All Johnny Cage Movies - From Mortal Kombat 1 to MKX


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Director: And, action!

What’s going on guys, this is tabmok99. And today, we’ll be talking about Johnny Cage movies. And I mean all of ’em.

Now, you ever wonder how he does what he does on the big screen? Normally, I’d say he does his own stunts. But if that’s the case, then who the hell is Stunt Double Johnny Cage?

Well, enough quibbling over details. Instead, let’s look at the big picture. And by picture, I mean every motion picture Johnny Cage has ever been in. So grab yourself a large bucket of popcorn, an extra large soda, maybe some candy, and strap in, because you just bought yourself a ticket to every Johnny Cage movie ever.

Right from the beginning, we’re told that Johnny Cage is a martial arts superstar. He’s been in movies like Dragon Fist, Dragon Fist II, and the award winning Sudden Violence.

In the official comic by John Tobias, it was revealed that Johnny was about to start filming his next big blockbuster—Iron Claw.

In the Tiger Barcodzz version of Mortal Kombat, one of the cards that comes with the game has a quote on the back, where Johnny says “Hey kids—look for me in Son of Dragon Fist.”

By the end of the tournament, his career took a different turn. He decided to make a movie about the events that happened to him, and went on to film Mortal Kombat: The Movie.

Now, normally the endings are considered “What if” scenarios. They show you what would happen IF that character were to win. But, sometimes, parts of that character’s ending happens, even if he doesn’t win. And that’s exactly what happened at the end of Mortal Kombat.

In Mortal Kombat II, we learn that part of Johnny Cage’s ending actually happened. He really did film Mortal Kombat: The Movie. And this time around, when he wins Mortal Kombat II, he goes on to film the sequel—also called Mortal Kombat II. And he learns that Mortal Kombat III is inevitable.

Which is actually like a double meaning. No, a triple meaning!
  1. They’re saying that for us gamers, Mortal Kombat 3 is inevitable. We’re going to be able to go the arcades, and play the third Mortal Kombat game.
  2. But they’re also saying that, within the game’s universe, for the characters, the Outworld threat isn’t over. There is going a third tournament that they’re also going to have to face.
  3. And yet, they’re also saying that for Johnny Cage, he’s going to make a third movie about this. Yeah, the Mortal Kombat III movie is inevitable for him.
It was about this time, that the Mortal Kombat comics series by Malibu Comics had a small featurette had a small featurette at the end of one of the issues of Battlewave called Every Dog Has Its Day. It’s an adventure that Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade have together. At the end of the story, they revealed that Every Dog Has Its Day is just the title of Johnny’s new movie, and that Sonya was his co-star! That one’s probably not in game continuity.

But continuing with the comics—if you look at the official MK4 comic, Johnny mentions to Sonya that he’s filming Massive Strike. It’s about two Special Forces agents who fall in love. Yeah, in your dreams, Johnny!

And for years, that was it. That was every Johnny Cage title ever mentioned. Until 2002, when they released Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. Here, a whole bunch of titles were released.

The first one was shown in Johnny’s bio—Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage. This was basically a way to poke fun at the story writing in the previous games, where they called Johnny Cage’s deaths and resurrections a bunch of “lame writing.”

And in the Krypt, one of the items that you could purchase was the “Cage Pack”—a release of four Johnny Cage movies on VHS. There’s The Gist of My Fist—When Your Foot Just Isn’t Enough. And if you look closely, you can see that it’s from the Producers of the Grid. There’s also Cage Match, Aquatic Assault, and 7 Poisons.

And, if you order now, they’ll also throw in Earthrealm Girls Gone Wild! Fun for the whole family.

And in Konquest Mode, they reveal even more. He played a Secret Service agent in 24 Karate Gold.

In 1989 he starred in Exiting the Dragon of Death

He also starred in the Oscar Winning film, HWAAAAA!! I think the joke there is that a film called HWAAAAA!! is not very likely to win an Oscar.

He played a lone security guard in Who’ That?

And he played a cowboy in the TV series Wu Shu.

He also made a guest appearance on the game show, Celebrity Smash TV, and when he won he donated all his prize money to charity.

But the craziest movie that Deadly Alliance introduced has to be, without question, Ninja Mime. This was Johnny’s first movie, which was pretty much hated in the United States. But he’s a genius in France.

Cyrax especially hated it—he wanted his eight bucks back and he was prepared to confront Johnny Cage personally and beat it out of his skull.

Yeah, this is the movie that the Mortal Kombat designers keep coming back to. In Mortal Kombat 9, we see posters for it. The tagline says “He’s Silent—But Deadly.”

And in the Mortal Kombat X comics, they show that he had won a best actor Blueberry Award for Ninja Mime. Worst actor, actually!

Also in MKX, when you look at Cassie’s social media page, you can see a banner ad for it.

