WithMortal Kombat 1now in the hands of many, the much-awaited brutal kombat can finally commence. The next story in the series features returning familiar characters in different hierarchies and alliances due to the new universe, which leaves room for plenty of references and easter eggs to the past games. You may even come across notable movie references.
RELATED:Mortal Kombat 1: Best Changes In The New Timeline
Mortal Kombat 1 has easter eggs abound in many of the chapters in the Kampaign alone, particularly thanks to Johnny Cage’s character. Some may be harder to spot and require your attention to catch, which may be difficult in combat scenarios. Here are some you might have missed.
Updated on July 26, 2025, by Dennis Moiseyev:Mortal Kombat 1’s easter eggs and references are the gift that keeps on giving. There are countless to be found in not only the Kampaign but in the stages, fatalities, Invasion Mode, and even the character gear. A few more nods to movies, characters, and past games have been found and added to this list to make it more komplete.
17Scorpion, Cyrax, And Sektor’s Classic Fatality References
Although Mortal Kombat 1 creates plenty ofnew extravagantly gory fatalitiesfor the characters, a few classic ones return from Mortal Kombat 3 and the Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 version with some twists, extra blood, and, of course, graphical updates. Those would be Scorpion’s second fatality and Kameo fighters Cyrax and Sektor’s fatalities.
Scorpion had a fatality in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 where a large wave of his clones would spawn on-screen and surround your opponent until it faded to black. Well, this time around, only three clones spawn and they help out with the fatality until MK1 Scorpion finishes the job with a kick that pops the skeleton through the back.
Cyrax’s fatality sees a pile of grenades spilling out from the cyborg suit to blow up the entire planet Earth, and Sektor has a compactor to crush the character, both of which are back with way different visuals.
16Mortal Kombat 1 Still Keeps It Toasty!
Dan Forden is the sound designer of Mortal Kombat, whose voice and sometimes even face would appear at the bottom of arcade cabinet screens gracing players with the falsetto phrase"Toasty!" after inflicting clean uppercuts. Mortal Kombat 1 may be a new timeline, but it continues to include the same old Toasty!!! Now, in multiple places.
RELATED:Mortal Kombat 1: The Best Fatalities
In Johnny’s second fatalitywhere he uses the Lamborghini to drag an opponent by their intestine, you can hear the quick sound of Forden’s “Toasty!” as the engine starts up and exhaust flames exit the tailpipe. The other way the in-joke shows upis in Invasion Mode, where the Klue for the ‘Pure Chaos’ node in Sun Do Festival reads “Toasty!!!” (three exclamation marks for added flavor). If you know this easter egg, you know what to do.
15Ashrah’s Wonder Woman References
Ashrah is a demon with black eyes and angel-like wings who’s not been a playable fighter since 2006’s Mortal Kombat: Armageddon, and she’s back with a new character design and voice actress. Voicing Ashrah is Susan Eisenberg, best known for portraying the DC superhero Wonder Woman acrossnumerous animated shows, movies, and video games, including NetherRealm’sInjusticeseries.
And the development team made sure the references to this are plenty. For one of her fatalities, Ashrah’s sword transforms into a glowing gold lasso that resembles Princess Diana’s Lasso of Truth, except Ashrah’s slices off a character’s body parts rather than extracts the truth. Additionally, one of Johnny’s intro lines for Ashrah has him respond to her with: “You are truly a wonder, woman.”
14Smoke’s Gear References Watchmen
Mortal Kombat 1 goes pretty overt with the references in Johnny’s one-liners, but here’s another DC reference you can find in the game belonging to a different fighter. Like other masked characters, Smoke’s customizable gear entails him switching out different masks, and the one called ‘Fogged In’ is a direct nod to Rorschach’s character in Watchmen.
Watchmen is a DC graphic novel written by Alan Moore as a more grim noir take on a superhero team, which also received a film adaptation by Zack Snyder and later an HBO series. Instead of this mask being made of metal like all the rest of the gear, it has a white cloth sewn inside as the covering, with blotches of ink running all around it. Though it’s missing the detail of the ink separating, it mimics the exact design of Rorschach’s mask.
