The film is based on selected chapters of Wu Cheng'en's classical novel Journey to the West and will tell the story of how the Monkey King rebels against the Jade Emperor of Heaven.
Matt Murdock is a blind lawyer in New York City's Hell's Kitchen neighborhood, where he runs a firm with best friend Franklin "Foggy" Nelson. As a child, Matt was blinded by a toxic waste spill while walking home from school after discovering that his father, former boxer Jack "The Devil" Murdock, had become an enforcer for a local mobster. The accident enhanced Matt's other senses and gave him sonar to "see" via sonic vibrations. Matt trained himself in martial arts. Blaming himself for Matt's disability, Jack stopped being an enforcer, returned to boxing, and was killed after refusing to turn in a fixed fight for the mobster who had employed him earlier. After his Fathers death, Young Matthew promised to stop all crime that controlled Hell's Kitchen, New York as the vigilante crime-fighter "Daredevil".
In ancient China during the Warring States period, the nameless prefect of a small jurisdiction arrives at the Qin state's capital city to meet the king of Qin, who has survived an attempt on his life by the assassins Long Sky, Flying Snow, and Broken Sword. Because of the assassination attempt, no visitors are to approach the king within 100 paces. 'Nameless' claims that he has slain the three assassins and he displays their weapons before the king, who allows the former to sit closer to him and tell him his story.
The movie begins by Jackie Chan telling the story of the Old Summer Palace and its looting and destruction by British and French soldiers in the Second Opium War. Among the treasures stolen are twelve bronze heads of the animals of the Chinese zodiac.
The pregnant Bride and her groom rehearse their wedding. Bill, the Bride's former lover, father of her child, and leader of the Deadly Viper Assassination Squad, arrives unexpectedly. On Bill's orders, the Deadly Vipers kill everyone at the wedding, but the Bride survives and swears revenge.
Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), a high school senior, moves with his mother Lucille (Randee Heller) from Newark, New Jersey to Reseda, a neighborhood in the Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley area. Their apartment's handyman is an eccentric but kind and humble Okinawan immigrant named Kesuke Miyagi (Noriyuki "Pat" Morita).
South Boston teenager Jason Tripitikas (Michael Angarano) is a fan of martial arts films and he awakens from a dream of a battle between the Monkey King (Jet Li) and celestial soldiers in the clouds. He visits a pawn shop in Chinatown to buy Wuxia DVDs and discovers a golden staff. On his way home, Jason is harassed by some hooligans, whose leader Lupo attempts to use him to help them rob the shop-owner Hop. Hop tries to fight the thieves with the staff, but is shot and wounded by Lupo. He tells Jason to deliver the staff to its rightful owner and Jason flees with the staff. He is cornered on the rooftop by the hooligans and almost shot too, but he is pulled off the roof by the staff and falls backwards onto the asphalt.
The film is centered on Mortal Kombat, a fight tournament between the representatives the realms of Earth and Outworld conceived by the Elder Gods amid looming invasion of the Earth by Outworld. If the realm of Outworld wins Mortal Kombat ten consecutive times, its Emperor Shao Kahn will be able to invade and conquer the Earth realm.
In western China, 48 BC, a security company under China's current government called the Silk Road Protection Squad is committed towards stopping battles and promoting the idea of peace. Huo An (Chan), the captain, successfully averts a battle between the Indians and Huns. The group returns to their unnamed home city, where Huo An's wife serves as a schoolteacher for orphans. However, the government uncovers evidence that someone in the group is corrupt, causing the entire group to be sentenced to construction work at Goose Gate, a ruined fortress. Once they arrive, the group pays respects at the shrine of a fallen Chinese general, since they originally were child-slaves of Hun descent, but later the general had rescued them.
Furious over Johnny's loss at the All-Valley Karate Tournament, John Kreese attacks him in the parking lot. Miyagi confronts Kreese and passively immobilizes him. Miyagi threatens to strike a deadly blow but instead comically tweaks Kreese's nose and walks away.
In Shanghai during the 1930s, Sing and his friend Bone attempt to join the Deadly Axe Gang which ruthlessly control the city under leadership of Brother Sum. Sing seeks to restore his confidence after being humiliated as a young boy while trying to protect a mute girl from bullies, due to the failure of the Buddhist Palm method he had learned from a pamphlet he bought from beggar. Sing and Bone attempt to intimidate the residents of Pig Sty Alley but are chased off by its Landlady. Hearing of this, Sum orders Sing and Bone captured, while sending the Gang to reassert its authority from the humiliation. Three of the tenants, Coolie, Fairy, and Donut, are revealed as martial arts masters and defeat more than fifty of the Gang. Fearing retribution, the Landlady evicts the three, but they meet a pair of hired assassins using a magical guqin to launch invisible blades. Coolie is beheaded, and Fairy and Donut are mortally wounded before the Landlady and her husband the Landlord reveal that they too are martial arts masters, having gone into self-exile after the death of their son. The two defeat the assassins but Fairy and Donut die from their wounds. The Landlords temporarily evacuate the other tenants for their safety.
In the Southeast Asian nation of Shadaloo City, civil war has erupted between the forces of crazed military dictator General M. Bison (Raul Julia) and the Allied Nations, a multinational military force, led by their regional commander, Colonel William F. Guile. Bison has recently captured several A.N. relief workers, and via a live two-way radio broadcast, demands Guile secure a US$20 billion ransom in three days or else face responsibility for the hostages' deaths. Guile refuses and vows to track Bison down, but his assistant, Sergeant Cammy (Kylie Minogue) is only partially able to pinpoint Bison's location to the river-delta region outside the city. One of the hostages is Guile's close friend, Carlos "Charlie" Blanka (Robert Mammone), who Bison orders taken to his lab for his captive witch doctor, Dhalsim (Roshan Seth), to turn into the first of his supersoldiers. Though Charlie is severely disfigured by the procedure, Dhalsim secretly alters his cerebral programming to maintain Charlie's humanity.
In 1881, Chon Wang (Chan) is a Chinese Imperial Guard in the Forbidden City. After Princess Pei-Pei, for whom Wang has affection, is abducted and taken to the United States, the Emperor of China sends three of his guards to retrieve her. Wang is not one of the three, but he tells the Captain of the Imperial Guards that it was his fault the princess was kidnapped and insists on joining them. The Captain first refuses, but when the Royal Interpreter, Wang's uncle, offers to allow Wang to come help with the baggage, the Captain agrees in the hopes that the "foreign devils" would get rid of Wang. In Nevada, Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) is an outlaw who, with his gang, hijacks the train Wang is on. When Wallace, a member of Roy's gang, kills Wang's uncle, Wang chases the outlaws down. However, the gang is well-armed and Wang's only choice is to unhinge the cars and get away on the engine. In the process, Wallace takes over the gang from Roy, and they leave him buried up to his chin in the desert sand. Meanwhile, Pei-Pei, who was tricked into believing she was freely escaping her arranged marriage in China, finds out she has been kidnapped by an agent of Lo Fong, who ran away from the Forbidden City and was viewed as a traitor by the Chinese.
Detective Zhong Wen heads to Wu Bar in search of his estranged daughter, Miao Miao, who is now the girlfriend of the nightclub's owner, Wu Jiang. However, Zhong disapproves of Miao's relationship, which leads to an argument between the father and daughter. Before Zhong can make amends with Miao, he is struck in the head by an unnamed assailant, in a plot orchestrated by Wu.