The Mummy (1999)

Press play if you'd rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece The Mummy (and its sequels) starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz.  

Host Luke Ferris is joined by Mike Wynne and Zach Hall to kick off the inaugural "Mummycast" franchise rewatch to celebrate the movie that simply refuses to die, 1999's The Mummy. 

In this episode, we dive into:

• The Mummy Still Delivers: Why this romantic, action-adventure hybrid holds up as a perfect blockbuster.
• Behind-the-Scenes Desert Madness: From sandstorms and medical dehydration drinks to Brendan Fraser’s terrifying near-death experience during the hanging scene.
• Mike's Theme Park Corner: A new segment where Mike breaks down the theme park connection to the movie.
• Leasties and Besties: Including Grimeiest Moment, Best MacGuffin/totem, I’m Out Scendario, and Job You’d Least Likely Want. 
• Take That, Bembridge Scholars! A massive breakdown of the most memorable quotes, iconic stunts, and childhood crushes that defined a generation.

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Sources for this episode:

• Royalty-free music and sound effects via Artlist.com
• The Mummy Official Trailer #1 - Brendan Fraser Movie (1999) HD

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Mike, I know you're going to the World Cup this summer. Um, I'm gonna challenge you uh when you're at the World Cup this summer in a stadium, can you please start a chant that begins with Im.

SPEAKER_03 0:14

TapTap.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

And just see if you can get it going. Yes, it's the 1999 classic The Mummy coming up next on Least Important Things.

SPEAKER_04 0:31

You have unleashed a creature that we have feared for more than 3,000 years. He will regenerate and no longer be the undead.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

We are in serious trouble.

SPEAKER_04 0:57

This just keeps getting better and better to experience the adventure.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Welcome to a podcast called Least Important Things. Show about movies, friendship, and finding meaning in the most important of the least important things. I'm your host, Luke Ferris. In today's episode, yes, we are covering the 1999 action adventure film that will never die, The Mummy. Joining me for this next official franchise rewatch. We're back, boys. AKA the Mummy Cast. It's my expert academic through the franchise history and lore, Mike Wynn.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yes. Oh man, I am I'm so excited to uh break open and resurrect this movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:30

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_03 2:31

It's it's been dormant.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

I guess it's our franchise movie. Yes. I I hope it's not I hope it's not a curse, uh, like the Black Pearl or something like that. Uh, but we're back in the franchise saddle. Mike, how do you feel about that? Uh we've had a long time.

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Wait, are we doing this is a franchise review? Yes, we talked about this is a chat. I seriously had no idea. Remember, and then you even brought it up as something you'd be open to do. I'm totally joking when I said I would be down for it, which I am. I absolutely am down for it.

SPEAKER_03 3:01

This is my group chats. There's a sub like you lose the sarcasm in group chats.

SPEAKER_00 3:06

I okay, so it's really confusing because I figured we would we would bring Zach back for the mummy returns.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

Yes, yes, but no, no, we have is Zach is Zach doing all of them with us? Yes, he is.

SPEAKER_03 3:17

He is yes, and joining us uh joining us on this quest is our squash buckling guide who survived some of the most terrifying franchise sequels we've covered. Zach Hall, welcome back to the program.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Guys, I have wandered the desert for years to get to this point and arrive here at this oasis with both of you. Thank you for having me on a movie that actually does matter and is good. And I think all of us can agree for once, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:47

I think so. It was so tempting to just have you on for Scorpion King. I mean, it was but I will which we will do uh eventually. Uh, but we're so glad to have you here, Zach, on the Mummy cast, least important things. We're back in the franchise saddle. Welcome everybody. But before we get started, and we got a lot to talk about. Thanks for joining us. Please subscribe on YouTube so you can see us uh on on the interweb. Zach is dressed up as Brendan Frasier, um, and and Mike is dressed up as a mummy. I I didn't, yep. Yep, yeah. And and join our Patreon as a free member for updates and exclusive content about these episodes. And for the same cost as um I would say uh sarcophagus, maybe. Um, no, I would say maybe a gold coin in a pyramid. Scarab. Uh, probably a scarab, uh blue gold, but won't hurt you. You can be a friend of the show, get a sticker, special surprises, a bunch of stuff. Join us on Patreon. It helps us make more episodes like this one. Visit us at patreon.com slash least important things to join. And most importantly, this is an independent podcast. And the best way you can help this show is by recommending it to somebody, whether they're a mummy fan, they're a Fraser head, get them in, get them involved. So please, if you're on a steamboat down the Nile, killing time before raiding a tomb, please recommend least important things. Guys, uh, what's the last time you've been on a steamboat um going down the Nile?

SPEAKER_00 5:22

Uh, you know, I think of um Jungle Cruise, the ride and oh, the ride.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Ooh, ooh, a little tease for a new segment coming in this in this franchise rewatch series, but in this episode specific, we have a new segment. Um, but we're gonna before we get started, guys. As you know, we love to have great sponsors on all of our rewatch episodes, especially our franchise rewatch episodes. And they could be uh corporations, they could be businesses or organizations like today's sponsor who I'm really excited that wanted to participate on the show. This episode is sponsored by the Brenbridge Scholars Association. Are you looking for the latest knowledge, artifacts, and research about ancient totems, MacGuffins, and potential curses? Then look no further than Benbridge Scholars. Our group of qualified academics are available 24 days a year to help conduct detailed research on your next treasure hunt. And don't worry, every piece of scholarly research is verified for protection and accuracy. So if you're in an emergency situation where you need need to analyze an artifact, you can rely on Ben Bridge. Ben Bridge Scholars Association will do the research so you can say the exposition. Welcome. Uh, it's it's great to have a good sponsor. Um, I don't believe women are allowed in this association. Um, that's just one of the things they wanted me to say.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Not yet.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Not yet.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Not until after this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Yes, we're we're gonna change it today. All right, it's on to back of the VHS. This is where we say, well, what one person does. Uh, cold reads the back of a VHS. So let's imagine it's 1999, maybe early 2000s, maybe it's in 2003, 2004. It's a Friday night, you're with your family, you're walking around a family video or blockbuster, and you're you're gonna pick a family friendly, but also on the edge, scary movie that's fun, exciting. And you see this beautiful face on the cover of this orangish-reddish box. It says the mummy, and then you see two other faces that are beautiful as well, and you flip it over. And what do you read, Mike when?

SPEAKER_00 7:28

But I well, it starts with a conversation of um, hey Shan, what about this one? This one looks good, and immediately she says, This looks terrible. And I go, No, no, no, no, let's give it a shot. Let's give it a shot. And I turn the cover over and I say, Deep in the Egyptian desert, a handful of people searching for a long-lost treasure stumble upon a 3,000-year-old legacy of terror. Honey, it's getting good. It's getting good. Combining the thrills of a roaring adventure with the suspense of Universal's legendary 1932 horror classic, The Mummy, is a true nonstop action epic filled with dazzling visual effects, top-notch talent, and superb storytelling. Hey Shan, listen, they told us if you got it. I mean, look, they say on the back of the VG VHS, good effects, top-notch talent, superb storytelling. I mean, have you ever seen a back of a VHS tell you that you're gonna get good storytelling?

SPEAKER_03 8:32

Yeah, I mean, it's telling you that it's gonna be a good story.

SPEAKER_02 8:36

I mean, you have to believe it. I liked at the back, uh, I can't believe uh, this is from the San Francisco uh Chronicle. It just says big time fun with Emotef's arms stretched out. Yeah, if that doesn't have you in, I don't know what does. Uh, you would also learn on the back of that VHS that this movie was written and directed by Steven Summers, who would go on to direct the sequel, The Mummy Returns, Van Helsing, one of my personal favorites, and G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra, not one of my personal favorites. Um, music by Jerry Goldsmith. Ah, what a great score this is. Uh of course, you know him from Alien, the Omen, Star Trek, the Motion Picture, one of the best composers of the 20th century. Cinematography by Adrian Biddle, who was the DP for Aliens. He did Princess Bride and went on to do V for Vendetta. And it is starring an underrated cast. It's Brendan Fraser as Mr. O'Connell, Rachel Vise as Evelyn Carn Carnahan Carnahan? Carnahan.

SPEAKER_01 9:39

Carnahan, I think, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Carnahan. John Hannah as Jonathan Carnahan. Arnold, oh, this is gonna be rough. Okay, Arnold a vulso.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Vaslo, Vaslo? I want to say Vaslow.

SPEAKER_02 9:51

As Immotep. Uh, Kevin J. O'Connor as uh Benny, Oded Ferrar as Artist Bay, and Jonathan Hyde as Dr. Alan Chamberlain. All right, let's move on to facts that you can fact check. I'm not gonna do the work for you. The mummy was released on May 7th, 1999, right around just after Zach's birthday. Wow, what a great May in 1999 for a young Zach. It was a great ninth year. Uh that weekend you could have seen The Matrix, Election, Entrapment, Never Been Kissed in Idle Hands. 99.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

I did see Never Been Kissed that weekend instead, actually, with my mom, I think.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

I mean, a fun movie, but uh a little different tone. 99, what a year. Uh we have been trying to think about what it would look like to have a best movie year face-off battle. Uh 99 would be probably one of the top ones. And just having the Matrix and the Mummy come out in the same year, and episode one, I believe, uh just makes me happy. What a time. The film's budget was 80 million and it went on to rake in a massive 460 million worldwide. The film was originally envisioned as a low-budget horror movie. Obviously, this is part of the universal monster. I guess what do we call it? Uh almost like IP. It's not really a franchise.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

It I think it's what we're what you know later on, it's the installment to keep like the mummy franchise going from like the 30s, same as Dracula and all of those. It's in that, it just doesn't, it stands out as different, I think. So we don't recognize it, if that makes sense. Right. Um, but it's it is in the same, it is it is a remake of the 1932 mummy, yes, it is, which which I didn't I wanted to watch that before this one.

