The Mummy Trilogy: Difference between revisions

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The sequel, ''The Mummy Returns'', featured Jonathan Carnahan, the now-married [[Adventure Duo|Rick and Evelyn]] and their inquisitive son Alex. Imhotep returns, tries to steal a magical army from the Scorpion King, who was portrayed by [[Dwayne Johnson]], give or take some [[Special Effects Failure|Special Effects Failures]].

 

 

The third movie, ''The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'', was not as well received. Stephen Sommers neither wrote nor directed it. It had Rachel Weisz [[The Other Darrin|replaced with]] Maria Bello. Imhotep was gone in favor of a new villain played by Jet Li. And there are yetis. [[I Know Madden Kombat|Who kick field goals.]] On the other hand, it had a scene where the villain tears his own face off and throws it at someone. And [[Lawyer-Friendly Cameo|King Ghidorah]].

 

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* [[Actor Allusion]]: After a mostly-regenerated Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) kisses a sleeping Evy [[Darkman|the lower half of his face rots away.]]

* [[Adrenaline Makeover]]

** Rick goes from self-absorbed ne'er-do-well to proper Action Hero [[Love Interest]].

** Even Jonathan, the comic relief, manages to hold his own several times when challenged, including by [[Dark Action Girl|Meela]].

* [[Adventurer Outfit]]

* [[Ancient Egypt]]: The source of the plots for two out of three of the films.

* [[Animated Adaptation]]: There was an Animated series on KidsWB that lasted two seasons.

* [[Artistic License Physics]]: In the second film when the jets on the sides of the dirigible are activated there is no drag on the balloon itself.

** And the balloon somehow manages to ''rise'' immediately after being soaked with probably many hundreds of pounds of water.

* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: Whomever slays the Scorpion King with the Sceptre of Osiris automatically gains the authority to command the Army of Anubis.

** Imhotep Twice. In fact, Rick [[Hangs a Lampshade|lampshades]] this in ''Dragon Emperor''

'''Rick:''' Yeah, same mummy: ''twice''! [emphatic two-fingered hand gestures] }}

** Ankh-Su-Namun

** In ''Tomb Of The Dragon Emperor'' is when the title villain's Teracotta Warriors emptied a barrage of arrows into an opposing army of heroic skeletons. This naturally had no effect on the already dead targets, and one of the undead says in perfect and ''completely un-subtitled'' Chinese to his comrade ''"Your head's over here."''

* [[Blunt Yes]]

'''Ardeth and Dr. Bey:''' YES! }}

** Or later in the film:

''([[More Dakka]] ensues)'' }}

* [[Bond One-Liner]]

** Amusingly, he actually ''meant'' what he was saying, as killing the King gave him control over the undead army, or in this case, the authority to banish it.

* [[Bottomless Magazines]]: In the real-world 1930's, six shooters shot six times. In fact the fixed-frame revolvers they were using had to be loaded and unloaded one shot at a time. In the film you get a full twelve shots with one of those bad boys.

** Weirdly enough it also contains a notable inversion in the opening shootout. Rick draws twin Colt M1911s, fires about four shots and they both run dry (slides locked back and all) he throws them aside and draws two more Colt .45s. A strange case of Limited Magazines.

* [[Brick Joke]]: Jonathan hides in a sarcophagus in the museum and makes one of the mummies pop out to scare Evy. Later on when they open Imhotep's sarcophagus his mummy pops out at them and Evy yells "I hate it when these things do that!"

* [[Britain Is Only London]]

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: In ''The Mummy Returns'', Jonathan enters the movie carrying a scepter, and the scene plays out as though it's merely a random trinket he pilfered away like usual. Then Hafez draws attention to it by taking it with great respect and exclaiming "It can't be!" and it's forgotten for the rest of the movie until the end... {{spoiler|It turns out to be the ceremonial spear needed to slay the Scorpion King}}.

* [[Chekhov's Skill]]:

** Evelyn taught Jonathan to pronounce the symbol that is shaped like a stork near the end of The Mummy. In The Mummy Returns, Alex was stuck at the same symbol, and Jonathan proudly taught him how to pronounce it.

* [[Clap Your Hands If You Believe]]

* [[Cool Pet]]: If a falcon isn't a [[Cool Pet]], I don't know what is.

* [[Collapsing Lair]]: Every movie has one.

* [[Curiosity Killed the Cast]]: Evy reads from a book that sets off the events of the first movie, and that conveniently prevents the production company from having to pay more actors.

* [[Curse Cut Short]]: When {{spoiler|The museum curator is going to burn Evy}}

* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: Rick, Evy, and Jonathan all have their moments.

