Watching a film with “Mortal Kombat” in the title, audiences expect one thing above all else: a commitment to the franchise’s signature Fatalities. For the uninitiated, Mortal Kombat is a series of fighting games in which enhanced beings compete in life-or-death tournaments for nothing less than the fates of their homeworlds. More importantly, when a player wins a fight, they can choose to eliminate their opponent in fiendishly sadistic ways, like kicking someone in the crotch so hard that their skeleton pops out of their body. (My personal favorite.)
This kind of ludicrous ultraviolence isn’t for everyone — there were congressional hearings in the ’90s about the Mortal Kombat games, which helped lead to the video game ratings system still in use today. But without Fatalities, Mortal Kombat wouldn’t be Mortal Kombat. Thankfully for the fans who complained bitterly about the lack of mortal combat in 2021’s Mortal Kombat, the 2026 sequel Mortal Kombat 2 does deliver some hard-R Fatalities: eight of them, by my count. Unfortunately, I do have some qualms with the lack of creativity on display. Too many of these deaths follow a familiar pattern of impalement. Reader, if you’re concerned about my bloodlust, I promise to bring it up in therapy. For now, join me as I rank Mortal Kombat 2’s Fatalities by order of gnarliness.
[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for every major death in Mortal Kombat 2.]
8
King Jerrod gets the wrong end of the hammer
Mortal Kombat lore is both highly detailed and extremely hokey. Basically, Edenia is a peaceful kingdom in a dimension separate from Earth that’s ruled by King Jerrod, who seems like a stand-up guy. Unfortunately, the evil Shao Kahn — built like Bane from The Dark Knight Rises, and wielding a mighty hammer — shows up to take over Edenia, and challenges Jerrod to some [cue the theme song] mortal combat. It doesn’t go well for our king: Jerrod puts up a decent fight, but Shao Kahn finishes him by driving the spiked handle of his hammer through Jerrod’s chest. The King’s death traumatizes his daughter Kitana, who Shao Kahn then raises as his own child. Even at that young age, she’s itching for revenge. (Watch this space.) As a tone-setter for the rest of Mortal Kombat 2, however, Shao Kahn’s Fatality leaves a lot to be desired.
7
Liu Kang shuffles off the Mortal Kombat coil
Once again, Shao Kahn is responsible for killing one of our heroes, and once again, it’s a tad underwhelming. Still wielding his trusty hammer-handle as a blunt instrument, Shao Kahn impales Liu Kang, widely considered to be Earthrealm’s greatest fighter.
Liu Kang is surprisingly chill about what seems to be a mortal wound — mostly because losing this fight makes him realize his real quest is entering the Netherrealm to revive his best friend, Kung Lao. Perhaps Mortal Kombat 2 writer Jeremy Slater thought Liu Kang receiving an understated Fatality would be the right move for one of the movie’s most virtuous figures. He’s wrong, though. Wherever a character lands on the good-evil spectrum, the highest honor they can receive is a death that gets the Sicko stamp of approval.
You might want to sit down for this: Shao Kahn impales yet another hero with his hammer-handle. This time, it’s Jax, who learns the hard way that metal arms are no match for an evil emperor with the ability to heal all wounds. (This feels like the Mortal Kombat equivalent of sports doping, but I digress.)
Shao Kahn is Mortal Kombat 2’s big bad, so I can accept that he’s damn near impossible to kill. What I can’t accept is that he goes about his Fatalities with all the enthusiasm of someone filing their taxes. Shao Kahn, would it kill you to rip out someone’s spinal column and wear it like a decorative necklace?
5
Sonya Blade lets the arena do the dirty work
Spare a thought for Queen Sindel: Not only does she witness her husband’s public murder, she’s killed, revived as a revenant, and forced to become Shao Kahn’s bride. In the years after Jerrod’s death, Sindel is corrupted by Shao Kahn’s dark magic. She enters the Mortal Kombat tournament as a champion of Outworld, and it seems like she has the upper hand against Sonya Blade, constantly disrupting her opponent’s rhythm with ultrasonic screams.
But the arena they’re fighting in — filled with sharp, rusty spikes that intermittently pop up from the ground — becomes her undoing. Sonya pins Sindel down until one of the spikes impales her face. After the fight, Sindel is magically revived again, but we’re still counting this as a Fatality, if only because Mortal Kombat 2 finally delivers an impalement that scores marks for creativity.
4
GET OVER HERE!
Hell hath no fury like Scorpion. After dying in 2021’s Mortal Kombat and being banished to Netherrealm, he’s carved out a peaceful little corner of the plane for himself. He seems to have left his violent past behind. But when he’s given the opportunity for another rematch with Sub-Zero, who killed Scorpion’s family back in the 2021 Mortal Kombat, the dead warrior gets back to work.
Their fight is memorable, featuring the reprise of Scorpion bringing out his kunai chain to yank Sub-Zero toward him while delivering his iconic catchphrase, “GET OVER HERE!” But the Fatality is even more memorable: Scorpion slices his eternal enemy in half. (Vertically, if you must know.) Yet another reminder that Hiroyuki Sanada, who plays Scorpion, is an international treasure.
3
Liu Kang uses his bestie’s hat-blade against him
Remember Kung Lao? The man with the bladed hat was responsible for the best Fatality in the first Mortal Kombat, and he returns for the sequel through dark magic. Now, he’s fighting on Shao Kahn’s behalf against Liu Kang, who tries in vain to bring his old pal back to the light.
When it’s clear that this revenant version of Kung Lao is beyond saving, Liu Kang seems to have given up the fight. But when he goes to deal the fatal blow, Liu Kang flips the script, using Kung Lao’s beloved weapon against him. From there, Liu Kang tearfully promising to rescue Kung Lao from Netherrealm while simultaneously using a hat-blade to turn him into a blood fountain is unintentionally the funniest part of the movie. May these bros reunite in Mortal Kombat 3 — and may the hat-blade claim more victims.
2
Shao Kahn finally uses a hammer properly
Shao Kahn doesn’t cover himself in glory in Mortal Kombat 2 — he has the most kills in the movie by a considerable margin, yet he doesn’t bring enough flair to most of them. Thankfully, he makes amends in his fight with Cole Young. After Cole believes he’s delivered the fatal blow to Shao Kahn — who is, at that point in the movie, basically immortal and capable of healing any wound — the emperor delivers a seriously nasty Fatality.
Knocking Cole to the ground, Shao Kahn slams his hammer right down onto Cole’s face, splattering his head into paste. (Shao Kahn, congrats on finally using your hammer as Earthrealm God intended.) The icing on the cake is Shao Kahn using his hammer to drag Cole’s headless body across the arena floor, like a maid sweeping up a shattered plate. Given how some Mortal Kombat fans seemed to dislike Cole — an entirely new character conceived for the movies, mostly to deliver exposition — this Fatality offers the best of both worlds. Cole has been killed off, and with an abundance of style to boot.
1
Kitana delivers fan service
Considering how many characters Shao Kahn kills, it’s only fitting that he gets a memorably gory send-off. After our heroes destroy the McGuffin that grants him immortality, Kitana enacts sweet, sweet revenge on the man who killed her dad and ravaged her homeworld. Using her signature steel fans, Kitana sections Shao Kahn’s entire head into thick slices, like a deli butcher going to work on a slab of ham. It ensures that Mortal Kombat 2 ends on a high note, and doubles as a corrective for anyone who spent the film wondering when Kitana would actually get to do something. The answer, it turns out, was “Last, and best.” If Mortal Kombat 3 does get made, it has a villain vacancy. Applicants should bring their own hammers.
