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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema Rewind. This is Rob Lamb,

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Speaker 1: and today we have, as promised, Mortal Kombat Part 2.

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Speaker 1: This is not concerning Mortal Kombat 2 Annihilation, though we

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Speaker 1: did recently do that one on Weird House. No, this

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Speaker 1: is the second part of our look at 1995's Mortal Kombat. So,

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Speaker 1: please enjoy. We just reran the first part of this

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Speaker 1: on Monday. This one originally published 8-16-2024. Enjoy.

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Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to Weird House Cinema. This is Rob Lamb.

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Speaker 3: And this is Joe McCormick. And we're back with part

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Speaker 3: two of our discussion of the 1995 supernatural martial arts

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Speaker 3: movie Mortal Kombat, adapted from the extremely popular, extremely violent

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Speaker 3: video game franchise. Now, we did not intend for our

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Speaker 3: discussion of this movie to end up spanning two separate episodes,

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Speaker 3: but the breakup, I think, proved inevitable due to time constraints,

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Speaker 3: especially because this movie loomed so large when we were kids,

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Speaker 3: and thus we had a lot to say about it

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Speaker 3: from personal recollection. I think we spent a lot of

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Speaker 3: the last episode just conveying our emotions about Mortal Kombat

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Speaker 3: from the time of childhood.

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Speaker 1: That's right. I mean, it was almost kind of... an

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Speaker 1: identity you chose for yourself by being a Mortal Kombat fan.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's not to say you couldn't also be

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Speaker 1: a Street Fighter fan. Those games were great too. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: there was something about the Mortal Kombat aesthetic, the music,

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Speaker 1: certainly the fact that its violence kind of got under

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Speaker 1: the skin of many of the parental units. You know,

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Speaker 1: it felt a 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 2 is a better

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Speaker 3: game than whatever the equivalent Mortal Kombat 2 is. But

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

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Speaker 3: interesting skin stretched over it when you were a child

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Speaker 3: in the 90s. It seemed more dangerous and more fascinating

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Speaker 3: for that reason.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and I think it was fed by a lot

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Speaker 1: of the more violent films. I mean, not all of

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Speaker 1: them were super violent. Big Trouble in Little China is

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Speaker 1: not grotesquely violent. But, you know, there are aspects of

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Speaker 1: all these different franchises kind of mixed in to Mortal

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Speaker 1: 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 view fighting

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Speaker 3: games for arcades and home consoles in the early 1990s.

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Speaker 3: And these games were extremely popular. They distinguish themselves, I think,

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Speaker 3: with a mix of dark fantasy martial arts setting, fast

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Speaker 3: paced action and hyper violence. And as you were just saying, Rob,

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Speaker 3: the violence in particular was was like a cultural touch point.

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Speaker 3: There was a backlash, a kind of moral panic among

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Speaker 3: many adults who were distressed to watch their kids carefully

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Speaker 3: memorizing the button combination that you would have to enter

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Speaker 3: to rip somebody's backbone out at the end of a match.

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Speaker 3: And that game franchise has continued up until today, but

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Speaker 3: the first movie was released in 1995, 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 Tsung. in which human fighters with names like

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Speaker 3: Liu Kang, Sonya Blade, and Johnny Cage must win in

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

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

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Speaker 3: later games in the series had more irony. They wore

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Speaker 3: the irony more outwardly, and they had more obvious tongue-in-cheek elements.

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Speaker 3: But if you go back to this first game, it

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Speaker 3: is grim, doomy, and hardcore. Would you agree with that, Rob?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I would agree with that, especially the first one.

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Speaker 1: But even the second one, the second one had the

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Speaker 1: friendships in there, which were goofy. And I think, you know,

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Speaker 1: kind of a fun jab at all of the haters

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Speaker 1: based on the violence. But still... Wait, hold on.

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Speaker 3: You should explain what the friendships are for people who

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Speaker 3: don't know.

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Speaker 1: All right. So, you know, you beat your opponent and

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Speaker 1: then you get the directive, finish him. And if you

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Speaker 1: know the codes, you can do a fatality. But you

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Speaker 1: can also, if the parameters are met, do a friendship,

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Speaker 1: which instead of like brutally decapitating your opponent, does something like,

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Speaker 1: you know, give them a cupcake. I don't know. That's

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Speaker 1: not one of them. Balloon. Shang Tsung would do one

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Speaker 1: where he makes a rainbow with his hands, I think.

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Speaker 1: So it's something nice. So that's pretty tongue-in-cheek. But for

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Speaker 1: the most part, like the rest of the vibe, the music,

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Speaker 1: the look of Mortal Kombat 2 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-13 quality. And while the movie is still very violent

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Speaker 3: and has some scary fantasy elements, you know, it's got

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Speaker 3: your your four armed outworld demon king. It's got vacuuming

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: kind of, ha ha, 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 lightening 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: Christophe Lambert as the thunder god Raiden, 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, Robb?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, especially in some of the more recent games,

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Speaker 1: overly serious. Like, I think, maybe not intentionally laughably serious,

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Speaker 1: but there are a lot of memes about the recent

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Speaker 1: games and Raiden saying things like, I must consult the

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Speaker 1: 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: Raiden is like if a 2D 90s sitcom character were

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Speaker 3: played by Peter Lorre and yet still had catchphrases like,

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Speaker 3: I don't think so. He's about two seconds away from

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Speaker 3: saying Earth rules, outworld drools for much of the film.

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Speaker 3: But anyway, as I mentioned last time, this was my

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Speaker 3: nine-year-old self's idea of a really good movie. I saw

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Speaker 3: Mortal Kombat in the theaters. Of course, I played the

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Speaker 3: early games. I bought the VHS tape and I watched

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Speaker 3: it a bazillion times at home. I had the original

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Speaker 3: motion picture soundtrack on CD. I listened to it a lot.

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Speaker 3: I read the liner notes and the jewel case and

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Speaker 3: all that. We devoted a significant chunk of the last

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Speaker 3: episode just to talking about the CD, the soundtrack CD

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Speaker 3: and the songs on it, which were a strange mix, right?

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Speaker 3: It had metal, industrial, had these techno pump-up tracks with

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Speaker 3: a lot of audio samples from the video game, and

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Speaker 3: then ambient classics like Halcyon plus On and On by Orbital.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a weird one to revisit because, you know,

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Speaker 1: you go back, you listen to it, and you're like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: this is a great track. I like this. Oh, I

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Speaker 1: love this one. And then it's like, I don't like

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Speaker 1: this one at all. But 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. We're going to do our best.

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Speaker 1: But, you know, in the spirit of the Olympics having

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Speaker 1: just finished, I want to open up the spirit of

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Speaker 1: competition here. We normally discourage gambling on this podcast. But

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Speaker 1: for this one time, We're going to allow you, if

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Speaker 1: you would like, please feel free to place your bets

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Speaker 1: on who is going to win the Mortal Kombat tournament

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Speaker 1: depicted in this movie. You may have forgotten how it

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Speaker 1: turns out, or maybe you haven't seen it before. So,

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Speaker 1: you know, gamble responsibly. 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 1: Kano, I think he has a lot of strengths coming

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Speaker 1: into this tournament, you know. He's got a knife. He's

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Speaker 1: got a weapon.

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Speaker 3: They let him bring weapons to matches where his opponent

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Speaker 3: is unarmed.

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Speaker 1: That seems unfair. He has the laser eye. I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure if it does lasers in this film or not. No.

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Speaker 1: But it's metal, too, so he's got potential defense there.

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Speaker 3: That's right.

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Speaker 1: You know, I feel like I'd be foolish not to

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Speaker 1: put my money behind Goro. He's the reigning champ, and

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Speaker 1: he has extra arms. And can also shoot fireballs.

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Speaker 3: It is hard to describe the disappointment you're going to

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Speaker 3: feel in the Goro's got nards scene. Yeah. So, oh,

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Speaker 3: before 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 techno pump-up music to get your blood going.

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Speaker 3: It is very strong with the hype tracks on the

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Speaker 3: soundtrack to keep the momentum up and keep you feeling

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Speaker 3: good and ready for the next scene.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so that Mortal Kombat theme song by the Immortals,

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Speaker 1: one of the main things that you will remember from

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Speaker 1: this movie, if you haven't seen it in decades, they

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Speaker 1: start playing it Before the opening credits even roll, like

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Speaker 1: you just all you see are the studio logos loading

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Speaker 1: up and you're already hit with Mortal Kombat. And you're

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Speaker 1: off to the races.

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

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Speaker 3: it samples sounds from the video game. So like one

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Speaker 3: of the snare triggers and the beat. is the, the

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Speaker 3: fight grunt from the game where somebody is going, it's

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

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Speaker 3: punched in the face.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: But it's using that as the, it's an infectious track,

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Speaker 3: strong choice. Uh, so the movie opens with a dream sequence.

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

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Speaker 3: Thailand and, I think this is the Wat Phras Si

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Speaker 3: Sanphet Temple. I hope I'm pronouncing that close to right.

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Speaker 3: It is actually, in reality, a beautiful location. Unfortunately, the

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Speaker 3: opening shot that features this beautiful location looks terrible because

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

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Speaker 3: but they're compositing in a dark, gloomy background that just

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Speaker 3: does not match the foreground at all.

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Speaker 1: I've actually been to this location. This is in Ayutthaya.

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Speaker 1: And I distinctly remember visiting here many, many years ago.

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Speaker 1: The heat was otherworldly. And I had just consumed a

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Speaker 1: Thai Red Bull, which at the time, I don't know,

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Speaker 1: it was very hot as well. But I think it

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Speaker 1: had a different chemical composition. It seemed way stronger than

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Speaker 1: any Red Bull I've ever had anywhere else. But it

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Speaker 1: made for a very memorable experience. And the grounds are

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Speaker 1: 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 that gets 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: color keyed in or something. Storm clouds are swirling and

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Speaker 3: there are these deep droning chants playing in the soundtrack.

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Speaker 3: And then we zoom in on a pair of men

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

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Speaker 3: this temple. One is a young man wearing simple clothing.

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Speaker 3: He's dressed like he might be a monk dressed. And

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

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Speaker 3: other actor here is Kirihiro Yuki Tagawa as our villain

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Speaker 3: Shang Tsung, the evil sorcerer. In this shot, he looks

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Speaker 3: about nine feet tall compared to the young man. He's

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

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

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

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Speaker 3: in a ridiculous outfit for hand-to-hand combat. We brought this

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Speaker 3: up in the last episode, but he's wearing like a

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Speaker 3: heavy calf-length black leather coat. So he's, you know, going

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Speaker 3: to do some roundhouse kicks to defeat Earthrealm, but he

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Speaker 3: is just wrapped in 20 pounds of loose leather.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. This is very much rock star Shang Tsung

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Speaker 1: right here. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So the fight begins between these two, and it is

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Speaker 3: not much of a contest. Shang Tsung annihilates this poor guy.

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Speaker 3: 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 treating him

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Speaker 3: 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: Shang Tsung holds the young man up and then looks

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Speaker 3: straight into the camera and And he says, your brother's

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Speaker 3: soul is mine. You will be next. And then Shang

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Speaker 3: Tsung's face turns into a putrid CGI skeleton, and we

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Speaker 3: speed zoom into his eye hole.

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Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah, there's some ambitious eye action in this movie

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Speaker 1: concerning 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 Liu Kang.

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Speaker 3: So Liu Kang, we meet him next. He sits back.

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

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Speaker 3: is 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 it to.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, like Listerine or Really Bad Absinthe, you know? It's

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Speaker 1: like that level, and it's just completely saturated in it.

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Speaker 1: It's not like you have just some green highlights here

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Speaker 1: and there. I'm just talking 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 Bava uses.

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

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Speaker 3: that I don't know. It, it doesn't work the way

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Speaker 3: Bava does.

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Speaker 1: I've read criticism. In fact, I think I've read mostly

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Speaker 1: criticism of Glenn Danzig's, um, veronica movie as being baba

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Speaker 1: inspired but having like really poor use of gels um

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Speaker 1: and and i have to say as boring and as

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Speaker 1: cheap as that movie is uh i don't think he

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Speaker 1: gave us anything like this green room uh it is

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Speaker 1: it's just so like single note it's just so overbearingly

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Speaker 1: green um but i do also want to give anderson

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Speaker 1: credit because you also see some very green sequences very

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Speaker 1: green scenes uh very green lighting in event horizon But

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Speaker 1: it's a lot more balanced by that point. It's a

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Speaker 1: lot more nuanced. It doesn't feel like this. It doesn't

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Speaker 1: feel like you're in a green aquarium full of jello.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 3: So here, this is Liu Kang played by the actor

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Speaker 3: and martial artist Robin Xu. Again, Liu Kang 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 1: Oh, it has to be a lot.

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Speaker 3: It's a recurring dream.

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Speaker 1: Well, one would think. But then on the other hand,

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Speaker 1: there there is the idea that he is being dream

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Speaker 1: delivered actual information. Right. So this is something we're about

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Speaker 1: to find out. This is something that has happened.

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

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Speaker 3: bad dream. He gets up out of his bed. He

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Speaker 3: goes to his dresser. which this is of no significance

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Speaker 3: to anyone else, but he has a dresser that looks

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Speaker 3: almost exactly like a dresser that I have in my house.

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Speaker 3: We've got the same piece of furniture, Liu Kang and I.

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Speaker 3: And he picks up off the dresser a Western Union telegram,

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

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, you pay by the word or the letter, right?

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Speaker 1: So you could keep it short.

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Speaker 3: So we don't learn much about Liu 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. Right.

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Speaker 1: And he might be more jacked for having those bad dreams. Like,

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Speaker 1: they just keep you tight, you know? Yeah. Waking up

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Speaker 1: 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 hard. Here we're going to meet Sonya Blade and

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Speaker 3: her partner Jax. And they are wearing special forces outfits

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Speaker 3: and Kevlar. They're carrying huge shotguns that have flashlights fixed

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Speaker 3: over the barrels. And they're running down this corridor full

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Speaker 3: of television screens out onto the dance floor, spitting out

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Speaker 3: lines in tactical speak. So Sonya is saying stuff like,

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Speaker 3: let's go 60 seconds to target acquisition. Jax, is the

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Speaker 3: perimeter secure? And I'm like, I was just thinking, in

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Speaker 3: what way could this location be secure? It's like a

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Speaker 3: club full of hundreds of people dancing in the dark

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Speaker 3: with strobe lights, and they're still dancing. What does secure mean?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, some of them kind of attack them in kind

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Speaker 1: of a mosh pity way, but most are not. Most

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Speaker 1: seem to just be ravers and or metal enthusiasts. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I have so many questions about this ridiculous sequence. Like,

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Speaker 1: what exactly is their jurisdiction in Hong Kong in the

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Speaker 1: mid-90s at this club? What safety measures are in place

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Speaker 1: concerning these club goers, if any? Indeed, what does it

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Speaker 1: mean for this place to be secure? None of this

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Speaker 1: 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 hilarious, too. There's an

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Speaker 3: exchange where Jax is like, the perimeter is locked. And

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Speaker 3: Sonya says, it better be. I want Kano locked. 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, Jax. You're talking to her.

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Speaker 1: So tough. Just so tough.

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Speaker 3: Tough. So they move through the crowd and Sonya is

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Speaker 3: just whacking randos with her gun. Again, these are not

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Speaker 3: criminals or like fighters or anything. They're just people dancing.

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Speaker 3: She's just like beating them with a gun. Yeah. Anyway,

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Speaker 3: here's where we meet another villain of the movie, Kano.

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Speaker 3: Oh boy, Kano. He's up in some kind of office

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

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Speaker 3: He is with Shang Tsung, who we saw from The Dream.

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Speaker 3: But Shang Tsung is here wearing the same clothes, I think.

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Speaker 3: The same overcoat he wore in The Dream and all that.

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Speaker 3: And he's sitting behind a desk, and Kano's looking out

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Speaker 3: over the dancers, and they're plotting together. Kano says, she's here,

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Speaker 3: right on time. He's really playing up the accent. He says,

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Speaker 3: I love punctuality in a woman. Don't you, Mr. Shang Tsung?

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Speaker 3: And then Kano turns his head so we see his

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Speaker 3: metal faceplate with the red Terminator eye. This is never

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Speaker 3: explained in the movie. I don't think they say anything

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Speaker 3: about it, do they? They just show it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's no explanation. I honestly can't even remember

357
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Speaker 1: the exact explanation in the game. Maybe Sonya took his

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Speaker 1: eye out or something in a fight. I'm not sure.

359
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Speaker 1: Is he a cyborg? Is it just a thing that

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Speaker 1: clashes over his head?

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Speaker 3: I don't know. Yeah. So we learn from this scene

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Speaker 3: that Shang Tsung is using the criminal gang sort of

363
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Speaker 3: ganglord Kano to lure Sonya Blade to his island for

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00:20:24,359 --> 00:20:28,260
Speaker 3: a tournament. And Shang Tsung is adamant she must be

365
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Speaker 3: at the tournament. It is of utmost importance. But they

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Speaker 3: don't explain why. Why her? Why does she need to

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Speaker 3: be there? Don't know. But we learn that Kano has

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Speaker 3: recently murdered her partner. I think they're saying like work partner,

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Speaker 3: not romantic partner.

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Speaker 1: Okay, so some sort of pre-Jax partner.

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Speaker 3: Yes, her work partner. And now Kano is the bait

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Speaker 3: that will bring her to the island.

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Speaker 1: Because I think basically in the games, it's like Sonya

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Speaker 1: is there after Kano. Kano is there because this is

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Speaker 1: just the kind of scene that guys like Kano pop

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Speaker 1: 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.

379
00:21:08,790 --> 00:21:08,990
Speaker 1: Yeah.

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00:21:09,690 --> 00:21:13,270
Speaker 3: Okay, we got to meet our next good human fighter character,

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Speaker 3: and that is Johnny Cage. So this scene begins with

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Speaker 3: a kind of fake out. We see the actor, Lyndon Ashby,

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Speaker 3: walk into, I don't know, like a big airplane hangar

384
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Speaker 3: type building. And these big doors open up and let

385
00:21:29,200 --> 00:21:31,969
Speaker 3: in the light from L.A. outside. And we see him

386
00:21:32,030 --> 00:21:35,129
Speaker 3: walk in. He's very cool. He's dressed in a suit,

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Speaker 3: I think. And he's got sunglasses on. Goes into the

388
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Speaker 3: big empty hangar. And there is, what do you call

389
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Speaker 3: this vibe? It's like 80s and 90s movies that have

390
00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:50,080
Speaker 3: guys in double-breasted suits that are hand-to-hand martial arts fighters.

391
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Speaker 3: And they have weapons. And they're standing around a limo

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Speaker 3: with a briefcase.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know what you call this. But yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're sort of stereotypical suited bodyguards, yeah.

395
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Speaker 3: Hugo Bosskata. Yeah. So you've got these these guys like

396
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Speaker 3: they stand there in a row and the one that's

397
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Speaker 3: got like an extendable baton. Another one's got a shock

398
00:22:11,540 --> 00:22:14,840
Speaker 3: stick and so forth. And this guy walks up to

399
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Speaker 3: the fight and he says his catchphrase. He says, let's dance.