13Johnny’s MK11 Best Actor Award Decorates His New Home
Mortal Kombat 11saw Johnny Cage’s Excellence Award for Best Actor, essentially his Oscar, being used as a weapon for his brutality and fatal blow. He’d deal some pretty gruesome whacks and stabs with it, but the trophy has now been cleaned up and retired and is displayed as it should’ve been from the start, sitting on a shelf in Johnny’s Mortal Kombat 1 mansion.
RELATED:Characters That Should Return As Future DLC In Mortal Kombat 1
If you punch, combo, and kick your opponent to the other side of the room past the pool where the stairs are, you’ll see a wooden shelf above the fireplace that wraps around the wall. One of the awards is a matching statuette to Johnny’s in MK11, with its engraving, color, and figure shape.
12Indiana Jones And Steven Spielberg References
The first part of Chapter 2 in Mortal Kombat 1is dedicated to Indiana Jonesand the franchise’s director, Steven Spielberg. You’re with Johnny Cage in his natural habitat - a Hollywood set for an action-adventure movie called Temple of Katara Vala (Temple of Doom, anyone?), where he’s got the signature costume of the hat, explorer’s satchel, leather jacket, and pants.
And if that wasn’t already too on the nose, the director at the chair wearing a WB studios badge is named Steven, also seen on the clapperboard, and the enemies you fight are called Kalima for the phrase chanted in Temple of Doom. In Chapter 3, when Raiden unleashes his lightning, Johnny also exclaims: “Ark of the Covenant!”
11Aliens Ellen Ripley Reference
You’ll come to find out that Johnny Cage just can’t help himself with the film references. With his love and dedication to Hollywood, he’s probably got all the films throughout the industry’s history memorized. Another one he drops is for James Cameron’s 1986 sequel to Alien when Ripley is inside the Power Loader fighting the Queen – alsoa great mech design to consider for your Armored Core 6 character.
The particular reference in MK1 is when Kenshi begins by saying, “Get away from her,” and Johnny adds in: “You bitch.” Kung Lao disapproves of that kind of language, and Johnny attempts to explain that it’s from a movie, even name-dropping Sigourney Weaver’s character Ellen Ripley, as that is the exact line she delivers to the Queen in Aliens.
10Jennifer’s Body Reference
With actress Megan Fox voicing the winged vampire fighter Nitara, who devours blood from her prey, there’s inevitably a callback in the game to her 2009 horror film Jennifer’s Body, where she portrays the titular character who also devours her fellow male classmates. It’s cleverly placed in her intro with Kung Lao.
RELATED:Guest Characters We’d Love To See In Mortal Kombat 1
When locking arms pre-match, Kung Lao asks Nitara: “What did you do with Jen’s body?” to which Nitara replies he’ll never see her body again. So, looks like there’s some meta-closure as to what happened to Jennifer after the movie, or it may bealso a reference to MK Conquest. In Nitara’s intro with Johnny, he refers to vampires as foxes, an even more meta and direct nod to Megan Fox’s name.
9Johnny’s Boots Weren’t Made For Walking, But Nancy Sinatra’s Are
Chapter 4 sends Johnny Cage, Kenshi, and Kung Lao across the desert in search of the villain Shang Tsung, but the terrain is apparently not suitable for Johnny’s choice of footwear. He complains about the length of their trip and then emphasizes that “These boots weren’t made for walking.”
This is, of course, yet another reference from Johnny to popular culture, though a song this time instead of a movie. His feet killing him is the opposite of the lyric: “These boots are made for walking, and that’s just what they’ll do” from singer Nancy Sinatra’s song. It looks like the day came when they walked all over Johnny Cage.
8Shujinko’s Kill Bill Fatality
A film reference in Mortal Kombat 1 that extends beyond a quote is actually seen inthe Kameo character Shujinko’s fatalityand one that Quentin Tarantino might appreciate. It’s a direct nod to the martial arts move Uma Thurman’s The Bride performs in self-defense to quite literally kill her mentor Bill in the second volume. The technique is called the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart, starting with your fingers in a certain arrangement.
Shujinko’s character uses a bit of extra power in his technique with the deadly move, as there are beams upon impact from every strike. The ending to the fatality starts like Bill’s reaction, coughing up a bit of blood, but then things take a turn when the heart proceeds to explode from the chest!
