#the entire cast of 1999 the mummy

[squid-deluxe]

When you and your sibling spend literal hours plotting your various blorbos... This is the DEFINITIVE list placement. I dont make the rules. @bigautomaton

[savage-rhi]

omg bless you for putting the mummy and the mummy returns stuff on my dash, I LOVE those movies so much!!!! I actually named my OC after Evelyn from those movies!

@itsfrigginpink

This is one of my favorite movie franchises of all time! Right amount of action, romance, and comedy! I hate sounding old af, but they truly don't make them like this anymore 😭

I remember in the late 90s, the early 2000s in fandom spheres, that Evelynn became a popular oc name for a time cause of this movie. It's awesome to see she's still got it! 😂💙 That's cool where your oc got her name from!

[quinloki]

fuck your zodiac sign, which TV character made you realize you weren't straight?

[under-the-weirwood-tree]

The Mummy 1999 AU.

This was inspired by a post from another tumblr user. I can’t find the post, but when I do, I shall link it.

———

The desert stretches out in front of them like a golden ocean. When Alicent pulls in a shallow breath, the air is dry, tickling her throat. Her temples are throbbing, a layer of sweat and grime under her light clothes, her body tense and stiff on the horse. Alicent shifts uncomfortably, hyper aware of how close she is to the woman behind her. Rhaenyra’s hand is resting casually on her spread thighs, fingers wrapped around the reins as their horse plods along. Beside them, Gwayne sits on his own horse. Alicent shoots an uncharitable thought his way, remembering his apologetic look when he had told her they only had enough resources for two horses instead of three.

The sun dips lower towards the horizon, casting the sand in a ruddy glow. Rhaenyra shifts, chest brushing up against Alicent’s sweaty back. She stiffens, eyes widening as she feels the softness of the other woman’s breasts. She is entirely too close for a person that Alicent is barely acquainted with. It’s indelicate.

Her mind casts back to their meeting, only a few days previously. The dust mots had been drifting lazily in the dim shaft of light cutting across the stone floor as Alicent slipped books back into their rightful places from her perch on the sliding ladder. Abruptly, the serene silence was interrupted, the doors slamming open. Alicent clutched the spindly ladder, heart leaping.

“Sister,” Gwayne’s cheerful, round face appeared below her, another person standing at his side. “I have some marvelous news.”

“Gwayne,” she snapped. “You gave me a fright. What have I told you about disturbing me at my work?”

“Apologies,” said the person beside him, tilting their head back to look Alicent in the eye.

His companion was a woman in simple archeologists’ garb: worn trousers, a felt hat, and scuffed boots. Her hair is pulled back, blue eyes bright in her slightly tanned face. All together, a somewhat odd person.

“Your brother led me to understand you were in need of a guide?” The woman continued, eyes absorbing Alicent’s appearance in a similar fashion. She felt her cheeks heating. I wonder what she sees when she looks at me.

“This is Rhaenyra Targaryen,” Gwayne emphasized the name, expression ecstatic. And indeed, the name was a familiar one. A highly respected family name in the field of archaeology.

Alicent started climbing down the ladder, surprised to find the other woman extending her hand when she was half way down. Tentatively, Alicent accepted the other woman’s hand, allowing herself to be helped off the ladder.

“He said you found a map,” Rhaenyra said, palm still warm against Alicent’s skin.

And now here they are, traveling across the desert together, her hapless brother snoring next to them on his horse, the sun below the horizon, the sky a beautiful blanket of stars. Surely this is not what her father pictured for the both of them. He would be so disappointed that it was Alicent who had continued to study instead of Gwayne. And yet you still persist.

“You alright?” Rhaenyra’s voice is soft, her breath touching the clammy skin at the back of Alicent’s neck.

“Perfectly,” she responds, voice stilted. It feels as if every conversation between them has been difficult and fraught. Alicent is hyper aware of how every word will land; what every expression on Rhaenyra’s face might mean. It’s exhausting. How aware she is when the other woman is in the room. When she is speaking. When her eyes are on her.

“You seem tense,” Rhaenyra continues.

Alicent can see her hands, reaching out to touch their horses' flanks. Her fingers are strong looking, skin rough and calloused. She knows from the few times they have touched. She shivers, the sweat of the day cold on her skin now in the desert night. She’s still warm under her breasts, between her spread legs.

“You’re cold,” Rhaenyra pulls back. Alicent can hear her shrugging off her jacket.

“Really, you don’t—” Alicent protests, face flushing with mortification. She knows what the other woman is about.

“I insist,” Rhaenyra drops her jack loosely over Alicent’s shoulders. It’s warm from her body, and it carries the mixture of her scent: horse, sweat, sensible soap. Very unfeminine. Father would not approve of her.

“Thank you,” she says stiffly.

Rhaenyra hums softly.

“You can sleep too if you want.”

Alicent does not trust herself to sleep.

“I shall stay awake and take my rest during the day.”

Minutes stretch agonizingly slow. She’s hyper aware of the woman behind her. The silence of the desert, the shifting of the horse under their bodies.

“I don’t think I’ve properly thanked you for accompanying us on this venture, Miss Targaryen.”

“Rhaehyra,” she corrects, again. “And no thanks are necessary. The map your brother found is something my family has been searching for years. Seeing this through is important.”

“I take it you do not subscribe to the curse?”

“I have a great respect for legend.”

As the conversation peters off, Alicent’s eyes begin to droop. Maybe hours later, she drifts awake, a line of warmth across her belly: Rhaenyra’s arm keeping her in place. In her sleep, she m leaned back on the other woman’s shoulder, mouth open. Mortified, Alicent jerks upright.

“Pardon me,” Alicent gasps.

“Don’t worry yourself,” Rhaenyra says calmly. The sky is gradually starting to go from purple to pink casting the desert in an ethereal glow.

———

[ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask]

The Mudman

Wife and I just watched the 1999 cinematic masterpiece The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz. Which, in turn, reminded me of this interaction I had with the incredible @weeinterpreter (back before ionlymadethissoicouldleaveanask so I was still on anonymous). Anyway, I wrote this thing.

---

A hot, dry wind blew through the dirty streets, stirring up dust and sand in every nook and cranny throughout the seaside port. Holly shook her head in an attempt to ward off a swarm of some sort of flying pest. She would have raised her hand to protect herself, but she was so laden down by luggage that she didn’t have a hand to spare.

“What a dreadful place,” complained the man beside her, dropping a net from the brim of his Jacobsen hat to protect his face. “I don’t believe I’ve felt a breeze so hot since… well, I’m not entirely sure that I’ve ever felt such an awful heat.”

“Oh Artemis, you must be exhausted, especially considering all that luggage you’re hauling around,” Holly grunted, staring pointedly first at her brother’s empty hands, then down at his trunk that she had been lugging along with her own.

Artemis didn’t even have the decency to look embarrassed. “I am, thank you for commiserating,” he answered with a long-suffering sigh, refusing to rise to her challenge. “I don’t know how I manage to survive all these hair-brained adventures of yours.”

“You certainly don’t mind all of the money you’ve made off of my hairbrained adventures,” Holly reminded him with a prod of her elbow.

Her brother smiled, his pale skin and sardonic grin appearing even more vampiric than usual in the harsh sunlight of the port. “But of course, dearest sister,” he hummed. “Someone must keep the family’s financial affairs in order, after all. If it weren’t for me, who would fund your incredible adventures?”

“Truly you are the most valuable member of this expedition,” Holly praised him with a roll of her eyes. She looked around the port, dropping the luggage she had been hauling as they reached the plank of the ship they were to board. “So,” she said, wiping her hands clean of dust on her canvas pants, “where is this contact of yours? You always find such unsavory, unhelpful people to work with. What was the name of this one again? Something ridiculous… Plank? Carp?”

“Kelp,” answered a voice from directly behind her.

Holly wheeled around, her shoulders hunching and a bashful grin crossing her lips.

