Hello and welcome to Wasted Plotential, where we
discuss the wasted potential of our favourite plotlines.
I think the thumbnail alone tells you exactly where this is going. Cole Young was an awful
character and a terrible lead in the 2021 MK movie, and his role could very easily have gone to
Johnny Cage. Here's how. And no, this won't be a huge change to the existing story. If I did that,
the tournament would happen, but we're going to stick with the film's existing plot.
Johnny is either an actor whose career has gone down the toilet but he's still keeping at it,
or he's given up on it and transitioned to MMA, since he can still find success there.
He's not a bad fighter like Cole, because we want his later victories to feel earned.
Like Cole, he has a daughter in the form of Cassie. For his wife, we have two options.
First is Sonya Blade. They probably met when she acted as the military advisor for one of
his films. She and Johnny are already divorced and Johnny has custody. This version makes Johnny
more knowledgeable about Mortal Kombat from the start, because Sonya, as a Mortal Kombat truther
for some reason, became obsessed with it and their relationship fell apart. She's the one tasked with
bringing him into the group after Sub-Zero's existence lends credence to those theories.
Second is his ex-wife mentioned in the MK1 prequel comic:
Cindy Ford. She can be divorced from him here, but I'd rather avoid making Johnny's story too cliché,
especially in light of a certain other comedic hero who is a divorced father with a daughter
named Cassie in recent years. For our purposes, we'll stick with Cindy as his present wife.
It's important that Johnny do well against Reptile and defeat another
character prior to his big fight outside the tool shed to show that he is capable,
if a little outmatched, so that later victory won't feel totally cheap.
I'd personally cut the arcana crap and just make it exclusively a Johnny problem. Jax too, but
that's down him recovering from losing his arms and not having a convenient "grow new metal arms"
power. Raiden is aware of Johnny's bloodline, the warrior cult from the Mediterranean, and impresses
on him that if he cannot awaken his powers, he won't stand a chance against the Outworlders.
Whether Raiden actually believes this or is just saying so to light a fire under Johnny's arse,
it shows Raiden actually being a mentor figure by expressing concern for his fighters,
instead of just being a dick for no reason and doing nothing that a mentor should.
Johnny then returns home in frustration and is ambushed by an Outworlder.
I would personally avoid using Goro here, if only so Liu Kang can still be the hero,
and use Hydro from the Malibu comics and Legacy instead. Why Hydro? As setup for the climax,
without mischaracterising any other Lin Kuei. Still, at least if we keep Goro,
it would be a character who's technically been Goro's rival since 1995 who gets to be the first
person to kill the Prince of Pain in a proper fight in a movie instead of a Mary Sue OC. During
this fight, Hydro attacks Cassie and Cindy. Cindy is mortally wounded before Johnny can get to her,
but he is able to get there before Hydro can kill Cassie, prompting the awakening of Johnny's power,
allowing him to take the assassin's vicious blows and come out on top, forcing him to retreat.
It's really not that different from the actual movie scene, but it's now built on game lore
instead of just giving the OC literal plot armour so he can kill the Mortal Kombat champion.
After that, I wouldn't have Johnny be the one calling the shots when the heroes prepare for
their rematches. Liu Kang can do that, setting up his role as a leader who will eventually overthrow
Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn. Instead, Johnny is assigned a fight in which he actually does well.
You can't have your hero defeat fucking Goro and then struggle against Mileena. That's ridiculous.
We can still have Mileena, or we can swap it to Kabal. Liu Kang's fight with Kabal is set
up like there's personal beef, given how Kabal stopped him from helping Kung Lao,
but it's not like Kabal's the one who actually killed him. Instead, we'll establish the existence
of Kitana earlier in the film, as well as some kind of existing relationship between
her and the monk, and he can fight Mileena, who has allegedly killed her. Kabal, then,
fights Johnny and has the upper hand against the actor who no longer has family to protect,
weakening his power, until Sonya shows up and they take him down together,
setting up their strong dynamic for their future relationship or re-commencement of their old one.
After Kabal is killed, Johnny spots Hydro, who retreats through a portal and Johnny pursues him,
only for the portal to close behind him. Johnny is ambushed by Hydro and Sub-Zero,
but the timely arrival of Scorpion turns it from a handicap squash match into a
proper tag team. This way, our hero isn't intruding on the iconic rivalry,
but still gets a big role in the climax, and has a proper beef with his final opponent.
Once the two Lin Kuei are dead and Scorpion has returned to the Netherrealm,
Shang Tsung arrives and opens a portal to allow his Outworld forces to attack.
Liu Kang flying kicks him through said portal so Raiden can close it. That way, we don't have the
gaping plot hole that Raiden could have sent the villains away at any time but chose not to
and got Kung Lao killed. Nah, we gotta set up Liu Kang's discontentment with Raiden somehow, right?
And with that, Johnny buries his wife and Sonya comforts him, having earlier mentioned
the death of her brother, so she helps him deal with his loss as further setup for her their
future relationship where Sonya becomes Cassie's step-mother, or at least cool aunt.
Maybe end with the three going on a road trip with Jax to find other fighters for the tournament,
with someone else being set up for the sequel, such as Kenshi. And our
mid-credits scene introduces us to Kuai Liang as he is informed of his brother's death as
setup for a grudge match, and/or reveals that Kitana is alive but imprisoned in Outworld.
And there you have it. With a little bit of tweaking we could easily have had a
more compelling lead that actually deserves to be here, rather than the ironically much
more Hollywood character of a sad dad who is a cardboard standee of a real character.
"B-But, you can't have a white man be the hero of Mortal Kombat."
If it's that big a deal, you shouldn't have taken that role away from the
Chinese Shaolin Monk and given it to an OC whose actor is half-white.
Is anyone else sick to death of the excuses people involved with this franchise come out
with to justify their bad decisions being so insulting to our goddamn intelligence?
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Today's recommended video is 'Mortal Kombat' Stars Play 'Mortal Kombat': Robin Shou vs Linden
Ashby! | Heat Vision by The Hollywood Reporter. Because it's fun. Mortal Kombat should be fun.