After needing to take an astounding 24 years to heal from the gaping wound that was “Mortal Kombat Annihilation,” 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” reboot movie already managed a well-received sequel. All signs point to a future for “Mortal Kombat” films that fans have genuine reason to look forward to, representing a level of brand rebound success that you rarely see in Hollywood. You know a franchise is on solid ground when people are reading lists like this to find other movies like it.

The most obvious movie to recommend to fans of the two most recent “Mortal Kombat” movies is the original 1995 film. After all, it is #1 in our ranking of every live-action video game movie. But we presume that fans of the franchise have already seen that one — and if they haven’t, it’s a given that they should rectify that. They should also check out the sometimes overlooked “Mortal Kombat Legends” animated film series, especially “Scorpion’s Revenge,” which we actually put at the top of our “Mortal Kombat” movie ranking.

So for this list, we’ve decided to come up with five recommendations from completely different franchises, but ones that we feel will appeal to those who enjoy 2021’s “Mortal Kombat” and 2026’s “Mortal Kombat II.” 

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Bloodsport

The sequence of events that led to the creation of the original “Mortal Kombat” game included planning to make a game based on the movie “Universal Soldier” utilizing a digitized version of star Jean-Claude Van Damme. After that fell through, development shifted to a martial arts fighting game — one that included a parody of a narcissistic action star. Johnny Cage not only has Van Damme’s initials, but even performs a split punch like Van Damme’s character in “Bloodsport.”

But that background information on the “Mortal Kombat” video game isn’t the only reason fans of the “Mortal Kombat” films should watch “Bloodsport.” It’s one of the best fighting movies of all time, built around a brutal martial arts tournament that sometimes results in battles to the death. Sound familiar? “Bloodsport” is one of a handful of foundational action movies built around a tournament that would go on to inform the next few decades of both fighting games and their movie counterparts.

Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie

A lot of lists that recommend movies for “Mortal Kombat” fans automatically default to the 1994 live-action “Street Fighter” movie. But our list is for the best movies like “Mortal Kombat,” not just any movie like “Mortal Kombat.” And to be honest, we regret watching that version of “Street Fighter.” The “Mortal Kombat” and “Street Fighter” video game franchises are inextricably linked, of course, but there is an actual good “Street Fighter” movie to recommend instead: the 1994 anime film “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie.”

This “Street Fighter II” movie actually knows who the real stars of the game are, and positions Ryu (voiced by Kojiro Shimizu) and Ken (Kenji Haga) as the protagonists. Obviously some characters have to be relegated to minor roles, but the fan-favorite characters are prioritized for bigger parts — including Chun-Li (Miki Fujitani), who is part of one of the most brutal battles in the movie. 

For a non-Rated M game, “Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie” is a hard R film — characters are murdered on screen, copious blood is spilled, and Chun-Li even bares her breasts in a shower scene. In that way, it’s more “Mortal Kombat” adjacent than even the first two PG-13 “Mortal Kombat” movies were.

Big Trouble in Little China

How did a non-fighting movie end up on this list? Because “Big Trouble in Little China” not only shares a lot of tonal similarities with “Mortal Kombat,” but also directly inspired it in multiple ways. The most obvious is the former’s character Lightning (James Pax), who wears a large conical hat and — true to his name — can conjure and manipulate electricity. John Tobias, who designed many of the “Mortal Kombat” characters, admitted that the thunder god Raiden was indeed inspired by Lightning, at least in terms of physical appearance.

However, that’s only one reason why “Big Trouble in Little China” is a must-watch for “Mortal Kombat” fans. Both share a very similar mix of paying tribute to classic martial arts cinema and leaning into a fun, campy vibe. People often mistakenly assume that “Mortal Kombat” is an overly serious franchise, but fans know that couldn’t be further from the truth. The developers have always injected a lot of fun and humor into the games, and that balance is what the two current “Mortal Kombat” movies do a lot better than the original films. 

Enter the Dragon

When we discussed “Bloodsport,” we alluded to there being other trailblazing action movies built around a tournament that inspired “Mortal Kombat.” “Enter the Dragon” is not only another such movie, it is probably the most important of those movies. It deservedly became a martial arts classic, and is responsible for the entire genre of action-based fighting movies that saw a huge renaissance in the ’70s and ’80s.

Digging deeper, Bruce Lee’s character — also named Lee — was clearly an inspiration for “Mortal Kombat” kung fu master Liu Kang, as he was for pretty much every martial arts character you’ve ever seen shirtless and wearing only wide-legged black pants while imitating Lee’s iconic kiai shouts. And where “Enter the Dragon” is even more specifically connected to “Mortal Kombat” is that it’s not only about a tournament, but someone infiltrating that tournament to get to the bottom of the shadowy organization that runs it. There’s no fireballs or magic, but you don’t need that stuff when you have Bruce Lee. 

Kill Bill: Volume 1

Up to this point, all of these movies have been recommended in large part because they inspired “Mortal Kombat” in some way. This obviously doesn’t apply to “Kill Bill: Volume 1,” as it was released well after both the original “Mortal Kombat” game and movie. It does draw from a lot of the same sources of inspiration, though — The Bride (Uma Thurman) is dressed like a Bruce Lee character throughout, for one thing. And that’s certainly a big reason to recommend it.

However, the bigger reason is because “Kill Bill: Volume 1” is full of incredibly violent combat, fights that involve dismemberments and beheadings with exaggerated fountains of blood. If that doesn’t appeal to someone who likes “Mortal Kombat” movies, we don’t know what would. If you need more convincing, “Kill Bill” is structured very much like a video game, with The Bride having to dispatch armies of grunts in order to work her way up to an especially powerful adversary — a “boss,” if you will. 

“Kill Bill: Volume 2” also has some great fights, and now that “The Whole Bloody Affair” is becoming more accessible, we could’ve recommended that instead. But “Volume 1” is much more action focused, and has a lot more gory, bloody, “Mortal Kombat”-esque deaths. 

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Read the original article on Looper.