The man behind her was tall, with short brown hair and eyes of such dark blue that in the sunshine they almost looked purple. He grinned down at her with surprisingly perfect teeth and a distractingly strong jawline. “Don’t worry,” he reassured her, brushing a strand of hair back into place from where it had fallen across his forehead, “I’m well aware that the name is ridiculous. Just wait until you hear my first name.”

Holly’s mouth worked open and shut a few times, but she just kept staring at him in stunned silence.

“Well,” Kelp said, that smug, frustratingly handsome grin still not leaving his face, “this is our ship. Can I help you with your bags?” Without another word he stooped down and grabbed both of their trunks, hauling them up the plank to their ship.

Artemis smirked, reaching up with two fingers to close Holly’s open mouth for her. “Just as you said,” he remarked with a grin. “Terribly unsavory.  A horribly unpleasant sort.”

She rounded to bite something sarcastic back at her brother, but whatever her angry remark would have been was cut short when a grubby hand landed on her shoulder. She looked around in confusion before casting her eyes down to see an extraordinarily hairy little man smiling up at her, displaying a row of startlingly large teeth and mischievous eyes.

“Artemis, do we know this one?” she asked in surprise.

Her brother sighed dramatically, lifting one hand beneath his portable bug screen to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Mister Diggums, our financier for this particular expedition,” he said by means of introduction. Then he leaned toward the small, furry man and whispered, “I was under the impression that you were going to be a silent partner on this excursion.”

“Nonsense, my boy,” Diggums laughed heartily, clapping Artemis on the shoulder with his other hand. “You’ve known me long enough by now to know that I am never silent. I shall be joining you to protect my investment.” With that, the newcomer trundled up the ramp behind Kelp.

Holly shot her brother a glance. “Well, come on then,” she said, knocking him ahead with her shoulder. “This is going to be fun.”

[soimarriedahorrorfan]

In our final (for now) trip back to the 90s, we are closing out November with a look at The Mummy from 1999.

This was a fun episode to get into, as we discuss the first time we saw this movie and our initial thoughts.

We talk about ties to the original Universal Monsters Franchise and how it works & doesn't work as an update.

Comparisons to the 2017 failed Tom Cruise film.

How far does this film push the horror and how were they able to get away with so much on such a light rating.

we get into the film's lasting legacy including the whole franchise it spawned.Including an entire spin off franchise, theme parks rides and animated series.

We also discuss how fantastic the cast is and how they are such a large part of why this film works.

Would we like to see a new film in this universe and what would that look like?

All of this and lots, lots more in this jam packed, mummy filled episode.

Find us on Social Media:

Twitter: SIMAHFPOD

Instagram: soimarriedahorrorfan

Tumblr: soimarriedahorrorfan

[molloytheboy]

5. Do you have a favourite film soundtrack? 🎶

The Mummy (1999)

Not because it's the best soundtrack I've ever heard, but this movie was one of my first hyperfixations. I watched it over and over again with director's commentary when I got it on DVD. I got the OST on CD and had it on regular rotation in my walkman on the bus ride to school in the morning.

Probably didn't help that I had a crush on almost the entire main cast.

[heygerald]

Love Mummified (The Mummy, 1999)

OFC x OMC

just watched zodiac and couldn't stop thinking about jakey jake, then found myself circling back to these two. i happen to think they're quite adorable.

Running.

They were running. Again.

And just like the time on the boat, and the time they raced across the sand, it seemed that there was no plan. Perhaps that was another thing that Rick and Louis had in common; foresight was not their strong suit.

"Rick, what is the plan here?" Catherine cried as the group barreled further down a dark hallway that was coated with spiderwebs. Their only source of light was the torch being carried by Rick, and each movement he made cast exaggerated shadows all around them.

"Plan?" he echoed, a familiarly stupid look on his face. They reached a circular room that opened into three different hallways; none of which were marked. The group spun through it at random. "Uh, how about, don't die? That seem like a good enough plan for you, Catherine?"

Despite the time crunch, she glanced away from one of the halls to scowl at him. "The sarcasm is entirely unhelpful, O'Connell," she snarked.

"Oh, really? Because I found it pretty damn helpful, actually!"

Catherine popped a hip at him bitingly, glare sharpening, and the shadows cast daggers across her face. Evelyn stepped up between them before any other words could be shared, however. "Neither of you are being quite that helpful at the moment if you ask me. Now, there are three options. Which are we going to take?"

Catherine and Rick immediately pointed in opposite directions.

"We're going this way."

"No," he argued. "We're going that way."

"I thought you said there was no plan."

"Sure there is. The plan is to get the hell out of here, and to do that, we're going that way," he said as if that was the only thing that made sense. And—oh, did she want to hit him. Moreso even than she wanted to hit Beni. Rick must have seen that because his eyes narrowed at her challengingly, flames flickering from his torch. "Happy?"

"If the plan is to get out of here, then we shouldn't go deeper inside, we should go back the way we came," Catherine argued. However, when she went to do just that, she came to the awful realization that all the tunnels looked quite similar, and that, well, she wasn't really sure which way they had just come was as they all had been mindlessly spinning around the cavern during the argument. "Oh. Well... does anyone remember which way we just came?"

The others groaned when they came to the same realization.

Rick spun sharply in a circle, torch flaring. "Er, well, you know, one of these has to be the way out, right?"

"Good math, Ricky," Louis joked as he peeked his head down one of the ways at random. "Anyone feeling particularly lucky?"

"We can't—gentlemen, honestly!" Evelyn huffed at them, throwing her hands up as she spun in a circle herself. Despite her irritation it seemed that she had no more idea which route to take than the rest of them. "The locusts are still outside. Is out really the direction we want to take?"

"As opposed to, what, staying in here for eternity?" Jonathan asked glibly. "You may fancy becoming the next museum installation, dear sister, but I for one would like to live a long and happy life under the sun."

Their bickering continued in the typical sense of a brother and sister as Rick tried to pick a path. Catherine watched him spin in a circle three times over before pointing down one at random.

"That one," he said.

"You don't have any idea where that leads," Catherine jibed with her hands settled firmly on her waist. She was out of breath from all the running, already, and didn't fancy darting off into the unknown on one of Rick's whims. "Give me the torch and help look for footprints. At least we'll be able to see which way we came in."

"Jolly good help that'll be," he mocked.

"To the only way we know for sure leads back outside," she corrected him sharply. No one else seemed to know what to say—or perhaps no one else wanted to be the person that had to make a decision—and Catherine threw her hands up with a huff. "Gracious! If you don't want to pick a way then I will."

She picked the tunnel closest to her with a nod and started off down the shadowy hallway.

She only got a few feet into it, however, when there was a loud cracking noise—as if stone splitting from stone—and she squinted at the dark hole that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere in the floor. A hole that wiggled and moved and—chittered?

"Scarabs!" Evelyn cried at the same time that Louis tugged Catherine backwards by the elbow. "They're flesh eating, don't let them touch you!"

Nausea swelled hot in the back of her throat when the large black mass started to move in her direction. Suddenly, a hallway at random didn't seem like the worst idea.

"Rick?!"

"This way!" he shouted, leading them down the hallway to the right.

Catherine tripped over her own two feet in her haste to follow, but Louis held a grip on her hand tightly. He kept her from falling as they rounded a sharp corner, and then pushed her in front of him when the sound of chittering got louder.

"Keep moving!" Rick shouted over his shoulder—as if anyone had forgotten about the ancient flesh eating insects racing behind them, getting louder with every second.

Her skin was crawling by the time their hallway opened to a large, rock cavern, a bridge trailing up across the room. She glanced over her shoulder to find the mass of insects getting closer, and bigger if that were possible, and when she looked back she watched Rick and Jonathan leap to a small rock on their left, Evelyn to the right.

Catherine didn't have a moment to consider where to go when Louis was tugging her further up the platform, and then throwing her to a small rock ledge of their own. He leapt a moment later, chest crashing into her own, forehead knocking into one another, and when he tried to overcorrect she watched in terror as he began to teeter backwards as his boot slipped on the worn down edge of the stone.

"Louis!" she yelped, before grabbing him by the lapels and hauling him against her. Their bodies flattened against one another as his hands gripped at her hips. "Don't—stop moving!"

