Jax Briggs

**Major Jackson "Jax" Briggs** **(U.S.A.)** is a cybernetically-enhanced soldier who is the leader of the Outer World Investigation Agency (O.I.A.), Earthrealm's Special Forces unit, in the *Mortal Kombat* fighting game series. He made his debut in *Mortal Kombat II*.

## About Jax

Jax made his debut in *Mortal Kombat II*. He is portrayed as an archetypicalAfrican American hero. In the Special Forces' chain of command, he is Sonya Blade's direct superior and the catalyzing force of Sonya's impulsiveness. Jax is clear-headed, careful and always keeping a watch on what his men are doing. When the need arises, he is a beast on the battlefield with the attitude and ferocity of a lion. He unscrupulously makes use of the most advanced technology to improve both himself and his unit. He is responsible for the crime lord Kano's disfigurement, forcing him to wear a metal plate over a portion of his face.

## Appearance

Jax is depicted as an African American man, having dark skin, black hair and brown eyes. Jax's most striking feature is his impressive muscular upper body build, keeping his torso bare in all but one of his appearances. In his first appearances, he wore karate pants and boots. From *Mortal Kombat 3* and onwards, he wears a pair of bionic armor-plating that covers and protects both of his arms.

It is not known whether his arms were replaced or upgraded in the original storyline. However, it is possible that he may have used bionic implants until the events of *Deception*, where he may have willingly had his own arms removed in favor of mechanical replacements. In the alternate timeline of *MK 2011*, he was forced to use metallic arms in order to survive, after having his organic arms telekinetically dismembered by Ermac. In *MKX*, he wears a camouflage vest with his last name Briggs on his right upper vest pocket with his left upper pocket acting as a storage for his cigars and he still wears his dog tag around his neck, along with two more additional pockets near his abdomen. He has an American flag wrapped up and tied around his upper right arm and he wears green pants with some additional color of black on them and wears black army boots.

## Bios

* **Mortal Kombat** - *"A decorated member of the U.S. Special Forces and a formidable close- kombat warrior, Major Jackson Briggs' current mission is to bring down the notorious criminal organization known as the Black Dragon. With Lieutenant Sonya Blade, he has seized many of their weapons caches. But when a trusted informant, Kano, was revealed to be a high-ranking member of the Black Dragon, Jax made Kano's capture his priority. Kano has gotten the better of Jax thus far, leading the Special Forces into numerous deadly ambushes. Jax and Sonya finally cornered Kano on an uncharted island but were overpowered by the island's inhabitants. They have now been forced into a sadistic ritual of bloody kombat."*

## Kombat Characteristics

### Powers and Abilities

Due to his membership in the army, Jax is quite a hardened soldier in the battlefield. He is known to show incredible ferocity while staying focused at the same time. Jax's most prominent attribute is his massive upper body strength. His physique and strength are so powerful that he is able to crush human heads with ease and shake the earth with a single punch. From *Mortal Kombat 3* onwards, Jax utilizes cybernetic strength enhancers to further augment his already impressive physical power. These implants also carry portable missiles and a piston-like mechanism to increase the force of his blows. His bionic arms may have made him the most physically powerful man on Earth, if he wasn't already that strong.

Aside from his kombat skills, Jax is also a competent technician and scientist, having been in charge of the portal development technology that the Outworld Investigation Agency uses to move between realms, and also utilized his smarts to restore Cyrax's free will.

## Movelist

### Signature Moves

* **Energy Wave:** Jax throws a wave of sonic energy at his opponent.
	+ Both in *MK* and *MKII* the enhanced version is called **Assault Wave**, which has Jax fire two waves. In *MKF* this can once again be delayed, with the second wave knocking the opponent down.
* **Ground Pound:** Jax punches the ground, shaking the arena. In *MKII:E* and *MKII:O*, there are close, medium, and far versions of the move and it will send the opponent skyward.
	+ In *MK*, the enhanced version is called **Ground Quake**. It increases the damage and affects the complete arena.
	+ In *MKF*, the enhanced version is called **Ground Shake** and tracks the opponent's location. The enhanced version of **Ground Tremor** does more damage and knocks the opponent down, and the enhanced version of **Air Drill Blast** will also knock the opponent down, but with no extra damage.
* **"Gotcha!" Grab:** Jax grabs his opponent, says "Gotcha!", and punches him/her multiple times.
	+ In *MKII*, the enhanced version is called **Gotcha Beatdown** in which he punches the opponent multiple times before knocking them away. The enhanced version of the **Super Gotcha Grab** makes Jax hold up the opponent for more time, allowing him to hit them more times as well.
* **Air Gotcha Grab**: Jax grabs an aerial opponent by the throat, smacking them headfirst to the ground.
* **Dash Punch:** Jax moves forward at incredible speed to punch his opponent. In *MKII*, this can also be directed down to hit crouching opponents, which is called **Downward Dash Punch**.
	+ In *MKvsDC*, the enhanced version is called **Dash Fist**. After the punch connects, Jax grabs the opponent, throws them up, grabs them violently by their face, and then slams them down. In a variation, he will grab the opponent around the waist, turn around, and perform a spinebuster.
	+ In *MKvsSJ*, the enhanced versions are armored and have increased damage.
* **Major Pain**: Jax lunges into the air, uppercutting the opponent with his knee.
	+ The enhanced version is called **Major Muscle** and adds a punch after the knee uppercut to knock the opponent away. It also has armor.

