Speaker 1: they also kill Earth's champion Lukang and wage a campaign
Speaker 1: of h I guess evil to try to take over
Speaker 1: the realms and succeed. Wortal Combat six. H Just as
Speaker 1: those two guys have succeeded in their plan to take
Speaker 1: over all the realms, Uh, an ancient ruler from out
Speaker 1: World Onaga the Dragon King is resurrected and kills everybody
Speaker 1: and brings an undead army to ramd Page throughout the
Speaker 1: realms unless somebody can stop him. This Mortal Kombat seven
Speaker 1: or right next would be seven. Uh. Someone does stop Onaga,
Speaker 1: but just in time for an ancient prophecy to kick off,
Speaker 1: in which all of the heroes in the world. At
Speaker 1: this point, all of the villains in the world are
Speaker 1: basically going to go to war uh, in which only
Speaker 1: one person can survive. It is armageddon. Mooral Combat eight
Speaker 1: will Combat eight is kind of like not necessarily canon.
Speaker 1: That was morratl Kombat Verse d C universe. Uh so
Speaker 1: that was uh our realm includes DC superheroes. They wind
Speaker 1: up fighting. It's like a dark Side Shoo Khan hybrid
Speaker 1: and I don't really remember what happened. It's not really cannon.
Speaker 1: Before I saw a news about the Joker joining that's
Speaker 1: a rumor, but I'm pretty sure it's true that he's
Speaker 1: going to be DLC for Moratal Kombat eleven. Yeah, yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: I just wanted say that they're bringing that back. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: uh wait, so before who were there? Who were the
Speaker 1: other DC characters? Do you remember any of them there,
Speaker 1: Captain Marvel in their Batman, um Superman. Obviously I can't
Speaker 1: remember if Harley Quinn was in that one, but basically
Speaker 1: that game was why Injustice exists, because it's the same
Speaker 1: studio that makes more makes Injustice. So I want to
Speaker 1: say it was a woman was in there too, right, man,
Speaker 1: I want to see her fatality. Well that was the
Speaker 1: other thing that out. Yeah, yeah, they're rated. It's a
Speaker 1: it's a rated T game. So they took out a
Speaker 1: lot of the gore. Oh yeah, they had Batman, Captain Marvel, Catwoman,
Speaker 1: Dark Side, death Stroke, the Flash, Green Lantern, the Joker,
Speaker 1: Lex Luthor, Superman, and Wonder Woman. But yeah, you'd expect
Speaker 1: more or less. Yeah maybe, Harley. Yeah, you were right
Speaker 1: about it being a rumor but probably true that the
Speaker 1: Joker will get added to Mortal Kombat eleven. Yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: like sure that's true. Please continue. What where are we at?
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat nine? Kombat nine is the reboot only kind
Speaker 1: of a reboot because Raydon is the like second to
Speaker 1: last person to survive Armageddon. He's going to die. It's
Speaker 1: an active desperation. He sends a message to himself back
Speaker 1: in time, which creates a new timeline. Some Moortal Kombat
Speaker 1: nine kind of retails the first three games, but certain
Speaker 1: events change and uh go kind of catastrophically, so the
Speaker 1: only survivors out of our entire cast wind up being
Speaker 1: raid In, Johnny Cage and Sony Blade and Mortal Kombat ten.
