The Mummy

Question: When Imhotep and his followers are heading to the museum, we hear Ardeth saying "so it has begun. The beginning of the end." To which Evey replies: "not quite yet it hasn't." Then Imhotep shouts something to his followers. My Blu ray captions only states he is saying something in Ancient Egyptian. Could someone help translate? (01:23:35)

Question: What happened to the teddy with the pink bow that O'Connell pilfers from Evelyn's bedroom as their spat ends? Is the teddy ever seen again? Did I miss it?

tovangar

Question: What do the symbols on Ardeth's black cloak he wears in London mean?

Question: Anyone know what Beni said to Rick? I'm referring to what he said (I'm assuming Hebrew) before Rick said "What did you say?!" followed by "I'm not gonna tell you" by Beni.

Answer: Beni: As long as I serve him, I am immune. Rick: Immune from what? Beni: Piszkos állat [this is Hungarian for "filthy animal," an insult directed at Rick]. Rick: What did you say? Beni: I don't want to tell you. You'll just hurt me some more.

Charles Austin Miller

Chosen answer: The tattoos on his forehead are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs that spell "Underworld", and the ones on his cheeks are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the word "truth." All Medjai males get these tattoos as part of the coming-of-age rite, when they turn sixteen, of which the most important is the tattoo on their right wrist (which Rick O'Connell also has) that marks them as "warriors for God." Other tattoos specific to Medjai males are on their arms, forearms, hands, pectorals, shoulder blades and beneath the navel - the tattoos on the nose and chin are no longer used, since the time of Seti I. Medjai females only get the wrist tattoo when they come of age, but are not marked with any of the other symbols that are particular to men. Fun fact: If the Medjai - male and female alike - shows any sign of pain or cries during the tattooing process, it is considered that they have brought shame to their family.

Question: No matter how many times I watch this, I don't count all 10 plagues. Do some end up on the cutting room floor?

ChiChi

Answer: The featured Plagues are: locusts, flies, water turning into blood, fiery hail, the sun turning black, boils and sores. The missing Plagues are: cattle disease, wild beasts, frogs, and death of the first-born sons.

Chosen answer: The plagues stop when they 'destroy' the mummy's powers. The good guys are trying to stop the mummy before the death of the first-born plauge (which they suceed in doing, as Jonathan survives the movie), as well as preventing the mummy from becoming all powerful and impossible to destroy - which would happen after the tenth plague. Some of the plagues, too, could have been happening while the good guys are in Hamunaptra and therefore not experiencing them themselves, bringing the total of plagues experienced by the outside world closer to nine.

Kaite13

Question: After the fire on the ship, and everyone gets out, Benny yells to O'Connell that he has all the horses. O'Connell yells back, "You're on the wrong side of the river." Benny makes a big stink about all that. My question is why? Surely it would not be so hard to cross a river.

Answer: Depends very much on the size of the river. The Nile at that point is pretty wide and deep, which doesn't make it particularly easy to cross. Benny and his cohorts would need to find a ferry or bridge to get across, which would take time. Even without horses, that gives O'Connell's group a considerable head start.

Tailkinker

There are poisonous snakes in the Nile River.

Answer: There are also crocodiles in the Nile.

Question: After the ferry boat goes down in flames, following the Medjai night attack, what town/city do O'Connell and the Carnahans end up in, on their way to Hamunaptra? It's the one where they buy the camels and Evy's new outfit.

KrystalFlare

Chosen answer: It's not a town, it's an unnamed Bedouin trading post. It's possible that a town was later built there, but it could have been a nomadic temporary camp.

Sierra1

Question: In the scene where Eve knocks down all the bookcases, the curator comes in and tells her something like "straighten up this *mishaba*" what does "mishaba" mean?

MAC

Chosen answer: He says "straighten up this meshiver". Meshiver is just another word for mess.

Macalou

Question: Is it me, or do all of Ardeth's Egyptian dialogue lines end sounding the same way, despite completely different words being used to make his sentences? Is there a reason for this or something that I'm not picking up on, or is there no reason at all?

Answer: The script writers chose to truncate (shorten) the Egyptian words as they were often quite long which made for slow and clunky dialogue. The familiar sounds from Ardeth are simply due to the truncation limiting the variety of words being spoken.

Question: What were the languages Beni was speaking when he ran into Imhotep?

Answer: English, Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew.

LorgSkyegon

Question: What exactly was O'Connell arrested and sentenced to death for?

Socks1000

Chosen answer: Rick was purportedly sent to prison for deserting the French Foreign Legion. He was arrested after a bar fight, prompted by the pickpocketing of a certain Englishman.

Question: In the scenes where Rick lights a match to use on a stick of dynamite, he does so by striking the match against either his own ear or the ear of Ardeth Bay. Is there an explanation to how he does this?