#### Pumped Up

Gains enhanced Ground Pound and interactive Gotcha Grab. Purple lights pulsates throughout his cybernetic arms.

* **Missile:** Jax shoots a missile from his bionic arms.
* **Double Missile:** Jax shoots two missiles in quick succession.
* **Piston Punch:** Jax punches his enemy multiple times.
* **Plasma Ball:** Jax fires a purplish projectile from one of his bionic arms.
* **Blinding Light**: Jax contains energy within his hands and then releases a powerful purple flash, blinding his opponent for a short time at a short range.
* **Overhead Smash:** Jax jumps into the air and brings his elbow down onto the opponent's head.
	+ The enhanced version is called **Elite Smash**. After the elbow connects, Jax grabs the opponent and hits an inverted piledriver.

#### Heavy Weapons

Gains a Rocket Launcher and Submachine Gun. Rocket launcher and submachine gun is secured onto his back and waist, respectively.

* **Machine Gun:** Jax takes out his machine gun and shoots at the enemy, saying "oh yeah!" In *MK:A* and *MKO* it can also be fired up, which is called **Up Machine Gun**.
	+ The enhanced versions have Jax fire more shots with the gun for more damage.
* **L.A.W Rocket:**Jax grabs his Rocket Launcher off his back and fires a rocket at his opponent. This replaces his **Energy Wave** in the Heavy Weapons variation. Jax can also fire the rocket at an airborne opponent, which is called the **Up Rocket**.
	+ The enhanced version is called **L.A.W. Blast** and has increased damage.

#### Wrestler

Gains the Multi-Slam, Back Breaker, and Grab Kombos. Orange lights pulsate throughout his cybernetic arms, which are darker in color.

* **Back Breaker:** Jax grabs his opponent in mid-air and slams them on his knee down to the ground, resulting in the opponent's back breaking.
* **Multi-Slam:** Jax slams his opponent multiple times in succession.
	+ The enhanced version allows Jax to slam the opponent up to four times for additional damage.

### Other Moves

* **Throw**: Jax grabs the opponent to punch their abdomen, head and then land a final fist to their face that tosses them away.
* **Reverse Throw:** Jax graps the opponent while crush in ground two times.

### X-Ray Move

* **Briggs Bash:** Jax throws his opponent into the air, then brings them down on his knee, breaking the stomach, back, and legs, and then brings them to his upper back and shoulder again, dealing damage on the higher end of the opponent's spine, heart, and ribs, causing them damage.

## Finishing Moves

### Fatalities

* **Smash And Grab:** This fatality is a combination of both Jax's **Head Clap** and **Arm Rip** fatalities. Jax claps his opponent's head off, then rips off the arms of his opponent, though here Jax rips the arms out of the sockets.
* **Three Points!:** Jax bashes his opponent three times, burying them into the ground. He then kicks their head twice. The first one puts the opponent in a daze and the second one launches the opponent's head off like a football.

### Brutalities

* **Sledge Hammer:** Jax performs a **Dash Punch** that obliterates the opponent torso up.
* **Gotcha Down:** Jax does a **"Gotcha" Grab** and punches his opponent repeatedly until their head is obliterated with one final punch.
* **Ground Breaking:** Jax slams the ground hard enough to create a shockwave that destroys his opponent's shins and he/she dies of blood loss as they fall on the floor. (*Pumped Up Variation*)
* **Rocket Roll:** Jax aims his rocket launcher and fires it while the opponent is in midair, obliterating them. The head falls in front of Jax shorty after. (*Heavy Weapons Variation*)
* **Ragdoll:** Jax grabs the opponent and proceeds to slam them on the ground repeatedly until their arms and legs become skeletonized. (*Wrestler Variation*)
* **Machine Gun Open-Fire:** Jax fires his machine gun at his opponent, leaving behind multiple bullet holes. *(Secret - Heavy Weapons Variation)*

## Sequences

### Battle Intro

Jax walks onto the battlefield, punches the ground, and says, “Bring it on!”

### Victory Pose

Jax gets out a cigar and lights it up with a lighter and says, "All in a day's work."

