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| “ | I make this look easy! | „ |
| ~ Johnny Cage's famous quote |
Jonathan Carlton, better known as Johnny Cage, is one of the main characters in the Mortal Kombat: Titan Trilogy, both a reboot and spin-off of the Mortal Kombat franchise.
He was voiced by musician Jeff Pilson in Mortal Kombat 9, and Andrew Bowen in Mortal Kombat X and 11.
Biography[]
Mortal Kombat 9[]
Due to Raiden altering the timeline to avert Armageddon, Johnny becomes a cocky and talkative martial arts actor and "a descendant of an ancient Mediterranean cult who bred warriors for the gods". Additionally, he joins the Mortal Kombat tournament as a publicity stunt. While competing, he repeatedly flirts with Special Forces lieutenant Sonya Blade and initially sees the tournament as a joke until Raiden informs him of the consequences should Outworld win, convincing Johnny to join Earthrealm's warriors. However, Johnny is defeated in the first competition by Earthrealm assassin Cyrax and eliminated from the second tournament by Ermac. After Shao Kahn launches an invasion of Earthrealm and his wife Queen Sindel slaughters the rest of their comrades, Johnny and Sonya are left as the only survivors.
Mortal Kombat X[]
Johnny inadvertently discovers his special powers while rescuing Sonya from Shinnok and assists Raiden in imprisoning Shinnok inside a magical amulet. Johnny and Sonya later get married and have a daughter, Cassie Cage, but they divorce due to Sonya's commitment to her career. A further twenty-five years later, Johnny joins a secret Special Forces unit under Sonya's command. With help from his followers, Shinnok escapes from his amulet, kidnaps Johnny, and corrupts the source of Earthrealm's life force. Having inherited her father's powers, Cassie defeats Shinnok, rescues Johnny, and reunites the Cage family.
Mortal Kombat 11[]
Johnny is around for Cassie getting promoted, before leaving to film another Ninja Mime movie; teasing Sonya it's to pay for her comfort in retirement. Sadly Sonya does destroying revenant Liu Kang and Kitana's fortress. While everyone mourns at base, time begins going haywire and Dark Raiden disappears.
To Johnny's shock, the past versions of himself, Raiden, Sonya, Liu Kang and Kung Lao have appeared. Johnny is SO not happy with his past self, since he has matured into a responsible adult but this point. He outright accosts past Johnny when he assures the older version that he will ensure to impregnate Sonya to ensure Cassie exists.
Johnny ceases to exist after the battle for the Hourglass concluded; being replaced by versions of him in New timelines.
Personality[]
Johnny may be a pompous jerk, but he's genuinely a nice guy underneath, and of all the heroes he's the one that fights for the good guys just because it's the right thing to do. He also may love to fight, but he's horrified when Shang Tsung asks him to kill his defeated opponent. During the course of the Story Mode in 9, Johnny pretty much becomes the team's moral center. This trait becomes even more notable in X when paired with the stricter Sonya, keeping her from giving into her desire to kill Kano so that they can get info out of him and getting her to talk to Cassie less as a commander and more like a mother despite them having already split up on bad terms.
As he got older however, due to many harrowing and tragic ordeals he suffered in MK9 Johnny grew to be more mature and wiser, becoming a great father and raising his daughter Cassie while still making cheeky remarks to his friends and enemies alike. He truly loves the family he has as he managed to reconcile with Sonya after their divorce and is shown to be proud of his daughter for her valiant efforts and achievements.
During the events of Mortal Kombat 11, Johnny is even shown to be disdainful of his younger self for his annoying behavior when being with him in person (what the current Johnny could have been had it not been for events occurred in MK9) but understands that he'll learn maturity and wisdom later on.
Raiden once commented that Johnny Cage is a hero; though Johnny himself is not aware of it (at the time). 3 decades later, Raiden's evaluation of Johnny proved all too correct.
Physical appearence[]
In MK 2011, he has a similar outfit from MKII, but with slight changes: he keeps his sunglasses on all the time, his chest is tattooed with his own name, he has straps on his arms and hands, his pants' accents are blue, and his last name is on his belt.
In MKX, 20 years prior to the main events of the game, he sports a military vest and pants. His default form in the same game features him with a short sleeved hoodie, along with a grayish blue shirt that partially covers his name tattooed on his chest. He also has bandages wrapped around his wrists and black fingerless gloves.
Concept and design[]
As a narcissistic Hollywood star, Cage serves as comic foil in contrast to the games' more serious characters like Liu Kang and Raiden, which is embellished in the 2011 Mortal Kombat reboot game with a large chest tattoo of his name. 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". In Mortal Kombat X, Cage's gameplay style is split into three fighting variations like those of the other playable characters; Prima Games deemed him effective at zoning.
