Johnny Cage

Birthday
 Sex
 Species
 Height
 Weight
 Alignment | Neutral Good

**Johnny Cage** (real name: **Jonathan Carlton**) is a recurring character in the Mortal Kombat series.

## Background

Johnny Cage, famous Hollywood action hero, joined the first Mortal Kombat tournament for the publicity. As the Thunder God, Raiden, intoned at the time about the arrogant, loquacious Cage, "He is a hero... though he might not yet know it." Raiden was correct, of course: Johnny's martial arts skills were not special effects--and were pivotal in Earthrealm's victory. Johnny became a leader alongside Sonya Blade against Outworld and later Netherrealm. Sonya's initial dislike of Johnny turned to friendship and eventually to marriage. After their Daughter, Cassie, was born, however, Johnny and Sonya split up. Now older and more somber, the more mature Johnny is a consultant with a secret Special Forces unit under Blade's command. He tolerates the occasional run-in with his ex-wife mostly to spend time with his beloved Cassie--the group's squad leader.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Superhuman Physique:** Johnny possesses an uncanny physique, despite being a human.
* **Emerald Light:** Johnny possesses a special green aura similar to Ki. Due to being a decendant from a Mediterranean cult that bred warriors for the gods: warriors with special abilities, Johnny green halo can be used to enhance his attacks, shoot projectiles, protect him or others with a personal barrier, create hardlight dopplegangers (Dubbed Stunt Doubles), and turn red to drastically boost his power when he gets serious.

### Special Moves

* **Green Shadow Kick:** Cage slides across the floor with one foot at a steady speed, followed by a green-colored afterimage and connects with a kick to the torso of his opponent with the other one.
	+ **Eclipse Kick:** Used for more range
* **Red Shadow Kick:** The more powerful incarnation of the Green Shadow Kick, which leaves a red trail.
* **Forceball:** Cage throws a green bolt of energy at the enemy. In MKII and onwards, the bolt is curved upwards.
* **Straight Forceball:** Johnny shoots a Forceball in a straight direction at his opponent.
* **High Green Orb**: A higher version of the curved energy bolt.
* **Triple Green Orb:** Johnny shoots 3 low green orbs one after another.
* Nut Punch**:** One of Cage's most memorable moves where he does a split and punches the opponent in the groin.
* **Green Shadow Uppercut:** Cage would leap and deliver an uppercut with his elbow which launched his foe into the air, leaving a green trail.
* **Red Shadow Uppercut:** A faster version of the move, which leaves a red trail.
* **Flipkick:** Cage does a somersault kick that launches his foe into the air, leaving a green trail.
* **Fist Bump:** Johnny claps his fists together, which makes his brass knuckles sparkle and doubles the amount of chip damage landed for a period, making him dangerous to opponents even when they're blocking.
* **Nut Punch:** Despite having a ton of martial arts skills under his belt, and a plethora of incredibly flashy and out-of-the-box moves, Cage decided he needed to go the extra mile (like he always does) and develop a unique move of his own, something the people would see and say “yeah, Johnny Cage invented it”. Thus, after what probably took him a couple of hours to figure out, he came up with the one and only Nut Punch. Also known as the split-punch, nutcracker, shadow nut punch, or as we like to call it, Defect’s fetish, it's a move where Johnny does a split and proceeds to punch his opponents in the groin, rendering them not only steryle for the boys (agonizing pain for the ladies), but unable to move for a short period of time. As if the punch wasn’t enough, Johnny can engulf his fist in shadow energy to add an uppercut (named the Nutcracker), and if he ever needs to charge the damn move, he can always do so thanks to the Nut Breaker (courtesy of MKX’s A-List variation). In fact the move can get so brutal that in one of his brutalities, the force of the blow is so immaculate that the opponent’s head fucking pops clean off their neck.
* **Mimic:** Johnny creates two yellow shadows around him (his Stunt Doubles), and can send them to perform some specials in his place, such as the Shadow Kick, while Cage himself can stand still and perform other attacks.
* **X-Ray Move - Ball Buster:** Cage taunts his opponent. If, during this time, they attack him, he parries them and performs a triple Split Punch in the opponent's groin area. As they double up, he jumps and then slams his elbow on their back, dealing damage to their spine.
* **X-Ray Move - Kasting Kall:** Cage delivers a sweet chin to his opponent's head, snapping their jaw. Then, Cage proceeds to forcefully pull their head into his knee with such force that shatters their skull. To end it, Cage then does a backflip, with his foot sending his opponent upwards, but not without snapping their neck.
* **Fatalities:** Brutal finishers that take advantage of Johnny's physical strength.
	+ **Head Pop:** Johnny punches the foe in the groin, making their head fly off.
	+ **Triple Punch Decapitation:** Johnny repeats the Head Pop fatality three times, knocing off the opponent's head three times, somehow.
	+ **Torso Rip:** Johnny rips out the foe's torso with his bare hands.
	+ **Backbuster:** Johnny lifts the opponent over his head and bend their back against his with enough force to make the opponent explode into a pile of bloody bits.
	+ **Torso Kick:** Johnny uses a Shadow Kick that separates the opponent's torso from their abdomen and feet.
	+ **Brain Rip:** Johnny punches the foe in the stomach, causing them to puke blood. He then punches the opponent's brain off.
	+ **Super Split Punch:** Johnny repeatedly performs his Split Punch, and keeps punching with enough force to separate the enemy's legs from their torso.
	+ **Forceful Shadow Kick:** Johnny performs a Shadow Kick strong enough to penetrate the enemy's flesh.
	+ **Heads Up:** A combination of the Head Pop and Torso Rip fatalities.
	+ **And The Winner Is...:** Johnny splits the opponent's head with a karate chop, and then shoves a golden trophy into the wound.
	+ **Here's Johnny:** Cage punches the opponent to make them turn around, and then tears through their torso with his bare hands. He then peeks through the hole and says *"Here's Johnny!"* as a reference to The Shining.
	+ **Little Improv:** Cage tackles his opponent to the ground, and then proceeds to violently grab the back of the opponents head and slams it into the ground so many times that their face becomes mashed up, then walks away after one final slam.
* **Brutalities:** Brutal combos that end with with the foe's bloody death.
	+ **Eye-Popping:** Johnny performs a Nut Punch, punching his opponent's groin so hard that their head comes off.
	+ **Blood Spurt:** Johnny delivers a Take Two combo to his opponent, which ends in a side kick that decapitates them.
	+ **Wow Out:** Johnny delivers a Speed Bag combo that is powerful enough to remove the opponent's face, with the final hit as an uppercut breaking the opponent's neck. Still upright, Johnny seemingly winds up a final punch, but stops and ends up pushing them over with his finger with a wry chuckle.
	+ **Fall Guy:** Johnny's Stunt Double Shadow Kicks the opponent in half.
	+ **Bring It On:** Johnny delivers a devastating Rising Kick that obliterates the opponent's torso.
	+ **Break A Leg:** Johnny performs his Throw, but snaps the opponent's right arm and right leg clean off before sending them away with a palm strike.
* **Animality - Hyper Kangaroo Kick:** Johnny turns into a kangaroo and kicks the opponent off the screen.

