Where Was 'Mortal Kombat' 1995 Filmed?

A scene from the Warner Bros. movie 'Mortal Kombat'

"Mortal Kombat" has been slaying the gaming world for over three decades. First released in 1992, the Midway Games title was such a hit out of the box that it was made into a movie just a few years later. 

Creators Ed Boon and John Tobias grew up playing arcade games in Chicago and ended up working together at Williams Electronics, which would later become Midway Games. While the Windy City could have made an ideal filming location for the eventual movie adaptation—the famous bridge backdrop in MK 3, for example, was lifted straight out of the cityscape—the video game drew heavily from Asian influences. In high school, Tobias would frequent movie houses in downtown Chicago that showed kung fu movies. 

Bruce Lee's 1973 classic "Enter the Dragon" is frequently cited as one of the game's biggest influences. "Bloodsport," a martial arts movie influenced by "Enter the Dragon," was another. 

Interestingly, Tobias and Boon initially wanted to create a video game based on "Bloodsport" star Jean-Claude Van Damme. When he declined, ultimately starring years later in the cinematic version of rival fighting game "Street Fighter," Boon and Tobias made "Mortal Kombat," playfully modeling the character Johnny Cage on him. Meanwhile, Liu Kang was designed as a tribute to Lee. 

The "Mortal Kombat" movie unfolds in Earthrealm, a fragmented piece of the One Being. Picture it like a parallel Earth, but with the constant threat of invasion from powerful final bosses like Shao Khan and Shinnok.

Although much of the game lore is rooted in China, the movie was was filmed in Thailand. Christopher Lambert, who plays Raiden, was apprehensive about filming all the way in Southeast Asia, but director Paul W.S. Anderson was prepared to strike a compromise with the star, chosen over the likes of Sean Connery and Danny Glover. 

 

"So I developed this plan where we were going to do close-ups of Chris in LA and then wide shots of a double in Thailand, and then edit it together creatively," Anderson, a fan of the MK arcade games, recalled to The Hollywood Reporter. "Christopher, when he found out, said, 'Forget about that. I'm coming to Thailand.'" 

Wat Chaiwatthanaram, a temple complex dating back to 1630 in the former Siamese capital of Ayutthaya, was a pivotal filming location for 'Mortal Kombat.' It sits on the banks of the Chao Phraya River, which stretches all the way to Thai capital Bangkok

Lambert was joined by Hong Kong actor Robin Shou as Liu, Linden Ashby as Johnny, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, Talisa Soto as Kitana, and Bridgette Wilson as Sonya Blade.

The cast and crew relished their time in Thailand. Wilson even took her mother around the kingdom. "It was the most beautiful place you’ve ever seen," she said.

The gorgeous temple-scapes seen onscreen were brought to life by the ruins of Ayutthaya, the former capital of Thailand when it was known as Siam. 

Wat Ratchaburana in Ayutthaya Historical Park was portrayed as the Shaolin temple of the Order of Light—even though canonically it's in Honan, China—while Liu's nightmare about his brother Chan was filmed at Wat Phra Si Sanphet, one of the holiest temples in Siam. The twisty final scene with Shao Khan's disembodied threats from Outworld took place at Wat Chaiwatthanaram, the fittingly named Temple of Long Reign and Glorious Era.

Wat Mahathat (above), also known as the Temple of the Great Relic, is located at the heart of Ayutthaya. The city's UNESCO World Heritage-listed ruins were famously featured in Mortal Kombat (below)

The filmmakers and actors also decamped way down south to the beaches of Ao Nang, Railay, and Phra Nang in Krabi. The iconic Scorpion-Johnny Cage forest showdown took place on the island, too. As for the Goro scenes, they were made possible by elaborate, expensive animatronic puppetry at a Burbank studio.

All that movie magic made a killing at the box office upon its release in August of 1995. For almost everyone involved in the movie, that was the only "fatality" that mattered.