- It's outright stated several times in the first movie that the curse used on Imhotep grants the victim invincibility and lots of cool undead superpowers should they ever be dug up. Given this, why did they bother using it on him? Granted, that was apparently the only time they used it, and he does suffer the whole "eternally chewed on by flesh eating beetles" thing not to mention how big the ancient Egyptians were on the afterlife but still. And then, he gets a second chance at Apocalypse How in the next movie!
- The point was to dissuade anyone who might otherwise choose to bring him back. It was the Ancient Egyptian equivalent of burying him with a crate of land mines.
- Also being immortal means you cannot proceed to the afterlife... something the Ancient Egyptians were very big on.
- And that he would suffer for eternity. It was still a stupid idea though, Imhotep is clearly beginning to be able to exert his power on the world even without being properly awoken by the time the movie takes place. He probably would have eventually freed himself anyway at that rate.
- Presumably it's some sort of trade-off with the gods - the victim gets cursed to suffer an eternity of pain and torment, with no possibility of passing into the afterlife, but to prevent its overuse, the downside is that if they're ever brought back to life, they get all these destructive powers.
- I thought it was an emotional punishment, that Imhotep would be immortal, but parted from Anck-us-namun forever, since her soul had departed to the afterlife. Anyways, look at where the scarabs landed first... his crotch.
- The Hom-Dai curse, although understood as highly dangerous and horrific, is under/overestimated by the fandom. Firstly, Imhotep was forced to remain alive, and conscious, in unimaginable pain even as his body was reduced to a "juicy" carcass. Secondly, he also had to undergo some nasty mental torture; no external stimulations and constant remainders of his past failures (failed resurrection, loyal servants gruesomely executed, betrayal of his gods...). Thirdly, he had to endure scarabs moving inside his body while eating it (remember what just one scarab did to the warden), in complete darkness of his small coffin, all while enduring starvation, thirst and increasing lack of breathable air. It's a miracle that Imhotep somehow retained his mental faculties. On the other hand, he evidently could not free himself at all despite his powers, since even with his coffin opened he had to wait until Evie read from the black Book of the Dead. Afterwards, he got very lucky to both shamble across the only sacrificial victim that was too blind to run away from him in time and meet the only guy who could understand him and guide him to his victims. Yes, his prison failed the test of time, after some measly 3000 years or so, but in the end all that was needed to stop him was the golden Book of Amun-Ra. If the Medjai didn't forget its location (and knew how to read its spells) Imhotep's rampage would have been fairly short. Go to Hamunaptra, bring cats and measures against the scarabs, take the book then read from it. Same goes for the period set in Ancient Egypt and so forth.
- In the first sequel, the Hom Dai curse is still on Imhotep? When he awakened in the British Museum the entire city must be full of locust, blood rivers and the plagues. In the other hand, he still have super strength, invulnerability and apparently the rest of his powers (and some new, as telekinesis and hypnotic). The plagues were removed or something?
- It isn't. After all, you yourself noted that no Plagues had occurred and he does not use any of his Hom Dai related powers. Imhotep appears invulnerable simply because adding bullet holes to his undead body makes no difference given its overall state. Also, the supernatural strength is shared across all types of mummies. Evidently, Evy depowering Imhotep and then him being killed broke the curse for good and afterwards he seems to be using powers he could have earned as a High Priest.
How the hell does the pharaoh's wife scratch an itch or go to the bathroom? And what about sitting or eating? I mean, the smeared paint could mean she just got itchy or something dammit!
- Since the pharaoh pretty much bursts in on Anck-su-namun and Imhotep in flagrante delicto (the script notes the balcony and set of rooms as Anck-su-namun's private chamber) and Imhotep barely manages to slip away before he gets in the room, the implication is that the pharaoh has been having one or both watched and followed and knows full well that they're both in there together and what they've been getting up to. By itself in a different situation the smudge could be innocent, but in that particular context it's confirming his suspicions about her infidelity. In any case, he's pretty clearly a jealous man, and jealous lovers often don't need to look too hard at the evidence before throwing around accusations, whether the evidence is conclusive or not.
- It could be that (that he has his suspicions), or it could also be that he was just returning from another part of his empire (he's shown riding in on a chariot) and his timing was inconvenient for them by chance (hasn't everyone had someone nearly, or actually, burst in on them during the act?).