** Also the prison warden, who steals a wall decoration that's actually a live scarab beetle...which burrows ''into his skull''.

* [[Death Seeker]]: Winston. A pilot who survived the war, when all his buddies died in glorious combat. {{spoiler|In fact, when the heroes recruit his assistance against Imhotep, and tell him point blank that he'll probably die as everyone else who got involved has died, he sounds downright giddy}}

* [[Disaster Dominoes]]: by Evy in the first, then Alex in the second - proving it runs [[In the Blood]].

* [[Disposable Pilot]]: This happens in the first movie, to the old ennui-ridden war pilot, but then is averted in the second.

* [[Evil Is Not a Toy]]: If only Hafez knew that. He wants to unleash Imhotep in the hope that he can stop the Scorpion King, not taking into account that no matter who wins it will be an ''evil undead''. It works about as well as you'd expect.

* [[Eye Scream]]

** When the boat is attacked, Evy uses a candle to the eye as self-defense.

* [[Fake Nationality]]: Almost nothing ''but'' Fake Nationalities. [[Rachel Weisz]] really is English, [[Jet Li]] actually was born in China, and all the 'American cowboys' are played by Americans, but nobody who played an Egyptian character was actually Egyptian, or even Arab or African. Oded Fehr is Israeli, Arnold Vosloo is South African, Patricia Velasquez is Venezuelan, and [[Dwayne Johnson]] is an American--of Samoan and African heritage, mind you. O'Connell's actor is Canadian American, Jonathan's is Scottish, Beni (who is supposed to be Hungarian), is played by an Irish-American guy from Chicago. From the third movie we have [[The Other Darrin|Maria Bello]] (American), [[Michelle Yeoh]] (Malaysian) and Russel Wong (American).

** Anck Su Namun's first appearance is in ''strategically placed cloth and body paint''.

** Aversion: In the first film, when the boat sinks and everybody comes ashore, Evy's gown was alegedly so sheer that she appeared completely naked. To keep the film's rating around PG-13, Stephen Sommers ordered a full gown be edited in, much to the annoyance of some of the producers.

* [[Fridge Logic]]: How did Imhotep control the Nile waters when he only had power over the sands of Egypt? He utilized the sand in the Nile and brought the water along for the ride.

* [[Full Name Ultimatum]]: Rick to Alex in ''Tomb of the Dragon Emperor''

* [[Genre Blindness]]: Jonathan shouldn't have ''openly stated'' he was moving to Peru because there were no mummies there.

** Evelyn near the end of the first film.

'''Evelyn:''' Yes. Always. }}

** Rick by the second film.

'''Rick:''' I didn't, but that's always the story. }}

** Invoked again in the third, when leaving the museum Rick mention that the emperor "will get stronger as they wait to defeat him" with no one explaining it to them.

* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: During the chase sequence in Shanghai, Jonathan has this priceless reaction to his burning backside:

** This is ultimately how Beni escapes from Rick shortly after being interrogated.

** When Ankh Su-Namun casts aside her daggers during Evy's flashback from the second film, they stick in the groins of a pair of statues nearby.

* [[Guns Akimbo]]: The preferred method of combat in the O'Connell family.

* [[She Cleans Up Nicely|He Clean Up Nicely]]: Evy has this reaction the first time she sees Rick clean-shaven and dressed tastefully after bailing him out of prison.

* [[Heroic Bloodshed]]: The trilogy is basically a pastiche of Hong Kong Action cinema conventions attached to a 1930's Pulp-Novel, with this genre being the most obvious homage in the first two movies.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]]: In ''Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'', Zi Yuan (who had already sacrificed her immortality to raise General Ming's army) allows the Emperor to mortally wound her with his sword in order to get back the dagger that can kill him.

* [[Hey, It's That Voice!]]: The CG Scorpion King is voiced by Max Cavalera, former lead singer of [[Sepultura]].

* [[Hero Stole My Bike]]: More like "hero's brother-in-law stole my double-decker bus."

** Michelle Yeoh as Zi Yuan.

** When they first learn that Imhotep is afraid of cats, do they offer the nearest urchin some cash to round up some cats? Why, no, why would we want to protect ourselves with the only thing we know of that works?

*** To be fair, they find this out too late to really put it to use; it stops working after he's fully regenerated, and the heroes only manage to make use of any cats once before that happens, though it does save their lives.

** The Medjai's big plan to keep 'The Evil' sealed beneath the sands for all of eternity. Good in theory, except they left the book necessary for his revival where just anyone could find it. You'd think, that given the task they were charged with, they would've kept the book in their possession at all times so that it could never be used rather than left someplace where anyone could get to it if they found Imhotep's resting place.

