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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 2: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema.

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Speaker 3: This is Rob Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and

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Speaker 3: we're back with part two of our discussion of the

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Speaker 3: nineteen ninety five supernatural martial arts movie Mortal Kombat, adapted

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Speaker 3: from the extremely popular, extremely violent video game franchise. Now,

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Speaker 3: we did not intend for our discussion of this movie

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Speaker 3: to end up spanning two separate episodes, but the breakup

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Speaker 3: I think proved inevitable due to time constraints, especially because

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Speaker 3: this movie loomed so large when we were kids. Unless

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Speaker 3: we had a lot to say about it from personal recollection,

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Speaker 3: I think we spent a lot of the last episode

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Speaker 3: just conveying our emotions about Mortal Kombat from the time

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Speaker 3: of childhood.

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Speaker 2: That's right. I mean, it was almost it was almost

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Speaker 2: kind of an identity you chose for yourself by being

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Speaker 2: a Mortal Kombat fan. You know. It's not to say

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Speaker 2: you couldn't also be a Street Fighter fan. That those

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Speaker 2: games were great too, but yeah, there was something about

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Speaker 2: the Mortal Kombat esthetic, the music, certainly that the fact

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Speaker 2: that it's violence kind of got under the skin of

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Speaker 2: many of the parental units. You know, it felt a

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Speaker 2: little rebellious as well.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, now that you compare it to the

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Speaker 3: other big fighting franchise of the time, I have to say,

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Speaker 3: in retrospect, I think Street Fighter two is a better

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Speaker 3: game than like whatever the equivalent Mortal Kombat two is,

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Speaker 3: But ignoring the underlying mechanics, Mortal Kombat just had such

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Speaker 3: an interesting skin stretched over it. When you when you

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Speaker 3: were a child in the nineties, it was it seemed

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Speaker 3: more dangerous and more fascinating for that reason.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think it was it was fed by

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Speaker 2: a lot of the more violent films. I mean, not

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Speaker 2: all of them were super violent, and Big Trouble Little

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Speaker 2: China is not grotesquely violent, but you know, there are

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Speaker 2: aspects of all these different franchise is kind of mixed

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Speaker 2: in to Mortal Kombat to give it its overall flavor.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. Now, I thought we should do a brief refresher

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Speaker 3: of the basics from part one before we get into

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Speaker 3: the plot today. So Mortal Kombat began, for those who

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Speaker 3: don't know, as a series of one on one side

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Speaker 3: view fighting games for arcades and home consoles in the

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Speaker 3: early nineteen nineties, and these games were extremely popular. They

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Speaker 3: distinguished themselves, I think, with a mix of dark fantasy

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Speaker 3: martial arts setting, fast paced action, and hyper violence. And

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Speaker 3: as you were just saying, Rob, the violence in particular

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Speaker 3: was like a cultural touch point. There was a backlash,

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Speaker 3: kind of moral panic among many adults who were distressed

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Speaker 3: to watch their kids carefully memorizing the button combination that

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Speaker 3: you would have to enter to rip somebody's backbone out

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Speaker 3: at the end of a match. And that game franchise

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Speaker 3: has continued up until today. But the first movie was

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Speaker 3: released in nineteen ninety five, directed by Paul W. S Anderson,

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Speaker 3: who also made movies like Event, Horizon and the early

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Speaker 3: Resident Evil films. The Mortal Kombat movie mostly follows the

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Speaker 3: originally pretty thin plot of the game, which concerns a

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Speaker 3: magical martial arts tournament ruled over by an evil sorcerer

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Speaker 3: named Shang Sung, in which human fighters with names like

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Speaker 3: lu Kang, Sonia Blade, and Johnny Cage they must win

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Speaker 3: in order to defend humankind and Earth from an interdimensional menace,

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Speaker 3: a sort of evil emperor from a place called Outworld,

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Speaker 3: which is like another dimension. The movie fleshes out this

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Speaker 3: plot with some clumsy yet enjoyable character development. And also

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Speaker 3: I don't think I really mentioned this much last time,

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Speaker 3: but I was thinking in between recording these two episodes

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Speaker 3: about how the film significantly modifies and specifically lightens the

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Speaker 3: tone established by the early video games. I think later

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Speaker 3: games in the series had more irony, they wore the

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Speaker 3: irony more, more outwardly, and they had more obvious tongue

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Speaker 3: in cheek elements. But if you go back to this

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Speaker 3: first game, it is grim, doomy, and hardcore. Would you

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Speaker 3: agree with that, Rob.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I would agree with that, especially the first one,

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Speaker 2: even the second one. The second one had the friendships

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Speaker 2: in there, which were goofy, and I think, you know,

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Speaker 2: kind of a fun jab at all of the haters

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Speaker 2: based on the violence.

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Speaker 3: But still wait, hold on, you should explain what the

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Speaker 3: friendships are, Oh, people who don't know?

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Speaker 2: All right, So, you know, you beat your opponent and

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Speaker 2: then you get the directive finish him, and if you

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Speaker 2: know the codes, you can do a fatality. But you

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Speaker 2: can also, if the parameters are met, do a friendship,

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Speaker 2: which instead of like brutally decapitating your opponent, does something like,

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Speaker 2: you know, give them a cupcake. I don't know, that's

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Speaker 2: not one to loon balloon Shensung would do one where

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Speaker 2: he makes a rainbow with his hands. I think, say

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Speaker 2: it's something nice. So that's pretty tongue in cheek. But

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Speaker 2: for the part, like the rest of the vibe, the music,

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Speaker 2: the look of Mortal Kombat too is very very doomy.

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Speaker 3: Yes, so the movie has a decidedly more PG or

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Speaker 3: PG thirteen quality. And while the movie is still very

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Speaker 3: violent and has some scary fantasy elements. You know, it's

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Speaker 3: got your four armed out world demon king, it's got

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Speaker 3: vacuuming out people's souls and stuff. It definitely adds more

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Speaker 3: of a spirit of humor and optimistic adventure in contrast

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Speaker 3: to the game's spirit of fatalistic death sport. So it's

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Speaker 3: more kind of haha, it's time to save the world,

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Speaker 3: rather than you know, custom dictates that I now dismantle

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Speaker 3: your body. And this lightning of the tone relative to

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Speaker 3: the early games is absolutely present in the script, but

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Speaker 3: I think it shows up especially in the performance of

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Speaker 3: Christoph Lambert as the thunder god Raidan, who is I

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Speaker 3: think it's fair to say a serious and even austere

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Speaker 3: figure in the games is that right, rob.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, especially in some of the more recent games,

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Speaker 2: overly serious, like I think, maybe not intentionally laughably serious,

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Speaker 2: but there are a lot of memes about the recent

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Speaker 2: games and Raydon saying things like I must consult the

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Speaker 2: elder gods. You know, he's very serious.

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Speaker 3: But in the movie it's completely different. Christoph Lambert as

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Speaker 3: Rayden is like if a two D nineties sitcom character

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Speaker 3: were played by Peter Loriie and yet still had catch

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Speaker 3: phrases like I don't think so. He's about two seconds

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Speaker 3: away from saying Earth rules Outworld drools for much of

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Speaker 3: the film. But anyway, as I mentioned last time, this

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Speaker 3: was my nine year old self's idea of a really

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Speaker 3: good movie. I saw Mortal Kombat in the theaters, of course,

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Speaker 3: I played the early games. I bought the VHS tape,

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Speaker 3: and I watched it a bazillion times at home. I

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Speaker 3: had the original motion picture soundtrack on CD. I listened

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Speaker 3: to it a lot. I read the liner notes and

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Speaker 3: the jewel case and all that. We devoted a significant

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Speaker 3: chunk of the last episode just to talking about the CD,

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Speaker 3: the soundtrack CD and the songs on it, which were

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Speaker 3: a strange mix. Right. It had like Metal Industrial had

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Speaker 3: these techno pump up tracks and with a lot of

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Speaker 3: like audio samples from the video game and then ambient

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Speaker 3: classics like Halcyon plus on and on by Orbital.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a weird one to revisit because you know,

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Speaker 2: you go back, you listen to and you're like, yeah,

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Speaker 2: this is a great track. I like this. Oh, I

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Speaker 2: love this one, and then it's like, I don't like

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Speaker 2: this one at all. It's a fun experience.

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Speaker 3: So in the last episode, we talked about the cultural

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Speaker 3: context from which this movie emerged. We talked about the connections,

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Speaker 3: especially the cast, and some stuff about the music and

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Speaker 3: the special effects, but we ran out of time before

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Speaker 3: we could start getting into the plot, and today we're

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Speaker 3: back to do the full plot breakdown. However, please bear

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Speaker 3: with us because we now made these plot notes like

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Speaker 3: a week ago. They're not as fresh in our minds

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Speaker 3: as they were back then, So we may confuse ourselves

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Speaker 3: here and there.

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Speaker 2: We're going to do our best, but you know, in

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Speaker 2: the spirit of the Olympics, having just finished, I want

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Speaker 2: to I want to open up the spirit of competition here.

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Speaker 2: We normally discourage gambling on this podcast, but for this

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Speaker 2: one time, We're gonna allow you if you would like,

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Speaker 2: please feel free to place your bets on who is

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Speaker 2: going to win the Mortal Kombat tournament depicted in this movie.

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Speaker 2: You may have forgotten how it turns out, or maybe

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Speaker 2: you haven't seen it before, so you know, gamble responsibly.

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Speaker 2: Who's your money on Joe?

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Speaker 3: It would be wild if they don't let Kano win.

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Speaker 2: Kno. I think he has a lot of strengths coming

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Speaker 2: into this tournament. You know, he's got a he's got

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Speaker 2: a knife, he's got a weapon.

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Speaker 3: They let him. They let him bring weapons to matches

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Speaker 3: where his opponent is unarmed. That seems unfair.

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Speaker 2: He has the laser eye. I'm not sure if it

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Speaker 2: does lasers in this film or not. So he did,

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Speaker 2: but it's metal too, so he's got to put potential

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Speaker 2: defense there. That's you know, I feel like I'd be

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Speaker 2: foolish not to put my money behind Goro. He's the

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Speaker 2: raining champ, extra arms so and can also shoot fireballs.

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Speaker 3: It is is hard to describe the disappointment you're gonna feel.

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Speaker 3: And the Goro's Got Gnard scene. Yeah, so oh, before

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Speaker 3: the plot even begins, one thing we got to address

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Speaker 3: this came up in part one is how relentlessly this

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Speaker 3: movie uses like techno pump up music to get your

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Speaker 3: blood going. Like it. It is very strong with the

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Speaker 3: hype tracks on the soundtrack to to keep the momentum

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Speaker 3: up and keep you feeling good and ready for the

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Speaker 3: next scene.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So that Mortal Kombat theme song by the Immortals

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Speaker 2: one of the main things that you will remember from

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Speaker 2: this movie if you haven't seen it in decades. They

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Speaker 2: start playing it before the opening credits even roll, like

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Speaker 2: you just all you see are the studio logos loading

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Speaker 2: up and you're already hit with Mortal Kombat and you're

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Speaker 2: you're the races.

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Speaker 3: But also this techno track, as we were saying, it

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Speaker 3: samples sounds from the video game, so like one of

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Speaker 3: the snare triggers, and the beat is the fight grunt

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Speaker 3: from the game where somebody's going ugh. It's the sound

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Speaker 3: they make in the game when they get punched in

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Speaker 3: the face. But it's using that as the.

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Speaker 2: It's an infectious track.

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Speaker 3: Strong choice. So the movie opens with a dream sequence.

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Speaker 3: We pull up on a shot of a temple in Thailand.

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Speaker 3: I think this is the Watt Frost see Sanfette Temple.

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Speaker 3: I hope I'm pronouncing that close to right. It is actually,

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Speaker 3: in reality, a beautiful location. Unfortunately, the opening shot that

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Speaker 3: features this beautiful location looks terrible because they're like, I

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Speaker 3: don't know exactly what the technique is here, but they're

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Speaker 3: compositing in a dark, gloomy background that just does not

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Speaker 3: match the foreground at all.

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Speaker 2: I've actually been to this location. This is in a Utia,

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Speaker 2: and I distinctly remember visiting here many many years ago.

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Speaker 2: The heat was otherworldly and I had just consumed a

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Speaker 2: tie red bull, which at the time I don't know

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Speaker 2: it was very hot as well, but I think it

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Speaker 2: had a different chemical composition. It seemed way stronger than

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Speaker 2: any red bull I've ever had anywhere else. But it

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Speaker 2: made for a very memorable experience, and the grounds are

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Speaker 2: absolutely beautiful in real life.

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Speaker 3: I bet that's a techno pump up track of its own. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but they get your bpms too. But so, yeah, we

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Speaker 3: got this ominous dark sky in the background that just

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Speaker 3: doesn't really match the temples in the foreground. It looks

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Speaker 3: like color keyed in or something. Storm clouds are swirling

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Speaker 3: and there are these deep droning chants playing, and the

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Speaker 3: soundtrack and then we zoom in on a pair of

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Speaker 3: men who face off against one another in the courtyard

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Speaker 3: a courtyard of this temple. One is a young man

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Speaker 3: wearing simple clothing. He's stressed like he might be a monk,

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Speaker 3: and he looks frightened and in over his head. And

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Speaker 3: the other the other actor here is Kerrie Hiroyuki Tagawa

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Speaker 3: as our villain Shang Sung, the Evil Sorcerer. In this shot,

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Speaker 3: he looks about nine feet tall compared to the young man.

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Speaker 3: He's just gigantic. I don't know if he's actually all

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Speaker 3: that huge of an actor, but I don't know. They

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Speaker 3: use angles to make him look very imposing. He is

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Speaker 3: dressed in a ridiculous outfit for hand to hand combat.

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Speaker 3: We brought this up in the last episode. But he's

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Speaker 3: wearing like a heavy calf length black leather coat. So he's,

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Speaker 3: you know, gonna do some roundhouse kicks to defeat earth Realm.

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Speaker 3: But he is just wrapped in twenty pounds of loose leather.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, this is very much rockstar Shensung right here.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So the fight begins between these two and it

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Speaker 3: is not much of a contest. Shensung annihilates this poor

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Speaker 3: guy he beats him up, breaks his bones. At one point,

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Speaker 3: he hits him with a brutal backhand, so you know,

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Speaker 3: it's a kind of move that suggests he's he's treating

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Speaker 3: him with contempt, not even treating him as a worthy opponent.

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Speaker 3: Just give him the backhand. And then finally he stomps

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Speaker 3: on this guy's back and breaks his spine. After this,

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Speaker 3: Sheangsung holds the young man up and then looks straight

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Speaker 3: into the camera and he says, your brother's soul is mine.

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Speaker 3: You will be next. And then Shangsung's face turns into

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Speaker 3: a putrid cgi skeleton and we speed zoom into his eyehole.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, there's some ambitious eye action in this movie

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Speaker 2: concerning like the taking of souls.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but he's saying, your brother's soul is mine, you

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Speaker 3: will be next. Who is you? Well, it is Lou Kang,

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Speaker 3: So Lu Kang we meet him next. He sits straight

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Speaker 3: up in bed. He's having another nightmare, and he is

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Speaker 3: in the wildest bedroom. It is just green, green, green green,

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Speaker 3: Like I don't know what to compare.

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Speaker 2: It to, Yeah, like listerine or really bad apps, and

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Speaker 2: you know it's like that level, and it's just completely

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Speaker 2: saturated in it. It's not like you have just some

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Speaker 2: green highlights here and there and there. I'm just talking

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Speaker 2: like absolutely green.

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Speaker 3: It's like somebody heard us gushing about how much we

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Speaker 3: love Mario Bava lights and then they tried to do

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Speaker 3: Bava without understanding Bava. So it's not it's not these

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Speaker 3: like interesting sort of zones of color like Vava uses.

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Speaker 3: It's just green floor to ceiling in a way that

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Speaker 3: I don't know. It doesn't work the way Bava does.

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Speaker 2: I've read criticism, In fact, I think I've read mostly

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Speaker 2: criticism of Glenn Danzig's Vertica movie as being Bava inspired

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Speaker 2: but having like really poor use of gels. And I

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Speaker 2: have to say, as boring and as cheap as that

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Speaker 2: movie is, I don't think he gave us anything like

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Speaker 2: this green room. It's just so like single note, it's

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Speaker 2: just so overbearingly green. But I do also want to

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Speaker 2: give Anderson credit because you also see some very green sequences,

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Speaker 2: very green scenes, very green lighting and event horizon. But

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Speaker 2: it's a lot more balanced by that point. It's a

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Speaker 2: lot more nuanced. It doesn't feel like this. It doesn't

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Speaker 2: feel like you're in a green aquarium full of jello.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So here this is lu Kang played by the

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Speaker 3: actor and martial artist Robin Chu. Again, Lukang sits up

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Speaker 3: in bed. He's having this nightmare. It's I don't know,

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Speaker 3: did you get the impression he's having this nightmare a

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Speaker 3: lot or is this the first time?

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Speaker 2: Oh, it has to be a lot. I mean it's

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Speaker 2: a recurring dress well, one would think, But then on

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Speaker 2: the other hand, there is the idea that he is

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Speaker 2: being dreen delivered actual information, right, so this is something

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Speaker 2: we're about to find out, this is something that has happened.

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Speaker 3: Yeah. So he's sweaty, you know, from having a bad dream.

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Speaker 3: He gets up out of his bed. He goes to

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Speaker 3: his dresser, which this is no significance to anyone else,

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Speaker 3: but he has a dresser that looks almost exactly like

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Speaker 3: a dresser that I have in my house. We've got

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Speaker 3: the same piece of furniture Lukang and I and he

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Speaker 3: picks up off the dresser a Western Union telegram which

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Speaker 3: says lu Kang brother dead, return home grandfather very terse.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean you pay pay by the word or

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Speaker 2: the letter, right, so you could keep it short.

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Speaker 3: So we don't learn much about lu Kang in this

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Speaker 3: first scene where we meet him, except that he is

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Speaker 3: very handsome and jacked, and he has bad dreams.

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Speaker 2: Right, and he might be more jack for having those

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Speaker 2: bad dreams, like they just keep you tight, you know, yeah,

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Speaker 2: waking up in a sweat all the time, burning calories.

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Speaker 3: Yes. So next, what we cut to is a chiron

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Speaker 3: telling us that we are in Hong Kong, and we

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Speaker 3: open in some kind of dance club. The bass is

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Speaker 3: thumping here. We're going to meet Sonia Blade and her

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Speaker 3: partner Jacks, and they are wearing Special Forces outfits and kevlar.

305
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Speaker 3: They're carrying huge shotguns that have flashlights fixed over the barrels,

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Speaker 3: and they're running down this corridor full of television screens

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Speaker 3: out onto the dance floor, spitting out lines in tactical speak.

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Speaker 3: So Sonya's saying stuff like, let's go sixty seconds to

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Speaker 3: target acquisition. Jacks, is the perimeter secure? And I'm like,

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Speaker 3: I'm just thinking, in what way could this location be secure?

311
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Speaker 3: It's like a club full of hundreds of people dancing

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Speaker 3: in the dark with strobe lights and they're still dancing.