Speaker 1: Twenty five years later, the children of Johnny or Johnny
Speaker 1: and Sonya's daughter and the children of other Mortal Kombat
Speaker 1: characters are a new team being trained by special forces,
Speaker 1: and they wind up having to take on Shinnok in
Speaker 1: this timeline and Mortal Kombat eleven. Shinnok's mother, a Titan
Speaker 1: named Cronica who controls all of time, is pissed about
Speaker 1: all this weird time stuff, so she decides she's going
Speaker 1: to kill rate In and create a new timeline, but
Speaker 1: in doing so, she opens up a rift that brings
Speaker 1: back heroes and villains from the past that collide with
Speaker 1: heroes and villains in the few mature for the present,
Speaker 1: and everyone basically has to work together to stop critical
Speaker 1: from creating a new timeline. Doesn't work, she does, so
Speaker 1: we're back to zero now and then will kind of franchise. Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm so proud of you. Yeah. Again, I just did
Speaker 1: ten episodes of podcast in a row where I had
Speaker 1: to I had to make sure I had all of
Speaker 1: that down. I know. I love just how easy that
Speaker 1: was for you. Also, I love like like I've I've
Speaker 1: been going through as we've been um doing this podcast,
Speaker 1: watching lou king play throughs and just kind of comparing
Speaker 1: comparing them to what you said in our episode. You
Speaker 1: didn't miss a beat. Hell yeah, so so definitely make
Speaker 1: sure you if you're definitely interested in the lower side
Speaker 1: of Mormal combat and hearing just the whole run of
Speaker 1: all the games through one character's perspective. I can't recommend
Speaker 1: Mortal podcast enough. And if you listen to the most
Speaker 1: recent episode, you can hear if he's completely insane story
Speaker 1: about the time you saw a guy do a bicycle
Speaker 1: kick in real life. Yeah. Yeah, I'm saving that for
Speaker 1: your podcast. I'm gonna make I'm gonna make people go
Speaker 1: check it out if they want to learn about the
Speaker 1: legend of Jimmy dank O man legend. Yeah, I realized
Speaker 1: I totally missed Mortal Kombat Annihilations for the best. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's unnecessary mention. It's an unbelievably bad movie. With some
Speaker 1: iconic lines. Um. I think the probably most quoted one
Speaker 1: is when uh Kaittana yells to her resurrected mother, mother,
Speaker 1: you're alive, and Sandel says, too bad you, we'll die.
Speaker 1: And it's great. Really, you know, I mean that kind
Speaker 1: of sounds like video games. It's extremely It's a very
Speaker 1: watchable movie. Honestly, you've probably seen Annihilation more times in
Speaker 1: the first movie because it's just so completely bonkers. With
Speaker 1: the first movie, I also wanted to mention that this
Speaker 1: is crazy. Steven Spielberg, who's an avid fan of the
Speaker 1: Mortal Kombat series, was supposed to make a cameo appearance
Speaker 1: as the direct in Johnny Cage's first scene, like the
Speaker 1: first six minutes of the film, and he wanted to
Speaker 1: be in it, but he had a scheduling conflict and
Speaker 1: so he couldn't. But but the director character in the
Speaker 1: film is supposed to resemble Steven Spielberg, So Steven Spielberg
Speaker 1: was almost in Mortal kombast. Oh wow, that's news to me.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I guess, I guess. Stephen then decided
Speaker 1: to kind of hold off on a cameo like that
Speaker 1: until Austin Power's Gold where that cameo at the beginning
Speaker 1: of the movie. How many stars does it have? If
Speaker 1: Steven Spielberg wasn't, it would have five four nine. It
Speaker 1: would be a classic the classic film. Oh. One other
Speaker 1: thing was Johnny Depp was and Tom Cruise where it
Speaker 1: was considered for the role of Johnny Cage and they
Speaker 1: the idea that either of them would have said yes
Speaker 1: even then Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean I did
Speaker 1: not recoize is most of the names that we said uh,
Speaker 1: And then Danny Glover was considered for rayd in Oh.
Speaker 1: That would have been cool. Although Christopher Lambert his performance
Speaker 1: wound up being kind of iconic and that his delivery
Speaker 1: of every line is really weird and good weird. So
Speaker 1: what do you think about this new UH movie coming out?
Speaker 1: Are you excited about it? I? I love and trust
Speaker 1: James One who's producing it. Um. I want to believe
Speaker 1: that a big budget Mortal Kombat movie will be good.