400
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Speaker 3: And the way he kind of whispers it makes me think, oh,

401
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Speaker 3: they're going for a bit of a Steven Seagal thing there,

402
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Speaker 3: aren't they? With the whisper voice.

403
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Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.

404
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Speaker 3: So he beats all these guys up, but then he's

405
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Speaker 3: facing off against the last one still standing. He kicks

406
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Speaker 3: him and then the guy just stands there staring at him.

407
00:22:35,869 --> 00:22:39,510
Speaker 3: And he says to the guy with exasperation, this is

408
00:22:39,550 --> 00:22:42,189
Speaker 3: the part where you fall down. And so then the

409
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Speaker 3: guy kind of launches himself onto the floor. Lyndon Ashby

410
00:22:45,450 --> 00:22:47,840
Speaker 3: turns around and says, where do you get these guys?

411
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Speaker 3: So it turns out it was all a fake out.

412
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Speaker 3: They are shooting a movie scene. This was not a

413
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Speaker 3: real fight. And Johnny Cage is, we learn, a martial

414
00:22:56,330 --> 00:23:00,970
Speaker 3: arts movie star like Jean-Claude Van Damme. But the tabloids

415
00:23:01,030 --> 00:23:03,990
Speaker 3: are saying he's a fake, he's a phony, he could

416
00:23:04,100 --> 00:23:06,640
Speaker 3: not really kung fu his way out of a paper bag.

417
00:23:07,340 --> 00:23:11,980
Speaker 3: And these rumors are apparently damaging his career. Now, this

418
00:23:12,040 --> 00:23:14,760
Speaker 3: raises a question. I didn't research this before we came in,

419
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Speaker 3: but has there ever been a major martial arts movie

420
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Speaker 3: star whose career was.

421
00:23:22,450 --> 00:23:27,109
Speaker 3: Severely hurt by allegations that they couldn't really fight in

422
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Speaker 3: the real world. There are allegations like that about certain

423
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Speaker 3: movie stars, but I feel like they tend to be

424
00:23:33,700 --> 00:23:36,139
Speaker 3: already washed up by the time that is a major

425
00:23:36,180 --> 00:23:37,000
Speaker 3: meme about them.

426
00:23:37,680 --> 00:23:41,100
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know. It's always a weird... I always

427
00:23:41,140 --> 00:23:43,400
Speaker 1: find it kind of strange when we get into, not

428
00:23:43,440 --> 00:23:45,850
Speaker 1: we as in you and me, but we as a

429
00:23:45,890 --> 00:23:50,480
Speaker 1: culture or subcultures get into conversations about like, If a

430
00:23:50,680 --> 00:23:54,960
Speaker 1: particular actor is tough enough or a musician is tough enough,

431
00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: you know, sometimes based on them, like losing legit fights

432
00:23:58,900 --> 00:24:01,800
Speaker 1: or getting punched out or, you know, signing up for

433
00:24:01,820 --> 00:24:03,180
Speaker 1: a boxing or an MMA thing.

434
00:24:03,200 --> 00:24:05,380
Speaker 3: Why does that matter? They're actors, they're performers.

435
00:24:05,700 --> 00:24:07,550
Speaker 1: I mean, the really damaging things you sometimes hear about

436
00:24:07,609 --> 00:24:10,469
Speaker 1: action stars are about them being, of course, unprofessional in

437
00:24:10,550 --> 00:24:13,130
Speaker 1: one way or another or unsafe when it comes to,

438
00:24:13,150 --> 00:24:16,030
Speaker 1: you know, fight choreography and so forth. Yeah.

439
00:24:16,090 --> 00:24:19,369
Speaker 3: Yeah. Being like aggressive with with stunt stunt workers and

440
00:24:19,410 --> 00:24:19,950
Speaker 3: stuff like that.

441
00:24:20,190 --> 00:24:22,629
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, we can all if you if you

442
00:24:22,670 --> 00:24:24,560
Speaker 1: follow any kind of combat sports, you can name the

443
00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,159
Speaker 1: individuals that are legit tough and can legit win fights.

444
00:24:28,600 --> 00:24:31,680
Speaker 1: You don't necessarily want to see them starring in their

445
00:24:31,720 --> 00:24:34,619
Speaker 1: own picture. There are different skill sets involved. Everyone can

446
00:24:34,660 --> 00:24:38,310
Speaker 1: do their own thing. Sometimes those skills line up and

447
00:24:38,330 --> 00:24:40,850
Speaker 1: you have somebody who can do both. But generally, I'm

448
00:24:40,890 --> 00:24:43,389
Speaker 1: happy to keep them in two different buckets.

449
00:24:43,820 --> 00:24:45,389
Speaker 3: I guess I just feel like if I watch a

450
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:49,490
Speaker 3: martial arts movie and the, the main character is great

451
00:24:49,609 --> 00:24:52,310
Speaker 3: and I find out the actor who portrayed them is

452
00:24:52,390 --> 00:24:55,430
Speaker 3: not actually a fighter in real life, that has no

453
00:24:55,490 --> 00:24:57,729
Speaker 3: effect on my, like, I don't know.

454
00:24:58,430 --> 00:25:00,670
Speaker 1: Yeah. But I don't get it. They're kind of leaning

455
00:25:00,710 --> 00:25:04,130
Speaker 1: into some sort of like a kayfabe idea here, I guess. So,

456
00:25:04,190 --> 00:25:06,650
Speaker 1: all right, we're to believe that Johnny Cage has some,

457
00:25:06,890 --> 00:25:10,150
Speaker 1: some issues with how he's being perceived and it would

458
00:25:10,170 --> 00:25:13,480
Speaker 1: be great if he could, um, improve how the public

459
00:25:13,520 --> 00:25:16,380
Speaker 1: perceives him in regards to real fights. So why not

460
00:25:16,460 --> 00:25:22,800
Speaker 1: join a super deadly, super secret death elimination tournament? Sounds

461
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:23,780
Speaker 1: like a great career move.

462
00:25:24,260 --> 00:25:27,380
Speaker 3: Exactly. So he meets up on the movie set with

463
00:25:27,420 --> 00:25:30,379
Speaker 3: an old teacher of his, a guy named Master Boyd.

464
00:25:30,420 --> 00:25:31,929
Speaker 3: Who is the actor playing this guy?

465
00:25:32,320 --> 00:25:34,300
Speaker 1: This is Peter Jason, who was in a bunch of

466
00:25:34,359 --> 00:25:37,720
Speaker 1: John Carpenter films and tons of other films. Very recognizable

467
00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:38,199
Speaker 1: character actor.

468
00:25:38,790 --> 00:25:41,650
Speaker 3: He's got long hair and a beard. He's almost got

469
00:25:41,690 --> 00:25:44,220
Speaker 3: kind of a Jeff Bridges duty vibe in the scene,

470
00:25:44,280 --> 00:25:46,619
Speaker 3: except he's supposed to be a great martial arts teacher.

471
00:25:47,420 --> 00:25:50,300
Speaker 3: And he informs Johnny that there is a way for

472
00:25:50,340 --> 00:25:53,340
Speaker 3: him to restore his credibility to put these rumors to rest. Rob,

473
00:25:53,440 --> 00:25:55,610
Speaker 3: it's exactly as you were saying. There is a once

474
00:25:55,670 --> 00:25:59,170
Speaker 3: in a generation fight to the death martial arts tournament

475
00:25:59,230 --> 00:26:02,830
Speaker 3: called Mortal Kombat being held in secret on an island

476
00:26:02,990 --> 00:26:05,790
Speaker 3: off Hong Kong. And so his teacher says, get on

477
00:26:05,830 --> 00:26:08,369
Speaker 3: a boat at a specific time and place. go to

478
00:26:08,410 --> 00:26:11,930
Speaker 3: the tournament, win it, and the press will stop saying

479
00:26:11,970 --> 00:26:14,730
Speaker 3: you're a fraud. This has got to be one of

480
00:26:14,770 --> 00:26:17,830
Speaker 3: the worst PR plans I've ever heard of.

481
00:26:18,050 --> 00:26:22,169
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. In fact, I'm kind of surprised nobody has,

482
00:26:22,450 --> 00:26:24,730
Speaker 1: maybe somebody has done this up as a complete comedy.

483
00:26:25,770 --> 00:26:29,050
Speaker 1: This would, I think, be a great theme for a flick.

484
00:26:29,109 --> 00:26:36,160
Speaker 1: Have a more comedically problematic martial arts actor, and then

485
00:26:36,380 --> 00:26:39,770
Speaker 1: they do this. They enter a a super secret single

486
00:26:39,790 --> 00:26:43,630
Speaker 1: elimination death tournament in order to fix their PR problem. Yeah.

487
00:26:44,490 --> 00:26:47,130
Speaker 3: Oh, dude, actually, no, here it's coming to my mind now.

488
00:26:47,490 --> 00:26:50,530
Speaker 3: So it's like written by Armando Iannucci, but it's about

489
00:26:50,710 --> 00:26:55,050
Speaker 3: the real Steven Seagal going to a Mortal Kombat type tournament.

490
00:26:56,530 --> 00:26:59,910
Speaker 1: Because what's the best case scenario here? He returns having

491
00:26:59,990 --> 00:27:02,090
Speaker 1: murdered multiple people. Yeah.

492
00:27:04,119 --> 00:27:06,629
Speaker 3: Oh, and then another funny thing is that after Johnny

493
00:27:06,650 --> 00:27:10,050
Speaker 3: Cage leaves, there's nobody around. We just see Master Boyd

494
00:27:10,550 --> 00:27:12,830
Speaker 3: walking around in this airplane hangar and then he just

495
00:27:12,990 --> 00:27:17,260
Speaker 3: morphs into Shang Tsung himself. So it wasn't even Master Boyd.

496
00:27:17,280 --> 00:27:19,240
Speaker 3: He was never there. It was Shang Tsung.

497
00:27:19,859 --> 00:27:20,439
Speaker 1: He's a trickster.

498
00:27:29,160 --> 00:27:31,490
Speaker 3: OK, so the next scene, we're back to Liu Kang.

499
00:27:31,570 --> 00:27:34,950
Speaker 3: Here we have Liu Kang walking Arriving by riverboat at

500
00:27:34,990 --> 00:27:39,110
Speaker 3: a place that we're told is the Temple of Light, China. Again,

501
00:27:39,170 --> 00:27:41,770
Speaker 3: I think this is probably a Thai temple.

502
00:27:42,350 --> 00:27:44,669
Speaker 1: Yes, yes. I'm almost certain this is a Thai temple.

503
00:27:45,250 --> 00:27:48,429
Speaker 1: And we're told it's a Chinese temple. And then we

504
00:27:48,470 --> 00:27:52,850
Speaker 1: have Christophe Lambert stroll in as a video game god

505
00:27:52,950 --> 00:27:56,290
Speaker 1: based on a Japanese thunder deity. So culturally, we're all

506
00:27:56,330 --> 00:27:57,510
Speaker 1: over the place here. Yeah.

507
00:27:58,460 --> 00:28:00,800
Speaker 3: But when Liu Kang, so we got to get there

508
00:28:00,820 --> 00:28:03,840
Speaker 3: in a second. Liu Kang is greeted by an assembly

509
00:28:03,859 --> 00:28:07,399
Speaker 3: of monks in red robes, including his grandfather, who is

510
00:28:07,460 --> 00:28:11,560
Speaker 3: some kind of authority figure for this organization that the

511
00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:14,760
Speaker 3: movie calls the Order of Light. So I think the

512
00:28:14,820 --> 00:28:19,280
Speaker 3: backstory is that Liu Kang and his brother Chan were

513
00:28:19,380 --> 00:28:22,619
Speaker 3: trained in Kung Fu by the Order of Light, and

514
00:28:22,660 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 3: they were brought up to defend the realm of Earth

515
00:28:25,740 --> 00:28:29,100
Speaker 3: in the tournament of Mortal Kombat. So The lore of

516
00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:31,880
Speaker 3: the tournament and the lore of the movie is already

517
00:28:31,940 --> 00:28:34,320
Speaker 3: known to Liu Kang. He was brought up in it.

518
00:28:34,380 --> 00:28:38,719
Speaker 3: He was always taught this. But Liu Kang rejected and

519
00:28:38,820 --> 00:28:41,900
Speaker 3: ran away from his destiny and went to America. So

520
00:28:41,960 --> 00:28:44,720
Speaker 3: he became a skeptic. And now he believes the whole

521
00:28:44,780 --> 00:28:49,260
Speaker 3: premise is nonsense. So in his absence, his brother Chan

522
00:28:49,440 --> 00:28:52,460
Speaker 3: took his place as the designated heir to fight in

523
00:28:52,480 --> 00:28:56,310
Speaker 3: the tournament. And Chan fought in the last tournament. He

524
00:28:56,350 --> 00:28:58,670
Speaker 3: was killed in the fighting, and the monks found his

525
00:28:58,730 --> 00:29:00,550
Speaker 3: body on the grounds of the temple.

526
00:29:00,890 --> 00:29:03,090
Speaker 1: And so that is why Liu Kang has received this

527
00:29:03,170 --> 00:29:06,060
Speaker 1: call to adventure, or I guess telegram to adventure. Hey,

528
00:29:06,520 --> 00:29:09,280
Speaker 1: you need to come back in. Come back into this underworld,

529
00:29:09,820 --> 00:29:13,300
Speaker 1: because only you can defeat this monstrous threat we're facing.

530
00:29:13,620 --> 00:29:15,740
Speaker 3: Yeah, we need you for one last mission. That was

531
00:29:15,780 --> 00:29:19,500
Speaker 3: a long time ago, General. So Liu Kang tells his

532
00:29:19,540 --> 00:29:22,480
Speaker 3: grandfather about the dream he had, and this is interpreted

533
00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,860
Speaker 3: as a sign. The dream means... that he is now

534
00:29:26,020 --> 00:29:29,440
Speaker 3: once again the chosen one to defend humankind at the

535
00:29:29,480 --> 00:29:32,850
Speaker 3: Tournament of Mortal Kombat. Liu Kang is skeptical of this

536
00:29:32,870 --> 00:29:35,870
Speaker 3: stuff about the dream and the magic. He says he

537
00:29:36,030 --> 00:29:39,990
Speaker 3: does want to represent the Order of Light at the tournament, but...

538
00:29:40,010 --> 00:29:42,430
Speaker 3: only because the man who killed his brother will be

539
00:29:42,490 --> 00:29:45,420
Speaker 3: there and he wants revenge. So for him at the beginning,

540
00:29:45,540 --> 00:29:48,920
Speaker 3: it's just a revenge story. Now here is where Christophe

541
00:29:48,940 --> 00:29:52,140
Speaker 3: Lambert comes in. We see an old man dressed in

542
00:29:52,220 --> 00:29:55,580
Speaker 3: tattered robes and a large straw hat that hides his face.

543
00:29:55,640 --> 00:29:58,120
Speaker 3: And as he wanders in through the temple grounds, the

544
00:29:58,160 --> 00:30:01,630
Speaker 3: monks bow in his presence. And the grandfather says to

545
00:30:01,670 --> 00:30:04,670
Speaker 3: Liu Kang that this is Lord Raiden, but Liu Kang's

546
00:30:04,730 --> 00:30:07,290
Speaker 3: not buying it. He says, get up, grandfather. This is

547
00:30:07,310 --> 00:30:10,620
Speaker 3: a simple beggar. But then Raiden sort of proves his

548
00:30:10,690 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 3: identity by flipping Liu Kang on his back and making

549
00:30:13,860 --> 00:30:18,040
Speaker 3: electricity shoot out of his eyeballs. We get some cute

550
00:30:18,100 --> 00:30:21,520
Speaker 3: dialogue here, like Liu Kang is mouthing off to Raiden

551
00:30:21,660 --> 00:30:24,720
Speaker 3: and the grandfather says, spare him, Lord Raiden. American life

552
00:30:24,760 --> 00:30:27,540
Speaker 3: has enfeebled his mind. Too much television.

553
00:30:27,560 --> 00:30:27,640
Speaker 1: Yeah.

554
00:30:28,610 --> 00:30:32,210
Speaker 3: And then Raiden makes some cutting comments about Liu Kang's

555
00:30:32,850 --> 00:30:35,510
Speaker 3: personal failures. He says that, you know, you ran away

556
00:30:35,570 --> 00:30:38,060
Speaker 3: from the temple, not because you didn't believe it, but

557
00:30:38,140 --> 00:30:42,880
Speaker 3: because you couldn't accept responsibility for protecting Earth. And then

558
00:30:42,940 --> 00:30:45,080
Speaker 3: Liu Kang says to him, if you are Lord Raiden,

559
00:30:45,160 --> 00:30:47,940
Speaker 3: why did you let Chan die? Why didn't you protect him?

560
00:30:48,530 --> 00:30:53,510
Speaker 3: Raiden's comeback? Why didn't you? It's like nonsensical because Liu

561
00:30:53,530 --> 00:30:55,930
Speaker 3: Kang is not omnipotent and had no idea what was

562
00:30:55,970 --> 00:30:56,420
Speaker 3: going on.

563
00:30:58,430 --> 00:31:02,670
Speaker 1: Yeah, though I guess to Raiden's point, like, he isn't either, right?

564
00:31:02,810 --> 00:31:06,330
Speaker 1: I mean, he may see more and know more and

565
00:31:06,390 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 1: move around a lot easier than mortals. But, I mean,

566
00:31:09,140 --> 00:31:13,720
Speaker 1: he's not like a Judeo-Christian god or anything.

567
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:16,420
Speaker 3: Limited great power god.

568
00:31:16,660 --> 00:31:16,840
Speaker 2: Yeah.

569
00:31:17,300 --> 00:31:20,590
Speaker 3: Anyway, this whole scene ends with Liu Kang. He tells

570
00:31:20,670 --> 00:31:22,930
Speaker 3: off Raiden. He's like, I don't need you. And he

571
00:31:22,950 --> 00:31:25,230
Speaker 3: tells his grandfather that he's going to the tournament to

572
00:31:25,270 --> 00:31:27,950
Speaker 3: get revenge, whether he gets consent from them or not.

573
00:31:28,490 --> 00:31:31,310
Speaker 3: And then, once again, some really good hype music here

574
00:31:31,450 --> 00:31:33,810
Speaker 3: as we watch Liu Kang stride away from the temple.

575
00:31:34,170 --> 00:31:38,350
Speaker 3: There are rhythmic bells and heavy drums. And this part,

576
00:31:38,670 --> 00:31:39,770
Speaker 3: I felt really hyped up.

577
00:31:40,110 --> 00:31:42,040
Speaker 1: Yes, yes. Good hype machine on this one.

