If you want an indication of how brutal some of Mortal Kombat‘s more violent scenes will be, just ask Lewis Tan.
The actor, who plays original character Cole Young in the video game adaptation, recently spoke at length with Variety about his time on set during production, where the topic of Fatalities inevitably surfaced. When asked about the popular feature – used as spectacle-laden finishers in the games which often contain some of the goriest content – Tan responded, at first, with a simple answer and one that fans will definitely be happy to hear. “Yeah, they’re pretty gruesome,” he begins, before continuing to share an anecdote involving an encounter with unexpected on-set carnage. Recalling the event, Tan said:
I walked on set one day and I didn’t know what was going on, and I accidentally walked into a post-fatality set and I felt pretty sick to my stomach. [Laughs.] I was like, “What the hell is this? What happened here?” It looked like somebody destroyed a buffet line, but there was no food.
As for who (or what) was involved in this particular scene, Tan doesn’t say, though does affirm his belief that, despite not being big on gore himself, its presence in a Mortal Kombat movie is not only important but integral to making sure it stays faithful to the source material. With that said, however, director Simon McQuoid saw fit to stop short of garnering his first major full-length feature an NC-17 rating from the MPA, though Tan says it definitely pushes the less-restrictive R-rating to its limits. And we certainly believe him about that.
Mortal Kombat opens in theaters on April 23rd and will be available on the same day via streaming service HBO Max for a period of one month. As for whether it’s worth the watch, early reviews suggest it’s a fun-filled movie that fans will love and you can head on over here for more about what the critics are saying so far.
Tell us, though, are you excited to check out the film for yourself? Let us know down below.