SPEAKER_02 11:45

I'm I'm gonna probably go back to it. Um, I don't know if we'll cover it fully, but um, maybe we'll do a the like mummy spinoff kind of best of episode uh where we could talk about maybe each one of us can pick one and um talk about it. But a lot of obviously with this property, a lot of big directors were attached to maybe make more of a traditional horror movie, Joe Dante, George Romero. But they decided to go with more of the swashbuckling Indiana Jones style with Steven Somers uh helming this. It was filmed in Morocco and England, not filmed in Egypt because there was a lot of uh political turmoil at the time, but definitely a hard shoot. Um, to avoid dehydration in the scorching heat of the Sahara, the productions medical team created a drink that the casting crew had to consume every two hours to stay hydrated. Standstorms were a daily inconvenience. Snakes, spiders, scorpions were a huge problem with many crew members having to be airlifted out after being uh bitten. We uh we associate the desert with a lot of Hollywood movies. We think Lawrence of Arabia, Star Wars, even more recently, the Dune movies. It is not easy to shoot in the desert, even though we've seen it a lot in movies, it is always a risk. It's why a lot of the uh Star Wars TV shows shoot on the back lot with that fancy screen because it's a lot easier than going to Morocco or some of these more remote places to shoot. Uh, but I think there's a huge difference, and you see it in this movie, and I think that's part of the reason why it's aged well. Brendan Fraser actually choked and passed out during the hanging scene and get the Cairo present. I looked at this trivia ahead of time and I was trying to catch what shot was actually him choking. There is one shot, I think it's from is it the wide? I think it's the wide. I don't I don't know, but uh Rachel Vise says that like she remembered him like actually stopping his breath and had to be resuscitated. And that, my friends, is one of the many reasons why Brennan Fraser is the people's champion, the people's actor. The library disaster was done in one take. It would have taken an entire day to reshoot it if a mistake had been made with the bookshelves. One of my favorite fun little scenes. Um, the character of uh Ardeath Bey Oded by Oded Ferrar was originally supposed to die at the end of the film. However, Summers thought Fair was so incredibly charismatic and beautiful, I would have to say. I think originally they were gonna have him totally tattooed, um, that they chilled that they changed the ending so he would survive for the sequel. And then the language spoken in the film was uh supposed to be ancient Egyptian, but it was actually a linguist-guided approximation, which happens a lot of times in movies. Maybe not the most um appropriate way in a modern lens to do that. Uh, and there was a lot of ADR recorded because the dialogue was so funky. And then, of course, we mentioned it on the back of the VHS, but uh big CGI movie uh 99. You think about ILM doing episode one. This was another big CGI effects movie, The Matrix as well. Really uh a turning point.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

If you watch the documentary on this movie, you actually kind of find out that the um like the whole set kind of seemed like like sabotaged. Like like the yeah, the you can kind of like read it in the interviews of some of the um it's not like explicitly said, but like some of the um like there was an actual curse. Yeah, yeah, kinda, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:22

None of them, none of them actually say it, but they like allude to it. They allude to it, yeah. Yeah, I think that that time we did find that one actual dead body.

SPEAKER_00 15:31

Right. But then they kind of talk, they kind of like talk around it like, you know, like, you know, here we are shooting this movie about this on this ridiculous curse. And it kind of feels like you know, we just can't catch a break on some of these things. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:44

I would say a lot of people maybe say that throughout productions of this size and scope, that they probably would always say it was curse. I think sometimes it's just ironic that if you're making a movie about curses in a group of a lot of Americans, to be real, uh, in a foreign land trying to do something, uh it's kind of the movie within the movie there. All right. Any other uh facts that I missed or facts that I could fact check that you guys have come upon in in the lore of this movie as it's grown over time?

SPEAKER_01 16:13

I think the uh one thing, because I did look up the original plot and I won't of the 1932 movie, I won't give it away too much of it, if we especially if we want to come back to it. But Art of the Bay is actually the main name that the mummy takes on in the 1932 movie, which is pretty interesting. And when you say um that he was gonna possibly die, I mean that's that's a cool little connection there. I'm glad they rewrote it though, because him on a plane and the way he smiled. The way he smiles, just being in it in flight was just so glorious to behold. Like I've never seen someone grin so so widely before.

SPEAKER_02 16:50

That's it's it's a microcosm of that the actors are having fun in this movie, the characters are having fun in this movie, yeah, and we're having fun in this movie. It just everybody's having fun, even though there's curse and death and and fear happening all around us. It we're having fun from beginning to end. Having fun. All right, let's move on to uh one of our tried and true, our tried and true segments. Uh Mike's nap check-in. Now, if you've been following along with the show, you know that Mike has a newborn. And many thought I was I was hearing rumors, I think there's maybe a Reddit thread that this might actually reverse the napping effect that since he's up at night with the baby, it might actually allow Mike not to fall asleep. Um, can we get a Mike's nap check in, Mike?

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Yeah, I did fall asleep during this movie uh for significant portions of it. And it was not like um like one bit that I like one 15-minute stretch that I missed. It was like five minutes here, five minutes there for the entirety of the movie. So there's a lot that happened that frankly, I'm hoping you guys can help clear up for me.

SPEAKER_02 18:05

A little bit of a fever dream um there for you. I actually think that's a great way to watch this movie. I think it is a cozy movie, even though there's some body horror that we'll get to. I think when this movie's on, and we're kind of getting into overall thoughts here, but anytime this movie was on TV growing up, it was always a watch. It was always flipping back and forth in the channels. It didn't matter what part of the movie you were in, it was always on. It just to me, this movie is a cozy couch in a basement. Like that's how I describe it. Zach, what about you? What's your what's your history with this movie?

SPEAKER_01 18:42

I mean, the desert feels like a warm hug in this movie. I totally agree. Like it is, and also just like it's a very quick cut movie, like especially talked about the hang scene, hangman, hanging scene. And I was actually doing like a shot count. I didn't actually count it, guys, because there wasn't actual doves this time. So no doves. Um but like it's a very quick cut, like everything in that scene is so quick, and it's you know, um, a lot of back and forth and dialogue, but it's like a it's all these great one-liners that it sits on, it'll allow you to like sit for a hot second and like let that sink in. That Brendan Frazier said it this way, like, or there's that little like the and also the comedy is very like it's not asking for applause, it's just there to add an extra level of that warmth, homey humor to this that this movie just holds onto throughout it. Um, but yeah, I agree. I think this is one that you flip on, and the moment that you are in the desert, you just have a lot of fun, and then you might fall asleep because of course. I mean, this is like a lullaby, um a horrific lullaby that we can all fall asleep to.

SPEAKER_02 19:54

That's the perfect description. This movie has stood the test of time, and uh like a mummy, it has been resurrected and resurrected. It feels like every maybe generation, maybe it's our generation as uh kind of the mid-millennials, but it feels like this movie really has continued to grow. I think it's part of the wider uh Fraser Sans, Brendan Fraser Sans, the past five to six years, him kind of being reclaimed as a Hollywood star, his Oscar journey, uh him being an uh a fantastic actor. But it was kind of this idea that he maybe was forgotten, even though he was a big part of these this franchise and other big movies. In the last five to six years, he's been brought back and kind of the the Hollywood, I like to call it like the the the lighthouse effect. Like the the light was on him with the whale and the Oscar run. And I think a part of that was everyone saying, We love the mummy, the mummy's fantastic. I know he showed up at uh I think for the mummy returns, he showed up in character, I think that was maybe 2022 or 2023. Uh but this film has continued to have legs, continued to find new audiences, and continued to be rewatched over and over again. Uh what but what is it, what is it about this movie for you guys that stands out and why it stood the test of time? I know we could go through our actual uh our actual recipe here, Zach, um, and how it's aged. Uh maybe we can go quickly through it.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yeah. Um are you familiar, Mike, with the recipe?

SPEAKER_00 21:27

Is uh is this another Do you have your recipe card with you? Yeah, hold on. Let me hold on. Let me rummage. Um get sound effects. Um, sound effects. Let me read here. This is uh no.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

I actually don't have it pulled up either. So but it's uh I do I do have another card, but it's buried deep in uh my movie library over there. So I really do uh think that this movie is one of those that did have a cult following. And honestly, it was a related, thought of as a blockbuster. At the time, right? Yeah. But definitely fell off. I think in its it gave, you know, that padding that we need in order to really appreciate something.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

It needs to bake, it needs a it needs a set.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Yeah. And it instead, after it baked, became a cult following that I think is really uh what we appreciate. Um if I can bring it up, Luke. Luke and I have been texting uh pictures of the back of people's cars for the last six months because we kept finding this bumper sticker that um pretty much is just a plain yellow bumper sticker that if you don't mind me grabbing it.

SPEAKER_02 22:35

Yes, please grab it.

SPEAKER_01 22:40

It just says honk, if you'd rather be watching the cinematic masterpiece, The Mummy, starring Brenner Fraser and Rachel Weiss. That's it like that. This is the cult following of it. This is one reason why we are watching this now, and then this is a this is one reason why there's gonna be another movie coming soon.