578
00:31:42,450 --> 00:31:44,500
Speaker 3: Now, the next scene is another one of my favorites

579
00:31:44,560 --> 00:31:46,820
Speaker 3: in the movie. It is the scene of the boat

580
00:31:46,960 --> 00:31:50,140
Speaker 3: arriving at the dock in Hong Kong and then departing

581
00:31:50,220 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 3: for the tournament. So first we have Johnny Cage arriving

582
00:31:54,320 --> 00:31:56,400
Speaker 3: in a limo and he asks Liu Kang to carry

583
00:31:56,420 --> 00:31:59,000
Speaker 3: his luggage for him. Liu Kang takes one of his

584
00:31:59,040 --> 00:32:02,000
Speaker 3: suitcases and throws it in the water. And then we

585
00:32:02,020 --> 00:32:05,320
Speaker 3: get more of the kind of cutesy lines where Johnny

586
00:32:05,340 --> 00:32:07,180
Speaker 3: Cage is like, wow, good thing I didn't ask him

587
00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:10,830
Speaker 3: to park the car. But here Johnny Cage runs into

588
00:32:10,950 --> 00:32:15,610
Speaker 3: an old acquaintance named Art Lean. Remember in the last

589
00:32:15,670 --> 00:32:17,790
Speaker 3: episode we were talking about, I think there was a

590
00:32:17,830 --> 00:32:21,100
Speaker 3: piece of music called like arts theme or something.

591
00:32:21,190 --> 00:32:22,980
Speaker 1: Oh no, it was Goro versus Art.

592
00:32:23,080 --> 00:32:25,500
Speaker 3: Yes. And so we were discussing how that's not the

593
00:32:25,560 --> 00:32:29,380
Speaker 3: word art. There's a character named Art. A character with

594
00:32:29,460 --> 00:32:34,040
Speaker 3: a quite unfortunate fate later in the film. So, you know,

595
00:32:34,100 --> 00:32:36,700
Speaker 3: they catch up. They've seen each other fight before. You know,

596
00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:41,600
Speaker 3: there's mutual respect there. But then they're interrupted when this

597
00:32:41,820 --> 00:32:48,570
Speaker 3: hilarious boat rolls in. It's like the boat that King

598
00:32:48,670 --> 00:32:51,469
Speaker 3: Arthur and Bedivere ride at the end of Monty Python

599
00:32:51,490 --> 00:32:52,150
Speaker 3: and the Holy Grail.

600
00:32:52,170 --> 00:32:55,540
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, my instant thought was that it looked like

601
00:32:55,600 --> 00:33:00,980
Speaker 1: a Hellraiser parade float. It's just got that much fake

602
00:33:01,020 --> 00:33:04,740
Speaker 1: smoke going on. It looks goofy. It's wonderful.

603
00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:08,660
Speaker 3: Also, Sonya Blade and her partner Jax are here. We

604
00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:11,520
Speaker 3: learned that they were tipped off by one of Kano's

605
00:33:11,580 --> 00:33:16,940
Speaker 3: associates at the Hong Kong Techno Metal Club. She sees

606
00:33:17,260 --> 00:33:20,000
Speaker 3: Kano getting onto the boat, and she runs off through

607
00:33:20,020 --> 00:33:23,220
Speaker 3: the fog to get on the boat herself. And her

608
00:33:23,280 --> 00:33:27,220
Speaker 3: partner like yells at her, Sonya, don't get on that thing.

609
00:33:29,010 --> 00:33:31,070
Speaker 3: I would not advise anyone to get on that thing.

610
00:33:32,790 --> 00:33:35,210
Speaker 3: But anyway, you know, here's here on the boat is

611
00:33:35,250 --> 00:33:39,550
Speaker 3: where we finally assemble our three main heroes. Johnny Cage

612
00:33:39,610 --> 00:33:42,290
Speaker 3: for the first third of the movie is carrying like

613
00:33:42,450 --> 00:33:45,910
Speaker 3: eight different pieces of luggage. And he's so he's struggling

614
00:33:45,930 --> 00:33:47,630
Speaker 3: with all that stuff. And he has a head on

615
00:33:47,690 --> 00:33:51,440
Speaker 3: collision with Sonya. Sonia reacts by putting a pistol against

616
00:33:51,500 --> 00:33:55,040
Speaker 3: his chin and she demands to know where Kano is. Obviously,

617
00:33:55,120 --> 00:33:58,160
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage is not clued in. But this moment is

618
00:33:58,180 --> 00:34:02,990
Speaker 3: the beginning of a very prominent dynamic in the character

619
00:34:03,030 --> 00:34:06,190
Speaker 3: relations throughout the film, which is hate flirting. This is

620
00:34:06,210 --> 00:34:09,410
Speaker 3: where Johnny Cage and Sonia Blade will spend a lot

621
00:34:09,450 --> 00:34:14,240
Speaker 3: of time just kind of like insulting and taking shots

622
00:34:14,300 --> 00:34:17,240
Speaker 3: at each other and making 2d comments at each other

623
00:34:17,400 --> 00:34:23,719
Speaker 3: before their romantic subplot fully blossoms. So Sonia is, how

624
00:34:23,760 --> 00:34:29,319
Speaker 3: would you describe her? She is very on mission. She's like, uh,

625
00:34:29,440 --> 00:34:31,940
Speaker 3: she's like, doesn't have time to be nice to anybody.

626
00:34:31,980 --> 00:34:34,440
Speaker 3: She's like out of my way. I got to find Kano.

627
00:34:35,200 --> 00:34:37,960
Speaker 3: And so she ends up going below decks to look

628
00:34:38,000 --> 00:34:42,200
Speaker 3: for Kano and, And there runs into our wonderful sorcerer,

629
00:34:42,340 --> 00:34:45,660
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung. Johnny Cage and Liu Kang follow her down

630
00:34:45,700 --> 00:34:48,620
Speaker 3: to help her out, but she's very indignant. She does

631
00:34:48,680 --> 00:34:50,969
Speaker 3: not want their help. She does not need their help.

632
00:34:51,010 --> 00:34:53,830
Speaker 3: She did not ask for their help. And this is

633
00:34:54,050 --> 00:34:57,150
Speaker 3: one of the crucial features of her character that she

634
00:34:57,230 --> 00:34:59,069
Speaker 3: learns she must overcome in the end.

635
00:34:59,750 --> 00:35:02,549
Speaker 1: It's very blue below decks, too. I want to add

636
00:35:02,650 --> 00:35:05,400
Speaker 1: that the blue gels were out in force. It's not

637
00:35:05,620 --> 00:35:08,359
Speaker 1: as over-the-top as that green bedroom of Liu Kang, though.

638
00:35:09,080 --> 00:35:11,359
Speaker 3: There's a lot of blue going on in multiple places here.

639
00:35:11,380 --> 00:35:13,160
Speaker 3: I think it's blue once they get back up on

640
00:35:13,239 --> 00:35:17,839
Speaker 3: deck later also. So they're down below decks, and then

641
00:35:17,930 --> 00:35:22,830
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung invites in his two ninja warriors. He says,

642
00:35:22,890 --> 00:35:26,850
Speaker 3: these are Scorpion and Sub-Zero, the deadliest of enemies, but

643
00:35:26,950 --> 00:35:28,510
Speaker 3: slaves under my power.

644
00:35:28,830 --> 00:35:32,320
Speaker 1: And this is an important point, though, because in the games,

645
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:34,560
Speaker 1: and I think even by this point, certainly by 2

646
00:35:34,560 --> 00:35:38,300
Speaker 1: and 3, this was well-established, Scorpion and Sub-Zero have a

647
00:35:38,340 --> 00:35:44,600
Speaker 1: very intense dynamic where Scorpion is a vengeful revenant and Sub-Zero,

648
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,100
Speaker 1: or at least there are different people who get the

649
00:35:48,140 --> 00:35:51,200
Speaker 1: name Sub-Zero, but the original Sub-Zero is the person who

650
00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:56,270
Speaker 1: killed Scorpion's family. And so it's actually pretty well established

651
00:35:56,290 --> 00:35:58,770
Speaker 1: in the lore again by this point, but this movie

652
00:35:58,810 --> 00:36:04,030
Speaker 1: just makes them be the miscellaneous demon bodyguards or demon

653
00:36:04,150 --> 00:36:05,290
Speaker 1: soldiers of Shang Tsung.

654
00:36:05,690 --> 00:36:08,190
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is weird that they're on the same team

655
00:36:08,450 --> 00:36:11,450
Speaker 3: in this movie. And I think they're trying to do

656
00:36:11,510 --> 00:36:15,670
Speaker 3: a quick one-sentence retcon of that by just saying, yeah,

657
00:36:15,790 --> 00:36:19,029
Speaker 3: they are enemies, but I've magically ensorcelled them.

658
00:36:19,350 --> 00:36:21,610
Speaker 1: Yeah, and these are the two characters that are often,

659
00:36:21,710 --> 00:36:25,140
Speaker 1: especially in Scorpion's case, are generally on the box art

660
00:36:25,200 --> 00:36:28,920
Speaker 1: for the game. Maybe that kind of more developed with

661
00:36:28,960 --> 00:36:32,040
Speaker 1: later games. But yeah, these two are really the stars

662
00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,940
Speaker 1: of the franchise. And I think that I haven't seen

663
00:36:34,960 --> 00:36:37,839
Speaker 1: the latest Mortal Kombat film, but it's my understanding that

664
00:36:37,860 --> 00:36:40,259
Speaker 1: that is very much reflected in the picture and the

665
00:36:40,300 --> 00:36:42,739
Speaker 1: way that they cast these roles and the way they

666
00:36:42,760 --> 00:36:43,120
Speaker 1: present it.

667
00:36:43,580 --> 00:36:46,529
Speaker 3: Now, Rob, maybe you know more about the games than

668
00:36:46,570 --> 00:36:49,890
Speaker 3: me and can answer this. I have long interpreted the

669
00:36:50,070 --> 00:36:55,030
Speaker 3: popularity of characters like Scorpion, Sub-Zero, Reptile, and so forth

670
00:36:55,190 --> 00:36:58,310
Speaker 3: in these games to be a sort of efficiency or

671
00:36:58,390 --> 00:37:03,210
Speaker 3: cost-cutting move. because they are the same animation with just

672
00:37:03,270 --> 00:37:07,410
Speaker 3: different colors of the outer ninja wear. Like, the animation

673
00:37:07,430 --> 00:37:08,710
Speaker 3: could be exactly the same.

674
00:37:09,270 --> 00:37:12,390
Speaker 1: Yes, that's exactly right, especially in these early games. You know,

675
00:37:12,410 --> 00:37:14,770
Speaker 1: they were doing motion capture. It was more than just

676
00:37:14,810 --> 00:37:17,450
Speaker 1: motion capture, though, because they were, I don't remember the

677
00:37:17,890 --> 00:37:21,460
Speaker 1: exact video game production terminology, but they're like filming actors

678
00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,500
Speaker 1: in actual costumes. But then they can swap the colors out.

679
00:37:25,840 --> 00:37:28,180
Speaker 1: And that way, you only have to have one actor

680
00:37:28,260 --> 00:37:30,989
Speaker 1: in there to do All of the ninjas. You may

681
00:37:31,010 --> 00:37:33,370
Speaker 1: get some alternate takes for different moves or different sort

682
00:37:33,410 --> 00:37:37,250
Speaker 1: of stances and certainly fatalities, but less work. You don't

683
00:37:37,290 --> 00:37:40,160
Speaker 1: have to completely start from scratch on your next character.

684
00:37:40,500 --> 00:37:44,480
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems like the same character sprite except blue

685
00:37:44,580 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 3: for Sub-Zero, yellow for Scorpion and green for Reptile.

686
00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:50,069
Speaker 1: So it is kind of interesting that some of the

687
00:37:50,140 --> 00:37:54,210
Speaker 1: most iconic, most developed and fan favorite characters in the

688
00:37:54,250 --> 00:37:58,070
Speaker 1: game are the interchangeable ninjas, be it these male ninjas

689
00:37:58,270 --> 00:38:01,590
Speaker 1: or the female warriors we get in MK2 and beyond,

690
00:38:01,730 --> 00:38:05,280
Speaker 1: like Katana and, of course, Mileena. Yeah.

691
00:38:06,260 --> 00:38:10,020
Speaker 3: Okay, so Sub-Zero comes up to Sonya and he grabs

692
00:38:10,080 --> 00:38:12,680
Speaker 3: the end of her gun and freezes the barrel off.

693
00:38:12,760 --> 00:38:16,759
Speaker 3: So now Sonya, she doesn't have her weapons anymore. Scorpion,

694
00:38:16,880 --> 00:38:20,140
Speaker 3: he holds up his hand. And some kind of weird

695
00:38:20,300 --> 00:38:23,900
Speaker 3: CGI creature with a beak and a tongue pokes out

696
00:38:23,940 --> 00:38:28,500
Speaker 3: of his palm. This does tie into something in the games.

697
00:38:28,620 --> 00:38:31,940
Speaker 3: In the games, one of the special moves of Scorpion,

698
00:38:31,960 --> 00:38:34,680
Speaker 3: the character, is that he would throw a spear that's

699
00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:37,120
Speaker 3: attached to a rope that would hit you. And then

700
00:38:37,140 --> 00:38:39,620
Speaker 3: he could pull you over to him in a stunned

701
00:38:39,700 --> 00:38:42,830
Speaker 3: state and uppercut you or whatever. And he would say,

702
00:38:42,930 --> 00:38:46,880
Speaker 3: get over here. or maybe just come here in the game.

703
00:38:46,960 --> 00:38:48,620
Speaker 3: I think they say get over here in the movie.

704
00:38:49,520 --> 00:38:52,080
Speaker 3: But in the movie, they change that spear on a

705
00:38:52,120 --> 00:38:55,680
Speaker 3: rope into a living snake-like creature. That's a choice.

706
00:38:56,280 --> 00:38:59,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is definitely worth pointing out. Scorpion in the

707
00:38:59,980 --> 00:39:04,840
Speaker 1: games is generally depicted as having a traditional ninja weapon,

708
00:39:05,100 --> 00:39:08,680
Speaker 1: a kunai rope dart, and then often a ninja sword.

709
00:39:09,469 --> 00:39:12,069
Speaker 1: and I remember really digging the way they embellished the

710
00:39:12,110 --> 00:39:14,430
Speaker 1: weapon in this film back when it came out yeah

711
00:39:14,489 --> 00:39:16,520
Speaker 1: not a ninja weapon but a weird snake creature that

712
00:39:16,560 --> 00:39:19,600
Speaker 1: shoots out of scorpion's palm and climbs out of its

713
00:39:19,739 --> 00:39:22,360
Speaker 1: out of the slit in his palm I loved it

714
00:39:22,420 --> 00:39:25,509
Speaker 1: and I was often disappointed that they didn't incorporate that

715
00:39:25,630 --> 00:39:28,870
Speaker 1: into the games and make it canon but man upon

716
00:39:28,930 --> 00:39:31,560
Speaker 1: revisiting this film I have to say these CGI effects

717
00:39:32,380 --> 00:39:35,440
Speaker 1: do not hold up. It's a fun concept. And I

718
00:39:35,500 --> 00:39:37,759
Speaker 1: still enjoy all these scenes with Scorpion in them. He

719
00:39:38,300 --> 00:39:40,339
Speaker 1: has one of the best fights, if not the best

720
00:39:40,380 --> 00:39:44,719
Speaker 1: fight in the picture coming up. But this CGI did

721
00:39:44,760 --> 00:39:45,279
Speaker 1: not age well.

722
00:39:45,690 --> 00:39:47,649
Speaker 3: I agree. It is not good. I think it's not

723
00:39:47,830 --> 00:39:51,410
Speaker 3: quite as bad as the reptile CGI, but it's bad.

724
00:39:51,430 --> 00:39:53,410
Speaker 1: Oh, the reptile CGI is the worst.

725
00:39:53,770 --> 00:39:56,070
Speaker 3: Okay, but here we're in the belly of the boat,

726
00:39:56,110 --> 00:39:59,410
Speaker 3: this weird creaky boat, and the ninjas are about to

727
00:39:59,469 --> 00:40:02,049
Speaker 3: kill our heroes. So what's going to happen? How are

728
00:40:02,090 --> 00:40:05,340
Speaker 3: they done for? No, they are saved by divine intervention.

729
00:40:06,090 --> 00:40:11,279
Speaker 3: Lord Raiden appears. Christophe Lambert, like, he shoots down into

730
00:40:11,400 --> 00:40:14,300
Speaker 3: the hold of the boat in some ball of energy form.

731
00:40:14,790 --> 00:40:17,950
Speaker 3: and then he zaps both of the ninjas into submission.

732
00:40:17,969 --> 00:40:22,610
Speaker 1: And the CGI here is also horrible. Raiden's lightning powers

733
00:40:22,660 --> 00:40:26,580
Speaker 1: in the game were clearly inspired by the lightning character

734
00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:29,080
Speaker 1: in Big Trouble in Little China, and those effects, which are,

735
00:40:29,400 --> 00:40:33,080
Speaker 1: in Big Trouble in Little China, amazing. They look great, yeah.

736
00:40:33,160 --> 00:40:35,299
Speaker 1: They absolutely hold up today. I used to watch them

737
00:40:35,320 --> 00:40:38,660
Speaker 1: in slow motion when I was a kid. So in

738
00:40:38,680 --> 00:40:42,220
Speaker 1: this film, Raiden uses CGI bursts of blue and orange fire,

739
00:40:42,340 --> 00:40:44,000
Speaker 1: and it's just absolutely hideous.

740
00:40:44,910 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 3: He says something like, your sideshow freaks attack my fighters

741
00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:53,000
Speaker 3: before the tournament? This is cheating! And Shang Tsung, he's

742
00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,520
Speaker 3: very smooth, and he just promises, oh, it won't happen again,

743
00:40:56,600 --> 00:41:00,399
Speaker 3: Lord Raiden. But he reminds Raiden that once they reach

744
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:03,700
Speaker 3: the island, Raiden will have no power. So I think

745
00:41:03,760 --> 00:41:06,290
Speaker 3: the lore is that here Raiden is serving a kind

746
00:41:06,310 --> 00:41:10,170
Speaker 3: of referee role. Like, he can't fight in the tournament himself,

747
00:41:10,710 --> 00:41:13,850
Speaker 3: but he is allowed to intervene to keep things fair here.

748
00:41:14,340 --> 00:41:18,460
Speaker 3: according to the rules of the tournament endorsed by the emperor,

749
00:41:18,540 --> 00:41:21,799
Speaker 3: which include the provision that you can't have random supernatural

750
00:41:21,860 --> 00:41:24,739
Speaker 3: ninjas kill all the earth fighters before you even get

751
00:41:24,780 --> 00:41:27,770
Speaker 3: to the tournament. I don't know why the emperor endorses

752
00:41:27,850 --> 00:41:30,509
Speaker 3: these rules or thinks he needs to play fair. Do

753
00:41:30,530 --> 00:41:31,370
Speaker 3: you understand that?

754
00:41:32,530 --> 00:41:36,390
Speaker 1: Um, no, especially what we know about the emperor and

755
00:41:36,430 --> 00:41:38,310
Speaker 1: come to know about him later. It's like, I don't

756
00:41:38,330 --> 00:41:40,529
Speaker 1: know why he's so lawful evil and all of this.

757
00:41:40,870 --> 00:41:43,970
Speaker 1: There just must be some like, He's playing by rules

758
00:41:44,050 --> 00:41:47,310
Speaker 1: set by other supernatural entities. He has to play by

759
00:41:47,350 --> 00:41:51,130
Speaker 1: the rules, exploit them, bend the rules where he can,

760
00:41:51,190 --> 00:41:52,670
Speaker 1: but he still has to make use of them to

761
00:41:52,730 --> 00:41:53,610
Speaker 1: conquer other realms.

