YMMV / The Mummy (1999)

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• Actor Shipping: Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz's powerful onscreen chemistry was one of the reasons for the film's success, and many who desire a fourth film would like to see the two together onscreen again. This is despite the fact that Weisz is married to Daniel Craig and that they haven't remained close after the films, according to Weisz (although she did text him after his Oscar win for The Whale in March 2023, confirming that they're at least still in touch). It doesn't help that Weisz once described Fraser as "hunky".
• Adaptation Displacement: Many viewers of the movie are unaware that its a remake of Universal's classic 1932 horror film. It is however a very loose one, being more of an adventure comedy rather than the horror romance the original was.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: Arnold Vosloo recalled returning from filming and his friends asking him "Why did you do a mummy movie?". Rachel Weisz similarly feared she would never work again. No one expected it to be the smash hit that it was.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • For Anck-su-namun. Did she truly love Imhotep? Or was she just using him in order to break free from being the Pharaoh's mistress? Indeed, her first reaction the discovery of the affair is to suggest that she take the fall, killing herself and giving Imhotep a slim chance to resurrect her. On the other hand, it's a big deal to go from being the bride-to-be of the Pharaoh to sacrificing it all for just a priest, so perhaps it was true love after all.
  • Given Jonathan's age, it is very likely that he served in World War I. Not only would it explain why he is so accurate with a rifle, but possibly traits such as his drinking habit and being The So-Called Coward could be the result of PTSD. He has after all seen many, many times what happens to brave men who confront the enemy instead of running.
• Award Snub: The movie only got ONE single Oscar nomination for Best Sound, with no other nominations for its special effects, cinematography, make-up, costume and production design and especially Jerry Goldsmith’s score. Granted, it would’ve been against movies like The Phantom Menace and The Matrix, the latter winning almost all technical awards for being so revolutionary, but still.
• Awesome Music: Jerry Goldsmith + the powerful brass section = "Imhotep".
• Common Knowledge: Like with the original film, many people misinterpret Imhotep as being a portrayal of the historical figure rather the character's name being taken from the figure.
• Critical Dissonance: Most critics of the time saw it as mediocre (Roger Ebert being a notable exception), but it did well at the box office and has a very devoted fanbase, and the 2017 Continuity Reboot's mediocrity has caused some reappraisal of it.
• Crosses the Line Twice:
  • Greedy jailor digging out the gold scarab for himself? Predictable. Gold scarab turns out to be a real one and starts eating into him? Not funny. Greedy jailor inexplicably running screaming across the cave to smack into a wall? Funny.
  • Imhotep physically taking the American's eyes? Not funny. Imhotep winding up with the guy's astigmatism? Funny. And that's why it didn't happen (or at least, isn't shown overtly; it's used as an explanation as to why Imhotep called Evy by Anck-su-amun's name initially, with the addition of being fixed once he is fully regenerated) because the producers wanted to keep Imhotep scary.
  • Beni being confronted by the rotting Imhotep, who's seeking to rip off pieces of living flesh to replace what he's lost and who just took the eyes and tongue of Burns? Scary. Beni desperately pulling out a cross on a necklace and uttering a prayer to God to protect himself? Pitiable. Beni finding that this didn't work, and consequently pulling out more necklaces with different religious symbols on them to start a rapid-fire Emergency Multifaith Prayer? Funny. Imhotep only stopping his advance because he recognizes the Hebrew of the Jewish prayer as the language of the slaves, which makes him realize Beni could serve him instead? Hilarious.
  • Imhotep sucking the life out of Mr. Burns and regenerating right before Evy and Rick? Horrific. Scary zombie-Imhotep hitting on Evy? Squicky. Imhotep getting the hell out of there after being frightened by the mere sight of a cat walking on a piano? Funny. It Makes Sense in Context.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Imhotep has plenty of fan girls, owing to his tragic backstory, somewhat sympathetic motivations in wanting to resurrect his dead lover, and the fact that Arnold Vosloo spends a good chunk of his screen time in just a pair of shorts.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Oded Fehr, as Ardeth Bay, steals every single scene he's in. Also Beni Gabor, who, despite his Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, still has many of the best lines in the movie.
  • Daniels, Henderson, and Burns of the American expedition are also pretty well-liked, for their combat skills, and interactions with the main characters (with Burns getting along with them from the beginning, Henderson being an entertaining cowboy, and Daniels having a bit of Fire-Forged Friends dynamics with them later on).
  • Bernard Fox is a One-Scene Wonder as Winston Havelock, the WW1 veteran pilot longing for a potentially lethal misadventure. So much so, it's tear jerking when he's Killed Off for Real.
    "Ha ha, Winston Havelock at your service, sir!"
• Evil Is Cool: Let's face it, Imhotep oozes awesome. He has the Ten Plagues of Egypt as his superpowers and is invincible, as well as getting to do cool things like turning himself into sand to get through locked doors, and conjuring sandstorms to deal with his enemies.
