While many of the lore changes in this year’s Mortal Kombat movie are subtle to the extent that only hardcore fans are likely to spot them, others are considerably more overt in nature. The central role of Cole Young (Lewis Tan) belongs in the latter camp, of course, as do rewrites of several well-known character qualities. Jax, a close friend of Sonya Blade and fellow Special Forces operative, is perhaps the most obvious recipient of said quirks, with ScreenRant noting that the film changes “how he lost his arms and how they were replaced afterward.”
While NertherRealm never explicitly revealed how the mountain of muscle had his organic limbs removed in the original games, later timeline revisions depicted him being mortally wounded by Ermac in the series’ titular tournament and subsequently restored to full working order with mechanical guns. Where these synthetic appendages came from is a plot point left open-ended and one that reboot director Simon McQuoid and writer Greg Russo decided to elaborate on.
Following his utter defeat at the hands of Sub-Zero, Jax is rescued by the order of Shaolin Monks residing at Raiden’s temple and fitted with fresh bruisers using unearthly technology. These prove to be meagre imitations of his original body parts, however, and only gain their iconic appearance when the soldier awakens his Arcana. A plot device used to explain the supernatural powers that Earthrealm’s heroes tap into during training for the war against Outworld, Jax’s manifest as incredibly durable armor plating akin to the games.
This convoluted approach likely exists as a means of tying his awakening to that of the aforementioned Arcana concept, one that many will undoubtedly describe as unnecessary, but what do you think? Is this an improvement to Mortal Kombat‘s continuity, or are you of the opinion that Ed Boon and John Tobias’ source material is better left untouched? Share your thoughts down below!