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 22:58

Because people just really love this movie, they love the people that are in it. And personally, for me, I love the people most in this movie, not just our main cast, but even Emotep. Like, I always think of him as um as the crappy Billy Zane, but it's actually kind of the reverse. Like Billy Zane's the crappy bald version of this bald-headed guy that we can't say the name of.

SPEAKER_02 23:20

He's in he's in a ton of stuff too. He's he's in so many things.

SPEAKER_01 23:24

Yeah, and he like follows because he's in he is in that G.I. Joe movie that Summers directs. Like he brings them back. Um, and this was during the time of Brendan Fraser craziness. Like he had just gotten done with George of the Jungle, just two years later. He does Dudley Doolite do right this year, and it's like his pinnacle, like this is him at the top of his mountain for Brendan Fraser in the 90s, early 2000s. Things go downhill from here. This is like why we remember Brendan Fraser, I think. And then on top of that, it's also just a really great um example of an adventure movie um with that horror aspect that people call it the the poor man's Indiana Jones. I think it's just really just taking the formula and bringing it back into the fold so that we can appreciate that formula and apply it to more than just, you know, typical indie movies. Um so yeah, I mean and with all those things thought together and plenty more as we go through this, that's why I still think about this movie. Also, it's warm. Um, and I love anything that has a warm orange and red and yellow uh box cover to it. If you guys want to go back and review all the movies that I've reviewed with you guys, most of them are warm, cold, warm-toned movies. So for some reason, I just can't help it. I love them so much. And I don't know what Luke is now at the back of his room, grabbed a box, hurdled two couches to get back here, get his headphones on.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

I I wouldn't be fun if I just ate shit while I did that. That would be incredible.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

And we got it on mic, like right, yes. So you you got like, yeah, you're showing me Gone in 60 Seconds, one of my favorite top three Nick Cage movies, and then Mission Impossible 2, which we have talked about at Nauseam.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

Yes, and I don't think I've showed this to you guys, but uh, do you notice what's on the back of Mission Impossible 2?

SPEAKER_01 25:21

There was another dove that I took. It's a crow.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

No. No, it's the silhouette of a no, it's a crow. It's a crow. Yeah, it's in the corner, and they're actually right in the middle aisle, they're right here. Crows again. No, these are all doves.

SPEAKER_01 25:36

Dude, dude, that's just an art choice, Mike.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

It's not the graphic designer for that VHS. Speaking of crow. Um I I don't know. I I don't really have really formed opinions on why this movie has remained popular. I I I have some ideas that are just like maybe not as like formulaic as what Zach's getting at, and maybe it means nothing. But like I think that something that helped this movie was it was it was generally well received, although um I think uh like at the time of release, right? So it wasn't it wasn't like it was a dud, and it was it was popular, and the ride at Universal, which we'll talk about later, definitely helped maintain its popularity because I must say it not that the movie's bad, okay, but the ride is better than the movie. Um, and I don't think I I don't think that and and and the thing is the ride's amazing, like like I have no issues with the ride, so like that's high praise for the movie. Yes, um the but but so so I think the ride has helped um because people have nostalgic feelings about the movie because the ride is better, okay. Um, and we like that's one thing I think is true, and then also I think Tom Cruise's remake or reboot um helped make the original more popular. Interesting because it was so bad.

SPEAKER_01 27:09

I like you juxtapose it next to it.

SPEAKER_00 27:12

You go and you're like, Oh, I love this movie when it came out. I can't wait. Tom Cruise, I love Tom Cruise's Mission Impossible. This is gonna be great. I'm gonna go see this mummy. This sucks. I'm gonna go back and watch the Brendan Fraser one because that was actually good. And then now you have this comp you have this uh and it's confirmation bias, right? It's nostalgia mixed with confirmation bias. You go back, it's like, yeah, this is better than the junk I just watched. And uh, and and it was and it was and it's maybe even better than when I originally saw it, or or whatever it is. I don't know, but it and so I yeah, I I look the movie's good. I'm not gonna drag on the I'm not gonna drag the movie in this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 27:50

Yeah, no, I I think it's great. I think it it you bring up a good point. There there's a campiness to this movie, and it doesn't take its itself too seriously, but also takes the plot seriously, right?

SPEAKER_00 28:02

Yeah, a a little bit. I do think look that if there's there's a couple criticisms for this movie that I think would be fair in pointing out. Um, it is a remake, so in some ways you can say, hey, this came before you know the concept of this came before Indiana Jones, which is true, but also they made Dollar Tree Indiana Jones. Like you can you can literally like just point at any character in this movie and say, and and Indiana Jones did it better, and it's just like um, I I for so for me, it's like I would have appreciated that they kept the things that worked and then like took away the campy things that were just very obviously um ripoffs of Indiana Jones. The bet the easiest one to point at and say is a just a clear ripoff is um oh my gosh, Indiana Jones is uh sidekick friend. What's his name? Salah. Salah, yeah, Sala, exactly. And there is a Salah character in in the mummy, and he's just a bumbling idiot going through like it's just like this is this warm character that you kind of like is some comic relief and like yeah, Jonathan, the brother, yeah, exactly. So it's so so for me, it's like I would have I would have appreciated them take a different take on a character like that instead of just copy and paste that into this movie. But again, I'm a fan.

SPEAKER_02 29:24

I'm a fan of no, I I I think it's interesting. Like it's interesting that could have Indiana Jones been like the James Bond franchise. Is this if if there was just it was recasted, if Brenda Frazier was just recasted as Indiana Jones, what would that movie look like? I think the reason why this movie is special in its own way because they are obviously paying homage to Indiana Jones. I think it's actually I would argue this. I think Frasier's character is closer to Han Solo than Indiana Jones. That's my take. There is a specific Han Solo Star Wars bit that I noticed this time. The rewatch, I think it's the the when the priests are attacking him in the final kind of sequence, he like runs in the hallway and then runs back and they're all chasing him. Very much like Han Solo when they're on the Death Star, he runs in, he like runs after the stormtroopers and then runs back because he sees a bunch of other stormtroopers.

SPEAKER_00 30:24

Who wrote this movie, Luke?

SPEAKER_02 30:25

The director wrote it, Steven Summers.

SPEAKER_00 30:27

So here's my theory on Steven Summers with this movie. I think he took this to Lucasfilm and said, Hey, I've got this script. I think it'd be great for Indiana Jones, your next Indiana Jones movie. And Lucasfilm was like, Yeah, you know, we're not really looking to do that right now. Um, so no. And Steven took it to what is this, a universal picture? Yeah, he took it to Universal, and he's like, Hey, I think you could, I think you could paste this in to I to existing IP that you have.

SPEAKER_02 30:58

Yeah, it's interesting theory. I think it's probably the the the inverse. I think he they had the the mummy IP, and it was like, well, let's just instead of making it a uh no slash.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

No, that's not cynical enough. Look, that what what my what I said is right.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

I I disagree with both of you actually. So what I think this movie, I think you guys don't have the heart of this movie. You don't you weren't able to capture what the actual heart and message of this movie was. And I believe that this movie was about let me see here. How do I how do I best what did I wrote it down as? Uh a man who loves a woman.

SPEAKER_04 31:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Who and that woman is taken from him. Yes in his and he has to wait 3,000 years to come back with superpowers to bring her home into his arms. This is a love story, my friends.

SPEAKER_00 31:52

The character It's the prequel to An Affair to Remember.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

Yeah. We and what happens is the studio system, the studio system messed up the message to think that Brendan Fraser is the actual true hero of this story. Amohotep is the actual superhero of this film.

SPEAKER_02 32:10

It's it's a tragedy, it's a tragedy almost. It's a it's Star Cross lovers. Um he it's it's the the the Pharaoh's prostitute, number one prostitute, and him as uh as the priest. They couldn't they couldn't be together.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

He is the he it was what the 1920s uh response is to like just like Superman was the response to you know a lot of amazing um global war world wars, we needed a hero. Yeah, Immotep is the response to British colonialism and imperialism that they needed, that the the that the Middle East needed.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

I like it, I like it. I support you. Keep keep going. I support you. I support you on this theory.

SPEAKER_01 32:58

And in order to adapt something that was strong for our audiences, we had to bring in these the characters that we're used to, the characters that we love and and the adventure formula that we are that we appreciate. I do want to remind you, I believe you're the person that you're the the um sidekick, Indiana Jones is sidekick, forgive me, I don't remember, but uh, we're talking about the one that um the warden who like uh he's like the warden the jail. Is that the one that we're talking to would be the equivalent in this movie, or would that be I think Jonathan's more the Salah?

SPEAKER_02 33:30

I think this Salah, well, because Indiana Jones, you have a couple like kind of one note characters. You have sure the professor, um, Indiana Jones fr friend who works at the college. He he especially in The Last Crusade, he has a lot of jokes. Um you have Sala who's bringing jokes, but he's an an assistant. So it's yeah, it's kind of a mixture.

SPEAKER_01 33:56

Yeah, I mean, look at look at what these characters are. The the characters that we have to follow, we're forced to follow the entire movie. We have a a prisoner, we have um a jailman, we have uh gamblers, thieves, uh, we have Benny, whatever the hell he is. I he's a con man, he's a con man. We these are the archetypes of villainry that have raided the Egypt, have taken treasures and um raided tombs, and emotep is here to save us all and to take back the sand from the white man.

SPEAKER_02 34:34

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 34:34

I'm sorry, I'm getting it all wrong.

