Stephen Sommers pitched Universal a version of The Mummy that leaned into adventure and romance, and in 1999 that pitch became a $422.5 million worldwide hit. It is not a good film. It is a film with Brendan Fraser running from a sandstorm, and for a lot of people that was enough. The Mummy opened May 7, 1999, to mixed reviews, and the mixed reviews were right.
Trailer, via Park Circus.
Rick O’Connell and the French Foreign Legion
The plot is a loose remake of the 1932 original. In 1290 BC, High Priest Imhotep carries on an affair with Pharaoh Seti I’s mistress, Anck-su-namun. They kill the Pharaoh. She takes her own life so Imhotep can escape the Medjai. He and his priests steal her corpse and head for Hamunaptra to bring her back. The Medjai stop them. The priests are mummified alive; Imhotep is cursed and buried alive with flesh-eating scarabs.
Cut to Cairo, 1926. Librarian Evelyn Carnahan and her brother Jonathan have a map to the City of the Dead. Rick O’Connell found the place three years earlier with the Legion. He is in prison. Evelyn bargains with a corrupt warden to get him out.
Imhotep Wakes Up
The Americans are digging too. Beni Gabor, Rick’s cowardly ex-Legionnaire friend, guides them. Ardeth Bay and the Medjai warn everyone off. Nobody listens. The Americans find the Book of the Dead and five canopic jars. Evelyn, Rick and Jonathan find Imhotep’s remains. That night Evelyn steals the Book of the Dead and reads from it, and Imhotep wakes up.
Arnold Vosloo Plays It Straight
Vosloo told Sommers he wanted to play the role “absolutely straight.” His read: “From Imhotep’s point of view, this is a skewed version of Romeo and Juliet.” He got the part after one audition. He also dropped 10 to 15 pounds for the skimpy costume by giving up alcohol and sugar.
Fraser was cast after George of the Jungle made money. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck had all been offered the part first and passed or couldn’t fit it. Fraser understood Rick “doesn’t take himself too seriously, otherwise the audience can’t go on that journey with him.” That instinct is the whole engine of the movie.
What the Sahara Did to the Crew
Sommers shot in Morocco and the United Kingdom. The crew dealt with dehydration, sandstorms and snakes in the Sahara. Industrial Light & Magic built Imhotep by blending live-action footage with computer-generated imagery. Jerry Goldsmith wrote the orchestral score. The tagline promised “The sands will rise. The heavens will part. The power will be unleashed.”
The Hard Numbers
- Release date: May 7, 1999
- Runtime: 124 minutes
- Production budget: $80 million
- Worldwide gross: $422.5 million
- 1999 box office rank: sixth-highest-grossing film
- Metacritic: 49/100
- Score: 4.9/10
The Mummy Returns and What Came After
The Mummy started a franchise. The Mummy Returns followed in 2001, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor in 2008. An animated series ran from 2001 to 2003. The sequels are weaker films that coast on the first one’s goodwill.
| Element | The Mummy (1999) |
|---|---|
| Director | Stephen Sommers |
| Lead | Brendan Fraser |
| Genre | Adventure, action, fantasy |
| Relationship to original | Loose remake of the 1932 film |
Evelyn Carnahan’s Name
Evelyn was named for Lady Evelyn Herbert, daughter of amateur Egyptologist Lord Carnarvon. Both were at the opening of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922. Rachel Weisz auditioned multiple times. She wasn’t a horror fan and saw the film as “hokum” — a comic book. John Hannah got Jonathan despite telling Sommers he wasn’t a comedic actor. Sommers said of the casting, “He had no idea why we cast him.”
What the Movie Gets Wrong
The Mummy works when Fraser is on screen and sags when he isn’t. The visual effects around Imhotep, our judgment, have aged into a rubbery cartoon. The 124 minutes are loose where they should be tight, and the romance between Rick and Evelyn is thinner than the film thinks. What holds it up is Vosloo playing a cursed priest like a tragic lover instead of a monster, and Fraser treating the whole thing as a lark. That combination is why the franchise happened. It is also why the film never becomes more than a lark. The sand rises, the heavens part, and what gets unleashed is a decent Saturday afternoon.
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