"I ain't trying to," he said, and when she took too deep of a breath that pushed him back again, his grip turned almost bruising. "Don't do that!"

"What—breathe?"

"Just—here—let me..." he muttered while moving this way and that, and if they weren't in such a life or death situation, Catherine may have blushed when she realized how close they were to one another. His breath was warm on her face, lashes kissing her cheek, soft tendrils of hair tickling her forehead. Catherine took a steadying breath as she glanced over his shoulder to the endless stream of scarabs that were moving along the pathway. "They still there?"

"Yeah," she breathed.

His eyes locked with hers in the next moment; this time she did flush. Flushed at the way his breathing stuttered, at the way his eyes darted to her mouth, at the way that his fingers tightened ever so slightly on her waist.

She thought about what he said before—about loving a woman who had left him—and then she thought about what it would be like to kiss a man like him.

All those thoughts went out the door when Rick started yelling.

"Evelyn?"

"Evie?" Jonathan echoed, and she glanced over her shoulder to watch as the two men moved to the platform the historian had been standing on. Had being the key word. "Where'd she go? She didn't just bloody disappear!"

"I don't know!"

Louis twisted to get a better look at what was happening, and as he moved his boots kicked rocks into the abyss they were standing above. Together, the pair froze, and when they made eye contact again whatever had been there before was now replaced by a tense stress.

"Maybe you should—" she started as he said, "you should try to..."

They both paused, coming to a unanimous conclusion, and she tried to move as little as possible as Louis awkwardly shuffled along the thin ledge they were standing on. He got nearly to the platform the others were on when his boot once again slipped on stone.

A perfectly square stone that sank, rather than broke, beneath his weight. A perfectly square stone that reminded Catherine of a trap door button she would see in the newspapers as a kid.

Her eyes widened in horror. "Louis, don't—!"

But it was too late. He had already put all of his weight onto the stone, and as it sank, the wall that she was pressed flat against moved with her. It gave way beneath her back, and with it Catherine felt all the air rush out of her lungs.

Somehow she still found enough breath to shriek.

All three men snapped their attention towards the sound, Louis' gaze going the widest as he watched her teeter backwards.

"Catherine!"

Her shriek turned something very unladylike when her feet fell off the stone. Hair flew up around her face as she fell—something that was fine by her. Catherine didn't fancy watching herself plummet to death. Going out blind was far better than seeing something horrific.

She was just preparing her last sentiments in mind when something snagged her by the hand, and Catherine's body jerked from the fall. She swung forward until her shoulder collided harshly with the stone wall.

A painful grunt slipped past her lips.

"Catherine?"

She wrenched her eyes open to find the top half of Louis' body dangling over the ledge. He had caught her by the wrist—she wasn't even sure how that was possible—and stone and dirt clattered down past her with each minute shift he made. Clearly, this was as trepidatious as it could get.

"Y'alright?"

"I don't know," she breathed. Hanging all her weight by a single arm didn't feel all that good. Then again—she glanced down to find a dark pit with sharp, pointy spikes at the bottom of it. "Could be worse," she noted half-heartedly.

He grunted when he shifted above her, and she turned her eyes back upwards. "Yeah, I can see that. Can you give me your other hand?"

Catherine didn't really think she had the upper body strength for that, but she wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth, and so when Louis stretched down towards her, she did her best to meet him in the middle.

It worked just about as expected, and when he slid forward another inch in her direction, she let out another yelp. "Stop moving!"

"I'm tryin' to help ya."

"You're going to get yourself killed, you idiot!"

"Better than lettin' you go," he grunted. Catherine couldn't help but blink up at him, stunned. Louis had proven to be foolhardy more times than she could count—all action and no forethought—yet he never failed to surprise her with how effortlessly of a hero he could be. "Just hold tight, okay?"

"As opposed to letting go?"

He took a moment just to frown in annoyance at her before he was hefting her upwards with a series of grunts. When she was close enough to reach the ledge, Catherine dug her elbow in and started to pull herself up as well. Her boots knocked loose a whole lot of stone towards the pit of spikes. Louis let go when she was mostly up, standing dangerously still on the thin ledge as she wiggled.

Thankfully, he had learned his lesson, and this time, he waited until he had both of his feet solidly on ground before he leaned down to lift her up.

"Careful, now," he tutted.

His hand was cinched around her waist when she finally got onto two feet, and the feeling of vertigo from seeing an abyss in front of her and behind her was so strong that she wavered into his chest.

"Woah, now," Lous held her tightly against him. He didn't seem to mind when she dug her hands into the front of his jacket for the second time that hour. "I got ya, yeah?"

Catherine met his eyes sheepishly.

She was shocked to find that she didn't doubt him.

"Now," he grinned, holding her hand just as tightly as he helped her hop back towards the bridge. He followed with a thud. Only when they were on solid footing did he take a moment to brush some hair out of her face. "Does savin' your life get me a kiss?"

The entire temple shook around them; in the distance, they could hear yelling, and the still reverberating sound of the scarabs chittering away.

Catherine huffed. "Get me out of here first and I'll consider it."

His smile was blinding. "Yes ma'am."

[stardust-daydream]

Pomegranate Wine Chapter Nine

River of Dreams

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story from The Mummy (1999) except my OCs.

The love of my beloved is there, on the other side, The river swallows my body.

It is her love that makes me strong, So she will cast a water-spell for me. And I will see the one whom my heart loves, Standing right before me. -Ostracon CGC 25218, Egyptian Museum, Cairo

_______________________________________

The walk down the stone path was steep and overgrown with weeds. With the moonlight to guide her way, she made it down to the banks of the Nile, where all of her worries floated away at the bank. The reeds swayed in the light breeze, which seemed to be calling her name, Ancksunamun…

Sighing serenely, she dipped her toe in to test the temperature and was satisfied. She hurriedly ripped off her dress and dove in. The cool water rushing past her skin woke her up and made her feel rejuvenated. Oh, how free I feel! Coming up for air, she floated onto her back and stared at the moon. The entire sky was awash with stars, and the sky seemed to span on forever. The wind rustled the palms that flanked the river. Grasshoppers and crickets chirping and the sound of the water lapping against the shore were the only noises she could hear. Everything felt peaceful and right in her world for the first time in a while. If she couldn't go home, this would keep her sane.

She floated there, eyes trained on the sky, for a long time. Her bare breasts were exposed to the cool air, and a shiver ran through her, so she dove back into the water to acclimate herself. Coming up for air, she continued to shiver. Shaking the water from her ears, she slowly made her way back to shore, not wanting to go back to the palace just yet. If she could, she would have run away just then. But she knew she was honor bound to stay. Groaning in frustration, she lay down on her linen towel and stared back at the sky. If there were Gods up there, she hoped they would let her go home soon. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she allowed them to fall. Here she didn't need to hide her pain. Here, she could be free.

As the moon descended, the inky black sky was lightened by shades of purple. The sun began to rise over the horizon before Ancksunamun decided she should probably go back to the palace or risk being seen. Laying on the sandy linen towel, she allowed the cool droplets to sink into her skin, leaving her covered in goosebumps from the crisp air. The air out here felt pure as she inhaled the sweet scent of the blue lotus blooms that floated lazily on the river banks. The sound of the reeds whispering in the wind and the slight lap of water against the shore was all she could hear at this time of the morning. Smiling wistfully up at the sky, she decided she could probably use a few more minutes out here. No harm done. Ancksunamun closed her eyes and allowed the sounds of the river to take her, bringing her back home. Suddenly, she heard rustling from somewhere near her. Her eyes shot open, and she sat up quickly, covering her breasts with her discarded dress.

Another rustling sound came to her ears just then. Her heart thumping, she called out, "Hello? Who's there?" Not receiving an answer, her heart thudded louder. She was finally dry from laying on the banks, so she donned her dreaded beaded dress, put on her sandals, and made her way back up the bank to the hill. Her semi-wet hair clinging to her back, she jogged up the trail, holding onto her chest as she breathed heavily. The morning sky was approaching quickly, and she did not want to be caught.