SPEAKER_02 34:37

I agree. I think that was the one thing at re-watching it. Um, I think this is this I've rewatched this movie many, many times. But I was like, what's why are they trying to stop like Immotep? Like to me, it's he wanted to get his babe back, you know. His he's just wanted to get his lady friend back. He didn't like do anything for uh to hurt uh the Egyptian people, he just slept with the or touched the law, ma'am.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

He broke the law. Okay, he did break the law.

SPEAKER_02 35:03

Yeah, veral law. Okay, you gotta respect it.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

I am a rule follower. He did break the law.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

I just think I uh re-watching this, I was like, Imitep's like he's not he's just trying to get his lady back. I mean, it the way he's doing it is by taking people's flesh and flakes, and I it's not the most mature way to get back with your lady, but he will he's it's love. Yeah, he'd do anything for love.

SPEAKER_01 35:27

I mean the the bummer was that he had to I so my interpretation is he had to kill Rachel Weiss, um Evelyn's character, yeah, to um resurrect Anoxu Namon. Nice nailed it. Thank you. I can't believe you did you tried it. It just but she has a name and I appreciate that. She has a name. She's done. If we continue this, she will be back next movie. So we have to get used to it. Um that's right though, right? In order to get her resurrects her.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Evelyn is basically, yeah, the the form, the flesh form for her to have the skin, the flesh skin, which is really where I cross the line, and we'll get into that later.

SPEAKER_01 36:07

Yeah. I mean, she was an Evelyn's an evil librarian, so she's a failed evil librarian, and that's that's all the justification that I give can give to her almost dying.

SPEAKER_02 36:18

And that's where you lost me on your theory. That's where you lost me.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

It's not fully formed, but I think the second one will bring will remind us.

SPEAKER_02 36:25

It will remind us.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 36:27

We'll we'll have a little bit more clarity. We'll track this.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

But if I can bring in one more bit here, we did talk about kind of like the studio system. This could be shopped around, possibly as an Indiana Jones movie. I do want to put this in, like, are typically, and you brought up um the Tom Cruise mummy mic, what happened at that time was like they were trying to create the monster verse at Universal, right? Right. So they had that movie coming out, a Wolfman movie had come out years before. They ended up doing an Invisible Man movie somewhere in there. Um, they were gonna spin off with Russell Crowe as Jacqueline Hyde. Um, this movie's original because like I was trying to figure out where would there have been a Dracula movie or a Frankenstein movie in this decade, and this is the beginning of the decade with Bram Stroker's Dracula, yeah, and um Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is like 94, 95 somewhere on there. It's there's a lot of distance there, and they're very horror-centric.

SPEAKER_00 37:21

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:21

This is kind of like and it's it's it's a special little little uh diamond in the sand, honestly, because you don't this there's no cultural necessity for this movie to come out, other than maybe Universal just felt like they needed to. I think that's kind of cool to appreciate um as we continue to talk about it because it is literally nothing precedes it, nothing proceeds it. It's very interesting to kind of just look at it as why now kind of thing. Maybe it was just for the movie. Maybe I mean maybe it was just for the ride, maybe they just need a new ride.

SPEAKER_02 37:51

Yeah, it was maybe a good tie-in. We'll get we'll get we'll get into that in a next segment. The one thing I do want to say, and it ties into with uh the conversation when we started with Brendan Fraser. I I think this is a very 1999 movie. It's a it's not to get I'm not trying to get in historic historiography here in politics, but it feels very pre-9-11, right? Like it is a romance movie, it is it is fun, there's horror elements, but it's it's there, there's an innocence to it, and that's why I think it's comforting. And we'll talk about the sequels, but um the sequel coming right before 9-11 as well. Uh, and I talked to Daniel Steven from the Stuck on Sorna podcast about kind of that 2001 era movies that came out. JP3 was one of them. This movie or the sequel was another one of them. Uh, and I'll workshop this a little bit and maybe in our second episode. But I think there's kind of this innocence, and Fraser to me is like that pre-9-11 innocence that he captures in a lot of his movies. And I think that this movie is that kind of innocent time that we can always go back to. That's comforting, and that's not trying too hard, it's that perfect balance. Like I I think Fraser was so big because he was in these movies that everyone could enjoy. Um almost a Dwayne Johnson type of performer before Dwayne Johnson, and we'll get into that.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

Oh, that's brave.

SPEAKER_02 39:07

That's very, very shortly. It's he's he's a movie star that can bring everybody in. Um that is warm, friendly, charismatic, and that can be in a family Disney movie that also can be an action adventure movie.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

Fully agree with that. Um yeah, and I think that's it is kind of its own film for the time. I totally agree with that. And I yeah, and we talk about Brian Fraser all the time. I think I'm just gonna keep hailing him, but he is really like he's a he's the cornerstone of the cast, but the cast is really successful, I think, around him. He's just that great technical player on the field, like making everybody look really good during this. Um, which is cool. I love that. I love that people can carry themselves and he's just a part of it, I think, in this film.

SPEAKER_02 39:57

Yeah, this is one of those uh to make continue the sports analogy, it's a really good team. There's not like a huge superstar on the team. It's just a well-coached team, all has all these great supporting players. Maybe if you're from a football analogy, it's a it's a strong core, like a good quarterback, but not a great quarterback. Uh, just a well-run team. Mike, how do you feel what's what's a good example here from a team standpoint? I'm thinking like maybe the OKC Thunder. Uh I'm thinking like Arsenal FC. Okay. Moving on. It's time for Mike's Theme Park Corner, a new segment on the show. Mike's theme park corner. This is the corner where Mike talks about theme parks and rides based on movies and the like. Mike, can you give us a little background of the mummy ride, where it is, um what it is, because I don't know. I know there was a mum mummy ride, but I have no clue.

SPEAKER_00 40:48

You know, is it true that you know nothing about this ride right now? I know nothing about this ride right now. That's awesome because I've been planting seeds throughout this whole podcast. Um I think Zach has picked up on a couple of them, but you have not.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

I I know nothing. I'll have to watch a ride video afterwards.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

So, okay. I have quite a bit of content here, so you're just gonna have to edit out whatever you don't want.

SPEAKER_02 41:08

Um strap in.

SPEAKER_00 41:10

But but uh okay, so uh there's actually three um Revenge of the Mummy rides. So it's called Revenge of the Mummy. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 41:17

Um where's it in the timeline of the movies? Or is it it's is it is it more of an interpretation of the movies?

SPEAKER_00 41:23

No, it takes place during the filming of the first movie. Okay. And um, so the basically what you find out upon hold on, let me do some exposition here.

SPEAKER_03 41:35

So you're standing in line, you got your fast pass, you got your $30 churn now before that. So the kids have puked on the wave. Okay, let's go ahead. No, I'm sorry, seriously. I want to I want to know this.

SPEAKER_00 41:48

So uh it actually replaced uh a ride, an original uh universal ride, um, called Kongfrontation, which was uh day one opening ride for King Universal Monster.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

The King Kong ride. King Kong Okay, so Kongfrontation Universal Monster for Universal Monster.

SPEAKER_00 42:03

And um that ride went on for about 12 years, had some issues that we're not gonna get through, um, not gonna get to, but it just had it had issues, right? So they decided in 2002 to say, hey, we're gonna replace this and we're gonna do something based on the mummy film franchise, and um and then vaguely, we're gonna do something that no theme park has ever done before with this ride. Um and they did. They they did. I'll I'll get into like what they did that was really innovative and interesting, and even today is like awesome. So they um they open the ride, and basically, um, when you enter the ride, uh you uh are you have a very theme, a very well-themed queue. Like if you've ever been to Disney World, I mean this rivals anything that Disney World is.

SPEAKER_02 42:49

So this is when you're waiting in line and they have some sort of element of the story around you.

SPEAKER_00 42:53

And what you what you actually learn through the queue is that um you're you're you're actually um joining a backstage tour of the filming. Oh okay. And so they're kind of they're kind of doing this to like finance the movie or to like give viewers um like a piece of I'm pretty sure I'm pretty sure this is how it's set up. Like it's it's a backstage tour. And what you're watching, and you're actually watching um a documentary that is being made about the movie, and you're learning about it, and it's actor, it's the real actors from the movie talking, and they're talking about how the set is cursed. Dope. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

So it's I was just handing you earlier, by the way. I did not know about this. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 43:40

Yeah, they so so they're literally talking about all these like things that keep happening and they don't they can't really explain it, and they're like, it's almost like our set is cursed, you know. It's this is so weird. And um and so then you get on the ride, and it's uh so it's an indoor coaster dark ride, it's like a coaster dark ride mix, and so I Um, what they did, which had never been done before, so they use these. Um, I'm sure you guys have been on like a launch coaster before, like Topsville Dragster or um like it goes fast, really. Yeah, instead of instead of pulling you up, it just shoots you, right? Yeah, not great for so that was not new at the time. However, that system had never been used indoor.

SPEAKER_02 44:21

So uh so daily would be outside. This is actually in inside, absolutely terrifying.

SPEAKER_00 44:26

So they so they did it, so so they do it indoor and they launch you indoors, and uh additionally, um the they did they specially designed these type of motors, so they co-opt, they basically took that technology and they said we were gonna do something even different, more different with it. We're gonna put track switches in it. So basically, there are five track switches in the ride where you're going you're going in one direction, and then the ride stops and turn and puts you in a different direction, and you go in all directions during this ride, including backwards. Oh yeah, and and you're in a coaster the whole time, it's a coaster. So um uh among the other like really amazing things about this ride are the animatronics and the special effects for this ride again, rival anything that Disney had done up to that point, and even like it was just very forward thinking. There's a there's there's an animatronic for emotep that is even today just still really, really impressive. Um, it's like a six foot eight animatronic that is just so so cool.