762
00:41:54,030 --> 00:41:57,270
Speaker 3: Yeah. So anyway, this early sneak attack by Shang Tsung

763
00:41:57,350 --> 00:42:00,910
Speaker 3: is averted, and our heroes sort of follow Raiden up

764
00:42:01,050 --> 00:42:03,640
Speaker 3: onto the surface of the boat to get a scene

765
00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:06,020
Speaker 3: with just a huge lore dump. We're going to get

766
00:42:06,219 --> 00:42:07,400
Speaker 3: a bunch of exposition.

767
00:42:07,960 --> 00:42:10,620
Speaker 1: Yeah, Cage has a whole bit here ranting about the

768
00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:15,160
Speaker 1: supernatural after the introduction of Sub-Zero and Scorpion. That reminds

769
00:42:15,200 --> 00:42:17,480
Speaker 1: me a lot of that wonderful line that we had

770
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,700
Speaker 1: in the movie, The Illuminators, that we watched. The whole,

771
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,820
Speaker 1: we've got robots, we've got cavemen, we've got kung fu.

772
00:42:23,320 --> 00:42:25,609
Speaker 1: What is this, some kind of comic book? And in this,

773
00:42:25,670 --> 00:42:27,930
Speaker 1: Cage is saying, we got a guy with things coming

774
00:42:27,950 --> 00:42:30,230
Speaker 1: out of his hands, we got another guy who freezes stuff,

775
00:42:30,710 --> 00:42:31,470
Speaker 1: and so forth.

776
00:42:32,110 --> 00:42:32,370
Speaker 3: Yeah.

777
00:42:33,130 --> 00:42:34,910
Speaker 1: Exactly the same vibe. Exactly.

778
00:42:35,250 --> 00:42:37,310
Speaker 3: Call back to a movie we've brought up several times

779
00:42:37,370 --> 00:42:39,850
Speaker 3: in today's episode. It reminds me of Jack Burton's line

780
00:42:39,890 --> 00:42:42,750
Speaker 3: in Big Trouble in Little China, when he's like, we've

781
00:42:42,790 --> 00:42:46,190
Speaker 3: got guys flying around on wires, cutting everybody to shreds.

782
00:42:46,230 --> 00:42:48,770
Speaker 3: There's a guy standing there with light coming out of

783
00:42:48,810 --> 00:42:49,470
Speaker 3: his mouth.

784
00:42:51,270 --> 00:42:52,650
Speaker 1: Yep. Yep. Solid connection.

785
00:42:53,989 --> 00:42:57,279
Speaker 3: But interestingly, by this point, even though he starts the

786
00:42:57,300 --> 00:43:01,439
Speaker 3: movie very much in, in skeptical, refusing the call mode,

787
00:43:01,960 --> 00:43:06,950
Speaker 3: Liu Kang quickly transitions back into believing everything. He's just like,

788
00:43:07,030 --> 00:43:09,410
Speaker 3: this is Lord Raiden, that he is the god of

789
00:43:09,450 --> 00:43:13,430
Speaker 3: thunder and lightning. Sonya isn't quite there yet. She's saying,

790
00:43:13,530 --> 00:43:15,910
Speaker 3: I think she literally says, come on, there must be

791
00:43:15,930 --> 00:43:19,200
Speaker 3: a rational explanation for all this. And then we get

792
00:43:19,989 --> 00:43:22,400
Speaker 3: Raiden doing one of the first of many kind of

793
00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:26,680
Speaker 3: motivational pep talks that he gives our heroes throughout the movie.

794
00:43:26,860 --> 00:43:28,620
Speaker 3: He is kind of a life coach in a way,

795
00:43:28,660 --> 00:43:32,140
Speaker 3: isn't he? Yeah, so he comes in and He tells

796
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,660
Speaker 3: our heroes, he says, listen, what you're about to face

797
00:43:34,739 --> 00:43:37,560
Speaker 3: is more important than, he turns to Cage and he says,

798
00:43:37,620 --> 00:43:41,180
Speaker 3: your ego. He turns to Sonya and he says, your enemy.

799
00:43:41,640 --> 00:43:43,700
Speaker 3: And he turns to Liu Kang and says, or your

800
00:43:43,800 --> 00:43:47,060
Speaker 3: quest for revenge. You are about to embark on a

801
00:43:47,160 --> 00:43:50,060
Speaker 3: secret mission. You have been chosen to defend the realm

802
00:43:50,100 --> 00:43:54,839
Speaker 3: of Earth in a tournament called Mortal Kombat. Sonya asks, well,

803
00:43:54,980 --> 00:43:57,040
Speaker 3: who are they going to defend it from? And Lord

804
00:43:57,080 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 3: Raiden explains. He says, your world is but one of

805
00:43:59,739 --> 00:44:03,550
Speaker 3: many realms. One of them is a forsaken land called Outworld,

806
00:44:03,920 --> 00:44:07,259
Speaker 3: ruled by an immortal who has crowned himself emperor. Now

807
00:44:07,340 --> 00:44:11,400
Speaker 3: he seeks a new world to conquer and enslave. Now

808
00:44:11,480 --> 00:44:14,719
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage, I think, asks a reasonable question. If he's

809
00:44:14,739 --> 00:44:17,279
Speaker 3: so powerful, why doesn't he just come and take our

810
00:44:17,300 --> 00:44:20,340
Speaker 3: world now? Lord Raiden says there are rules. These are

811
00:44:20,360 --> 00:44:22,509
Speaker 3: the rules we were just talking about. To enter the

812
00:44:22,550 --> 00:44:27,350
Speaker 3: realm of Earth, Raiden says, the emperor's demon sorcerer Shang Tsung...

813
00:44:27,530 --> 00:44:31,450
Speaker 3: has to win 10 straight victories in Mortal Kombat, and

814
00:44:31,469 --> 00:44:33,950
Speaker 3: they have won nine in a row. This is the

815
00:44:34,010 --> 00:44:36,450
Speaker 3: 10th tournament. So it's down to the wire now.

816
00:44:37,630 --> 00:44:39,549
Speaker 1: You know, I guess maybe the Elder Gods put this

817
00:44:39,590 --> 00:44:42,540
Speaker 1: system in place because they realized, well, not every world,

818
00:44:42,620 --> 00:44:44,620
Speaker 1: every realm is going to be able to muster up

819
00:44:44,660 --> 00:44:49,660
Speaker 1: an army to combat Shao Kahn's army. But maybe you

820
00:44:49,680 --> 00:44:52,000
Speaker 1: could get together like five really good fighters, you know,

821
00:44:52,100 --> 00:44:54,759
Speaker 1: enough to compete in a tournament. And maybe that makes

822
00:44:54,780 --> 00:44:55,600
Speaker 1: things a bit more fair.

823
00:44:56,540 --> 00:45:00,200
Speaker 3: Now, sometime later in this conversation, we get several exchanges

824
00:45:00,320 --> 00:45:03,710
Speaker 3: that are extensively clipped in both the trailer and all

825
00:45:03,730 --> 00:45:07,649
Speaker 3: of the techno tracks that feature this movie. Like that

826
00:45:08,170 --> 00:45:11,250
Speaker 3: part where Sonya's like, a handful of people in a

827
00:45:11,290 --> 00:45:15,530
Speaker 3: leaky boat are going to save the world. And Raiden says, exactly.

828
00:45:16,640 --> 00:45:19,780
Speaker 3: But he's very, you know, Raiden's very positive on Mortal Kombat.

829
00:45:19,800 --> 00:45:21,860
Speaker 3: He's like, think about it, guys. You know, Mortal Kombat

830
00:45:21,900 --> 00:45:23,500
Speaker 3: is not about death, but life.

831
00:45:25,620 --> 00:45:25,739
Speaker 1: Yeah.

832
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,320
Speaker 3: He, for some reason, when he says that, I believe it.

833
00:45:28,760 --> 00:45:31,500
Speaker 1: This is exactly what I'm sure a lot of, uh,

834
00:45:31,489 --> 00:45:33,430
Speaker 1: 11 and 12 year olds told their parents. This game

835
00:45:33,469 --> 00:45:36,029
Speaker 1: isn't about death, mom and dad. This is actually, it's

836
00:45:36,070 --> 00:45:39,550
Speaker 1: about life. This is, it's mortal combat. It's about individual

837
00:45:39,570 --> 00:45:43,760
Speaker 1: exceptionalism and about living your life to the max. Don't

838
00:45:43,800 --> 00:45:46,160
Speaker 1: focus on the death. I think you're a little short-sighted here.

839
00:45:46,840 --> 00:45:49,140
Speaker 3: Uh, and it's about saving the world. Come on. Don't

840
00:45:49,160 --> 00:45:51,839
Speaker 3: you want to save the world? Uh, Raiden tells the,

841
00:45:51,910 --> 00:45:54,070
Speaker 3: at the end of this whole conversation, he says, uh,

842
00:45:55,090 --> 00:45:57,330
Speaker 3: I'll try to do my Christoph Lambert voice. He says,

843
00:45:57,510 --> 00:46:03,280
Speaker 3: the fate of billions depends upon you. Sorry.

844
00:46:03,620 --> 00:46:05,279
Speaker 1: Did he really do the laugh at that point? Yeah,

845
00:46:05,300 --> 00:46:07,580
Speaker 1: he does. I know he does it in the film.

846
00:46:07,640 --> 00:46:09,000
Speaker 1: I just can't remember where he throws it in.

847
00:46:09,460 --> 00:46:12,899
Speaker 3: Oh, he chuckles like that several times. Oh, but then

848
00:46:13,020 --> 00:46:16,259
Speaker 3: two different characters tell us that it has begun. Remember,

849
00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:19,880
Speaker 3: Raven's like, it has begun. And then Shang Tsung is

850
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:21,990
Speaker 3: standing there at the edge of the boat. And he's like,

851
00:46:22,010 --> 00:46:24,040
Speaker 3: I don't know, standing. Reaching up to a bunch of

852
00:46:24,160 --> 00:46:26,320
Speaker 3: ghosts running around in the air and he goes, it

853
00:46:26,620 --> 00:46:28,120
Speaker 3: has begun.

854
00:46:28,140 --> 00:46:30,990
Speaker 1: And yet the crazy thing is that it has not

855
00:46:31,030 --> 00:46:33,989
Speaker 1: begun yet. No. They have not even arrived. It's like

856
00:46:34,030 --> 00:46:37,330
Speaker 1: you wouldn't say this in the last third of your

857
00:46:37,370 --> 00:46:41,129
Speaker 1: flight going to your vacation destination, right? You wouldn't say

858
00:46:41,170 --> 00:46:43,550
Speaker 1: it has begun. Like it's a weird time to choose

859
00:46:43,570 --> 00:46:43,970
Speaker 1: to say that.

860
00:46:44,239 --> 00:46:46,380
Speaker 3: They're in the middle of the ocean. It has not begun.

861
00:46:46,400 --> 00:46:48,600
Speaker 1: Maybe international waters, maybe.

862
00:46:48,820 --> 00:46:52,970
Speaker 3: Right. So the next thing that happens in the movie

863
00:46:52,989 --> 00:46:56,030
Speaker 3: is the arrival at the island. It is a beautiful location.

864
00:46:56,070 --> 00:46:59,040
Speaker 3: They filmed this at one of those Thai islands with

865
00:46:59,420 --> 00:47:01,899
Speaker 3: the steep rock walls rising straight out of the ocean.

866
00:47:02,060 --> 00:47:08,980
Speaker 3: Those very conical, high-rising Thai islands. They're beautiful. There are

867
00:47:09,020 --> 00:47:12,460
Speaker 3: a number of yuck-yucks about Johnny Cage fussing over his

868
00:47:12,540 --> 00:47:16,100
Speaker 3: excessive amount of fancy luggage. More hate flirting between him

869
00:47:16,140 --> 00:47:19,320
Speaker 3: and Sonya. the fighters have to climb a mountain on

870
00:47:19,360 --> 00:47:22,980
Speaker 3: this mysterious Island to reach a temple above the clouds

871
00:47:23,020 --> 00:47:25,259
Speaker 3: where the opening ceremonies of the tournament are going to

872
00:47:25,300 --> 00:47:30,060
Speaker 3: take place. And inside, uh, inside this temple, it's like

873
00:47:30,080 --> 00:47:34,550
Speaker 3: a cave with torches, statues of monster gladiators and a,

874
00:47:34,739 --> 00:47:36,680
Speaker 3: and a very orange glow everywhere.

875
00:47:37,700 --> 00:47:37,779
Speaker 2: Oh.

876
00:47:37,900 --> 00:47:39,960
Speaker 3: And when they arrive at the temple, there is one

877
00:47:39,980 --> 00:47:42,919
Speaker 3: of the few lines in the movie that actually made

878
00:47:42,980 --> 00:47:46,660
Speaker 3: me laugh as intended on adult viewing, uh, which is

879
00:47:46,700 --> 00:47:50,510
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage looking at the monster gladiators and the torches,

880
00:47:51,010 --> 00:47:53,510
Speaker 3: and he's like, gee, I wonder what the bathrooms are like.

881
00:47:54,550 --> 00:47:55,109
Speaker 1: It's a good line.

882
00:47:55,730 --> 00:47:58,430
Speaker 3: Makes you wonder, yeah, what are they like? I would

883
00:47:58,450 --> 00:47:59,530
Speaker 3: think you'd just get a bucket.

884
00:48:00,890 --> 00:48:03,210
Speaker 1: Well, you do have that level in MK2 that's like

885
00:48:03,250 --> 00:48:05,130
Speaker 1: the sewer. I guess it's that. You just go out

886
00:48:05,170 --> 00:48:07,290
Speaker 1: onto that little walkway and pop a squat.

887
00:48:07,850 --> 00:48:10,910
Speaker 3: I guess so. Also in the scene, Liu Kang first

888
00:48:10,969 --> 00:48:16,490
Speaker 3: runs into Princess Kitana, She is the character who is

889
00:48:17,300 --> 00:48:21,500
Speaker 3: the mysterious person with ambiguous loyalties, who is a denizen

890
00:48:21,520 --> 00:48:25,180
Speaker 3: of Outworld, but she seems to possibly be interested in

891
00:48:25,260 --> 00:48:29,640
Speaker 3: helping the residents of Earth. And she's sitting under an umbrella,

892
00:48:29,739 --> 00:48:34,919
Speaker 3: just giving very important looks. Oh, but right after this,

893
00:48:35,540 --> 00:48:38,280
Speaker 3: we get one of the worst things. So Shang Tsung

894
00:48:38,300 --> 00:48:40,890
Speaker 3: walks up and he says, Princess Katana, she is our

895
00:48:40,930 --> 00:48:45,550
Speaker 3: most dangerous adversary. Watch over her, reptile. Keep her away

896
00:48:45,630 --> 00:48:49,950
Speaker 3: from these humans. And you think, reptile? Who's he talking to?

897
00:48:50,350 --> 00:48:53,830
Speaker 3: But nearby him, there is a monster statue, one of

898
00:48:53,870 --> 00:48:58,450
Speaker 3: the many monster statues. And this one turns from a

899
00:48:58,650 --> 00:49:04,069
Speaker 3: statue into living CGI. And it looks like.

900
00:49:05,989 --> 00:49:09,430
Speaker 3: The coloration on this reptilian monster looks like the old

901
00:49:09,550 --> 00:49:14,190
Speaker 3: packaging of a tube of Lifesavers candy. You know what

902
00:49:14,210 --> 00:49:18,910
Speaker 3: I'm talking about? And then it turns invisible like the

903
00:49:18,950 --> 00:49:22,239
Speaker 3: predator and then scurries away. Reptile looks so awful.

904
00:49:22,640 --> 00:49:24,860
Speaker 1: Yeah, I remember this being a little heartbreaking to watch

905
00:49:24,920 --> 00:49:27,600
Speaker 1: when I watched this film for the first time because

906
00:49:27,660 --> 00:49:30,360
Speaker 1: Reptile was always one of my favorites. He's a green

907
00:49:30,420 --> 00:49:34,020
Speaker 1: ninja that underneath his mask is a reptilian creature that

908
00:49:34,080 --> 00:49:39,140
Speaker 1: spits acid and turns invisible. He's awesome. And and then, oh,

909
00:49:39,180 --> 00:49:40,819
Speaker 1: my goodness, look what they have done to him here.

910
00:49:41,340 --> 00:49:44,350
Speaker 3: So everybody goes to a feast here. There's like a

911
00:49:44,650 --> 00:49:48,569
Speaker 3: meal to inaugurate the tournament. They don't let you get

912
00:49:48,590 --> 00:49:51,410
Speaker 3: a good look at the food, unfortunately. And I'm really

913
00:49:51,450 --> 00:49:53,380
Speaker 3: bummed out. We will get a look at some of

914
00:49:53,390 --> 00:49:55,100
Speaker 3: the food in the subsequent scene.

915
00:49:55,480 --> 00:49:57,640
Speaker 1: Yeah, because we don't get much dining here. They almost

916
00:49:57,700 --> 00:50:01,330
Speaker 1: immediately flip the tables to make room for combat. It

917
00:50:01,370 --> 00:50:03,410
Speaker 1: seems like this would be a great place to have

918
00:50:03,430 --> 00:50:06,450
Speaker 1: a little bit more exposition going on. Do it George R.R.

919
00:50:06,460 --> 00:50:09,460
Speaker 1: Martin style. What would George R.R. Martin's Mortal Kombat consist of?

920
00:50:09,480 --> 00:50:11,140
Speaker 1: It would be this big feast going on for about

921
00:50:11,140 --> 00:50:11,819
Speaker 1: 15 minutes.

922
00:50:12,440 --> 00:50:15,200
Speaker 3: Exactly. We'd get to hear and see what the food

923
00:50:15,260 --> 00:50:17,820
Speaker 3: is like, and they would explain more of what's going on. Instead,

924
00:50:18,360 --> 00:50:20,589
Speaker 3: he serves them all this food, and then right after

925
00:50:20,630 --> 00:50:24,989
Speaker 3: the food is served, these shirtless, muscled warriors, many of

926
00:50:25,010 --> 00:50:28,779
Speaker 3: whom are really greased up and shiny or sweaty, With

927
00:50:28,820 --> 00:50:32,219
Speaker 3: these long, loose, red head coverings. I don't know if

928
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:34,960
Speaker 3: that is a particular type of head covering in the

929
00:50:35,000 --> 00:50:38,759
Speaker 3: real world. I would kind of assume not. It looks

930
00:50:38,820 --> 00:50:40,940
Speaker 3: just kind of like a huge sock over their heads

931
00:50:41,000 --> 00:50:42,120
Speaker 3: with holes for the eyes.

932
00:50:43,380 --> 00:50:45,400
Speaker 1: Yeah, there are some later scenes where I think some

933
00:50:45,420 --> 00:50:47,439
Speaker 1: of these guys are not wearing the hood over their head.

934
00:50:48,040 --> 00:50:50,890
Speaker 1: And they should have because some of these extras are

935
00:50:50,930 --> 00:50:53,839
Speaker 1: a little bit too jacked up. A little bit too

936
00:50:53,860 --> 00:50:57,530
Speaker 1: distracting in the background with wild facial expressions.