And finally they turned Ninja Mime into a fully playable skin and everything! Ninja Mime—it’s a joke that they just won’t let die.

Back to Deadly Alliance—in Johnny’s ending, it shows that he’s gone back to making movies based on his real life adventures. He turned this one into a movie, appropriately called Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance.

Now, there’s some controversy over whether this part of his ending actually happened or not. On the one hand, in the opening sequence of Mortal Kombat: Deception, it shows that none of the Earth warriors survived the conflict. Johnny was just one of the many fallen, along with the rest of Earth’s heroes. So, he couldn’t have had time to go back to the studio and make the movie. On the other hand, his MK Deception kard shows that Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance was his latest movie. And Mokap’s bio also shows that he was called into do some motion capture work for the film. So... maybe?

In Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, you can see a poster for Caged Rage in the background.

In the Mortal Kombat 2011 reboot, Johnny’s bio brings up Dragon Fist again, as well as some never-before-mentioned films, like Time Smashers and Citizen Cage.

There was also a trailer for the game where it looks like he’s in a movie called Fight Dirty. So that counts too, I suppose.

And there was a promotional video for the game where NetherRealm studios brings up Tommy ScissorFist.

Andy Senesac, Technical Artist: Johnny Cage, you know... Citizen Cage was awesome. Tommy ScissorFist was a kickass movie. But dude, Ninja Mime? What was that?

In one of the missions on the Challenge Tower, Johnny mentions that he doesn’t want to miss the premiere for his latest film, Breaknose Mountain.

I guess I should also mention that in Stryker’s ending, he writes a book about his heroics called I Was Doing My Job. He almost had that turned into a movie—except he refused to be played by Johnny Cage.

And that’s pretty much it, for the Johnny Cage movies. At least as far as the games are concerned.

But remember, in the 1995 Mortal Kombat movie, we were introduced to Johnny as he was in the middle of working on a film. Even though Johnny Cage is supposed to be a superstar, the guys he’s working with aren’t exactly A-list material.

Johnny Cage/Linden Ashby: This is where you fall down.

As far as the name of that movie goes, that’s just something they never reveal. Now trust me—I’ve looked in the Mortal Kombat novel, I’ve looked in the other Mortal Kombat novel, I’ve looked in the Behind the Scenes of the Mortal Kombat movie, I’ve even looked in the script! Don’t ask me how I got a copy of it, but I did. There’s just no mention of it anywhere.

In Mortal Kombat: Rebirth, we see some posters for a couple of his other movie titles. You can clearly make out World’s Most Wanted. In fact, that one they released online as some sort of promotion for Mortal Kombat: Rebirth. And you can kinda make out another one there called Fly High. You can’t really make out anything else, though—there’s too much action going on and the camera doesn’t really focus on them, so they’re just too blurry.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy took him in a completely different direction. This version of Johnny Cage hasn’t really worked since he’s been on Power Rangers.

Ed Goodman/Ed Boon: The fans just couldn’t adjust to the fact that Johnny was getting older. To them, he would always be that ass-kickin’ teen heartthrob from Power Rangers.

He tried to pitch a show called You Got Caged, but the studio executives weren’t really buying it. They showed no interest.

Well, that’s actually not completely true. What happened was they stole his idea and replaced him a female lead, and they changed the title from You Got Caged to You Got Saved.

Emile/Adrian Hough: We’re thinking about calling it You Got Saved. Hmm?

Probably should have hired an attorney to go with you to these things, Johnny.

Well, that’s pretty much it for Johnny’s movies. But I should also add that, over the years, we’ve caught a few glimpses into other aspects of his career.

Like we know that there’s a Johnny-Con—an all Johnny Cage convention? Yeah, no thanks.

And we know that he does a lot of product endorsements. Like in the Mortal Kombat II comic, it shows him doing a commercial for Cage Cologne.

The comic also shows one the movie studios he works in—Karate Flick Pictures.

Another one we’ve seen is MCM Studios, which is where he left the filming of Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage. We’ve also seen—well, at least heard of—some of the people he works with. Like when they name-dropped Channie Jack—gee, can’t imagine who that might be a parody of.

His ex-wife was Cindy Ford. Something tells me she’s a supermodel. Hmm. I wonder if Sonya ever got jealous of her.

In the Blood & Thunder series by Malibu comics, he was bragging to Sub-Zero about how he got to work with an actress named Lynn Quay. Actually, I’m not 100% sure about that. He might have just been making a joke.

So that’s pretty much it, now you basically know pretty every aspect of Johnny Cage’s career in show business.

Be sure to leave a comment. Ask a question if you have any. Like this video, and be sure to subscribe to catch for more Mortal Kombat goodness. Until next time, this is tabmok99. As they say in show business—break a leg!

Jeff Pilson/Johnny Cage: What? Citizen Cage? Massive Strike? Ninja Mime? None of those ring a bell?