Die-Hard Mortal Kombat Fans Are Still Talking About The 1995 Opening Scene

Movies had a tendency to be wild, bold, and unpredictable way back in 1995. This was, after, all the year of "Showgirls," "Strange Days," and "Waterworld," during an era when renegade cinema was just as common as standard franchise fare at the multiplex.

But just like today with each new entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, genre fans from the worlds of comics and video games held just as high expectations as today. Therefore, when New Line Cinema announced a film adaptation of the iconoclastic blood-and-gore video game "Mortal Kombat," fans of the game didn't know quite what to expect. The film turned out to be a runaway hit at the box office upon its release in the late summer of 1995, per Box Office Mojo. The inclusion of one kinetic, brilliantly edited scene after the next helped to define its cult classic status, but that incredible opening sequence is a testament to exactly why the film remains a fan favorite to this day. One Reddit user has brilliantly captured what makes this sequence such a classic.

The original "Mortal Kombat" game contained a versatile cast of fighting characters who took turns battling one another. When playing against the AI, the main villain of the game was the shape-shifting Shang Tsung. Any film adaptation would have to follow the computerized story in the game, and Reddit user u/Videowulff reminded us why that opening scene is so legendary. 

Before we even see the first frame of the film, a powerful chant of "Mortal Kombat!" is heard as the New Line Cinema banner fills the screen. This is then followed by pulsating techno music of the era with sound samples from the game as the lyrics. The recognizable title card from the game fills the screen surrounded by fire.

The action instantly starts as an unnamed combatant attempts to fight and overcome Shang Tsung, which fans of the game already know will be no easy challenge. The helpless fighter is quickly destroyed, and we have an opening scene that manages to tell the complete arc of the story with zero narration or obvious dialogue. Fans took to the thread to validate all the great points u/Videowulff made. "I thought my eardrums would burst during the title sequence alone, and I didn't even care," wrote u/EMPulseKC, while another Redditor, u/Interesting_Fold_398, pointed out how "[t]his post got me fired up and ready to run through walls." 

The experience is undoubtedly great while watching at home, but living this experience in the theater during the summer of 1995 must have been compelling. It's the powerful chant of "Mortal Kombat!" that kicks things off, and the man responsible for it recently spoke about his memorable contribution to the film all these years later.

Kyle Wyatt's contribution to the film is immense despite just one scream of the title. Ahead of the premiere of the 2021 "Mortal Kombat" reboot, Wyatt told Slate that he never actually worked on the film, but for a commercial for the video game console release of the game in 1993. According to Wyatt, "We didn't know if it was going to be a short or a commercial or a game. We were supposed to do a lot of yelling and running." While he admitted that due to his strict Christian upbringing, he never actually played "Mortal Kombat," he added that he might consider watching the rebooted film with his family.

It's hard to imagine the opening of the film without that immortal chant, even if it was used in a previous commercial.