Johnny Cage (Mortal Kombat)

Jonathan "John" Carlton, better known as Johnny Cage, is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Sonya Blade) of the franchise.
Being one of a very few comic relief characters, he at times provides much-needed hilarity and awakwardness to overall dark and gloomy surroundings of MK universe. He serves as a major character in the original timeline, one of the three main protagonists (alongside Raiden and Sonya Blade) of Mortal Kombat 9, the central protagonist of Mortal Kombat X, a major character in Mortal Kombat 11, and one of the main characters of Mortal Kombat 1.
==Portrayals==
Johnny Cage has been performed and voiced by various actors:
===Films and Motion Captures===
*Linden Ashby - MK 1995
*Chris Conrad - MK: Annihilation
*Matt Mullins - MK: Rebirth, MK: Legacy (season 1)
*Casper van Dien - MK: Legacy (season 2)
*Daniel Pesina - MK 1992, MKII
*Robert Gatson - MK4
* Chris Alexander - MKT
*Colin Ryan - MK11
* Jean-Claude Van Damme - MK1 Premier Skin
===Voices===
*Jeff Bennett - MK: Journey Begins
*Matt Chapman - MK: Shaolin Monks
*Ed Boon - MK4
*Jeff Pilson - MK2011
*Andrew Bowen - MKX, MK11, MK1
*Linden Ashby - MK11 Premier Skin
*Joel McHale - MK Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, MK Legends: Battle of the Realms
*Jean-Claude Van Damme - MK1 Premier Skin
== Appearance==
Johnny Cage is depicted as the typical American action movie star; bare muscular build with karate pants and his trademark sunglasses. In his debut, his clothing was modeled directly after Jean-Claude Van Damme's character in Bloodsport, consisting of black shorts with a red sash and black shoes. From MKII to MK4, he is depicted with black pants with blue accents.
In Deadly Alliance onwards, his design becomes a fusion of his first and familiar appearances, regaining the black shorts, but with a Cage emblem and blue belt tied at his waist. He goes barefoot with bandage straps.
In MK 2011, he has a similar outfit from MKII, but with slight changes: he keeps his sunglasses on all the time, his chest is tattooed with his own name, he has straps on his arms and hands, his pants' accents are blue, and his last name is on his belt.
In MKX, 20 years prior to the main events of the game, he sports a military vest and pants. His default form in the same game features him with a short sleeved hoodie, along with a grayish blue shirt that partially covers his name tattooed on his chest. He also has bandages wrapped around his wrists and black fingerless gloves.
==Personality==
Johnny Cage is shown to be an arrogant, cocky and egotistical action movie star with a wise-cracking sense of humor who enjoys being at the center of attention. Because of this, many initially find Cage to be nothing but an annoying nuisance. Cage's ego knows no bounds, as he disrespectfully greeted Raiden and Liu Kang. 
His arrogance is so bloated that he refused to believe the sinister and supernatural elements occurring around the tournament and thought it was just another fighting tournament that can help him further his goals until much later. Despite this, Cage is also very determined and ambitious albeit his goals were initially of the selfish kind as he only joined the first Mortal Kombat tournament to prove to his movie critics that his incredible skills are real and not just mere stunt-work.
Cage however, shows his true heroic and selfless nature when he saved Sonya Blade from being killed by Kano. He eventually realized the true nature of the Mortal Kombat tournament and joined Raiden, Liu Kang, Sonya and the rest of the heroes on their quest to keep Earthrealm safe from the likes of Shang Tsung and Shao Kahn. Also, his sense of humor mitigates what is to be a bleak, dark overall surrounding of the series.
In his Armageddon ending Johnny Cage wants the power of Blaze to become a better fighter. Yet unlike the other kombatants while Johnny wanted his skills increased he doesn't want to use the power to become a god or to rule like most of the others. Johnny not only uses the power to improve his skills he uses Blaze's power to gain insight and decides to become a monk gain enlightenment. Even though Johnny Cage is arrogant, cocky, egotistical, annoying, self-centered and enjoys the spot light he really has good intentions at heart.
In Armageddon many kombatants want Blaze's power to rule with peace or to rule with force and fear. Some want the power to destroy, some to become a god, some to become champion and the best kombatant. Others wish to permanently get rid of all darkness or steal the powers from all the kombatatns. Johnny's wish is different from many of the others he wants to become a great fighter. But Blaze's power help him see things the way he has never seen things before, and when the power from Blaze becomes too much for him to bear, he simply gives up the power.
As he got older however, due to many harrowing and tragic ordeals he suffered in MK9 Johnny grew to be more mature and wiser, becoming a great father and raising his daughter Cassie while still making cheeky remarks to his friends and enemies alike. He truly loves the family he has as he managed to reconcile with Sonya after their divorce and is shown to be proud of his daughter for her valiant efforts and achievements. 
During the events of Mortal Kombat 11, Johnny is even shown to be disdainful of his younger self for his annoying behavior when being with him in person (what the current Johnny could have been had it not been for events occurred in MK9) but understands that he'll learn maturity and wisdom later on.