*** No, no, no I'll do you one better: Why in the hell would you USE this technique in the first place? Yes it's a horrific way to die, but there are a lot of those. And if anyone figures out a way to bring him back, he'll be capable of destroying the world? That seems to be punishing the world more than him. Good Lord, there have to be easier/less apocalyptic ways to punish a dude.

** Also the men he had on hand were a little outnumbered by Hafez's.

* [[Ironic Echo]]: In ''The Mummy'', Jonathan needs Evy's help translating a hieroglyph in order to complete a spell; in ''The Mummy Returns'', Alex needs Jonathan's help translating the same hieroglyph in a different spell. And in both cases, the second party is in mortal peril whilst helping. Even better, both of them are under mortal peril from a one on one fight with Anck Su Namun.

* [[I Should Write a Book About This]]

* [[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique]]: Rick O'Conner interrogates Beni for information about Imhotep's plan by shoving him just inches away from a ceiling fan.

** In The Mummy Returns he also grabs Ardeth and shoves him into a post to yell "What the hell are you doing here?" at him. Granted, Evy ''had'' just been kidnapped, but it seems a bit harsh of a way to treat your known ally.

** After yet another [[Dramatic Wind]]: "That happens a lot around here."

** The director Steven Sommers and editor Bob Duscay do a lot of lampshading in their commentaries.

* [[Last Request]]

* [[Lead the Target]]

* [[Let's Get Dangerous]]: Jonathan may be a ridiculously greedy, swindling [[Plucky Comic Relief]], but he is also a crack shot with a winchester rifle, a skilled pickpocket, and disturbingly competent with a book of ancient spells.

* [[Letting Her Hair Down]]: Evy.

* [[Load-Bearing Boss]]: {{spoiler|Awesomely [[Subverted Trope|subverted]] in the first movie;}} when the heroes finally "kill" Imhotep, the whole place starts coming down on them. {{spoiler|It was actually Beni's fault, leading to his [[Karmic Death]]}}.

* [[MacGuffin]]

** The Mummy: the Book of the Living and the Book of the Dead, not to mention the canopic jars.

* [[Morality Pet]]: Jonathan's a greedy bastard, but [[Big Brother Instinct|he does seem to care about his little sister.]]

* [[Mortality Ensues]]: It turns out that the companion book to the Book of the Dead doesn't kill the [[Big Bad]] when read from. What it does is remove his immortality, allowing him to be killed like a mortal.

* [[Mummy]]

* [[My Death Is Just the Beginning]]: The [[Arc Words]] of the first movie.

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Evy reading from the Book of the Dead: nice job awakening it!

* [[Night of the Living Mooks]]:

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Rachel Weisz, replaced by Maria Bello in the third movie.

* [[Past Life Memories]]: In the second film, Evy keeps having flashes of insights and memories that make her think she's hallucinating. It turns out, they're memories of her past life in ancient Egypt.

* [[Pre-Mortem One-Liner]]: Used by Rick dispatching the Scorpion King ("Go to hell, and take your friends with you!") and Emperor Han ("Now you can rule... in hell!").

* [[Present Company Excluded]]:

'''Rick:''' None taken. }}

* [[Pretty in Mink]]: In the third movie, there were a few fox wraps, in addition to the winter coats in the mountains.

* [[Punctuated Pounding]]: Rick in ''Tomb of the Dragon Emperor'', when gunning down the Emperor's troops at the Great Wall

* [[Red Shirt]]: In the first movie, anyone in the expedition that isn't one of the three leads. Even more so in the second where Imhotep's mooks actually wear red!

* [[Refuge in Cool]]

** Imhotep, after a fashion, in the second.

* [[The Remake]]: the first one, anyway, was a re-imagining of the original black and white horror classic.

* [[Removable Turret Gun]]: the protagonists pluck the mounted [[More Dakka|machinegun]] from the plane before it sinks into the quicksand.

** Justified as the gun in case is a regular infantry light machine gun.

* [[Rule of Scary]]: Sure scarabs don't really dig under people's skin and eat them from the inside out...but it's just so ''scary''.

* [[Sadly Mythtaken]]: Imhotep was an actual historical figure.

*** Some theories contend that Imhotep was the Biblical Joseph.

** Also, there were two ancient Egyptian rulers who had each claimed the title of Scorpion King. One was named Osiris Scorpion; this troper forgets who the other one was.

