Johnny Cage

In the original Mortal Kombat (1993), Johnny Cage is a martial artist and actor who enters the Shaolin Tournament simply to prove that he does not rely on special effects in his films,[5] and he is the only character in the game who does not share a past history with the other characters.[6] He is tricked into entering the tournament by the sorcerer Shang Tsung, believing it would prove his skills are real and improve his marketability. Upon arriving at the tournament however, he learns the truth from the thunder god Raiden and aligns himself with the Earthrealm warriors. In the 1993 sequel Mortal Kombat II, Cage disappears from the set of his latest film after following Mortal Kombat champion Liu Kang into the otherworldly dimension of Outworld, where he joins forces with other fighters in participating in a second tournament during their successful attempt at protecting Earthrealm against Outworld's evil emperor, Shao Kahn.[7]

Cage is absent from the series continuity until the 1996 compilation title Mortal Kombat Trilogy, which expands on the events of Mortal Kombat 3 (1995) and its upgrade. He is killed by Shao Kahn's forces during an invasion of Earth, but his path to the afterlife is blocked due to a merger of Earth and Outworld, which restores his soul and enables him to help his comrades defeat the Kahn,[8] after which he ascends to the heavens.[9] In Mortal Kombat 4 (1997), at Cage's request, Raiden restores him to life so he can again fight alongside his friends, this time in an attempt to defeat the forces of the disgraced former deity Shinnok.[10]

In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (2002), Cage shoots a movie based on his death and resurrection titled The Death of Johnny Cage, but he is displeased with his characterization and he promptly flees the production when Raiden transports him to a new mission in Outworld.[11] However, he and his fellow Earthrealm warriors are killed in their attempt to stop the titular Deadly Alliance from resurrecting the Dragon King Onaga.[12] In Mortal Kombat: Deception (2004), the first fighting installment in which Cage is not playable, he and the Earthrealm warriors are resurrected by Onaga for use as his slaves,[13] but they are eventually freed from their mind control by reformed ninja Ermac and the spirit of Liu Kang,[14] who had also been slain by the Deadly Alliance.[15]

Cage returns along with the series' then-entire playable roster in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon (2006), participating in the final tournament that would decide mankind's fate. He is one of only seventeen characters to receive an official game biography, in which he becomes the de facto leader of Earthrealm's forces after he sees multiple visions of Shinnok and tracks him down to Shang Tsung's island, where Shinnok plots to take over Shao Kahn's rule of Outworld.[16] Cage is killed a third time along with the other combatants in a battle royal at the Pyramid of Argus in the realm of Edenia in the game's opening sequence.[17][note 1]

In the rebooted continuity of Mortal Kombat (2011), Cage is described as "a descendant of an ancient Mediterranean cult who bred warriors for the gods" as an explanation for his special powers.[19][note 2] His disembodied head is seen amidst the fighters' corpses in the introduction sequence that depicts the grisly aftermath of the battle and the resulting onset of Armageddon.[20] The storyline then travels back in time to the Shaolin Tournament, where cocky and talkative martial arts actor Johnny Cage enters the competition as a publicity stunt and repeatedly flirts with Special Forces lieutenant Sonya Blade. He initially considers the tournament a joke after defeating Outworld minions Reptile and Baraka,[21] until Raiden informs him of the consequences should Outworld emerge victorious, which convinces Cage to fight alongside Raiden's chosen heroes.[22] However, he is later defeated in the competition by Earthrealm assassin Cyrax.[23] During the second tournament, he is eliminated by Ermac,[24] before Raiden saves him the centaur Motaro.[25] After Shao Kahn launches an invasion of Earthrealm and his wife Queen Sindel slaughters the rest of their comrades, Cage and Sonya are left as the only survivors.[26]

In Mortal Kombat X (2015), two years after the previous game, Cage inadvertently discovers his special powers while attempting to rescue Sonya from Shinnok,[27] and assists Raiden in imprisoning Shinnok inside a magical amulet.[28] He and Sonya later get married and have a daughter, Cassie, but they divorce due to Sonya's commitment to her career.[29] A further twenty-five years later, Cage becomes part of a secret Special Forces unit under Sonya's command.[30] With help from his followers, Shinnok escapes from his amulet, kidnaps Johnny, and corrupts the source of Earthrealm's life force,[28] but Cassie is able to defeat Shinnok, rescue her father, and reunite the Cage family.[31]

In Mortal Kombat 11, two years after MKX, Johnny and Cassie grieve for Sonya's death during a Special Forces attack on the Netherrealm.[32] After the keeper of time Kronika causes a time merger in an attempt to remove Raiden from history, past versions of Johnny and Sonya are brought to the present.[33] Disgusted by his younger self's arrogance and misconduct around his version of Sonya, the present Johnny works with him to improve his attitude. Though the older Johnny successfully defends the Special Forces base from the Black Dragon crime cartel and the cyber Lin Kuei warriors, he gets injured in the fight[34] while his and Sonya's younger counterparts get kidnapped and forced to fight for the Black Dragon's entertainment. Cassie leads a Special Forces team to rescue them and the younger Johnny becomes inspired to be more like his future self.[35] In the DLC story expansion Aftermath, the younger Johnny attempts to take part in a joint Earthrealm/Outworld assault on Kronika's keep, only to be ambushed by Shao Kahn and Sindel, who take him and his family prisoner.[36]

Van Damme in 2010

Original concept sketches for a proposed fighting game by artist John Tobias showed a character called "Michael Grimm, the current box office champion and star of such movies as Dragon's Fist, Dragon's Fist II and the award-winning Sudden Violence."[37] Tobias later described them as "R-rated really schlocky 1980s martial arts films".[38]

