The 1995 film should have portrayed Scorpion and the Elder Sub-Zero (Bi-Han) more accurate to the games. In the games, the characters are enemies from different Asian "ninja" clans: Sub-Zero's clan, the Lin Kuei, is Chinese and despise being called "ninja," while Scorpion's Japanese Shirai-Ryu ninja clan originally defected from the Lin Kuei. During their first tournament, Scorpion avenges his own death (by Bi-Han two years prior) when he murders Bi-Han. Scorpion's vengeance was also wrongfully fueled by the deaths of his family and clan, who Quan Chi killed instead. However, more of their history and Quan Chi's inclusion started surfacing in the canon spin-off game, "Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero" (released two years after the 1995 film).

The 1995 film barely touched upon their history: Shang Tsung stated that Scorpion and Sub-Zero were "deadliest of adversaries, but slaves under [his] power." Instead of fighting each other, Scorpion fought Johnny Cage and Sub-Zero fought Liu Kang. With the exception of their rivalry taking place roughly 400 years before their first tournament (and Scorpion killing Sub-Zero prior to it), the handling of Scorpion and Sub-Zero was one aspect that benefitted the 2021 film over the 1995 film.

However, the backstories of the other characters and tournament were fleshed out more in the 1995 film than in the 2021 film; the 2021 film relied on text and visual Easter eggs to describe key tournament events or characters (only those who knew the games' history would realize them), but the 1995 film worked more of the backstories of the characters (except for Scorpion and Sub-Zero) and tournament into the dialogue and unfolding events.