**LINK TO THE REST OF CHAPTER NINE!**

FFN

AO3

Wattpad

[honourablejester]

Top 5 movies you've watched

… I have forgotten every movie I’ve ever watched -_-; Well, no, but you’re literally getting whatever memories float up first here.

80s fantasy. This is a total cheat, but my entire childhood was 80s fantasy movies, and they’re a genre I miss so much. They had a whimsical-ness (whimsy, the word is whimsy, forgive me I’m not awake yet) and a faint joyful ridiculousness that you don’t get in fantasy any more, and that I miss so bad. Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal, Krull, Legend, Conan The Barbarian, The Neverending Story, Ladyhawke … More specifically of those, The Last Unicorn is one of my forever movies. It’s gorgeously animated, it’s such an incredibly thematic story, and Molly Grue is the best character ever created.

The Innocents (1961) is quite possibly my favourite horror movie of all time (competing mostly with Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and various Universal/Hammer films). It’s so eerie. The lake scene is one of the single scenes in cinema that sticks with me the hardest. It’s not horror as in there’s a monster, it’s horror as in your own mind is breaking down. In broad daylight, full gorgeous sunshine. It’s amazing.

Dark City (1998). I love noir (Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler) and I love German Expressionism/Futurism (Metropolis, Dr Caligari), and I love science fiction, and Dark City is an utterly fantastic mix and merge of all three in a very 90s sort of way. The themes of memory and personhood and individuality, and the expressionistic motif of the shifting, surreal, night-shrouded noir city, and the battered character of Dr Schreber struggling to secretly fight his captors/employers … It had a lot going for it. (See also: The Crow 1994, Strange Days 1995, The Breed 2001, for movies with a similar late-90s/early 00s, borderline cyberpunk, horror, exploring personhood sort of movies, they’ve all got a very similar vibe, and I enjoy all of them)

The two movies I can quote top to bottom are Young Frankenstein (1974) and The Mummy (1999), which will tell you I enjoy comedic takes on classic monster movies where the humour is warm and well-meaning and fun. I watched Son of Frankenstein (1939) because of the character of Inspector Kemp in Young Frank, I wanted to see the original he was based on, and Inspector Krogh did not disappoint. And the main cast of The Mummy, all of them, are some of my favourite fictional people, full stop, the end. Heh.

What to finish on … The first thing to pop into my mind is Arsenic and Old Lace (1944), because we’re on a theme of horror comedy, and you cannot beat AaOL for zany gallows humour. Should I jump genres again, though, to give a broader spectrum? For tense action thrillers, I love Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976, do not speak to me about the oughties remake), the pacing and tension in that movie are fantastic, and the bond that develops between Bishop, Wilson and Leigh while under siege is amazing …

I’m cheating again, though. I think I’ve mentioned far more than 5 movies. So. We’ll go with what we’ve got so far?

[acapelladitty]

Top ten characters from across all of the media you've consumed GO

10 - Kirsty Cotton (Hellraiser Franchise).

9 - Dante & Vergil (DMC).

8 - Behemoth & Koroviev (The Master and Margarita).

7 - Anna & Mark (Possession 1981).

6 - Hannibal Lecter (Mixed Medias).

5 - Ada Wong (Resident Evil).

4 - Malcolm Tucker (The Thick of It).

3 - Margarita Nikolaevna (The Master and Margarita).

2 - Edward Nygma & Jonathan Crane (DC Comics).

1 - The entire cast of The Mummy (1999).

THIS LIST IS EVERCHANGING BUT THESE PEOPLE LIVE IN MY HEART ETERNALLY!

[ask-snow]

Who is your celebrity crush? ANYONE in the public eye counts.

The entire cast of The Mummy (1999).

[letterboxd]

In Focus: The Mummy

Dominic Corry responds on behalf of Letterboxd to an impassioned plea to bump up the average rating of the 1999 version of The Mummy—and asks: where is the next great action adventure coming from?

We recently received the following email regarding the Stephen Sommers blockbuster The Mummy:

To whom it may concern,

I am writing to you on behalf of the nation, if not the entire globe, who frankly deserve better than this after months of suffering with the Covid pandemic.

I was recently made aware that the rating of The Mummy on your platform only stands at 3.3 stars out of five. … This, as I’m sure you’re aware, is simply unacceptable. The Mummy is, as a statement of fact, the greatest film ever made. It is simply fallacious that anyone should claim otherwise, or that the rating should fail to reflect this. This oversight cannot be allowed to stand.

I have my suspicions that this rating has been falsely allocated due to people with personal axes to grind against The Mummy, most likely other directors who are simply jealous that their own artistic oeuvres will never attain the zenith of perfection, nor indeed come close to approaching the quality or the cultural influence of The Mummy. There is, quite frankly, no other explanation. The Mummy is, objectively speaking, a five-star film (… I would argue that it in fact transcends the rating sytem used by us mere mortals). It would only be proper, as a matter of urgency, to remove all fake ratings (i.e. any ratings [below] five stars) and allow The Mummy’s rating to stand, as it should, at five stars, or perhaps to replace the rating altogether with a simple banner which reads “the greatest film of all time, objectively speaking”. I look forward to this grievous error being remedied.

Best, Anwen

Which of course: no, we would never do that. But the vigor Anwen expresses in her letter impressed us (we checked: she’s real, though is mostly a Letterboxd lurker due to a busy day-job in television production, “so finding time to watch anything that isn’t The Mummy is, frankly, impossible… not that there’s ever any need to watch anything else, of course.”).

So Letterboxd put me, Stephen Sommers fan, on the job of paying homage to the last great old-school action-adventure blockbuster, a film that straddles the end of one cinematic era and the beginning of the next one. And also to ask: where’s the next great action adventure coming from?

Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz and John Hannah in ‘The Mummy’ (1999).

When you delve into the Letterboxd reviews of The Mummy, it quickly becomes clear how widely beloved the film is, 3.3 average notwithstanding. Of more concern to the less youthful among us is how quaintly it is perceived, as if it harkens back to the dawn of cinema or something. “God, I miss good old-fashioned adventure movies,” bemoans Holly-Beth. “I have so many fond memories of watching this on TV with my family countless times growing up,” recalls Jess. “A childhood classic,” notes Simon.

As alarming as it is to see such wistful nostalgia for what was a cutting-edge, special-effects-laden contemporary popcorn hit, it has been twenty-one years since the film was released, so anyone currently in their early 30s would’ve encountered the film at just the right age for it to imprint deeply in their hearts. This has helped make it a Raiders of the Lost Ark for a specific Letterboxd demographic.

Sommers took plenty of inspiration from the Indiana Jones series for his take on The Mummy (the original 1932 film, also with a 3.3 average, is famously sedate), but for ten-year-olds in 1999, it may have been their only exposure to such pulpy derring-do. And when you consider that popcorn cinema would soon be taken over by interconnected on-screen universes populated by spandex-clad superheroes, the idea that The Mummy is an old-fashioned movie is easier to comprehend.

However, for all its throwbackiness, beholding The Mummy from the perspective of 2020 reveals it to have more to say about the future of cinema than the past. 1999 was a big year for movies, often considered one of the all-time best, but the legacy of The Mummy ties it most directly to two of that year’s other biggest hits: Star Wars: Episode One—The Phantom Menace and The Matrix. These three blockbusters represented a turning point for the biggest technological advancement to hit the cinematic art-form since the introduction of sound: computer-generated imagery, aka CGI. The technique had been widely used from 1989’s The Abyss onwards, and took significant leaps forward with movies such as Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and Starship Troopers (1997), but the three 1999 films mentioned above signified a move into the era when blockbusters began to be defined by their CGI.

A year before The Mummy, Sommers had creatively utilised CGI in his criminally underrated sci-fi action thriller Deep Rising (another film that deserves a higher average Letterboxd rating, just sayin’), and he took this approach to the next level with The Mummy. While some of the CGI in The Mummy doesn’t hold up as well as the technopunk visuals presented in The Matrix, The Mummy showed how effective the technique could be in an historical setting—the expansiveness of ancient Egypt depicted in the movie is magnificent, and the iconic rendering of Imhotep’s face in the sand storm proved to be an enduringly creepy image. Not to mention those scuttling scarab beetles.