Raiden once commented that Johnny Cage is a hero; though Johnny himself is not aware of it (at the time). 3 decades later, Raiden's evaluation of Johnny proved all too correct.
==Powers and Abilities ==
Johnny Cage is an extremely skilled martial artist, thanks to his extensive training and despite being a human, he is not without a few supernatural powers. These powers specialize in shadow and he can use them to propel himself forward, increasing the strength of his blows and leaving green afterimages in his wake. Cage can increase the speed of these attacks, which instead leaves a red afterimage and can also throw a ball of shadow energy. He also has a move where he drops doing the splits and then punches the opponent in the groin, though this only works on male fighters. As his alternate weapon fighting style, Cage uses a set of nuchaku.
In MKX, it is revealed that Johnny is a descendant of now-forgotten super-warrior cult bred for gods.
=== Powers ===
* Divine Empowerment: According to MK 2011, going onto X, Johnny descended from a Mediterranean war cult that bred warriors fit to protect and serve the gods: warriors with special abilities.
** Superhuman Strength: Johnny has shown that he is an incredibly strong warrior. He can send an opponent flying at very far distances just by landing a punch or a kick. In his fatalities, his strength is shown when he was able to uppercut someone's head off, stab his arms through someone's chest and slowly open it, and punch his arm through someone's stomach and rip them from their torso.
** Superhuman Agility: Being trained by Master Boyd, he has possessed incredible agility that can surpass regular humans and can significantly increase by using his magical gift.
** Superhuman Speed: When he uses his Shadow Powers, he can propel himself forward extremely fast to land a powerful Shadow Kick.
** Superhuman Reflexes: He can also use his gifted power to increase the speed of his reflexes.
** Superhuman Stamina: Cage can fight a bunch of opponents for countless minutes and even hours without showing signs of exhaustion.
** Superhuman Endurance: Johnny Cage can tolerate large amounts of pain from superhuman opponents unlike peak human characters. He has been able to survive attacks from beings like Shao Kahn, Motaro, and even an empowered Sindel.
** Superhuman Durability: Johnny Cage is tough enough to withstand deadly attacks from Shinnok with his green energy. He was also to survive being tortured by deadly magic based attacks from Corrupted Shinnok.
** Superhuman Senses: Although rarely seen, he does have incredible senses. When he was fighting Revenant Sub-Zero, he was able to sense Scorpion trying to sneak up on him so he could land a surprising blow, but failed.
** Magic: When Cage uses this power, afterimages of a green color are produced. Cage can augment the power of these shadow attacks, which are represented by afterimages of a red color. In addition to these physical shadow abilities, Cage also has the ability to launch blasts of energy. As shown in the Story Mode of Mortal Kombat X, Cage can also harness this energy and encase his body with it, strong enough to withstand a death blow from Shinnok without receiving any injury to his person. This energy was also potent enough to allow him to fight on equal terms with the Elder God. Raiden theorized that this power can only come about when the want arises to protect a loved one from imminent danger.
*** Green Armor: He can use his magical god armor to withstand killing blows from Shinnok and can use it to fight equally with the Fallen Elder God.
*** Force Balls: Cage convert the energy into balls to use as projectiles.
*** Energy Boost: He can make his shadow powers to change his green color energy into red. When it's red, he puts a lot more power into his attacks.
=== Abilities ===
* Master Martial Artist: Cage has been training with Master Boyd for several years and he has been traveling around the world to learn other fighting styles. He bested a number of opponents from Outworld and the Netherrealm. He also bested Earthrealm ninjas who are cybernetically enhanced as well. He is known to have defeated Reptile, Baraka, Sonya Blade, Kano, Scorpion, Revenant Sub-Zero, Revenant Jax, his past self, Erron Black, Sektor, Kenshi, and especially Bi-Han. He defeated Shinnok by combining his shadow powers with martial arts. As noted by Raiden, he is one of Earthrealm's best warriors.
** Karate
** Jeet Kune Do
** Shinto Ryu
** Shorin Ryu
* Master Acrobat: Johnny Cage is a very incredible gymnast and athlete. He is able to flip, do a split to nail a nut punch, and can leap great distances.
* High Intelligence: Johnny Cage maybe boastful and very immature, but he is a very keen strategist. Even though he never fought a being like a Zetarran or a Tarkatan, he was able to figure out ways to counter their unique powers and abilities. 
* Stealth: Johnny Cage does have some expertise in stealth.
* Throwing: He is able to launch his energy force balls at an arc or straight at an opponent.
* Weaponry: Cage does have skills in using weapons. He is proficient with the nunchaku in combat. 
* Indomitable Will: Despite his materialism, airheadedness, and occasional immaturity, Cage is a brave and loyal warrior, although his antics frequently annoy his allies. He does have unstoppable willpower due to caring about his friends safety, Sonya, Jax, and Kenshi especially. He also cares about his daughter, Cassie and his love for her and Sonya causes him to never give up compassion. Young Johnny Cage has witnessed the defeat of his soon to be wife and daughter, which caused him to step up and deal with Shao Kahn and Sindel himself.
