Point of this Article: To give my full insight of the Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Opening Video here at my website because all the forums I’m part of wouldn’t give a shit XP.

On September 20, 2006, IGN.com released something that I didn’t think I’d see until the release of the video game Mortal Kombat: Armageddon…the opening movie! An insight was given to us by the folks at the German Convention on the intro. Throughout this whole time, I was completely trying to avoid any sort of major spoilers for the game. Unfortunately, an idiot from the German Convention gave away one of those major spoilers without any sort of warning whatsoever. This particular spoiler was an upsetting one to me so in the aftermath, all other spoilers seemed like nothing to me, even some of the endings I saw (only 10 were released because people began complaining).

At the German Convention they gave us full details on the intro video. They did seem more interested in telling us who died more than anything, but kept with the important stuff as well. However, with the release of this video, their ‘confirmed’ deaths turned out to be them jumping to conclusions and some of their facts were wrong. All of this will be mentioned as this article progresses.

It’s confirmed by someone from the Midway.com forums that this intro is indeed non-canon and was only made for fun. I hope it’s something like that, or at least a dream sequence from the new protagonist Taven (who, by the way, along with his brother Daegon, Motaro, Meat, and possibly Chameleon, all in the game, was NOT in the intro so it’s a possibility). Also, at the GC, one of the MK employees confirmed that they haven’t even decided who was going to die yet.

So, there is hope.

Now for the insight of the video itself.

It starts off with a vulture pecking at a dead body. I remember seeing this in the teaser trailer way back in March 2006 and I was thinking to myself, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if that idiot Mokap was eaten by that vulture while trying to fight? Lol, Vulture Wins! Fatality!’ Yeah, I wish, it would be great!

Continuing, over near the top left corner we see someone in a far off distance walking along the mountaintop. Though I didn’t notice until the last time I saw the video, this figure blew a large horn which made a deep sound about fourteen seconds into the video. Who this person is, I can’t confirm it for sure. Some say it’s Taven, some say it’s Daegon. Some say it’s one of Shang Tsung’s guards. Some even say it’s Meat. We probably won’t truly known until we get the game.

Upon the horn blowing, we can see a glimpse of the good guys coming out of the dusty fog. The vulture flies off and we get a shot of Kintaro walking casually forward, which I thought was a cool shot. He then stops and lets out a loud roar as the bad guys and all the neutrals come running past him. We then get different shots from both sides as the narrator speaks. I can hear the music clearly at this point and I must say it was amazing music, it definitely fit the current environment.

Soon enough, they all clash together and the first of the confirmed deaths takes place. Poor Li Mei didn’t even have a chance! Hotaru just stabbed her like a slab of meat right through her stomach and out her back! I already didn’t like Hotaru to begin with, but this gives me another reason to hate the little bitch. My poor boyfriend was heartbroken when he saw this since she was one of his top 3 favorite characters. I feel for Li Mei’s fans.

Afterwards, we see Kano and Kitana fight for a bit. Kitana managed to kick his ass before being smacked by Kintaro and went flying in the air as she let out a scream that made me laugh.

That leads to the swordfight between Scorpion and Sub-Zero. Yes, I’ve complained about all the attention these two get in the past, but there is really no denying that this was a very cool fight scene and it’s actually one of my favorite moments. Sub-Zero managed to own Scorpion for a moment (holy crap! That must‘ve went passed Ed Boon or something when they were planning this out, lol!)…before he was hit by a flying Raiden from behind, lol!

Raiden’s on the ground and Shinnok comes flying down like a gorilla. He summons his skeleton hands, which pins Raiden down. He then zaps his lightning, knocking Shinnok down. Meh, it was an all right scene.