George Lucas wanted to test the boundaries of the technique with his insanely anticipated new Star Wars film after dipping his toe in the digital water with the special editions of the original trilogy. Beyond set expansions and environments, a bunch of big creatures and cool spaceships, his biggest gambit was Jar Jar Binks, a major character rendered entirely through CGI. And we all know how that turned out.

A CGI-enhanced Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep.

Sommers arguably presented a much more effective CGI character in the slowly regenerating resurrected Imhotep. Jar Jar’s design was “bigger” than the actor playing him on set, Ahmed Best. Which is to say, Jar Jar took up more space on screen than Best. But with the zombie-ish Imhotep, Sommers (ably assisted by Industrial Light & Magic, who also worked on the Star Wars films) used CGI to create negative space, an effect impossible to achieve with practical make-up—large parts of the character were missing. It was an indelible visual concept that has been recreated many times since, but Sommers pioneered its usage here, and it contributed greatly to the popcorn horror threat posed by the character.

Sommers, generally an unfairly overlooked master of fun popcorn spectacle (G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra is good, guys), deserves more credit for how he creatively utilized CGI to elevate the storytelling in The Mummy. But CGI isn’t the main reason the film works—it’s a spry, light-on-its-feet adventure that presents an iconic horror property in an entertaining and adventurous new light. And it happens to feature a ridiculously attractive cast all captured just as their pulchritudinous powers were peaking.

Meme-worthy: “My sexual orientation is the cast of ‘The Mummy’ (1999).”

A rising star at the time, Brendan Fraser was mostly known for comedic performances, and although he’d proven himself very capable with his shirt off in George of the Jungle (1997), he wasn’t necessarily at the top of anyone’s list for action-hero roles. But he is superlatively charming as dashing American adventurer Rick O’Connell. His fizzy chemistry with Weisz, playing the brilliant-but-clumsy Egyptologist Evie Carnahan, makes the film a legitimate romantic caper. The role proved to be a breakout for Weisz, then perhaps best known for playing opposite Keanu Reeves in the trouble-plagued action flop Chain Reaction, or for her supporting role in the Liv Tyler vehicle Stealing Beauty.

“90s Brendan Fraser is what Chris Pratt wishes he was,” argues Holly-Beth. “Please come back to us, Brendaddy. We need you.” begs Joshhh. “I’d like to thank Rachel Weisz for playing an integral role in my sexual awakening,” offers Sree.

Then there’s Oded Fehr as Ardeth Bey, a member of the Medjai, a sect dedicated to preventing Imhotep’s tomb from being discovered, and Patricia Velásquez as Anck-su-namun, Imhotep’s cursed lover. Both stupidly good-looking. Heck, Imhotep himself (South African Arnold Vosloo, coming across as Billy Zane’s more rugged brother), is one of the hottest horror villains in the history of cinema.

“Remember when studio movies were sexy?” laments Colin McLaughlin. We do Colin, we do.

Sommers directed a somewhat bloated sequel, The Mummy Returns, in 2001, which featured the cinematic debut of one Dwayne Johnson. His character got a spin-off movie the following year (The Scorpion King), which generated a bunch of DTV sequels of its own, and is now the subject of a Johnson-produced reboot. Brendan Fraser came back for a third film in 2008, the Rob Cohen-directed The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. Weisz declined to participate, and was replaced by Maria Bello.

Despite all the follow-ups, and the enduring love for the first Sommers film, there has been a sadly significant dearth of movies along these lines in the two decades since it was released. The less said about 2017 reboot The Mummy (which was supposed to kick-off a new Universal Monster shared cinematic universe, and took a contemporary, action-heavy approach to the property), the better.

The Rock in ‘The Mummy Returns’ (2001).

For a long time, adventure films were Hollywood’s bread and butter, but they’re surprisingly thin on the ground these days. So it makes a certain amount of sense that nostalgia for the 1999 The Mummy continues to grow. You could argue that many of the superhero films that dominate multiplexes count as adventure movies, but nobody really sees them that way—they are their own genre.

There are, however, a couple of films on the horizon that could help bring back old-school cinematic adventure. One is the long-planned—and finally actually shot—adaptation of the Uncharted video-game franchise, starring Tom Holland. The games borrow a lot from the Indiana Jones films, and it’ll be interesting to see how much that manifests in the adaptation.

Then there’s Letterboxd favorite David Lowery’s forever-upcoming medieval adventure drama The Green Knight, starring Dev Patel and Alicia Vikander (who herself recently rebooted another video-game icon, Lara Croft). Plus they are still threatening to make another Indiana Jones movie, even if it no longer looks like Steven Spielberg will direct it.

While these are all exciting projects—and notwithstanding the current crisis in the multiplexes—it can’t help but feel like we may never again get a movie quite like The Mummy, with its unlikely combination of eye-popping CGI, old-fashioned adventure tropes and a once-in-a-lifetime ensemble of overflowing hotness. Long may love for it reign on Letterboxd—let’s see if we can’t get that average rating up, the old fashioned way. For Anwen.

Related content

How I Letterboxd with The Mummy fan Eve (“The first film I went out and bought memorabilia for… it was a Mummy action figure that included canopic jars”)

The Mummy (Universal) Collection

Every film featuring the Mummy (not mummies in general)

Follow Dom on Letterboxd

[managodess]

Also pretty much the entire cast of The Mummy (1999)

listen i’m bisexual so that means i’m attracted to

vampires

gomez AND morticia addams

any man with long hair

women who can and will murder me

the entire concept of period dramas

[lena-in-a-red-dress]

Let's talk about The Mummy (1999)

Someone was talking at me yesterday about this movie and I was getting riled so I decided to go full rant. Specifically in regards to the feminist podcast that slammed it.

I don't even remember which podcast it was, but I am still rankled and baffled that any "feminism in movies" podcast could jump to anything but "this movie is phenomenal."

First of all, even just discussing the overall quality: sure, it might not have been groundbreaking with its cgi or plot twists. But back in the 90s, that wasn't the standard of measure like it is now (and even now is a shitty standard that needs to die). This movie was light and funny and yet hit all the right beats to maintain the dire stakes needed to make it a compelling action flick.

Its characters are fully realized and entirely distinct from each other. Even those treated with a broader brush, such as the Americans, were charismatic enough that we were fully invested in their fate. The entire cast of characters were real people with real impact and real agency.

The script is quotable and fucking hilarious. There are gems from literally every single character. Rick and Evie have actual chemistry, aided by Rachel Weisz's natural magnetism and Brendan Frasier's career-long knack for acting utterly charmed with his female costars.

Actually, let's talk about Rick O'Connell for a second. This is peak 90s Brendan Frasier. He is absolutely GORGEOUS, suave, and cool, rugged and handsome. He is the epitome of the 1920s adventure hero. Dear god I want to kiss those casting directors. But for all his general peak masculinity? He's feminist as fuck. He is equally dumbstruck by Evie as she is by him, and it's wholly evident that it's more than a "oh no she's hot" thing.

How do we know?

He steals her some tools to dig with. This gift demonstrates that he a) has identified her passion for archaeology, b) has recognized her proficiency in the field, despite it not being explicitly stated on screen, and c) sees a chance to restore her full and active participation in the discovery of Hamunaptra.

There is never a moment where Rick assumes to be the leader of the expedition. He is the weapons expert, the muscle--and he knows it. Better than that, he's totally okay with it. He follows Evie's lead in all things.

Another favorite moment of mine is when they're facing off with the American team on Day 1, and Evie realizes there's a chamber underneath Anubis they could use to excavate the statue. She puts her hand on Rick's arm, looks him in the eye, and says very deliberately "there are other places to dig." And he yields, instantly.

By comparison, see the way the Americans treat their workers and guide.

Does he groan about his work being made exponentially harder as a result? Nope. And that's a recurring theme in his behavior the entire goddamn movie. The only time he is in charge is when a situation is in his wheelhouse-- namely, combat and rescue. And it deserves mentioning that the majority of the time that he's in charge, Evie is not present.

