MORTAL KOMBAT II (2026)

Studio:   New Line Cinema
Director: Simon McQuoid
Writer:   Jeremy Slater
Producer: Todd Garner, E. Bennett Walsh, James Wan, Toby Emmerich, Simon McQuoid
Stars:    Karl Urban, Adeline Rudolph, Jessica McNamee, Josh Lawson, Martyn Ford, Ludi Lin, Mehcad Brooks, Tati Gabrielle, Lewis Tan, Max Huang, Damon Herriman, Chin Han, Tadanobu Asano, Joe Taslim, Hiroyuki Sanada

Review Score:

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Summary:

A former action film star discovers he is destined to compete in an interdimensional combat tournament involving ninjas, creatures, and people with superhuman abilities.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Prior to fighting Outworld emperor Shao Kahn in the Mortal Kombat tournament, King Jerrod, the ruler of the world of Edenia, gifts his daughter Kitana with an enchanted necklace he received from Earthrealm’s Lord Raiden. Shao Kahn then kills King Jerrod in combat. With this being Edenia’s tenth defeat in Mortal Kombat, Shao Kahn gains dominion over Edenia, allowing him to subjugate its people while taking King Jerrod’s wife Queen Sindel as his consort and claiming Kitana as his daughter.

20 years later, Kitana continues intense warrior training with her bodyguard Jade. Although Jade was personally appointed by Shao Kahn, the two women regard each other as sisters. Jade gifts Kitana with bladed fans as weapons.

With the next Mortal Kombat tournament about to commence and his team short one champion due to Kung Lao’s death at the hands of Outworld sorcerer Shang Tsung, Raiden brings Special Forces soldier Sonya Blade with him to a pop culture convention to recruit former martial arts champion and fallen action film star Johnny Cage. Although Raiden tries explaining that the elder gods have selected Johnny to fight for Earthrealm, Johnny remains confused by the fantastical claims until Raiden magically transports Johnny back to his sky temple. There, Johnny meets Earthrealm champions Liu Kang, Jax Briggs, and Hanzo Hasashi’s descendant Cole Young. The Earthrealm warriors detail the situation as they tell Johnny they must hurry his training to unlock his latent superhuman powers. However, upon hearing his participation in this tenth tournament risks death, Johnny insists on returning home, even though he is advised that the gods can still find and summon him to fight anyway.

Shao Kahn’s necromancer Quan Chi resurrects Earthrealm’s Kung Lao to fight for Outworld as an undead warrior. Quan Chi also resurrects Kano, who was killed by Sonya in the previous tournament, because Shang Tsung is looking for the amulet of Shinnok, a relic capable of healing any wound and transforming a man into a god, which Kano stole. Kano hands over the amulet. In return, Quan Chi gives Kano a powerful artificial eye.

Mortal Kombat begins. For the first two rounds, Johnny is suddenly and unwillingly transported from a bar to the tournament grounds to fight Kitana while Sonya is pitted against Queen Sindel, whom Shao Kahn turned undead. Sonya brutally kills Queen Sindel. Kitana defeats Johnny, but she refuses Shao Kahn’s order to “finish him.”

Sonya and Johnny are both returned to Raiden’s temple, where Raiden tries to motivate Johnny to be a confident, courageous combatant. Using the necklace her father gave her, Kitana teleports to the temple. Revealing she has been working as an Earthrealm spy against Shao Kahn for years, Kitana warns that Shao Kahn possesses Shinook’s amulet, and he will become unstoppable if he can charge it. Kitana also requests that Jade’s life be spared if she is defeated in Mortal Kombat.

Jade confronts Kitana for her clandestine behavior upon her return to Edenia. Jade reminds Kitana that she swore an oath to serve as Shao Kahn’s loyal sword.

Enslaved by Shao Kahn, Kung Lao surprises everyone in Raiden’s sky temple by teleporting in and suddenly using his bladed hat to slash Raiden’s throat. With bright light radiating from the wound, Shang Tsung siphons Raiden’s energy to charge Shinook’s amulet. The Outworld warriors then return to Edenia’s throne room to bind the amulet to Shao Kahn, granting him immortality. Kitana observes the binding from a hiding spot.

For the next Mortal Kombat round, Cole Young fights Shao Kahn. Unable to inflict any fatal wounds on Shao Kahn, Cole is defeated and violently killed.

Jax and Jade are matched against each other in another round of Mortal Kombat. Jax defeats Jade, but he spares her life and advises she should reconsider her loyalty to Shao Kahn.

Liu Kang faces off against Kung Lao. After promising to find a way to bring the other man back from the dead and free his soul, Liu Kang kills Kung Lao by pulling him onto his own spinning-blade hat, sawing through his torso.

