Mortal Kombat II Movie Poster Compares Johnny Cage With Tom Cruise
Fans who remember the first movie know that it ended with Cole Young (Lewis Tan) searching for more champions to defend Earthrealm from the forces of Outworld. One such warrior was Johnny Cage, a fan-favorite character who was played by Linden Ashby in the original 1995 film.
In this sequel, Cage is played by Karl Urban, best known for his role as "Bones" McCoy in the 2009 Star Trek revival and its sequels, as well as Judge Dredd in 2012's Dredd. In a bit of cheeky humor, the early marketing for Mortal Kombat II has not been about the film's story, but about the fictional career of Johnny Cage, the biggest movie star in the world of the film. In a nod the biggest movie star of the real world, the in-universe poster for "Uncaged Fury" is a clear homage to 1996's Mission Impossible and its globe-trotting spy thriller antics. Essentially, it's saying that Johnny Cage is the Mortal Kombat universe's equivalent to Tom Cruise.
The 2021 Mortal Kombat movie earned mixed reviews from fans and critics, but it was a decent start that nailed the tone of what a Mortal Kombat movie should be: brutally violent and full of deep lore, but with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor and slightly campy sensibilities. I hope the sequel can build on the foundation of the original, upping the violence, developing the characters, and building out some of the relationships that fans of the games have followed for decades. We'll find out how it all shakes out when Mortal Kombat II hits theaters on October 24, 2025.
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