The Mummy Returns

Trivia: In the tomb, Alex knocks over the columns the same way Evie knocked over the bookcases in "The Mummy."

Trivia: While reading the Book of the Dead, Alex needs help translating the hieroglyph of a stork, which Jonathan gives to him. Jonathan needed help translating the same symbol in "The Mummy."

Trivia: When the pygmies fall into the river after they blow up the bridge, look closely. As the right hand end falls into the ravine, one end is glowing from the blast, and one of the pygmies climbs on top of it and rides it down, hand waving, exactly like the scene from "Dr. Strangelove, or How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb". Must be deliberate, and definitely worth a look.

Trivia: This is mentioned on the commentary, but I've got to mention it here because it's great. The scene where Rick's stalking Imhotep and there's a sequence of shots alternating pitch black and Rick's face illuminated, was quite tricky. They set up the camera on a dolly track, shut off all the lights, then tracked backwards while Brendan Fraser walked forwards, with two guys lighting the scene by using flamethrowers either side of the camera, trying not to fall down the holes in the floor of the set all the time. Genius.

Jon Sandys

The Mummy Returns trivia picture

Trivia: The scene where Imhotep is resurrecting the Scorpion King, he is hitting a big gong. A bald guy, in a loin cloth, hitting a big gong...this is a nod to the opening title of any 'Rank' picture.

Kara

Trivia: Freddie Boath passed on auditioning for Harry Potter to audition for this film instead, because he was such a fan of The Mummy.

Jennyred

Trivia: In order to maintain his perfect sculpted, hairless look, the titular mummy actor Arnold Vosloo had to shave his body head-to-toe twice a day during filming.

TedStixon

Trivia: When the film was released on home-video, it shattered the previous record and became the fastest-selling DVD ever, with 2 million units sold in its first week of release. This is actually a significant achievement, as DVD was still in the early stages of taking over, and more people bought VHS tapes than DVD's in 2001. Unfortunately, this record was very short-lived... it was surpassed by "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" only two weeks later, which beat it with 2.2 million units.

TedStixon

Trivia: Brendan Fraser was somewhat amused and annoyed by the fact that the O'Connells owned a giant estate in the film, as he felt they'd feel more at home in an apartment or smaller house. Director Stephen Sommers said that the reason for the large house was because a large-scale action set-piece takes place in their home, and it just wouldn't work with a smaller house or apartment.

TedStixon

Trivia: Despite playing the titular character, Mummy actor Arnold Vosloo doesn't appear in the film until 50 minutes in. Up until that point, only his voice is heard, and the character is portrayed by a digital model.

TedStixon

Trivia: Stephen Sommers has joked that the time-jump in-between films was done only because he didn't want to work with a baby, and a multi-year time-jump instead allowed the O'Connells' son to be an older child.

TedStixon

Trivia: Originally, Jonathan was going to own a casino, which he purchased with his share of the treasure from the first film. The battle in which Evelyn is kidnapped was going to take place there. However, for budgetary reasons, this idea was dropped early on, since it would have been a massive cost to build a casino set for only one or two short scenes. The battle was then relocated to Rick and Evelyn's house.

TedStixon

Trivia: At Izzy's home, there's a man in a bathtub reading a newspaper that's focused on in one shot. You can faintly hear him humming a few notes. The humming was actually done by director Stephen Sommers in an audible cameo, and it was looped over the scene. (Though contrary to popular belief, the man in the tub was just an extra - not director Sommers).

TedStixon

Trivia: The only entry in the Mummy series to not have an opening title card. The first film, third film and all of the Scorpion King spin-offs have opening title cards, while this film only displays the title during the end credits.

TedStixon

Trivia: Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson reportedly suffered both sunstroke and food poisoning while on-set. It was said that despite shooting in the (very hot) desert, in between takes, he'd be shivering cold and wrapped in blankets.

TedStixon

Trivia: One of the film's most common criticisms is that the CGI for the Scorpion King is notably of a lower quality than all of the other effects. There's actually a reason for this. The character was an early attempt at attempting to make a photorealistic humanoid, and thus the effect took much more work to complete. Additionally, the effect was made before a technique called "subsurface scattering" became prevalent, thus causing the plastic-like sheen on the skin. (Subsurface scattering is a technique that simulates how light penetrates and/or reflects off multi-layered surfaces like skin, thus allowing more realistic lighting and a less plasticy look.) It was so complicated trying to get the character to look "right," that they simply ran out of time and had to use what they had done, even though it wasn't quite complete.

TedStixon

Trivia: As of 2020, "The Mummy Returns" is still the highest grossing Universal "Mummy" movie both domestically and worldwide. It was the highest grossing of the Stephen Sommers series, and also grossed more than the 2017 reboot in unadjusted dollars. (And if you adjust for inflation, it actually grossed nearly twice what the 2017 film did).

TedStixon

Continuity mistake: In the British Museum, when Rick and Ardeth are saving Evie, Rick gives her a .45 pistol and they start to shoot the guards, her pistol fires once and the slide locks back meaning the pistol had no ammo, but she keeps firing as if the magazine was still full. (00:39:47)

More mistakes in The Mummy Returns

Rick: Right. She's a reincarnated princess, and I'm a warrior for God.
Ardeth Bay: And your son leads the way to Ahm Shere. Three sides of the pyramid. This was all preordained thousands of years ago.
Evelyn: But how does the story end?
Ardeth Bay: Ah, only the journey is written, not the destination.
Rick: Convenient.

More quotes from The Mummy Returns

Question: After Alex translates the hieroglyphs as "This way to Scorpion King," Jonathan quietly responds by saying "It's just my work." What exactly did he mean by that? He's not a translator of ancient Egyptian like his sister Evie, so I don't think he literally meant "work" as his profession.

Phaneron

Chosen answer: He says, "this just might work" meaning he and Alex trying to bring Evie back using the book of the dead.

More questions & answers from The Mummy Returns

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