Then comes another one of my favorite moments…Kung Lao Vs Baraka. These two fight hand to hand for a moment before pulling out their weapons. They then jump in the air and began fighting with their weapons. Obviously an example of air kombat for the game. Then, Kung Lao owns Baraka by stabbing him in the stomach. Baraka does an unintended backward somersault, then shoots out a projectile that knocks Kung Lao back to the ground. Baraka being stabbed was another confirmed death…and they said he was cut in half, which was obviously false. However, according to other viewers (I have yet to see this though), Baraka was apparently running up the stairs later on. Makes me wonder if the GC missed this little tidbit as well.

Now we move on to another fight scene between Jax and Quan-Chi. At one point, Jax breaks Quan-Chi’s leg (or knee, I couldn’t tell), but Quan-Chi quickly recovers and can somehow stand fine. He then unleashes two skeletons with swords from the ground…while screaming “Pina Colada!” (way to go Midway *rolls eyes*).

Jax takes them down quite easily, then screams, “What else you got?!” Suddenly, SMASH! He gets hit from behind by Shao Kahn’s hammer! Sadly, I actually missed him say that the first time, possibly because I saw Shao Kahn behind him and went, “Look out!” Either Jax was killed or rendered unconscious at that point.

Afterwards, Shao Kahn immediately hits Reiko (“That’s for wearing my helmet!”), followed by Johnny Cage (“That’s for making bad movies!”) who we see again later anyway, then finally Darrius (“That’s for wasting good space in MKD!”). At this point, the pyramid begins to rise up and Darrius hits it. If you listen closely, when the pyramid stops growing, Shao Kahn is all like ‘whoa’ like he was smoking something. The remaining pyramid grows, knocking off Kai, Jarek, and Tanya in an unrealistic fashion and stops just in front of Shao Kahn…actually, Tanya seemed to be gliding back, which is a bit better.

So now everyone has stopped fighting and is looking up at the pyramid before them…like moths to the flame as mentioned in the video. So everyone is looking up going “oooooo, ahhhhh” for a while…suddenly…

BAM! Stryker socks Mileena in the face, then starts running up the pyramid stairs like a pansy. That moment was considered the best moment of the entire video and I laughed too even though I knew it was going to happen. It’s so Stryker…what a jerk, lol! He was surrounded by all guys and he had to sock the girl next to him. Yes, it’s evil Mileena, but come on! Nightwolf was next to him too! Note to girls: Don’t date this guy…he may sock you randomly. At the GC, however, they claimed that it was Cyrax who did the punching. Eh, you’re telling me that they couldn’t tell the difference between Cyrax and Stryker? Wow…

So the party begins. Stryker just finished the first of the three flights of stairs (silly Stryker, did you really think you’d make it up there with 50 plus people behind you?) when Kabal sped his way to him (“How dare you punched a girl!” lol). However, Stryker knocks him off the pyramid. Apparently, according to GC, Kabal ‘died’ at this point. Eh, he possibly broke a few bones if anything. I know because I fell down a flight of stairs years ago and came out fine, only a sore hip. So, yeah…

Next up, Kano shoots Stryker with his laser and is knocked down and doesn’t move. Either he’s dead or is faking it in order to survive (I’d say it’s the second one!). During this time, Bo’ Rai Cho tries to (slowly) run quickly up the stairs. Kano notices and throws a knife to his back. Bo’ Rai Cho is stunned for a moment before turning around and puking on the floor, which Kano and Kobra (irony, lol) slipped on and stumble down the stairs. However, Sheeva walks right through it and punches Bo’ a couple of times before knocking him off the pyramid.

Bo’ was another confirmed death due to the fall and the knife to his back. Unless he landed on his back (which would make the knife go deeper), I think he’ll live with a few broken bones. I mean, when you think about it, the blade must’ve got lost in his fat, preventing it from hitting anything vital. So his own weight may have saved him. Even so, I believe that after this game that he will pass away…I don’t think there’s anything left for him.