- It was probably more that he'd already seen something awry (Imhotep's priests, "What are you doing here?"), and that it wasn't some tiny little smear in the paint, it was pretty clearly from a big meaty hand rubbing down her arm.
- Moreover, whomever touched her would wind up with body-paint on his hands, thus potentially betraying the culprit. If she got her paint smudged just sitting down or using the chamber pot, she could point to the stained seat if her husband got upset about her pattern being mussed.
- Having her body-painted may have been the Pharaoh's covert, intentional test of her faithfulness, not a routine fashion thing she wore every day. They were newlyweds and he'd have wanted to verify her fidelity, suspicious as he seems to have been.
- Since she's...y'know the queen, she's bound to have plenty of hand maidens or ladies in waiting who help her go to the bathroom or reapply the paint. We just don't see them there because she's seeing Imhotep in private.
- She's not the queen, she's the Pharaoh's mistress. He turned her into his living sex toy.
- She was to be his wife and protector, according to The Mummy Returns. She may not have been considered his equal but still was a woman of high status, thus deserving handmaidens and such. As athletic as she was shown she probably would not have had that many problems with the ink in her everyday life. Anyway, by itself the smudge could have been excused, but there were also Imhotep's priests there and Ankh-Su-Namun offered nothing in her defence. Given that Nefertiri seemingly suspected the affair, it is not outside the realm of possibility that Seti saw some signs as well, hence the accusation.
- She also seemed secretive and tried to hide the smudge at first, which likely put him on the alert. After all, if it was an innocent mistake, why would she try to hide it?
- She didn't try to hide the smudge; her small gasp when Seti accusatory points it out heavily implies that in the throws of passion she didn't register Imhotep's hand touching her. Also, she had no time to improvise an excuse since immediately afterwards Imhotep non-verbally answers Seti's question.
- In The Mummy Returns, when Imhotep is resurrected in the British Museum, he first is seen as his first face skeleton-like, but with eyes and tongue. Later he regenerated partially, into his second phase as seen in the first movie (after kill Burns). In his first defeat he turns back at his first mummified form without eyes. So, why he resurrected in the sequel with eyes and tongue, and seconds after he regenerated a bit??
- In the first movie, all Evy did was to ignorantly read a short spell. In the second one, there was an elaborate ritual going on, with multiple chanters and an entirely different spell. It stands to reason that because of that Hafez was able to produce better results.
- Also in the first movie, Imhotep was the victim of the Hom Dai, which was broken at the end so he could be killed for real. In the second, he's resurrected differently.
- In The Mummy Returns, Imhotep scares the bejesus out of a trio of mercenaries seemingly For the Evulz. What does Meela Nais tell them to do? "Open the chest!" But if the chest was lost when Hamunaptra sank, where did they get it... and where Imhotep learn English?
- The chest wasn't lost. It was brought to Cairo. And Imhotep wasn't actually speaking English.
- Besides, they excavated Hamunaptra to get at Imhotep himself, why do you think they couldn't have gotten the chest too even if it was buried?
- Also, they managed to find The Book of Amun-Ra, which was accidentally pitched into a pit of black slime in the previous film.
- Actually it was the gold book that fell into the slime in the first film. Imhotep ended up with the Book of the Dead and tried to use it to resurrect Anuck-su-namun. That was just buried under the rubble when the tomb collapsed.
- Right, the golden book is the Book of Amun-Ra.
- The Medjai know damned well the Egyptian gods are real and their curses work, and exist only to fight the monsters they left behind and prevent their rise by any means necessary. How were they ever converted to Islam?
- Because Islam doesn't regularly create human eating monsters that want to conquer the world?
- Nonetheless, one can only begin to wonder what their belief structure is like?
- They probably acknowledge that the Egyptian gods are powerful spirits or beings but do not worship them, possibly not even ascribing actual divinity to them. It's not that difficult of a concept, really.
- Islamic doctrine contains three sapient species that are creations of Allah - humans, angels and jinn. I'd assume the Egyptian gods fall into the latter category: powerful spirits capable of miraculous feats/magic, but ultimately subservient to the one true God.
- That missionary needs his own movie, he must have done something that impressed the underworld out of them. In the present movies they mostly attack without a word.
- In actual Egyptian mythology, there is a creator God that made everything else. He is unique in that he created himself and is the only being capable of creating beings asexually. With a bit of artistic licence, one could pass this God off as Allah.
- Actually, it was probably Christianity that they first converted to, same as the rest of Egypt. Paganism was already on its last legs in that part of the world before Islam was founded.