Josh West

Answer: He's lighting the match on his beard-stubble by raking it down his face. He's not striking the matches on his ear. It's not practical at all (and in fact, it's basically impossible unless you have beard-stubble like sandpaper), but it's just a cute way for the movie to show how much of a bad-a** he is. In reality behind the scenes, they actually had a strip of matchbox taped to the actor's faces that they were striking the matches on to light them. But with the right camera placement, it looks like they're lighting them on their faces.

TedStixon

Answer: Matches in those days were friction matches, with added red phosphorous so you could light them on basically any surface, as long as you generated enough heat. Some prefer the bottom of their boots, or a wall, but others light them on their own body, or someone else's.

lionhead

Bare skin does not provide the necessary friction to light a match. It's possible to light one using one's fingernail by flicking it hard against the match head, but not with skin. There has to be a hard textured surface to create a spark.

raywest

Rough stubble?

Those matches are known as 'strike anywhere matches', because of the phosphorous coating on the matchhead they can be used on any suitably frictional surface. That's why Rick used Ardeth's stubble beard to strike the matchhead against.

Answer: I don't think he was rubbing the match on bare skin, more likely the edge of where the beard grows. The rough hairs would make the area of skin able to produce enough friction to light the match as long as it was rubbed fast enough.

scaryterri

That is very unlikely, and even if it was possible, it would cause deep pain and injury to the skin.

raywest

Don't be ridiculous. It's not a sanding stone you are rubbing with, it's just a match.

lionhead

Https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btTR7-HfM-k.

lionhead

Answer: There's no explanation, but really, this is just a movie invention.

raywest

Question: What is the purpose of the leather wrist band Rick wears on his right wrist?

Answer: The wrist band was not explained in this first movie. In the second movie, "The Mummy Returns," we learn that the leather band covers a tattoo of the Medjai, a 3000-year-old cult of Egyptian royal guardians whose purpose was to oppose the evil Imhotep. Rick was given this tattoo (or brand) when he was an orphan in Cairo.

Charles Austin Miller

Answer: Leather cuffs were also worn by gunfighters for protection and to stop sweat from running down onto your gun hand. So there's a practical reason for a gunfighter like Rick to have it, plus the all-important "Rule of Cool!"

Answer: The purpose of Rick's leather forearm cuff is protection. It's a common piece of 'armor' worn to protect the wrist and forearm from many kinds of harm. It can be used as a kind of brace or shield. You could block a blow with the back of your forearm and not be injured. Since Rick only wears one on his dominant arm I would guess this is what he mainly wears it for. It's just another piece of functional 'equipment' like his leather holster harness.

Question: In the Mummy, when we first meet Evie, after knocking down multiple bookshelves, the "Egyptian Librarian" is scolding Evie. He mentions her parents then says, "Allah, rest their souls." This leads us to believe that he of Muslim faith. In the next sentence though he says, "Clean up this meshiva." My first thought, the word sounds Yiddish. The only reference or definition I could find was to a new Final Fantasy video game. There were several Yiddish translator and terminology websites included in the search engine results, but the closest reference I could find was for meshugah. Did they make up a word just for that part in the movie? Was it a mispronounced and missed in editing? Could it be Yiddish slang? And my last question started all of this; why is an Egyptian of Muslim faith using Yiddish terminology or slang?

Answer: He's a scholar, probably knows many languages. Why wouldn't he use foreign expressions or words regardless of his own religion? Many multilingual people interchange expressions and words all the time so it's really not that odd.

Answer: The word "meshiva" is Hindi, and it means simply "mess."

Answer: The word is indeed "Meshuga" (various ways to spell it) meaning craziness, and is simply Hebrew. You gotta remember the order he is part of is way older than the Muslim faith and even the Jewish faith. I'm sure the order turned to the Muslim faith at some point in time and probably Jews have been part of it as well, anyone who can help keep the mummy secret. They all probably have mixed faiths and believes along with the ancient task to protect the mummy.

lionhead

Mishugash is yiddish. And yiddish is a combination of hebrew and german... so not exactly something you would expect from a person native to the mid east.

It's used in both Yiddish and Hebrew.

lionhead

Question: I was chatting with my friends when I saw this film, and I think I missed an important bit. The Americans open something that brings a curse on them, yet O'Connell and company are the ones to open the actual sarcophagus. What are the Americans opening; and why does that bring on a curse, but not the revealing of the actual mummy?

Answer: According to ancient Egyptian tradition, four major organs (liver, intestines, stomach, lungs) were removed from the body during the mummification process and preserved in canopic jars that were buried with the deceased. The Americans found Anck Su Namun's jars whilst O'Connell and company found the sarcophagus in which Imhotep was buried alive. After Evie recites the curse that brings Imhotep to life, he needs these organs to bring Anck Su Namun back, leading him to hunt down those who are in possession of them. The opening of the sarcophagus doesn't actually invoke any curse and neither does the Americans opening the chest, contrary to what Beni says. The "curse" is only a warning that they shall become part of Imhotep's curse by taking the jars he needs.

