History of Jax

Jax's character design was based on the character in the 1985 movie American Ninja. He was created for the original Mortal Kombat game and was supposed to have Sonya's story. Since there were no female characters in the original game, Jax was scrapped and they put Sonya in his place. Jax's original name was going to be Kurtis Stryker. That name was later reused in the making of Mortal Kombat 3. He also was originally supposed to be a kickboxer, but Midway thought that he would be too similar to Balrog and Sagat from Street Fighter. He was wearing a yellow martial arts gi and had metal hands. They then decided to make him shirtless because they felt that the gi covered up too much of his muscular physique. While filming footage for the game, his actor, John Parrish, ended up splitting the yellow pants.

Jax is a United States Special Forces major. He first appeared in Mortal Kombat II. His goal is to find and rescue his partner, Sonya Blade. He ultimately wants to bring Kano into custody. During Mortal Kombat 3 Shao Kahn invades the Earthrealm. To help fight him off, Jax gets bionic implants added to his arsenal. During this game, Sonya and Jax find the Outer World Investigation Agency (OIA) which specializes in exploring and creating maps for other worlds. During Mortal Kombat 4 he helps the Earthrealm group in stopping Shinnok from entering Earth. Jax then sees Jarek trying to kill Sonya and Jax saves her, killing Jarek in the process.

While they are returning to Earthrealm they see Cyrax malfunctioning in a desert. They bring him back to OIA  and return his humanity to him. In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance the OIA's underground base is destroyed by Hsu Hao. Jax has a score to settle with him, even though Hsu Hao was just sent there to kill Shang Tsung. Jax eventually kills him by ripping out his artificial heart implant. Jax and the other Earthrealm warriors end up being killed by Tarkartan warriors. The dragon king, Onaga defeats Raiden, but ends up resurrecting Raiden and the other Earthrealm heroes to be his slaves. Ermac and the spirit of Liu Kang are able to eventually break his mind control. During Mortal Kombat: Armageddon Sonya sends Jax in to find survivors on the destroyed warship, but they vanish and are captured.