The Mummy: Unexplained Questions
(DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS. Must watch movie for how certain things are explained.)
The Mummy; 1999 version. A great modern ish classic! Not too classic that it is in black and white, but not too modern that they have explosions everywhere. It is too early to really use any high advanced movie technology, yet new enough that none of it looks fake or poorly shot. It is about a woman Egyptologist, Evie, whose brother clumsily finds a map to an ancient city. They find the American, Rick O’Connell, who had the map in the first place and set out on finding it. The American’s friend happens to be leading another group to the city as well. As guessed by the title, they release a mummy. It is a great movie, I, personally love it. Being the time period it was, there were multiple “mistakes”; plot holes, if you will. Well, do not quote me on that; these are plot holes to me.
Imhotep
The beginning scene the narrator explains the setting and how the Pharaoh at the time has a mistress, and how no one may touch her but him. It goes to her walking into her chambers, walking towards her lover; who was not the Pharaoh, it was his high priest, Imhotep. Imhotep’s own priests went to seal the chamber doors when the Pharaoh walks in. He finds out, and the couple then kills him. The Pharaoh’s bodyguards are trying to enter and it take a good few minutes. While they try to break in, the couple is arguing back forth of how he does not want to leave her, and she wants him to go save himself, because, “you’re the only one that can resurrect me.” Which I do not understand. Why is there a need to be resurrected? I do not know why she would stay. They have no power there after that; even after she was resurrected I don’t think they would be able to stay in their birth place city. So why it probably had to happen was to keep the plot going, and to be able to make the main female character relevant still.
His Tomb
The next thing about the plot, that went somewhat throughout the movie, was Imhotep’s tomb and death. So he is shown getting the Hom-Dai treatment, being wrapped alive, and then having those scarabs thrown on him. But when they show him being wrapped he still has his eyes. When he was regenerating from those American guys he stole the eyes and tongue from the first American. I do not think it was just from him decaying over the 3,000 years that he obviously needs eyes. I am pretty sure they would have taken out his eyes as well, because it showed them cutting off his tongue, so why leave out the eyes. Most likely for the sake of viewers; but yet they show the first American with no eyes. Now this is not a plot hole, but it was just something with it being prop wise that had me questioning.
Get Rose Frey’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Now the other part of this was his tomb and the scarabs. When Evie and Mr. O’Connell go in search of the Book of Amun-Ra they discover, instead, Imhotep’s tomb. They set the tomb upright, I have no idea why, and the top of the sarcophagus falls down, while Imhotep’s corpse hangs out diagonally. The group takes a closer look into the inside of the sarcophagus lid they notice scratches; scratches that appear to have been him trying to get out. But what is stranger is apparently HE, Imhotep, wrote an inscription on the inside as well. It translated to, “Death is only the beginning.” The inscription was so deep into the lid, it seemed to have been chiseled on. It seems crazy that he would have been able to do this with just his fingernails. Maybe he used a dead scarab’s shell, but I have no idea how hard or fragile those things are.
Scarabs
Which brings me to my next point with the bugs. These bugs, scarabs, apparently ate flesh. This one scene everyone is running away from this army of scarabs on the ground. One guy trips and these scarabs just left him as a down-to-the-bone fleshy corpse, all in a few seconds. I do not know if they did it that quick just because of how deprived of flesh they have been these past 3,000 years? Or that is just how they are. If it is just how they are, then when they were poured into Imhotep’s sarcophagus they would have eaten him very quickly, or slowly. One part, Evie did explain how they can last many years on just flesh. BUT I would imagine they would have eaten him quickly; how are bugs supposed to know they would be in there for 3,000 years? But if they had eaten him quickly, how could Imhotep have written that inscription? Or do so many scratches? I do not know, man.
Another thing about the scarabs, how do they hatch? As in, is there a certain temperature they need to be at for them to break open? Or do they need a certain momentum? When Evie and her brother recruit O’Connell to help them, he was in prison. To free him, Evie said the jail keeper could have a share in whatever treasure they found. The jail keeper ended up going with them. While Evie, her brother, and O’Connell were still examining what they had found, the jail keeper decided to go exploring. He found jeweled scarabs ornamenting the walls. He mentioned they were blue gold. He starts using his knife to pull them off the wall and into his bag. As he does this greedily quick, he drops one without realizing it. It falls on the ground, and a live scarab breaks out of its shell, crawls to his foot, and if you have seen the movie you know the rest, and the jail keeper dies. (I am very squirmy with those scenes.) My question is, though, what triggers the scarabs to break out? Why didn’t the scarabs in his bag do the same thing? That night when Evie and company sit down to discuss the days events, her brother, is rummaging through the jail keeper’s bag. None of the scarabs come out then? So it could not have been the momentum of the jail keeper dropping the scarab that caused it to break; they must have carried the bag everywhere, and most likely not in a gentle way. Later in the movie Evie’s brother sees another wall with the same kind of jeweled scarabs on it, and he picks one out. He holds it in his palm to examine it more closely. All of the sudden it breaks out and does its thing with her brother. These scarabs were only relevant to kill off the jail keeper and keep the dangers coming at every corner.
Different Smarter Methods
This one probably is not a plot hole, it is more of a “why did they not think smarter” thing. They find out that until Imhotep is fully regenerated he is scared of cats. Cats are the keepers of the underworld/undead stuff; they are like the guardians. So whenever a cat is shown in the same room as Imhotep, he runs away. My point is, why did no one care enough to keep a cat around all the time? Obviously Evie had one, that was the cat that was always around that they used to scare Imhotep away. Also, if they wanted to stop Imhotep from regenerating all the way, why did they not keep a better eye on those who had opened the chest? Those were the only people that Imhotep was so dead set on killing. In the movie, everyone, besides those who opened the chest, could care less about them. They were left alone and unattended; perfect for Imhotep to kill them. If they had just had a cat the entire time, they would have slowed him down immensely. There were other factors that still would have made it difficult, but cats make it possible.
