With Mortal Kombat's premiere only a few days away, there’s already plenty of footage out there, so fans can try to imagine how director Simon McQuoid pulled off the video game to movie transition. Of course, Mortal Kombat games have always defied the limits of what the human (and not so human) body can do, as is the case with the frosty Sub-Zero.
In Mortal Kombat's seven-minute opening sequence, Bi-Han can be seen hunting down Hanzo Hasashi and his family, but sticking to franchise lore, those roles are then reversed to have Scorpion being the one chasing after Sub-Zero. The pair of ninjas are surely bound to have at least a couple of encounters, and one of the most impressive moves comes out of their later face-off when Sub-Zero stabs Scorpion with a dagger made out of freshly frozen blood.
Although nitpicking at Mortal Kombat for its accuracy and general disregard for the laws of physics shouldn’t distract anyone from enjoying the movie’s gory action, Vulture took the time to get in touch with the Director of Forensics at Rutgers University, Kimberlee Sue Moran, who was pretty upfront to say a frozen blood dagger is really not much different from a normal icicle and with the amount of force needed to puncture human flesh, “It’s going to shatter.” Apparently, unless accounting for mystical properties Sub-Zero's ice powers could have, ice is not that resistant even at its strongest point of -35 degrees Celsius.
On a more uplifting note, Moran says Sub-Zero's fatalities actually do meet deadly requirements to be considered scientifically accurate, since it “would be far more useful… to freeze the blood while it’s in the body,” which is a classic Sub-Zero finisher. She does concede that the frozen blood dagger would be pretty useful for stabbing weaker parts of the human body like an eye, but would still lack the sharpness to do more damage than that, overall.
Mortal Kombat fans shouldn’t let scientific facts like these get in the way of other possibly flawed moves from the series. After all, Liu Kang has the ability to manipulate fire and the way Jax’s arms get completely shattered by Sub-Zero in the Mortal Kombat trailer does not necessarily strike as the most realistic outcome for that scenario. Moran’s breakdown also does not take into consideration that Sub-Zero’s powers could use dry ice, so maybe the real explanation here is that Bi-Han can channel both the power of freezing water and carbon dioxide
No matter the case, Mortal Kombat promises to be packed with tons of action and fan service, with the former part largely being driven by Sub-Zero actor Joe Taslim, whose martial arts background blended just a tad too well with the character. As seen in the Mortal Kombat behind-the-scenes feature, Taslim may have been too good for cameras to keep up with him.
Mortal Kombat is planned for release on April 23, 2021.
Source: Vulture