Answer: When the Mahji catch up with Imhotep everything is all right there. They curse him with the Hum Dai, then in an effort to keep things from going bad they place the Book of the Dead and the jars containing the organs of Anak-sun-Amun into a cursed chest hoping it will stop anyone from doing what those stupid yanks did.

Answer: It's just silly screenwriting. The greedy Americans have to die but the heroes can't die, so how about a cursed chest that only the Americans open? Really though there is no logical reason the Egyptians would have put a curse on this particular chest. There's also no reason that Ankhsuamun's organs would be buried with the book of the dead again it's just silly screenwriting. Saves the trouble of having to write another scene or sequence where the organs are discovered separately. Also, lazily explains why Imhotep only targets the Americans for bodily juicy goodness and not the rest of them.

Question: What is the tattoo on Rick's right hand between his thumb and index finger, and its meaning?

Answer: This small tattoo in the first movie is the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol bringing fortune, protection and good health. Just a good luck charm. It only appeared on Rick's hand in the first movie and was absent in the second movie, "The Mummy Returns." Apparently, the screenwriters wanted to expand the story of the tattoo, so they changed the symbol, its location and its meaning in the second movie: The new tattoo was that of the Medjai (a 3000-year-old cult of Egyptian royal guardians sworn to oppose the evil Imhotep). We learn that Rick got this tattoo when he was an orphan in Cairo. The screenwriters moved the tattoo to Rick's wrist (hidden by his leather wrist band) in the second movie.

Charles Austin Miller

Question: Why do they place a curse on Imhotep which makes his mummy evil? What would the Egyptians benefit from this?

Answer: It's ultimately a bit stupid, but a side-effect of the horrible punishment they've inflicted on him, making him suffer for so long, is that if ever he's resurrected he'll have powers and be immortal, which is why people are set to make sure he's never awakened. Just killing him would make more sense, but since when does anyone major die easily in films?

Jon Sandys

Answer: Imhotep was already evil. As for the curse, like Judas it was a living death, even though his body died, his spirit wouldn't enter Heaven or Hell, but remain in limbo. Like a vampire, he was resurrected with supernatural powers.Unbound and all powerful.

Question: At the end of the movie, as Rick, Evie, and Johnathon are leaving Humanatra, we see that Rick's bag is filled with gold from the city. How, where and when did Rick find the time to get some of the gold if him and his friends were fighting for their lives?

Answer: Beni (the bad guy serving the mummy who eventually gets killed by the bugs) can be seen carrying the gold out of the city. He then returns to get more, but can't get out any more. Rick and Evie just take the camel that Beni planned to use for the transport of his gold; they don't bring any gold out of the city themselves.

nightline

Question: The answer for another question made me wonder. If Imothep was alive when put in his sarcophagus, how can there be jars with his internal organs elsewhere? Wouldn't they still be in his body in order for him to be alive?

Answer: If you're referring to the only jars that are used in the movie, those are Anck Su Namun's organs. Not his. Near as I can tell, his organs were not taken, hence him being alive.

Nikki

They are his body parts; remember that he had to get the body parts from each of the adventurers to complete his resurrection (he left one guy without eyes or a tongue and sucked the life out of him).

No, they are Anck Su Namun's. The mummy steals the man's eyes and tongue because he's been decomposing and his own have rotted off. It's part of his regeneration process. He simply didn't have time to fully "suck him dry," as the movie puts it before Evie stumbles onto him.

TedStixon

Answer: He was buried alive as part of his punishment so they can't be his. They are Anck su Namun's. He needs them for when he resurrects her. He gets organs when he fulfills the curse by taking them from the men that opened the chest.

His organs were probably eaten by the bugs, if they weren't they probably decayed, hence why he needs to replace them with the organs of others.

The priests cut off his tongue as he was being linen wrapped, but I doubt it was placed in a canopic jar. But it kept him from doing invocations or screaming even though a wordless scream is possible with no tongue.

The Mummy mistake picture

Continuity mistake: In the scene in the library, when Evie is putting back the books. She leans over to put the book back, but it falls to the ground and she is balancing on the ladder. When the camera cuts back to show the whole ladder, the book is nowhere to be found on the floor. (00:13:00)

More mistakes in The Mummy

Evelyn: You were actually at Hamunaptra?
Rick: Yeah, I was there.
Evelyn: You swear?
Rick: Every damn day.

More quotes from The Mummy

Trivia: The literal translation of Imhotep means "He who comes in peace." I don't think they could've picked a less suitable name.

More trivia for The Mummy

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