Mortal Kombat, director Simon McQuoid had one goal for the movie: make the kombat
grounded in
reality so the fights felt
Early on in pre-production, McQuoid told Kyle Gardiner and Chan Griffin: “I need you to do the things you always wanted to do in a movie and everyone tells you can’t do.” The result is a movie that mixes the superpowered techniques of the games with fighting styles like Wing Chun. In the video, actor Max Huang, who plays Kung Lao, describes the process of developing his own moves based on references he saw in the gameplay. Then you have Joe Taslim, who brings 15 years of experience fighting on Indonesia’s national judo team to Sub-Zero’s choreography. McQuoid was on to something.