937
00:50:58,030 --> 00:51:00,370
Speaker 3: But Shang Tsung gives a speech here, so he's got

938
00:51:00,930 --> 00:51:04,790
Speaker 3: the muscle guys standing around, and he gives a speech

939
00:51:04,830 --> 00:51:07,549
Speaker 3: where he says, Welcome. You are here to compete in

940
00:51:07,670 --> 00:51:12,190
Speaker 3: mortal combat. Tomorrow morning, the great combat begins. Some of

941
00:51:12,230 --> 00:51:15,529
Speaker 3: you will even have the distinct honor and pleasure to

942
00:51:15,590 --> 00:51:20,090
Speaker 3: face Prince Goro, our reigning champion. You are all witnesses

943
00:51:20,130 --> 00:51:22,339
Speaker 3: to one of the greatest turning points in the history

944
00:51:22,380 --> 00:51:25,660
Speaker 3: of your planet. Treasure these moments as if they were

945
00:51:25,700 --> 00:51:29,200
Speaker 3: your last. And now for a taste of things to come,

946
00:51:29,320 --> 00:51:31,980
Speaker 3: that last line is sampled in some of the music

947
00:51:32,040 --> 00:51:35,790
Speaker 3: on the soundtrack. And here are the muscle goons. This

948
00:51:35,870 --> 00:51:37,390
Speaker 3: is the part where they run in to flip the

949
00:51:37,430 --> 00:51:39,989
Speaker 3: feast tables over. They throw all the food on the

950
00:51:40,030 --> 00:51:43,430
Speaker 3: floor and it's time for a, an exhibition match. The

951
00:51:43,670 --> 00:51:46,589
Speaker 3: first fight of many. So one of the muscle goons

952
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:49,960
Speaker 3: must fight Sub-Zero. So the shirtless guy does a bunch

953
00:51:49,980 --> 00:51:54,060
Speaker 3: of shadow boxing and then he starts running at Sub-Zero.

954
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:56,000
Speaker 3: He's just standing at the other side of the room,

955
00:51:56,080 --> 00:51:59,259
Speaker 3: sort of sucking in a ball of cold into the

956
00:51:59,280 --> 00:52:02,020
Speaker 3: palm of his hand. And as he jumps into the

957
00:52:02,100 --> 00:52:05,089
Speaker 3: air to kick at Sub-Zero, Sub-Zero throws the ball and

958
00:52:05,170 --> 00:52:08,509
Speaker 3: freezes the guy solid, causing him to shatter all over

959
00:52:08,550 --> 00:52:09,030
Speaker 3: the floor.

960
00:52:09,850 --> 00:52:13,069
Speaker 1: I remember loving this moment back when the original film

961
00:52:13,090 --> 00:52:15,370
Speaker 1: came out, and it holds up pretty well. You know,

962
00:52:16,130 --> 00:52:19,989
Speaker 1: some criticisms of the CGI aside, this is a good

963
00:52:20,190 --> 00:52:21,989
Speaker 1: use of mid-' 90s CGI.

964
00:52:22,350 --> 00:52:23,570
Speaker 3: It's not a fight, though.

965
00:52:23,890 --> 00:52:27,310
Speaker 1: Sub-Zero... He Indiana Jones him right here is what happens.

966
00:52:27,570 --> 00:52:31,680
Speaker 3: Exactly, but with ice. And then I think Shang Tsung says,

967
00:52:31,700 --> 00:52:35,400
Speaker 3: flawless victory, which is a line from the video game

968
00:52:35,780 --> 00:52:39,660
Speaker 3: when one player defeats another one without taking a single punch. Right.

969
00:52:48,660 --> 00:52:50,960
Speaker 3: After this, there's a sequence with our heroes doing a

970
00:52:50,980 --> 00:52:54,090
Speaker 3: bunch of sneaking around. Our three main heroes are running

971
00:52:54,140 --> 00:52:57,549
Speaker 3: in and out of tunnels looking for Shang Tsung there's

972
00:52:57,590 --> 00:53:00,649
Speaker 3: plenty of banter and hate flirting along the way but

973
00:53:00,989 --> 00:53:03,880
Speaker 3: unknown to them they are being watched and here we

974
00:53:03,940 --> 00:53:06,300
Speaker 3: do get some kind of scary scenes there's like a

975
00:53:06,340 --> 00:53:09,900
Speaker 3: scene where we see this huge three-fingered hand sort of

976
00:53:10,480 --> 00:53:13,960
Speaker 3: stroking across the inside of a of these stone cage

977
00:53:14,020 --> 00:53:17,160
Speaker 3: bars as a creature with a deep rumbling voice is

978
00:53:17,239 --> 00:53:20,960
Speaker 3: clearly watching our heroes as they're sneaking around.

979
00:53:21,270 --> 00:53:24,310
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is, of course, Goro's hand. This is the

980
00:53:24,370 --> 00:53:27,910
Speaker 1: best he'll look the entire film. But it is legitimately

981
00:53:28,469 --> 00:53:31,589
Speaker 1: creepy and a nice moment. I think not too long

982
00:53:31,660 --> 00:53:34,920
Speaker 1: after this, we get a tease of Goro's shadow, which

983
00:53:35,020 --> 00:53:37,120
Speaker 1: also looks great. And you're like, I can't wait to

984
00:53:37,180 --> 00:53:38,799
Speaker 1: see what they've done here. I can't wait to see

985
00:53:38,840 --> 00:53:39,680
Speaker 1: how Goro looks.

986
00:53:40,260 --> 00:53:42,920
Speaker 3: But they turn it into a comedy moment where Johnny

987
00:53:42,940 --> 00:53:46,400
Speaker 3: Cage says to Sonya, he's like, you go ahead, Sonya.

988
00:53:46,640 --> 00:53:50,770
Speaker 3: Find out what that was. We'll wait here. Um, so,

989
00:53:50,950 --> 00:53:53,710
Speaker 3: you know, haha. Uh, but then we get a scene

990
00:53:53,770 --> 00:53:57,150
Speaker 3: between Goro and Kano, which is one of my favorite

991
00:53:57,170 --> 00:53:58,370
Speaker 3: scenes in the film.

992
00:53:59,210 --> 00:54:01,690
Speaker 1: It really feels like something's missing here because we had

993
00:54:01,750 --> 00:54:04,690
Speaker 1: like the tease, the tease, and then full reveal. Here's

994
00:54:04,730 --> 00:54:07,730
Speaker 1: just Goro having a conversation with Kano.

995
00:54:08,170 --> 00:54:11,009
Speaker 3: You would think they would unveil him gradually, like in

996
00:54:11,070 --> 00:54:13,529
Speaker 3: a fight scene or something, but no, we just get

997
00:54:13,550 --> 00:54:15,310
Speaker 3: a good old look at him in this scene and

998
00:54:15,350 --> 00:54:18,719
Speaker 3: he is hideous. Uh, but Kano and Goro are hanging

999
00:54:18,800 --> 00:54:22,580
Speaker 3: out while Kano is just eating food. He's eating this big,

1000
00:54:22,780 --> 00:54:26,160
Speaker 3: greasy turkey leg. He's got a bucket of wine. The

1001
00:54:26,200 --> 00:54:30,180
Speaker 3: turkey leg is just squirting juice everywhere. For people who

1002
00:54:30,200 --> 00:54:33,690
Speaker 3: aren't familiar, should we take a moment to physically describe Goro? What,

1003
00:54:33,730 --> 00:54:34,690
Speaker 3: what does he look like here?

1004
00:54:34,710 --> 00:54:38,250
Speaker 1: His, what's his species is a Shokan, I believe. Um,

1005
00:54:38,410 --> 00:54:42,110
Speaker 1: if I'm remembering correctly, uh, four armed entity, like an

1006
00:54:42,330 --> 00:54:46,069
Speaker 1: ogre with four arms. Um, The arm placement does not

1007
00:54:46,130 --> 00:54:49,069
Speaker 1: make a lot of sense. It's always a challenge to

1008
00:54:49,090 --> 00:54:52,130
Speaker 1: try and imagine what the skeleton looks like under here.

1009
00:54:53,780 --> 00:54:57,560
Speaker 1: And yeah, I mean, he's very cool looking in the

1010
00:54:57,600 --> 00:55:00,339
Speaker 1: video game where he is a stop motion entity. In this,

1011
00:55:00,739 --> 00:55:04,500
Speaker 1: he is, you know, admirably, he is a fully practical effect.

1012
00:55:05,219 --> 00:55:09,620
Speaker 1: A mix of suit performance and, you know, puppetry, animatronics.

1013
00:55:10,850 --> 00:55:13,090
Speaker 1: But it just, as we discussed in the last episode,

1014
00:55:13,410 --> 00:55:15,879
Speaker 1: it doesn't quite cut it. especially in a scene like

1015
00:55:15,920 --> 00:55:20,040
Speaker 1: this where they're really trying to make him as lifelike

1016
00:55:20,120 --> 00:55:23,529
Speaker 1: as possible as he is having a conversation with a

1017
00:55:23,570 --> 00:55:27,090
Speaker 1: live actor. It's not a fight. He's not ripping someone

1018
00:55:27,130 --> 00:55:33,310
Speaker 1: in half. They're doing the best they could to make

1019
00:55:33,350 --> 00:55:37,170
Speaker 1: him a living entity who is expressing his own desires

1020
00:55:37,210 --> 00:55:40,790
Speaker 1: and motivations here. And I think they bit off more

1021
00:55:40,810 --> 00:55:42,770
Speaker 1: than they could chew because it doesn't quite work.

1022
00:55:43,250 --> 00:55:46,390
Speaker 3: But Goro in the scene, the emotion they're trying to

1023
00:55:46,430 --> 00:55:49,430
Speaker 3: convey is that he is getting very annoyed at Kano

1024
00:55:49,489 --> 00:55:54,660
Speaker 3: disrespecting his royal line, I guess. So Kano's like, oh,

1025
00:55:54,700 --> 00:55:58,900
Speaker 3: you some kind of royalty. And Goro's like, I am Goro.

1026
00:56:00,239 --> 00:56:02,400
Speaker 3: I'm the general of the armies of Outworld and the

1027
00:56:02,440 --> 00:56:07,650
Speaker 3: prince of the subterranean realm of Shokan. And then Kano's like, subterranean?

1028
00:56:07,710 --> 00:56:14,550
Speaker 3: What's that? Underground? So he's not He's not showing proper respect.

1029
00:56:14,610 --> 00:56:17,430
Speaker 3: And you get the sense that Goro maybe wants to just, like,

1030
00:56:17,750 --> 00:56:21,149
Speaker 3: you know, eat Kano here or something. But it doesn't

1031
00:56:21,190 --> 00:56:24,870
Speaker 3: quite happen because Shang Tsung walks in. And, you know,

1032
00:56:24,950 --> 00:56:30,730
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung comes in and explains, you know, he says, look, actually,

1033
00:56:30,770 --> 00:56:33,270
Speaker 3: Kano is great. He can teach us a lot about

1034
00:56:33,450 --> 00:56:36,550
Speaker 3: Earth because, look at him, you know, there's nothing special

1035
00:56:36,590 --> 00:56:40,680
Speaker 3: about him. He's not especially... dignified. He has no manners.

1036
00:56:40,719 --> 00:56:43,810
Speaker 3: He's not really all that smart or, you know, nothing

1037
00:56:43,850 --> 00:56:46,230
Speaker 3: good about him. Yet in the realm of Earth, men

1038
00:56:46,270 --> 00:56:49,850
Speaker 3: like him can amass great wealth, almost godlike power. And

1039
00:56:49,870 --> 00:56:51,830
Speaker 3: then Kano says, yeah, I'd like to get back to

1040
00:56:51,870 --> 00:56:54,450
Speaker 3: my amassing as soon as possible, if you don't mind.

1041
00:56:54,489 --> 00:56:57,650
Speaker 3: So when do I get paid? And here it is

1042
00:56:57,670 --> 00:57:00,750
Speaker 3: again revealed that Kano, before he can take his money

1043
00:57:00,810 --> 00:57:03,730
Speaker 3: and go home, Kano has to fight Sonya Blade in

1044
00:57:03,750 --> 00:57:07,300
Speaker 3: the tournament. But He is not to harm her, only

1045
00:57:07,380 --> 00:57:11,030
Speaker 3: to humiliate her, because Shang Tsung has very important plans

1046
00:57:11,090 --> 00:57:12,489
Speaker 3: for her later in the contest.

1047
00:57:13,130 --> 00:57:14,660
Speaker 1: All right. We'll see what that consists of.

1048
00:57:15,070 --> 00:57:16,730
Speaker 3: Oh, also in the scene, I think we hear our

1049
00:57:16,790 --> 00:57:21,860
Speaker 3: heroes expressing, the heroes overhear the villains expressing worry about

1050
00:57:21,890 --> 00:57:23,920
Speaker 3: Liu Kang. They're concerned about him. They have to be

1051
00:57:23,960 --> 00:57:26,840
Speaker 3: careful about him. And they're, you know, the heroes are like,

1052
00:57:26,920 --> 00:57:29,979
Speaker 3: what's so special about Liu Kang? Why him? But they're

1053
00:57:30,160 --> 00:57:33,100
Speaker 3: also concerned about Princess Kitana. They say she is the

1054
00:57:33,200 --> 00:57:36,740
Speaker 3: emperor of Outworld's daughter. And they're afraid she might intervene

1055
00:57:36,780 --> 00:57:38,880
Speaker 3: to help the fighters from the realm of Earth. So

1056
00:57:38,900 --> 00:57:41,020
Speaker 3: they have to be vigilant. Now, there's a bunch more

1057
00:57:41,080 --> 00:57:44,260
Speaker 3: sneaking around. There is one encounter of our heroes with

1058
00:57:44,380 --> 00:57:48,700
Speaker 3: Reptile where Reptile is invisible in a room. And it's

1059
00:57:48,720 --> 00:57:50,890
Speaker 3: like that scene in Predator, you know, where only one

1060
00:57:50,910 --> 00:57:54,700
Speaker 3: of the guys sees it. Liu Kang apparently sees Reptile

1061
00:57:54,740 --> 00:57:57,630
Speaker 3: when nobody else does or at least walks up to,

1062
00:57:57,890 --> 00:57:59,870
Speaker 3: you know, he senses something and he like walks up

1063
00:57:59,910 --> 00:58:02,410
Speaker 3: to a void in the wall. And then Reptile suddenly

1064
00:58:02,470 --> 00:58:05,650
Speaker 3: comes out of invisibility and vomits a bunch of poison

1065
00:58:05,690 --> 00:58:09,410
Speaker 3: in Liu Kang's face and then runs away. After that,

1066
00:58:09,510 --> 00:58:11,790
Speaker 3: the heroes come into Shang Tsung's feast room. And here

1067
00:58:11,830 --> 00:58:15,410
Speaker 3: we get the first real big fight, actually. This is

1068
00:58:15,430 --> 00:58:19,050
Speaker 3: the fight where our heroes have to confront these muscle

1069
00:58:19,070 --> 00:58:23,120
Speaker 3: guys with the head coverings. And they do quite well.

1070
00:58:23,620 --> 00:58:25,500
Speaker 1: But then, of course, Raiden shows up and he does

1071
00:58:25,560 --> 00:58:28,340
Speaker 1: a slow clap. It's so great. And we get another

1072
00:58:28,420 --> 00:58:29,760
Speaker 1: one of his, I don't think so.

1073
00:58:31,000 --> 00:58:33,990
Speaker 3: That's right. I don't think so. And then Raiden leads

1074
00:58:34,030 --> 00:58:38,120
Speaker 3: our heroes to safety. We get more lectures from Raiden here.

1075
00:58:38,180 --> 00:58:41,060
Speaker 3: He says, you know, to fight Shang Tsung, you've got

1076
00:58:41,080 --> 00:58:43,880
Speaker 3: to face not just one, but a legion of enemies

1077
00:58:43,940 --> 00:58:46,740
Speaker 3: because his power comes from the souls of those he

1078
00:58:46,780 --> 00:58:49,420
Speaker 3: has defeated in the past. So you're sort of fighting

1079
00:58:49,560 --> 00:58:53,810
Speaker 3: everyone Shang Tsung has ever beaten. Now, the next morning,

1080
00:58:53,910 --> 00:58:57,230
Speaker 3: the main action of the movie begins. And from here,

1081
00:58:57,310 --> 00:59:00,970
Speaker 3: the movie turns much more into just a sequence of

1082
00:59:01,150 --> 00:59:04,440
Speaker 3: fight scenes that That sounds like that could get a

1083
00:59:04,460 --> 00:59:07,480
Speaker 3: little monotonous, and I don't know, maybe you could say

1084
00:59:07,540 --> 00:59:10,050
Speaker 3: that it does, but the movie does better with it than...

1085
00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:12,280
Speaker 3: you might expect, I think, because it doesn't let any

1086
00:59:12,320 --> 00:59:15,820
Speaker 3: of them go on too long. They're all there's a

1087
00:59:15,820 --> 00:59:18,630
Speaker 3: pretty rapid pace of developments and most of the fights

1088
00:59:18,690 --> 00:59:19,650
Speaker 3: are pretty quick.

1089
00:59:20,150 --> 00:59:22,870
Speaker 1: Right, right. And the one the one in particular that

1090
00:59:22,890 --> 00:59:24,430
Speaker 1: I'm thinking of, it does go on a bit long,

1091
00:59:24,470 --> 00:59:26,570
Speaker 1: has a lot of variety in it. And it's just

1092
00:59:27,050 --> 00:59:28,610
Speaker 1: it is exciting from beginning to end.

1093
00:59:28,890 --> 00:59:30,910
Speaker 3: That's right. So the first fight we get to see

1094
00:59:30,950 --> 00:59:32,690
Speaker 3: the next morning is taking place sort of on the

1095
00:59:32,830 --> 00:59:35,690
Speaker 3: I think it's on a beach outside back on the

1096
00:59:35,730 --> 00:59:39,500
Speaker 3: ground level of the island. Shang Tsung kind of sits

1097
00:59:39,600 --> 00:59:42,720
Speaker 3: in a peacock throne overlooking all of the battles. He's

1098
00:59:42,760 --> 00:59:46,680
Speaker 3: like the referee or observer or something. And this is

1099
00:59:46,740 --> 00:59:49,640
Speaker 3: a fight where Liu Kang has to face off against

1100
00:59:49,720 --> 00:59:53,390
Speaker 3: another human fighter. They've got a match with with Bo Stave.

1101
00:59:53,410 --> 00:59:55,730
Speaker 3: So like nobody's fighting Goro yet. I think it starts

1102
00:59:55,790 --> 00:59:58,840
Speaker 3: with like the the Earthrealm fighters just fighting each other.