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Speaker 3: What does secure mean?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, some of them kind of attack them in kind

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Speaker 2: of a mosh pity way, but most are not. Most

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Speaker 2: seem to just be ravers or and or metal enthusiasts. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: I have so many questions about this ridiculous sequence, Like

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Speaker 2: what exactly is their jurisdiction in Hong Kong, Yeah, the

319
00:17:40,400 --> 00:17:43,080
Speaker 2: mid nineties at this club, What safety measures are in

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Speaker 2: place concerning these clubgoers, if any? Yeah, indeed, what does

321
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Speaker 2: it mean for this place to be secure? None of

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Speaker 2: this makes sense?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, And this is definitely one of the

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Speaker 3: most unintentionally funny scenes in the movie, coming right near

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Speaker 3: the beginning. Just the dialogue is hilar too. There's some

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Speaker 3: There's an exchange where Jaxa is like the perimeter's locked

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Speaker 3: and Sonya says it better be. I want cano and

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Speaker 3: he says, trust me Sonya, and she says, I trust

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Speaker 3: one person on this planet. Jack's You're talking to.

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Speaker 2: Her so tough. It's just so tough, tough.

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Speaker 3: So they moved through the crowd and Sonya is just

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Speaker 3: whacking Randos with her gun. Again, these are not criminals

333
00:18:26,400 --> 00:18:28,720
Speaker 3: or like fighters or anything. There's just people dancing and

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Speaker 3: she's just like beating them with a gun.

335
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Speaker 2: Yeah.

336
00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:34,919
Speaker 3: Anyway, here's where we meet another villain.

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00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:35,480
Speaker 2: Of the movie.

338
00:18:36,040 --> 00:18:39,920
Speaker 3: Kano, Oh boy, Caano. He's up in some kind of

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Speaker 3: office looking down over the dance floor, and he's not alone.

340
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Speaker 3: He is with Shang Sung, who we saw from the dream.

341
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Speaker 3: But Shangsung is here wearing the same clothes I think,

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Speaker 3: the same same overcode he wore in the dream and

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Speaker 3: all that. And he's sitting behind a desk and Cano is,

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Speaker 3: you know, looking out over the over the dancers, and

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Speaker 3: they're plotting together. Cano says, she's here right on time.

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Speaker 3: You know, he's really playing up the accent. He says,

347
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Speaker 3: I love punctuality in a woman, don't you, mister Shang Sung?

348
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Speaker 3: And then Keno turns his head so we see his

349
00:19:16,800 --> 00:19:20,679
Speaker 3: metal face plate with the red terminator eye. This is

350
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Speaker 3: never explained in the movie that. I don't think they

351
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:26,320
Speaker 3: say anything about it, do they? They just show it.

352
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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's no explanation. I honestly can't even remember

353
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Speaker 2: the exact explanation in the game, like maybe Sonya like

354
00:19:33,200 --> 00:19:35,120
Speaker 2: took his eye out or something in a fight. I'm

355
00:19:35,160 --> 00:19:37,800
Speaker 2: not sure. Is he a cyborg? Is it just a

356
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Speaker 2: thing that clatches over his head? I don't know.

357
00:19:40,320 --> 00:19:43,400
Speaker 3: Yeah, So we learned from this scene that Shang Sung

358
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Speaker 3: is using the criminal gang sort of gang lord Kano

359
00:19:48,480 --> 00:19:52,920
Speaker 3: to lure Sonia Blade to his island for a tournament,

360
00:19:53,359 --> 00:19:57,200
Speaker 3: and Shangsung is adamant she must be at the tournament.

361
00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:00,400
Speaker 3: It is of utmost importance. But they don't explain why,

362
00:20:00,480 --> 00:20:02,960
Speaker 3: why her? Why does she need to be there? Don't know,

363
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:07,000
Speaker 3: but we learned that Kano has recently murdered her partner.

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00:20:07,480 --> 00:20:11,640
Speaker 3: Her I think they're saying, like work partner, not romantic partner.

365
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Speaker 2: Okay, so some sort of pre Jack's partner.

366
00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:18,560
Speaker 3: Yes, her work partner, and now Kano is the bait

367
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Speaker 3: that will bring her to the island.

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Speaker 2: Because I think basically in the games, it's like Sonia

369
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Speaker 2: is there after Kno, Kano is there because this is

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Speaker 2: just the kind of scene that guys like Kano pop

371
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Speaker 2: up in and that's all there is to it.

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Speaker 3: He just wants to win the tournament and make the

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Speaker 3: tournament even worse. Yeah, Okay, we got to meet our

374
00:20:38,800 --> 00:20:43,320
Speaker 3: next good human fighter character, and that is Johnny Cage.

375
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Speaker 3: So this scene begins with a kind of fake out.

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Speaker 3: We see the actor Lindon Ashby walk into i don't know,

377
00:20:51,960 --> 00:20:54,760
Speaker 3: like a big airplane hangar type building and you know,

378
00:20:54,880 --> 00:20:57,680
Speaker 3: these big doors open up and let in the light

379
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:00,680
Speaker 3: from la outside, and we see him walk in. He's

380
00:21:00,800 --> 00:21:03,600
Speaker 3: very cool. He's dressed in a suit, I think, and

381
00:21:03,640 --> 00:21:06,720
Speaker 3: he's got sunglasses on. Goes into the big empty hangar

382
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:09,359
Speaker 3: and there is what do you call this vibe of

383
00:21:10,160 --> 00:21:13,280
Speaker 3: It's like eighties and nineties movies that have guys in

384
00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:17,560
Speaker 3: double breasted suits that are hand to hand martial arts

385
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:20,119
Speaker 3: fighters and they have weapons and they're standing around a

386
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Speaker 3: limo with a briefcase.

387
00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:24,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, I don't know what you call this, but yeah,

388
00:21:24,560 --> 00:21:28,560
Speaker 2: you sort of stereotypical suited bodyguards.

389
00:21:28,640 --> 00:21:33,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, hugo boss kottah. Yeah. So you've got these guys

390
00:21:33,760 --> 00:21:36,800
Speaker 3: like they stand there in a row, and the one

391
00:21:36,840 --> 00:21:39,160
Speaker 3: has got like an extendable baton, and another one's got

392
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Speaker 3: a shock stick and so forth. And this guy walks

393
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,280
Speaker 3: up to the fight and he says his catchphrase. He says,

394
00:21:45,560 --> 00:21:48,360
Speaker 3: let's dance. And the way he kind of whispers it

395
00:21:48,400 --> 00:21:50,520
Speaker 3: makes me think, oh, they're going for a bit of

396
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,080
Speaker 3: a Steven Siegall thing, there, aren't they with the whisper voice.

397
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Speaker 2: Yeah.

398
00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, So he beats all these guys up, but then

399
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:00,600
Speaker 3: he's facing off against the last one still stand. He

400
00:22:00,720 --> 00:22:03,400
Speaker 3: kicks him, and then the guy just stands there staring

401
00:22:03,440 --> 00:22:06,680
Speaker 3: at him, and he says to the guy with exasperation,

402
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:09,800
Speaker 3: this is the part where you fall down. And so

403
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:12,399
Speaker 3: then the guy kind of launches himself onto the floor.

404
00:22:12,720 --> 00:22:15,120
Speaker 3: Linda Ashby turns around and says, where do you get

405
00:22:15,200 --> 00:22:17,320
Speaker 3: these guys? So it turns out it was all a

406
00:22:17,359 --> 00:22:20,040
Speaker 3: fake out. They are shooting a movie scene. This was

407
00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:23,600
Speaker 3: not a real fight. And Johnny Cage is we learn,

408
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,879
Speaker 3: a martial arts movie star like Jean Claude van dam

409
00:22:27,160 --> 00:22:31,320
Speaker 3: but the tabloids are saying he's a fake, he's a phony.

410
00:22:31,640 --> 00:22:33,840
Speaker 3: He could not really kung fu his way out of

411
00:22:33,840 --> 00:22:39,040
Speaker 3: a paper bag, and these rumors are apparently damaging his career.

412
00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,200
Speaker 3: Now this raises a question. I didn't research this before

413
00:22:42,200 --> 00:22:45,679
Speaker 3: we came in, but has there ever been a major

414
00:22:45,880 --> 00:22:51,600
Speaker 3: martial arts movie star whose career was severely hurt to

415
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:56,040
Speaker 3: buy allegations that they couldn't really fight in the real world.

416
00:22:57,200 --> 00:23:00,520
Speaker 3: There are allegations like that about certain movie stars, but

417
00:23:00,560 --> 00:23:02,719
Speaker 3: I feel like they tend to be already washed up

418
00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,280
Speaker 3: by the time that is a major meme about them.

419
00:23:05,720 --> 00:23:08,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't know, it's it's it's always a weird.

420
00:23:08,720 --> 00:23:10,760
Speaker 2: I always find it kind of strange when we get

421
00:23:10,760 --> 00:23:12,840
Speaker 2: into not we as in you and me, but we

422
00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:15,840
Speaker 2: as as a as a culture or some cultures get

423
00:23:15,840 --> 00:23:20,040
Speaker 2: into conversations about like if if a particular actor is

424
00:23:20,119 --> 00:23:23,520
Speaker 2: tough enough or or a musician is tough enough. Uh,

425
00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:26,840
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes based on them like losing legit fights

426
00:23:26,880 --> 00:23:29,800
Speaker 2: or getting punched out or you know, signing up for

427
00:23:29,840 --> 00:23:31,080
Speaker 2: a boxing or an mm a thing.

428
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:33,480
Speaker 3: Why the actors their performers.

429
00:23:33,640 --> 00:23:35,600
Speaker 2: I mean, the really damaging things you sometimes hear about

430
00:23:35,600 --> 00:23:38,439
Speaker 2: action stars are about them being of course unprofessional in

431
00:23:38,480 --> 00:23:41,040
Speaker 2: one way or another, or unsafe when it comes to

432
00:23:41,680 --> 00:23:43,560
Speaker 2: you know, fight choreography and so forth.

433
00:23:43,800 --> 00:23:47,359
Speaker 3: Yeah, being like aggressive with with stunt stunt workers and

434
00:23:47,359 --> 00:23:48,000
Speaker 3: stuff like that.

435
00:23:48,200 --> 00:23:50,560
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean we can all if you if you

436
00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,520
Speaker 2: follow any kind of combat sports, you can name the

437
00:23:52,560 --> 00:23:56,240
Speaker 2: individuals that are legit tough and can legit win fights.

438
00:23:56,560 --> 00:23:59,640
Speaker 2: You don't necessarily want to see them starring in their

439
00:23:59,640 --> 00:24:02,880
Speaker 2: own Sure, there are different skill sets involved. Everyone can do,

440
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:06,159
Speaker 2: you know, their own thing. Sometimes those skills line up

441
00:24:06,160 --> 00:24:08,600
Speaker 2: and you have somebody who can do both. But generally

442
00:24:08,680 --> 00:24:11,560
Speaker 2: I'm happy to you know, keep them in two different buckets.

443
00:24:11,760 --> 00:24:13,399
Speaker 3: I guess I just feel like if I watch a

444
00:24:13,440 --> 00:24:17,679
Speaker 3: martial arts movie and the main character is great and

445
00:24:17,720 --> 00:24:20,480
Speaker 3: I find out the actor who portrayed them is not

446
00:24:20,760 --> 00:24:23,800
Speaker 3: actually a fighter in real life, that has no effect

447
00:24:23,880 --> 00:24:25,800
Speaker 3: on my Like, I don't.

448
00:24:25,640 --> 00:24:28,680
Speaker 2: Know, yeah, but I don't know. They're kind of leaning

449
00:24:28,680 --> 00:24:31,400
Speaker 2: into some sort of like a k fabe idea here,

450
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:33,439
Speaker 2: I guess. So, all right, we're to believe that Johnny

451
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,800
Speaker 2: Cage has some issues with how he's being perceived, and

452
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,159
Speaker 2: it would be great if he could improve how the

453
00:24:41,160 --> 00:24:44,200
Speaker 2: public perceives him in regards to real fights. So why

454
00:24:44,240 --> 00:24:50,520
Speaker 2: not join a super deadly, super secret death elimination tournament.

455
00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,760
Speaker 2: Sounds like a great career move exactly.

456
00:24:52,840 --> 00:24:55,479
Speaker 3: So he meets up on the movie set with an

457
00:24:55,520 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 3: old teacher of his, a guy named Master Boyd. Who

458
00:24:58,600 --> 00:24:59,840
Speaker 3: is the actor playing this guy.

459
00:25:00,280 --> 00:25:03,040
Speaker 2: This is Peter Jason, who's a bunch of John Carpenter

460
00:25:03,080 --> 00:25:06,399
Speaker 2: films and all tons of other films, very recognizable character actor.

461
00:25:06,800 --> 00:25:09,680
Speaker 3: He's got long hair and a beard. He's almost got

462
00:25:09,760 --> 00:25:12,200
Speaker 3: kind of a Jeff Bridge's Duty vibe in the scene,

463
00:25:12,280 --> 00:25:14,679
Speaker 3: except he's supposed to be a great martial arts teacher.

464
00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:18,240
Speaker 3: And he informs Johnny that there is a way for

465
00:25:18,320 --> 00:25:20,720
Speaker 3: him to restore his credibility, to put these rumors to

466
00:25:20,800 --> 00:25:23,159
Speaker 3: rest rob It's exactly as you were saying. There is

467
00:25:23,200 --> 00:25:26,359
Speaker 3: a once in a generation fight to the death martial

468
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,240
Speaker 3: arts tournament called Mortal Kombat being held in secret on

469
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:33,400
Speaker 3: an island off Hong Kong. And so his teacher says,

470
00:25:33,440 --> 00:25:35,760
Speaker 3: get on a boat at a specific time and place,

471
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,280
Speaker 3: go to the tournament, win it, and the press will

472
00:25:39,320 --> 00:25:42,560
Speaker 3: stop saying you're a fraud. This has got to be

473
00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,760
Speaker 3: one of the worst like PR plans I've ever heard of.

474
00:25:46,119 --> 00:25:49,719
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, in fact, I'm kind of surprised nobody has.

475
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,760
Speaker 2: Maybe somebody has done this up as a complete comedy.

476
00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:57,119
Speaker 2: This would, I think be a great theme for a flick.

477
00:25:57,160 --> 00:26:04,080
Speaker 2: Have a more comedically problematic martial arts actor. And then

478
00:26:04,359 --> 00:26:08,280
Speaker 2: they do this. They enter a super secret, single elimination

479
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:11,080
Speaker 2: death tournament in order to fix their PR problem.

480
00:26:11,400 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh dude, actually no, here, it's coming to my

481
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:18,000
Speaker 3: mind now. So it's like written by Armando Ayanucci, but

482
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:21,720
Speaker 3: it's about the real Steven Segal going to a Mortal

483
00:26:21,760 --> 00:26:23,520
Speaker 3: Kombat type tournament.

484
00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:27,920
Speaker 2: Because what's the best case scenario here He returns having

485
00:26:28,040 --> 00:26:29,639
Speaker 2: murdered multiple people.

486
00:26:29,920 --> 00:26:34,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, oh, and then another funny thing is that after

487
00:26:34,320 --> 00:26:37,560
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage leaves there's nobody around. We just see Master

488
00:26:37,680 --> 00:26:40,639
Speaker 3: Boyd walking around in this airplane hangar, and then he

489
00:26:40,760 --> 00:26:44,640
Speaker 3: just morphs into Shang Sung himself. So it wasn't even

490
00:26:44,680 --> 00:26:47,280
Speaker 3: Master Boyd. He was never there, it was Shang Sung.

491
00:26:47,800 --> 00:26:48,439
Speaker 2: He's a trickster.

492
00:26:57,080 --> 00:26:59,680
Speaker 3: Okay. So the next scene we're back to lu Kang. Here,

493
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,560
Speaker 3: we have Lukang arriving by riverboat at a place that

494
00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:07,320
Speaker 3: we're told is the Temple of Light China. Again, I

495
00:27:07,400 --> 00:27:09,760
Speaker 3: think this is probably a Thai temple.

496
00:27:10,359 --> 00:27:12,719
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I'm almost certain this is a Thai temple,

497
00:27:14,200 --> 00:27:16,439
Speaker 2: but we're told it's a Chinese temple. And then we

498
00:27:16,520 --> 00:27:20,800
Speaker 2: have Christophe Lambert stroll in as a video game god

499
00:27:20,920 --> 00:27:24,280
Speaker 2: based on a Japanese thunder deity. So culturally we're all

500
00:27:24,320 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 2: over the place here.

501
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:28,800
Speaker 3: Yeah, But when Lukang, so we got to get there

502
00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:31,960
Speaker 3: in a second, Lukang is greeted by an assembly of

503
00:27:32,040 --> 00:27:35,520
Speaker 3: monks in red robes, including his grandfather, who is some

504
00:27:35,640 --> 00:27:39,919
Speaker 3: kind of authority figure for this organization that the movie

505
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:43,480
Speaker 3: calls the Order of Light. So I think the backstory

506
00:27:43,640 --> 00:27:47,880
Speaker 3: is that lu Kang and his brother Chan were trained

507
00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:50,760
Speaker 3: in kung Fu by the Order of Light, and they

508
00:27:50,760 --> 00:27:53,760
Speaker 3: were brought up to defend the realm of Earth in

509
00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,280
Speaker 3: the tournament of Mortal Kombat. So the lore of the

510
00:27:57,320 --> 00:28:00,280
Speaker 3: tournament and the lore of the movie is already owned

511
00:28:00,320 --> 00:28:02,480
Speaker 3: to lu Kang. He was brought up in it. He

512
00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:07,040
Speaker 3: was always taught this. But lu Kang rejected and ran

513
00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:10,040
Speaker 3: away from his destiny and went to America. So he

514
00:28:10,119 --> 00:28:13,160
Speaker 3: became a skeptic, and now he believes the whole premise

515
00:28:13,240 --> 00:28:17,720
Speaker 3: is nonsense. So in his absence, his brother Chan took

516
00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:21,040
Speaker 3: his place as the designated heir to fight in the tournament,

517
00:28:21,640 --> 00:28:24,800
Speaker 3: and Chan fought in the last tournament. He was killed

518
00:28:24,800 --> 00:28:27,240
Speaker 3: in the fighting, and the monks found his body on

519
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:28,600
Speaker 3: the grounds of the temple.

520
00:28:28,840 --> 00:28:31,080
Speaker 2: And so that is why lu Kang has received this

521
00:28:31,160 --> 00:28:34,159
Speaker 2: call to adventure, or I guess telegram to adventure. Hey,

522
00:28:34,480 --> 00:28:36,640
Speaker 2: you need to come back in come back into this

523
00:28:36,760 --> 00:28:41,440
Speaker 2: underworld because only you can defeat this monstrous threat we're facing.