• Fanon: Many of the fans agree that Jonathan's Cowardly Lion attitude is the result of being a Shell-Shocked Veteran of the WW1, since he's the right age and displays a variety of quirks that fit such backstory. Nothing in the movie itself (or the series, for that matter) confirms or denies such background.
• First Installment Wins: The first film receives a lot of love and praise, for Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz's acting and chemistry of course, Imhotep for being such a badass villain and Jerry Goldsmith's epic score, whereas the second film was met with a more mixed (though still overall positive) reception and the third was just despised.
• Genius Bonus:
  • Some of the Americans mock the heroes' discovering of Imhotep's "juicy" mummy by saying that maybe if they dry it out, they can sell it for firewood. Many mummies actually were destroyed by ancient tomb robbers using them as such.
  • Viewers who actually know something about ancient mummification practices will know that Evy's claim that a red-hot implement was used for brain extraction is incorrect, which suggests she was amusing herself by intentionally trying to Squick O'Connell out.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • Evy is kidnapped to be used as a sacrifice that will revive Anuck-su-namun. The sequel reveals that Evy is a reincarnation of Anuck-su-namun's stepdaughter and witnessed her murdering the Pharaoh - making this an even bigger insult on Imhotep's part.
  • And in the sequel, when Anuck-su-namun does get reincarnated, she ultimately leaves Imhotep to die, confirming that his sacrifices for her were All for Nothing.
  • The untimely death of Mr. Henderson becomes somewhat harder to watch with the knowledge that his actor, Stephen Dunham, also died untimely in 2012.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Rick makes a crack about Imhotep "getting frisky with the Pharaoh's daughter" to Evy. Hilarious when you consider Rick himself gets frisky with Evy who is in fact the 3,000-year reincarnation of the Pharaoh's daughter Nefertiri. It is implied that Rick himself is a reincarnated Medjai.
  • When Evy says "No harm has ever come from reading a book." Brendan Fraser plays Mo in Inkheart.
  • This film sparked Corey Johnson's (Mr. Daniels) career as a memorable supporting character in supernatural-themed films who is usually killed messily. Of note, he was Agent Clay in Hellboy, Henry Van Statten in Doctor Who and the Church Leader in Kingsman: The Secret Service.
  • Jonathan ends up commanding Imhotep's mummified guards to kill his enemies, which is amusing to fans of Spartacus: Blood and Sand, in which John Hannah plays a gladiator owner. Speaking of which, Rick tries to impress on Evy the danger of their expedition by saying that his garrison marched out there without orders, "and all we found was sand and blood." Jonathan is standing right next to her when he says this, and his actor will come to know a thing or two about sand and blood.
• Hollywood Homely: Apparently glasses and having her hair done up completely hides the fact that Evy is, to put it bluntly, gorgeous. It takes up until she loses her clothes to fire and has to buy replacements from some locals for Rick to notice her looks.
• Just Here for Godzilla: For some, Evy is enough of a reason to watch the movie; her Cute Clumsy Girl persona merged with plenty of moments of competency, and the fact that she's an active character endears her to many. She's often raised in discussions of creating strong, interesting female leads without making them bland Flawless Tokens.
• Love to Hate: Beni Gabor is a slimy Dirty Coward with a huge Chronic Backstabbing Disorder, but is also an Ensemble Dark Horse due to having some of the best lines in the movie and Kevin J. O'Connor's wonderfully despicable performance.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Jonathan's disgusted "Americans!" is quite popular for mocking, well, Americans.
  • This exchange:
    Beni: Hey O'Connell! It looks to me like I have all of the horses!
    Rick: Hey Beni! It looks to me like you’re on the wrong side of the RIVER!
  • Expect any mention of the film on places like Reddit to be met with fans stating that the chemistry and good looks of Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz made way for a sexual awakening. Bonus points if it's bisexual fans claiming those two were how they discovered their sexual orientation.
  • Imhotep's Psychotic Smirk when he thinks he killed Rick has become a common reaction image to most kind of suggestive sexual content.
• Moral Event Horizon: Beni reaches a whole new level of detestability when he cruelly mocks Burns, who has already had his eyes and tongue taken out, as Imhotep is about to finish the job.
• Narm:
  • One of the Medjai Mooks that attacks the boat Rick and company are on is seen holding some sort of metal hand-spike as a weapon. However, he shows it off so many times in front of the camera that you swear he was trying to make it clear to the viewers that he has the hand-spike.
  • There's also the scary sandstorm that Imhotep summons, complete with a giant sand face of him in it, which is slightly ruined by a cut to Imhotep standing there making goofy faces to direct it.
  • During the final fight with Imhotep's priests, there's a moment where Rick engages with a dual-wielding priest...only for several other nearby priests to awkwardly stand there to await their turn.