- The word 'Allah' literally translates into 'God'. Several cultures even utilise the name to refer to their own deities, outside of the Islamic religion. Bornean and Indonesian Christians are an example of this, as the word was appropriated from common usage within the Malay and Indonesian languages.
- The plagues of Egypt are sometimes interpreted as the Abrahamic God kicking the Egyptian pantheon's butt. It would imply that they acknowledge their existence, just that God is greater than them, and more worthy of worship.
- How did Imhotep get encased in amber. Yeah, he was sinking into a slimy pit, but I don't recall the pit being golden.
- It's not amber. It's solidified sand and water— basically like a crude cement.
- In The Mummy Returns, Rick stops Evy from trying to block the doors of the British Museum, stating that mummies don't use doors. How does he know? I don't recall there ever being a moment in the first movie where Rick tries to block a door only to have the mummies barge through somewhere else.
- I recall maybe two scenes in the first film where Rick was standing ready to defend a doorway/passage, only to be attacked from the walls or floor.
- OP here, and you're right. Upon rewatching many times (mostly because I like the movie), it never occurred to me to recall the floor until your suggestion.
- There's also that, when confronted with a locked door, Imhotep simply transformed into sand and passed through the keyhole in that state. While the protagonists may or may not have observed this (the timing of their bursting in and intervening with the cat could suggest either possibility), for sure they know that he has some means of bypassing doors, locked, barricaded or otherwise.
- When they learn that, until he's fully regenerated, Imhotep is deadly afraid of cats, why don't they simply get a bunch of alley cats to keep around the Americans and Evie at all times, so that Imhotep can't get near them?
- Quite simply, no time when you're rushing around avoiding Imhotep's perils and struggling to keep the gang together to nab a few felines.
- But they had a cat! There's one in the room to scare off Imhotep the first time, and Rick holds presumably the same cat up again to frighten him off just after he kissed Evy. Why didn't they just take that cat with them?
- I think they did, which is why Imhotep enslaved all those people - to get around his weakness.
- And how about in the second movie, when they know a lot better what they're dealing with?
- They might have reasonably assumed that if cultists were capable enough to find and resurrect Imhotep then they would have surely bothered to procures some means to fully restore his body (Heck, Ardeth was in the camp around the time of the chest recovery). They were also in a hurry to catch up to Alex, so they had little time to look for cats.
- In the second movie, if Medjai were aware of the Imhotep's cult working to dig him out (we see Ardeth Bey infiltrating the excavation site), why didn't they simply storm it with their huge army, kill all the cultists and prevent Imhotep's resurrection?
- This one is explained in-universe, they usually exist as a large number of separate groups and it took them time to assemble. A force the size of the one that tried to storm the camp in the first movie (the raid they threw together, not the full battle at the beginning) would have been slaughtered.
- They were already massing for the fight with the Scorpion King which they knew was probably unwinnable. Even if they could have gotten a big enough force there in time, they couldn't afford the casualties just to stop a lesser threat.
- Elaborating on the above, given that we see Ardeth spying on the cult in Hamunaptra he might have overheard the talk about having Imhotep kill the Scorpion King. As Imhotep is no longer under the Hom Dai, he was vulnerable to assassination should he succeed in killing the Scorpion King.
- Where DID Jonathan get an empty double-decker in the middle of the night?
- My personal guess is that he was too afraid to hot-wire his Brother-In-Law's car (all the criminal hobbies Jonathan has, this has to be one of them) but stealing from some bus company who won't punch him for it is fair game in an emergency. As a side note, I like to imagine eight year old Alex's logic of "well, last time we couldn't use the car, we got the bus!"
- If the cultists dug Imhotep out in Egypt, and the tomb of the Scorpion King they are after was also in Egypt, why the hell did they need to drag the mummy all the way to England to resurrect it? Surely a cult of that size and resources (they had a train at the least) wouldn't have a shortage of accommodation, would it? It's not like they needed any special arrangements for the ritual - you just read from the book, and they already had it.
- They only wanted to revive him when they had the bracelet too. That way, they could show off and say "look what a good job we've done getting everything ready. So when you rule the world, we'll be rewarded, right?".
- Meela/Anaksunamun also wanted to kill Evy in front of him as revenge for her sending his immortal soul to the underworld. Much easier to carry an inert mummy from Egypt (hide it in a suitcase, maybe? Private aeroplane?) than to drag her kicking and screaming all that way. Plus, Hafez is the curator of the British Museum, he has the resources to perform his ceremonies in a place he probably feels comfortable.