524
00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:43,720
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need you for one last mission. That was

525
00:28:43,760 --> 00:28:47,480
Speaker 3: a long time ago. General. But so Lukang tells his

526
00:28:47,560 --> 00:28:50,520
Speaker 3: grandfather about the dream he had, and this is interpreted

527
00:28:50,560 --> 00:28:53,920
Speaker 3: as a sign. The dream means that he is now

528
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:57,400
Speaker 3: once again the chosen one to defend humankind at the

529
00:28:57,440 --> 00:29:01,080
Speaker 3: Tournament of Mortal Kombat. Lukang is skeptical of this stuff

530
00:29:01,120 --> 00:29:04,320
Speaker 3: about the dream and the magic. He says he does

531
00:29:04,480 --> 00:29:07,080
Speaker 3: want to represent the Order of Light at the tournament,

532
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,320
Speaker 3: but only because the man who killed his brother will

533
00:29:10,360 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 3: be there and he wants revenge. So for him at

534
00:29:12,920 --> 00:29:16,240
Speaker 3: the beginning, it's just a revenge story. Now Here is

535
00:29:16,280 --> 00:29:19,440
Speaker 3: where Christoph Lambert comes in. We see an old man

536
00:29:19,680 --> 00:29:22,600
Speaker 3: dressed in tattered robes and a large straw hat that

537
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:25,120
Speaker 3: hides his face, and as he wanders in through the

538
00:29:25,120 --> 00:29:28,640
Speaker 3: temple grounds, the Monk's bow in his presence, and the

539
00:29:28,680 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 3: grandfather says to Lukang that this is Lord Raydan. But

540
00:29:32,040 --> 00:29:35,160
Speaker 3: Lukang's not buying it. He says, get up, grandfather, this

541
00:29:35,240 --> 00:29:38,479
Speaker 3: is a simple beggar. But then Rayden sort of proves

542
00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,800
Speaker 3: his identity by flipping Lukang on his back and making

543
00:29:41,800 --> 00:29:46,080
Speaker 3: electricity shoot out of his eyeballs. We get some cute

544
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,680
Speaker 3: dialogue here, like Lukang is mouthing off to Raydin and

545
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,920
Speaker 3: the grandfather says, spare him, Lord Raydon, American life has

546
00:29:53,080 --> 00:29:58,240
Speaker 3: enfeebled his mind too much television, And then Raydon makes

547
00:29:58,280 --> 00:30:02,040
Speaker 3: some cutting comments about lu Kang Thing's personal failures. He

548
00:30:02,080 --> 00:30:04,240
Speaker 3: says that you know you ran away from the temple

549
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:06,840
Speaker 3: not because you didn't believe it, but because you couldn't

550
00:30:06,880 --> 00:30:11,920
Speaker 3: accept responsibility for protecting earth. And then Lukang says to him,

551
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:14,720
Speaker 3: if you are Lord Raydon, why did you let Chan die?

552
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:18,360
Speaker 3: Why didn't you protect him? Raidn's comeback? Why didn't you?

553
00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,200
Speaker 3: It's like nonsensical because Lukang is not omnipotent and had

554
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:24,360
Speaker 3: no idea what was going on.

555
00:30:26,400 --> 00:30:29,760
Speaker 2: Yeah, there, though, I guess to Rayden's point, like he

556
00:30:29,840 --> 00:30:33,160
Speaker 2: isn't either, right. I mean he may see more and

557
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,200
Speaker 2: know more and move around a lot easier than mortals,

558
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:41,120
Speaker 2: but I mean he's not like a Judeo Christian god

559
00:30:41,200 --> 00:30:41,720
Speaker 2: or anything.

560
00:30:41,960 --> 00:30:46,480
Speaker 3: Okay, limited great power god. Yeah, anyway, this whole scene

561
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,640
Speaker 3: ends with Lukang. He tells off Raidin and he's like,

562
00:30:49,640 --> 00:30:52,080
Speaker 3: I don't need you, and he tells his grandfather that

563
00:30:52,080 --> 00:30:54,360
Speaker 3: he's going to the tournament to get revenge, whether he

564
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,400
Speaker 3: gets consent from them or not. And then once again

565
00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:00,160
Speaker 3: some really good hype music here. As we watch lu

566
00:31:00,280 --> 00:31:03,520
Speaker 3: Kang stride away from the temple, there are rhythmic bells

567
00:31:03,560 --> 00:31:07,840
Speaker 3: and heavy drums, and this part I felt really hyped up.

568
00:31:08,120 --> 00:31:10,200
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, good hide machine on this one.

569
00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:12,560
Speaker 3: Now, the next scene is another one of my favorites

570
00:31:12,560 --> 00:31:15,440
Speaker 3: in the movie is the scene of the boat arriving

571
00:31:15,520 --> 00:31:18,320
Speaker 3: at the dock in Hong Kong and then departing for

572
00:31:18,360 --> 00:31:22,360
Speaker 3: the tournament. So first we have Johnny Cage arriving in

573
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:25,040
Speaker 3: a limo and he asks Lukang to carry his luggage

574
00:31:25,080 --> 00:31:28,200
Speaker 3: for him. Lukang takes one of his suitcases and throws

575
00:31:28,240 --> 00:31:31,240
Speaker 3: it in the water, and then we get more of

576
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:34,160
Speaker 3: the kind of cutesy lines where Johnny Cage is like, wow,

577
00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:36,040
Speaker 3: good thing, I didn't ask him to park the car.

578
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:40,440
Speaker 3: But here Johnny Cage runs into an old acquaintance named

579
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:44,280
Speaker 3: Art Lean that remember in the last episode we were

580
00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:46,480
Speaker 3: talking about I think there is a piece of music

581
00:31:46,520 --> 00:31:51,440
Speaker 3: called like arts theme or something. Oh no over Art, yes,

582
00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:54,120
Speaker 3: and so we were discussing, now that's not the word art.

583
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:57,560
Speaker 3: There's a character named Art and a character with a

584
00:31:57,760 --> 00:32:01,800
Speaker 3: quite unfortunate fate later in the film. So you know,

585
00:32:01,840 --> 00:32:04,320
Speaker 3: they they catch up, they've seen each other fight before.

586
00:32:04,440 --> 00:32:07,600
Speaker 3: You know, there's mutual respect there. But then they are

587
00:32:07,680 --> 00:32:12,880
Speaker 3: interrupted when this hilarious boat rolls in. It's like the

588
00:32:12,920 --> 00:32:17,120
Speaker 3: boat that It's like the boat that King Arthur and

589
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,640
Speaker 3: Betevere ride at the end of Monty Python and the

590
00:32:19,640 --> 00:32:20,280
Speaker 3: Holy Grail.

591
00:32:21,560 --> 00:32:23,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, my instant thought was that it looked like a

592
00:32:23,680 --> 00:32:26,640
Speaker 2: hell Raiser parade float. Like it's just got that much,

593
00:32:28,440 --> 00:32:31,959
Speaker 2: you know, fake smoke going on. It just it looks goofy.

594
00:32:32,040 --> 00:32:32,800
Speaker 2: It's wonderful.

595
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:36,600
Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, Sonya Blade and her partner Jack's are here.

596
00:32:36,800 --> 00:32:39,080
Speaker 3: We learned that they were tipped off by one of

597
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:43,520
Speaker 3: Kano's associates at the Hong Kong Techno Metal Club and

598
00:32:43,680 --> 00:32:46,640
Speaker 3: she chases she like sees Kano getting onto the boat,

599
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:48,880
Speaker 3: and she runs off through the fog to get on

600
00:32:48,920 --> 00:32:53,640
Speaker 3: the boat herself and her partner like yells at her, Sonya,

601
00:32:53,960 --> 00:32:58,320
Speaker 3: don't get on that thing. I would not advise anyone

602
00:32:58,320 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 3: to get on that thing. But anyway, you know, here's

603
00:33:02,080 --> 00:33:04,840
Speaker 3: here on the boat is where we finally assemble our

604
00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:08,800
Speaker 3: three main heroes. Johnny Cage for the first third of

605
00:33:08,840 --> 00:33:12,200
Speaker 3: the movie is carrying like eight different pieces of luggage

606
00:33:12,240 --> 00:33:14,880
Speaker 3: and he's so he's struggling with all that stuff and

607
00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,160
Speaker 3: he has a head on collision with Sonya. Sonya reacts

608
00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:21,080
Speaker 3: by putting a pistol against his chin, and she demands

609
00:33:21,120 --> 00:33:24,320
Speaker 3: to know where Cano is. Obviously, Johnny Cage is not

610
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:27,160
Speaker 3: clued in. But this moment is the beginning of a

611
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 3: very prominent dynamic in the character relations throughout the film,

612
00:33:32,160 --> 00:33:35,320
Speaker 3: which is hate flirting. This is where Johnny Cage and

613
00:33:35,400 --> 00:33:39,600
Speaker 3: Sonya Blade will spend a lot of time just kind

614
00:33:39,600 --> 00:33:43,080
Speaker 3: of like insulting and taking shots at each other and

615
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:46,560
Speaker 3: making two D comments at each other before their romantic

616
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:52,480
Speaker 3: subplot fully blossoms. So Sonya is how would you describe it?

617
00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 3: She is very on mission. She's like, she's like, doesn't

618
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:00,640
Speaker 3: have time to be nice to anybody. She's like, out

619
00:34:00,640 --> 00:34:03,760
Speaker 3: of my way, I gotta find Cano. And so she

620
00:34:03,880 --> 00:34:07,120
Speaker 3: ends up going below decks to look for Kno and

621
00:34:07,200 --> 00:34:11,960
Speaker 3: there runs into our our wonderful sorcerer Shang Sung. Johnny

622
00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:14,319
Speaker 3: Cage and Lukang follow her down to help her out,

623
00:34:14,840 --> 00:34:17,719
Speaker 3: but she's very indignant. She does not want their help,

624
00:34:17,800 --> 00:34:19,840
Speaker 3: she does not need their help. She did not ask

625
00:34:19,920 --> 00:34:23,360
Speaker 3: for their help, and this is one of the crucial

626
00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:26,480
Speaker 3: features of her character that she learns she must overcome

627
00:34:26,560 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 3: in the end.

628
00:34:27,680 --> 00:34:29,920
Speaker 2: It's very blue below decks too. I want to I

629
00:34:29,960 --> 00:34:32,440
Speaker 2: want to add that the blue gels were out in force.

630
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:35,640
Speaker 2: It's not as over the top as that green bedroom

631
00:34:35,680 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 2: of Lu Kang.

632
00:34:36,239 --> 00:34:38,840
Speaker 3: Though there's a lot of blue going on in multiple

633
00:34:38,880 --> 00:34:40,879
Speaker 3: places here. I think it's blue once they get back

634
00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:44,640
Speaker 3: up on deck later also, uh, but so they're they're

635
00:34:44,640 --> 00:34:47,919
Speaker 3: down below decks. And then Shangsung invites in his two

636
00:34:48,080 --> 00:34:53,319
Speaker 3: Ninja warriors. He says these Oscorpion and sub Zero the

637
00:34:53,360 --> 00:34:56,560
Speaker 3: deadliest of enemies, but slaves under my power.

638
00:34:56,760 --> 00:34:59,200
Speaker 2: And this is this is an important point though, because

639
00:34:59,560 --> 00:35:01,720
Speaker 2: in the game, and I think even by this point,

640
00:35:01,760 --> 00:35:05,200
Speaker 2: certainly by two and three, this is well established. Scorpion

641
00:35:05,239 --> 00:35:09,280
Speaker 2: and sub Zero have a very intense dynamic where Scorpion

642
00:35:09,400 --> 00:35:14,080
Speaker 2: is a vengeful revenant and sub Zero or at least different.

643
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:16,799
Speaker 2: They're different, they're different people who get the name sub Zero.

644
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:19,680
Speaker 2: But the original sub Zero is the person who killed

645
00:35:19,719 --> 00:35:23,799
Speaker 2: Scorpion's family, and so it's actually well, it's pretty well

646
00:35:23,880 --> 00:35:26,400
Speaker 2: established in the lore again by this point, but this

647
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:31,440
Speaker 2: movie just makes them be the miscellaneous demon demon bodyguards

648
00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:33,160
Speaker 2: or demon soldiers of Shanks.

649
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:36,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is weird that they're on the same team

650
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:39,440
Speaker 3: in this movie, and I think they're trying to do

651
00:35:39,520 --> 00:35:42,960
Speaker 3: a quick. You know, one sentence retcon of that by

652
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,080
Speaker 3: just saying, yeah, they are enemies, but I've magically ensorceled them.

653
00:35:47,320 --> 00:35:49,520
Speaker 2: Yeah, and these are the two characters that are often,

654
00:35:49,680 --> 00:35:53,160
Speaker 2: especially in Scorpions case, are generally on the box art

655
00:35:53,239 --> 00:35:56,840
Speaker 2: for the game. Maybe that kind of more developed with

656
00:35:56,960 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 2: later games, but yeah, these two are really the star

657
00:36:00,120 --> 00:36:02,879
Speaker 2: of the franchise. And I think that I haven't seen

658
00:36:02,960 --> 00:36:05,880
Speaker 2: the latest Mortal Kombat film, but it's my understanding that

659
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,239
Speaker 2: that is very much reflected in the picture, in the

660
00:36:08,280 --> 00:36:10,799
Speaker 2: way that they cast these roles into the way they're

661
00:36:10,800 --> 00:36:11,239
Speaker 2: present it.

662
00:36:11,560 --> 00:36:14,560
Speaker 3: Now, Rob, maybe you know more about the games than

663
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:18,000
Speaker 3: me and can answer this. I have long interpreted the

664
00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:22,640
Speaker 3: popularity of characters like Scorpion, sub Zero, Reptile, and so

665
00:36:22,719 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 3: forth in these games to be a sort of efficiency

666
00:36:26,239 --> 00:36:30,640
Speaker 3: or cost cutting move, because they are the same animation

667
00:36:30,880 --> 00:36:34,279
Speaker 3: with just different colors of the outer ninja, where like

668
00:36:34,360 --> 00:36:36,680
Speaker 3: the animation could be exactly the same.

669
00:36:37,280 --> 00:36:40,279
Speaker 2: Yes, that's exactly right. Especially in these early games. You

670
00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:42,759
Speaker 2: know they were doing motion capture. It's more than just

671
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,440
Speaker 2: motion capture though, because they were I don't remember the

672
00:36:45,880 --> 00:36:49,520
Speaker 2: exact video game production terminology, but they're like filming actors.

673
00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:52,440
Speaker 2: In actual costumes, but then they can change that. They

674
00:36:52,440 --> 00:36:55,080
Speaker 2: can swap the colors out, and that way you only

675
00:36:55,120 --> 00:36:58,000
Speaker 2: have to have one actor in there to do all

676
00:36:58,040 --> 00:37:00,440
Speaker 2: of the ninjas. You may get some alternate takes, different

677
00:37:00,440 --> 00:37:03,840
Speaker 2: moves or different sort of stances, and certainly fatalities, but

678
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,160
Speaker 2: less work. You don't have to completely start from scratch

679
00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:08,200
Speaker 2: on your next character.

680
00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:12,520
Speaker 3: Yeah, seems like kin the same character Sprite, except blue

681
00:37:12,520 --> 00:37:15,600
Speaker 3: for sub Zero, yellow for Scorpion, and green for Reptile.

682
00:37:16,000 --> 00:37:18,000
Speaker 2: So it is kind of interesting that some of the

683
00:37:18,120 --> 00:37:22,239
Speaker 2: most iconic, most developed and fan favorite characters in the

684
00:37:22,239 --> 00:37:25,600
Speaker 2: game are the interchangeable ninjas. Yeah, be it these male

685
00:37:25,680 --> 00:37:28,799
Speaker 2: ninjas or the female warriors we get in MK two

686
00:37:28,920 --> 00:37:32,360
Speaker 2: and beyond, like Katana and of course Melina.

687
00:37:33,040 --> 00:37:37,239
Speaker 3: Yeah, okay, So sub Zero comes up to Sonia and

688
00:37:37,280 --> 00:37:39,800
Speaker 3: he like grabs the end of her gun and freezes

689
00:37:39,840 --> 00:37:42,200
Speaker 3: the barrel off, so now Sonia she doesn't have her

690
00:37:42,239 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 3: weapons anymore. Scorpion he holds up his hand and some

691
00:37:47,200 --> 00:37:50,640
Speaker 3: kind of weird CGI creature with a beak and a

692
00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:54,959
Speaker 3: tongue pokes out of his palm. This does tie into

693
00:37:55,000 --> 00:37:57,719
Speaker 3: something in the games. In the games, one of the

694
00:37:57,760 --> 00:38:01,680
Speaker 3: special moves of Scorpion character is that he would throw

695
00:38:01,719 --> 00:38:04,759
Speaker 3: a spear that's attached to a rope that would hit you,

696
00:38:04,840 --> 00:38:07,000
Speaker 3: and then he could pull you over to him in

697
00:38:07,040 --> 00:38:10,440
Speaker 3: a stunned state and uppercut you or whatever, and he

698
00:38:10,480 --> 00:38:13,600
Speaker 3: would say get over here or maybe just come here.

699
00:38:13,719 --> 00:38:15,480
Speaker 3: In the game, would they say. I think they said

700
00:38:15,520 --> 00:38:18,560
Speaker 3: get over here in the movie, But in the movie

701
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:20,839
Speaker 3: they changed that like spear on a rope into a

702
00:38:20,920 --> 00:38:23,880
Speaker 3: living snakelike creature. That's a choice.

703
00:38:24,280 --> 00:38:27,840
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is definitely worth pointing out. Yeah, Scorpion in

704
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,879
Speaker 2: the Games is More is generally depicted as having a

705
00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:35,920
Speaker 2: traditional ninja weapon, a kunai rope dart, and then often

706
00:38:35,920 --> 00:38:39,279
Speaker 2: a ninja sword. And I remember really digging the way

707
00:38:39,320 --> 00:38:41,799
Speaker 2: they embellished the weapon in this film back when it

708
00:38:41,840 --> 00:38:43,799
Speaker 2: came out. Yeah, not a ninja weapon, but a weird

709
00:38:43,840 --> 00:38:46,840
Speaker 2: snake creature that shoots out of Scorpion's palm and climbs

710
00:38:46,840 --> 00:38:49,120
Speaker 2: out of it out of the slit in his palm.

711
00:38:49,719 --> 00:38:52,400
Speaker 2: I loved it, and I was often disappointed that they

712
00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,280
Speaker 2: didn't incorporate that into the games and make it cannon.

713
00:38:55,920 --> 00:38:58,439
Speaker 2: But man, upon revisiting this film, I have to say,

714
00:38:58,440 --> 00:39:02,279
Speaker 2: these cgi effects do not hold up. No it's a

715
00:39:02,280 --> 00:39:04,719
Speaker 2: fun concept and I still enjoy all these scenes with

716
00:39:04,760 --> 00:39:07,720
Speaker 2: Scorpion in them. He has one of the best fights,

717
00:39:07,719 --> 00:39:10,359
Speaker 2: if not the best fight in the picture coming up.

718
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,440
Speaker 2: But who does this CGI? Did not age one?

719
00:39:13,640 --> 00:39:15,680
Speaker 3: I agree, it is not good. I think it's not

720
00:39:15,800 --> 00:39:19,120
Speaker 3: quite as bad as the Reptile CGI, but it's bad.

721
00:39:19,200 --> 00:39:21,440
Speaker 2: All The Reptile CGI is the worst.

722
00:39:21,680 --> 00:39:23,520
Speaker 3: Okay, But here we're in the We're in the belly

723
00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:26,960
Speaker 3: of the boat, this weird, creaky boat, and the Ninjas

724
00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 3: are about to kill our heroes. So what's gonna happen?

725
00:39:29,680 --> 00:39:30,440
Speaker 3: How are they done?

726
00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:30,600
Speaker 2: For?

