Mortal Kombat: How Scorpion's Spear Move Was Created
One of the Mortal Kombat series' most iconic moves, Scorpion's "Get over here!" spear move, has an interesting origin. As it turns out, the inspiration for the move was a spontaneous idea as opposed to a thought-out plan. Scorpion's spear move is among the most iconic in the Mortal Kombat franchise, with the character's accompanying dialogue, "Get over here!" being quoted and referenced by fans and even other video game series.
Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon can be credited with the idea for Scorpion's classic spear move. Boon has previously stated that his favorite Mortal Kombat fighter is Scorpion, and his contributions to the character cannot be overstated, as he himself continues to provide the voice for Scorpion's iconic lines in battle. With the reveal of the spear move's creation, Boon has added one of Scorpion's most popular techniques among those contributions.
The origin of Scorpion's spear move can be traced back to the video shoot for the first Mortal Kombat game in 1992. In a video shared by Ed Boon on his Twitter account, he and series co-creator John Tobias can be seen directing Scorpion's body actor behind the scenes in nearly 30 year-old footage. During the shoot, Boon inquires as to whether or not ninjas carry rope, announcing an idea for a new move. Bit by bit, Boon and Tobias direct the actor to perform a thrusting and yanking motion with their arm, eventually becoming fully realized as Mortal Kombat's first occurrence of Scorpion's spear move, which sticks a distant opponent and drags them across the stage.
Following its inception, Scorpion's spear move has become a staple technique in the Mortal Kombat series. Every game in the series since the first utilizes Scorpion's spear, incorporating it into the character's general move set, Fatalities, Brutalities, and Fatal Blows. Over time, the means by which Scorpion performs the technique has varied, with some interpretations utilizing a chain instead of a rope while others make the spear come from out of Scorpion himself. At its core, though, the spear move has changed very little since its original 1992 version, only receiving graphical upgrades with each new generation while the general concept and combat uses remain the same. The full video of Boon creating Scorpion's spear move in Mortal Kombat can be seen below:
Ensuring Scorpion's spear move appears in each new Mortal Kombat game is just one way Mortal Kombat preserves the history of the character. While Scorpion has had many voice actors over the years, Mortal Kombat's famous "Get over here!" line, which plays when Scorpion uses his spear move, is still performed by Ed Boon in every game. In any case, getting to see how the spear move was thought up and developed for the first Mortal Kombat is great to see, as it celebrates a moment so popular that it has remained a key part of Scorpion and the franchise.
Source: Ed Boon/Twitter