Meanwhile, Evie-- her adventurer's spirit chafing in an academia that dismisses her for her gender-- is an absolute marvel. She is visually coded as being very feminine (she's in dresses and long hair most of the film), but that fact in no way detracts from her competence and agency.

She is consistently protrayed as a fully capable expert in egyptology and there is never a single moment where she waffles on what to do. Even when she's the damsel in distress, she actively makes the choice to be so because she weighs the potential outcomes and decides doing so provides their best chance of success.

Evie is never the passive victim. She is constantly brash, constantly scheming, and saves the lives of her would-be rescuers mid-abduction. And when her brother (who is the failure of the family, against type) needs help with translation, she correctly translates for him while being throttled by a mummified priestess.

When I first saw this film, I was too young to realize how novel it was. Back then, all I knew was that it was just a good time. But now as an adult-- an adult acutely aware of the treatment female characters have gotten in the twenty years since-- I marvel at the respect with which the writers and directors treated Evie.

I marvel at how tender Rick was allowed to be, despite his rugged adventurer archetype.

The Mummy (1999) is peak storytelling. It doesn't try to outsmart the audience, but rather lays out a consistent, coherent narrative that gives the characters and viewers room to breathe. It invests the audience enough to care whether the characters succeed in their goals.

The Mummy (1999) does it right. It's the reason that any talk of the Tom Cruise version gets an immediate eyeroll from me, because whatever modern grimdark grit they shove into a story about a mummy cannot compare to the reliable and timeless entertainment of the 1999 adaptation.

All modern media should aspire to be the kind of film that The Mummy (1999) is.

[ghostflowerdreams]

The Mummy (1999) Novel

I’ve been recently reading The Mummy (1999) novelization by Max Allan Collins because it has been a very long time since I last read it. While it’s still fresh in my memory I figured I’ll take notes and list down what the film audience doesn’t know about the characters and the extra details about the scenes we’re familiar with.

The novelization does a decent job at matching up with what was seen on film. Some of the characters are fleshed out a bit more, certain scenes and storyline expanded upon. That’s because a lot of times, the extra material is taken from the original screenplay or production notes so the author has a better understanding of what’s suppose to happen.

Occasionally, little details or even an entire scene will be different (or cut out) from the movie indicating the change was made during the casting and the filming. The reason for that is because majority of film novelization is written in advance (using the early draft of the film's script) so that the novel can be published before the films’ release. An example of that is in Alan Dean Foster‘s novelization of Aliens, in which Newt is written as a six-year-old but she’s clearly older in the movie.

Anyway, here are my notes along with stuff I’ve remembered from the film’s behind-the-scenes commentary, interviews, and my previous research into ancient Egypt.

When and where was Richard “Rick” O’Connell born?

He was born in Chicago, Illinois, US, in 1902 to an Irish-American explorer named Jack O'Connell and his American wife.

At some point in his childhood his parents died, leaving him to grow up in an orphanage in Cairo, Egypt.

Some people guessed that his mother could’ve died at childbirth or of unknown causes later on. That would leave Rick with his father and because his father is an explorer, something must’ve happened to him while they were in Cairo.

Rick wondered out loud why Beni was in the legion. His reply...

“They’re after me in Hungary for robbing a synagogue—that’s my specialty, synagogues: Hebrew’s one of my seven languages.”

Beni asked Rick how he ended up in the legion. His reply...

“It was Paris, it was spring, and I was looking for a way to impress a young lady...and maybe I was looking for a little adventure.”

He was also very drunk, but didn’t want to admit that out loud to Beni.

Why was the French Foreign Legion in Egypt?

Their commanding officer, Colonel Guizot had found a map showing the way to the fabled Hamunaptra. With the promised of ancient riches the garrison of two hundred men abandoned their post and followed the Colonel across Libya and into Egypt to the City of the Dead.

Fun Fact: The name Libya is historically inaccurate. In 1923 (and in 1926 when Rick talks to Evelyn), that territory was known as Italian North Africa. The Italian government would not give it the name "Libya" until 1934, though the name comes from the region dating back to ancient times, so Rick could have been using it informally, as was common.

Fun Fact 2: Hamunaptra (also known as the City of the Dead) is a fictional Egyptian city made up for the film. The film is set, naturally, in Egypt, but was filmed mainly in Morocco with Marrakech being the 1925′s Cairo. Hamunaptra was a vast set built at an old fort inside a dormant volcano crater about 12 miles southwest of Erfoud, in the southeast of the country.

How did Rick get the puzzle box and map?

In Hamunaptra Rick was saved when he decided to take shelter right underneath the statue of Anubis where Imhotep was buried. It scared off the Tuaregs because they heard voices/shrieks while the sand moved on its own. When Rick looked down he found the puzzle box in the sand, he grabbed it and ran off when he realized the sand was forming a screaming face.

I assumed it belonged to his commanding officer who dropped it when he ran away. Because I figured the Medjai would’ve separated the key (and map) from its lock and hide it somewhere far away from Hamunaptra as another deterrent. At some point it must've gotten lost or stolen and it found its way into the Colonel’s hands. If that was the case I’m surprise the map wasn’t destroyed to begin with, unless the Medjai didn’t know the key contain a map within it.

Another possibility was that the Colonel might’ve only found the map (and not the key) and when Imhotep felt people above him, he manipulated the sand to unearthed the key. Rick might’ve been holding onto the map his Colonel found and placed it inside the key for safekeeping.

This is probably what happened because what other reason would Imhotep make himself known? After all, he had plenty of opportunities to spook people when they were all camping there.

How did Rick survive the desert? Well, Ardeth wasn’t wrong to leave him to the desert because Rick would’ve been dead if it wasn’t for...

A caravan of diggers out of Cairo that stumble on to him.

Then how did Beni survive the desert?

After hiding from the marauding band of Tuaregs in the ruins. He waited until it was quiet and escaped the desert by taking the camels of a few dead legionnaires.

Why the camels? Because any valuable supplies, such as water and food would’ve been on them and not on the legionnaires’ bodies.

Why did the Medjai not deal with Beni?

Eh...I don’t know.

I suppose the Medjai could’ve assumed he was a camel trader, but it’s more likely that they overlooked him. They were too focused on Rick to notice Beni taking the back route of Hamunaptra with his fallen comrades’ camels.

Does Evelyn need glasses?

No, she doesn’t actually need them.

One of the things clarified in the novelization was that she only wore them for close-up work. They messed with her depth perception and that was what caused her to misjudge the ladder and knock over all the book shelves in the library.

How did Jonathan get the puzzle box?

Jonathan was at Sultan’s Casbah, a dump catering to European rabble in one of the less reputable corners of the French Quarter ---where he pick-pocked Rick.

Why was Rick in jail and what did he do to be hanged?

According to Jonathan, Rick was involved in a drunken brawl, after which he (O’Connell) had been arrested.

When he was in custody they would’ve checked his name and/or his belongings and realized he was a legionnaire that wasn’t at his post (or that he wasn’t dead unlike his comrades). They marked Rick and his unit as a deserters and that’s a hanging offense. But like Jonathan said, “But the French Foreign Legion have no jurisdiction here. This isn’t Algeria, for heaven’s sake...”

The warden, Gad Hassan, admitted that he has “A reciprocal arrangement with the legion—for fifty of your pounds, we waive them the trouble of extradition.”

Because of that Evelyn negotiate with him, “I will give you fifty pounds more to let him live than the legion’s paying you to kill him.” But in the end she had to reveal the reason they needed Rick and had to negotiate the percentage of the treasure Hassan can have.

How did Rick get clean up, pay for the supplies, and guns?

He convinced Evelyn to give him twenty pounds to cover expenses and supplies.

What fragrance does Evelyn wear?

A lilac-scented perfume.

I made a note of this because not only does Rick find Evelyn attractive, but he also noticed how good she smelled too.

What is the name of the passenger barge they're on?

Ibis

Fun Fact: Ibis are birds with long legs and long-down curved bills which are used to explore mud for getting food. 