727
00:39:30,920 --> 00:39:35,280
Speaker 3: No, they are saved by divine intervention. Lord Raydon appears

728
00:39:35,360 --> 00:39:40,160
Speaker 3: Christoph Lambert like. He shoots down into the hold of

729
00:39:40,200 --> 00:39:43,040
Speaker 3: the boat in some ball of energy form and then

730
00:39:43,080 --> 00:39:46,000
Speaker 3: he zaps both of the Ninjas into submission.

731
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 2: And the CGI here is also horrible. Raiden's lightning powers

732
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,520
Speaker 2: in the game were clearly inspired by the lightning character

733
00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:56,319
Speaker 2: in Big Trouble in Little China. And those are those

734
00:39:56,320 --> 00:40:00,520
Speaker 2: effects which are in Big Trouble a Little China. Amazing great, Yeah,

735
00:40:01,320 --> 00:40:03,319
Speaker 2: they absolutely hold up today. I used to watch him

736
00:40:03,360 --> 00:40:06,640
Speaker 2: in slow motion when I was a kid, So in

737
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:10,200
Speaker 2: this film, Raidin uses cgi bursts of blue and orange fire,

738
00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:12,160
Speaker 2: and it's just absolutely hideous.

739
00:40:12,880 --> 00:40:16,920
Speaker 3: He says something like, your sideshow freaks attack my fighters

740
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:21,040
Speaker 3: before the tournament. This is cheating, and Sheng Sung just

741
00:40:21,360 --> 00:40:24,000
Speaker 3: he's very smooth and he just promises, oh, it won't

742
00:40:24,000 --> 00:40:27,920
Speaker 3: happen again, Lord Raidin, but he reminds Raidin that once

743
00:40:27,960 --> 00:40:31,239
Speaker 3: they reach the island, Raidin will have no power. So

744
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,000
Speaker 3: I think the lore is that here Raydon is serving

745
00:40:34,080 --> 00:40:36,920
Speaker 3: a kind of referee role, like he can't fight in

746
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,480
Speaker 3: the tournament himself, but he is allowed to intervene to

747
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,920
Speaker 3: keep things fair according to the rules of the tournament

748
00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:48,080
Speaker 3: endorsed by the Emperor, which include the provision that you

749
00:40:48,120 --> 00:40:51,920
Speaker 3: can't have random supernatural ninjas kill all the Earth Fighters

750
00:40:51,960 --> 00:40:54,120
Speaker 3: before you even get to the tournament. I don't know

751
00:40:54,200 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 3: why the Emperor endorses these rules or thinks he needs

752
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:59,359
Speaker 3: to play fair. Do you understand that?

753
00:41:00,960 --> 00:41:04,520
Speaker 2: No, especially what we know about the Emperor and come

754
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:06,400
Speaker 2: to know about him later, It's like, I don't know

755
00:41:06,440 --> 00:41:09,000
Speaker 2: why he's so lawful evil in all of this. There

756
00:41:09,080 --> 00:41:11,640
Speaker 2: just must be some like you know, he's playing by

757
00:41:11,719 --> 00:41:14,960
Speaker 2: rules set by other supernatural entities, like he has to

758
00:41:14,960 --> 00:41:18,200
Speaker 2: play by the rules you know, exploit them been the

759
00:41:18,280 --> 00:41:20,080
Speaker 2: rules where he can, but he still has to make

760
00:41:20,160 --> 00:41:21,720
Speaker 2: use of them to conquer other realms.

761
00:41:22,040 --> 00:41:26,400
Speaker 3: Yeah. So anyway, this early sneak attack by Shingsong is averted,

762
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:29,360
Speaker 3: and our heroes sort of follow Raydon up onto the

763
00:41:29,360 --> 00:41:32,040
Speaker 3: surface of the boat to get a scene with just

764
00:41:32,080 --> 00:41:34,640
Speaker 3: a huge lore dump. We're going to get a bunch

765
00:41:34,680 --> 00:41:35,400
Speaker 3: of exposition.

766
00:41:35,880 --> 00:41:38,600
Speaker 2: Yeah, Cage has a whole bit here ranting about the

767
00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:42,600
Speaker 2: supernatural after the introduction of sub Zero and Scorpion that

768
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:45,200
Speaker 2: it reminds me a lot of that wonderful line that

769
00:41:45,239 --> 00:41:47,400
Speaker 2: we had in the movie The Eliminators that we watched

770
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:50,160
Speaker 2: the whole We've got robots, we've got cavemen, we've got

771
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,279
Speaker 2: kung fu. Is this some kind of comic book? And

772
00:41:53,320 --> 00:41:55,319
Speaker 2: in this Cage is saying, we got a guy with

773
00:41:55,440 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 2: things coming out of his hands, we got another guy

774
00:41:57,239 --> 00:41:59,520
Speaker 2: who freez this stuff, and so forth.

775
00:42:00,160 --> 00:42:04,399
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually to call back to a movie we've

776
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:06,719
Speaker 3: brought up several times in today's episode. It reminds me

777
00:42:06,760 --> 00:42:09,320
Speaker 3: of Jack Burton's line in Big Trouble in Little China

778
00:42:09,760 --> 00:42:12,760
Speaker 3: when he's like, we've got guys flying around on wires,

779
00:42:12,800 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 3: cutting everybody to shreds there's a guy standing there with

780
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,400
Speaker 3: light coming out of his mouth.

781
00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:20,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, solid connection.

782
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:25,279
Speaker 3: But interestingly, by this point, even though he starts the

783
00:42:25,320 --> 00:42:30,480
Speaker 3: movie very much in skeptical refusing the call mode, Lukang

784
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:35,200
Speaker 3: quickly transitions back into believing everything. He's just like, this

785
00:42:35,280 --> 00:42:37,720
Speaker 3: is Lord Raydon, that he is the god of thunder

786
00:42:37,719 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 3: and lightning. Sonia isn't quite there yet. She's saying I think.

787
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,520
Speaker 3: She literally says, come on, there must be a rational

788
00:42:44,560 --> 00:42:48,760
Speaker 3: explanation for all this, And then we get Raydon doing

789
00:42:48,840 --> 00:42:52,200
Speaker 3: one of the first of many kind of motivational PEP

790
00:42:52,280 --> 00:42:54,480
Speaker 3: talks that he gives our heroes throughout the movie. He

791
00:42:54,600 --> 00:42:58,040
Speaker 3: is kind of a life coach in a way. Yeah,

792
00:42:58,080 --> 00:43:01,640
Speaker 3: so he comes in and our heroes he says, listen,

793
00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:04,200
Speaker 3: what you're about to face is more important than He

794
00:43:04,280 --> 00:43:07,320
Speaker 3: turns to Cage and he says, your ego. He turns

795
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:10,160
Speaker 3: to Sonya and he says your enemy. And he turns

796
00:43:10,200 --> 00:43:13,799
Speaker 3: to Lukang and says, or your quest for revenge. You

797
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:16,560
Speaker 3: are about to embark on a secret mission. You have

798
00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:18,799
Speaker 3: been chosen to defend the realm of Earth in a

799
00:43:18,840 --> 00:43:23,359
Speaker 3: tournament called Mortal Combat. Sonya asks, well, who are they

800
00:43:23,360 --> 00:43:26,319
Speaker 3: going to defend it from? And Lord Raydon explains. He says,

801
00:43:26,360 --> 00:43:29,080
Speaker 3: your world is but one of many realms. One of

802
00:43:29,120 --> 00:43:32,520
Speaker 3: them is a forsaken land called Outworld, ruled by an

803
00:43:32,520 --> 00:43:35,880
Speaker 3: immortal who has crowned himself Emperor. Now he seeks a

804
00:43:35,920 --> 00:43:40,359
Speaker 3: new world to conquer an enslave. Now, Johnny Cage, I think,

805
00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:44,040
Speaker 3: asks a reasonable question. If he's so powerful, why doesn't

806
00:43:44,080 --> 00:43:47,279
Speaker 3: he just come and take our world? Now, Lord Raidin says,

807
00:43:47,320 --> 00:43:49,000
Speaker 3: there are rules. These are the rules we were just

808
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:52,359
Speaker 3: talking about. To enter the realm of Earth. Rayden says,

809
00:43:52,400 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 3: the Emperor's demon sorcerer Shansung has to win ten straight

810
00:43:57,400 --> 00:44:00,759
Speaker 3: victories in mortal combat, and they have one nine in

811
00:44:00,800 --> 00:44:03,560
Speaker 3: a row. This is the tenth tournament, so it's down

812
00:44:03,600 --> 00:44:04,719
Speaker 3: to the wire now.

813
00:44:05,600 --> 00:44:07,520
Speaker 2: You know, I guess maybe the elder gods put this

814
00:44:07,560 --> 00:44:10,520
Speaker 2: system in place because they realize, well, not every world,

815
00:44:10,600 --> 00:44:12,640
Speaker 2: every realm is going to be able to muster up

816
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:17,600
Speaker 2: an army to combat shal Kan's army. But maybe you

817
00:44:17,640 --> 00:44:20,239
Speaker 2: could get together, like five really good fighters, you know enough,

818
00:44:20,640 --> 00:44:23,080
Speaker 2: compete in a tournament, and maybe that makes things a

819
00:44:23,080 --> 00:44:23,719
Speaker 2: bit more fair.

820
00:44:24,520 --> 00:44:28,279
Speaker 3: Now, sometime later in this conversation, we get several exchanges

821
00:44:28,360 --> 00:44:31,680
Speaker 3: that are extensively clipped in both the trailer and all

822
00:44:31,719 --> 00:44:35,440
Speaker 3: of the techno tracks the feature of this movie, like

823
00:44:35,520 --> 00:44:39,000
Speaker 3: that part where Sonya is like, a handful of people

824
00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:41,320
Speaker 3: in a leaky boat are going to save the world,

825
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:46,200
Speaker 3: and Raydon says exactly. But he's very you know, Raidn's

826
00:44:46,320 --> 00:44:48,960
Speaker 3: very positive on Mortal Kombat. He's like, think about it, guys.

827
00:44:48,960 --> 00:44:54,520
Speaker 3: You know, Mortal Kombat is not about death but life. Yeah.

828
00:44:54,560 --> 00:44:56,360
Speaker 3: For some reason, when he says that, I believe it.

829
00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,400
Speaker 2: This is exactly what I'm sure a lot of eleven

830
00:44:59,440 --> 00:45:01,719
Speaker 2: and twelve years to tell their parents. This game isn't

831
00:45:01,719 --> 00:45:05,000
Speaker 2: about death, mom and dad. This is actually it's about life.

832
00:45:05,160 --> 00:45:08,920
Speaker 2: This is it's mortal combat. It's about individual exceptionalism and

833
00:45:09,160 --> 00:45:12,200
Speaker 2: about living your life to the max. Don't focus on

834
00:45:12,239 --> 00:45:14,680
Speaker 2: the death. I think you're a little shortsighted.

835
00:45:14,040 --> 00:45:17,120
Speaker 3: Here, and it's about saving the world. Come on, don't

836
00:45:17,160 --> 00:45:20,000
Speaker 3: you want to save the world? Raydon tells that at

837
00:45:20,000 --> 00:45:23,399
Speaker 3: the end of this whole conversation, he says, I'll try

838
00:45:23,440 --> 00:45:26,080
Speaker 3: to do my Christalf Lambert voice. He says, the fate

839
00:45:26,160 --> 00:45:28,600
Speaker 3: of billions depends upon you.

840
00:45:30,960 --> 00:45:33,080
Speaker 2: Sorry, did he really do the laugh? At that point?

841
00:45:33,160 --> 00:45:33,560
Speaker 3: Yeah, he does.

842
00:45:34,520 --> 00:45:35,799
Speaker 2: I know he does it in the film. I just

843
00:45:35,800 --> 00:45:37,000
Speaker 2: can't remember where he throws it in.

844
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:39,520
Speaker 3: Oh he chuckles like that several times.

845
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:40,560
Speaker 2: Oh.

846
00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:44,280
Speaker 3: But then two different characters tell us that it has begun. Remember,

847
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,920
Speaker 3: Rayn's like, it has begun. And then Shang Sung is

848
00:45:47,960 --> 00:45:49,960
Speaker 3: standing there at the edge of the boat and he's like,

849
00:45:50,120 --> 00:45:52,160
Speaker 3: I don't know. It's reaching up to a bunch of

850
00:45:52,160 --> 00:45:54,520
Speaker 3: ghosts running around in the air, and he goes, it

851
00:45:54,680 --> 00:45:56,239
Speaker 3: has begun.

852
00:45:56,719 --> 00:45:58,960
Speaker 2: And yet the crazy thing is that it has not

853
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,000
Speaker 2: begun yet. No, they have not even arrived. It's like,

854
00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 2: you wouldn't say this in the last third of your

855
00:46:05,360 --> 00:46:09,120
Speaker 2: flight going to your vacation destination, right, you would say

856
00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:11,600
Speaker 2: it has begun. Like it's a weird time to choose

857
00:46:11,600 --> 00:46:12,080
Speaker 2: to say that.

858
00:46:12,160 --> 00:46:13,440
Speaker 3: They're in the middle of the ocean.

859
00:46:13,520 --> 00:46:17,760
Speaker 2: It has not begun international waters. Maybe.

860
00:46:19,200 --> 00:46:21,080
Speaker 3: So the next thing that happens in the movie is

861
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:23,960
Speaker 3: the arrival at the island. It is a beautiful location.

862
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:27,040
Speaker 3: They filmed this at one of those Thai islands with

863
00:46:27,400 --> 00:46:30,000
Speaker 3: the steep rock walls rising straight out of the ocean,

864
00:46:30,040 --> 00:46:35,320
Speaker 3: those very conical, high rising Thi Thai islands. So they're beautiful.

865
00:46:36,440 --> 00:46:39,320
Speaker 3: There are a number of just yuck yucks about Johnny

866
00:46:39,320 --> 00:46:42,879
Speaker 3: Cage fussing over his excessive amount of fancy luggage, more

867
00:46:42,920 --> 00:46:46,160
Speaker 3: hate flirting between him and Sonia. The fighters have to

868
00:46:46,200 --> 00:46:49,560
Speaker 3: climb a mountain on this mysterious island to reach a

869
00:46:49,600 --> 00:46:52,560
Speaker 3: temple above the clouds where the opening ceremonies of the

870
00:46:52,560 --> 00:46:57,000
Speaker 3: tournament are going to take place. And inside inside this

871
00:46:57,080 --> 00:47:00,640
Speaker 3: temple it's like a cave with torches, sta statues of

872
00:47:00,719 --> 00:47:05,960
Speaker 3: monster gladiators in a very orange glow everywhere. Oh and

873
00:47:06,000 --> 00:47:08,080
Speaker 3: when they arrive at the temple, there is one of

874
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:11,080
Speaker 3: the few lines in the movie that actually made me

875
00:47:11,280 --> 00:47:15,440
Speaker 3: laugh as intended on adult viewing, which is Johnny Cage

876
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:18,560
Speaker 3: like looking at the like the monster gladiators and the torches,

877
00:47:18,960 --> 00:47:21,440
Speaker 3: and he's like, gee, I wonder what the bathrooms are like.

878
00:47:22,480 --> 00:47:24,799
Speaker 3: It's a good line, makes you wonder, Yeah, what are

879
00:47:24,880 --> 00:47:27,120
Speaker 3: they like? I guess I would think you just get

880
00:47:27,120 --> 00:47:27,640
Speaker 3: a bucket.

881
00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:31,120
Speaker 2: Well, you do have that level in MK two that's

882
00:47:31,160 --> 00:47:32,960
Speaker 2: like the sewer. I guess it's that you just go

883
00:47:32,960 --> 00:47:35,680
Speaker 2: out onto that little walkway and Papa squad.

884
00:47:35,800 --> 00:47:36,200
Speaker 3: I guess.

885
00:47:36,239 --> 00:47:36,319
Speaker 2: So.

886
00:47:37,120 --> 00:47:40,920
Speaker 3: Also in the scene, lu Kang first runs into Princess Katana.

887
00:47:41,960 --> 00:47:46,480
Speaker 3: She is the character who is kind of the mysterious

888
00:47:46,520 --> 00:47:50,319
Speaker 3: person with ambiguous loyalties, who is a denizen of outworld,

889
00:47:50,400 --> 00:47:53,800
Speaker 3: but she seems to possibly be interested in helping the

890
00:47:54,480 --> 00:47:57,880
Speaker 3: residents of Earth. And she's sitting under an umbrella just

891
00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:03,600
Speaker 3: giving very important looks. Oh but right after this we

892
00:48:03,680 --> 00:48:06,600
Speaker 3: get one of the worst things. So Shang Sung walks

893
00:48:06,680 --> 00:48:09,120
Speaker 3: up and he says, Princess Katana, she is our most

894
00:48:09,239 --> 00:48:13,839
Speaker 3: dangerous adversary. Watch over her, Reptile, keep her away from

895
00:48:13,880 --> 00:48:17,880
Speaker 3: these humans. And you think, reptile, who's he talking to?

896
00:48:18,320 --> 00:48:21,840
Speaker 3: But nearby him there is a monster statue, one of

897
00:48:21,880 --> 00:48:26,479
Speaker 3: the mini monster statues, and this one turns from a

898
00:48:26,640 --> 00:48:34,600
Speaker 3: statue into living cgi and it looks like the coloration

899
00:48:34,760 --> 00:48:38,520
Speaker 3: on this reptilian monster looks like the old packaging of

900
00:48:38,719 --> 00:48:42,319
Speaker 3: a tube of life Saver's candy, you know what I'm

901
00:48:42,320 --> 00:48:45,719
Speaker 3: talking about. Yeah, Yeah, And then it turns in. It

902
00:48:45,760 --> 00:48:49,000
Speaker 3: turns invisible like the predator, and then scurries away. Reptile

903
00:48:49,040 --> 00:48:50,160
Speaker 3: looks so awful.

904
00:48:50,600 --> 00:48:52,880
Speaker 2: Yeah. I remember this being a little heartbreaking to watch

905
00:48:52,920 --> 00:48:55,600
Speaker 2: when I watched this film for the first time, because

906
00:48:55,640 --> 00:48:57,839
Speaker 2: Reptile was always one of my favorites. You know, he's

907
00:48:57,880 --> 00:49:01,800
Speaker 2: a green ninja that underneath his mask a reptilian creature

908
00:49:01,880 --> 00:49:06,719
Speaker 2: that spits acid and turns invisible. He's awesome, and then,

909
00:49:06,880 --> 00:49:08,919
Speaker 2: oh my goodness, look what they have done to him here.

910
00:49:09,320 --> 00:49:12,560
Speaker 3: So everybody goes to a feast here. There's like a

911
00:49:12,640 --> 00:49:16,560
Speaker 3: meal to inaugurate the tournament. They don't let you get

912
00:49:16,600 --> 00:49:19,359
Speaker 3: a good look at the food, unfortunately, Shan, I'm really

913
00:49:19,400 --> 00:49:21,400
Speaker 3: bummed out. We will get a look at some of

914
00:49:21,400 --> 00:49:23,680
Speaker 3: the food in the subsequent scene.