Continuing…Sheeva makes her way up the stairs and Cyrax runs after her. Nightwolf briefly stops to shoot an arrow in the middle of her back. It pains her, but the arrow disappears so it doesn’t seem to have done anything fatal. Cyrax then jumps on Sheeva’s back and tries to break her neck. However, Sheeva manages to get him off her and he goes flying down the pyramid…while saying “Screw you!”

Okay, I had to listen to the video a second time to hear that and though it’s in a robotic tone, it definitely sounds like he’s saying ‘Screw you!’ Some people tried to challenge me, saying that it was only his normal robotic tone. Eh, yes it’s in his robotic tone, but you can’t deny the fact that it came out saying what it said. Ignorance…you forget that the Midway team pulls little stuff like that.

Continuing…at this point, Nightwolf and Ermac try to gang up on Sheeva and seem to be doing a good job…at first. However, Sheeva manages to grab the both of them with her upper arms. Whatever she was going to do, we’ll never know. At this point, Kenshi comes out of nowhere and stabs Sheeva right through the stomach. She is forced to let Nightwolf and Ermac go and the two fly off to wherever. Kenshi then went behind her and slashed his sword sideways. It looked as though she was cut in half and most likely fell apart upon landing on the ground off-screen.

Oh great, not only did another of one of my boyfriend’s top 3 favorite character dies, but it’s at the hands of my favorite character (sigh). Well, at least Jade’s still alive as far as we know.

From here comes, to me, the best and the worst moment of the entire video and the very scene that was the major spoiler I received a month ago. This is all coming from a Kenshi fan(girl) so bare with me.

Since Kenshi’s debut three games ago, I’ve always wondered how he would be portrayed as a swordsman in battle. There had been no FMV’s of him fighting up this point. The moment Quan-Chi jumped in, I knew I was in for a treat, despite the fact that I was already aware of the results…

Note that during this scene, we see Johnny Cage casually push Sonya off the stairs as though he was going ‘Oopsies.’ Poor Sonya, I like her but that scream was hilarious.

So the swordfight begins and Kenshi is showing some really great swordsmanship. I was very impressed with the choreography in this fight scene. As he and Quan-Chi fight, they go up the second of the third flight of stairs. Soon, Kenshi was on the last step and that’s when it happened.

Quan-Chi’s a lucky bitch to have two swords or else he would’ve never had that chance to stab Kenshi through the stomach. Every time I watch this video, when Quan-Chi pulls out that one weapon, I always end up turning my head. It’s still a heart wrenching moment for me. However, after I received this spoiler, my hope was that he was stabbed through the stomach and not the chest and that’s what happened and I was grateful. He had a better chance of survival.

Once Kenshi was on the ground, Quan-Chi looked as though was going to finish Kenshi off. However, here’s come Ermac once again, using his powers to immobilize Quan-Chi before throwing him off the pyramid. I thought it was a miracle, possibly a little tidbit GC missed. However, I couldn’t be more wrong. Here, a confusion is cleared up…

It turns out that Ermac was really Shang Tsung in disguise. He sees Kenshi and takes a moment to stomp on the poor guy (as someone said, like Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah’s couch). Talk about adding insult to injury…asshole.

The confusion…they say Quan-Chi did the final blow. Then they say Shang Tsung did it. Who knows…for all we know, Kenshi could’ve been dead by the time Shang Tsung got to him. Or not…

Shang Tsung looks down and see Shao Kahn, Sub-Zero, Sindel, and others I couldn’t tell of come running up the stairs. Shang Tsung immediately throws a fireball at them while standing in between Kenshi’s feet knocking everyone but Shao Kahn off the pyramid. Shao Kahn then jumps over the stairs and attempts to hit Shang Tsung with his hammer, but Shang Tsung moved out of the way and Shao Kahn hit the ground instead.

