With a new Mortal Kombat movie ready to drop in the next few weeks, fans are both anxious and excited. The recently released red band trailer for the flick suggests that the filmmakers are going full-tilt R-rated, with enough blood and gore to fill the next three video game Mortal Kombat sequels, not to mention a bevy of gruesome TV shows. It remains to be seen if fatalities will be used to gloss over a poor script, or if the entire film will come together as a whole.
In the meantime, fans are speculating as to what fatalities are going to pop up in the movie. Kano's heart rip already seems to be in there, so he's being left off this list in favor of the other characters. Here are ten of their fatalities that could be lifted straight out of the video games, and adapted for the on-screen carnage in the new MK film.
Torn Apart (Goro)
Goro is making a comeback in the new Mortal Kombat film, and fan speculation is already starting to abound as to how brutal his fights are going to be. Goro didn't have a fatality in the original Mortal Kombat, but he's since gone on to display several in recent games.
Torn Apart is the easiest and most obvious one to emulate. Using his four arms, this Shokan champion grabs his enemy and rips their limbs off, before finally grabbing the rest of the body and tearing it in two. That last part isn't necessary unless they want to save it for the Director's Cut.
Conducting Rod (Raiden)
Raiden's fatalities are hit and miss among Mortal Kombat games, but he's got a few cool ones to choose from. The original lightning strike overload fatality from the first Mortal Kombat game is acceptable, but this movie seems like it demands more.
Enter the Conducting Rod fatality, where Raiden leaps at his opponent with a metal rod and jams it straight down their throat, then triggers a lightning strike to turn them into a bipedal light bulb. It's a bit over the top, but a similar premise might work in the movie, to showcase Raiden's incredible powers.
Jax The Ribber (Jax)
This particular fatality is way too outrageous and silly to be featured in its current form, but a little tweaking could achieve the same basic result. Jax grabs his enemy by the throat, holds them high, then punches a hole into his opponent's side and cracks off one of their ribs before jabbing it straight through their skull.
He ends the fatality by grabbing the already traumatized head, and snapping it 180 degrees around so it faces out the back. The rib thing might be a bit too much, but there's nothing to stop Jax from grabbing a broken arm bone and achieving the same result.
Soul Steal (Shang Tsung)
Shang Tsung's Mortal Kombat fatalities are kind of stupid and over the top. It's hard to make sense of them most times, and none of them feel particularly creepy in a way that should befit a sorcerer of his malevolence. That is, except for one fatality that dates back to Mortal Kombat II.
Soul Steal is the O.G. in Tsung's roster, especially given that he had no fatalities in the original MK game. Here, he grabs his opponent by the back of the neck, lifts them high up, and sucks the soul straight out of their body, leaving a shriveled, decrepit corpse in its wake.
Face Feast (Mileena)
If Mortal Kombat wants to go bloody, it's going to have to push a few boundaries, and Mileena is the right character for the job. She's got plenty to choose from, including two of the goriest and most horrific. It's a tossup between them, but this particular fatality nudges out its competition by a slight margin.
Mileena stabs her opponent through either side of the head with her sais, before wrestling it right off the shoulders. She holds the skewered head and begins eating the face right off the skull. Over the top? Perhaps, but it would give the Mortal Kombat movie an incredible dose of notoriety.
Kut-Throat (Sonya Blade)
Female video game icon Sonya makes clever use of a garrote wire in the last few Mortal Kombat games, which is a nice switch-up from her rather unrealistic split-kick and kiss of death fatalities. This one comes courtesy of Mortal Kombat 2011, and involves Sonya using the garrote in conjunction with some acrobatic footwork.
She dives over the opponent's head and lands behind them with the wire around their throat, before giving a sharp yank to decapitate them on the spot. It's simple and elegant, but it also feels grounded in something plausible.
Hat Slice (Kung Lao)
This one is simple, neat, and efficient, and it dates all the way back to Mortal Kombat II. That game introduced audiences to Kung Lao, the descendent of an ancient fighter bearing the same name who competed in the Mortal Kombat tournament of old. Lao brought his rapid-fire martial arts and razor-edged hat to the fight pit.
This particular fatality simply involves Lao utilizing the bladed edge of his hat to cut his opponent directly in half. It's been done before to similar effect in other movies (usually with a sword), but this throwback fatality would definitely give Mortal Kombat fans a reason to cheer.
Burn Out (Liu Kang)
This is, without a doubt Liu Kang's best fatality. It's a mixture of straightforward, bone-crunching brutality, and something resembling realism. Here, Liu Kang batters his opponent with a Wing Chun chain punch attack before striking four separate holes out of the opponent's torso. The big finisher is a one-inch punch that would make Bruce Lee jealous.
This is much better than Kang's original bicycle/uppercut fatality, and it's a cut above his burning chest-punch fatality. A little trimming might be necessary so that the fatality doesn't go quite as over the top, but the overall execution should be similar.
The Pit
Multiple pit fatalities abound in Mortal Kombat, so it's really down to which one fits the scenery better. Most gamers would probably prefer to see the pit from the original Mortal Kombat video game, complete with severed heads and body parts galore.
A good pit fatality would also take some of the sting out of the one featured in the original 1995 Mortal Kombat movie adaptation, which just wasn't up to snuff. An R rating would give ample excuse to showcase something a lot more graphic, rather than a neutered PG-13 take.
The Spine Rip (Sub-Zero)
The most infamous Mortal Kombat fatality of all time is all the more fitting, given the emphasis seemingly placed on Sub-Zero's character in the film. Though it looks comical by today's standards, it's the original bad boy that sent parent's groups into a frenzy, and helped lead to the concrete formation of the video game ratings board.
It dates all the way back to the original Mortal Kombat game. Sub-Zero grabs the opponent by the head, yanking both it, and the character's entire spinal column out of the body, then holding it aloft in display. Brutal and grisly, even to this day.