SPEAKER_02 45:31

And then I'd like to put that in the studio, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:35

Um, and then uh something they do, they have an effect in the ride that is widely considered just continue to be such a cool effect. And it again, it's never this type of effect of effect had never been done before on um theme park rides, and it's kind of called like the flame brain. So basically, you end up in so emotep, flame brain uh you're gonna go on this coaster, it's gonna take you behind the scenes, and emotep uh hijacks, of course. Hijacks it, and now you're at now you're like at his will and he's gonna consume your soul. Um, so you end up in the pyramid somewhere or in in the tombs, and um he comes on the screen or whatever, or something. There's there's an effect where you see him, and then he says that he's gonna consume you or something, and then this fire, like actual fire, starts coming out of the ceiling, and you like look up and it's just flames, and it's hot, like hot, hot. And I think they've measured. I was looking, I was researching this earlier, they've measured the um the temperatures at the ceiling get up to like 3400 degrees. It's crazy. Oh, so this is wow, okay. Um, but anyway, so like so this ride has been going on for 20 years, and it is still like it's like people are obsessed with this ride. There are very like there's some people who complain about it being a little bit like clunky, but that's probably just due to age, yeah. Um, and uh, but for the most part, this ride has been among the most popular rides at Universal day in, day out, since it was opened over 20 years ago. And um, even today, like um you would you'd be hard pressed to find people who don't love this ride. People go to Universal and have you annual passes at Universal just to ride this thing. It's it's the it I I would venture to say that it is maybe the most important ride Universal has made that is not a Harry Potter ride. Okay, okay, because you can make all sorts of arguments about how important Harry Potter was to Universal, but uh outside of the Harry Potter rides, I don't think they've made a more important ride to their business than this ride.

SPEAKER_02 47:56

Wow, that was amazing. I'm I'm excited about it. I I it's giving me a little bit more, a little bit more interest in going to the theme park. And that's Mike's theme park corner. Um, but that's pretty amazing. I think you you're it it makes sense. Like I just am sewn on that world, but it makes sense that that ride is part of the reason why this movie's lore, because you think about it from an IP marketing standpoint, is maybe people aren't watching the mummy, the movie all the time, but if they're thinking about the movie and seeing it through the ride, it's just constantly gonna be in the zeitgeist, and it's pretty amazing because a lot of times, correct me if I'm wrong, Mike. A lot of times if they have quote unquote IP rides, they change them up a lot of times, right? Like they don't last very long.

SPEAKER_00 48:44

Yeah, they've done they I think they have done like one update. I I'm not again, I'm a more of a Disney guy, right? But they've done an update on this ride, but for the most part, this ride has remained fairly original to when it was introduced, and that's surprising given that between the time this ride was opened and to today, I mean, how many mummy movies have we had? At least three or four, right?

SPEAKER_02 49:10

Yeah, so um Scorpion King three and the Scorpion King was part of this franchise? Yep. Yes, Mike, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 49:20

Welcome to the mummy cast.

SPEAKER_01 49:22

Is there a scorpion king too as well?

SPEAKER_02 49:25

There is, yeah, which we we might not do that one.

SPEAKER_00 49:28

So okay, so so that being said, that might be part of like the extras.

SPEAKER_02 49:32

We'll just throw that one in there.

SPEAKER_00 49:34

What you see a lot of times in these in these IP rides is that in order to um capitalize on the marketing for a ride, they will add in elements of new movies. And uh, I mean, you see that with um Pirates of the Caribbean. Uh uh Jack Sparrow was added in um later on. And then you see, I mean, you see it with all these, you can go through and you can find all these rides, but um, yeah, so this ride has remained largely original. And because of why that's one of the reasons why it's beloved, because people who rode this ride when they were kids in 2002 are now bringing their kids and have come back over and over again, and they're getting to experience the same ride. And because the ride was such incredible quality at the beginning, it never really required an update. It was something that they knew was I mean, I mean, they were writing check, they were caching checks the whole time.

SPEAKER_02 50:30

Wow, yeah, and it's similar to the movie, I feel like it's a it's like it's uh on a similar timeline.

SPEAKER_00 50:35

But this is what but this is what I mean though. I knew about the movie because of the ride. The ride was and I I think the ride is ten times more popular than the movie.

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Okay, okay. Is there a bumper sticker that that says I'd rather be riding I'd rather be riding the mummy ride in uh Universal Orlando, Florida right now?

SPEAKER_00 51:03

Yeah, Zach's riding it. Yeah, he's got it. He's right in that he's got it.

SPEAKER_02 51:06

Shout out to Super Yaki who produces those bumper stickers. It's a really great movie merch site. So they're not a sponsor of the show, but shout out to Super Yakki. Um, all right, let's move on to Leesties and Besties. Uh, thank you, Mike, for that uh edifying uh theme park corner. I actually I I did appreciate it. Or maybe the mummifying. The mummify the mummified corner.

SPEAKER_01 51:23

Mummified corner, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:25

Zach, did you have anything to say about the theme parks?

SPEAKER_01 51:28

I think it's just really great to hear one, knowing a little bit about I don't I don't know everything. I'm not a coaster. Um, I don't ride a lot of rides mostly because I'm afraid that if I rode that ride, I would be launched into the darkness. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 51:42

But um or burned, apparently.

SPEAKER_01 51:45

Burned, yeah. I just was actually watching a run through of it while we were talking too, and it looks incredible. Um, even on the VHS that it was recorded on on this YouTube video that I was watching. I think that it is rare for our movie to be held for as long as pretty much 20, almost 25 years, then Mike, right? That it's been at Universal almost? Is it are we coming up on the 25th? You said 2002. 2002 is when it opened.

SPEAKER_00 52:14

So it's coming up on it. No, I think I think 2002, sorry, 2002 is when they closed confrontation, and then 2004 is when they opened.

SPEAKER_01 52:24

Okay. Okay. Maybe by the time we get the fourth movie, they will like, but like to hold that property, because usually they'll just re-theme it typically with a poster.

SPEAKER_02 52:34

If they don't like it, they're talking about minions or something.

SPEAKER_00 52:37

In my research for this, they did I did read that they that there's talk about are they gonna re-theme it for the new Brendan Fraser movie? Um I think 2028 uh is when that movie is supposed to come. I don't know, it doesn't matter. But the um the uh but I would say the overwhelming fan consensus is do not touch this ride. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02 53:03

So we might have to do a check-in later on in the uh the mummy cast on to see if there's any news about both the theme parks and the new movie. Kind of conjoining stories here. I like it.

SPEAKER_01 53:15

It's a good cross section for Lisa Board Biggs up might like as if we have to do this more. We have to do this, yeah. There's a lot of setup.

SPEAKER_02 53:24

Yes, that's why we're back doing a franchise rewatch, and we're going on to leasties and besties. All right, friends, let's move on to the job you'd least likely want in the mummy. There's a few roles, jobs. You know, Zach talked about the thieves and the jailers, uh, just kind of all the rogues galleries of this kind of swashbuckling wild west tale uh set in ancient Egypt or from 1920s Egypt. Emotep's gold men group priests. Uh there must be original blue man group, but they're the gold man group. Uh, the his priests seems like a tough job um to be punished for being mummified. Pharaoh's bodyguards, the magi, uh, tough job um to be in that order. Uh you gotta be hot.

SPEAKER_01 54:13

You're wearing black in the desert.

SPEAKER_02 54:15

Yep, you gotta be watching this like thing that most people will never be able to find, but you have to like you have to keep up with who's trying to track it, or you have to like essentially put yourself in the middle of a battle to make sure that people don't stumble upon it. Um, it's a tough gig. Uh just a colonial soldier. Um, yeah, I just uh just an interesting job at that time for many reasons. Um, Jonathan, I don't know what Jonathan's job is. I I think it's what do we think it is?

SPEAKER_01 54:46

He is there to drink, obviously.

SPEAKER_02 54:49

Yes, a drink, yes.

SPEAKER_01 54:50

But he's also he's financing the whole thing, isn't he? I assume that's what he's doing. I really don't think they have money. I don't think the Carnahans have money at all. That's like the parents did.

SPEAKER_02 55:05

The parents did, they were big patrons.

SPEAKER_01 55:08

He's the idea man, guys. He's just got the idea. And again, yeah, he knows how to read a little bit. He's like the backup Evelyn. If you if you're in a pinch, he knows how to read a little bit. Yeah, he knows how to read.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

It went a long way back then. It went a long way back then. Um, just the American treasure hunters slash cowboys. Uh, any of those guys who open the box, uh, what's in the box, uh, the diggers who get their face melted. That's a rough one. Um, the the emotep zombie fans. Um I I I I wish I had the timestamp, but there's one shot during kind of the zombie sequence when they've had they've surrounded everybody. Um, and when Imotep um eats the skin off of one of the Americans. Uh uh Benny is shocked seeing this up close. But then look in the background, there's one of the zombies' reactions, he goes wide-eyed, like he totally misses the direction.

SPEAKER_03 56:08

Is he on the left frame? Yeah, he's in the left frame.

SPEAKER_02 56:11

He's he definitely is not supposed to be reacting to it because he's a zombie. Uh, his eyes go wide with fear. Um, that's how crazy Imotep's uh skin removal process is. Even the zombies are freaked out. Um, and then lastly, this is uh, I think Zach added this one the sand sweeper on the movie sets, uh, just being the grips on these movie sets.