Powers and Abilities[]
Johnny Cage is an extremely skilled martial artist, thanks to his extensive training and despite being a human, he is not without a few supernatural powers. These powers specialize in shadow and he can use them to propel himself forward, increasing the strength of his blows and leaving green afterimages in his wake. Cage can increase the speed of these attacks, which instead leaves a red afterimage and can also throw a ball of shadow energy. He also has a move where he drops doing the splits and then punches the opponent in the groin, though this only works on male fighters. As his alternate weapon fighting style, Cage uses a set of nuchaku. In MKX, it is revealed that Johnny is a descendant of now-forgotten super-warrior cult bred for gods.
Powers[]
- Divine Empowerment: According to MK 2011, going onto X, Johnny descended from a Mediterranean war cult that bred warriors fit to protect and serve the gods: warriors with special abilities.
- Superhuman Strength: Johnny has shown that he is an incredibly strong warrior. He can send an opponent flying at very far distances just by landing a punch or a kick. In his fatalities, his strength is shown when he was able to uppercut someone's head off, stab his arms through someone's chest and slowly open it, and punch his arm through someone's stomach and rip them from their torso.
- Superhuman Agility: Being trained by Master Boyd, he has possessed incredible agility that can surpass regular humans and can significantly increase by using his magical gift.
- Superhuman Speed: When he uses his Shadow Powers, he can propel himself forward extremely fast to land a powerful Shadow Kick.
- Superhuman Reflexes: He can also use his gifted power to increase the speed of his reflexes.
- Superhuman Stamina: Cage can fight a bunch of opponents for countless minutes and even hours without showing signs of exhaustion.
- Superhuman Endurance: Johnny Cage can tolerate large amounts of pain from superhuman opponents unlike peak human characters. He has been able to survive attacks from beings like Shao Kahn, Motaro, and even an empowered Sindel.
- Superhuman Durability: Johnny Cage is tough enough to withstand deadly attacks from Shinnok with his green energy. He was also to survive being tortured by deadly magic based attacks from Corrupted Shinnok.
- Superhuman Senses: Although rarely seen, he does have incredible senses. When he was fighting Revenant Sub-Zero, he was able to sense Scorpion trying to sneak up on him so he could land a surprising blow, but failed.
- Magic: When Cage uses this power, afterimages of a green color are produced. Cage can augment the power of these shadow attacks, which are represented by afterimages of a red color. In addition to these physical shadow abilities, Cage also has the ability to launch blasts of energy. As shown in the Story Mode of Mortal Kombat X, Cage can also harness this energy and encase his body with it, strong enough to withstand a death blow from Shinnok without receiving any injury to his person. This energy was also potent enough to allow him to fight on equal terms with the Elder God. Raiden theorized that this power can only come about when the want arises to protect a loved one from imminent danger.
- Green Armor: He can use his magical god armor to withstand killing blows from Shinnok and can use it to fight equally with the Fallen Elder God.
- Force Balls: Cage convert the energy into balls to use as projectiles.
- Energy Boost: He can make his shadow powers to change his green color energy into red. When it's red, he puts a lot more power into his attacks.
Abilities[]
- Master Martial Artist: Cage has been training with Master Boyd for several years and he has been traveling around the world to learn other fighting styles. He bested a number of opponents from Outworld and the Netherrealm. He also bested Earthrealm ninjas who are cybernetically enhanced as well. He is known to have defeated Reptile, Baraka, Sonya Blade, Kano, Scorpion, Revenant Sub-Zero, Revenant Jax, his past self, Erron Black, Sektor, Kenshi, and especially Bi-Han. He defeated Shinnok by combining his shadow powers with martial arts. As noted by Raiden, he is one of Earthrealm's best warriors.
- Karate
- Jeet Kune Do
- Shinto Ryu
- Shorin Ryu
- Master Acrobat: Johnny Cage is a very incredible gymnast and athlete. He is able to flip, do a split to nail a nut punch, and can leap great distances.
- High Intelligence: Johnny Cage maybe boastful and very immature, but he is a very keen strategist. Even though he never fought a being like a Zetarran or a Tarkatan, he was able to figure out ways to counter their unique powers and abilities.
- Stealth: Johnny Cage does have some expertise in stealth.
- Throwing: He is able to launch his energy force balls at an arc or straight at an opponent.
- Weaponry: Cage does have skills in using weapons. He is proficient with the nunchaku in combat.
- Indomitable Will: Despite his materialism, airheadedness, and occasional immaturity, Cage is a brave and loyal warrior, although his antics frequently annoy his allies. He does have unstoppable willpower due to caring about his friends safety, Sonya, Jax, and Kenshi especially. He also cares about his daughter, Cassie and his love for her and Sonya causes him to never give up compassion. Young Johnny Cage has witnessed the defeat of his soon to be wife and daughter, which caused him to step up and deal with Shao Kahn and Sindel himself.
