John Tobias

That's right.

Or John Tobias.

That was an homage to that.

Wait.

It clearly went into this style of digitized people as characters in an attempt to try and get a bit of the Mortal Kombat edge, which is quite funny because, uh, the very next film I'm gonna talk about is an adaption of Mortal Kombat.

So Mortal Kombat was a 1995 American martial arts fantasy film, and it was based on the video game franchise by Ed Boon and John Tobias.

And it's the first of these films I've talked about to get a direct sequel, so it's got that going for it.

But this one was directed by Paul Anderson, starred Linden Ashby as Johnny Cage, um, Robin Shou, Bridgette Wilson.

Sadly, the company went bust the following April, so it never got a proper go at Sega and Nintendo.

So Mortal Kombat, it was Midway's arcade game from August '92, made by, uh, Ed Boon and, uh, John Tobias, and the fighters were all digitized from real actors.

You pick from seven, like Liu Kang, Sub-Zero, and Scorpion, in a tournament run by, uh, a sorcerer called Shang Tsung, with the four-armed Goro, uh, waiting near the end.

And when you won, you could finish the other fighter off with a fatality.

But I will also correct myself.

Boone Tobias, of course, are the two creators of the games because it's Ed Boone and John Tobias.

Hence noob Saibot of course is the, um, uh, of course, backwards spelling of those two creators.

Ed Boon is the voice of, uh, of the famous get over here.

So, uh, and, and he is the one who's the bartender in Mortal Kombat two.

It's, it's Ed Boon.

John Tobias wasn't there, but yes, noob Saibot of course is, uh, Boone Tobias so I wanted just to correct that before Mortal Kombat hardcore fans come at me saying oh you're such a Mortal Kombat fan you don't even remember this so I wanted to course correct right there but yeah so other than that I was just and one thing also I wanted to add was I really liked when Kano and Johnny went to visit OG Scorpion in his beautiful garden it reminded me a lot of um Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, when Steven visits Wanda in, like, her perfect garden, and then it shows you that it's all an illusion.

That's a good one.

Um, and it started way back in 1992 by a company called Midway Games.

And, um, I had been watching a lot of interviews, uh, with the, with Ed Boon and, um, John Tobias, uh, the two creators of Mortal Kombat.

Um, just trying to get my head around how this thing started and why it started.

There's a lot of actual rumors, um, as to the idea that came behind it, and I was quite, you know, surprised to hear it's not how it actually started, just from, uh, an interview with John Tobias, who is the artist designer.

Um, and I think too when I was, um, 'cause Ed Boon is basically the person that you always associate with Mortal Kombat 'cause he's been there since the beginning.

Um, but John Tobias is the guy that came up with the whole concept.

So then I was like, "Wait a minute.

If he came up with the whole concept, then what did Ed Boon do?" You know what I mean? If he's the one that stayed behind.

All right.

Now on the writing front, Mortal Kombat '95, uh, credits the creators of the Mortal Kombat franchise, that being Ed Boon, born 1964, and John Tobias.

Uh, famously, of course, these two last names spelled backwards create the ninjas...

the, the name of the shadow ninja Noob Saibot in the franchise.

Uh, he also did a lot of the voices.

So, uh, Scorpion's voice is Ed Boon, and we hear Ed Boon's voice as Scorpion in this picture.

John Tobias is w- is widely considered to have been really instrumental in the first four Mortal Kombat games, you know, that really established much of the, the mythos and the lore.

Um, but after that, I believe he parted ways with, uh, the production and kind of went off on his own.

And a lot of that character just kind of stems from that.

Same with, I guess, Noob Saibot and, you know, obviously being Ed Boon and John Tobias, some of the original creators that were part of that character back in the day.

And they get greater roles in the canon because of just how much they're embraced by the fan base.

But yeah, it's a fun one.