915
00:49:23,440 --> 00:49:25,680
Speaker 2: Yeah, because we don't get much dining here. They almost

916
00:49:25,680 --> 00:49:29,160
Speaker 2: immediately flip the tables to make rooms for combat. Like

917
00:49:29,200 --> 00:49:31,200
Speaker 2: it seems like this would be a great place to

918
00:49:30,880 --> 00:49:33,360
Speaker 2: have a little bit more exposition going on, you know,

919
00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:35,719
Speaker 2: do it George R. Martin style? What would George R.

920
00:49:35,800 --> 00:49:38,200
Speaker 2: Martin's Mortal Kombat consist of. It would be this big

921
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,760
Speaker 2: feast going on for about fifteen minutes exactly.

922
00:49:40,840 --> 00:49:42,960
Speaker 3: We'd get to hear what hear and see what the

923
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:45,040
Speaker 3: food is like, and they would explain more of what's

924
00:49:45,080 --> 00:49:47,840
Speaker 3: going on. Instead, he serves them all this food, and

925
00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:52,680
Speaker 3: then right after the food is served, these shirtless muscled warriors,

926
00:49:52,719 --> 00:49:55,400
Speaker 3: many of them are. They're really greased up and shiny

927
00:49:55,640 --> 00:49:59,680
Speaker 3: or sweaty, with these long loose red head coverings. I

928
00:49:59,719 --> 00:50:02,760
Speaker 3: don't if that is a particular type of head covering

929
00:50:02,800 --> 00:50:05,840
Speaker 3: in the real world. It looks I would kind of

930
00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:07,840
Speaker 3: assume not. It looks just kind of like a huge

931
00:50:07,880 --> 00:50:10,080
Speaker 3: sock over their heads with holes for the eyes.

932
00:50:11,280 --> 00:50:13,360
Speaker 2: Yeah, there are some later scenes where I think some

933
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:15,479
Speaker 2: of these guys are not wearing the hood over their head,

934
00:50:15,920 --> 00:50:18,920
Speaker 2: and they should have because some of these extras are

935
00:50:18,920 --> 00:50:21,320
Speaker 2: a little bit too like jacked up, you know, a

936
00:50:21,320 --> 00:50:25,640
Speaker 2: little bit too distracting in the background with wild facial expressions.

937
00:50:26,000 --> 00:50:28,239
Speaker 3: But Shangsung gives a speech here, so he's got the

938
00:50:30,680 --> 00:50:33,000
Speaker 3: muscle guys standing around, and he gives a speech where

939
00:50:33,000 --> 00:50:36,640
Speaker 3: he says, welcome. You are here to compete in mortal combat.

940
00:50:36,920 --> 00:50:40,640
Speaker 3: Tomorrow morning the great combat begins. Some of you will

941
00:50:40,680 --> 00:50:44,920
Speaker 3: even have the distinct honor and pleasure to face Prince Goro,

942
00:50:45,280 --> 00:50:48,400
Speaker 3: our reigning champion. You were all witnesses to one of

943
00:50:48,440 --> 00:50:51,120
Speaker 3: the greatest turning points in the history of your planet.

944
00:50:51,560 --> 00:50:55,080
Speaker 3: Treasure these moments as if they were your last, and

945
00:50:55,160 --> 00:50:57,880
Speaker 3: now for a taste of things to come. That last

946
00:50:57,920 --> 00:51:00,800
Speaker 3: line is sampled in some of the music on the soundtrack.

947
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:04,160
Speaker 3: And here are the muscle goons. This is the part

948
00:51:04,160 --> 00:51:06,439
Speaker 3: where they run in and flip the feast tables over.

949
00:51:06,800 --> 00:51:09,120
Speaker 3: They throw all the food on the floor, and it's

950
00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:12,760
Speaker 3: time for an exhibition match, the first fight of Mini.

951
00:51:12,920 --> 00:51:16,360
Speaker 3: So one of the muscle goons must fight sub Zero.

952
00:51:16,520 --> 00:51:19,000
Speaker 3: So the shirtless guy does a bunch of shadow boxing,

953
00:51:19,560 --> 00:51:22,440
Speaker 3: and then he starts running at sub Zero, who's just

954
00:51:22,480 --> 00:51:24,400
Speaker 3: standing at the other side of the room, sort of

955
00:51:25,000 --> 00:51:27,719
Speaker 3: sucking in a ball of cold into the palm of

956
00:51:27,719 --> 00:51:30,360
Speaker 3: his hand, and as he jumps into the air to

957
00:51:30,480 --> 00:51:33,120
Speaker 3: kick at sub Zero, sub Zero throws the ball and

958
00:51:33,160 --> 00:51:36,520
Speaker 3: freezes the guy solid, causing him to shatter all over

959
00:51:36,560 --> 00:51:37,040
Speaker 3: the floor.

960
00:51:37,760 --> 00:51:41,120
Speaker 2: I remember loving this moment back when the original film

961
00:51:41,160 --> 00:51:43,040
Speaker 2: came out, and it holds up pretty well. You know,

962
00:51:43,120 --> 00:51:48,040
Speaker 2: some criticisms of the CGI aside, this is a good

963
00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:49,920
Speaker 2: use of mid nineties CGI.

964
00:51:50,320 --> 00:51:52,600
Speaker 3: It's not a fight though sub Zero.

965
00:51:53,080 --> 00:51:55,040
Speaker 2: He Indiana Jones in right here is what.

966
00:51:55,000 --> 00:51:59,280
Speaker 3: Happens exactly, but with ice. And then I think Schnsung

967
00:51:59,400 --> 00:52:03,120
Speaker 3: says lawless victory, which is a line from the video

968
00:52:03,200 --> 00:52:06,360
Speaker 3: game when one player defeats another one without taking a

969
00:52:06,400 --> 00:52:18,279
Speaker 3: single punch. Right after this, there's a sequence with our

970
00:52:18,320 --> 00:52:21,200
Speaker 3: heroes doing a bunch of sneaking around. Our three main

971
00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:24,880
Speaker 3: heroes are running in and out of tunnels looking for Shangsung.

972
00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:28,080
Speaker 3: There's plenty of banter and hate flirting along the way,

973
00:52:28,440 --> 00:52:31,759
Speaker 3: but unknown to them, they are being watched. And here

974
00:52:31,800 --> 00:52:34,200
Speaker 3: we do get some kind of scary scenes. There's like

975
00:52:34,200 --> 00:52:37,480
Speaker 3: a scene where we see this huge three fingered hand

976
00:52:37,640 --> 00:52:42,000
Speaker 3: sort of stroking across the inside of these stone cage

977
00:52:42,040 --> 00:52:45,200
Speaker 3: bars as a creature with a deep rumbling voice is

978
00:52:45,239 --> 00:52:48,680
Speaker 3: clearly watching our heroes as they're sneaking around.

979
00:52:49,320 --> 00:52:52,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this is of course Goro's hand. This is

980
00:52:52,239 --> 00:52:55,120
Speaker 2: the best he'll look the entire film, but it is

981
00:52:55,239 --> 00:52:59,319
Speaker 2: legitimately creepy in a nice moment, I think. Not too

982
00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:02,360
Speaker 2: long after this, we get a tease of Goro's shadow,

983
00:53:02,680 --> 00:53:05,040
Speaker 2: which also looks great, and you're like, I can't wait

984
00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:06,640
Speaker 2: to see what they've done here. I can't wait to

985
00:53:06,640 --> 00:53:07,920
Speaker 2: see how Goro looks.

986
00:53:08,239 --> 00:53:11,000
Speaker 3: But they turn it into a comedy moment where Johnny

987
00:53:11,040 --> 00:53:14,440
Speaker 3: Cage says to Sonya, He's like, you go ahead, Sonya,

988
00:53:14,600 --> 00:53:19,680
Speaker 3: find out what that was. We'll wait here, so you know, haha.

989
00:53:20,440 --> 00:53:23,760
Speaker 3: But then we get a scene between Goro and Cano,

990
00:53:23,960 --> 00:53:26,400
Speaker 3: which is one of my favorite scenes in the film.

991
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:29,759
Speaker 2: It really feels like something's missing here because we had

992
00:53:29,800 --> 00:53:32,680
Speaker 2: like the teas, the teas and then full reveal. Here's

993
00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:35,640
Speaker 2: just Goro having a conversation with Kano.

994
00:53:36,160 --> 00:53:38,960
Speaker 3: You would think they would unveil him gradually, like in

995
00:53:39,040 --> 00:53:41,560
Speaker 3: a fight scene or something, but no, we just get

996
00:53:41,560 --> 00:53:43,319
Speaker 3: a good old look at him in this scene, and

997
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:46,919
Speaker 3: he is hideous. But Cano and Goro are hanging out

998
00:53:46,960 --> 00:53:50,640
Speaker 3: while Cano is just eating food. He's eating this big

999
00:53:50,800 --> 00:53:54,120
Speaker 3: greasy turkey leg. He's got a bucket of wine. The

1000
00:53:54,160 --> 00:53:58,160
Speaker 3: turkey leg is just squirting juice everywhere. For people who

1001
00:53:58,160 --> 00:54:01,680
Speaker 3: aren't familiar, should we take a moment to physically described Goro? What?

1002
00:54:01,680 --> 00:54:02,759
Speaker 3: What does he look like? Here?

1003
00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:06,400
Speaker 2: His what's his species? Is a shoken I believe if

1004
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:10,799
Speaker 2: I'm remember incorrectly, four armed entity, like an ogre with

1005
00:54:10,920 --> 00:54:14,520
Speaker 2: four arms. The arm placement does not make a lot

1006
00:54:14,560 --> 00:54:17,840
Speaker 2: of sense. It's always a challenge to try and imagine

1007
00:54:17,840 --> 00:54:23,080
Speaker 2: what this skeleton looks like under here. And yeah, I mean,

1008
00:54:23,080 --> 00:54:25,880
Speaker 2: he's he's he's he's very cool looking in the video

1009
00:54:25,920 --> 00:54:28,239
Speaker 2: game where he has a stop motion entity. In this

1010
00:54:28,719 --> 00:54:32,960
Speaker 2: he is, you know, admirably. He is a fully practical effect,

1011
00:54:33,200 --> 00:54:37,680
Speaker 2: a mix of suit performance and you know, puppetry animatronics,

1012
00:54:38,800 --> 00:54:41,279
Speaker 2: but it just as we discussed in the last episode,

1013
00:54:41,360 --> 00:54:43,920
Speaker 2: it doesn't quite cut it, especially in a scene like

1014
00:54:43,960 --> 00:54:47,800
Speaker 2: this where they're really trying to make him as life

1015
00:54:47,960 --> 00:54:51,360
Speaker 2: like as possible as he is having a conversation with

1016
00:54:51,440 --> 00:54:54,800
Speaker 2: a live actor. It's not a fight. He's not ripping

1017
00:54:54,840 --> 00:54:58,839
Speaker 2: someone in half. He is. They're doing the best, you know,

1018
00:54:59,320 --> 00:55:03,080
Speaker 2: they could. You make him a living entity who is

1019
00:55:03,400 --> 00:55:07,239
Speaker 2: expressing his own like desires and motivations here, and I

1020
00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:09,200
Speaker 2: think they just they bit off more than they could

1021
00:55:09,239 --> 00:55:10,920
Speaker 2: chew because it doesn't quite work.

1022
00:55:11,239 --> 00:55:14,440
Speaker 3: But Goro in the scene, the emotion they're trying to

1023
00:55:14,440 --> 00:55:17,360
Speaker 3: convey is that he is getting very annoyed at Kno

1024
00:55:17,520 --> 00:55:22,239
Speaker 3: disrespecting his royal his royal line. I guess so Keno's like,

1025
00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:26,040
Speaker 3: oh you some kind of royalty, and Goro's like, I

1026
00:55:26,080 --> 00:55:29,879
Speaker 3: am Goro. I'm the general of the armies of out

1027
00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:32,680
Speaker 3: world and the prince of the subterranean realm of Shokan.

1028
00:55:33,360 --> 00:55:40,200
Speaker 3: And then Keano is like subterranean underground, so he's not

1029
00:55:40,719 --> 00:55:43,319
Speaker 3: he's not showing proper respect. And you get the sense

1030
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,640
Speaker 3: that Goro maybe wants to just like you know, eat

1031
00:55:46,719 --> 00:55:49,960
Speaker 3: cano here or something. But it doesn't quite happen because

1032
00:55:49,960 --> 00:55:54,719
Speaker 3: Shensung walks in, and you know, Shensung comes in and explains,

1033
00:55:56,160 --> 00:56:00,120
Speaker 3: you know, he says, look, actually Cano is great. He

1034
00:56:00,160 --> 00:56:03,279
Speaker 3: can teach us a lot about Earth because look at him.

1035
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:07,560
Speaker 3: You know, there's nothing special about him. He's not especially dignified,

1036
00:56:07,640 --> 00:56:10,200
Speaker 3: he has no manners, he's not really all that smart

1037
00:56:10,320 --> 00:56:12,960
Speaker 3: or you know, nothing good about him. Yet in the

1038
00:56:13,000 --> 00:56:15,880
Speaker 3: realm of Earth, men like him can amass great wealth,

1039
00:56:15,920 --> 00:56:19,080
Speaker 3: almost god like power. And then Keno says, yeah, I'd

1040
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:21,640
Speaker 3: like to get back to my amassing as soon as possible,

1041
00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:23,720
Speaker 3: if you don't mind. So when do I get paid?

1042
00:56:24,320 --> 00:56:28,000
Speaker 3: And here it is again revealed that Cano. Before he

1043
00:56:28,040 --> 00:56:30,400
Speaker 3: can take his money and go home, Keno has to

1044
00:56:30,440 --> 00:56:33,799
Speaker 3: fight Sonia Blade in the tournament, but he is not

1045
00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:37,879
Speaker 3: to harm her, only to humiliate her because Shangsung has

1046
00:56:38,040 --> 00:56:40,520
Speaker 3: very important plans for her later in the contest.

1047
00:56:41,040 --> 00:56:43,160
Speaker 2: All right, we'll see what that consists of. Oh.

1048
00:56:43,200 --> 00:56:46,600
Speaker 3: Also in the scene, I think we hear our heroes expressing.

1049
00:56:46,960 --> 00:56:50,399
Speaker 3: The heroes overhear the villains expressing worry about lu Kang.

1050
00:56:50,440 --> 00:56:52,799
Speaker 3: They're concerned about him, they have to be careful about him,

1051
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,080
Speaker 3: and they're they're you know, the heroes are like, what's

1052
00:56:55,120 --> 00:56:58,920
Speaker 3: so special about Lukang? Why him? But they're also concerned

1053
00:56:58,920 --> 00:57:01,640
Speaker 3: about Princess Katan. They say she is the Emperor of

1054
00:57:01,680 --> 00:57:04,880
Speaker 3: out World's daughter, and they're afraid she might intervene to

1055
00:57:04,920 --> 00:57:07,040
Speaker 3: help the fighters from the realm of Earth, so they

1056
00:57:07,040 --> 00:57:09,880
Speaker 3: have to be vigilant. Now there's a bunch more sneaking around.

1057
00:57:09,960 --> 00:57:13,360
Speaker 3: There is one encounter of our heroes with Reptile where

1058
00:57:14,200 --> 00:57:16,920
Speaker 3: reptile is invisible in a room, and it's like that

1059
00:57:17,000 --> 00:57:19,080
Speaker 3: scene in Predator. You know, we're only one of the

1060
00:57:19,080 --> 00:57:23,200
Speaker 3: guys sees it. Lu Kang apparently sees Reptile when nobody

1061
00:57:23,240 --> 00:57:26,040
Speaker 3: else does, or at least walks up to you know,

1062
00:57:26,080 --> 00:57:28,160
Speaker 3: he senses something and he like walks up to a

1063
00:57:28,240 --> 00:57:30,920
Speaker 3: void in the wall, and then Reptile suddenly comes out

1064
00:57:30,920 --> 00:57:34,720
Speaker 3: of invisibility, vomits a bunch of poison in Lukang's face,

1065
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:38,280
Speaker 3: and then runs away. After that, the heroes come into

1066
00:57:38,320 --> 00:57:41,720
Speaker 3: Shangsung's feast room, and here we get the first real

1067
00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:44,600
Speaker 3: big fight. Actually, this is the fight where our heroes

1068
00:57:44,680 --> 00:57:48,920
Speaker 3: have to confront these muscle guys with the head coverings,

1069
00:57:49,520 --> 00:57:51,240
Speaker 3: and they do quite well.

1070
00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:53,520
Speaker 2: But then of course Rayden shows up and he does

1071
00:57:53,520 --> 00:57:56,360
Speaker 2: a slow clap it's so great, and we get another

1072
00:57:56,400 --> 00:57:57,720
Speaker 2: one of his I don't think so.

1073
00:57:58,960 --> 00:58:02,040
Speaker 3: That's right, I don't think so. And then Raydon leads

1074
00:58:02,040 --> 00:58:05,840
Speaker 3: our heroes to safety. We get more lectures from Raydon.

1075
00:58:05,920 --> 00:58:08,919
Speaker 3: Here he says, you know, to fight Shang Sung, you've

1076
00:58:08,920 --> 00:58:11,360
Speaker 3: got to fight face not just one, but a legion

1077
00:58:11,400 --> 00:58:14,360
Speaker 3: of enemies, because his power comes from the souls of

1078
00:58:14,400 --> 00:58:17,000
Speaker 3: those he has defeated in the past. So you're sort

1079
00:58:17,000 --> 00:58:19,440
Speaker 3: of fighting everyone. Shang Sung is ever beaten.

1080
00:58:20,760 --> 00:58:20,960
Speaker 2: Now.

1081
00:58:21,040 --> 00:58:24,320
Speaker 3: The next morning, the main action of the movie begins,

1082
00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:27,200
Speaker 3: and from here the movie turns much more into just

1083
00:58:27,640 --> 00:58:31,920
Speaker 3: a sequence of fight scenes that that sounds like that

1084
00:58:31,960 --> 00:58:35,000
Speaker 3: could get a little monotonous, and I don't know, maybe

1085
00:58:35,000 --> 00:58:37,040
Speaker 3: you could say that it does. But the movie does

1086
00:58:37,240 --> 00:58:39,440
Speaker 3: better with it than you might expect, I think, because

1087
00:58:39,440 --> 00:58:42,000
Speaker 3: it doesn't let any of them go on too long.

1088
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:45,800
Speaker 3: They're all there's a pretty rapid pace of developments, and

1089
00:58:45,840 --> 00:58:47,640
Speaker 3: most of the fights are pretty.

1090
00:58:47,360 --> 00:58:51,000
Speaker 2: Quick, right right. And the one in particular that I'm

1091
00:58:51,000 --> 00:58:52,600
Speaker 2: thinking of that does go on a bit long has

1092
00:58:52,640 --> 00:58:54,520
Speaker 2: a lot of variety in it, and it is just

1093
00:58:55,000 --> 00:58:56,720
Speaker 2: it is exciting from beginning to end.

