The first film in the Mortal Kombat franchise to get an R rating.
It has been well documented that the Johnny Cage character was inspire by Jean-Claude Van Damme. During a fight you can see Johnny Cage perform Van Damme's signature helicopter kick.
There is a scene where two fighters compete with each other in breaking anvils. This is a reference to the "Test Your Might" mini-games in the Mortal Kombat games, where players tested their strength on blocks of material, of increasing hardness (wood, stone, steel, etc).