SPEAKER_01 56:34

What a job, man. Like you just lots of sand all day.

SPEAKER_02 56:38

Even in the sets uh in England, they were sand. It could not escape.

SPEAKER_01 56:42

What do you do if you have to do another take in the middle of the desert? Do you just go over 45 degrees from camera and just pick that next do and like imagine?

SPEAKER_02 56:51

Especially with the horses and camels.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

Yeah, there's so many footprints everywhere. Like, what do you think?

SPEAKER_02 56:55

Now, as someone who's um I don't golf very often, but when I do golf, I am usually in the sand trap. And I know those rakes are pretty effective, but it is hard to maneuver. It is tough work, Mike. I know you spent some time in the sand trap as well, but uh well.

SPEAKER_00 57:08

Yeah, normally when I when I enter sand trap, I just kind of take my take my little iron, and I'm just like, you know, I'm here to have fun.

SPEAKER_02 57:15

I just kind of sweep so you would not get the job as the sand sweeper on the movie sets that would not be up to up to par.

SPEAKER_00 57:21

I I think okay, so remind me, I I the diggers, that's the like the they're just the grunts.

SPEAKER_02 57:30

They're the grunts that and they get their face melted with uh tracking. That's the job I don't want. That's the one. Yeah, that's a rough one. That's a rough one. I I agree. I think all the other ones have their challenges. Um, but I think anytime you are like, and this is stereotypical, this was in the Indiana Jones movies. It's just it's essentially like the it's it's it's the labor, essentially, uh the expendable labor um that they have in a lot of these movies that uh probably are it if not intentionally but subtly racist and probably not totally accurate. Um definitely one of the worst uh deaths. But I think the may I would I would also say any of those American treasure hunters, but they kind of brought them brought that out themselves.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

You're right, Luke.

SPEAKER_02 58:13

It's hard to be an American. It's hard, it's difficult to come in and have our guns and shoot everybody. It's tough. All right, moving on to the clover field. I'm out leasty for horror scenario you'd least likely go with. Uh, this is the point when you'd be out of the movie. You'd run away, you'd get out. All right, there's a lot. Um, after getting attacked by a legion of warriors on a steamship, or uh that would be one point where you could get out. Crossing the desert on camels. Here's night one. What about night one? Would you leave after night one? When the diggers get melted, as we just mentioned, a guy gets eaten by a scarab, but we don't know exactly how he died. Um, and then they get attacked by the Magi. That's just one night. Then the next day, they opened a sargophagus and they noticed fingernail scratches, playing around with the Book of the Dead, which is the next night, and then the the following night, which is the Immotep Resurrection and uh when all chaos ensues. Um, when are you out, Mike? Night one, man.

SPEAKER_00 59:17

Night one. Up to that point, I'd be willing to believe that everything was just a coincidence, you know. But when you're in the space and you're seeing that happen, I'm out.

SPEAKER_02 59:30

I I I love the line when it's like, our American friends had some bad luck too.

SPEAKER_01 59:34

And it's like, oh yeah, you think uh I for me it's kind of a so as a child, I wasn't there's like this irrational fear of quicksand that people say that they have. Also made an appearance in here for some some. I always forget about the quicksand and the pool.

SPEAKER_00 59:55

Yeah, I think so. I remember the Queen goes down in the quicksand.

SPEAKER_02 59:58

I thought I couldn't remember. I thought he wakes up. Uh Winston wakes up. I thought he like opens his eyes and says some final words, but instead he dies happy.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:07

He's happy, he's smiling. Yeah, I love that. I love that for him. But everybody's afraid of quicksand. As a child, I was afraid of scarabs.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:17

Oh, yes. Same.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:18

I like that was my irrational fear from this movie. I think it's either being buried alive, like the fingernail scratches, but honestly, the first time you know, like this bug can get in your skin and eat your brain out, like that's crazy to me. So I think it is night one for me, mostly because of that reason. The magi, I think the magi are just just doing their job.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:40

So yeah, you you can like hey, they're doing their job. It's fine. They're just they're attacking our Steamboat, and I'm sure, I'm sure there's there's a reason for it. Yeah, the scarabs still every time I watch it, it's terrifying, and it gets me every time. All right, least late 1920s and most 1990s thing in the movie. The mummy title sequence, emphasis on the M, just that is very 90s. Fraser's haircut, the nice part in the middle, uh, gorgeous. And then also they give a little George of the Jungle hair when he's in prison as well. Rachel Weiss's collared pinstripe shirt and tie outfit, very 90s, like Madonna fashion there. Um, and then Fraser's leather wrist bracelet, also very 90s. Anything else that I missed that that stood out to you guys that was very 90s, not 1920s.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:33

Do we remember the face that we thought there was a face on Mars back in the day?

SPEAKER_02 1:01:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:38

Isn't the mummy's face pretty much like us reawakening that? Like that weird fear of something underneath. Like, I think that's one it technically I looked it up. That's actually like they found that in the 70s, but I remember that being even like something I was reading in books back in the city.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:55

Yeah, playground lore or like yeah, elementary school library lore.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:59

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, I think that's that's a pretty 90s thing to do in the 20s. Like that, I mean, those CG the CGI for that is in general just crazy, would not be a 1920s thing you can imagine. Like, think about the original mummy, yeah, and how that's just about an invisible curse, essentially. And like how how we're actually able to put like these incredible images. I'm praising the movie right now. These incredible images onto screen for something that is so looked at as antiquated. Like, I think it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:32

Uh I think it it is a great modern, it it's a great modern use of CGI, and the CGI still holds up pretty well. And but it again, it was elevating what was a traditional old your grandpa's horror movie and making it bigger than that. They do pay nod to the traditional archetype of the mummies with like the robes of the priests. Yeah, but I think they especially were like, we do not want our mummy to be this slow walking robe thing, they wanted it to be like fleshy and moist and have that intensity with the eyes and the tongue, fleshy and moist, fleshy, juicy and juicy. Speaking of juicy, let's move on to besties. Uh, we're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:15

Can I just give like um a Mike Wins honorary uh leasty to for just like just general leasty? Just like it's a it is just a leasty, yeah. Do the wild card leasty. It's yeah, it's the it's the fact that Brendan Fraser's army knew where this place was, but all of these other people have no idea where this place is, and like it's like of lore and legend. Like, we don't know, like like we what do you mean you know where that place is? It's like he literally took a thousand people to it, and nobody knows where they all died, they all died in the war.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:56

Besides Benny, Benny died, or Benny survived, and and Brennan Frazier survived. They do subtly say that they they traveled south, like there was an obsession with it. This army was obsessed with it, and they traveled south, and there was no like no one knew where they were going. So they're they did they do they do mess with it a little bit. So I just wanted to defend um that whole part of the movie. Might have been part of the the naps. All right. The Peter Jackson bestie for grimiest moment of the film, or the ooeyest moment of the film. Um, there's a few. Like just getting mummified alive. Uh, the priests and embo tap, that just that's really tough. Uh tough, tough if you're just doing a job as a priest, as one of the goldman group. It's it's a really tough way to go. Uh, we mentioned already the salt acid skin melting once they open up the tomb, the scarab under the skin, terrifying, the fingernails on the coffin and the moist mummy.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:57

Ew, juicy, juicy.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:00

But the locusts, one of the best lines of the movie, what have we done with the locust? Um, and I think there's some like he he he had a such a hard time doing that take because those were real locusts or real grassruppers on his face, and he just they they had to do multiple takes because he couldn't keep a straight face, but great line. The eyeballs and tongue taken out uh after being Velmud.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:24

I wrote that in. I mean with the Velmud. Yes, the um, what's his face? Burns loses his glasses. I can't find my glasses. It's like oh it's new.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:36

It is yeah, and that's like it's this is like this is like Scooby Doo. It it feels like with there's a Scooby gang.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:44

There's we don't have a dog, but like this does feel like Scooby Doo, you're so right.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:48

It's like a dark Scooby Doo almost, and there is a mummy episode of Scooby Doo. It's like, but no, the mummy's real.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

Yeah, and the best part is like I love it's very Peter Jackson, in my opinion, because he's Like scrambling, he stands up, he can't find anything, and then he's got you know this. Um, he's got this bad vision. So out of nowhere, like out of focus, like that, only as someone who has really bad eyesight. Um, just like this screaming thing coming at you is pretty impressive. I think that it feels very Jackson. We're yeah, trying to bring up like what's a best good Peter Jackson thing. I think like that context is pretty important, along with the end result. Um no eyeballs and a tongue.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:32

That's rough, brutal time. And then he he's not done yet. Uh but which is that character gets it's it's tough. It's tough. He would and he ends up being a skinless corpse, which uh some great, some great practical effects of all those corpses. Uh I do appreciate. Um the half-skinned immotep spitting bugs and then getting and then eating the bug crawling on his uh through his hole in his cheek, and then uh kissing Evelyn. I just kind of lumped those together as he's getting getting his his skin. Uh he's acquiring his skin. Yeah, he just has different the phases are not great, uh um in his his skin uh evolution, let's just say. Um the boils yeah, skin evolution. The boils and sores on Imitep's uh fan zombies, of course. Um his mummified love, uh, she's pretty Jackson-y when she screams, especially. That reminded me of Peter Jackson. And then this is a good one. The Imotep stumbling into the ghost pool and uh decomposing like Gollum. Very Jackson-esque. Uh, do you guys have one that stands out the best of the grimiest moments of this movie?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:43

