Lewis Tan, an actor in the upcoming Mortal Kombat reboot, says that the film's fatalities are so brutal that they made him feel sick. The upcoming film is a live-action adaptation of the widely popular series of fighting games that have been coming out steadily since the early nineties. The first live-action Mortal Kombat adaptation came out in 1995 to mixed reviews. However, the film was financially successful enough that a sequel, titled Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, was released in 1997. Annihilation was a gigantic critical and financial flop, and as a result, the third planned film in the franchise was canceled. While both films retain some status as cult classics, they're generally not very well regarded by the Mortal Kombat fan base as adaptations of the games. As a result, a rebooted film adaptation of the highly cinematic video games series has been in demand by fans for a long time.
The original Mortal Kombat video game, released in 1992, immediately drew widespread notoriety because of its gruesome and over the top violence. Particular attention was drawn to the game's "fatalities," finishing moves that the player could perform at the end of a fight through a series of button presses. Some fatalities allowed the player to rip out their opponent's heart, tear out their spine, or burn them to ashes. Mortal Kombat has many different controversies, but all the media outrage and attention ultimately caused a spike in the game's sales and helped Mortal Kombat become one of the most popular fighting game series in the world.
In an interview with ComicBook, Lewis Tan admitted that seeing some of the fatalities in the new film made him feel physically sick. Tan, who will be playing an as-of-now-undisclosed role in the film, assured fans that the James Wan-produced reboot will not be pulling any punches when it comes to depicting fatalities. On the fatalities, Tan said, "Let me just say this, there were some days on set that I felt sick. I'm not kidding."
Another point of note, and perhaps why Tan had such a visceral reaction to seeing the fatalities, is that Mortal Kombat will feature game accurate fatalities. Russo has previously explained that the team did their best to try to be true to the roots of the Mortal Kombat series while also presenting the best possible story. He made assurances that the intent wasn't to just include fatalities for their own sake, but to present them in a way that made narrative sense within the context of the film. This should bode well for hardcore Mortal Kombat fans, as one of the core issues with the original film was its PG-13 rating and noticeably reduced violence.
Tan and Russo's comments should relieve some unease that the reboot will be another watered-down adaptation like the original films. Game-accurate fatalities are particularly important to portray the Mortal Kombat universe correctly, and the absence of them has been something that every adaption of the series has struggled with. Even Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, an animated film that's widely considered to be the best Mortal Kombat adaptation, was noticeably lacking in the fatality department. While there is still uncertainty about how the reboot will fair against the 1995 original, fans of Mortal Kombat should have some ease knowing that the film is in the hands of people who want to honor the spirit of the video game series.
Source: Comicbook
