WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge.
The specter known as Scorpion is one of Mortal Kombat's most popular characters. In fact, he's an iconic figurehead in video games on the whole, with fans loving his look and style since the first game came out in 1992. Since then, Scorpion's origin has been tweaked in sequels, cartoons, a couple of movies and even in the out-of-canon web series, Mortal Kombat: Legacy.
However, Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge, does make a few changes to his origin story while also giving Hanzo Hasashi a reason as to why he wields his signature chain and spear-like weapons.
As the games progressed, Scorpion became a more altruistic figure because he was such a hit with fans. He no longer came off as a one-dimensional character obsessed with killing the original Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) and then his brother Kuai Liang but as someone with more reason to his chaos. In Mortal Kombat X, viewers Hanzo being shown the illusion of Bi-Han slaughtering the Shirai Ryu and his wife and son, Harumi and Satoshi, respectively, before pledging his services to Quan Chi. He was ordered to hunt Sub-Zero down and recover Shinnok's amulet. But when Kuai Liang played Sektor's memory, it became clear that Quan Chi slaughtered Hanzo's people.
This was part of the agreement Quan Chi made with Sektor and the Lin Kuei Grandmaster so they could get the amulet for him. Scorpion was created in case they failed, and he ended up killing Bi-Han and waging war on Kuai Liang, not knowing what really transpired. Eventually, they made peace because of this revelation but both clans suffered great losses due to the rivalry, not to mention Bi-Han was turned into Noob Saibot, resurrected and stripped of his humanity to basically be Quan Chi's new and improved Scorpion.
This movie opens with Hanzo and Satoshi coming home to find their clan slaughtered. After killing Harumi, Bi-Han eventually gets his hands on the boy while freezing Hanzo. He crushes the kid's throat and then places an ice shard through Hanzo's throat to send him to the Netherrealm. Here, the audience sees Moloch, one of Quan Chi's disciples, torturing Hanzo by stringing him up, however. the ninja bites his face and spits the acidic blood on the chain. Hanzo then uses the chain and the spears at the ends that kept him suspended as his new weapons, murdering Moloch. Driven by revenge, he then slays a monster legion before marching to Quan Chi's citadel to bargain.
The necromancer then turns him into Scorpion to go retrieve the amulet at Shang Tsung's island and the payment will be he'll get to kill Bi-Han who has signed up too. Scorpion keeps his weapons as a reminder to never stop pursuing his family's resurrection and begins his journey of revenge, accepting he's now a monster on the inside. There are major changes to come later on when Scorpion kills Sub-Zero and mortally wounds himself as they fall off a cliff. Quan Chi's annoyed because now he has to secret the amulet away from Shang Tsung's chambers himself, and reveals he actually shape-shifted into Sub-Zero and as Bi-Han, he tricked the Lin Kuei into the genocide similar to Legacy. It's unclear where the real Bi-Han was, but one can chalk that up to plot convenience. The Lin Kuei was all too eager to eliminate the Shirai Ryu and afterward, Quan Chi disappeared back to his personal hell where he'd await Hanzo's arrival to manipulate and create the ultimate weapon.
Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge stars Joel McHale as Johnny Cage, Jennifer Carpenter as Sonya Blade, Jordan Rodrigues as Scorpion & Hanzo Hasashi, Steve Blum as Sub-Zero, Artt Butler as Shang Tsung, Darin De Paul as Quan Chi, Robin Atkin Downes as Kano, David B. Mitchell as Raiden, Ike Amadi as Jax Briggs, Kevin Michael Richardson as Goro, and Grey Griffin as Kitana & Satoshi Hasashi. The film is now available on Digital, and will be out on Blu-ray and DVD on April 28.