"I Make This Look Easy" A Johnny Cage Retrospective

[Charybdis]

The origin of Mortal Kombat was a mooted video game adaptation of the classic Jean Claude Van Damme flick, Bloodsport.

One of the legacies of that heritage is a character who began life as an adaption of JCVD’s character Frank Dux (himself based on a famous martial artist who was either Anderson Silva before Anderson Silva or was talking absolute nonsense). This character would have been the main character of the original game but, as the Bloodsport adaptation was reworked into something new, he retreated into the background and became a more direct reworking of Jean Claude Van Damme himself.

JCVD's dive kick was actually safe on block, making him borderline OP.

Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome, Mr John Carlton. A blue-eyed actor from Venice California, the United States of America. 29, mean, hot, cool, crazy, the movie star with the iron fist….the one and only, Johnny Cage!

Yo.

And today you can learn everything there is to know about the star of Citizen Cage, the Gist of My Fist and Ninja Mime from @Shad and Razor on the latest edition of The Lost!

The boys break down Mr Cage, from his origins and inspirations, storyline and backstory, evolution from comic relief to main hero (which began in Armageddon, believe it or not) to MK’s own Daddy Cool, the Cage family’s jinx over Shinnok and more besides, including Johnny facing his and every man's ultimate fear...

Shao Kahn ain't got shit on this.

Johnny was originally set to be portrayed by Brandon Lee before his untimely death but was ultimately brilliantly portrayed by Linden Ashby in the MK Movie, in what is an absolutely spot on portrayal. So influential was that portrayal and the MK Movie in general that some fans believed (and some still do) that it was Cage who defeated Goro in canon, which is of course not the case. Nevertheless, Ashby provides us with some timeless one-liners. My personal favourite being:

Sonya: You are the most egotistical, self-deluded person I have ever met!
Cage: You forgot good-looking.

Legendary. But his most famous, of course, is….

Badass.

Johnny should, in my view, probably sit out MK11. His portrayal in MKX was a great example of aging a character and featured some of the best character evolution NRS has ever done, although his MK9 incarnation is perfection. Let’s keep him special and give Cassie room to breathe and who knows, maybe she’ll prove a worthy heir to the Cage throne. I hope she does, cos I like Cassie, but she’ll never replace him. Because that’s the thing about Cage: he might be the most universally popular non-ninja in Mortal Kombat….and he makes it look easy

The King.

As always, check back to TYM every day for all the latest news on Mortal Kombat, Injustice and everything NRS!

 

[Johnny Based Cage]

Baaaased

 

[ChoseDeath]

I can't figure out how to favorite this! Well done, lots of fun.

 

[HeavyNorse]

I love their character retrospectives. Well done, guys.
As for Johnny Cage... the first time I ever liked him as a character was in MKX. In all the other games he meant absolutely nothing to me. He was just there. But even after he made an impression on me in MKX, I wouldn't mind if he got cut from the MK11 roster. He, Sonya, Kano and Jax could skip a game, imo, or maybe make it to a DLC pack, just so they were playable to those who wanted them.

 

[Zev]

 

[ismael4790]

Johnny should, in my view, probably sit out MK11. His portrayal in MKX was a great example of aging a character and featured some of the best character evolution NRS has ever done, although his MK9 incarnation is perfection. Let’s keep him special and give Cassie room to breathe and who knows, maybe she’ll prove a worthy heir to the Cage throne. I hope she does, cos I like Cassie, but she’ll never replace him. Because that’s the thing about Cage: he might be the most universally popular non-ninja in Mortal Kombat….and he makes it look easy

The idea of waiting until 2023 or more to play a new version of Johnny doesn't sound like the best idea to "keep him special", tbh, at least for Cage fans. It sounds more like a torture indeed. Cage is iconic enough not to sit out any game.

I think mk1 roster should be in every game. They can experiment as much as they want with bs uncharismatic characters like most of the mkx newcomers, but just keep the classics there, please.

 

[IamSub0]

I started playing MK with Trilogy a couple decades ago, and Johnny quickly became my favorite character in the series. He was fun to play and he just seemed so cool with those sunglasses and devil may care mien. Unfortunately, the games that followed frequently made being a Cage main a test of faith, up until MK9 where he was a powerhouse again. MKX did more great things for the character by giving him a ton of character development and a central role in the story. It's been a long road playing him, but ultimately a rewarding one.

I hope he continues to be playable, but if that means taking a step back from the spotlight and returning as DLC character, I can live with that.

 

[HeavyNorse]

at least for Cage fans. It sounds more like a torture indeed.

People who are fans of the lesser popular characters feel this every time there's a new game without their favourite characters. So I really have no pity for the Cage fans, should he sit MK11 out.

 

[ismael4790]

People who are fans of the lesser popular characters feel this every time there's a new game without their favourite characters. So I really have no pity for the Cage fans, should he sit MK11 out.

No pity asked. But if you think sitting Cage out is a good marketing decision, you are wrong.

Sitting out lesser popular characters has less consequences simply because less people like them. You will see few people annoyed if Mokap doesn't make it into mk11. Let's see what happens though if they decide to sit out classic fan favourite characters like Johnny.

I wouldn' be surprised if he or other classic char is part of kp1. Would sell like hotcakes.

 

[HeavyNorse]

No pity asked. But if you think sitting Cage out is a good marketing decision, you are wrong.

Never said anything about marketing.

 

[ismael4790]

Never said anything about marketing.

Didn't imply that. Just putting that subject on the table.

Anyway, marketing aside or not, sitting out popular characters provides 0 advantages for nrs or for the majority of the fanbase of mk. It would probably please the haters of those characters, who are a minority. And I doubt nrs aims towards pleasing a minority.

 

[HeavyNorse]

As said, I don't care for him, so I wouldn't mind if he was gone.

 

[Eddy Wang]

"I'm taking you out, taking you out, taking you out, taking you out, v and i'm taking you out... for dinner!"

- Johnny Cage in MK9 about taking every single contestant in the tournament and taking Sonya to dinner.

 

[Rizz091]

I never paid much attention to Johnny and I've played every MK game. Until Shaolin Monks where he did some funny stuff and finally showed more character. Then MK9 really sold him for me and he quickly became a favorite of mine. That continued with MKX. If he doesn't return, I'll survive, but I'd like to keep seeing him.

 

[Raidenwins]

The origin of Mortal Kombat was a mooted video game adaptation of the classic Jean Claude Van Damme flick, Bloodsport.

That's not really correct. One of the ideas John and Ed were bouncing around at the beginning of MK1 was to make the game revolve around JCVD, but he declined, so they went a different route. Other than the idea of a martial arts tournament, there aren't really any other similarities between Mortal Kombat and Bloodsport. Another popular myth is that MK1 was based on Big Trouble in Little China, though there is a small amount of truth to that one in the sense that (I believe) Raiden was partially based on a character from that movie.

The biggest inspiration for MK1's story and setting, however, came from a type of Chinese fantasy kung-fu movies, with which John Tobias was fascinated at the time. I believe the term for them is Wuxia.