In ancient Egyptian, the Ibis bird was also sacred to and associated with Thoth the God of wisdom and writing. Thoth was often represented in the form of a man's body with the head of the Ibis and was the patron of the educated scribes who were responsible for the administration of Egypt.

What book was Evelyn reading on the passenger barge?

A Passage to India by E. M. Forster

Was the sunlight-reflecting mirrors trick a real thing or made up?

The underground sunlight via mirror-refractions used by Evelyn in the movie is factual; this method was actually used by the ancient Egyptians to light building interiors in some situations.

It works, but it wasn’t quite that effective and they weren’t used as the only light source (i.e. torches and lamps). Plus, the mirrors would only provide light for about 4 minutes before needing readjustment due to the Earth's rotation.

Fun Fact 1: Mirrors were actually reflective polished metal.

Fun Fact 2: The MythBusters made an episode on exactly this. MythBusters Episode 169: Let There Be Light

Were all scarabs flesh-eaters?

No, it was only those found in the City of the Dead that were flesh-eaters.

It can be assumed that they were specially created or bred in Hamunaptra to be used for the Hom-dai (and possibly to protect Seti’s riches from thieves as well). Because pouring the scarabs into Imhotep's sarcophagus wasn't just to torture him further; it was an essential part of the ritual. They would eat his flesh, and when he became desperate he would eat them, and this would continue for years. This dark mockery of the cycle of life was an important aspect of making him immortal so that he would suffer forever.

The rest of the scarab species are normal and they’re worship as a symbol of the heavenly cycle of the sun god Ra, who would roll the sun across the sky each day. They also represent rebirth and/or regeneration.

In the film the flesh-eating scarabs are a navy-shelled color, but in the novelization they’re purple like amethyst quartz.

What liquor bottle did Warden Gad Hassan have in his bag?

In the film it was Glenlivet (a Scotch whisky brand that has been brewed in Scotland since 1824). When Jonathan says, "Glenlivet 12 years old," he is actually stating the name of one of Glenlivet's products, not just its age; "The Glenlivet 12 Year Old" is one of the company's core products. However, in the novelization it was a bottle of Glen Dooley, also aged 12 years.

Was Evelyn grossed out at seeing Beni and Rick roasting rat meat over the campfire? Nope, she didn’t even blink an eye at them and even asked for one herself.

“Do you have an extra rat-ka-bob, Mr. O’Connell? I’m famished.”

What was the point of the Hom-dai in the first place?

As Evelyn put it -- “As a threat, a deterrent—as something that could be invoked, should anyone really misbehave.”

The ancient Egyptians never thought anyone would ever commit a crime so terrible that they would need a punishment that was just as terrible. After all, the curse meant that a person could never find peace in death for their soul would be condemned to eternal torture.

What is the Hom-dai?

The Hom-dai is a curse and in order to ‘curse’ Imhotep they put him through a different mummification ritual.

They first cut out his tongue and then began wrapping him entirely in bandages while he is still alive. When the embalmers finished they apply detritus to Imhotep's wrappings as he squirms, which act as a glue to keep it in place. As soon as it was set they would then bring in a bucket filled with carnivorous scarab beetles and pour them into his sarcophagus.

They sealed him in with the four-sided key and buried him underneath the statue of Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death.

Fun Fact: The Hom-dai it isn’t a real Egyptian curse. It is a fictional concept made up for the film. So is a locked sarcophagus.

Why was Imhotep given the Hom-dai?

Imhotep committed the crime of using the Book of the Dead to bring back his lover, the Pharaoh Seti I's mistress, Anck-Su-Namun from the dead.

He also betray and murdered the Pharaoh Seti the First (because Pharaohs’ are considered divinely appointed representatives of the gods on earth), but they consider the use of the Book of the Dead to be a much greater offense.

Otherwise, I think they would’ve just executed him or torture him to death using conventional means. As for his priests, they would’ve probably been given the offer to commit suicide, public flogging or sentenced to have their nose and ears cut off. [x]

Why is the Hom-dai feared?

As Evelyn said, “Yes, they never used it because they feared it so. It's written, that if a victim of the Hom-dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt.”

Both the novelization and film don’t have all the plagues appear and not in order either. The first plague was a swarms of locusts, the second being water turning into blood, the third was the solar eclipse, the flaming hail and then the plague of boils and sores.

Fun Fact: The ten plagues in actual order are: water turning to blood, frogs, lice, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and the killing of firstborn children. Also, the plagues of Egypt originate with the Hebrew Bible, which was way after the time of Imhotep.

What was inside the five canopic jars?

The lungs are placed into the canopic jar of Hapi, which has the head of a baboon.

The intestines are placed into the canopic jar of Qebehsenuef, which has the head of a falcon.

The liver was placed into the canopic jar of Imsety, which has the head of a human.

The stomach was placed into the canopic jar of Duamutef, which has the head of a jackal.

The heart was placed into the canopic jar of (I’m guessing) Sekhmet, which has the head of a lion.

Fun Fact: In real life only four canopic jars were ever used during mummification and the heads on the jars represented the four sons of the Egyptian deity Horus.

The heart was actually left in the body – on account of it being considered the seat of character and identity. Ancient Egyptians believed that the heart would be weighted by Anubis.

In particularly, the heart would be weighed against the feather of ma’at; if the heart weighed less then the feather, the deceased was admitted to paradise. If not, the heart would be fed to the goddess Ammit, and the soul condemned to eternal restlessness.

The brain was not considered to have any importance, and was disposed of. They would do this with a hammer and chisel through the bone of the nose. Then they inserted a long, iron hook into the skull and slowly pulled out the brain matter. Once they had removed most of the brain with the hook, they used a long spoon to scoop out any remaining bits.

Why does the phrase ‘death will come on swift wings” sound familiar?

“Death will come on swift wings to whomsoever opens this chest.”

It’s the inscription on the chest containing Anck-Su-Namun’s canopic jars.

Fun Fact: It sounds familiar because this phrase was borrowed from the real world inscription (often referred to as "curse") that was reportedly inscribed near the door of King Tutankhamen's tomb, "Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King."

Who are Evelyn and Jonathan's parents and what happened to them?

Her parents, who had died several years ago in a plane crash, had not been as wealthy as some supposed, and at any rate had left the bulk of their estate to the Cairo Museum of Antiquities, leaving her brother, Jonathan, and herself only the house and an allowance of a few hundred pounds a year each.

Many believe that their plane crash was because of a curse connected to a mummy that their father, Howard Carnahan had disturbed.

Evelyn spends her allowance according to her needs, while Jonathan wastes the vast majority of his on liquor. Their mother was Egyptian and “quite an adventurer herself.”

Fun Fact 1: Evelyn Carnahan’s father -- Howard Carnahan is a reference to the real-world archaeologist Howard Carter, who was involved in the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb. However, it was Carter’s employer Lord Carnarvon (who was also there) that had died. Many believed it was due to a curse because he disturbed the King’s tomb, while Carter lived for another sixteen years.

Fun Fact 2: Evelyn Carnahan was also based on a real person -- Lady Evelyn Beauchamp, the daughter of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. She was also present for the 1922 discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun.

What does Evelyn wear around her neck?

A locket that contains a small photo of her parents.

It’s reveal that Evelyn shares the same features -- blue eyes and mouth -- as her Egyptian mother. 

In the novelization Evelyn has auburn hair, while in the film she has brown hair which I think is more fitting for a half-Egyptian and half-English character. Simply because brown hair is the second predominant hair color in the world. It’ll be more likely and realistic, but not impossible if she did have auburn hair. It’ll just depend on where in the UK her family comes from and how lucky she was in the genetic lottery.

Fun Fact: The English actress, Rachel Weisz, who plays Evelyn Carnahan, actually has hazel eyes.

The scene where Evelyn gets drunk is slightly different in the novelization.

In the film she passed out in Rick’s arms before she could kiss him. However, in the novelization she does managed to kiss him and he falls asleep with her in his arms.

She doesn't remember anything in the morning and Rick teases her that something happened between them and that it’s a shame she’s doesn’t remember it. She’s horrified and embarrassed at what he’s implying, but he assures her that...

