The Mummy (1999 film)

The Mummy is a film written and directed in 1999 by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, with Arnold Vosloo as the reanimated mummy of the title. The movie features dialogues in ancient Egyptian language with the assistance of a professional Egyptologist.

It is a loose remake of The Mummy (1932), which starred Boris Karloff as the mummy.

The Mummy does not take place at the famed Giza pyramids where several Old Kingdom Egyptian kings (Egyptian monarchs were not yet called Pharaohs) were buried. Instead, the setting is the fictitious Hamunaptra—the "City of the Dead."

In 2001 A sequel was made titled The Mummy Returns.

Tagline: The sands will rise. The heavens will part. The power will be unleashed.

Plot

The film begins in 1290 BC. In this version, the mummy is a traitorous High Priest named Imhotep (Vosloo) who had an affair with pharaoh Seti's mistress, Anck-su-namun (named after the historical queen Ankhesenamun). After the pharaoh discovers the affair, he is killed by Imhotep. Anck-su-namun then kills herself, intending for Imhotep to later resurrect her. (This event is played again in the sequel.) Imhotep then breaks into her crypt and steals her body; he and his priests flee into the desert where they commence the resurrection ceremony. However, they are quickly caught by the Pharaoh’s guards; Imhotep's priests are mummified alive, and Imhotep himself is forced to endure the ritual of Hum Dai - Imhotep's tongue is cut out and he is mummified (like his priests, alive) before being buried with a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. The horror of the ritual is that it grant immortality, but not invulnerability so that, unike his priests, he is not allowed to die and must enjure the agony of his wounds for all time. Imhotep is buried under high security - if he were ever to be released, the powers that kept him immortal would enable him to unleash a wave of destruction and evil.

Thousands of years later, in 1926, librarian and aspiring archaeologist Evelyn Carnahan (Weisz) and her bumbling brother Jonathan contact a prisoner, Richard "Rick" O'Connell (Fraser), who happens to know the location of Hamunaptra--the "City of the Dead" and the treasure of past pharaohs that it contains. The expedition quickly becomes a race against another group. This second group is composed of Americans, who are being led by Beni Gabor, an old army colleague of O'Connell's who also knows how to find Hamunaptra.

Both groups trying to reach Hamunaptra are attacked by members of a secret society, lead by Ardeth Bey (Oded Fehr), devoted to making sure the creature never awakens. However, both groups make it to the city, where everyone excavates old artifacts in search for the Book of the Dead. While exploring the city, the come across several traps, such as parastic beetles that are hidden in hollow golden beetles, and pressurized salt acid. Evelyn "borrows" the book and reads a page of the Egyptian language. Imhotep is accidentally released, and begins killing the Americans due to the fact that they opened the box which played a part in the curse by holding the sacred canopic jars. Beni survives a meeting with Imhotep by pledging allegiance to him and helps Imhotep later track down the Americans. Imhotep eventually brings the Ten Plagues of Moses, and captures Evelyn, intending to use her to resurrect his long-dead lover. Rick and Jonathan rescue Evelyn and thwart Imhotep in his attempt to resurrect Anck-su-namun. Evelyn reads from the golden book of Amun-Ra which takes the mummy's immortality after which Rick kills his mortal body.

As they are leaving Hamunaptra, Beni falls behind to plunder the treasures of the lost city, and is trapped with a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. The heroes ride off into the sunset on camels, as yet unaware that their saddlebags are packed with treasures Beni looted earlier.

Book of Amon-Ra

The book of Amon-Ra, also called The Book of the Living, was a fictional book, seen in both The Mummy, and The Mummy Returns. It is made completely of gold, and it 'takes life away'- in the film, it is used to make Imhotep mortal, apparently by sending his soul to the underworld. It was found in the base of the statue of Horus. During the colapse of Hamunaptra, it was dropped and left behind. It bears similarities to the non-fictional Book of the Dead.

Cast

See also: Characters related to The Mummy (1999 film)

Actor	Role
Brendan Fraser	Richard 'Rick' O'Connell
Rachel Weisz	Evelyn Carnahan
John Hannah	Jonathan Carnahan
Arnold Vosloo	High Priest Imhotep
Kevin J. O'Connor	Beni Gabor
Oded Fehr	Ardeth Bey
Jonathan Hyde	Dr. Allen Chamberlain
Erick Avari	Dr. Terrence Bey
Bernard Fox	Captain Winston Havlock
Stephen Dunham	Mr. Henderson
Corey Johnson	Mr. Daniels
Tuc Watkins	Mr. Burns
Omid Djalili	Warden Gad Hassan
Aharon Ipalé	Pharaoh Seti I
Patricia Velásquez	Anck Su Namun

Origins

In 1992, producer James Jacks decided to update the original Mummy film for the 1990s. Universal Studios gave him the go-ahead but only if he kept the budget around $10 million. So, he brought horror filmmaker/writer Clive Barker on-board to direct. Barker’s vision was quite violent and gory with the story revolving around a man who runs a contemporary museum and turns out to be a cultist trying to reanimate mummies. After several meetings, Barker and Universal lost interest and parted company. Filmmaker George A. Romero was brought in but his vision was a zombie-style horror movie a la Night of the Living Dead and considered too scary by Jacks and the studio who wanted a more accessible picture. Joe Dante was the next choice and he increased the budget size but envisioned someone like Daniel Day-Lewis as a brooding Mummy. This version (co-written by John Sayles) came close to being made with some elements, like the flesh-eating scarabs, making it to the final product. However, at that point, the studio wanted a film with a budget of $15 million and nixed Dante’s version.

Then, writer/director Stephen Sommers called Jacks in 1997 with his vision of Raiders of the Lost Ark-style action/adventure film. He had wanted to make a Mummy film since 1993 but other writers or directors were always attached. Finally, he had gotten his window of opportunity and pitched his idea to the studio with an 18-page treatment. Universal liked this idea so much that they green-lit the movie and increased the budget from $15 million to $80 million.

Trivia

"Ardeth Bey", the name of Oded Fehr's character, is a reference to "Ardath Bey", the name used by the reanimated mummy in the 1932 original. Ardath Bey is an anagram of "Death by Ra."

Sequel

The Mummy Returns, was released in 2001.
The Scorpion King, a spin-off featuring a character from The Mummy Returns, was released in 2002.

Though not officially announced, it is believed that a third Mummy movie is currently planned, as Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, and Stephen Sommers have all hinted at it. [http://www.aint-it-cool.com/display.cgi?id=20076

Spinoffs

There is also a spin-off television series, The Animated Series (2001), broadcast on The WB network in the United States and BBC1 and the CBBC channel in Britain. English Computer games developers Rebellion created a spin-off game for Universal Studios Interactive division for the PC, PlayStation and Dreamcast. Various platform versions were released throughout 1999 and 2000.

The movie property was also spun-off into successful, multi-million dollar attractions at Universal Studios Orlando and Universal Studios Hollywood. The Revenge of the Mummy: The Ride attractions at both parks are high speed rollercoasters with dark ride elements, however both are very distinct in execution due to the spacial limitations. The Hollywood ride was constructed in the former E.T. Adventure building, while the Florida version had a much larger stage with the space formerly used by the KONGfrontation attraction, in which guests encountered King Kong.

External links

Official site
Imhotep's Chamber
Hamunaptra, City of The Dead
Keith Short - Film Sculptor Images of set pieces created for this film
The Mummy & The Mummy Returns Fanlisting

Die Mumie (1999) | La Momie (film, 1999) | La mummia (film 1999) | ハムナプトラ/失われた砂漠の都 | Mumien

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