## Equipment

* **Brass Knuckles:** Normal brass knuckles with his name on them that he uses to increase his striking power.
* **Bowie Knife:** A large Bowie Knife that he used as a weapon in MK4.
* **Pistol:** A firearm that he used in MK4 while in his tuxedo costume.
* **Nunchaku:** Johnny has been known to use nunchaku several times since Deadly Alliance (until Armaggedon).
* **$500 Sunglasses:** Apparently are rigged with micro explosives, no joke.

## Feats

### Strength

* Has kept up in strength with Scorpion and Sub-Zero.
* Can easily beat up several thugs simultaneously.
* Can hold his own against Goro.
* His punches can make someone's testicles explode.
* Can punch a someone's head off by punching them in the groin.
* Capable of opening someone's chest with his bare hands.
* Capable of ripping off human torso.
* Can break titanium statues in MKX’s Test Your Might mini-game. Doing so in one strike would require 63,000 pounds of force per square inch.
* Can also chop through diamond.
* Most Fatalities of his show him capable of decapitating opponents and tearing their bodies apart with his bare hands.
* Overpowered Scorpion and then knocks him away.
* Shattered Sub-Zero's ice sword.
* Punched Scorpion hard enough to send him flying.
* Knocked out Smoke with a kick.
* Sent Shinnok flying with a kick.
* Knocked away Sub-Zero with a kick.