Midway Games had hoped to license martial artist and actor Jean-Claude Van Damme for the game that was intended to be modeled after Van Damme's 1988 film Bloodsport,[39] and the company created a short demo reel that consisted of film footage of Van Damme inserted into a digital background in order to convince the actor to join the project.[40] However, the attempt fell through, and when the fighting game later became Mortal Kombat, the Michael Grimm character was retained as a spoof of Van Damme and renamed Johnny Cage.[39] Van Damme's split-legged groin punch from Bloodsport was included as one of Cage's special moves[6] as Tobias' idea to make fun of Van Damme.[41] According to martial artist Daniel Pesina, who portrayed Cage in the original game and the 1993 sequel Mortal Kombat II, the character was additionally modeled after Daniel Rand from the Power Man and Iron Fist comic series.[42]

Cage's real name of John Carlton[43] was taken from Midway artist and programmer John Carlton, who worked on the NBA Jam game series.[44] Cage was the first character created for Mortal Kombat,[41] and the test prototype of the original game had just two Johnnies fighting each other.[45] In a 1995 interview with EGM, Tobias said that Cage's Fatality finishing move of punching off his opponent's head was the final one created for the game, before which he was going to simply throw his opponent across the screen.[46] Pesina, in 2018, claimed that he himself had invented the finisher and it was the first one created.[41] Due to a falling-out with and ensuing 1994 lawsuit against Midway, Pesina was replaced by Chris Alexander as Cage for the 1996 compilation title Mortal Kombat Trilogy.

As a narcissistic Hollywood star, Cage serves as comic relief in contrast to the games' more serious characters like Liu Kang and Raiden,[47] which is embellished in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot game with a large chest tattoo of his name.[48] Cage's main role in Mortal Kombat X is as a Special Forces consultant instead of an actor; his design by NetherRealm Studios (formerly Midway Games) was their attempt to define whether or not he had taken his martial arts skills seriously since the aftermath of the 2011 reboot game, and he was outfitted in tactical gear that was designed to fit his fighting style while finding the balance between "serious or stoic" and "too goofy".[49] In Mortal Kombat X, Cage's gameplay style is split into three fighting variations like those of the other playable characters;[50] Prima Games deemed him as effective at zoning.[50][note 3]

In Malibu Comics' Mortal Kombat comic book line that ran from 1994 to 1995, Cage first features with the characters from the original game in the 1994 six-issue Blood & Thunder miniseries, which loosely follows the game's storyline of Shang Tsung hosting the Shaolin Tournament.[51] In the follow-up miniseries Battlewave (1995), which focuses mainly on the new characters introduced in Mortal Kombat II, Cage has resumed his acting career after the tournament, but later travels to Outworld with Jax to investigate an attack carried out by Goro. It also features his bodyguard named Bo, an original character.[52] Cage is a supporting character in DC Comics' 2015 twelve-issue Mortal Kombat X miniseries, with a chapter in the eighth issue devoted to the background of his relationship with Sonya.[53]

Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage in the 1995 film Mortal Kombat

In the 1995 live-action film Mortal Kombat, Johnny Cage portrayed by Linden Ashby is one of Raiden's three chosen warriors with Liu Kang and Sonya, and he takes part in the tournament to prove he is a legitimate fighter after Shang Tsung assumes the identity of Cage's sensei in order to trick him into participating. He defeats Scorpion and Goro, and is handpicked by Shang Tsung to fight him in final combat near the conclusion until Liu Kang accepts the challenge.[54] Ashby had practiced martial arts before he was cast in the role.[55] He did not return for the 1997 sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation, leading to Chris Conrad being the second actor to portray Cage in a live action film. During Shao Kahn's invasion of Earth in the beginning of the film, Cage is killed by the emperor in his attempt to save Sonya when she is taken hostage.[56] Pat E. Johnson, the first film's stunt choreographer, recommended Conrad as Ashby's replacement to Annihilation's producers.[57]

Martial artist Matt Mullins plays Cage in director Kevin Tancharoen's 2010 short film Mortal Kombat: Rebirth.[58] Cage is a faltering action star who works undercover for police officer Jackson Briggs, but Baraka kills him in a brutal fight.[59] Mullins reprised the role in the third episode of the 2011 web series Mortal Kombat: Legacy, with Cage revised as an unemployed television actor who had starred in Power Rangers. Desperate to revive his flailing career, he pitches reality show pilots in which he engages in acts of vigilantism by beating up various criminals, but they are rejected by two executives. Cage later overhears one of them stealing his ideas while proposing a new show to another actor, and he assaults the executive along with two security guards. He is then approached by Shang Tsung as the episode concludes.[60] Mullins was replaced by Casper Van Dien for the 2013 second season, in which it is revealed that Cage refused Shang Tsung's offer to fight for Outworld, and reluctantly agreed to join Raiden's warriors in participating in the tournament.[61] In it, Mileena fights and beats Cage before he is saved by Kitana just as he is about to be finished off by her. Van Dien compared his career trajectory to that of the character in a 2013 interview with MTV.[62]

Cage has been licensed for various action figures produced by Hasbro,[63][64] Toy Island,[65] and Jazwares.[66][67][68] Advanced Graphics released a life-sized Cage cardboard standee in 2011,[69] and Syco Collectibles released a polystone character statuette in 2012.[70]

Cage appears as a main character in Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, voiced by Joel McHale.

Cage will appear in the 2021 reboot of the film series, but it's unknown who's playing him.[71]