TERROR NINJA PENGENDALI ES | ALUR CERITA FILM MORTAL KOMBAT (2021)

Recap

The story opens in 17th-century Japan, where Shirai Ryu ninja Hanzo Hasashi is away fetching water when the rival Lin Kuei assassin Bi-Han—later known as Sub-Zero—attacks his home. Hanzo returns to find his wife and children dead. He fights his way through the attackers before dying himself. The thunder god Raiden arrives too late to save him, but rescues Hanzo’s infant descendant. Hanzo’s bloodline will matter centuries later.

In the present, struggling MMA fighter Cole Young lives with his wife, Allison, and daughter, Emily. He has a mysterious dragon-shaped birthmark that catches the eye of Jax, a soldier investigating people marked for an interdimensional tournament. Sub-Zero attacks Cole’s family, forcing Jax to help them escape—and costing Jax both arms. Jax sends Cole to Sonya Blade, who explains that the mark identifies Earth’s chosen fighters. Cole’s mark is inherited from Hanzo’s bloodline.

At Sonya’s hideout, they meet the wisecracking mercenary Kano, who acquired his mark by killing another chosen fighter. The group is attacked by a reptilian creature named Reptile. Kano helps kill it, then promptly starts bargaining for a bigger fee to guide them to Raiden’s temple. He also teases Sonya for lacking a dragon mark and asks Cole if his mark is “scabies”—one of the story’s more irreverent jokes.

At the temple, Raiden gathers Earth’s fighters: Cole, Sonya, Kano, Jax, Liu Kang, and Kung Lao. They must awaken their Arcana, the special powers connected to their marks, before Shang Tsung’s fighters can defeat them. Kano discovers that his power is a laser beam from his eye. Cole, however, can’t unlock his ability, and Raiden eventually sends him home, warning that he’ll be a liability without it.

That decision comes back to haunt the group when Kano betrays Earth and helps Shang Tsung’s forces attack the temple. Cole faces the four-armed Goro while his family is threatened and finally awakens his Arcana: golden armor and weapons. Jax also discovers his Arcana, gaining powerful robotic arms. In the chaos, Kung Lao is killed by Shang Tsung, who absorbs his soul. Raiden teleports the survivors away before the enemy can finish them off.

The remaining fighters regroup and plan to separate Shang Tsung’s warriors for one-on-one battles. Sonya defeats Kano and gains a dragon mark of her own, unlocking her Arcana. Liu Kang burns Kabal with a fiery dragon, while Jax takes down General Reiko. Cole confronts Sub-Zero, who traps him in an icy vision of his murdered family. Just as Cole is overwhelmed, Hanzo returns from the Netherrealm as Scorpion, demanding revenge. Cole and Scorpion fight Sub-Zero together, and Scorpion finally burns his old enemy to death.

Shang Tsung appears afterward, insisting the conflict isn’t over, and vanishes with Sub-Zero’s body. Raiden tells the fighters to find more marked champions. Cole’s final plan is to head to Hollywood and recruit another fighter—an ending that hints at the next chapter rather than showing the actual tournament.

Main Characters

• Hanzo Hasashi / Scorpion
• Bi-Han / Sub-Zero
• Cole Young
• Sonya Blade
• Kano
• Jax
• Liu Kang
• Kung Lao
• Raiden
• Shang Tsung
• Goro
• Kabal
• Mileena
• Reptile
• Allison and Emily Young