## Trivia

* His original name was going to be Kurtis Stryker. Midway later recycled that name to create a new character in *Mortal Kombat 3*.
* In his *MK vs DCU* ending, Jax sustained severe injuries after the World Merge Crisis. So to save his life, he augmented more of his body with cybernetics, becoming the Earthrealm version of DC's Cyborg.
* Jax was originally conceived as simply a kickboxer, but the idea was scrapped due to potential similarities to Balrog, Sagat and especially DeeJay from the *Street Fighter* series. Then he was given a yellow martial arts *gi* and big metal hands that clanged upon impact. However, the outfit concealed much of the impressive physique of actor/bodybuilder John Parrish, so he simply went shirtless with long black tights.
	+ Game footage was actually shot with Jax wearing the yellow costume. Parrish accidentally split the pants during filming.
* During photography for *MK3,*Parrish wore a gold chain around his neck, which was digitally editted out of all sprites made from the filming.
* Jax's body can be seen in the introduction of *Mortal Kombat Deception*, located on the top of the stairs leading to the Soulnado chamber.
* In *Armageddon*'s opening scene, Jax is hit by Shao Kahn's Wrath Hammer, probably hitting the back of Jax's arm because you can hear a metal-to-metal like sound.
* Before Sonya existed, Jax was originally conceived as a character and possessed her scenario for the first *Mortal Kombat*. However, since there were no female characters in the original roster at the time, Sonya was created and she inherited his storyline of pursuing Kano and entrapment on Shang Tsung's island.
* In the *MKII* comic book, he challenged Kintaro in battle.
* According to early production shots of *Special Forces*, Jax's code name is "Cobra."
* Hakim Alston, who portrayed Jax in *Mortal Kombat: The Live Tour* (1996), played an Outworld warrior who was defeated by Liu Kang (Robin Shou) in the original *MK* movie a year earlier. He also co-starred alongside *MK* game actor Ho Sung Pak in the syndicated television series *WMAC Masters*.
* In *Mortal Kombat: Armageddon*, knocking Jax off of the Sky Temple will make him yell, "*Oh my god! This is not happening to me!*"
* Michael Jai White, who plays Jax In *MK: Legacy*, was originally cast to play Jax in *Mortal Kombat: Annihilation*, but had already began shooting Spawn instead.
* Jax's fighting stance from *Mortal Kombat 3* is similar to that of the male human ninjas (minus Reptile, Rain, and unmasked Sub-Zero) from their *UMK3*/*MKT* incarnation. It also comes from the Shaolin Fist fighting style.
* He assists the player (as either Liu Kang or Kung Lao) during the boss fight with Kano in *Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks*. After Kano is killed, he and Sonya decide to leave Outworld and gives the player a health upgrade to aid in defeating Shao Kahn. He is the only CPU ally in *Shaolin Monks* to not be playable.
* It is stated in the Konquest mode of *Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance* that it was Jax who caused the injury that led to Kano wearing his metal face plate before the events of the series.
* Jax appeared in an advertisement for Chrome Bling.
* In *MK 2011*, Jax can be seen smoking a cigar at the Wu Shi Academy, when he is talking to Raiden. He is also seen smoking during MKX, implying it is a regular habit.
* In the track "MK3 Audio Tour" (4:11) from Mortal Kombat Musik: MK3 & MK4 Arcade Videogame Original Soundtrack, it seems like Jax had an unused fatality (in the track, Jax hits the opponent, then the latter bounce many times before exploding), although he is simply performing the Bell Tower Stage Fatality.
* Interestingly, in *Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe*, Jax is never fought once in the Mortal Kombat story.
* In a *MK 2011* trailer, Jax uses his **Missile** move, but it is not present in the game.
* In certain cutscenes and fatalities in *MK 2011*, Jax has a submachine gun on his back. It sometimes even disappears after the camera changes angles, hinting that the machine gun was a scrapped concept for his character.
* In *MK 2011*, performing a Fatality that involves skinning on Jax will show muscles in his arms.
	+ When Rain's X-Ray move is performed on Jax, bones can be seen in his arms. However, this is most likely a gameplay mechanic.
		- In *MKX*, when a Fatality that involves the arm area is performed on Jax, muscle will show in the spots where it happened. When a Fatality or a Brutality is performed that involves the opponent being reduced to a skeleton, bone will show. These are all most likely gameplay mechanics.
* In the indie fighting game **Skullgirls Encore**, the 13th alternate color palette of the character **Beowulf** directly references Jax's *MK3* incarnation.
* In a couple of Jax's *Mortal Kombat X* intros, he says "I'm too old for this shit!". This is a reference to the catchphrase of Officer Roger Murtagh from the buddy-cop action film series *Lethal Weapon.*
* In MKX's character select screen, when playing a match in Jax's Carl Weathers outfit and Johnny Cage's commando outfit, after selecting a stage, Johnny will say "You son of a bitch!" and shake hands with Jax. This is a recreation of the handshake scene between the characters Dillon and Dutch in the movie *Predator.*
* In the first *Mortal Kombat* film , Jax's name was misspelled 'Jaxx' on the ending credit.