How Leonardo DiCaprio And Once Upon A Time In Hollywood Was The (Wild) Inspiration Behind One Of Mortal Kombat II’s Best Scenes
Many of the best video game movies have come in recent years, including Simon McQuoid’s Mortal Kombat. That movie (which is streaming with an HBO Max subscription) finally gave the beloved franchise an R-rated movie adaptation, complete with gnarly fatalities. Its sequel will introduce Karl Urban‘s Johnny Cage, and the actor spoke to CinemaBlend about bringing his character’s campy fake movie to life for the impending blockbuster.
What we know about Mortal Kombat II has been limited, but McQuoid is back behind the camera and bringing in more beloved fighters from the games. Case in point: Karl Urban as Johnny Cage, and as you can see in the video above, I had the chance to speak with him ahead of the film’s release. I asked about filming a faux movie that used to introduce Johnny, and he told me:
Yeah, well that was a fun challenge because like, you know I’ve seen it done and I’ve seen it done well. I thought DiCaprio did a great job in ‘Once Upon a Time inHollywood.’ You know, just that subtle shift between the sort of reality within the movie and the movie within the movie. So for me, I was really thinking about, ‘Okay, well what’s Johnny Cage’s style of acting?’ And I thought that he was like a martial arts actor that’s trying to break out of martial arts movies into the mainstream. So he, he’s trying to rip off like Harrison Ford and Clint Eastwood.
Honestly, I see it. In the clip from Uncaged Fury, we go from the R-rated Mortal Kombat world to a hilariously campy fake movie starring Urban’s character. He took inspiration from Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, where we got to see his character Rick Dalton in some movies within the movie. The tone got to briefly change, and Urban absolutely chewed the scenery throughout this sequence in Mortal Kombat II.
But Leo wasn’t the only person that the Star Trek actor took inspiration from for Uncaged Fury. In fact, he stole a move from Harrison Ford‘s Indiana Jones. As he told me:
Some of the facial things you see him do in that movie, like he does this point where he sort like goes [growls] and that is totally ripped off from Harrison Ford and Raiders of the Lost Ark. But that’s the kind of the actor; like Harrison Ford makes it looks cool. Johnny Cage, it just looks ridiculous.
Ridiculously hilarious, maybe. While the majority of Mortal Kombat is full of thrilling action and gory fatalities, Johnny Cage’s fake movie provided some camp and comedy to the proceedings. You can see a clip from that sequence below:
Johnny Cage is a comedic presence throughout the Mortal Kombat video games, and this faux movie scene is a great nod to this history. And even outside of Uncaged Fury, Urban brought plenty of zingers to life in the sequel film. Luckily, the wait is nearly over for both casual and hardcore MK fans.
Mortal Kombat II will hit theaters on May 8th as part of the 2026 movie release list. Karl Urban crushed it bringing Johnny Cage to life, including his signature nutcracker punch from the games.