1103
00:59:58,860 --> 01:00:01,100
Speaker 3: I don't think we ever learned that the name of

1104
01:00:01,140 --> 01:00:04,000
Speaker 3: the guy Liu Kang is fighting here. But Liu Kang

1105
01:00:04,040 --> 01:00:08,300
Speaker 3: fights honorably and he wins. But there's a twist because

1106
01:00:08,520 --> 01:00:12,400
Speaker 3: after Liu Kang's opponent is defeated, Shang Tsung walks up

1107
01:00:12,440 --> 01:00:15,310
Speaker 3: to the guy and he reaches out. And he sucks

1108
01:00:15,370 --> 01:00:17,930
Speaker 3: his soul out of his flesh. He says, your soul

1109
01:00:18,030 --> 01:00:22,310
Speaker 3: is mine. Sucks the soul out and then says, fatality. Now,

1110
01:00:22,330 --> 01:00:25,450
Speaker 3: that's not really how it worked in the game, was it? Like,

1111
01:00:25,470 --> 01:00:28,890
Speaker 3: the fatality was done by the fighter, not by Shang Tsung.

1112
01:00:29,490 --> 01:00:33,820
Speaker 1: Correct. Yes. So it's clear that Shang Tsung's not playing

1113
01:00:33,860 --> 01:00:37,020
Speaker 1: fair here at all. Like, what do you mean, taking

1114
01:00:37,040 --> 01:00:39,680
Speaker 1: the souls of guys you didn't even beat? That contradicts

1115
01:00:39,700 --> 01:00:40,580
Speaker 1: what Raiden just said.

1116
01:00:41,490 --> 01:00:44,820
Speaker 3: Next fight is Sonya Blade versus Kano. Okay. This has

1117
01:00:44,840 --> 01:00:48,200
Speaker 3: been coming a while. This is the Vendetta fight. We

1118
01:00:48,240 --> 01:00:50,880
Speaker 3: alluded to this earlier, but here at the beginning of

1119
01:00:50,920 --> 01:00:54,260
Speaker 3: this fight, Kano whips out a knife and brags about

1120
01:00:54,300 --> 01:00:56,340
Speaker 3: how he used it to kill her partner. Then he

1121
01:00:56,400 --> 01:00:58,840
Speaker 3: attacks her with it. And it's like, what? He's allowed

1122
01:00:58,860 --> 01:01:01,930
Speaker 3: to do that? I don't know. Is this a tournament?

1123
01:01:03,310 --> 01:01:05,050
Speaker 1: It's tournament legal. Okay. Okay.

1124
01:01:05,980 --> 01:01:09,030
Speaker 3: But Sonya just whoops him. She does a move that

1125
01:01:09,070 --> 01:01:11,470
Speaker 3: her character in the game does where she stands on

1126
01:01:11,510 --> 01:01:14,070
Speaker 3: her hands and then grabs the dude by his neck

1127
01:01:14,170 --> 01:01:17,110
Speaker 3: with her ankles, slams him on the ground, and then

1128
01:01:17,150 --> 01:01:19,650
Speaker 3: does a kind of ground grapple with her calves around

1129
01:01:19,690 --> 01:01:23,490
Speaker 3: his neck. And now Kano's like, uh-oh, I didn't expect

1130
01:01:23,550 --> 01:01:26,650
Speaker 3: it to go this way. He starts begging for mercy. Here,

1131
01:01:26,730 --> 01:01:29,090
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung does what he does in the game. Shang

1132
01:01:29,110 --> 01:01:31,370
Speaker 3: Tsung calls out to Sonya and says, finish him.

1133
01:01:31,390 --> 01:01:32,270
Speaker 1: And Kano.

1134
01:01:33,590 --> 01:01:37,850
Speaker 3: Can you imagine what pun is coming? Kano says, come on, Sonya,

1135
01:01:37,990 --> 01:01:41,480
Speaker 3: give me a break. And she says, okay, and cracks

1136
01:01:41,520 --> 01:01:41,880
Speaker 3: his neck.

1137
01:01:42,260 --> 01:01:45,700
Speaker 1: All right. So on one level, I was amused by

1138
01:01:45,860 --> 01:01:47,920
Speaker 1: and done with Kano at this point. So I wasn't

1139
01:01:47,980 --> 01:01:49,860
Speaker 1: sad that we weren't getting more Kano in the rest

1140
01:01:49,900 --> 01:01:51,940
Speaker 1: of the picture. But on the other hand, it is

1141
01:01:52,200 --> 01:01:55,480
Speaker 1: weird that we set Sonya up as a character whose

1142
01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:59,700
Speaker 1: only identity is her quest for revenge. And she achieves

1143
01:01:59,840 --> 01:02:03,200
Speaker 1: full revenge, like less than half into the picture. Yeah.

1144
01:02:03,680 --> 01:02:05,940
Speaker 1: And then this is not one of those movies where

1145
01:02:05,980 --> 01:02:07,580
Speaker 1: the remainder of the picture is going to be like

1146
01:02:07,740 --> 01:02:12,200
Speaker 1: grappling with the guilt of vengeance or the ramifications of vengeance,

1147
01:02:12,520 --> 01:02:16,260
Speaker 1: the self-destructive nature of vengeance. No, it's just kind of like, oh,

1148
01:02:16,470 --> 01:02:19,450
Speaker 1: that was her only reason to be around or do anything.

1149
01:02:19,550 --> 01:02:21,470
Speaker 1: Now we just have to just change her role in

1150
01:02:21,490 --> 01:02:24,290
Speaker 1: the narrative completely. Now she'll be a damsel in distress.

1151
01:02:24,570 --> 01:02:27,070
Speaker 3: Now she turns into, don't you dare do this to

1152
01:02:27,130 --> 01:02:28,450
Speaker 3: protect me, Johnny Cage.

1153
01:02:30,140 --> 01:02:33,479
Speaker 1: Yeah, so it's, yeah, it's a little bit clunky.

1154
01:02:34,160 --> 01:02:37,200
Speaker 3: So the next fight in the movie is Johnny Cage,

1155
01:02:37,360 --> 01:02:41,780
Speaker 3: the movie star, versus Scorpion. I think this is, as

1156
01:02:41,820 --> 01:02:44,310
Speaker 3: you alluded to, I think this is the longest fight

1157
01:02:44,350 --> 01:02:46,610
Speaker 3: in the movie, probably. Well, maybe with the exception of

1158
01:02:46,670 --> 01:02:49,950
Speaker 3: the final fight between Liu Kang and Shang Tsung. But

1159
01:02:49,990 --> 01:02:52,810
Speaker 3: this is the longest, but it's got a lot of variety.

1160
01:02:52,830 --> 01:02:56,510
Speaker 3: It changes locations midway through. And I think this one's

1161
01:02:56,570 --> 01:02:57,190
Speaker 3: pretty solid.

1162
01:02:57,590 --> 01:03:00,500
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this one absolutely holds up. Yeah, it's

1163
01:03:00,520 --> 01:03:05,300
Speaker 1: long enough. But the action choreography is tremendous. You believe

1164
01:03:05,340 --> 01:03:08,400
Speaker 1: all the hits. They even have some nice supernatural wire

1165
01:03:08,440 --> 01:03:10,840
Speaker 1: moments in there that work really well. We get a

1166
01:03:10,880 --> 01:03:16,170
Speaker 1: change in location. It gets hellish. And both characters really

1167
01:03:16,290 --> 01:03:18,390
Speaker 1: feel like they're video game personas here.

1168
01:03:18,610 --> 01:03:21,290
Speaker 3: Yeah. I like the location where they begin. It's like

1169
01:03:21,330 --> 01:03:26,220
Speaker 3: an orchard with these rows and rows of perfectly lined up,

1170
01:03:26,320 --> 01:03:28,700
Speaker 3: evenly spaced trees. I don't know what kind of trees

1171
01:03:28,760 --> 01:03:30,900
Speaker 3: they are, but it's a it's a kind of eerie

1172
01:03:30,960 --> 01:03:35,390
Speaker 3: setting because of the combination of naturalness and unnaturalness about it.

1173
01:03:36,060 --> 01:03:38,920
Speaker 3: So I like that. And Johnny Cage uses one of

1174
01:03:38,940 --> 01:03:42,840
Speaker 3: the trees. He like uses it to disable the, the,

1175
01:03:43,440 --> 01:03:45,530
Speaker 3: I don't know, the snake coming out of the hand

1176
01:03:45,590 --> 01:03:47,450
Speaker 3: weapon because he like dodges out of the way at

1177
01:03:47,510 --> 01:03:49,930
Speaker 3: the last second and the snake slams into a tree.

1178
01:03:51,210 --> 01:03:53,430
Speaker 3: And so, so yeah, it's a pretty good fight. And

1179
01:03:53,490 --> 01:03:57,430
Speaker 3: also it does involve Scorpion trying to use his finishing

1180
01:03:57,470 --> 01:03:59,910
Speaker 3: move from the game where he takes his mask off

1181
01:04:00,310 --> 01:04:03,110
Speaker 3: reveals his head as a skull, and then breathes fire

1182
01:04:03,190 --> 01:04:06,750
Speaker 3: on his opponent. But Johnny Cage outwits him by holding

1183
01:04:06,810 --> 01:04:09,610
Speaker 3: up a shield to shield himself from the flames and

1184
01:04:09,660 --> 01:04:12,520
Speaker 3: then using the edge of the shield to slice the

1185
01:04:12,860 --> 01:04:15,940
Speaker 3: yellow ninja open. And I don't know, just like a

1186
01:04:15,960 --> 01:04:18,600
Speaker 3: bunch of guts and weird stuff comes out and then

1187
01:04:18,640 --> 01:04:19,620
Speaker 3: Scorpion explodes.

1188
01:04:20,100 --> 01:04:23,200
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. This takes place, I guess, in hell. I

1189
01:04:23,220 --> 01:04:26,170
Speaker 1: don't know. Or some sort of hell. We don't know

1190
01:04:26,230 --> 01:04:28,750
Speaker 1: how Cage gets back from hell to reality, but he

1191
01:04:28,790 --> 01:04:30,350
Speaker 1: does it. Maybe it's not a literal hell. It's just

1192
01:04:30,390 --> 01:04:35,210
Speaker 1: like a basement of the Mortal Kombat temple facilities here.

1193
01:04:35,630 --> 01:04:38,970
Speaker 3: Now, there was a part here that really confused me

1194
01:04:39,010 --> 01:04:41,880
Speaker 3: when I was a kid. So Scorpion, once he's defeated,

1195
01:04:41,960 --> 01:04:47,220
Speaker 3: he explodes. And then we see a photograph that is

1196
01:04:47,240 --> 01:04:51,020
Speaker 3: a photo of Johnny Cage, like falling to the ground

1197
01:04:51,140 --> 01:04:55,000
Speaker 3: from the debris of the explosion and And as ash

1198
01:04:55,080 --> 01:04:58,910
Speaker 3: is raining down all around and it's the photo of

1199
01:04:58,950 --> 01:05:02,170
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage is autographed and says to my greatest fan,

1200
01:05:02,410 --> 01:05:06,470
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage XOXO. And I was like, what does that mean?

1201
01:05:06,490 --> 01:05:10,140
Speaker 3: I think I interpreted this when I was a kid

1202
01:05:10,470 --> 01:05:15,980
Speaker 3: as in life before becoming an undead skeletal ninja. Scorpion

1203
01:05:16,020 --> 01:05:18,680
Speaker 3: was a fan of Johnny Cage's movies and got an

1204
01:05:18,760 --> 01:05:22,570
Speaker 3: autographed photo and then became an undead ninja again. and

1205
01:05:22,630 --> 01:05:25,050
Speaker 3: just happened to have this souvenir on him.

1206
01:05:25,590 --> 01:05:28,110
Speaker 1: Well, I like the logic of that, but yeah, I

1207
01:05:28,150 --> 01:05:32,220
Speaker 1: think it's just Cage being cheeky. But the alternate interpretation

1208
01:05:32,240 --> 01:05:34,920
Speaker 1: that you've shared here, it would lead to some interesting

1209
01:05:34,960 --> 01:05:36,040
Speaker 1: lore if this were the case.

1210
01:05:36,500 --> 01:05:40,200
Speaker 3: Okay, next fight they show us is Liu Kang versus Kitana.

1211
01:05:40,460 --> 01:05:43,710
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung says they have to fight. It's clear that

1212
01:05:43,770 --> 01:05:46,770
Speaker 3: Kitana is very powerful, but she's holding back. She doesn't

1213
01:05:46,810 --> 01:05:49,680
Speaker 3: want to hurt Liu Kang. Instead, in this match, Every

1214
01:05:49,720 --> 01:05:53,500
Speaker 3: time she grapples Liu Kang to a halt, she sort

1215
01:05:53,540 --> 01:05:57,020
Speaker 3: of whispers advice in his ear in these little increments.

1216
01:05:57,460 --> 01:05:59,980
Speaker 3: And she eventually tells him, to win your next fight,

1217
01:06:00,460 --> 01:06:02,460
Speaker 3: use the element which brings life.

1218
01:06:03,840 --> 01:06:06,170
Speaker 1: You know, this is not a good fight. This is

1219
01:06:06,190 --> 01:06:10,270
Speaker 1: not a fight you enjoy watching so much. But it's

1220
01:06:10,310 --> 01:06:14,010
Speaker 1: about developing the plot. And I think it also... It's

1221
01:06:14,070 --> 01:06:16,510
Speaker 1: key when we talk about why this doesn't get boring,

1222
01:06:16,570 --> 01:06:19,520
Speaker 1: having fight after fight after fight, is because... They're pacing

1223
01:06:19,560 --> 01:06:22,480
Speaker 1: it out appropriately here, where we have a big showcase

1224
01:06:22,540 --> 01:06:25,570
Speaker 1: battle between Scorpion and Johnny Cage, and then a little

1225
01:06:25,610 --> 01:06:28,910
Speaker 1: battle that serves a different purpose entirely. And then we

1226
01:06:28,950 --> 01:06:31,250
Speaker 1: move on to maybe another flashier battle.

1227
01:06:31,550 --> 01:06:33,930
Speaker 3: That's right. So the next fight on the agenda is

1228
01:06:33,970 --> 01:06:36,890
Speaker 3: another one of the big Demon Ninja fights. This is

1229
01:06:36,990 --> 01:06:40,620
Speaker 3: Liu Kang versus Sub-Zero, who again has freezing powers. And

1230
01:06:40,640 --> 01:06:43,900
Speaker 3: we saw earlier Sub-Zero froze an opponent so that he

1231
01:06:43,940 --> 01:06:47,220
Speaker 3: just froze solid and shattered on the floor. This is

1232
01:06:47,280 --> 01:06:48,220
Speaker 3: also a pretty good fight.

1233
01:06:48,690 --> 01:06:51,110
Speaker 1: Yeah, solid fight. Great set. I think this one has

1234
01:06:51,130 --> 01:06:55,190
Speaker 1: a really nice set. Excellent lighting. Solid fatality as well.

1235
01:06:55,370 --> 01:06:57,890
Speaker 3: There's one moment in this fight that really stuck with

1236
01:06:57,930 --> 01:07:01,380
Speaker 3: me when I was younger, which is the moment where Sub-Zero,

1237
01:07:01,400 --> 01:07:05,400
Speaker 3: I think, kicks Liu Kang on the chin. I recall

1238
01:07:05,420 --> 01:07:08,520
Speaker 3: that really seeming like it would hurt. Like, there's a

1239
01:07:08,560 --> 01:07:10,660
Speaker 3: scene like this in Raiders of the Lost Ark when

1240
01:07:10,680 --> 01:07:12,820
Speaker 3: Harrison Ford gets hit on the chin with a mirror

1241
01:07:12,880 --> 01:07:16,250
Speaker 3: that's flipping around. Yeah, I don't know. That's gross for me.

1242
01:07:16,270 --> 01:07:20,890
Speaker 1: I mean, it's the mark of great... Great action filmmaking

1243
01:07:20,970 --> 01:07:22,970
Speaker 1: and great stunt work when you can feel those hits

1244
01:07:23,010 --> 01:07:23,860
Speaker 1: like that. Yeah.

1245
01:07:23,930 --> 01:07:25,940
Speaker 3: But so anyway, it's a good fight in the beginning.

1246
01:07:25,980 --> 01:07:29,420
Speaker 3: They trade blows for a while. Sub-Zero is clearly prepared

1247
01:07:29,460 --> 01:07:32,920
Speaker 3: to freeze Liu Kang solid. He's gathering the sort of

1248
01:07:32,960 --> 01:07:35,640
Speaker 3: CGI snow into the palm of his hand. The magic

1249
01:07:35,700 --> 01:07:38,080
Speaker 3: is swirling around. And Liu Kang is like, how can

1250
01:07:38,100 --> 01:07:41,430
Speaker 3: I beat that? But then he remembers Katana's advice. And

1251
01:07:41,470 --> 01:07:43,830
Speaker 3: I think we even see her at the other end

1252
01:07:43,850 --> 01:07:46,710
Speaker 3: of the room, like making eyes at him. And he's like,

1253
01:07:46,810 --> 01:07:50,050
Speaker 3: wait a minute. What is the element that brings life?

1254
01:07:50,370 --> 01:07:53,510
Speaker 3: It's water. So he gets a bucket of water and

1255
01:07:53,530 --> 01:07:57,260
Speaker 3: he heaves it into Sub-Zero's sphere of cold and it

1256
01:07:57,300 --> 01:08:00,160
Speaker 3: forms a spike, a spike of ice that pins the

1257
01:08:00,280 --> 01:08:02,780
Speaker 3: evil ninja to the wall. Now, at this point in

1258
01:08:02,800 --> 01:08:05,460
Speaker 3: the story, Shang Tsung has had enough. He's let the

1259
01:08:05,900 --> 01:08:09,380
Speaker 3: humans win enough. It's time to deploy Prince Goro, who

1260
01:08:09,420 --> 01:08:12,380
Speaker 3: nobody can defeat. And then there's like a montage of

1261
01:08:12,460 --> 01:08:15,580
Speaker 3: Goro destroying most of the human fighters in the tournament.

1262
01:08:16,080 --> 01:08:19,820
Speaker 3: This leads up to the scene of Goro versus Art Lean,

1263
01:08:19,860 --> 01:08:23,849
Speaker 3: the guy we met earlier who had some previous experience

1264
01:08:23,870 --> 01:08:27,030
Speaker 3: with Johnny Cage. And so we see this whole fight.

1265
01:08:27,450 --> 01:08:31,250
Speaker 3: Goro gets like a WWE-style entrance where the doors open

1266
01:08:31,650 --> 01:08:34,900
Speaker 3: and everybody's cheering for him. And why are all these

1267
01:08:34,979 --> 01:08:37,760
Speaker 3: human fighters in the audience cheering for Goro?

1268
01:08:38,540 --> 01:08:41,400
Speaker 1: They like strength. They love a champion.

1269
01:08:41,720 --> 01:08:45,400
Speaker 3: He's here to destroy their Earthrealm. But they're like, yeah,

1270
01:08:45,420 --> 01:08:46,030
Speaker 3: fight him.

1271
01:08:48,050 --> 01:08:50,490
Speaker 1: This scene is where Goro looks the best, I have

1272
01:08:50,510 --> 01:08:54,690
Speaker 1: to say. He still doesn't look tremendous, but he looks

1273
01:08:54,729 --> 01:08:56,650
Speaker 1: a lot better in action here against Art.