1094
00:58:56,880 --> 00:58:58,919
Speaker 3: That's right. So the first fight we get to see

1095
00:58:58,960 --> 00:59:00,800
Speaker 3: the next morning is taking sort of on a I

1096
00:59:00,840 --> 00:59:04,040
Speaker 3: think it's on a beach outside back on the ground

1097
00:59:04,200 --> 00:59:07,640
Speaker 3: level of the island. Shang Sung kind of sits in

1098
00:59:07,680 --> 00:59:10,920
Speaker 3: a peacock throne overlooking all of the battles. He's like

1099
00:59:10,960 --> 00:59:14,760
Speaker 3: the referee or observer or something. And this is a

1100
00:59:14,760 --> 00:59:17,960
Speaker 3: fight where lu Kang has to face off against another

1101
00:59:18,040 --> 00:59:21,520
Speaker 3: human fighter. They've got a match with Bo Staves, so

1102
00:59:21,640 --> 00:59:23,960
Speaker 3: like nobody's fighting Goro yet. I think it starts with

1103
00:59:24,080 --> 00:59:27,200
Speaker 3: like the Earth realm fighters just fighting each other. I

1104
00:59:27,240 --> 00:59:29,240
Speaker 3: don't think we ever learned that the name of the

1105
00:59:29,280 --> 00:59:33,080
Speaker 3: guy Lukang is fighting here. But Lukang fights honorably and

1106
00:59:33,120 --> 00:59:37,960
Speaker 3: he wins. But there's a twist because after Lukang's opponent

1107
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:41,160
Speaker 3: is defeated, Shehang Sung walks up to the guy and

1108
00:59:41,200 --> 00:59:44,080
Speaker 3: he reaches out and he sucks his soul out of

1109
00:59:44,120 --> 00:59:47,880
Speaker 3: his flesh. He says, your soul is mine, sucks the

1110
00:59:47,880 --> 00:59:50,959
Speaker 3: soul out, and then says fatality. Now that's not really

1111
00:59:50,960 --> 00:59:53,560
Speaker 3: how it worked in the game. Was it like the

1112
00:59:53,600 --> 00:59:56,840
Speaker 3: fatality was done by the fighter, not by Shehang Sung?

1113
00:59:57,520 --> 01:00:01,560
Speaker 2: Correct? Yes, so, and it gets clear that Shangsung's not

1114
01:00:01,560 --> 01:00:04,720
Speaker 2: playing fair here at all, Like, what do you mean

1115
01:00:04,800 --> 01:00:07,040
Speaker 2: taking the souls of guys you didn't even beat. That

1116
01:00:07,200 --> 01:00:08,680
Speaker 2: contradicts what Raydin just said.

1117
01:00:09,480 --> 01:00:12,840
Speaker 3: Next fight is Sonia Blade versus Kano. Okay, this has

1118
01:00:12,840 --> 01:00:16,160
Speaker 3: been coming a while. This is the Vendetta fight. We

1119
01:00:16,200 --> 01:00:18,520
Speaker 3: alluded to this earlier, but here in this at the

1120
01:00:18,520 --> 01:00:21,440
Speaker 3: beginning of this fight, Kano whips out a knife and

1121
01:00:21,600 --> 01:00:23,920
Speaker 3: brags about how he used it to kill her partner.

1122
01:00:24,040 --> 01:00:26,240
Speaker 3: Then he attacks her with it, and it's like, what

1123
01:00:26,360 --> 01:00:29,160
Speaker 3: he's allowed to do that? That's I don't know. Is

1124
01:00:29,200 --> 01:00:29,920
Speaker 3: this a tournament.

1125
01:00:31,160 --> 01:00:32,480
Speaker 2: It's a tournament legal.

1126
01:00:32,720 --> 01:00:36,480
Speaker 3: Okay, But Sonya just whoops him like she she does

1127
01:00:36,520 --> 01:00:38,760
Speaker 3: a move that her character in the game does where

1128
01:00:38,800 --> 01:00:41,240
Speaker 3: she stands on her hands and then grabs the dude

1129
01:00:41,280 --> 01:00:44,720
Speaker 3: by his neck with her ankles, slams him on the ground,

1130
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:46,880
Speaker 3: and then does a kind of ground grapple with her

1131
01:00:46,920 --> 01:00:50,760
Speaker 3: calves around his neck. And now Kano's like, uh oh,

1132
01:00:50,320 --> 01:00:52,920
Speaker 3: I didn't expect it to go this way. He starts

1133
01:00:52,920 --> 01:00:56,480
Speaker 3: begging for mercy. Here, Shangsung does what he does in

1134
01:00:56,480 --> 01:00:59,120
Speaker 3: the game. Shangsung calls out to Sonya and says finish

1135
01:00:59,240 --> 01:01:03,560
Speaker 3: him and Kano, can you imagine what pun is coming?

1136
01:01:03,640 --> 01:01:07,400
Speaker 3: Cano says, come on, Sonya, give me a break, and

1137
01:01:07,560 --> 01:01:09,919
Speaker 3: she says okay and cracks his neck.

1138
01:01:10,160 --> 01:01:13,600
Speaker 2: All right, So, on one level, I was amused by

1139
01:01:13,800 --> 01:01:15,959
Speaker 2: and done with Kano at this point, so I wasn't

1140
01:01:16,000 --> 01:01:17,919
Speaker 2: sad that we weren't getting more Cano in the rest

1141
01:01:17,920 --> 01:01:19,960
Speaker 2: of the picture. But on the other hand, it is

1142
01:01:20,200 --> 01:01:23,560
Speaker 2: weird that we set Sonya up as a character whose

1143
01:01:23,640 --> 01:01:27,760
Speaker 2: only identity is her quest for revenge and she achieves

1144
01:01:27,840 --> 01:01:31,640
Speaker 2: full revenge like less than half into the picture. Yeah,

1145
01:01:31,680 --> 01:01:34,000
Speaker 2: and then this is not one of those movies where

1146
01:01:34,000 --> 01:01:35,600
Speaker 2: the remainder of the picture is going to be like

1147
01:01:35,720 --> 01:01:40,240
Speaker 2: grappling with the guilt of vengeance or the ramifications of vengeance,

1148
01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:43,520
Speaker 2: the self destructive nature of vengeance. No, it's just kind

1149
01:01:43,520 --> 01:01:46,160
Speaker 2: of like, oh, that was her only reason to be

1150
01:01:46,280 --> 01:01:48,480
Speaker 2: around or do anything. Now we just have to just

1151
01:01:48,560 --> 01:01:51,240
Speaker 2: change her role in the narrative completely. Now she has

1152
01:01:51,240 --> 01:01:52,360
Speaker 2: to be damsel in distress.

1153
01:01:52,560 --> 01:01:55,080
Speaker 3: Now she turns into don't you dare do this to

1154
01:01:55,120 --> 01:01:57,160
Speaker 3: protect me? Johnny Cage.

1155
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:01,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's it's a little bit clunky.

1156
01:02:02,160 --> 01:02:05,240
Speaker 3: So the next fight in the movie is Johnny Cage

1157
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:09,760
Speaker 3: the movie star versus scorpion. I think this is as

1158
01:02:09,840 --> 01:02:12,280
Speaker 3: you alluded to. I think this is the longest fight

1159
01:02:12,320 --> 01:02:14,640
Speaker 3: in the movie probably, well maybe with the exception of

1160
01:02:14,680 --> 01:02:18,080
Speaker 3: the final fight between Lukeng and Shang Song, but this

1161
01:02:18,240 --> 01:02:20,800
Speaker 3: is the longest. But it's got a lot of variety,

1162
01:02:20,920 --> 01:02:24,520
Speaker 3: like changes locations midway through, and I think this one's

1163
01:02:24,560 --> 01:02:25,240
Speaker 3: pretty solid.

1164
01:02:25,560 --> 01:02:29,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think this one absolutely holds up. Yeah, it's long,

1165
01:02:29,640 --> 01:02:33,960
Speaker 2: but the action choreography is tremendous. You believe all the hits.

1166
01:02:34,240 --> 01:02:36,920
Speaker 2: They even have some nice like supernatural wire moments in

1167
01:02:36,960 --> 01:02:39,720
Speaker 2: there that work really well. We get a change in location,

1168
01:02:40,480 --> 01:02:45,080
Speaker 2: it gets hellish, and both characters really feel like their

1169
01:02:45,120 --> 01:02:46,439
Speaker 2: video game personas here.

1170
01:02:46,600 --> 01:02:49,280
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like the location where they begin. It's like

1171
01:02:49,320 --> 01:02:54,200
Speaker 3: an orchard with these rows and rows of perfectly lined up,

1172
01:02:54,240 --> 01:02:56,720
Speaker 3: evenly spaced trees. I don't know what kind of trees

1173
01:02:56,760 --> 01:02:58,880
Speaker 3: they are, but it's a it's a kind of eerie

1174
01:02:58,960 --> 01:03:03,000
Speaker 3: setting because of the the combination of naturalness and unnaturalness

1175
01:03:03,040 --> 01:03:06,680
Speaker 3: about it. So I like that. And Johnny Cage uses

1176
01:03:06,720 --> 01:03:10,720
Speaker 3: one of the trees. He uses it to disable the

1177
01:03:10,720 --> 01:03:13,160
Speaker 3: the I don't know, the snake coming out of the

1178
01:03:13,200 --> 01:03:15,360
Speaker 3: hand weapon because he like dodges out of the way

1179
01:03:15,400 --> 01:03:17,560
Speaker 3: at the last second, and the snake slams into a

1180
01:03:17,600 --> 01:03:21,280
Speaker 3: tree and so so yeah, it's a pretty good fight.

1181
01:03:21,320 --> 01:03:24,640
Speaker 3: And also it does involve Scorpion trying to use his

1182
01:03:24,960 --> 01:03:28,000
Speaker 3: finishing move from the game where he takes his mask off,

1183
01:03:28,280 --> 01:03:31,080
Speaker 3: reveals his head as a skull, and then breathes fire

1184
01:03:31,160 --> 01:03:34,760
Speaker 3: on his opponent, but Johnny Cage outwits him by holding

1185
01:03:34,840 --> 01:03:37,600
Speaker 3: up a shield to shield himself from the flames and

1186
01:03:37,640 --> 01:03:40,320
Speaker 3: then using the edge of the shield to slice the

1187
01:03:40,840 --> 01:03:43,920
Speaker 3: Yellow Ninja open. And I don't know, just like a

1188
01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:46,560
Speaker 3: bunch of guts and weird stuff comes out, and then

1189
01:03:46,600 --> 01:03:47,680
Speaker 3: Scorpion explodes.

1190
01:03:48,160 --> 01:03:51,160
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, this takes place I guess in Hell, I

1191
01:03:51,160 --> 01:03:54,400
Speaker 2: don't or some sort of hell. We don't know how

1192
01:03:54,520 --> 01:03:57,040
Speaker 2: Cage gets back from hell to reality, but he does it.

1193
01:03:57,040 --> 01:03:58,960
Speaker 2: Maybe it's not a literal hell. It's just like a

1194
01:03:59,040 --> 01:04:03,320
Speaker 2: basement of the Mortal Kombat Temple facilities here.

1195
01:04:03,640 --> 01:04:06,960
Speaker 3: Now, there was a part here that really confused me

1196
01:04:07,000 --> 01:04:09,960
Speaker 3: when I was a kid. So Scorpion, once he's defeated,

1197
01:04:09,960 --> 01:04:15,160
Speaker 3: he explodes, and then we see a photograph that is

1198
01:04:15,280 --> 01:04:19,040
Speaker 3: a photo of Johnny Cage like falling to the ground

1199
01:04:19,120 --> 01:04:23,160
Speaker 3: from the debris of the explosion and as ash is

1200
01:04:23,280 --> 01:04:27,240
Speaker 3: raining down all around and it's the photo of Johnny

1201
01:04:27,240 --> 01:04:31,920
Speaker 3: Cage is autographed and says to my greatest fan, Johnny Cage, xoxo,

1202
01:04:32,640 --> 01:04:35,880
Speaker 3: And I was like, what does that mean? I think

1203
01:04:35,920 --> 01:04:39,360
Speaker 3: I interpreted this when I was a kid, as in

1204
01:04:39,600 --> 01:04:44,320
Speaker 3: life before becoming an undead, skeletal ninja, Scorpion was a

1205
01:04:44,360 --> 01:04:47,680
Speaker 3: fan of Johnny Cage's movies and got an autographed photo

1206
01:04:47,880 --> 01:04:51,280
Speaker 3: and then became an undead ninja and just happened to

1207
01:04:51,320 --> 01:04:53,080
Speaker 3: have this souvenir on him.

1208
01:04:53,560 --> 01:04:56,080
Speaker 2: Well, I like the logic of that, but yeah, I

1209
01:04:56,120 --> 01:04:59,880
Speaker 2: think it's just Cage being cheeky. But the alternate interpret

1210
01:05:00,280 --> 01:05:02,960
Speaker 2: that you've shared here, it would lead to some interesting

1211
01:05:03,000 --> 01:05:04,120
Speaker 2: lore if this were the case.

1212
01:05:04,440 --> 01:05:08,200
Speaker 3: Okay, next fight they show us is lu Kang versus Katana.

1213
01:05:08,400 --> 01:05:11,640
Speaker 3: Shang Sung says they have to fight. It's clear that

1214
01:05:11,760 --> 01:05:14,800
Speaker 3: Katana is very powerful, but she's holding back. She doesn't

1215
01:05:14,800 --> 01:05:17,680
Speaker 3: want to hurt lu Kang. Instead, in this match, every

1216
01:05:17,680 --> 01:05:21,640
Speaker 3: time she grapples Lukang to a halt, she sort of

1217
01:05:21,640 --> 01:05:25,480
Speaker 3: whispers advice in his ear in these little increments, and

1218
01:05:25,560 --> 01:05:28,640
Speaker 3: she eventually tells him to win your next fight, use

1219
01:05:28,720 --> 01:05:30,680
Speaker 3: the element, which brings life.

1220
01:05:31,840 --> 01:05:34,200
Speaker 2: You know, this is not a good fight, This is

1221
01:05:34,200 --> 01:05:37,720
Speaker 2: not a fight you enjoy like watching so much, But

1222
01:05:37,800 --> 01:05:40,720
Speaker 2: it's about developing the plot and I think it also

1223
01:05:41,800 --> 01:05:44,160
Speaker 2: it's key when we talk about why this doesn't get

1224
01:05:44,160 --> 01:05:47,200
Speaker 2: boring having fight after fight after fight, is because they're

1225
01:05:47,240 --> 01:05:49,959
Speaker 2: pacing it out appropriately here where we have a big

1226
01:05:50,000 --> 01:05:53,280
Speaker 2: showcase battle between Scorpion and Johnny Cage and then a

1227
01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:56,720
Speaker 2: little battle that serves a different purpose entirely, and then

1228
01:05:56,760 --> 01:05:59,320
Speaker 2: we move on to maybe another flashier battle.

1229
01:05:59,480 --> 01:06:01,920
Speaker 3: That's right. So the next fight on the agenda is

1230
01:06:01,960 --> 01:06:04,920
Speaker 3: another one of the big demon Ninja fights. This is

1231
01:06:05,000 --> 01:06:08,640
Speaker 3: Lukang versus sub Zero, who again has freezing powers, and

1232
01:06:08,640 --> 01:06:11,720
Speaker 3: we saw earlier sub Zero froze an opponent so that

1233
01:06:11,800 --> 01:06:15,000
Speaker 3: he just froze solid and shattered on the floor. This

1234
01:06:15,120 --> 01:06:16,280
Speaker 3: is also a pretty good fight.

1235
01:06:16,680 --> 01:06:19,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, solid fight, great set. I think this one has

1236
01:06:19,160 --> 01:06:23,320
Speaker 2: a really nice set, excellent lighting, solid fatality as well.

1237
01:06:23,400 --> 01:06:25,920
Speaker 3: There's one moment in this fight that really stuck with

1238
01:06:25,960 --> 01:06:28,160
Speaker 3: me when I was younger, which is the moment where

1239
01:06:28,760 --> 01:06:33,000
Speaker 3: sub Zero I think, kicks Lukang on the chin. I

1240
01:06:33,080 --> 01:06:36,400
Speaker 3: recall that really seeming like it would hurt, Like there's

1241
01:06:36,440 --> 01:06:38,440
Speaker 3: a scene like this in Raiders of the Lost Ark

1242
01:06:38,480 --> 01:06:40,440
Speaker 3: when Harrison Ford gets hit on the chin with a

1243
01:06:40,480 --> 01:06:44,040
Speaker 3: mirror that's flipping around. Yeah, I don't know, that's gross

1244
01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:44,280
Speaker 3: for me.

1245
01:06:44,520 --> 01:06:48,840
Speaker 2: I mean that's the mark of great action of filmmaking

1246
01:06:48,960 --> 01:06:51,080
Speaker 2: and great stunt work when you can feel those hits

1247
01:06:51,120 --> 01:06:51,360
Speaker 2: like that.

1248
01:06:51,680 --> 01:06:53,920
Speaker 3: Yeah. But so anyway, it's a good fight. In the beginning,

1249
01:06:54,000 --> 01:06:56,960
Speaker 3: they trade blows for a while. Sub Zero is clearly

1250
01:06:57,000 --> 01:07:00,840
Speaker 3: prepared to freeze Lukang solid he's gathered bring the sort

1251
01:07:00,840 --> 01:07:03,320
Speaker 3: of CGI snow into the palm of his hand. The

1252
01:07:03,320 --> 01:07:06,200
Speaker 3: magic is swirling around, and Lukang's like, how can I

1253
01:07:06,240 --> 01:07:09,560
Speaker 3: beat that? But then he remembers Katana's advice, and I

1254
01:07:09,600 --> 01:07:11,920
Speaker 3: think we even see her at the other end of

1255
01:07:11,960 --> 01:07:14,680
Speaker 3: the room, like making eyes at him, and he's like,

1256
01:07:14,760 --> 01:07:18,040
Speaker 3: wait a minute, what is the element that brings life?

1257
01:07:18,360 --> 01:07:21,480
Speaker 3: It's water. So he gets a bucket of water and

1258
01:07:21,520 --> 01:07:25,120
Speaker 3: he heaves it into sub Zero's sphere of cold and

1259
01:07:25,160 --> 01:07:28,160
Speaker 3: it forms a spike spike of ice that pins the

1260
01:07:28,200 --> 01:07:30,760
Speaker 3: evil ninja to the wall. Now, at this point in

1261
01:07:30,800 --> 01:07:34,280
Speaker 3: the story, Shangsong has had enough. He's let the humans

1262
01:07:34,320 --> 01:07:37,720
Speaker 3: win enough. It's time to deploy Prince Goro, who nobody

1263
01:07:37,800 --> 01:07:40,760
Speaker 3: can defeat, and then there's like a montage of Goro

1264
01:07:40,960 --> 01:07:44,200
Speaker 3: destroying most of the human fighters in the tournament. This

1265
01:07:44,320 --> 01:07:47,680
Speaker 3: leads up to the scene of Goro versus Art Lean,

1266
01:07:47,840 --> 01:07:50,800
Speaker 3: the guy we met earlier who you know, who had

1267
01:07:50,800 --> 01:07:54,200
Speaker 3: some previous experience with Johnny Cage, and so we see

1268
01:07:54,200 --> 01:07:57,720
Speaker 3: this whole fight. Goro gets a like a WWE style

1269
01:07:57,920 --> 01:08:00,760
Speaker 3: entrance where the door's open and everybody but he's cheering

1270
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:03,880
Speaker 3: for him. And why are all these human fighters in

1271
01:08:03,920 --> 01:08:05,560
Speaker 3: the audience cheering for Goro?

