The Mummy (1999) is, in Many Ways, a Little Bit of Everything

Hello, Jeremy here again. Welcome to the second week of Mummy Month! If you missed last week, my copywriting comrade Audi Barnes kicked it off with an excellent examination of Brendan Fraser’s off-screen persona. This week, we’re graced with the talents of a former copywriting comrade of mine, Terry Turner III! Terry is a Gen Z person, which means he loves the Star Wars prequels and things like that, but he also loves The Mummy, so he’s okay. He even blessed us with a simple but delightful drink recipe to pair with this film. Take it away, Terry!

The Mummy was a tremendous success at the box office*, and if you were born in the late 90s or early 00s, it was most definitely making the rounds on your television or finding a home in your parents’ extensive VHS collection. At a young and impressionable age, reoccurring screenings of The Mummy burned their way deep into our untapped psyches and made a home there forever.

Of course, we’re biased—The Mummy to someone my age is the equivalent of the lullaby your mummy used to hum. It was and remains, for many like me, our top comfort movie. But there is a deeply rooted psychological reason my generation (Gen Z) celebrates The Mummy with such fanfare. Take it from the Egyptians themselves:

"Who you are is limited only by who you think you are… Things are possible—joy and sorrow, men and women, children. Someday I'll imagine myself a different man, build bone and make flesh around him. I am with you but a moment for an eternity. I am the name of everything."

This refrain is a translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the same book which Evelyn Carnahan presumably reads from in The Mummy to awaken Imhotep, an ancient Egyptian priest who was buried alive and cursed in such a way that if he ever returned, he would have power over the sands and bring back the 12 plagues of Egypt.

I know what you're thinking. Who in their right mind would curse their enemy to come back as a threat to all mankind and a plague upon the land? If I were to tell you it was an angry pharaoh that looked much like my high school football coach, you might call that plotline laughable.

But it fits. Because The Mummy in itself is a movie of extremes. I was not living in full consciousness during its initial release, so I speak from inexperience. The setting itself, the far-away** land of Egypt, is a time and place where modernity and magic seemed to live side by side. Dear reader, hear me when I say a movie that manages to be action, adventure, humor, and horror all in one is a rare find. But I digress…

The idea behind the poem above is life and how we choose to live it. The Mummy speaks to that truth in all of us. We are every character because every character is an emotional archetype. That’s what makes The Mummy an ideal everyman movie. We see our fun nature in O'Connell, our own dry self-questioning humor in Evelyn, our loyalty in Ardeth.

This paradigm is a double-edged sword, however. On the other side, there are character traits we can't stand—the traits we see in ourselves but are afraid to acknowledge. The stinginess of Jonathan, the cowardice of Beni, the selfishness of Warden Hassan. These are exaggerations of our inner thoughts made flesh. The message is the choice we make. Who, then, do we choose to be? 

Of course, every yin has its yang***, and I would be remiss to go without saying that this perfect poetic quest of character is mirrored by a tremendously goofy movie filled with tropes, puns, and, as I have clarified above, staunch archetypes. That’s also precisely what makes it so good. There is tremendous joy in seeing a movie filled with rowdy Americans, a drunk old British aviator, British scholars disregarding local customs, a mystical magi guard who has watched a tomb for 3,000 years, and c’mon, an antagonist with a knife-hand! The Mummy has just enough of everything to have something for you.

So go ahead, make yourself a drink****, gather around with some friends, and enjoy a viewing of The Mummy. And may the sands of time treat you both well.

*If you didn’t already know, it grossed $155 million here at home and $260 million throughout the rest of the world.

**It’s far away for us, at least. I wonder if actual Egyptians watched The Mummy…

***We’ll leave Tomb of The Dragon Emperor alone for now, though.

****For this most recent rewatch, I concocted my own drink (see below). I combined dark liquor for the deep, dark catacombs, honey to represent a valued commodity of ancient Egypt, and brown sugar because, well, it looks like sand. Pour two ounces of whiskey and half an ounce of Mike’s Hot Honey (which can be found at your local Piggly Wiggly), then stir, add ice, and top it with a teaspoon of light brown sugar. Enjoy!

The Mummy is now streaming on HBO Max, and it’s available to rent elsewhere.