Mortal Kombat 1’s story ending explained

Mortal Kombat 1 officially releases today, and aside from killing your friends with gruesome kills, there are plenty of other things to check out. One is Story Mode, which focuses on Liu Kang trying to keep his timeline stable against a new and dangerous threat. The ending is wild, as we were told by Ed Boon in our interview with him at Gamescom, but if you haven’t gotten to it yet, or if you want to see what it means for the future of Mortal Kombat, we’ve got you covered.

Of course stand huge story spoilers in this article, and if you want to go blind, we recommend you turn away now. But if you’ve read this far, we recommend that you’re not someone who shuns spoilers.

Once it is discovered that Shang Tsung and Quan Chi got their powers not from the mysterious entity Damashi, but from another Shang Tsung from another timeline, Liu Kang gathers allies from other timelines to face this ultimate threat. It is actually a bit of a multiverse mess, but it ends in Armageddon, a battle between all the forces of good and all the forces of evil. Multiple versions of familiar characters appear and you must choose who to take with you in the final showdown against Shang Tsung, with Liu Kang at your side as Kameo.

Depending on who you choose, you get a few different dialogue options, but otherwise your battles consist of one-round fights against random combinations of familiar faces. Quan Chi mixed with Sub-Zero, for example. Sindel and Reptile mixed into one reptilian femme fatale. It’s weird and wacky, but a lot of fun, combined with that cinematic quality often associated with mk’s stories. We also see cameos from the Kombat Kids, Ninja Mime and more, with almost everyone meeting a gory end as you make your way to the top of the hill.

There you take on Titan Shang Tsung after a cutscene that takes Liu Kang out of the fight. Once defeated, you are taken back to Fengjian Village, where the story begins. Our heroes from Earthrealm enjoy a cup of tea and Johnny Cage talks about the movie he is making of their adventures. All is well and Liu Kang has restored order to his timeline. Yet there are new threats, such as the Lin Kuei, who have turned against Earthrealm.

This effectively ends the story of Mortal Kombat 1, taking us back to Armageddon, but with a larger scale as Titans now litter the battlefield. But this is not all there is to see. In the mid-credits sequence, we see that not everyone died in the final battle, and Titan Hawk waited in the wings, enjoying the chaos unfolding before him. He kills Jax and casts himself as the next big villain.

It seems that Hawk will be our villain as Mortal Kombat 1 moves into more of a multiverse story. Hawk in this version of the universe will still be from Chaosrealm, but this time he is more powerful because he has control over his own hourglass as a Titan. Many fans will be happy to drop the typical villains of Shang Tsung, Quan Chi and Shao Kahn and go to the more chaotic nature of Hawk. The multiverse offers endless possibilities for Mortal Kombat, but let’s hope it doesn’t fall as flat as the Marvel multiverse has so far.

What did you think of the ending of Mortal Kombat 1? Where do you think the story is going?