The intro of the game, where all the Mortal Kombat characters are seen fighting each other on a pyramid, was influenced by The One (2001), in which Yu Law (Jet Li) engages in hand to hand combat with convicts on a pyramid on the Stygian prison colony.
The centaur Motaro had his back legs removed because the programmers were having difficulty with his shape, half-horse and half-man. In his biography card, it states that a curse has been put on his tribe. In his ending, it states that he was made to look like a matyr under this spell, but many say he looks like a satyr.
The boulder death trap in the Shao Khan fortress level in Konquest mode is a nod to I Goonies (1985), in which boulders are one of the death traps set up by One Eyed Willy, which Chester Copperpot fell victim to.
Noob is Boon backwards. Ed Boon is the creator of Mortal Kombat.