• Narm Charm: The subtitles get in on the action. During the scene where Imhotep and O'Connell have a screaming match before Rick blows him in half, the subtitles read thus:
  Imhotep: SUPERNATURAL ROAR
  Rick: MACHO ROAR
• One-Scene Wonder: Anuck-su-namun only appears in the prologue, and her mummified form briefly in the third act. But she's so memorable (as Imhotep's entire motivation in fact) that the sequel featured her (or her reincarnation at least) as a major character.
• Padding: One minor criticism about the film is that the middle Act drags out Imhotep needing to regenerate his body; following a pattern where Imhotep locates one of the American expedition members, sucks their life-force dry, and then moves on to the next until all four are dead. It's no surprise that by the time of the sequel, The Mummy Returns, Imhotep is instead put in a situation where he is able to suck all his victims dry at once so that they can quickly move on to something else.
• Periphery Demographic: While an action-adventure ostensibly aimed at men, The Mummy has a significant female fandom, most likely owing to people with a thing for Brendan Fraser (or Rachel Weisz), Evy being a dynamic character in her own right, and the franchise's focus on romance.
• Rooting for the Empire: While no one wants Imhotep to take over the world, some fans wish that he would have accomplished some of his other goals. This is due to his charismatic performer, Creepy Awesome powers, compelling love story, and disproportionately brutal torture and execution in the prologue (which might very well have caused him to become so sadistic in the first place).
• Sacred Cow:
  • The movie is extremely beloved, frequently tops many lists for best popcorn escapist flicks, and is considered among the best roles for Brendan Fraser, John Hannah and Rachel Weisz.
  • Evy herself is a beloved character, popular for her Cute Clumsy Girl persona, yet also being a Badass Bookworm and coming across as a rounded female lead who avoids being a Flawless Token or Satellite Love Interest.
• Signature Scene:
  • Rick's dispatch of Imothep's priests, as well as Imhotep's sandstorm.
  • On a milder note, Evy's Establishing Character Moment, where she causes Bookshelf Dominoes in the library.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • When the man-eating scarabs are dumped into Imhotep's sarcophagus to begin eating him alive, it's quite obvious that the scarabs dumped from the bucket are nowhere close to the amount of scarabs that start eating Imhotep.
  • The CGI used for the various spiritual forms shown after using the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra look rather dated.
• Squick:
  • Imhotep kissing Evy when half his face was still that of a rotting corpse. Even worse, his lips turn back into a rotting corpse while he's doing it! Was that REALLY necessary, Sommers?
  • Shortly before this, after sucking the life out of one of the other Americans, Imhotep is about halfway restored but still has some rotten flesh and holes in him. A scarab crawls out of a hole in his chest up to a hole in his face. He eats it.
  • Flesh-eating scarabs burrowing into people's skin. Enough said.
• Tear Jerker:
  • Winston's death is one of the saddest in the film. Rick, Ardeth Bey, and Jonathan even give him a moment of silence and a salute out of respect.
  • Another example can be Mr. Burns's death. First of all, he is a Nice Guy overall, and his Butt-Monkey treatment is a bit sad. First he loses his glasses, has his eyes and tongue taken by a undead monster, and his final scene had him hoping to sell the canopic jar to an apparent kind Egyptian nobleman... but after Beni's words he learn that was a trap, and that walking corpse is here. He died alone, defenseless, killed by an immortal carnivorous monster without sight.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: For being the guardians who watch over Hamunaptra, the Medjai not named Ardeth Bay are nowhere to be seen in the third act. One could make a case that we missed out on an all-out battle between the Medjai and Imothep's mummified priests. Thankfully, they get their due in the sequel's climax.
• Too Cool to Live: Henderson, Daniels, Dr. Terrence Bey and Winston, who either were generally formidable or had put up a good fight against the Big Bad Imhotep. Subverted with Ardeth Bay, who shows up in the final scene, despite apparently meeting his end to a Heroic Sacrifice.
• Vindicated by History: While critics initially drubbed the film for being somewhat brainless, it always had its share of enthusiastic fans. Notably, it seems to have been fully pushed into this by the bombing of The Mummy (2017), which saw a lot of people rallying around the 1999 film as an example of an old-fashioned blockbuster whose only goal was to be a fun adventure with likable characters (everything the reboot wasn't).
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • Imhotep’s mummy forms hold up really well after more than 20 years. While they’re obviously CGI and they do show their age a bit, the sheer amount of detail in them and the lighting used to make them fit their respective scenes still look impressive, especially since this was done before performance capture was a widely used tool in film making.
  • The final fight between Rick and the army of mummies is this once you realize Brendan Fraser was basically fighting NOTHING and yet the mummies look convincing enough that it tricks you into thinking they’re people in costumes with CG effects added in post-production.
• The Woobie: Poor Mr Burns. He doesn't seem to be as much of a jerkass as his companions and when Imhotep is released, he loses his glasses while he's alone in a dark tunnel. Then he has his eyes and tongue ripped out and then later on meets the man who did it seconds before he has the life sucked out of him.

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