From there, I thought another miracle took place. Someone mentioned that Kenshi actually rolled out of the way from Shao Kahn’s hammer. However, I spent some time inspecting this and found out that it was sadly false. Shao Kahn actually hit the space next to Kenshi and the hit actually caused his hand to jump up a bit from the vibration in the ground in such a way that I’m convinced that he was indeed killed. Hopefully he was just unconscious, but then again that jump could’ve crushed his chest…(sigh).

Moving on…Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn fight for a short time before Shao Kahn was stunned by a kick and drops his hammer. He staggers a bit when suddenly Onaga flies up out of nowhere like a bat out of hell. He grabs Shao Kahn and flies away with him to do who knows what (though many of us think it’s something perverted, lol).

Things seem quiet now as Shang Tsung stands there, watching Onaga fly away with Shao Kahn. Most likely, the others are fighting far below. Then, chains are heard not too far. This catches Shang Tsung’s attention and he turns his head. To his shock and horror, someone comes out of the shadows…Liu Kang, in his zombie form.

This moment alone would’ve been perfect had Liu Kang not been in MK Deception. If he wasn’t in that game, this would’ve been the perfect shock value! (OMG Liu’s alive!…sort of).

Note: a second before Liu Kang shows up, look at the spot between them. Kenshi is suddenly missing. You’ll notice this again about 3:48 seconds into the video. He couldn’t have slipped down the stairs either because his feet were barely off the edge. Possibly, the MK team forgot to add him in. Or another miracle happened…yeah I wish.

Getting his neck back in place, Liu whips out his hooks and chains (making a weird zombie noise in the process) and he and Shang Tsung fight. Liu’s body contorts in unusual places, at one point his neck is at a 180 degree angle and Liu turns his body to get it back straight. He then lets out a loud inhumane noise before fighting again. Shang Tsung then manages to knock him off the pyramid and tries to get up the last flight to the very top.

In the middle of this, Mileena makes her way up. She jumps on Shang Tsung and tries to bite his head off. However, Shang Tsung manages to get her off him and she goes flying away. Another ‘confirmed’ death and the last one of them all…and a stupid one at that. She only went side ways and Shang Tsung was only half way up the stairs. I bet you 99% that she landed at the floor below them, but about 10 to 20 feet from the bottom of the stairs they were just on. So she got a bruise, boo hoo.

However, her scream was hilarious!

Now comes running Shujinko. “Oh boy, that must be a Kamidogu!” he must’ve thought. However, Shang Tsung quickly turned and, with little effort, punches him off the pyramid and looks as though he missed the floor below. If anyone had died from falling off the pyramid, it’s Shunjinko. Why? Because he’s old and at this point, that’s a far fall for a normal human being.

What a way to waste away the protagonist of the last game, lol.

Shang Tsung only makes it five steps before two hooks on chains grab each of his shoulders and starts pulling him back (now you can clearly see that Kenshi’s missing, lol). He tries to walk forward, but to no avail. Behind him, Scorpion and another person, possibly Shinnok, come running up the stairs.

The fire above starts forming and at this point, Shang Tsung is turning into an old geezer, screaming like the pansy he is. Serves him right!

The last shot we get is Blaze emerging from the top. He turns to the camera and lets out a loud roar before everything goes black.

Overall this was a very good and well done video. My hope is that the story is better than what it seems here. The video is considered non-canon and I only hope that the guys at Midway are telling the truth. You also have the rumored ‘true ending’ if you beat every character with it. This I won’t believe for now. It’s kind of like the super unlockable rumor from two years ago (which was false…unless you use code breakers).

A couple of things to note on Kenshi…I loved how GC made it seem like he was the first to die. I thought to myself then ‘he’s much stronger than that!’ Actually, during the video I thought either it was a lie or I missed it. I was thankful to see that he made it as far as he did and that he went done fighting in one of the best fights in the video. That’s the same for Sheeva, who was great in that video as she managed to take down four guys.

In conclusion, there was indeed tons of chaos throughout the video. I can only imagine Havik, my second favorite character, having a field day that whole time.