(3C) INTRO

Learn about the ancient history of Mortal Kombat X, including the Elder Gods, Shinnok, Shao Kahn, and the tournament's purpose in this lore introduction.

The scene opens in a cave adorned with stone statues. The camera pans down to show various human-like figures, who are in fact the Elder Gods. Johnny Cage begins a narration.

JOHNNY: Millions of years ago, Shinnok, one of the Elder Gods, turned on his fellow deities and invaded the Earthrealm.

The camera finishes it's pan down, revealing Shinnok cowering before five of the Elder Gods, who's statues tower over him. The scene cuts to a shot of a chain, and the camera pans up to show Shinnok imprisoned in them amongst stone deciptions of hellish scenery.

JOHNNY: Raiden and the Elder Gods stopped Shinnok. Locked him up in the Netherrealm.

The shot fades into another, a slow pan over a stone warhammer that reveals Outworld's most notorious emperor.

JOHNNY: Others followed in Shinnok's footsteps, like Outworld's emperor Shao Kahn, who was obsessed with conquering Earthrealm.

Cut to a shot of a Raiden statue, poised to fight, with the Mortal Kombat's iconic dragon logo behind him. On opposite sides of the logo stand statues of Goro and Shang Tsung.

JOHNNY: So Raiden convinced the Elder Gods to inact the Mortal Kombat tournament as a way to even the odds... give Earthrealm a chance.

The camera pans past Raiden to center on the logo itself, then it fades into a shot of Kano dueling Sonya, before circling around a deciption of Johnny facing three Tarkatans at once.

JOHNNY: For generations, Shao Kahn followed the Elder Gods' rules. The war moved to the arena, where he sent his toughest fighters to challenge Raiden's greatest defenders in Mortal Kombat.

The camera pans over to Liu Kang punching a hole in Shao Kahn's chest, with background noise of the fight sounding out over Johnny's narration.

JOHNNY: Two years ago, we beat him.

In the background noise, Liu Kang's final blow of the bout is heard, as is Shao Kahn's death scream.

JOHNNY: But Shao Kahn wasn't ready to lose.

Cut to another shot of statues, this one showing Tarkatans attacking Earthrealm's military forces. The screams and sounds of slaughter are once again heard in the background.

JOHNNY: He violated the rules of Mortal Kombat and invaded Earthrealm.

Fade in to a deciption of some of the fallen bodies of the Forces of Light - Liu Kang, Kitana, Kung Lao and Jax laying broken on the ground.

JOHNNY: Most of Earth's defenders - our friends - were killed. Turned into evil undead warriors.

Fade into the statue of Shao Kahn, now ensnared and being bitten by dragon serpents - the Elder Gods in corporeal form. His mighty warhammer falls to his side and out of frame. The statue begins to crumble into pieces.

JOHNNY: Despite the odds, we stopped Shao Kahn's invasion. As punishment, the Elder Gods destroyed him.

As the camera pans up to his face, we hear one last cry of defeat from Kahn as his statue completely falls apart. The camera cuts to and circles around another statue, this one holding a familiar looking amulet with an emerald at it's centre.

JOHNNY: We thought the long nightmare was over. But it turns out that Shinnok had been manipulating events.

The camera finishes panning up to Shinnok's face, and also shows a statue of Quan Chi over his shoulder.

JOHNNY: Shao Kahn's invasion, his death... all part of Shinnok's plan to escape the Netherrealm and resume his war on the Elder Gods.

The camera slowly zooms into Shinnok's face, and the statue's eyes begin to glow with an unholy fire, turning from red to yellow and finally white. As they do so, the screen fades to white as well.

It fades into an Earthrealm city in Japan devestated by war. A dead soldier falls on his front, an ugly gaping hole where his face should be. Others run past his body, and suddenly a large flying beast that resembles a gargoyle grabs one of these soldiers, lifts him into the air and drops him. Another soldier is tackled into the concrete by a demon moving almost too fast to see. Several other soldiers meet the same fate.

One soldier pauses long enough to open fire at the flying beasts with his assault rifle. He gains nothing for his efforts except the ire of one beast who lands on a nearby overturned car. As he turns to it, the hellbeast lets out an unholy roar of terror and grabs the now-screaming soldier by his head, tearing it off his body. As the beast drops his head from it's toes and roams the evening sky, it is shot by high-powered bullets from a helicopter's gatling gun. The monster squeals and falls dead to the ground below as several helicopters fly towards the screen.

The camera switches to follow one of them.