Hell (also once known as Scorpion's Lair and Hades in the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis ports of UMK3) is Scorpion's original battlefield and a stage in the Mortal Kombat fighting game series. It debuted in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. In here, as a Stage Fatality, an opponent can be uppercut into a pool of lava nearby.
Overview
It was never clarified if Hell and the Netherrealm are one and the same, or if Hell is just a part of the dark realm. However, in the manuals of earlier games, it is often referred to as "Earth's Hell," further confusing the matter. But, in MK 2011's Story Mode, when Raiden said he was going to the Netherrealm, he ended up in Hell, where Scorpion was. Additionally, Lucifer is said to have been the former ruler of the Netherrealm before being deposed by Shinnok. Assuming this Lucifer is equivalent to the Judeo-Christian devil, then Hell and the Netherrealm may be one and the same.
The same diabolical arena reappeared in Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Resembling some parts of Scorpion's Lair, this arena is still situated in the hoary Netherrealm. Surrounded by boiling lava, skull pillars and jagged structures, kombatants took part in ferocious battles here on multiple levels after each opponent gets knocked out and then thrown down into the next level of the Netherrealm.
Hell returns in Mortal Kombat (2011), with a darker, updated look from Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The changes made in the arena is that there are less skull pillars, there is smoke and a hell beast in the background, the skulls glow with sparks and lava and there are lit skulls on the ground. There are hands coming out of the small pits of lava. This arena can also be seen in Scorpion's Victory Pose in the game. In this game's version of Hell, a Stage Fatality can be achieved. It involves forcing the victim's head into lava, burning the unfortunate soul's face off with their eye sockets leaking molten rock, trying to scream, but obviously being unable to. Then the victim's opponent stomps on their head, dipping it even deeper in the lava. Finally, the victim's entire head is melted.
Film and TV appearances
Scorpion's Lair was featured in the first Mortal Kombat film. After fighting Johnny Cage in a forest on Shang Tsung's island, Scorpion teleports both Cage and himself to an unspecified location, "welcoming" Cage on arrival, before continuing the fight. Cage manages to overcome Scorpion through the use of medieval weaponry, and escapes the dark place with his life. The arena is lit red and contains seemingly endless, randomly arranged networks of wooden bridges and scaffolds, along with the skeletons and weaponry of dead warriors.
In the animated series Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the Realm, Scorpion attempts to open a portal to, and is consequently returned to Hell (referred to as the "Realm of Lost Souls" due to the show being targeted towards children). It's here, told in a flashback, that Scorpion absorbs a number of warrior spirits and begins his revenge plan. Shang Tsung remembers his time in Hell after he was defeated and killed by Liu Kang and vividly describes it as "eternal torment among the damned within the dark and fiery void."
In the TV series Mortal Kombat: Conquest, the same location is shown using stock footage from the 1995 movie along with new footage. It is here that Scorpion recruits fighters for his organization and it is implied that after his defeat in the episode "Warrior Eternal", Scorpion 'fell' through the Earth to this dark place.
Trivia
- Originally, artist Tony Goskie had designed skullcube, bubble animations and skeletons on pillars with chains for the background of the Scorpion's Lair in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. Ultimately, they were later removed.
