First Look: The Live-Action Mortal Kombat Reboot Promises R-Rated Fatalities

Mortal Kombaaaaaaat!

Warner Bros just dropped a few first-look images from the upcoming live-action version of the super-violent video game Mortal Kombat.

The James Wan-produced movie follows a group of martial artists competing in a high-stakes tournament where the fate of the world is decided. Or something like that.

The video game was previously made by Paul WS Anderson into a hit movie in 1995 (which spawned a not-as-memorable sequel in 1997), and later a 2011 web series.

The 2021 reboot features a new character not found in the game, a has-been MMA fighter named Cole Young (Wu Assassins’ Lewis Tan) who finds more about his past when he signs up for the titular slug-fest.

“It’s a very interesting place for a hero to start,” said Simond McQuoid, the Australian commercial maker helming his feature debut, in Entertainment Weekly. “I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you’re introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly.”

And one of those elements the director was referring to is the level of bloodletting. While Anderson kept the violence within the PG-13 limits, the latest iteration is “definitely not gonna get a PG-13 rating,” said McQuoid.

There’s going to be “gore, blood and fatalities”, the director said. In the game, the characters finish off their opponents by usually severing them completely in half or ripping out their spines. Those gruesome deaths will be recreated for the first time in the movie.

In the game, the characters finish off the opponents by usually severing them completely in half or ripping out their spines. Those gruesome deaths will be recreated for the first time in the movie.

Indonesia action star Joe Taslim, who plays Sub-Zero, told 8days.sg in October, ““I think it’s going to be the most badass Mortal Kombat movie, I’m pretty sure. People talk about the video game curse, but judging from what I have seen — the costumes, the choreography, the director’s vision — this one is probably going to break that curse.”

Without further ado, let’s check out the first batch of photos. The movie also stars our own Chin Han and Tadanobu Asano (Thor) but they aren’t in the images. Maybe we’ll get to see them in the trailer.

Mortal Kombat opens in cinemas here Apr 15.

Photos: Mortal Kombat/Facebook