1274
01:08:57,450 --> 01:09:01,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right. Now, Art leans does okay initially. He

1275
01:09:01,320 --> 01:09:04,060
Speaker 3: gets some punches in by being faster than Goro, but

1276
01:09:04,120 --> 01:09:07,460
Speaker 3: Goro's just too big. And he eventually grabs Art's fists

1277
01:09:07,560 --> 01:09:09,900
Speaker 3: with his two lower arms and then just beats him

1278
01:09:09,939 --> 01:09:15,160
Speaker 3: with his upper arms. And finally, Goro finishes him with

1279
01:09:15,200 --> 01:09:17,400
Speaker 3: a horrible strike. And I remember the scene being kind

1280
01:09:17,439 --> 01:09:20,720
Speaker 3: of scary and sad when I was a kid. And

1281
01:09:21,189 --> 01:09:25,560
Speaker 3: then Shang Tsung absorbs Art Lean's soul into his eyeball.

1282
01:09:26,200 --> 01:09:30,700
Speaker 3: And then for some reason, Sonya screams, no! But it's

1283
01:09:30,760 --> 01:09:32,939
Speaker 3: not even suggested that she knows Art.

1284
01:09:33,280 --> 01:09:33,900
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

1285
01:09:34,180 --> 01:09:36,220
Speaker 3: Why doesn't Johnny Cage scream no? He's the one who

1286
01:09:36,260 --> 01:09:36,720
Speaker 3: knows him.

1287
01:09:37,080 --> 01:09:39,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, that would make a lot more sense. Because ultimately, like,

1288
01:09:39,720 --> 01:09:42,320
Speaker 1: that's the role Art has here, is the kind of

1289
01:09:42,340 --> 01:09:43,700
Speaker 1: role we see in a lot of these martial arts

1290
01:09:43,740 --> 01:09:46,420
Speaker 1: tournament films, where you have the kind of, like, sacrificial

1291
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:49,729
Speaker 1: friend of the hero here. who gets beat up and

1292
01:09:49,810 --> 01:09:52,759
Speaker 1: or killed by the, the big bad in the tournament.

1293
01:10:01,620 --> 01:10:03,760
Speaker 3: So after this, we get, you know, your dark night

1294
01:10:03,800 --> 01:10:06,439
Speaker 3: of the soul scenes where the characters are grappling with

1295
01:10:06,500 --> 01:10:09,710
Speaker 3: their fears and limitations. And Raiden is sort of coaching

1296
01:10:09,750 --> 01:10:13,190
Speaker 3: them through being the life coach yet again. You know,

1297
01:10:13,210 --> 01:10:15,890
Speaker 3: he talks to Liu Kang about his fears and his

1298
01:10:15,950 --> 01:10:20,210
Speaker 3: destiny and, The how despair is the most dangerous fear

1299
01:10:20,250 --> 01:10:23,990
Speaker 3: of all. Liu Kang ends up sitting on a beach

1300
01:10:24,130 --> 01:10:27,330
Speaker 3: flashing back to his dream about Chan. And then this

1301
01:10:27,390 --> 01:10:30,110
Speaker 3: is also the scene where we get Sonya and Johnny

1302
01:10:30,150 --> 01:10:34,310
Speaker 3: Cage arguing about whether Johnny Cage should challenge Goro. He's like,

1303
01:10:34,400 --> 01:10:37,000
Speaker 3: I'm going to have to do it. And she she says,

1304
01:10:37,100 --> 01:10:39,620
Speaker 3: don't you dare do this to protect me, Johnny Cage.

1305
01:10:40,040 --> 01:10:43,200
Speaker 3: And he says, trust me, I've got a plan. So, OK,

1306
01:10:43,240 --> 01:10:45,240
Speaker 3: I'm curious, what's his plan? How's he going to defeat

1307
01:10:45,260 --> 01:10:49,920
Speaker 3: this huge thing with four arms? So the next fight

1308
01:10:50,000 --> 01:10:53,600
Speaker 3: is Johnny Cage versus Goro. And Johnny Cage goes to

1309
01:10:53,640 --> 01:10:56,799
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung. He's like, all right, I'm ready to fight Goro.

1310
01:10:57,100 --> 01:11:01,380
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung says, foolish but brave. Raiden tries to intervene

1311
01:11:01,420 --> 01:11:03,930
Speaker 3: to stop this, but it's too late. A deal's a deal.

1312
01:11:04,050 --> 01:11:07,509
Speaker 3: He can't stop it. So the Cage versus Goro fight.

1313
01:11:07,590 --> 01:11:10,290
Speaker 3: What do you think? When I was a kid, I

1314
01:11:10,610 --> 01:11:13,830
Speaker 3: loved this fight because it, I'd say largely because it

1315
01:11:14,550 --> 01:11:17,860
Speaker 3: features a prominent groin punch, which I found hilarious when

1316
01:11:17,900 --> 01:11:21,840
Speaker 3: I was younger. And then also because it's got a cliff,

1317
01:11:22,120 --> 01:11:23,800
Speaker 3: and I love a fight at the edge of a cliff.

1318
01:11:23,860 --> 01:11:25,800
Speaker 3: That's just classic action movie gold.

1319
01:11:26,600 --> 01:11:29,860
Speaker 1: My feelings about it were a bit different. I thought

1320
01:11:29,900 --> 01:11:33,240
Speaker 1: that the nard punch just made Goro look stupid. And

1321
01:11:33,260 --> 01:11:35,939
Speaker 1: I was like, no, Goro's supposed to be tough. We've

1322
01:11:35,960 --> 01:11:37,479
Speaker 1: just built him up as tough, and now you've made

1323
01:11:37,500 --> 01:11:40,460
Speaker 1: him look foolish. And then I feel like there's very

1324
01:11:40,540 --> 01:11:43,540
Speaker 1: little action between these two characters. It's not much of

1325
01:11:43,580 --> 01:11:46,550
Speaker 1: a fight. And then Johnny Cage kind of like, trips

1326
01:11:46,590 --> 01:11:49,450
Speaker 1: him off a cliff and he falls into a, into

1327
01:11:49,490 --> 01:11:51,150
Speaker 1: a nebula or something. Yeah.

1328
01:11:51,189 --> 01:11:53,690
Speaker 3: Yeah. So the fight begins with, Oh, uh, at the

1329
01:11:53,710 --> 01:11:56,570
Speaker 3: beginning of the fight, Goro's like gloating and he takes

1330
01:11:56,630 --> 01:11:59,650
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage's sunglasses out of his pocket and, or maybe

1331
01:11:59,689 --> 01:12:02,650
Speaker 3: off of his face and smashes them. And Johnny Cage

1332
01:12:02,670 --> 01:12:04,450
Speaker 3: doesn't like that, but he says his line again. You

1333
01:12:04,470 --> 01:12:06,970
Speaker 3: remember from the beginning when he goes, let's dance. So

1334
01:12:06,990 --> 01:12:10,010
Speaker 3: he says that, but then he does the splits, he

1335
01:12:10,070 --> 01:12:12,590
Speaker 3: drops to the ground and punches Goro in the crotch.

1336
01:12:13,070 --> 01:12:15,969
Speaker 3: And then Raiden, who is standing there observing the fight,

1337
01:12:16,660 --> 01:12:22,340
Speaker 3: Does a 1990s, yes! Goro, of course, he howls in

1338
01:12:22,380 --> 01:12:26,950
Speaker 3: pain and rage. The movie really wallows in the Goro

1339
01:12:27,030 --> 01:12:28,030
Speaker 3: groin pain.

1340
01:12:28,050 --> 01:12:30,650
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I think a bit too much. But I guess,

1341
01:12:30,689 --> 01:12:33,910
Speaker 1: you know, the kids probably loved it. And to be clear,

1342
01:12:34,030 --> 01:12:36,980
Speaker 1: it is a move from the video game. So they

1343
01:12:37,020 --> 01:12:37,700
Speaker 1: had to include it.

1344
01:12:38,040 --> 01:12:41,280
Speaker 3: Does Johnny Cage do a shadow kick in the movie

1345
01:12:41,640 --> 01:12:43,479
Speaker 3: that was in the video game also? I think maybe

1346
01:12:43,500 --> 01:12:44,639
Speaker 3: he does one against Scorpion.

1347
01:12:45,610 --> 01:12:48,260
Speaker 1: Possibly. Yeah, I don't remember it happening, but that would

1348
01:12:48,280 --> 01:12:50,140
Speaker 1: have been the place for it.

1349
01:12:50,160 --> 01:12:52,479
Speaker 3: Oh, we just got a note from guest producer Chandler

1350
01:12:52,500 --> 01:12:55,060
Speaker 3: Mays that, yes, he did do a shadow kick, and

1351
01:12:55,120 --> 01:12:57,679
Speaker 3: that is when Scorpion sucks Johnny Cage into hell.

1352
01:12:58,040 --> 01:12:58,820
Speaker 1: All right, there we go.

1353
01:12:59,200 --> 01:13:02,240
Speaker 3: Okay. But anyway, so at the end of the fight, yeah,

1354
01:13:02,280 --> 01:13:05,340
Speaker 3: Johnny Cage ends up kicking Goro off of the side

1355
01:13:05,360 --> 01:13:07,540
Speaker 3: of a mountain to his death. And Goro's like hanging

1356
01:13:07,580 --> 01:13:10,280
Speaker 3: there on the cliff. And Johnny Cage, we get a

1357
01:13:10,320 --> 01:13:12,380
Speaker 3: call back to his earlier line, this is the part

1358
01:13:12,400 --> 01:13:15,380
Speaker 3: where you fall down and Goro falls. So I don't know.

1359
01:13:15,720 --> 01:13:18,719
Speaker 3: I thought this fight was great when I was younger. Rob,

1360
01:13:18,760 --> 01:13:20,680
Speaker 3: I can kind of see now what you're saying about

1361
01:13:20,700 --> 01:13:22,940
Speaker 3: the limitations of it maybe not being one of the

1362
01:13:22,960 --> 01:13:23,360
Speaker 3: better ones.

1363
01:13:23,800 --> 01:13:26,220
Speaker 1: But on the other hand, I don't know. The art

1364
01:13:26,320 --> 01:13:29,820
Speaker 1: Goro fight was pretty good, but we've already established there

1365
01:13:29,860 --> 01:13:32,700
Speaker 1: are limitations to what you can do with this Goro effect.

1366
01:13:32,740 --> 01:13:35,630
Speaker 1: So maybe that was just ultimately asking too much for

1367
01:13:35,650 --> 01:13:38,849
Speaker 1: there to be another big drawn-out fight with this creature

1368
01:13:38,870 --> 01:13:39,059
Speaker 1: in it.

1369
01:13:39,390 --> 01:13:41,430
Speaker 3: That's right. And so here we get the transition to

1370
01:13:41,450 --> 01:13:45,530
Speaker 3: the final act. where Shang Tsung, he invokes one of

1371
01:13:46,330 --> 01:13:49,250
Speaker 3: the rules of the tournament. He executes his right to

1372
01:13:49,330 --> 01:13:52,309
Speaker 3: challenge any of the Earth Warriors for the final fight

1373
01:13:52,450 --> 01:13:55,730
Speaker 3: of the tournament. And he grabs Sonya Blade and drags

1374
01:13:55,770 --> 01:13:59,060
Speaker 3: her screaming through the portal to Outworld, where Raiden has

1375
01:13:59,110 --> 01:14:03,360
Speaker 3: no power. Raiden himself cannot go there, but Johnny Cage

1376
01:14:03,400 --> 01:14:06,299
Speaker 3: and Liu Kang, they're like, hey, we've got to rescue Sonya.

1377
01:14:06,420 --> 01:14:09,480
Speaker 3: So they run through the portal. They first ask Raiden,

1378
01:14:09,520 --> 01:14:11,979
Speaker 3: they're like, okay, well, he's going to challenge her to

1379
01:14:12,000 --> 01:14:15,349
Speaker 3: the final fight. Can she beat him? And Raiden is like, no.

1380
01:14:16,750 --> 01:14:18,729
Speaker 3: Raiden does not have confidence in Sonya.

1381
01:14:19,310 --> 01:14:21,950
Speaker 1: So, I mean, this would make it seem like, okay,

1382
01:14:22,050 --> 01:14:25,150
Speaker 1: one of my theories that I may have established earlier

1383
01:14:26,050 --> 01:14:28,849
Speaker 1: is that it seemed to me that they're going for

1384
01:14:28,870 --> 01:14:31,390
Speaker 1: a whole Shang Tsung wants to marry Sonya Blade vibe here.

1385
01:14:32,150 --> 01:14:33,670
Speaker 1: But I guess the other way of looking at it

1386
01:14:33,830 --> 01:14:37,490
Speaker 1: is he wanted Sonya Blade to enter the tournament because

1387
01:14:37,570 --> 01:14:40,089
Speaker 1: she would be easy enough to beat in Outworld.

1388
01:14:40,560 --> 01:14:42,010
Speaker 3: Yeah. That's what I thought it was.

1389
01:14:42,250 --> 01:14:44,710
Speaker 1: But that's a weird choice too, because then it's like

1390
01:14:44,870 --> 01:14:49,610
Speaker 1: Sonya blades weakness is her reason for being in the tournament.

1391
01:14:49,890 --> 01:14:50,150
Speaker 3: Yeah.

1392
01:14:50,310 --> 01:14:52,090
Speaker 1: And it seems like you're doing a disservice to your

1393
01:14:52,130 --> 01:14:54,790
Speaker 1: character there. I mean, she's like, we've spent a fair

1394
01:14:54,810 --> 01:14:57,400
Speaker 1: amount of time talking about how, how fearsome she is.

1395
01:14:57,479 --> 01:15:00,900
Speaker 1: And now she's just a damsel in distress. So again,

1396
01:15:00,939 --> 01:15:03,480
Speaker 1: I find this transformation of her character and overall use

1397
01:15:03,520 --> 01:15:06,580
Speaker 1: of her character, um, a little clunky.

1398
01:15:06,920 --> 01:15:09,080
Speaker 3: Yeah. Not a high point of the plotting here. Um,

1399
01:15:10,610 --> 01:15:13,710
Speaker 3: So anyway, Liu Kang and Johnny Cage, they got a helper.

1400
01:15:13,770 --> 01:15:17,270
Speaker 3: So they go to Outworld. Outworld looks like a set

1401
01:15:17,340 --> 01:15:18,580
Speaker 3: from Escape from L.A.

1402
01:15:19,080 --> 01:15:19,300
Speaker 1: Yeah.

1403
01:15:20,600 --> 01:15:24,959
Speaker 3: Just, you know, flaming garbage cans everywhere. It's very post-apocalyptic.

1404
01:15:25,400 --> 01:15:29,100
Speaker 3: They're flaming garbage cans everywhere. You would expect it. So

1405
01:15:29,479 --> 01:15:31,599
Speaker 3: I would have expected Outworld to look a little bit

1406
01:15:32,400 --> 01:15:37,750
Speaker 3: more fantasy and a little bit less like post-apocalyptic Earth settings.

1407
01:15:38,439 --> 01:15:41,580
Speaker 1: Well, there is one. I think they're mostly inspired by

1408
01:15:41,600 --> 01:15:45,420
Speaker 1: a particular fighting level in Mortal Kombat 2. It's like

1409
01:15:45,439 --> 01:15:48,320
Speaker 1: the Outland setting, and it does look like some sort

1410
01:15:48,350 --> 01:15:51,290
Speaker 1: of like a blue and purple ruin. So I guess

1411
01:15:51,310 --> 01:15:55,290
Speaker 1: they're going for that vibe. But yeah, they could have

1412
01:15:55,310 --> 01:15:57,090
Speaker 1: gone in a more fantasy direction. I think they're supposed

1413
01:15:57,110 --> 01:16:02,430
Speaker 1: to be more fantasy-like, more fantastic places within Outworld and

1414
01:16:02,490 --> 01:16:03,630
Speaker 1: palaces and so forth.

1415
01:16:04,050 --> 01:16:07,060
Speaker 3: Now, before they get to Shang Tsung's palace, there is

1416
01:16:07,200 --> 01:16:09,970
Speaker 3: one more fight, which is Liu Kang versus Reptile, which

1417
01:16:09,990 --> 01:16:13,490
Speaker 3: is pretty good. Weird. It's a weird setup for a fight,

1418
01:16:13,570 --> 01:16:14,570
Speaker 3: but I like it.

1419
01:16:15,070 --> 01:16:19,650
Speaker 1: Yeah, this one, it's completely bonkers, rather unexplained, but I

1420
01:16:19,689 --> 01:16:21,750
Speaker 1: love it. It's like a bonus match. You didn't think

1421
01:16:21,770 --> 01:16:24,679
Speaker 1: you were going to get to see Reptile fight. And

1422
01:16:25,350 --> 01:16:28,220
Speaker 1: at this point, again, you know, love Reptile in the games.

1423
01:16:28,520 --> 01:16:31,400
Speaker 1: Then he was reduced to this awful CGI character. But luckily,

1424
01:16:31,420 --> 01:16:35,720
Speaker 1: Liu Kang throws or kicks him into a statue, which like,

1425
01:16:36,670 --> 01:16:41,320
Speaker 1: absorbs him, right? And then Reptile becomes a humanoid ninja

1426
01:16:41,540 --> 01:16:42,240
Speaker 1: for this battle?

1427
01:16:42,540 --> 01:16:46,500
Speaker 3: Yes, that's right. The CGI lizard is absorbed into the

1428
01:16:46,660 --> 01:16:50,459
Speaker 3: void in the stomach of a sort of monster statue,

1429
01:16:50,840 --> 01:16:53,960
Speaker 3: and that turns into the humanoid ninja form.

1430
01:16:54,479 --> 01:16:57,959
Speaker 1: Right. And he doesn't look great here. I'm not going

1431
01:16:57,979 --> 01:17:00,479
Speaker 1: to lie. Reptile looks a lot cooler in that TV

1432
01:17:00,520 --> 01:17:02,910
Speaker 1: spot for MK2 that I talked about in the first episode.

1433
01:17:04,150 --> 01:17:07,350
Speaker 1: But he looks way better than that CGI guy gremlin creature.

1434
01:17:07,689 --> 01:17:10,370
Speaker 1: So I remember being rather pleased with it. And fortunately,

1435
01:17:10,390 --> 01:17:12,910
Speaker 1: what we get here is a really solid vibe. Yeah.

1436
01:17:13,140 --> 01:17:16,660
Speaker 3: And it ends with a special move from the video games,

1437
01:17:16,740 --> 01:17:19,340
Speaker 3: not from Mortal Kombat 1, but from Mortal Kombat 2,

1438
01:17:19,340 --> 01:17:22,500
Speaker 3: which is Liu Kang's bicycle kick, which is where he

1439
01:17:22,580 --> 01:17:25,670
Speaker 3: flies through the air, repeatedly kicking you back and forth

1440
01:17:25,710 --> 01:17:28,290
Speaker 3: with both legs while advancing through the air.

1441
01:17:28,810 --> 01:17:30,470
Speaker 1: Yes. Yeah. Solid, solid move.