How well can Impotep see with Burns’ eyes?

Not very well, because as soon as he took Burns’ eyes, he mistook Evelyn for Anck-Su-Namun.

However, once he absorbed the others, his eyesight fully regenerated. And later on he most likely decided that Evelyn—being the only woman he has seen around the group—would work as a sacrifice needed to regenerate the body of his beloved.

Why did Imhotep spare Beni’s life?

When Beni began to pray in Hebrew Impotep recognizes the chanting as “the language of the slaves”.

Imhotep forces Beni into serving him, since having someone around who can actually understand him and knows how to navigate the modern world would be very useful to have.

However, setting aside the debate about the historicity of the Bible and the Exodus story, the time period in which Imhotep—an ancient Egyptian High Priest—would have any familiarity with the Israelites, it should have been Aramaic, not Hebrew.

Where did the white cat come from?

The white cat, named Cleo, actually belongs to Evelyn.

At Hamunaptra the two groups (the Americans’ and the Carnahan’s) had broken camp, and loaded up their horses and their camels. After a three-day trek from oasis to oasis, they sought sanctuary at Fort Stack, which was located at the southernmost outskirts of Cairo. They had trudged up to the front gate, showed their papers, and were granted admittance. The Fort’s commandant had even offered them the guest quarters to stay in.

While staying there Evelyn sent Jonathan to the Carnahan's residence in Cairo to bring a steamer trunk of clothing (because she lost all of her luggage at the barge) and he brought along her cat.

Fun Fact 1: Cats were not guardians of the underworld.

This myth was based on a very loose interpretation of their Cat Goddess, Bastet. She was Goddess of protection against contagious diseases and evil spirits which had no relation with the Underworld.

Her only tenuous connection to the Underworld was because she was seen for a short while as the wife of Anubis, the embalming God (who is often known as the “second in charge” in the underworld after Osiris).

Fun Fact 2: In the movie, it was called Fort Brydon and was named after Colonel Brydon, a character in The Jungle Book, which was another film that director Stephen Sommers had worked on.

In the novelization, Fort Stack was named after Sir Lee Stack, the assassinated governor general of the Sudan and Sirdar of the Egyptian Army.

What’s different from the film and novelization of when Rick and Evelyn are arguing about whether to stay and fight or run away?

In the novelization, Evelyn is planning another expedition to Hamunaptra and is packing her bags to return. Rick tries to convince her to stay in Cairo. Rick removes her underthings from the trunk to put them back into the chest of drawers. Evelyn grabs them and returns them into her trunk. He takes them again, but he forgets he’s holding them in their argument. He slams the door shut on his way out, then realizes he still has her underthings. He opens the door, pitched them in and goes out to get a drink.

In the movie Rick is the one packing her luggage because he wants them all to leave Cairo, but she wants to stay. She keeps taking her things back out. Rick stalks out of her room clutching a teddy bear. In the director's commentary, Sommers reveals that the scene was shortened and, originally, Rick was supposed to suddenly walk back in and give her teddy bear back and storm out again.

Did you know that the scene in which Imhotep was fully regenerated, Evelyn was suppose to say something else?

Evelyn clutched O’Connell’s arm, and gasped. “He’s . . . he’s like a god!”

The scene in the novelization is the same as the film, but it was revealed in the film’s commentary that in the final script, Evelyn was supposed to say, "He’s . . . he's gorgeous" when she first sees the fully resurrected Imhotep.

The line was filmed, but removed from the final cut because it marred the tone.

Why does Imhotep call Evelyn his princess?

“Come with me, my princess. It is time to make you mine, forever for all eternity.”

I don’t know, but I wanted to make a note of this because of all the things he could’ve called her (such as my...beauty, flower, precious, and so on), he went with princess. Calling her princess makes sense if you’ve watched The Mummy Returns, but it could’ve been just a coincidence. As far as I know a lot of movie sequels back then didn’t plot that far in advance.

Where is the Book of the Living?

At Hamunaptra -- “The statue of Horus should be located fifty kadams west of the Anubis statue.”

At the base of the Horus statue there was a secret compartment with the gold Book of Amun Ra. Just like the Book of the Dead, it too was booby trap with pressurized salt acid. In the film the scene was cut, but in the novelization before Rick and Jonathan could open the compartment themselves, the mummies knocked them away and opened it to presumably steal the book. They triggered the trap, melted away and left behind holes in the floor.

Fun Fact 1: The codex-style books (pages, covers, and binding) were not invented until the Roman Empire. Ancient Egyptians used scrolls. Therefore, the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra should not look like modern books at all.

Fun Fact 2: There are real world manuscripts referred to in modern times as the Egyptian Book of the Dead and are actually varying scrolls of funerary rites which they referred to as the Book of Coming Forth by Day; these books are meant to tell the soul of the deceased the proper procedures and incantations for proceeding to the afterlife.

Fun Fact 3: Salt acid is another name for hydrochloric acid, though it is not generally accepted to have been invented by humankind until the 15th Century at the earliest.

Fun Fact 4: The idea of elaborate booby-traps like crushing ceilings, poisoned darts firing from the walls, falling boulders, decapitating blades, and so on in ancient tombs and temples is nothing more than a fantastical depiction by Hollywood.

In reality Egyptian tombs only had dummy passages, false walls and a few simple sliding-slab traps to seal thieves off or drop them in holes. But after many years those traps have deteriorate and/or have been triggered (which many of them still did not deter thieves).

How did Winton die?

His neck snapped on impact.

I made a note of this because I was a kid when I first watched the movie and I didn’t realized that was how he died. I always thought he died from a heart attack or a stroke.

Fun Fact: There’s no quicksand in the desert. Quicksand is sand or clay and salt that becomes waterlogged, often in river deltas. Because it’s very hot and there’s no water in the desert; quicksand isn’t at all possible.

Why was Evelyn laying unconscious on the sacrificial altar?

Impotep started to speak in Hebrew, a language that Evelyn didn’t know. She realized he was avoiding his own language because he didn’t want her to know what he was up to. So she demanded Beni to tell her what he was saying. He informed her that Imhotep wanted to remove her organs. She objected and Imhotep backhanded her and she fell to the floor unconscious.

In the movie we’re not shown how she was rendered unconscious.

Does the novelization end the same way as the film?

Yes, but it hints that Evelyn becomes the first female curator in the history of the Cairo Museum of Antiquities.

And because of Beni, each of the camels’ saddlebags was filled to the brim with the gold and jewels of the pharaoh’s treasure. The treasure was probably how they were able to afford that big fancy house in England from The Mummy Returns. It probably helped fund some of Evelyn’s and Jonathan’s expeditions too.

Rick obviously pursued a romantic relationship with Evelyn and eventually married her.

As for Ardeth, he survived and return to his people. Just because Imhotep was defeated didn’t mean his duty was done. The Medjai still needed to stand guard to make sure Imhotep stayed buried in the sand.

Fun Fact 1: Apparently, in the original script of the film, Ardeth Bay was suppose to die at the end. But thankfully, the revised version of the script that they gave Max Allan Collins was the one in which Ardeth survives.

Fun Fact 2: Oded Fehr’s character name wasn’t used once throughout the entire movie until the end credits. And it wasn't until the next movie, The Mummy Returns, that his name was said aloud. In the novelization we learn his name when they go to the museum to get answers from the curator.

Speaking of which, the name Ardeth Bay is an anagram of the phrase, “Death By Ra.” It’s also a nod to Boris Karloff’s mummy, Imhotep, who’s alter-ego was called Ardath Bey (and yes, the two letters were purposely switched).

Fun Fact 3: The tattoos on Ardeth Bay's forehead are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs that spell “Underworld”, and the ones on his cheeks are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the word “truth”. All Medjai males get these tattoos as part of the coming-of-age rite.

Fun Fact 4: The Medjai were originally supposed to be tattooed from head to toe, but Stephen Sommers vetoed it because he thought Oded Fehr was “too good-looking” to be covered up.

Note: I also did this for The Mummy Returns (2001) novelization, which you can see here.