I think for me, like watching the movie, the most I don't know if this really fits what you're looking for, but like the most the moment where I was like, that's horrifying, is uh the getting mummified alive with all of the scarabs on you.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:00

I kind of forgot forgot about the prologue. All right, every time I rewatch, I always forget about the prologue. I think I just like kind of like jumped to my brain is yeah, you're with our like cast of heroes. Yeah, that's brutal.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:14

Yeah, it's I mean intense when you're seeing like how he also took all of his assistant priests are like also going to be gold man group. Yeah, the gold man group. Thank you. I need to put that in context, like continue that. Why are they like would did all of them or were all of them not allowed to be touched? Is that why they yeah, that's what I was confused.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:34

Like at first, I was like, wait, are they friends with her? What are they like on the same team? I'm assuming they're eunuchs, maybe. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:43

I I think by the end, they probably were eunuchs. They probably were there for them. Yeah, pretty every organ was bottled. Yes, that's true. Um, yeah, I that is it's not great. I uh especially the nails part.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:57

I don't like yeah, I think a combo of that and the nails is probably wince for me. Is is is just that whole being buried alive experience is uh not my favorite. Not my favorite at all. All right, this one's going back to one of our uh toughest re franchise rewatches, the pirates of the Caribbean honore bestie for best McGuffin slash totem. Uh the uh hominopsha map, the scarab key, the book of Amin Ra, the ancient mirrors, the legs of Anubis, the scarab gold thing that was pulled off the wall that is like the shell of the scarab almost. Um, the chest with the magic jars, um, and the book of the dead. And I guess the golden book is the book of Aman Ra. I believe they're the same thing. Okay, yes. There it's referenced as the golden book as well. Uh, what's your honorary bestie, best McGovin totem in honor of the great pirates of the Caribbean, the dead man's chest, this the the coin, all of the all of the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:57

The magic jars for me, mostly because I don't understand why they kept them.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:04

I don't understand the jars. That's one of the things I I could not get in this one.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:09

Is it just to mark the people that had the curse on them? Sure.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:13

I think so for us. It's for us to like say, Oh, they're cursed.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:17

Sure. I don't remember the jars. When are the jar when are the jars?

SPEAKER_02 1:10:20

It's very subtle, like you really don't realize that emoji passed for them. Yeah, just needs the jars.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:27

Yeah, but he doesn't, he uses it's the all of his organs were in the jars, I believe. Like upon burial.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:34

But whiskey in the jar.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:36

Yeah, but he just ends up taking their organs instead, because I'm gonna guess what's ever in the jars not needed, like they're always usually broken anyway.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:45

Was it this movie where there was a lot of Glenn Levet scotch? Yes, there was exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:52

I was trying to all the Americans were drinking it for I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:56

Okay, sorry.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:57

Jonathan found the bottle and it was cut.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:59

It was kind of apropos of nothing. Um, the I think that was your favorite McGuffin.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

The bottle of scotch.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:07

Yeah, I think the man, this is a tough one for me. Like the scarab key is the only one I remember.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:17

Yeah. So I also had uh the ancient mirrors that they use is another one that's more of a tool than a totem or macguffin.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:24

Yeah, yeah, the the mirror thing. Did she just Evelyn knew about the mirrors?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:30

I think she brought the mirrors, I think they were on the camels.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:33

Oh, I was distracted because when they were at Humanatra, like they were um, she was setting up the mirror. You're like, why does she have a mirror? Everybody else is down um down elevation, like setting up camp. And then Brendan Fraser, um, sorry, I gotta call him Rick. Rick is just like try tying something to one of the like a post, like a a stone post. But he's like whipping the warden at the same time, yeah. And he's like doing it on purpose. It's just hilarious, and then the warden's just taking it, and then Evelyn's over here just being a librarian, professor, scientist, brilliant person, just like those are the subtle moments of this movie on rewatch that I adore.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:14

It's like it's a little joke that's happening on the side of the screen that you don't notice maybe the first time, and uh it just it gets me every time. I almost think like this movie in some ways reminds me of some of the great uh animated Disney movies. Oh, like this reminds me, this is a weird stretch, but like the Emperor's New Groove. Zach doesn't like this movie, but but like I guess what I'm saying is it's it has that like almost joyful, fantastic where they're like there's a lot to look at, and you're seeing a bunch of different gags and things that are happening all at once.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:52

Fair. Sorry, I I was just thinking about the production craziness of Emperor's New Groove, but there are a lot of like cool, like subtle elements in that movie. Yes, they they cut corners to make it because it like long story, but like um that's for the um Emperor's New Groove cast. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I mean when we get there, uh we get there. Uh because yeah, so I think that it's it shows great control over frame, like to be a cinema person. Because like if you're making a painting, you can make some uh have this subtle thing over here happen while another thing's happening in the foreground. But in this movie, it's all in the same plane, too. So your eyes are just scanning left to right, you're watching the mirror, then you look over, and then you see just Brendan Frazier tying, I think he's tying the horse to the to the stone pole or whatever the stone. But he's just taking his time and just really just trying to um trying to torture his former uh captor. Um I love it. It's so so great.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:53

It's part of the joy of re-watching this movie, and it makes it so rewatchable. I'm gonna throw out just the the key and the book of the dead, those combo, yeah. Just the key in general, its ability to unlock the book of the dead and the tomb. I think it makes it uh my best.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:10

And it had paper in there too, right? So it added added bonus.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:14

Yeah. All right, we're moving on to a new a new category uh that we will hopefully reuse in the future, but it's it's really this is a solo winner. It is the Evelyn O'Connell, or oh, she's not O'Connell yet. Sorry, I'm just gonna say spoilers, Luke. I'm gonna say the Evelyn Award for Best Childhood Crush goes to Rachel Vise in this movie, uh, and this whole franchise, but this movie especially. She uh she we talked about this in our Born Legacy uh episode, but she uh was a very important person and uh character in a young boy's life. Uh, I I really, really fell in love with her hard in this movie, um, and has made me adore her forever. And even in a movie like The Born Legacy, I can't keep my eyes off her. Uh, one thing that I noticed to bring it back to the Bourne Legacy, uh, at the start, when she says that she doesn't have enough field experience experience in the field, she doesn't have enough experience in the field. She's talking about not making it into um essential, which is Cambridge. I think they're trying to make it Cambridge.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:25

Now, do we think this is because she doesn't she's not allowed to conference? She's isn't able to make it. This is a valid.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:32

The Beverage Scholars. She can't be able to do that. So she can't conference enough.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:36

So she gets her first two.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:37

She just can't.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:38

Yeah, she can't conference enough. But now she can after this experience. I think she can conference.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:43

What a great character for the 90s, though, Mike. Like, I don't know how you feel about it, but I did like her. Beyond this movie?

SPEAKER_00 1:15:51

In this movie specifically?

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

Yes, I think she's great.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:54

Yeah, I think she's great. I didn't have a crush on her. That's fine. It's all right. But I also unless suit her.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:01

Yeah, me and Daniel Craig. See how that goes. I think he's gonna win.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:09

Yeah, probably every nine times out of ten. Unless we had a nice basketball game.

unknown 1:16:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:16

I mean, at least he can conference with her.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:18

Yeah, I'm sure they can conference together all the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:21

Um I would like to conference as well.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:25

Um, I I do like this movie for it's not Bechtel level at all, but I think for the 90s, it definitely like we it it is a step up for women in adventure movies.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:38

Yeah, and that's maybe the most 90s thing about this. And that you could argue that Miriam in Raiders is a very different type of character, definitely more of like a 70s woman. I argue that her role depreciates pretty much after her first scene um in Raiders. It's like the only thing about Raiders that is a little frustrating because Miriam is so cool in the opening scene, her opening scene, and then she doesn't really she just becomes the damsel in distress pretty quickly.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:07

Um, where Evelyn, I feel like she is the damsel in distress, but throughout the whole movie, she's very important. Like she's she's the expert, she's driving everything. She is innocent and like dough eyed. I think that's intentional because she's you know, she's not conferencing, she's not in the field. Uh, but I think experienced, yeah. Yeah, and experienced, but I think this movie compared to, and I'm not trying to defend that it again doesn't pass bectral tests, it's the only woman in the movie. Um, yeah. Besides a mummified woman. Yeah, I was gonna say I mean they don't have an actual conversation, uh, but they are laying next to each other.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:47

Um one screaming at the other.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:50

They're screaming at each other, um, but I think that's part of the charm of this movie. And I actually even we'll see. I'm excited to watch the second one and talk about it because I think her character is I think I enjoy it more in the second movie.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:05

Yeah, I think yeah, there's a lot more um agency, yeah, confidence. Well, she definitely gets her confidence in this film. Like initially, I mean, she's like the if we wanted to make a relevant association, like uh Jonathan Bailey's character in like Jurassic World Rebirth, yeah. Nice pull, like same type of thing of like this really inexperienced person, very nervous to go out in the field. But um Jonathan Bailey, I think she does better than him for sure. Just look, she'll just she just pull something out, a move out of her tutor belt that's also action-y on the same level as Rick. And some and then I mean, I think that's the crazy part is she's very interested in Rick, which isn't you know exactly how we want to how we want to portray women in films, but she's she's very hard set on it. And Rick is the person that she has she has to kind of convince him to also not to look at her as like an actual relationship person rather than just like someone he kissed as a joke through uh through a jail cell. So I I do like that there. It's different. Um, it's not great, but it's it's going, it's trending in a direction that I enjoy.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:17