- The Medjai may have already been tracking them in Egypt, so they left the country temporarily until they could power up Imhotep again. They knew that Ardeth couldn't bring his entire tribe with him to England, and probably figured that they could take him and the O'Connell family out more easily without a horde of fanatical cavalry at their beck and call.
- Also, it's the British Museum. Maybe they wanted to give Imhotep a tour (to see if any of the stored/displayed relics would have some unknown magical purpose but which he may be aware of).
- And the O'Connells were in Egypt when they dug up Imhotep, so maybe they were hoping to nab Evie there but they just got unlucky and had to do it in England.
- The three thugs that clash with the O'Connells in the beginning of "Returns" seemed to come after them specifically. But they were also hired by Imhotep's cult and apparently came for the Bracelet of Anubis. So, did Hafez know that the O'Connells were searching for the Bracelet or at least that they were excavating in the exact spot where he knew the Bracelet was? If he did, why would he send only those three shmucks? It's Rick O'Connell we're talking about, the man who defeated Imhotep the last time. Also, if Hafez knew that that's where the Bracelet was, why wouldn't he procure it long before that? It IS the cornerstone of their plan, after all.
- They originally just went after Evy and Alex. IIRC Rick wasn't there when they initially attacked them.
- As Hafez is the curator of the Museum we can presume Evy works with, she probably mentioned it. She might even have been sent by him specifically, if he figured that she would be better equipped than his mooks. He would have sent his men to pick it up a) to make sure they got it in time because 5000 years is a long time to wait and b) to make sure no one put it on before they could.
- We find out in "The Mummy Returns" that Evie was Nefertiri, daughter of Seti I, in a past life. They are identical (both being played by Rachel Weisz). Nefertiri sparred with Anck-su-namun for the entertainment of the Pharaoh and Imhotep himself, and as the Pharaoh's high priest and the Pharaoh's daughter they would have definitely known each other in some context or another. Given this, how does Imhotep not recognise her upon seeing her for the first time in "The Mummy"?
- Because he took his eyes from a guy who was seriously nearsighted. That's the actual explanation.
- As for all other encounters, by that time he can see that she clearly doesn't recognise him, so she is not actually Nefertiri. Him being an expert on Egyptian afterlife's workings and knowing about the 3000-something year gap, he simply wasn't surprised about this particular reincarnation. He clearly wasn't surprised about Meela's. Under different circumstances he might have had a talk with Evy but resurrecting Anck-su-namun was more important.
- There's also the fact that Nefertiri was Egyptian, while Evy is predominantly British and only part Egyptian. The audience sees her looking identical to Rachel Weisz because that's an easier coding to sell the reincarnation angle. And Imhotep might not have had much contact with her beyond occasional pleasantries here and there. But he and Anuck-su-namun were passionately in love, and he knew her very well, so he'd be more likely to recognise a reincarnation. But even then, he notes just a fleeting resemblance, and it's Meela herself who says she's the reincarnation.
- Where exactly did Imhotep get that gold to show Beni that he'd reward him greatly for helping him? He's wearing no clothes in that scene, is it a literal Ass Pull?
- No, since at that point his ass was all but non-existent. He could have just pressed the gold into his molten flesh and held it there with some of his remaining wrappings.
- What exactly were those pillars Alex knocked over in the sequel holding up?
- They were just decorative.
- In the first movie, Pharaoh Seti's "crown jewel" city was Thebes. However, in the prequel part of the second movie which took place a thousand years earlier, The Scorpion King (or his look-a-like grandson), destroyed Thebes using the Army of Anubis. Then, when Rick and Evie are at Thebes, the same fallen pillars are on the ground, unmoved for 5,000 years. Shouldn't have Seti have had the place cleaned up, since it was his capital city?
- Possibly they were left to lie there in Seti's day, as a dreadful warning not to go anywhere near the Scorpion King's tomb?
- Egypt is such an ancient country that its ancient ruins are built on other ancient ruins, which are built on still other ancient ruins. Possibly the fallen pillars got buried by sandstorms soon after the Army of Anubis sacked the place. Wait a few thousand years, and the wind blows the sands away to reveal what's hiding under them. This is literally what happened to other structures like the Sphinx in Real Life, on not one but several occasions.