### Speed

* Caught Reptile's tongue in the air before it hit Sonya.
* Comparable to some of the faster Mortal Kombat characters.
* Is a bullet-timer through both feats and scaling, allowing him to routinely dodge fully-automatic fire.
* Caught Scorpion’s kunai bare-handed.
* Avoided several attacks by Sub-Zero.
* Reacted to and caught an Ice Sword.
* Dodged and reacted to attacks from Scorpion.

### Durability

* Tanked falling off a helicopter.
* Has survived attacks from Shang Tsung, Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Baraka, and Kintaro.
* Has survived attacks from a bloodlusted Sindel.
* Tanked Scorpion’s fire and Sub-Zero’s ice.
* Scaled to Kintaro, who survived a nuke.
* Got thrown at a stone pillar in a fight with Sheeva.
* Tanked a hit from Raiden’s lightnting.
* Survived an attack from Corrupted Shinnok.
* Stabbed in the chest by Revenant Jax.
* Survived Sindel’s Sonic Scream.
* Survived a beatdown by Jacqui.
* Got telekinetically slammed into a wall by Shinnok.
* Managed to break free out of being frozen by Sub-Zero.
* Survived a super-powered beatdown from Sindel, who had managed to kill nearly all of Raiden’s chosen defenders.

### Skill

* Contributed on Shinnok's ultimate defeat.
* Somehow married Sonya Blade.
* Ancestral power matches restricted gods.
* Defeated Goro during the first Mortal Kombat.
* Fought back against several Outworld invasions.
* Has managed to best other combatants, including Reptile, Baraka, Sonya, Kano, Revenant versions of Scorpion, Jax, Smoke and Sub-Zero, Erron Black, Sektor.
* Used his Inner Power to defeat the fallen Elder God Shinnok and prevent him from absorbing the Jinsei Chamber’s energies.
* Fathered Cassie Cage, who would go on to command the Special Forces and also defeat Corrupted Shinnok by harnessing the same energy passed on to her.
* Fought his younger self during Mortal Kombat 11 and won.
* Starred in numerous Hollywood blockbusters, becoming one of the highest paid actors in the film industry.
* Is unironically the best fighting game father character.

## Weaknesses

* Spotty win-loss record.
* Most attacks leave him vulnerable to projectiles.
* Very cocky and arrogant.
* Can still be killed from any physical means (e.g. fire, decapitation, heart extraction, suffocation, etc.)

## Fun Facts

* He is based on Jean-Claude Van Damme.
* He was the first character created for Mortal Kombat, and the test prototype of the original game had two Johnny Cage's fighting each other.
* Filmography:
	+ 24 Karate Gold
	+ 7 Poisons
	+ Aquatic Assault
	+ Ass-Kick (a spoof of Kick-Ass)
	+ Break Nose Mountain (a spoof of Brokeback Mountain)
	+ Cage Match
	+ Cage Rage
	+ Celebrity Smash TV
	+ Citizen Cage (a spoof of Citizen Kane)
	+ Dragon Fist
	+ Dragon Fist 2
	+ Easy Die (a spoof of Die Hard)
	+ Every Dog Has It’s Day
	+ Exiting The Dragon of Death
	+ Fight Dirty
	+ Fly High
	+ HWAAAAA!!
	+ Iron Claw
	+ Massive Strike
	+ Mortal Kombat
	+ Mortal Kombat 2
	+ Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance (non-canon; Johnny Cage was killed by Shang Tsung and Quan Chi between the events of Deadly Alliance and Deception)
	+ Mortal Kombat: The Death of Johnny Cage (Canceled)
	+ Ninja Mime
	+ Ninja Mime 2
	+ Ninja Mime 3
	+ Ninja Mime 4
	+ Ninja Mime 5 (halted)
	+ Ninja Priest (Kano claims Cage stole his likeness for the production)
	+ Power Rangers (TV series presumably based on the real-life series produced by the Saban Capital Group and Hasbro)
	+ Son of Dragon Fist
	+ Stryker: I Was Doing My Job (Canceled)
	+ Sudden Violence
	+ Temple of Katara Vala
	+ The Chosen One
	+ The Exterminator (a spoof of The Terminator, inspired by his experiences with D'Vorah)
	+ The Flesh Pit (something he commented to be horrible)
	+ The Gist of My Fist
	+ Time Smashers
	+ Tommy Scissorfists (a spoof of Edward Scissorhands)
	+ Who's That?
	+ Worlds Most Wanted (a spoof of Wanted)
	+ Wu Shu (TV Series)
	+ You Got Caged