Question: What does Colonel O'Connell yell to his Legionnaires in French as the cavalry charge nears? And why does he then continue in English ("Steady, Steady...Fire!").
lionhead
20th May 2023
The Mummy (1999)
1st Jan 2023
The Mummy (1999)
Question: Why is it said that Imhotep and his priests were mummified alive? Mummification occurs when someone dies and has most of the organs removed. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say that he was buried alive?
Answer: It means the process of removing their organs was performed while they were still alive. Certainly at some point they would die during the process from blood loss or having a vital organ removed. And it was just the priests that were mummified alive, Imhotep was subjected to a different punishment.
Their internal organs were not removed or they'd die instantly. In the movie you see them being bandaged up and put in the sarcophaguses whilst still moving and then sealed up so they still had their organs. It is indeed more like being buried alive but then as a mummy.
Indeed, but you can also see the Medjai using sharp tools against some of the priests. The priest on the left side of the screen with his arm writhing has a Medjai placing a sharp object around his face, indicating he might either be cutting out his tongue or removing his brains through his nose. The Medjai in the immediate foreground is (badly) making a slashing motion with his sword towards the priest lying on the table before him.
2nd Apr 2019
The Mummy (1999)
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.
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.
4th Jan 2019
The Mummy (1999)
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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Answer: He is in the French Foreign Legion, which is a corps in the French army which allows foreigners to sign up. But, it is mostly led by French and a lot of French nationals are still a part of it. So hence why he speaks in multiple languages, being trained by French.
lionhead
Yes, I know, but what does he yell in French? Does anyone have the text? It's not in the script. Fraser is fluent in French, maybe it was his improvisation. I'd still like to know what he said.
tovangar
Ah yes, sorry. I was too focussed on the second question. He says "Prenez vos positions." Which means "take your positions!"
lionhead