Speaker 1: I need to know what story they're telling. I'm hoping
Speaker 1: they're not going to do some revisionist like we need
Speaker 1: an access character stuff where it's like a normal guy
Speaker 1: finds out that he's actually destined to be a part
Speaker 1: of the Mortal Combat Tournament. I'm afraid that it might
Speaker 1: go that way because I know that at a certain budget,
Speaker 1: studios get afraid of being too uh, you know, going
Speaker 1: too far with the story, or or making something it's
Speaker 1: just for a niche audience. Like with Dark Tower, they
Speaker 1: totally turned that into like, you know, it's just a
Speaker 1: boy's journey, like he realizes he's part of a larger tale,
Speaker 1: which is an interesting perspective to take into it. But
Speaker 1: it didn't make it the same story. So the things
Speaker 1: that worked about it didn't work quite as well. I'm
Speaker 1: worried the same thing I happened with Mortal Combat. Also selfishly, uh,
Speaker 1: since I also write movies, I would very much like
Speaker 1: to be writing this movie. Um specifically, I would love
Speaker 1: I feel like the story of of Bihan, the first
Speaker 1: sub Zero going on in odyssey through the Nether Realm,
Speaker 1: so an ice Ninja going on an odyssey through basically
Speaker 1: hell Um in order to obtain an artifact, while coming
Speaker 1: into contact with his blood rival Scorpion, and falling in
Speaker 1: love with demon S who lives in the nether realm,
Speaker 1: and realizing that he's serving the wrong masters, and meeting
Speaker 1: like an untimely tragic demise. I feel like that would
Speaker 1: be a really good story for a movie that could
Speaker 1: kind of tick all the boxes, um while still being
Speaker 1: canonically something people would enjoy. UM. I had no idea,
Speaker 1: but I guess Warner Brothers bought the Midway Games assets
Speaker 1: and in bankruptcy court. I didn't know that they had
Speaker 1: a file for bankruptcy. Yeah. Sad, Midway like owned the nineties.
Speaker 1: But things would go so great after that. Maybe who knows,
Speaker 1: Maybe this movie will be successful. And there's the m
Speaker 1: k c U and then crossed. Alright, where can people
Speaker 1: find you? Ben? You can find me at Ben Meckler.
Speaker 1: That's b e n m e k l e R.
Speaker 1: There's no ce in my last name on pretty much
Speaker 1: every social media platform. I worked on show called Final Space.
Speaker 1: It's erin now, so you can check that out. You
Speaker 1: can get There's this application called Netflix you can be
Speaker 1: a subscriber of. That's where KEEPO will be airing next
Speaker 1: year and hopefully more exciting stuff you can catch for
Speaker 1: me soon. But also just check out Mortal podcast p
Speaker 1: O d K A s T because combat um wherever
Speaker 1: podcasts exists. I assume that was my opportunity to plugs.
Speaker 1: I just want to write to it. That's what that was.
Speaker 1: You can catch me at if you wait. I f
Speaker 1: Y n W I D I W E on Twitter
Speaker 1: and Instagram, if D's on Twitch. Here on Tuesday's Candy
Speaker 1: Dinner on Monday, and I'm now the host of Who
Speaker 1: Shot Your Pod? On Max Fun on Fridays. UM, too
Speaker 1: many things, but let's keep it going. The marathon continues
Speaker 1: as Nipsey hustles. I know somebody asked if I wanted
Speaker 1: to be the host of a twilight Zone podcast, and
Speaker 1: I was like, absolutely not, absolutely not, even though that
Speaker 1: is the thing that I know a lot about. I
Speaker 1: was like, I cannot take on one other thing. I'm
Speaker 1: trying to make some things and I am at Miss
Speaker 1: Danny Fernandez. If you and I will be at San
Speaker 1: Diego Comic Con, so check out our our twitters and
Speaker 1: our Instagrams will be posting. I think we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a meet up. I have two panels on Thursday that
Speaker 1: I will be sharing whenever I have that info officially,
Speaker 1: but yeah, check us out. We will be there in
Speaker 1: San Diego. We are friendly. Come get a drink with
Speaker 1: us whenever we finally pick a time uh and, as
Speaker 1: we always say, staying nearty