Liu Kang returns to a dying Raiden. Liu Kang, Jax, and Sonya realize Cole must have died since he didn’t return. Meanwhile, Shao Kahn orders Quan Chi to resurrect Bi-Han as Sub-Zero.

Kitana teleports to the temple to warn everyone about Shao Kahn’s new power. She also tells them about a hidden tunnel leading to Shao Kahn’s castle, although she warns that getting to it will require going through a tribe of warrior creatures called Tarkatans. When Kitana returns to Edenia, Jade has her taken into custody for betraying their emperor.

Liu Kang, Jax, Sonya, and Johnny go to the Tarkatan tribe to recruit their leader, Baraka. Although the Earthrealm warriors promise to end Shao Kahn’s enslavement of his people, Baraka refuses to join the rebellion and denies Liu Kang’s challenge to fight him. Johnny goads Baraka into accepting the challenge but, insulted by Johnny’s remarks, Baraka demands to fight Johnny instead of Liu Kang. Despite serious setbacks, Johnny is eventually inspired enough to defeat Baraka. Baraka hails Johnny as a great fighter and agrees to help Earthrealm.

Baraka cleaves through several guards to escort everyone to Shao Kahn’s castle. Baraka parts ways with the Earthrealm warriors after Johnny promises to return one day to train Baraka’s tribe.

Shao Kahn has Quan Chi resurrect Queen Sindel. Shao Kahn then taunts Kitana by threatening to kill her resurrected mother again. Kitana confesses she went to Earthrealm, but she claims she found Raiden’s temple empty and never met with his warriors. Shao Kahn orders Kitana to be chained up in public.

Having sneaked inside the castle, Liu Kang confronts Shao Kahn in the emperor’s throne room. While the two of them fight, Jax attempts to tear the amulet out of a cage Quan Chi put it in. Sub-Zero arrives to protect the amulet. Jax and Sonya join the fight against Shao Kahn. Johnny enters in time to see Shao Kahn kill Jax by impaling him through his throat. Kano also enters and proposes a bargain in which he will betray Shao Kahn to rescue the Earthrealm warriors.

Jade confronts Kitana to tell her to beg for Shao Kahn’s forgiveness. Kitana encourages her conflicted friend to join the resistance against their ruthless emperor.

Johnny brings Kano to Raiden. Kano reveals that Bi-Han/Sub-Zero took the amulet to Netherrealm. Raiden sends Johnny and Kano to Netherrealm to recruit Hanzo Hasashi/Scorpion as their underworld guide for finding the amulet. Kano convinces Hanzo to help by pointing out he can take revenge against Bi-Han for murdering Hanzo’s family.

Liu Kang and Sonya are matched against Shao Kahn for Mortal Kombat’s main event. Shao Kahn impales Liu Kang. Liu Kang realizes he is not the Chosen One as he transforms into fire and disappears after declaring he will help rescue fallen warriors.

Shao Kahn knocks out Sonya right after she frees Kitana. With Earthrealm’s champions defeated, Shao Kahn claims victory. However, Kitana formally renounces Shao Kahn and Outworld as she demands to fight on behalf of Earthrealm, making her Earthrealm’s last remaining warrior in the tournament.

In Netherrealm, Sub-Zero creates Noob Saibot clones to battle Kano and Johnny while he fights Scorpion. Johnny retrieves the amulet during the melee, but Sub-Zero eventually gets it back.

Having convinced Shang Tsung to send her there under the false pretense of protecting the amulet, Jade arrives in Netherrealm and joins Kano and Scorpion in using their powers to hold off Sub-Zero. Elsewhere, Shang Tsung teleports to the sky temple in preparation for killing off Raiden.

Inspired by Raiden in his mind, Johnny suddenly discovers his superhuman abilities, which he uses to destroy the amulet while the other warriors hold Sub-Zero. With the amulet’s power returned to him, a rejuvenated Raiden frightens away Shang Tsung. Motivated by a memory of her father, Kitana is also empowered to defeat Shao Kahn and win Mortal Kombat as well as become the new queen of Edenia with Jade at her side.

Johnny returns to Baraka to regale his tribe with an embellished recounting of how tournament concluded. Raiden, Sonya, Kitana, and Jade join Johnny as they reveal a new goal to find and revive their fallen warriors. Kano captures Quan Chi as part of the plan to resurrect Earthrealm’s defeated champions.

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Review:

The good news for fans of 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” (review here) is the same as the bad news for anyone who didn’t care for that first film: “Mortal Kombat II” is more of the same. More gore-gushing fatalities. More quips from Kano. More martial artists and CGI-camouflaged stuntpeople performing choreographed karate in front of green screens. Perhaps the only setting “Mortal Kombat II” dials a little differently is the one cranking the fantastical lore all the way up to 11 in ridiculousness.

