Skip To...
The Mortal Kombat 1 ending is something that most MK fans didn’t expect it to be. A new era has begun thanks to Liu Kang’s peaceful vision for a new world. However, there’s always a threat to unbalance the most peaceful timelines. In Mortal Kombat 1’s story, the unexplored world finds its foes soon enough after a mysterious being interferes, making us wonder what happens next. Here’s everything you need to know about the Mortal Kombat 1 story’s ending and secret ending.
Spoilers Alert! The following content includes heavy spoilers for the Mortal Kombat 1 story.
What Happens in The Mortal Kombat 1 Ending
Mortal Kombat 1 is essentially a remake of the Deadly Alliance on a multiversal scale. In fact, the story goes toward exploring a new era that has its own challenges to deal with. But by the time you reach the final acts of the game, it is revealed that nearly every Mortal Kombat 11 character ending is considered canon!
The story unfolds by revealing a being who looks like Kornika deceiving Shang Tsung to build the Dragon Army. The sorcerer does so by collecting souls, and Quan Chi assists him in the task. However, it is finally revealed that Kronika was only a cover for the MK11‘s Shang Tsung, as he has tricked all of us by being a deceitful snake once more.
Shang Tsung Wages War Against Every Timeline
In Mortal Kombat 1‘s story, it is revealed that there seem to be several timelines along with the new one that Liu Kang has created. The final battle of Mortal Kombat 11 tempered with the fabric of time, thus creating many parallel worlds, each being a result of a different outcome. For example, in one timeline, Kitana beats Kronika and becomes a titaness. And in another one, Liu Kang wins and creates the main timeline we see in Mortal Kombat 1.
However, Shang Tsung and other villains have also won the final battle against Kronika, thus creating darker timelines. In Shang Tsung’s timeline, other fighters are nothing but minions, waiting to give their lives for his command. And what is the outcome of such timelines? Threatening the others as soon as they discover there are more worlds to conquer!
In Mortal Kombat 1‘s ending, we see that Shang Tsung creates an Armageddon-looking battle between the forces of good and evil, gathering the titans of each timeline, and fighting the other. In the end, it is the Fire God Liu Kang who kills Shang Tsung and Quan Chi with the help of the player’s chosen warrior. This is a very classic ending for a Mortal Kombat game; everyone fights, Liu Kang wins, end of the story. However, this isn’t the end for MK1.
Mortal Kombat 1 Secret Ending
After Lord Liu Kang turns Shang Tsung and Quan Chi into dust, the credits roll in. But if you wait long enough, you’ll have two more cinematic scenes to watch as Mortal Kombat 1 secret endings. In the second one, we see Jax Briggs in his old Mortal Kombat costume trying to save himself after the game’s final battle. He has lost his arms just like he did in every other timeline, and then, a bunch of warriors approach him from the top.
These characters are Quan Chi with Sub Zero’s powers, an alternate version of Tanya that has replaced Kitana in her timeline, Kenshi, and the leader of them all, Lord Havik. This version of Havik seems to be a warlord, and he crushes Jax’s head with his weapon; something that resembles the one he used to have in Mortal Kombat Armageddon and Deception.
These four villains were missing during the final battle of the MK1 story, and the important thing is that they wanted to be in this war. Havik mentions the big scale of a battle that includes fighters from different timelines, and how it ended so fast. But then he says “Next time it won’t.” This is teasing the future of the Mortal Kombat game series, as this time, Havik and his allies will cause another war between timelines.
One noteworthy detail about this scene is that it might prepare an ending for the timelines’ destruction by finishing them all. An all-out war could be something that will take place among the fighters across different timelines to form a new Armageddon. Nonetheless, the point remains the same: Lord Havik is the next villain of Mortal Kombat.
What Happens Next?
The first end credits scene shows the champions of Earthrealm and Liu Kang having dinner at Madam Bo’s. There’s no extra detail about this scene that addresses what happens next in the story. But if you want to know more about Mortal Kombat 1 ending and future, then you would need to play the Invasion mode.
In the Invasion mode, we find out that there are now some mysterious portals opened in Liu Kang’s timeline. These portals each have an opposing threat that needs to be dealt with, and you can continue your journey in MK’s new era. However for Mortal Kombat 1 ending and the arrival of Lord Havik, we will have to wait and see the rest of the narrative in either Mortal Kombat 2 or maybe a story DLC for Mortal Kombat 1.
Related:
How To Amplify Special Moves in Mortal Kombat 1
Mortal Kombat 1 is currently available to play on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