1272
01:08:06,240 --> 01:08:09,440
Speaker 2: They like strength, they love the champion.

1273
01:08:09,680 --> 01:08:12,840
Speaker 3: He's here to destroy their Earth realm, but they're like, yeah,

1274
01:08:13,200 --> 01:08:15,320
Speaker 3: you fight him.

1275
01:08:16,040 --> 01:08:18,519
Speaker 2: This scene is where Goro looks the best. I have

1276
01:08:18,560 --> 01:08:22,719
Speaker 2: to say. He still doesn't look tremendous, but he looks

1277
01:08:22,720 --> 01:08:24,800
Speaker 2: a lot better in action here against Art.

1278
01:08:25,439 --> 01:08:29,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right now. Art Lene does okay. Initially, he

1279
01:08:29,320 --> 01:08:32,000
Speaker 3: gets some punches in by being faster than Goro, but

1280
01:08:32,120 --> 01:08:35,479
Speaker 3: Goro's just too big and he eventually grabs Art's fists

1281
01:08:35,560 --> 01:08:37,960
Speaker 3: with his two lower arms and then just beats him

1282
01:08:37,960 --> 01:08:42,760
Speaker 3: with his upper arms, and finally Goro finishes him with

1283
01:08:42,800 --> 01:08:45,000
Speaker 3: a with a horrible strike. And I remember the scene

1284
01:08:45,040 --> 01:08:47,479
Speaker 3: being kind of like scary and sad when I was

1285
01:08:47,479 --> 01:08:52,360
Speaker 3: a kid. And then Sheen Sung absorbs Art Lene's soul

1286
01:08:52,600 --> 01:08:57,240
Speaker 3: into his eyeball, and then for some reason, Sonya screams no,

1287
01:08:58,280 --> 01:09:00,920
Speaker 3: but it's not even suggested that she knows Art.

1288
01:09:01,320 --> 01:09:01,599
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1289
01:09:01,680 --> 01:09:04,120
Speaker 3: Yeah, why doesn't Johnny Cage scream know he's the one

1290
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:04,760
Speaker 3: who knows him.

1291
01:09:05,080 --> 01:09:07,560
Speaker 2: Yeah, that would make a lot more sense because ultimately,

1292
01:09:07,600 --> 01:09:10,200
Speaker 2: like that's the role Art has. Here is the kind

1293
01:09:10,200 --> 01:09:11,479
Speaker 2: of role we see in a lot of these martial

1294
01:09:11,560 --> 01:09:13,519
Speaker 2: arts tournament films where we have the kind of like

1295
01:09:13,640 --> 01:09:17,640
Speaker 2: sacrificial friend of the hero who gets beat up and

1296
01:09:17,880 --> 01:09:20,919
Speaker 2: or killed by the big bad in the tournament.

1297
01:09:29,560 --> 01:09:31,800
Speaker 3: So after this we get you know, your dark Knight

1298
01:09:31,840 --> 01:09:34,439
Speaker 3: of the Soul scenes where the characters are grappling with

1299
01:09:34,479 --> 01:09:37,719
Speaker 3: their fears and limitations and Rayden is sort of coaching

1300
01:09:37,760 --> 01:09:41,120
Speaker 3: them through being the life coach. Yet again, you know,

1301
01:09:41,160 --> 01:09:43,840
Speaker 3: he talks to lu Kang about his fears and his

1302
01:09:43,960 --> 01:09:48,200
Speaker 3: destiny and the how despair is the most dangerous fear

1303
01:09:48,280 --> 01:09:52,000
Speaker 3: of all. Lu Kang ends up sitting on a beach,

1304
01:09:52,120 --> 01:09:55,280
Speaker 3: flashing back to his dream about Chan. And then this

1305
01:09:55,400 --> 01:09:58,200
Speaker 3: is also the scene where we get Sonya and Johnny

1306
01:09:58,240 --> 01:10:01,880
Speaker 3: Cage arguing about whether John Cage should challenge Goro, and

1307
01:10:02,000 --> 01:10:05,040
Speaker 3: he's like, I'm gonna have to do it, and she says,

1308
01:10:05,080 --> 01:10:07,639
Speaker 3: don't you dare do this to protect me Johnny Cage

1309
01:10:07,960 --> 01:10:11,160
Speaker 3: and he says, trust me, I've got a plan. So okay,

1310
01:10:11,200 --> 01:10:13,280
Speaker 3: I'm curious what's his plan? How's he going to defeat

1311
01:10:13,320 --> 01:10:17,880
Speaker 3: this huge thing with four arms? So the next fight

1312
01:10:17,960 --> 01:10:22,160
Speaker 3: is Johnny Cage versus Goro, and Johnny Cage goes to Shangsung.

1313
01:10:22,200 --> 01:10:24,639
Speaker 3: He's like, all right, I'm ready. I'm ready to fight Goro.

1314
01:10:25,040 --> 01:10:29,360
Speaker 3: Shang Sung says, foolish but brave. Raydon tries to intervene

1315
01:10:29,439 --> 01:10:31,880
Speaker 3: to stop this, but it's too late. A deal's a deal.

1316
01:10:32,000 --> 01:10:35,479
Speaker 3: He can't stop it. So the Cage versus Goro fight.

1317
01:10:35,600 --> 01:10:38,560
Speaker 3: What do you think? When I was a kid, I

1318
01:10:38,600 --> 01:10:41,759
Speaker 3: loved this fight because it I would say, largely because

1319
01:10:41,760 --> 01:10:45,680
Speaker 3: it features a prominent groin punch, which I found hilarious

1320
01:10:45,720 --> 01:10:49,040
Speaker 3: when I was younger, and then also because it's got

1321
01:10:49,160 --> 01:10:51,040
Speaker 3: It's got a cliff, and I love a fight at

1322
01:10:51,080 --> 01:10:54,760
Speaker 3: the edge of a cliff. That's just classic action movie gold.

1323
01:10:54,360 --> 01:10:57,880
Speaker 2: My feelings about it were a bit different. I thought

1324
01:10:57,920 --> 01:11:00,799
Speaker 2: that the the nard punch just made Gore looks stupid,

1325
01:11:01,160 --> 01:11:02,559
Speaker 2: and I was like, no, I mean said, the Goro

1326
01:11:02,680 --> 01:11:04,600
Speaker 2: is supposed to be tough. We've just built him up

1327
01:11:04,600 --> 01:11:06,720
Speaker 2: as tough, and now you've made him look foolish. And

1328
01:11:06,760 --> 01:11:10,120
Speaker 2: then there's I feel like there's very little action between

1329
01:11:10,160 --> 01:11:12,439
Speaker 2: these two characters. It's not much of a fight. And

1330
01:11:12,479 --> 01:11:14,960
Speaker 2: then Johnny Cage kind of like trips him off a

1331
01:11:14,960 --> 01:11:18,519
Speaker 2: cliff and he falls into a into an idealer or something.

1332
01:11:18,920 --> 01:11:21,640
Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, so the fight begins with Oh. At the

1333
01:11:21,680 --> 01:11:24,519
Speaker 3: beginning of the fight, Goro's like gloating, and he takes

1334
01:11:24,600 --> 01:11:27,840
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage's sunglasses out of his pocket or maybe off

1335
01:11:27,880 --> 01:11:30,960
Speaker 3: of his face and smashes them and Johnny Cage doesn't

1336
01:11:31,000 --> 01:11:32,799
Speaker 3: like that, but he says his line again you remember

1337
01:11:32,800 --> 01:11:35,040
Speaker 3: from the beginning when he goes Let's dance, So he

1338
01:11:35,040 --> 01:11:38,439
Speaker 3: says that, but then he does the splits. He drops

1339
01:11:38,479 --> 01:11:41,120
Speaker 3: to the ground and punches Goro in the crotch, and

1340
01:11:41,160 --> 01:11:45,320
Speaker 3: then Raydon, who is standing there observing the fight, does

1341
01:11:45,360 --> 01:11:50,360
Speaker 3: a nineteen nineties yes Goro. Of course, he howls in

1342
01:11:50,439 --> 01:11:54,799
Speaker 3: pain and rage. The movie really wallows in the Goro

1343
01:11:55,040 --> 01:11:55,880
Speaker 3: groin pain.

1344
01:11:56,560 --> 01:11:58,439
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think a bit too much, but I

1345
01:11:58,439 --> 01:12:01,120
Speaker 2: guess you know, the kids probably loved it, and it

1346
01:12:01,320 --> 01:12:04,160
Speaker 2: to be clear, it is a move from the video game,

1347
01:12:04,280 --> 01:12:05,800
Speaker 2: so they had to include it.

1348
01:12:05,960 --> 01:12:09,240
Speaker 3: Does Johnny Kitch do a shadow kick in the movie

1349
01:12:09,600 --> 01:12:11,439
Speaker 3: that was in the video game? Also, I think maybe

1350
01:12:11,479 --> 01:12:12,679
Speaker 3: he does want to get Scorpion.

1351
01:12:13,640 --> 01:12:16,320
Speaker 2: Possibly. Yeah, I don't remember it happening, but that would

1352
01:12:16,320 --> 01:12:17,240
Speaker 2: have been the place for it.

1353
01:12:17,439 --> 01:12:20,080
Speaker 3: Oh. We we just got a note from guest producer

1354
01:12:20,160 --> 01:12:23,000
Speaker 3: Chandler Mays that yes, he did do a shadow kick,

1355
01:12:23,000 --> 01:12:25,639
Speaker 3: and that is when Scorpion sucks Johnny Cage into hell.

1356
01:12:26,000 --> 01:12:26,880
Speaker 2: All right, there we go.

1357
01:12:27,120 --> 01:12:30,200
Speaker 3: Okay, But anyway, so at the end of the fight, yeah,

1358
01:12:30,240 --> 01:12:33,320
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage ends up kicking Goro off of the side

1359
01:12:33,360 --> 01:12:35,519
Speaker 3: of a mountain to his death, and Goro's like hanging

1360
01:12:35,600 --> 01:12:38,320
Speaker 3: there on the cliff and Johnny Cage we get a

1361
01:12:38,360 --> 01:12:40,360
Speaker 3: call back to his earlier line. This is the part

1362
01:12:40,400 --> 01:12:43,400
Speaker 3: where you fall down and Goro falls. So, I don't know.

1363
01:12:43,680 --> 01:12:46,679
Speaker 3: I thought this fight was great when I was younger, Rob,

1364
01:12:46,760 --> 01:12:48,679
Speaker 3: I can kind of see now what you're saying about

1365
01:12:48,720 --> 01:12:50,960
Speaker 3: the limitations of it maybe not being one of the

1366
01:12:50,960 --> 01:12:51,479
Speaker 3: better ones.

1367
01:12:51,760 --> 01:12:54,240
Speaker 2: But on the other hand, I don't know. The art

1368
01:12:54,320 --> 01:12:57,800
Speaker 2: Goro fight was pretty good, but we've already established there

1369
01:12:57,840 --> 01:13:00,719
Speaker 2: are limitations to what you can do with this goal effect.

1370
01:13:00,800 --> 01:13:03,600
Speaker 2: So maybe that was just ultimately asking too much for

1371
01:13:03,680 --> 01:13:06,400
Speaker 2: there to be another big, drawn out fight with this

1372
01:13:06,479 --> 01:13:07,120
Speaker 2: creature in it.

1373
01:13:07,360 --> 01:13:09,439
Speaker 3: That's right, And so here we get the transition to

1374
01:13:09,479 --> 01:13:13,760
Speaker 3: the final act where Shengsung he invokes one of his

1375
01:13:14,080 --> 01:13:16,680
Speaker 3: one of the rules of the tournament. He executes his

1376
01:13:16,840 --> 01:13:19,640
Speaker 3: right to challenge any of the Earth Warriors for the

1377
01:13:19,640 --> 01:13:23,040
Speaker 3: final fight of the tournament, and he grabs Sonia blade

1378
01:13:23,120 --> 01:13:26,400
Speaker 3: and drags her, screaming through the portal to outworld, where

1379
01:13:26,479 --> 01:13:29,800
Speaker 3: Raydon has no power and Raydon himself cannot go there.

1380
01:13:30,360 --> 01:13:33,439
Speaker 3: But Johnny Cage and Lukang they're like, hey, we've got

1381
01:13:33,439 --> 01:13:36,479
Speaker 3: to rescue Sonya, so they run through the portal. They

1382
01:13:36,520 --> 01:13:39,200
Speaker 3: first asked Raydon. They're like, okay, well he's going to

1383
01:13:39,320 --> 01:13:41,920
Speaker 3: challenge her to the final fight. Can she beat him?

1384
01:13:41,920 --> 01:13:46,160
Speaker 3: And Raydon is like no, Rayden does not have confidence

1385
01:13:46,200 --> 01:13:46,759
Speaker 3: in Sonya.

1386
01:13:47,240 --> 01:13:49,759
Speaker 2: So I mean, this would make it seem like, lookay,

1387
01:13:50,000 --> 01:13:53,240
Speaker 2: one of my theories that I may have established earlier

1388
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:56,840
Speaker 2: is that it seemed to me that they're going for

1389
01:13:56,880 --> 01:13:59,479
Speaker 2: a whole Sheansung wants to marry Sonia Blade vibe here.

1390
01:14:00,120 --> 01:14:01,800
Speaker 2: But I guess the other way of looking at it

1391
01:14:01,880 --> 01:14:05,519
Speaker 2: is he wanted Sonya Blade to enter the tournament because

1392
01:14:05,560 --> 01:14:08,160
Speaker 2: she would be easy enough to beat an Outworld.

1393
01:14:08,560 --> 01:14:10,080
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's what I thought it was.

1394
01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:12,640
Speaker 2: But that's a weird choice too, because then it's like

1395
01:14:12,840 --> 01:14:17,599
Speaker 2: Sonia Blade's weakness is her reason for being in the tournament,

1396
01:14:18,200 --> 01:14:20,120
Speaker 2: and it seems like you're doing a disservice to your

1397
01:14:20,200 --> 01:14:22,760
Speaker 2: character there. I mean, she's like, we've spent a fair

1398
01:14:22,760 --> 01:14:25,400
Speaker 2: amount of time talking about how how fearsome she is,

1399
01:14:25,439 --> 01:14:28,840
Speaker 2: and now she's just a damsel in distress. So again,

1400
01:14:28,920 --> 01:14:31,519
Speaker 2: I find this transformation of her character an overall use

1401
01:14:31,520 --> 01:14:34,639
Speaker 2: of her character a little clunky.

1402
01:14:34,880 --> 01:14:39,559
Speaker 3: Yeah, not a high point of the plotting here. So anyway,

1403
01:14:39,960 --> 01:14:41,960
Speaker 3: Lukaying and Johnny Cage they got to help her, So

1404
01:14:42,080 --> 01:14:45,559
Speaker 3: they go to Outworld. Outworld looks like a set from

1405
01:14:45,720 --> 01:14:50,879
Speaker 3: Escape from La Yeah, just you know, flaming garbage cans everywhere.

1406
01:14:50,920 --> 01:14:55,479
Speaker 3: It's very post apocalyptic. They're flaming garbage cans everywhere. You

1407
01:14:55,479 --> 01:14:58,719
Speaker 3: would expect it, so in I would have expected Outworld

1408
01:14:58,720 --> 01:15:02,559
Speaker 3: to look a little bit more fantasy and a little

1409
01:15:02,600 --> 01:15:05,799
Speaker 3: bit less like post apocalyptic Earth setting.

1410
01:15:06,400 --> 01:15:09,599
Speaker 2: Well, there is one. I think they're mostly inspired by

1411
01:15:09,600 --> 01:15:13,439
Speaker 2: a particular fighting level in Mortal Kombat too. It's like

1412
01:15:13,479 --> 01:15:16,360
Speaker 2: the Outland setting and it does look like some sort

1413
01:15:16,400 --> 01:15:19,280
Speaker 2: of like a blue and purple ruin, so I guess

1414
01:15:19,280 --> 01:15:23,280
Speaker 2: they're going for that vibe. But yeah, they could have

1415
01:15:23,280 --> 01:15:25,240
Speaker 2: gone into more fantasy direction. I think they're supposed to

1416
01:15:25,280 --> 01:15:30,439
Speaker 2: be more fantasy, like more fantastic places within outworld and

1417
01:15:30,520 --> 01:15:31,719
Speaker 2: palaces and so forth.

1418
01:15:32,040 --> 01:15:35,280
Speaker 3: Now, before they get to Schngsung's palace, there is one

1419
01:15:35,400 --> 01:15:38,040
Speaker 3: more fight, which is Lu Kang versus Reptile, which is

1420
01:15:38,080 --> 01:15:41,479
Speaker 3: pretty good but weird. It's a weird setup for a fight,

1421
01:15:41,560 --> 01:15:42,639
Speaker 3: but I like it.

1422
01:15:43,080 --> 01:15:47,640
Speaker 2: Yeah, this one, it's completely bonkers, rather unexplained, but I

1423
01:15:47,680 --> 01:15:49,760
Speaker 2: love it. It's like a bonus match. You didn't think

1424
01:15:49,760 --> 01:15:52,519
Speaker 2: you were going to get to see Reptile fight. And

1425
01:15:53,280 --> 01:15:56,280
Speaker 2: at this point, again, you know love Reptile in the games.

1426
01:15:56,439 --> 01:15:58,880
Speaker 2: Then he was reduced to this awful CGI character. But

1427
01:15:58,960 --> 01:16:02,760
Speaker 2: luckily Lou Lukang throws or kicks him into a statue

1428
01:16:03,160 --> 01:16:07,799
Speaker 2: which like absorbs him, right and then and then Reptile

1429
01:16:07,840 --> 01:16:10,320
Speaker 2: becomes a humanoid ninja for this battle.

1430
01:16:10,520 --> 01:16:14,479
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right, the CGI lizard is absorbed into the

1431
01:16:14,680 --> 01:16:18,480
Speaker 3: void in the stomach of a sort of monster statue,

1432
01:16:18,800 --> 01:16:22,240
Speaker 3: and that turns into the humanoid ninja form.

1433
01:16:22,479 --> 01:16:24,960
Speaker 2: Right, and and he doesn't look great here. I'm not

1434
01:16:24,960 --> 01:16:27,920
Speaker 2: gonna not gonna lie. Reptile looks a lot cooler in

1435
01:16:28,000 --> 01:16:30,080
Speaker 2: that TV spot for MK two that I talked about

1436
01:16:30,080 --> 01:16:33,360
Speaker 2: in the first episode, but he looks way better than

1437
01:16:33,400 --> 01:16:37,559
Speaker 2: that cgi Grimlin creature. So I remember being rather pleased

1438
01:16:37,600 --> 01:16:39,280
Speaker 2: with it. And fortunately what we get here is a

1439
01:16:39,360 --> 01:16:40,400
Speaker 2: really solid.

1440
01:16:40,120 --> 01:16:43,800
Speaker 3: Vite Yeah, and it ends with a special move from

1441
01:16:43,840 --> 01:16:46,320
Speaker 3: the video games, not for Mortal Kombat one, but from

1442
01:16:46,320 --> 01:16:50,080
Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat two, which is Lukang's bicycle kick, which is

1443
01:16:50,080 --> 01:16:53,200
Speaker 3: where he flies through the air repeatedly kicking you back

1444
01:16:53,240 --> 01:16:56,240
Speaker 3: and forth with both legs while advancing through the air.