Paraphernalia[]
- Pistol: In MKX and MK11, a present Johnny carries a pistol due to becoming a member of Special Forces, however he never uses it during gameplay.
- Brass Knuckles: In MKX, he uses Brass Knuckles in his Fistcuff variation, and he uses them also in MK11 to increase the damage of his punches.
Quotes[]
| “ | Fans think my moves are all wirework and special effects. Truth is... I am the special effects. | „ |
| ~ Johnny Cage, before fighting Kano. |
| “ | Enjoy the new digs Gramps. | „ |
| ~ Johnny Cage after sealing Shinnok away |
| “ | Younger Johnny: Dad always said, "Hungry people eat lunch, humble people serve it."
Older Johnny: Dad was an asshole! Hollywood made us a even bigger one.'' |
„ |
| ~ Older Johnny confronting his younger self for his personality |
| “ | Okay bozos. No jokes, no gimmicks, just kombat. You wanna get nuts? Let's get nuts! | „ |
| ~ Younger Johnny Cage to Shao Kahn and Sindel |
Gallery[]
.png "Cage (mortal kombat x).png (186 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Originally, he used a variant of Mileena's X-Ray Move before it was changed to his infamous "Split Punch".
- Johnny Cage is both playable in the first chapter of both MK 2011 and MKX.
- Johnny Cage is one of only three playable characters to have two throws; his second throw can only be used if Johnny is below 5% maximum health, with Red Shadow active, or if Fist Bump is active in his Fisticuffs variation. The other characters with two throws are Ferra/Torr and Jason Voorhees.
- Johnny Cage does not wear his sunglasses during fights in the MKX and MK11 Story Mode.
- However, in MK11, his past self wears his sunglasses. Until the Aftermath story expansion, he no longer wears it during his battle with Shao Kahn or Sindel.
- During an interaction with Kano, he asks "Didn't you throw me off a bridge?", to which Kano will respond, "Guilty as charged.", a callback to the story of MK 2011; during Johnny's chapter, after defeating Sonya at the Pit, Kano arrives and throws Johnny off of the bridge into the Pit.
- Both Johnny and Kano have a similar exchange regarding the instance in MK11.
- Johnny Cage makes several references to other franchises in the film department:
- During a Mirror Match interaction, one Johnny will ask "How many of us are there?", to which the second Johnny will respond, "There can be only one!", a reference to the film Highlander, a film that starred Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown. Both actors coincidentally played Raiden, in two separate medias.
- During an interaction with Kung Lao, Johnny tells him "Zorro's mom wants her hat back", a clear reference to the character Zorro.
- During an interaction with Jax, he calls him "Tin Man", a reference to the character from the film The Wizard of Oz.
- During an interaction with Kitana, he says "Hello, nurse!", a reference to the character Hello Nurse from the animated series Animaniacs.
- During an interaction with Ermac, he says "The Mummy Returns", referencing the movie of the same name.
- Ermac later received a Pharaoh alternate costume as downloadable content.
- Another interaction with Ermac has Johnny call him "Mac", a possible reference to the character from the film Mac and Me.
- During an interaction with Ferra/Torr, he calls the pair "Master Blaster", a reference to the similar looking pair of villains from the film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
- During an interaction with Goro, he asks "Don't you owe me some sunglasses?", a reference to the 1995 film, in which Goro taunts Johnny by destroying his sunglasses before their fight.
- During an interaction with Alien, he will say "It's game over, man!". This is a reference to the Alien's namesake film, in which the character Hudson shouts this line during the film.
- Coincidentally enough, Johnny's voice actor from MKX, Andrew Bowen, also voiced Hudson in the video game Aliens: Colonial Marines.
- His Here's Johnny Fatality is a homage to the 1980 horror film, The Shining, namely the scene where Jack Torrance, one of the main characters, tears a crack through a door with an axe, then peeks his face through the crack, uttering the same words as him during the Fatality.
- In the character select screen, if the player chooses Johnny Cage's Commando outfit and Jax's Carl Weathers outfit, after selecting a level, Johnny will say "You son of a bitch!" and shake Jax's hand. This is a recreation of the handshake scene between the characters Dillon and Dutch from the movie Predator.
- Johnny Cage destroying a brick on Mortal Kombat 9's Test Your Strike is a reference to Captain Frank Dux performing the same thing (albeit the bottom brick instead of the middle one) as seen in the 1988 film Bloodsport.
- The dog tag Johnny wears in all of his Present skins reads: "Johnny Cage. Blood: Yours. Religion: Cage."
- In the story mode, Johnny uses a special set without sunglasses that can't be replicated, as it's normally impossible to remove them.
- When doing Cage's "Who Hired This Guy" fatality on a female character, the subtitles won't appear, even when they are enabled.