1442
01:17:31,130 --> 01:17:34,250
Speaker 3: Oh, and then finally it ends with reptile reverting back

1443
01:17:34,270 --> 01:17:36,930
Speaker 3: to like lizard form and Liu Kang just sort of

1444
01:17:36,970 --> 01:17:40,810
Speaker 3: does a bug stomp on him. So that's the end

1445
01:17:40,830 --> 01:17:43,229
Speaker 3: of that. And then they meet Princess Katana again. She's like,

1446
01:17:43,290 --> 01:17:47,770
Speaker 3: well done. You are finally learning Liu Kang. But so they,

1447
01:17:48,110 --> 01:17:51,260
Speaker 3: of course, after this Katana, Johnny Cage and Liu Kang,

1448
01:17:51,310 --> 01:17:54,160
Speaker 3: they go up to Shang Tsung's palace and they're going

1449
01:17:54,180 --> 01:17:57,080
Speaker 3: to have to challenge Shang Tsung to get Sonya back.

1450
01:17:58,439 --> 01:18:02,850
Speaker 3: Princess Katana prepares Liu Kang. She's like, when you face

1451
01:18:03,450 --> 01:18:05,870
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung, there are going to be three challenges. First,

1452
01:18:05,950 --> 01:18:09,190
Speaker 3: you must face your enemy. Then you must face yourself.

1453
01:18:09,450 --> 01:18:12,510
Speaker 3: Then you must face your worst fear. So they go

1454
01:18:12,590 --> 01:18:16,849
Speaker 3: on up to the tower. Shang Tsung has Sonya. He's

1455
01:18:16,890 --> 01:18:19,599
Speaker 3: like dressed her up in a Xena warrior princess outfit.

1456
01:18:20,680 --> 01:18:23,280
Speaker 3: He is trying to get her to agree to his

1457
01:18:23,420 --> 01:18:27,680
Speaker 3: challenge of mortal combat, but she won't. Uh, she, he's

1458
01:18:27,740 --> 01:18:30,420
Speaker 3: saying you have to fight me in, in mortal combat

1459
01:18:30,720 --> 01:18:33,400
Speaker 3: or earth will forfeit. Uh, and he's not telling her

1460
01:18:33,420 --> 01:18:35,620
Speaker 3: the rules correctly. Those are not the rules. She doesn't

1461
01:18:35,660 --> 01:18:38,280
Speaker 3: have to accept. Uh, but he is lying to her

1462
01:18:38,320 --> 01:18:41,510
Speaker 3: about the rules. And, uh, and she says, I'm not

1463
01:18:41,570 --> 01:18:43,849
Speaker 3: playing your game. My friends will come for me. So

1464
01:18:43,870 --> 01:18:47,510
Speaker 3: it seems Sonia has overcome her personal, anxiety of not

1465
01:18:47,550 --> 01:18:49,710
Speaker 3: wanting to accept help from anyone. Now she's like, my

1466
01:18:49,750 --> 01:18:52,189
Speaker 3: friends are going to come help. And then they like

1467
01:18:52,550 --> 01:18:54,510
Speaker 3: suddenly she says that. And then a couple of the

1468
01:18:54,630 --> 01:18:56,650
Speaker 3: monks standing at the edge of the room, they like

1469
01:18:56,689 --> 01:18:59,530
Speaker 3: throw off their hoods and they go, they're already here. Oh,

1470
01:18:59,600 --> 01:19:02,380
Speaker 3: and it is our heroes. They snuck in disguised as

1471
01:19:02,500 --> 01:19:06,760
Speaker 3: guys in hoods. And then we get the final fight. Uh,

1472
01:19:06,979 --> 01:19:10,120
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung, I think initially tries to challenge Johnny Cage.

1473
01:19:10,180 --> 01:19:13,140
Speaker 3: He's like, okay, okay, I'll fight you. But Liu Kang says, no,

1474
01:19:13,320 --> 01:19:18,349
Speaker 3: you'll fight me. Uh, and so Shang Tsung says, I accept. And, uh,

1475
01:19:18,479 --> 01:19:20,340
Speaker 3: once again, pretty solid fight at the end of the

1476
01:19:20,390 --> 01:19:23,030
Speaker 3: movie here with multiple phases. Uh, Shang Tsung has a

1477
01:19:23,050 --> 01:19:25,790
Speaker 3: bunch of tricks up his sleeve that he, uh, that

1478
01:19:25,810 --> 01:19:28,189
Speaker 3: he brings out and each trick sort of varies the

1479
01:19:28,229 --> 01:19:30,950
Speaker 3: texture of the fight. So it keeps throwing in these

1480
01:19:30,990 --> 01:19:32,269
Speaker 3: changes to keep it interesting.

1481
01:19:33,140 --> 01:19:36,429
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. So it's well-paced. It has drama to it.

1482
01:19:37,270 --> 01:19:40,889
Speaker 1: It certainly builds on character development that we've had regarding

1483
01:19:40,930 --> 01:19:43,910
Speaker 1: Liu Kang. So yeah, it delivers with action and drama.

1484
01:19:44,490 --> 01:19:49,750
Speaker 3: We were told earlier that Changsung has absorbed the souls

1485
01:19:49,790 --> 01:19:52,490
Speaker 3: of thousands of warriors who fought before, everyone he's ever

1486
01:19:52,530 --> 01:19:54,550
Speaker 3: defeated in the past. So to defeat him, you have

1487
01:19:54,570 --> 01:19:57,490
Speaker 3: to defeat all of them. And at one point, he does, like,

1488
01:19:58,060 --> 01:20:00,920
Speaker 3: resurrect these dead warriors to fight Liu Kang. And I

1489
01:20:00,979 --> 01:20:03,000
Speaker 3: like all these different warriors Liu Kang has to fight.

1490
01:20:03,060 --> 01:20:04,520
Speaker 3: I think one of them is like a samurai.

1491
01:20:05,380 --> 01:20:10,270
Speaker 1: And then one of them is definitely Gerald Okamura. We've talked,

1492
01:20:10,310 --> 01:20:12,889
Speaker 1: we've mentioned on the show before because he was often

1493
01:20:12,930 --> 01:20:16,830
Speaker 1: an extra or a background actor or sometimes more prominent

1494
01:20:16,890 --> 01:20:19,590
Speaker 1: in your, like more of your action B movies, but

1495
01:20:19,850 --> 01:20:22,810
Speaker 1: he's in tons of martial arts movies from this time period.

1496
01:20:22,830 --> 01:20:24,770
Speaker 1: And I, I think it's still popping up in things.

1497
01:20:25,320 --> 01:20:27,000
Speaker 3: Now, at another point in the fight, so I think

1498
01:20:27,040 --> 01:20:30,380
Speaker 3: that's the face your enemy part. At some point, he

1499
01:20:30,420 --> 01:20:34,610
Speaker 3: has to face himself, where I think, I don't know, oh,

1500
01:20:34,650 --> 01:20:37,530
Speaker 3: I've forgotten this now. Shang Tsung, he turns into Liu Kang,

1501
01:20:37,610 --> 01:20:40,309
Speaker 3: or he, I don't know, he confronts him with something.

1502
01:20:40,350 --> 01:20:44,100
Speaker 3: But finally, Shang Tsung turns into Liu Kang's brother. And

1503
01:20:44,120 --> 01:20:47,260
Speaker 3: he turns around, and he morphs, and then he is Chan.

1504
01:20:47,680 --> 01:20:50,019
Speaker 3: And he says to Liu Kang, Raiden sent me to

1505
01:20:50,060 --> 01:20:52,370
Speaker 3: help you. But why would Liu Kang fall for this?

1506
01:20:52,410 --> 01:20:55,390
Speaker 3: He just saw him transform. He didn't even like disappear

1507
01:20:55,430 --> 01:20:57,590
Speaker 3: and come back. He's just standing right there and then

1508
01:20:57,630 --> 01:21:02,450
Speaker 3: became his brother. So he's like trying to undermine Liu

1509
01:21:02,470 --> 01:21:06,310
Speaker 3: Kang's confidence as suddenly spikes start poking up out of

1510
01:21:06,330 --> 01:21:07,990
Speaker 3: the floor. And I like how in the close up

1511
01:21:08,030 --> 01:21:10,770
Speaker 3: of us seeing the spikes come out, you can see

1512
01:21:10,810 --> 01:21:14,100
Speaker 3: them like piercing through the glitter covered paper covering on

1513
01:21:14,140 --> 01:21:16,820
Speaker 3: the floor. That's the symbol from the Mortal Kombat games

1514
01:21:16,840 --> 01:21:17,939
Speaker 3: with the swirling dragon.

1515
01:21:17,960 --> 01:21:19,000
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.

1516
01:21:19,600 --> 01:21:23,140
Speaker 3: And then finally, Liu Kang has a... He learns a

1517
01:21:23,180 --> 01:21:26,850
Speaker 3: lesson that... There's a very individualistic message at the end

1518
01:21:26,890 --> 01:21:29,750
Speaker 3: of the movie. Liu Kang's great triumph is that he

1519
01:21:29,790 --> 01:21:33,930
Speaker 3: learns every man is responsible for his own destiny. And

1520
01:21:33,990 --> 01:21:37,810
Speaker 3: then he finally defeats Shang Tsung by shooting a fireball

1521
01:21:37,939 --> 01:21:39,780
Speaker 3: out of his hands. That is something that he does

1522
01:21:39,800 --> 01:21:42,840
Speaker 3: in the game. And Shang Tsung falls into the spikes below.

1523
01:21:42,939 --> 01:21:47,139
Speaker 3: And then Liu Kang himself says... flawless victory. I don't

1524
01:21:47,189 --> 01:21:48,280
Speaker 3: think that's in character.

1525
01:21:48,300 --> 01:21:51,620
Speaker 1: No, no. He took some damage in this battle as well,

1526
01:21:51,700 --> 01:21:52,900
Speaker 1: so I don't think it's accurate either.

1527
01:21:53,280 --> 01:21:55,680
Speaker 3: Neither accurate nor in character for Liu Kang. I don't

1528
01:21:55,700 --> 01:21:57,519
Speaker 3: know why he says that. I think they just really

1529
01:21:57,580 --> 01:22:01,320
Speaker 3: had to get the game nod in there. So with

1530
01:22:01,350 --> 01:22:03,530
Speaker 3: the big bad defeated, lights shoot out of the Outworld

1531
01:22:03,570 --> 01:22:06,250
Speaker 3: Tower and the souls of the damned are freed from

1532
01:22:06,290 --> 01:22:08,070
Speaker 3: Shang Tsung's grip, including Chan.

1533
01:22:08,470 --> 01:22:11,510
Speaker 1: And Gerald Okamura. We see him floating in the background.

1534
01:22:12,689 --> 01:22:15,229
Speaker 3: They all fly off into the sky and And then

1535
01:22:15,250 --> 01:22:18,269
Speaker 3: we get a wonderful coda where that track by Orbital

1536
01:22:18,330 --> 01:22:20,750
Speaker 3: starts playing as the heroes are all back on Earth.

1537
01:22:20,790 --> 01:22:23,610
Speaker 3: They're outside the temple we saw earlier. And they're all

1538
01:22:23,689 --> 01:22:26,380
Speaker 3: hugging it out. And everybody's happy. They're like children running

1539
01:22:26,420 --> 01:22:30,600
Speaker 3: with these streamers and stuff. And we get the bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum.

1540
01:22:30,640 --> 01:22:33,800
Speaker 3: You know, it's that feel-good Orbital track. And it seems

1541
01:22:33,840 --> 01:22:37,020
Speaker 3: like everything's going to be okay. But somehow you almost

1542
01:22:37,100 --> 01:22:38,700
Speaker 3: know they're setting it up for a twist.

1543
01:22:39,220 --> 01:22:43,140
Speaker 1: Yeah, because then, like, basically we get this, again, CGI

1544
01:22:43,160 --> 01:22:46,500
Speaker 1: that has not aged well. Suddenly, like, the sky erupts,

1545
01:22:46,960 --> 01:22:49,820
Speaker 1: and there is, like, this monstrous version of Shao Kahn,

1546
01:22:50,479 --> 01:22:54,010
Speaker 1: the emperor of Outworld, who does not look very good here.

1547
01:22:54,600 --> 01:22:56,849
Speaker 1: They kind of, like, put a lot of demon makeup

1548
01:22:56,910 --> 01:22:59,750
Speaker 1: on his face. Like, they've decided to spice up his

1549
01:22:59,810 --> 01:23:03,630
Speaker 1: look a bit, and it doesn't quite work. But I

1550
01:23:03,670 --> 01:23:06,170
Speaker 1: guess the silhouette is right. The helmet is right. So

1551
01:23:06,830 --> 01:23:09,090
Speaker 1: fans of the video games know who this is.

1552
01:23:09,570 --> 01:23:13,120
Speaker 3: But he's the size of a kaiju. He's gigantic. And

1553
01:23:13,640 --> 01:23:15,660
Speaker 3: he says, he pops out of the temple and he says,

1554
01:23:16,020 --> 01:23:19,540
Speaker 3: you weak, pathetic fools. I've come for your souls. And

1555
01:23:19,680 --> 01:23:22,639
Speaker 3: what's the last line of the movie? Raiden's catchphrase. He goes,

1556
01:23:22,800 --> 01:23:26,520
Speaker 3: I don't think so.

1557
01:23:26,600 --> 01:23:29,220
Speaker 1: So they set up the sequel, which, of course, will

1558
01:23:29,240 --> 01:23:32,880
Speaker 1: be Mortal Kombat Annihilation, in which Brian Thompson is going

1559
01:23:32,920 --> 01:23:37,190
Speaker 1: to play Shao Kahn with a more traditional look. But

1560
01:23:37,200 --> 01:23:38,940
Speaker 1: I can't speak to it beyond that because I never

1561
01:23:38,979 --> 01:23:42,080
Speaker 1: actually watched Mortal Kombat Annihilation. That's the story for a

1562
01:23:42,120 --> 01:23:45,060
Speaker 1: lot of people because Mortal Kombat Annihilation would not be

1563
01:23:45,100 --> 01:23:47,429
Speaker 1: a success at the box office and would kind of

1564
01:23:47,439 --> 01:23:53,070
Speaker 1: like kill off the Mortal Kombat feature film venture for

1565
01:23:53,130 --> 01:23:56,050
Speaker 1: some time. Though there would be additional, like I think

1566
01:23:56,070 --> 01:23:58,650
Speaker 1: there was a TV show in the 90s that came

1567
01:23:58,729 --> 01:24:03,720
Speaker 1: after this that looked pretty bad. I would occasionally catch

1568
01:24:03,780 --> 01:24:05,960
Speaker 1: part of it, but maybe it has its fans. And

1569
01:24:05,979 --> 01:24:11,740
Speaker 1: then there would be additional like like web installments of

1570
01:24:11,800 --> 01:24:14,839
Speaker 1: later shows. And some of those were pretty good, eventually

1571
01:24:14,880 --> 01:24:18,370
Speaker 1: leading back up to the resurrection of Mortal Kombat motion pictures.

1572
01:24:18,770 --> 01:24:20,250
Speaker 3: So we do an Annihilation next week?

1573
01:24:21,170 --> 01:24:24,769
Speaker 1: No, not next week. Maybe we'll come back to it

1574
01:24:25,470 --> 01:24:28,270
Speaker 1: if people want it. I mean, it has an interesting

1575
01:24:28,300 --> 01:24:34,820
Speaker 1: cast and more iconic characters recreated to varying degrees of

1576
01:24:34,880 --> 01:24:35,900
Speaker 1: success on the screen.

1577
01:24:36,280 --> 01:24:38,910
Speaker 3: I recall that the characters in that movie travel around

1578
01:24:38,950 --> 01:24:41,190
Speaker 3: the world through tunnels that go through the center of

1579
01:24:41,250 --> 01:24:45,070
Speaker 3: the Earth by rolling in these American gladiator balls.

1580
01:24:45,610 --> 01:24:48,209
Speaker 1: Oh, really? Wow. Well, that sounds interesting.

1581
01:24:48,650 --> 01:24:50,370
Speaker 3: That's good transportation infrastructure.

1582
01:24:52,479 --> 01:24:52,800
Speaker 1: All right.

1583
01:24:52,860 --> 01:24:54,480
Speaker 3: Does that do it for Mortal Kombat?

1584
01:24:55,380 --> 01:24:58,500
Speaker 1: I think it does. I think after two episodes, we

1585
01:24:58,540 --> 01:25:01,900
Speaker 1: have finished it. So we'll go ahead and shut the

1586
01:25:01,939 --> 01:25:05,440
Speaker 1: book on this tournament. But we'll remind everyone out there

1587
01:25:05,840 --> 01:25:07,740
Speaker 1: that Stuff to Blow Your Mind is primarily a science

1588
01:25:07,780 --> 01:25:10,479
Speaker 1: and culture podcast. But on Fridays, we set aside most

1589
01:25:11,340 --> 01:25:13,420
Speaker 1: serious concerns, and we just talk about a weird film

1590
01:25:13,460 --> 01:25:15,860
Speaker 1: here on Weird House Cinema. If you want to see

1591
01:25:15,890 --> 01:25:17,910
Speaker 1: a list of all the movies we've covered over the years,

1592
01:25:18,290 --> 01:25:20,430
Speaker 1: the best place to go for that is to head

1593
01:25:20,470 --> 01:25:25,450
Speaker 1: on over to Letterboxd.com. That's L-E-T-T-E-R-B-O-X-D dot com. You will

1594
01:25:25,530 --> 01:25:27,530
Speaker 1: find us there. Our username is Weird House, and we

1595
01:25:27,550 --> 01:25:29,290
Speaker 1: have a list of all the films. Look at them.

1596
01:25:30,130 --> 01:25:32,920
Speaker 1: Sort them by genre or decade. It's pretty fun to

1597
01:25:33,300 --> 01:25:36,060
Speaker 1: play around with. Oh, and if you were on Instagram,

1598
01:25:36,310 --> 01:25:40,750
Speaker 1: follow Stuff to Blow Your Mind. Follow our feed at stbympodcast.

1599
01:25:41,070 --> 01:25:43,410
Speaker 1: We also have updates about Weird House Cinema right there

1600
01:25:43,650 --> 01:25:45,950
Speaker 1: at stbympodcast on Instagram.

1601
01:25:46,410 --> 01:25:50,800
Speaker 3: Huge thanks, as always, to our excellent audio producer, J.J. Posway,

1602
01:25:51,120 --> 01:25:54,880
Speaker 3: and a huge thanks to our guest producer today, Chandler Mays.

1603
01:25:54,920 --> 01:25:57,700
Speaker 3: Thanks for sitting in with us, Chandler. If you would

1604
01:25:57,740 --> 01:26:00,780
Speaker 3: like to get in touch with us on this episode

1605
01:26:00,860 --> 01:26:03,299
Speaker 3: or any other To suggest a topic for the future

1606
01:26:03,380 --> 01:26:05,520
Speaker 3: or just to say hello, you can email us at

1607
01:26:05,620 --> 01:26:08,340
Speaker 3: contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com.

1608
01:26:15,280 --> 01:26:17,770
Speaker 2: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio.

1609
01:26:18,100 --> 01:26:21,429
Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple

1610
01:26:21,450 --> 01:26:23,790
Speaker 2: Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.