** Also applies to the prologue of ''The Mummy Returns.'' [[Did Not Do the Research|Anubis is not an evil god,]] [[Dark Is Not Evil|not by a long shot.]] The closest thing late Egyptian mythology had to an evil god would probably be Seth, the villain of the Osirian cult and formerly a benign god in his own right; before Set there was Apep, the Immortal Serpent who would battle Ra every night for all eternity, explaining the shift between day and night. Then again, [[Rule of Cool]] is in full effect, and Anubis is certainly one of the cooler gods: he essentially was a dying man's best friend, keeping carrion beasts away from your corpse, was present at the Opening of the Mouth ceremony marking a dead soul's entrance into the afterlife, and admitted the worthy into paradise. All around a pretty swell guy, and doesn't fall under [[Evil Is Cool]] by any stretch of the imagination. Oh well, [[Everybody Hates Hades|everybody hates Anubis]].

** Imhotep is [[Weaksauce Weakness|scared by cats in the movie]] due to the claim that cats are the guardians of the doors of the the Egyptian underworld. While there are a few cat deities in Egyptian mythology (one of them ([[Blood Knight|Sekhmet]]) is actually pretty terrifying), they were associated with other aspects, to be specific, [[Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving|war, disease, hunting, fertility, and motherly love]], it would have made much more sense to have him be afraid of snakes, since most of the deities assigned with duties like punishing the damned in the afterlife were horrific snakes, such as Khetti, or the servants of Seker, who's job was essentially to punish people like Imhotep. Plus, then Imhotep would have had an excuse to say "[[Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?]]" as a [[Shout-Out]].

* [[Say Your Prayers]]: Beni's prayers are played humorously, as he prays to several gods in several different languages before praying in Hebrew actually winds up saving him, because its a language Imhotep understands.

* [[Sidekick]]: Jonathan. Similarly, Izzy in the second film, who is a cowardly sidekick who is black (and not, mercifully, a [[Ethnic Scrappy|Black Cowardly Sidekick]]).

* [[Soft Water]]: In the second movie. When they "drink the Nile" they aren't crushed into the wall behind them, and the airship is later pushed by the wall of water rather than harmed.

* [[Spinning Out of Here]]: In ''The Mummy Returns'', Imhotep starts spinning and then turns into a whirlwind to travel.

* [[Spin-Off]]: ''[[The Scorpion King]]'

** "No harm ever came from reading a book."

** Done again in ''Returns'' and summarily lampshaded.

'''Rick:''' ''Yeah, and "no harm ever came from reading a book". Remember how that one went?'' }}

** Also done in the ending of ''Tomb of the Dragon Emperor''. Jonathan states that he's moving to Peru after selling his bar to a Russian pilot, and states that at least that place doesn't have mummies. A narrative quote then appears stating that after his arrival, mummies were discovered in Peru.

** Who could forget this little gem:

'''Beni:''' Oh like I never heard that before!!! }}

*** Then later on:

'''Evy:''' Always. }}

* [[Tentative Light]]

* [[There Was a Door]]: [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] when Evelyn tries to block a door to stall some mummy soldiers.

* [[The Undead]]: The mummies, duh.

* [[This Is Sparta]]: "IT OPENS! UP! INTO! A SPEAR!"

* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: Alex in the second film. Given who his parents are, all of the ancient traps and cursed objects they've encountered and that the Temple they found the Bracelet in immediately ''self-destructed'' upon its removal... what made him think that putting the damn thing on his arm was at all ''safe?!''

* [[Translator Microbes]]: Briefly in the second film, Imhotep uses his re-emerging powers to be able to converse with Alex in English. Its likely the reason he doesn't do this all the time is because most of his minions (and enemies) already speak Egyptian and he urgently needed the information from Alex to lead him to Ahm Shere.

* [[Two-Fisted Tales]]

* [[Weaksauce Weakness]]: Imhotep's curse rendered him terrified of cats. [[It Makes Sense in Context]], though, given that cats are the guardians of the underworld, a place which he surely does not wish to return.

* [[Well-Intentioned Extremist]]: Yang and Choi. They resurrected the Dragon Emperor only so they could end China's civil war.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]?: Rick lighting a match by striking it against [[Memetic Badass|Ardeth Bey's]] stubble. Especially considering what he did with that match.

'''Rick:''' "Yeah, something like that." }}

* [[My God, What Have I Done?|What Have We Done?]] Said by the Egyptologist during the locust swarm heralding {{spoiler|Imhotep's rebirth}}: [[It Got Worse|as the full weight of the situation dawns upon him.]]

** Imhotep is played by Arnold Vosloo, who is South African.

* [[Who Wants to Live Forever?]]: Lin in the third movie, once she realizes that she's in love with Alex. Her mother took care of that problem.

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