The Unseen Mortal Kombat Character Who Means More Than You Think
The video game film adaptation "Mortal Kombat" has nothing if not a plentiful roster of characters. Originating from a game that has a robust character selection screen full of rich personalities and gruesomely unique finishers, the characters are the heart and spine-ripping soul of the movie. And yet, there's one mentioned in passing that has an additional layer that's easily missed.
2021's "Mortal Kombat" takes the roster of video game characters and throws them together in an action-packed fight to defend Earthrealm from the would-be-conquerors of Outworld. At the center of the movie is new challenger Cole Young (Lewis Tan), an ex-MMA fighter, father, husband, and entirely new character with a strange dragon-shaped birthmark on his body. Along with the franchise's classics, he must fight with elaborate, arcane moves to win the tournament and protect Earth.
It's a bloody affair, but among the elaborate fight scenes is a reminder of where it all came from in the first place.
The briefly mentioned Eddie Tobias is a nod to the game's creators
When Special Forces major Jax (Mehcad Brooks) first meets Cole, he mentions a fighter that Cole beat and took a title from: Eddie Tobias. As one of many Easter eggs in the film, this unseen character is a nod to the two creators of the "Mortal Kombat" fighting games, Ed Boon and John Tobias. Boon still works on the "Mortal Kombat" games, even voicing Scorpion, and both he and Tobias often talk about the franchise on Twitter; Tobias created much of the lore, so he's known to give rundowns on the characters.
In fact, their names are also recognizable — if read backwards — in another character: Noob Saibot. The name may be unfamiliar to many fans, as he was originally a secret character in the early games, but he did appear in the film under his real name, Bi-Han, aka Sub-Zero (Joe Taslim). Tobias' Twitter handle is a reference to that very Saibot: @therealsaibot.
Clearly, "Mortal Kombat 2" needs a match-up between Eddie Tobias and Noob Saibot.