Seriously what the hell is Johnny cage doing while Liu Lang is fighting reptile? He just disappears then reappears after the fight lol
shareThat's a great question haha. But yeah Reptile vs Liu is one of my favorite fight scenes. The talent, music, camerawork / presentation, you truly feel each hit of the scene.
It was filmed after most of production had finished! Test audiences felt the film needed a little more action. Robin Shou being a stunt co-ordinator would have put more time in his schedule so he could film it, but Lindin Ashby was off doing something else. Pretty funny how it worked out. Also note it's one of the best fights in the movie.
shareJohnny Cage was signing a photograph of himself for Reptile.
shareJohnny Cage beat both Scorpion and Goro!
Two worthy opponents and no one was there to see it!
Defeated Scorpion in seclusion and led Goro to seclusion.
2 theories.
Either he got tired of if and decided it's "your turn"
OR
He traveled into the near future. Saw his own death. So he decided to lead Shao Kahn's army away and defeat all of them! Every single last one of them!!! Notice how they some how disappeared from the movie?
Then he traveled back in time, called one of his stunt doubles and said
"Hey, man....I'm going to need you to stand in for me tomorrow"
The Reptile fight was meant for Liu Kang. Kitana knew this thats why Johnny didnt interfere.
shareI always wondered about this too, Liu gets attacked by Reptile and Johnny Cage is nowhere to be seen hmm, but when they both first arrived together in Outworld Johnny was freaking out and being a wuss, telling Liu that he hated this place and didnt like being there, surrounded by guys that wanted to wanted to kick his ass and felt like he was back in high school again.
So when Reptile attacked Liu i imagine that Johnny Cage got upset and ran for cover and refused to follow Liu and help him out, remember when he hears Goro yelling and tells Sonya to go ahead and see what that noise was? He wanted to wait with Liu and let her face the danger, no doubt he wussed out and hid from Reptile and Princess Kitana showed up and told him to let Liu fight the battle on his own because Liu had to defeat his attacker and prove himself.
So they waited for Liu and Johnny Cage was just happy that Reptile did not come after him instead of Liu, he was happy that Liu took one for the team, just kidding but he was probably watching the whole fight knowing that Liu would win, rooting for his friend, wonder what Johnny would have done if Reptile had defeated Liu Kang?
In-universe? It would have been unfair, 2 against 1 (much like the endurance rounds in the arcade game) - besides, LK would have probably told Johnny not to get involved (even though he spent the best part of the fight getting the rainbow beaten out of him).
Out-of-universe? The actor playing Johnny Cage was absent that day, so the scene was shot as a 1-on-1 fight.
Lazy writing. They wanted a one-on-one Lui Kang vs Reptile fight. But they didn’t know how to keep Johnny Cage out. So they just had him disappear.
I guess we’re supposed to think that Johnny Cage was afraid of Reptile, so he left it all up to Lui? Maybe?