How closely do the two movies mirror each other? Here’s how I summarized “Mortal Kombat’s” plot: “A struggling MMA fighter discovers he is destined to compete in an interdimensional combat tournament involving ninjas, creatures, and people with superhuman abilities.” Now here’s my “Mortal Kombat II” synopsis: “A former action film star discovers he is destined to compete in an interdimensional combat tournament involving ninjas, creatures, and people with superhuman abilities.” The main man may have changed, in profession and personality, but the setup essentially stays the same.

“Mortal Kombat II” apparently heard the complaints its predecessor received from frothing “fans” who felt “Mortal Kombat’s” 110-minute runtime was too short to do justice to the franchise’s deep roster of eclectic characters, who have been building a gargantuan tower of mythology since the fighting game series debuted decades ago in 1992. “Mortal Kombat II” is only longer by six minutes, but those who didn’t get enough fiction the first time around will have their greedy maws absolutely stuffed fast and full of exposition in the sequel’s first 20 minutes.

Welcome to the world of Edenia, where King Jerrod gifts his daughter Kitana with a glowing necklace given to him by Earthrealm’s Lord Raiden. Moments later, King Jerrod is murdered by merciless Outworld emperor Shao Kahn in the Mortal Kombat tournament. With this being their tenth defeat, Shao Kahn claims dominion over Edenia, not only becoming its new ruler, but taking Kitana as his daughter and her mother Queen Sindel as his consort as well.

Jump forward 20 years. Kitana now trains in the ways of a warrior with her bodyguard Jade, who was personally appointed to the position by Shao Kahn. We know this thanks to spoon-fed lines like, “It was 20 years ago today the emperor named me as your bodyguard.” Despite Jade’s allegiance to Shao Kahn, she and Kitana regard each other like sisters, though their loyalties will be tested by the next Mortal Kombat event coming up.

Since Kung Lao was killed in the first film, Raiden is missing a fighter from his five-person team representing Earthrealm. Accompanied by Special Forces soldier Sonya Blade, Raiden opens a portal to pop in to a pop culture convention where ‘90s action film washout Johnny Cage just packed up an autograph table no one was interested in. Raiden and Sonya bring Johnny back to a mystical sky temple where the other champions explain how Mortal Kombat works, and how the “Elder Gods” chose Johnny to participate. Johnny wants no part of this killer craziness, so he absorbs all the information along with the audience, tells everyone to eff off, then goes to a bar.

In the meantime, Shao Kahn has his necromancer Quan Chi resurrect familiar faces who previously died and tasks sorcerer Shang Tsung with finding a deus ex MacGuffin called “The Amulet of Shinook,” a relic capable of granting invincibility and immortality. The amulet certainly sounds like a useful item to cheat one’s way to a Mortal Kombat championship, and to motivate everyone in the script to change locations, form alliances, and scheme their way to supremacy in the tournament.

Got all that straight? Wait, there’s more. After another 20 minutes or so of putting the people who need changes of heart on the path toward having those changes of heart, the stage is suitably set for making supernatural MMA matchups between monsters and pseudo-superheroes, inserting side quests that have heroes adventuring through tribal villages and creepy castles, and playing Hot Potato with the magic amulet upon which the whole story hinges. If none of this is making music in your ears, then it’s probably jamming knives in them, so scale expectations accordingly.

For all the wishful fan-casting that screamed for WWE wrestler The Miz to play comically cocky Hollywood has-been Johnny Cage, it’s hard to picture him, or anyone else, playing the part better than Karl Urban. Making a lateral move from Billy Butcher and then lightening the grimness with a healthy handful of goofiness, Urban automatically comes with the confident swagger of a stylish badass, the smarmy charm of an inflated ego, but also the delusional foolishness of a faded famous person not yet ready to accept he might be past his prime. The attitude-soaked Johnny Cage and effortlessly cool Karl Urban combine into an engaging lead whose charismatic chemistry is a huge upgrade over the cardboard complainer Cole Young is in the first film.

Following an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” formula, “Mortal Kombat II” mostly keeps on the course of colorful comic-book carnage and scrambled storytelling paved by the prior movie. Taking a third circuit on this same track might be pushing it. Personally, I’d rather play one of the games than passively watch another two hours of what’s essentially live-action cartoon eye candy. Before worrying what’s next though, “Mortal Kombat II” stays slightly more streamlined than “Mortal Kombat” by paring down the list of tournament participants so even though events still get convoluted, the clutter contributes to the same end goal of making an easy, breezy action flick that’s either spectacular or stupid depending upon how much cheese someone wants melting all over their bloody burger.

Review Score: 60

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