1445
01:16:56,840 --> 01:16:58,519
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, solid, solid move.

1446
01:16:59,040 --> 01:17:02,240
Speaker 3: Oh and then final it ends with Reptile reverting back

1447
01:17:02,280 --> 01:17:05,120
Speaker 3: to like lizard form and Lukang just sort of does

1448
01:17:05,160 --> 01:17:09,080
Speaker 3: a bug stomp on him. So that's the end of that,

1449
01:17:09,120 --> 01:17:11,760
Speaker 3: And then they meet Princess Katana again. She's like, well done,

1450
01:17:11,840 --> 01:17:16,479
Speaker 3: you are finally learning Lukang, but so they of course

1451
01:17:16,520 --> 01:17:19,960
Speaker 3: after this Katana, Johnny Cage and Lukang, they go up

1452
01:17:19,960 --> 01:17:23,920
Speaker 3: to Shensung's palace and they're gonna have to challenge Shensung

1453
01:17:24,000 --> 01:17:29,080
Speaker 3: to get Sonya back. Princess Katana prepares Lukang. She's like,

1454
01:17:29,680 --> 01:17:32,320
Speaker 3: you will face when you face Shangsung, there are gonna

1455
01:17:32,360 --> 01:17:35,720
Speaker 3: be three challenges. First, you must face your enemy, then

1456
01:17:35,760 --> 01:17:39,280
Speaker 3: you must face yourself. Then you must face your worst fear.

1457
01:17:40,080 --> 01:17:42,240
Speaker 3: So they go on up to the tower. To the tower,

1458
01:17:42,400 --> 01:17:45,880
Speaker 3: Shengsung has Sonya, He's like dressed her up in a

1459
01:17:46,000 --> 01:17:47,559
Speaker 3: Zena warrior princess outfit.

1460
01:17:48,040 --> 01:17:48,600
Speaker 2: Yeah.

1461
01:17:48,640 --> 01:17:51,280
Speaker 3: He is trying to get her to agree to his

1462
01:17:51,479 --> 01:17:56,160
Speaker 3: challenge of Mortal Kombat, but she won't. He's saying, you

1463
01:17:56,200 --> 01:17:59,920
Speaker 3: have to fight me in Mortal Kombat or Earth will forfeit.

1464
01:18:00,439 --> 01:18:02,639
Speaker 3: And he's not telling her the rules correctly. Those are

1465
01:18:02,680 --> 01:18:05,519
Speaker 3: not the rules. She doesn't have to accept. But he

1466
01:18:05,600 --> 01:18:09,120
Speaker 3: is lying to her about the rules, and she says,

1467
01:18:09,160 --> 01:18:11,600
Speaker 3: I'm not playing your game. My friends will come for me.

1468
01:18:11,720 --> 01:18:15,320
Speaker 3: So it seems Sonya has overcome her personal anxiety of

1469
01:18:15,360 --> 01:18:17,559
Speaker 3: not wanting to accept help from anyone. Now She's like,

1470
01:18:17,600 --> 01:18:20,160
Speaker 3: my friends are gonna come help, and then they like

1471
01:18:20,520 --> 01:18:22,519
Speaker 3: suddenly she says that, and then a couple of the

1472
01:18:22,640 --> 01:18:24,680
Speaker 3: monks standing at the edge of the room. They like

1473
01:18:24,720 --> 01:18:27,479
Speaker 3: throw off their hoods and they go they're already here. Oh,

1474
01:18:27,560 --> 01:18:30,400
Speaker 3: and it is our heroes. They snuck in disguised as

1475
01:18:30,479 --> 01:18:35,440
Speaker 3: guys in hoods. And then we get the final fight. Shangsung,

1476
01:18:35,520 --> 01:18:39,120
Speaker 3: I think, initially tries to challenge Johnny Cage. He's like, okay, okay,

1477
01:18:39,160 --> 01:18:42,040
Speaker 3: I'll fight you, but Lu Kang says, no, you'll fight me,

1478
01:18:42,800 --> 01:18:47,320
Speaker 3: and so Shangsung says, I accept and once again, pretty

1479
01:18:47,320 --> 01:18:48,840
Speaker 3: solid fight at the end of the movie here with

1480
01:18:48,960 --> 01:18:52,000
Speaker 3: multiple phases. Shangsung has a bunch of tricks up his

1481
01:18:52,080 --> 01:18:55,560
Speaker 3: sleeve that he brings out, and each trick sort of

1482
01:18:55,680 --> 01:18:58,679
Speaker 3: varies the texture of the fight, so it keeps throwing

1483
01:18:58,680 --> 01:19:00,000
Speaker 3: in these changes to keep it entry.

1484
01:19:01,160 --> 01:19:04,040
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, so it's it's well paced and has drama

1485
01:19:04,080 --> 01:19:08,080
Speaker 2: to it. It certainly builds on character development that we've

1486
01:19:08,120 --> 01:19:11,400
Speaker 2: had regarding Lou Kang, So yeah, it delivers with action

1487
01:19:11,520 --> 01:19:12,160
Speaker 2: and drama.

1488
01:19:12,479 --> 01:19:16,360
Speaker 3: We you know, we were told earlier that that Changsung

1489
01:19:16,439 --> 01:19:19,400
Speaker 3: has absorbed the souls of thousands of warriors who fought

1490
01:19:19,439 --> 01:19:21,760
Speaker 3: before everyone he's ever defeated in the past, so to

1491
01:19:21,800 --> 01:19:24,360
Speaker 3: defeat him, you have to defeat all of them, and

1492
01:19:24,400 --> 01:19:27,800
Speaker 3: at one point he does like resurrect these dead warriors

1493
01:19:27,840 --> 01:19:29,719
Speaker 3: to fight lu Kang, and I like all these different

1494
01:19:29,760 --> 01:19:31,640
Speaker 3: warriors Lukang has to fight. I think one of them

1495
01:19:31,680 --> 01:19:34,679
Speaker 3: is like a samurai, and then.

1496
01:19:34,600 --> 01:19:38,519
Speaker 2: One of them is definitely Gerald Okamura. We've talked. We've

1497
01:19:38,520 --> 01:19:41,080
Speaker 2: mentioned on the show before because he was often an

1498
01:19:41,080 --> 01:19:45,000
Speaker 2: extra or a background actor or sometimes more prominent in

1499
01:19:45,040 --> 01:19:48,040
Speaker 2: your like more of your action B movies, but he's

1500
01:19:48,040 --> 01:19:50,800
Speaker 2: in tons of martial arts movies from this time period.

1501
01:19:51,280 --> 01:19:52,519
Speaker 2: I think it's still popping up.

1502
01:19:52,479 --> 01:19:54,760
Speaker 3: In things now. At another point in the fight, so

1503
01:19:54,800 --> 01:19:58,320
Speaker 3: I think that's the facier enemy part. At some point

1504
01:19:58,320 --> 01:20:01,760
Speaker 3: he has to face himself. I think, I don't know,

1505
01:20:01,880 --> 01:20:04,920
Speaker 3: just oh, I've forgotten this. Now Shangsung he turns into

1506
01:20:05,000 --> 01:20:08,360
Speaker 3: Lukang or he I don't know. He confronts him with something.

1507
01:20:08,360 --> 01:20:12,519
Speaker 3: But finally Shangsung turns into Lukang's brother, and he like

1508
01:20:12,600 --> 01:20:15,080
Speaker 3: turns around and he morphs and then he is Chan

1509
01:20:15,600 --> 01:20:18,479
Speaker 3: and he says to Lukang, Raiden sent me to help you.

1510
01:20:18,840 --> 01:20:21,040
Speaker 3: But why would Lukang fall for this? He just saw

1511
01:20:21,160 --> 01:20:24,080
Speaker 3: him transformed. He didn't even like disappear and come back.

1512
01:20:24,120 --> 01:20:26,960
Speaker 3: He's just standing right there and then became his brother,

1513
01:20:28,760 --> 01:20:32,240
Speaker 3: so he's like trying to undermine Lukang's confidence as suddenly

1514
01:20:32,400 --> 01:20:35,000
Speaker 3: spikes start poking up out of the floor, and I

1515
01:20:35,080 --> 01:20:36,680
Speaker 3: like how when the close up of us seeing the

1516
01:20:36,720 --> 01:20:40,120
Speaker 3: spikes come out, you can see them like piercing through

1517
01:20:40,160 --> 01:20:43,040
Speaker 3: the glitter covered paper covering on the floor. That's the

1518
01:20:43,080 --> 01:20:45,960
Speaker 3: symbol from the Mortal Kombat games with the swirling dragon.

1519
01:20:46,560 --> 01:20:47,520
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah.

1520
01:20:47,560 --> 01:20:50,360
Speaker 3: And then finally lu Kang has a you know, he

1521
01:20:50,760 --> 01:20:54,479
Speaker 3: learns a lesson that there's a very like individualistic message

1522
01:20:54,520 --> 01:20:57,400
Speaker 3: at the end of the movie. Lu Kang's great triumph

1523
01:20:57,439 --> 01:20:59,800
Speaker 3: is that he learns every man is responsible for his

1524
01:20:59,800 --> 01:21:05,040
Speaker 3: own destiny. And then he finally defeats Shangsung by shooting

1525
01:21:05,040 --> 01:21:07,439
Speaker 3: a fireball out of his hands that is something that

1526
01:21:07,479 --> 01:21:10,080
Speaker 3: he does in the game, and Shangsung falls into the

1527
01:21:10,080 --> 01:21:14,320
Speaker 3: spikes below, and then lu Kang himself says, flawless victory.

1528
01:21:14,880 --> 01:21:16,280
Speaker 3: I don't think that's in character.

1529
01:21:16,720 --> 01:21:19,599
Speaker 2: No, No, he took some damage in this battle as well,

1530
01:21:19,640 --> 01:21:21,240
Speaker 2: so I don't think it's accurate either.

1531
01:21:21,280 --> 01:21:23,800
Speaker 3: Neither accurate nor in character for Lukang. I don't know

1532
01:21:23,840 --> 01:21:25,720
Speaker 3: why he says that. I think they just really had

1533
01:21:25,720 --> 01:21:29,400
Speaker 3: to get the game not in there. So with the

1534
01:21:29,400 --> 01:21:31,599
Speaker 3: big bad defeated lights shoot out of the out World

1535
01:21:31,640 --> 01:21:34,240
Speaker 3: tower and the souls of the Damned are freed from

1536
01:21:34,240 --> 01:21:36,160
Speaker 3: Shangsung's grip, including Chan.

1537
01:21:36,360 --> 01:21:39,600
Speaker 2: And Gerald Olkamier. We see him floating the bud.

1538
01:21:40,680 --> 01:21:43,320
Speaker 3: They all fly off into the sky, and then we

1539
01:21:43,400 --> 01:21:46,679
Speaker 3: get a wonderful coda where that track by Orbital starts

1540
01:21:46,680 --> 01:21:48,960
Speaker 3: playing as the heroes are all back on Earth. They're

1541
01:21:48,960 --> 01:21:52,000
Speaker 3: outside the temple we saw earlier, and they're all hugging

1542
01:21:52,040 --> 01:21:54,519
Speaker 3: it out and everybody's happy. They're like children running with

1543
01:21:54,600 --> 01:21:57,320
Speaker 3: these streamers and stuff, and we get the bump bump

1544
01:21:57,360 --> 01:21:59,599
Speaker 3: bump bum bu bump bump. You know it's it's that

1545
01:21:59,640 --> 01:22:02,920
Speaker 3: field good Orbital track, and it seems like everything's gonna

1546
01:22:02,960 --> 01:22:05,960
Speaker 3: be okay, but somehow you almost know they're setting it

1547
01:22:06,040 --> 01:22:06,719
Speaker 3: up for a twist.

1548
01:22:07,200 --> 01:22:11,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, because then like basically we get this again CGI

1549
01:22:11,200 --> 01:22:14,599
Speaker 2: that has not aged well. Suddenly, like the sky erupts

1550
01:22:14,920 --> 01:22:17,719
Speaker 2: and there is like this monstrous version of Shao Khan,

1551
01:22:18,479 --> 01:22:21,280
Speaker 2: the Emperor of out World, who does does not look

1552
01:22:21,400 --> 01:22:24,120
Speaker 2: very good here. They kind of like put a lot

1553
01:22:24,120 --> 01:22:26,920
Speaker 2: of demon makeup on his face, like they decided to

1554
01:22:26,960 --> 01:22:31,280
Speaker 2: spice up his look a bit, and it doesn't quite work.

1555
01:22:31,400 --> 01:22:33,800
Speaker 2: But I guess the silhouette is right, the helmet is right.

1556
01:22:33,880 --> 01:22:36,519
Speaker 2: So you fans of the of the video games know

1557
01:22:36,520 --> 01:22:37,120
Speaker 2: who this is.

1558
01:22:37,520 --> 01:22:40,920
Speaker 3: But he's the size of a Kaiju. He's gigantic. Yeah,

1559
01:22:40,920 --> 01:22:43,360
Speaker 3: and he says he pops out of the temple and

1560
01:22:43,400 --> 01:22:46,879
Speaker 3: he says, you weak, pathetic fools, I've come for your souls.

1561
01:22:47,360 --> 01:22:50,360
Speaker 3: And what's the last line in the movie Rayden's catchphrase,

1562
01:22:50,400 --> 01:22:54,560
Speaker 3: He goes, I don't think so.

1563
01:22:54,560 --> 01:22:57,240
Speaker 2: So they set up the sequel, which of course will

1564
01:22:57,280 --> 01:23:00,880
Speaker 2: be Mortal Kombat Annihilation, in which Brian Thompson is going

1565
01:23:00,920 --> 01:23:05,240
Speaker 2: to play Shallcan with a more traditional look. But I

1566
01:23:05,240 --> 01:23:07,320
Speaker 2: can't speak to it beyond that because I never actually

1567
01:23:07,320 --> 01:23:10,280
Speaker 2: watched Mortal Combat Annihilation. That's the story for a lot

1568
01:23:10,280 --> 01:23:13,160
Speaker 2: of people, because Mortal Combat Annihilation would not be a

1569
01:23:13,160 --> 01:23:15,600
Speaker 2: success at the box office and would kind of like

1570
01:23:15,720 --> 01:23:21,519
Speaker 2: kill off the Moral Kombat feature film venture for some time.

1571
01:23:21,600 --> 01:23:24,240
Speaker 2: Though there would be additional like I think there was

1572
01:23:24,280 --> 01:23:27,120
Speaker 2: a TV show in the nineties that came after this

1573
01:23:27,320 --> 01:23:32,240
Speaker 2: that looked pretty bad. I would occasionally catch part of it,

1574
01:23:32,680 --> 01:23:34,439
Speaker 2: but maybe it has its fans. And then there would

1575
01:23:34,479 --> 01:23:40,559
Speaker 2: be additional like web installments of of later shows and

1576
01:23:40,600 --> 01:23:43,559
Speaker 2: some of those were pretty good eventually leading back up

1577
01:23:43,600 --> 01:23:46,439
Speaker 2: to the resurrection of Mortal Kombat Motion Pictures.

1578
01:23:46,720 --> 01:23:48,360
Speaker 3: So we do an Annihilation next week.

1579
01:23:49,120 --> 01:23:52,599
Speaker 2: No, not next week. Maybe we'll come back to it

1580
01:23:53,360 --> 01:23:56,280
Speaker 2: if people want it. I mean, it has an interesting

1581
01:23:56,360 --> 01:24:01,440
Speaker 2: cast and more, you know, iconic characters, you know, recreated

1582
01:24:01,600 --> 01:24:03,960
Speaker 2: two varying degrees of success on the screen.

1583
01:24:04,240 --> 01:24:06,920
Speaker 3: I recall that the characters in that movie travel around

1584
01:24:07,000 --> 01:24:09,240
Speaker 3: the world through tunnels that go through the center of

1585
01:24:09,280 --> 01:24:13,160
Speaker 3: the earth by like rolling in these American gladiator balls.

1586
01:24:13,560 --> 01:24:17,040
Speaker 3: Oh really wow? Yeah, well that sounds interesting. That's good

1587
01:24:17,040 --> 01:24:22,479
Speaker 3: transportation infrastructure. All right. Does that do it for Mortal Kombat?

1588
01:24:23,320 --> 01:24:26,479
Speaker 2: I think it does. I think after two episodes we

1589
01:24:26,560 --> 01:24:29,559
Speaker 2: have we have finished it. So we'll go ahead and

1590
01:24:29,560 --> 01:24:32,920
Speaker 2: shut the book on this tournament. But we'll remind everyone

1591
01:24:32,960 --> 01:24:35,400
Speaker 2: out there that stuff to blow your mind is primarily

1592
01:24:35,400 --> 01:24:37,920
Speaker 2: as signs and culture podcasts. But on Fridays we set

1593
01:24:37,960 --> 01:24:40,920
Speaker 2: aside most serious concerns and we just talk about a

1594
01:24:40,920 --> 01:24:43,519
Speaker 2: weird film here on Weird House Cinema. If you want

1595
01:24:43,520 --> 01:24:45,400
Speaker 2: to see a list of all the movies we've covered

1596
01:24:45,400 --> 01:24:47,880
Speaker 2: over the years, the best place to go for that

1597
01:24:48,000 --> 01:24:49,920
Speaker 2: is to head on over to Letterbox dot com. That's

1598
01:24:50,000 --> 01:24:52,320
Speaker 2: l E T E R B O x D dot com.

1599
01:24:53,160 --> 01:24:55,320
Speaker 2: You will find us there. Our username is weird House

1600
01:24:55,360 --> 01:24:57,000
Speaker 2: and we have a list of all the films. Look

1601
01:24:57,040 --> 01:24:59,960
Speaker 2: at them, you know, sort them by genre or decade.

1602
01:25:00,200 --> 01:25:03,040
Speaker 2: It's pretty fun to play around with. Oh and if

1603
01:25:03,080 --> 01:25:05,920
Speaker 2: you were on Instagram follow Stuff to Blow your Mind

1604
01:25:06,080 --> 01:25:09,920
Speaker 2: follow our feed at stbym podcast. We also have updates

1605
01:25:09,920 --> 01:25:14,200
Speaker 2: about Weird House Cinema right there at stbym podcast on Instagram.

1606
01:25:14,400 --> 01:25:18,719
Speaker 3: Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer, JJ Posway,

1607
01:25:18,960 --> 01:25:22,840
Speaker 3: and a huge thanks to our guest producer today, Chandler Mays.

1608
01:25:22,880 --> 01:25:25,760
Speaker 3: Thanks for sitting in with us. Chandler. If you would

1609
01:25:25,800 --> 01:25:28,800
Speaker 3: like to get in touch with us on this episode

1610
01:25:28,880 --> 01:25:31,320
Speaker 3: or any other, to suggest a topic for the future,

1611
01:25:31,439 --> 01:25:33,639
Speaker 3: or just to say hello, you can email us at

1612
01:25:33,640 --> 01:25:43,080
Speaker 3: contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com.

1613
01:25:43,160 --> 01:25:46,120
Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For

1614
01:25:46,200 --> 01:25:49,000
Speaker 1: more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,

1615
01:25:49,120 --> 01:25:51,880
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.