Here are the most memorable and heart- wrenching deaths in Mortal Kombat II
- Brian Fanelli
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Warning: this article has major spoilers for Mortal Kombat II, including main character deaths and fatalities.
The very nature of Mortal Kombat is that characters die brutally, and at the end of a round, a character could unleash a fatality upon the opposing character. Mortal Kombat II contains several deaths. Not everyone survives the tournament, and this makes the stakes feel higher, especially because the sequel isn't afraid to kill off some fan favorites. That said, Mortal Kombat is also known for resurrecting characters and that plays a role in the sequel, so is anyone really dead? Who knows! We'll have to wait for a third movie.
While this article doesn't contain every single death, these are the ones this particular writer found the most memorable and emotional. I also want to give a special shoutout to Lewis Tan's Cole Young. The actor received unnecessary backlash because his character was the centerpiece of the last movie. He's killed off quickly by big bad Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) early in the movie, and then his body is pushed into the acid bath. Ouch. It feels unfair to Tan and just a response to fan backlash.
Here are the sequel's other memorable deaths.
A resurrected Kung Loa at the hands of Liu Kang
Liu Kang's (Ludi Lin) brother-in-arms, Kung Loa (Max Haung), is resurrected by the bad guys early in the movie and soon after fights Liu Kang in the tournament. This is one of the sequel's most emotional moments, and Liu Kang pleads with his best friend to put down his buzzsaw hat and see the light again. However, it doesn't work and the two fight. It's a harrowing sequence set against a visually stunning adaptation of the portal stage from the games. Eventually, Liu Kang wins and the resurrected Kung Loa is sliced and diced, split open by his own buzzsaw hat.
Jax at the hands of Shao Kahn
At least Mehcad Brooks' Jax goes out swinging with his robotic arms in a battle against Shao Kahn (Martyn Ford) in the emperor's throne room during the film's action-packed second half. By this point in the film, however, the villain is immortal and though Jax delivers a few blows, he's eventually killed, after one of his arms is ripped off. Even worse, Jax's partner, Sonya (Jessica McNamee), watches Shao Kahn deliver the fatal blow against one of the series' oldest characters. It's emotional, but Jax's heroic actions do slow the emperor down, which sets off a chain of events that eventually allows the good guys to win in the end. Jax's sacrifice wasn't for nothing.
Shao Kahn at the hands of Kitana
Considering that the film opens with Shao Kahn brutally killing Princess Kitana's father in front of her and then taking over her realm, it was predictable that Shao Kahn would die at the hands of Kitana (Adeline Rudolph), and boy does he ever. Much of this sequel's narrative focuses on Kitana's storyline and her eventual revenge against the emperor for what he did to her people and her father during the film's flashback and opening sequence. So, it's only fair that she'd deliver the death blow against the imposing antagonist. It's a great and bloody sequence. She uses her razor fans to deliver blow after blow and eventually kill him, causing her people to cheer and dub her their new queen. It's a happy, if not predictable ending but a hell of a fight scene.
While these fatalities hit a lot of emotional notes, the movie ends with the good guys vowing to find and resurrect their friends, so we'll see who returns for a third movie.
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