== Paraphernalia ==
* Bowie Knife: The Bowie Knife was Johnny Cage's weapon in Mortal Kombat 4.
* Pistol: The pistol is a short-barreled semi-automatic handgun that Johnny Cage had with his tuxedo costume in Mortal Kombat 4. In MKX and MK11, a present Johnny carries a pistol due to becoming a member of Special Forces, however he never uses it during gameplay.
* Nunchuku: He has used this weapon in the early games like MK Deception & Armageddon.
* Brass Knuckles: In MKX, he uses Brass Knuckles in his Fistcuff variation, and he uses them also in MK11 to increase the damage of his punches.
==Quotes==
==Trivia ==
*Cage's original name was going to be Michael Grimm, but this was changed during Mortal Kombat's preproduction.
* His "real name", Jonathan Carlton, comes from the Midway programmer, John Carlton, who worked on the NBA Jam series.
*Cage was the last of the original Mortal Kombat characters to get a fatality and before a last-minute idea by Ed Boon to make his fatality the Head Punch, he was instead going to toss his opponent across the screen.
*In the first game, Cage was modeled after the actor, Jean Claude Van Damme, who the creators had wanted to portray him in the first game, but was unable to do so because of his movie schedule. Cage's clothes in the game greatly resembled Van Damme's outfit in the last match of the movie, Bloodsport, and his split punch move is taken from one that he used in the movie.
*Cage once made a movie called Ninja Mime that is most likely based on the opening scenes of the action film, The Quest, where the hero, dressed as a mime, evaded the authorities using martial arts moves. The movie also starred Jean Claude Van Damme, who Cage was based on, in the starring role.
*In early arcade test versions of Mortal Kombat, the word "Otomix" appeared on Cage's pants, which were worn by the actor, Daniel Pesina, during filming, but this was omitted later. Otomix is a supplier of athletic and martial arts wear.
*He is the only character in the original Mortal Kombat not to have any connection with the other characters.
*Cage's Red Shadow Kick and Red Shadow Uppercut moves happened randomly in Mortal Kombat II. In Mortal Kombat 4, selecting Player 2's outfit would cause the moves to have red shadows.
*Cage was cut from the Game Boy version of Mortal Kombat because of memory constraints and the only member of the original MK cast never to appear in Jeff Rovin's 1995 novel.
*Cage's sprite was recreated for Mortal Kombat Trilogy due to the fact that Daniel Pesina, who portrayed him earlier got legal problems with Midway and leave them, thus leading Midway to get Chris Alexander to portrait Cage in Mortal Kombat Trilogy.
* Brandon Lee was originally going to portray Johnny Cage in the first Mortal Kombat movie. Also in the same movie, after Cage defeated Scorpion, a photo of him signed "to my greatest fan" lands in the debris, a reference to his friendship finisher in MKII.
*Some think that Cage defeated Goro in the first Mortal Kombat tournament, but in the video game storyline, it is was Liu Kang who defeated him. In Shaolin Monks, when Kang and Kung Lao fought Goro, Johnny Cage intervened and finished him.
*According to Deadly Alliance, Johnny has starred in Ninja Mime, Dragon Fist, Dragon Fist 2, Son of Dragon Fist, HWAAAAA!, Sudden Violence, Aquatic Assault, Exiting the Dragon of Death, 7 Poisons, Cage Match, The Gist of My Fist, 24 Karate Gold, Who's That?, Wu Shu (TV series), Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat II, Mortal Kombat Deadly Alliance, and Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage. He also appeared on Celebrity SMASH TV.
* Cage is regarded as the comic relief character of Mortal Kombat.
*Though Mortal Kombat usually replaces "c" with "k" in the games, Johnny's last name is an exception. It is probably more than coincidence that the Japanese word, kage, means shadow.
*John Vogel was reported to dislike Cage's storyline from Mortal Kombat Trilogy and Mortal Kombat 4. His repeated death and revival are mocked by Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage.
*In Unreal Tournament 2, Raiden will occasionally taunt his opponent by saying that they "fight like Johnny Cage"
*Cage's fatality in Shaolin Monks, where he punches the opponent repeatedly in the crotch then delivers a final punch that smashes off the opponent's legs, was voted third on Screwattack's Top 10 Mortal Kombat Fatalities list.
* On Screwattack's Top 10 Mortal Kombat Characters list, Cage was voted number 10.
*Johnny Cage destroying a brick on Mortal Kombat 9's Test Your Strike is a reference to Captain Frank Dux performing the same thing (albeit the bottom brick instead of the middle one) as seen in the 1988 film Bloodsport.
*After the release of Mortal Kombat 1, the song "International Love" by Pitbull started being associated as the character's unofficial theme song. 
*Johnny Cage doesn't appear Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm nor is he mention, despite the cartoon being set after the movie.
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