So yeah, yeah. And she's she's masterful of playing kind of the bookworm turned hero and is just charming the socks off this movie. Uh every scene she's in. Um, my favorite scene we'll get to a little bit later. One of my favorite scenes of hers.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:32

That's fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was gonna I think it might be my favorite scene too.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:35

So we can pull off. Okay, all right. We'll move on to Best Line. Uh a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:41

There's a lot of good ones. Here's good ones.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:42

You swear every damn day. The Benny, the Benny character. I we gotta talk a little bit about him, but one of the lines I do love. You always have more balls than brains. Goodbye, Benny. Um, so what is the Benny O'Connell relationship? Because it is so it's there's hatred, but I think there's underlying love, there's frustration. There's something there that I I just it's one of the best parts of the movie. It's like he Benny is kind of the the slimy character, and it's called out. It's like these people like people like you never they always get their comeuppins. But I I kind of like Benny a lot. I don't know why.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:25

Like Benny is is me when I'm tired, and Rick O'Connell is me when I'm oh like I have energy. I like to think of it like that. Same adventure, they create like a lot of cool dynamics, like the race to get to the tomb.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:38

Yeah, camel race, love a good camel race, yeah, narrated.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:42

Yeah, one switching sides officially to serve serve our our hero, our true hero, and then the other, you know, trying to to to resist our hero. Um I think that it's really cool. Benny is a stereotype and a half that it is is kind of interesting. That I I I don't like that all the people we're not supposed to like were fezes, though.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:08

Yeah, that's a little weird. And he's supposed to be, I think, Hungarian. He's Hungarian, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:13

Correct. Yeah, despite all the necklaces that he owns with different religious.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:17

Which I which I do appreciate. I it's it is uh maybe a little bit offensive part of the movie, but I think it it it adds his character where he's he's a con artist, he's just trying to make a quick buck.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:28

Yeah, I think that there's some creative things in there, and that's one of them. Like that, um, the Velma Ying, I really liked. Um there, he's a he's a conduit. I personally think Benny come Benny should come back.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:44

And yeah, I thought he did. Like I thought he did.

SPEAKER_01 1:21:47

He might, but I didn't want to say I didn't want to put everybody's like I didn't want to set up expectations that weren't realistic, you know.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:54

Yeah, yeah. It's it's it's a fascinating character and it adds a little more quipped quips and dynamics. Um uh one that I love that O'Connell does is wait here, I'll go get help, and then he jumps off the boat.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:05

He jumps off the boat.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:06

Uh Jonathan's American. Jonathan has a lot of great lines. Um, he also says, What's that god-awful stench? And then it's the warden. He's like, Oh. Um O'Connell, I believe in being being prepared, one of his serious lines, which I like. Very much the Boy Scout uh there. Um, and then one of my favorite scenes when Evelyn um and rightly so has a couple drinks after uh night one, I believe. Uh or no, night two. I think that's into night two.

SPEAKER_01 1:22:38

Yeah, it's into night two, I think, too. Yeah. Um, I am a librarian. Just she owns it. She this is her passion, this is her love.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:52

She is fullbore. I I just absolutely love it. Um, not an actual line, but Brendan Fraser screaming. Yeah, I think the most famous line of this movie is him screaming back to the mummy after the mummy screams at him, and then he does it again to uh, I think the mummy guards. Uh just love his scream. Um, this is the trailer line for you have released a creature we have feared for more than 3,000 years. Uh just amazing, so good. Uh, I remember seeing that in like the trailers on TBS, and I was like, Yeah, I'm watching the mummy this afternoon. Um, he's still juicy. Yeah, he is. He is a juicy.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:38

Uh take that Rembridge Scholars.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:41

Um, because they were incorrect. Uh as we talked about in our ad read, they were incorrect uh uh in the Golden Book, and we talked about this in the cold open emotep.

SPEAKER_01 1:23:56

What uh everybody else that's just in the city watching that? I wonder what that's like.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:02

Like what's going on there? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know hiding.

SPEAKER_01 1:24:05

What do you do?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:06

You know, the sky was falling. Um the the the plagues, I I don't really get why he was able to do the plagues. Uh Mike, um what do we have a little like uh Bible scholar scholarly segment here? Um why does the why does Immotev have the ability to do the curses?

SPEAKER_00 1:24:26

Why the biblical typically typically in matters like this it's usually Satan?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:32

Well, I think it's Abraham who calls upon the curses on the Pharaoh. Moses, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:41

Yeah, yeah, but like but but but like Emotep's evil.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:48

Right? Do we do we believe that he's evil?

SPEAKER_02 1:24:52

I think that's a big big one. I it's interesting because they do have that bit with like it he says like the language of the slaves. So there it's it's it's it's interesting that they brought the plagues into this. It's like one of those things is just thrown on top of like I don't think it's needed.

SPEAKER_00 1:25:10

I mean it's like ancient Egypt plagues, man.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:13

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:14

Seti is Remesses II's father. So the original Pharaoh in the movie is Yulbrenner. Oh, is that Yulbrenner?

SPEAKER_02 1:25:25

No. I didn't think from Ten Commandments.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:28

Oh, yes, okay, yeah. So there's like father, son. There would have been, yeah. I guess Moses would have because that's Remesses II, I believe. That was yeah. Um I guess Immotep.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:44

Yeah, I guess he's taking he's doing it's an homage.

SPEAKER_01 1:25:48

Yeah, maybe it's an homage to the maybe maybe Moses is is actually a homage to whatever the hell emotep was able to do.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:56

Yeah, maybe, yeah. Maybe they're like, yeah, maybe they're they they're they both had the IP of the curses and they they both went, you know.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:05

But really, it's it's the man upstairs, guys. It's the man upstairs.

SPEAKER_01 1:26:07

It's the man upstairs. It's the consistent through line here.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:10

You're gonna get yours, Benny. You're gonna get yours, and it does happen. Um, I love the whole sandwell trick, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_03 1:26:18

One of Benny's best lines. I just every time you kind of hate Benny, then you start loving him again because of lines like that.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:26

Uh, do you guys have a best line?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:29

Um, my favorite line is not on this uh um list. Um, and I don't I won't be able to say it verbatim, but um I think it speaks more to anyway. So it's after the boat, and um Benny says, Yes, uh, I have the horses, or look who has the horses. And Brennan and and Brennan Fisher says back, but you're on the wrong side of the river. As if that mattered. Like the horses clearly on the man's side.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:04

That is the most brotherly, like competitive friendship.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:09

It's what it is. They're they act like brothers more or like or yeah, yeah, that's a good point.

SPEAKER_01 1:27:14

Yeah, and one of mine is actually another Benny uh Rick thing. They're sitting it's uh night one, right after the warden gets um scarabed. And um, they're sitting at the campfire, and Benny's sitting across from Rick, and Rick says, Um, you're in her seat, and he just goes, Benny just replied, he goes, now like just scares Benny out of his seat so that um Evelyn can sit there. I think it's it's hilarious to be like that. Brother vibe is very strong. You're right, Luke. That's a good track. You're on the rockside the river.

SPEAKER_03 1:27:54

That's so good.

SPEAKER_02 1:27:55

Uh, I think my favorite is the Brennan Fraser yell back at the Me.

SPEAKER_01 1:28:00

I think that's just the ah because he yells as he's coming up, he says something too. I can't remember what it is, but it's another like, we gotta get out of here. Yeah, we gotta get out of here, Evelyn. Yeah. And that's the good thing about I like what Frazier it's like what he says in mono in like his typical voice, his inside voice. I don't, it's forgettable. But every time he has like a kind of a Han Solo moment or like one of those exclamations, that's what I that's his comedy, and that's the memorable stuff for me too. Like not just the scream, but every time he does like the like yells at Benny in an irate way. I I love that. That's what I remember about Brendan Fraser more in these movies than like how awesome and gallant of a protagonist he was.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:41

Exactly. It's his it's his energy, it's his quips, and I agree. I think it is more Han Solo. Some of the best Han Solo moments. He's got the smile and the charm and the romance. But one of my favorite Han Solo moments is when he's yelling at Chewy and Empire Strikes Back while they're trying to fix the Falcon. And then he's he says, Turn off, turn off. I mean, that is much more close to O'Connell than O'Connell is to Indiana Jones, who's much uh more subdued, serious, kind of intense. Uh yeah, Mike.

SPEAKER_01 1:29:13

So it's not a total ripoff.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:14

Yeah. All right. Well, moving on to our last bestie best scene. Uh, I got uh honestly one of those movies that just like every scene rolls into another scene, so it's hard to pick them out. Yeah, um, I do love the opening battle. Uh it's just very old school Hollywood. Um, where you have it's you have horses, you have guns, it it's very Lawrence of Arabia. Um, you know, I'm gonna love the library uh scene with Evelyn introducing us, uh, with the bookshelves, um, her balancing on the ladder and uh her glasses. Uh it's just uh it makes my heart leap every time. The steamship attack, the time on the steamship, I love that. I I could do another hour of Steamship uh just the banter with the other group. I do love this movie that there's another group, and they're not evil, they're maybe not moral, yeah, but they're not evil, right? Like they're they're competitors, but there's kind of healthy competition in a way. I I that's one of my favorite parts about this movie that's kind of subtle, is it's not this big baddie, evil like competitor that's trying to manipulate. It's no, it's it's kind of two they're they're all treasure hunters. Now, one may be doing it more morally than others, but really they're all going after the same thing. Um, the resurrection of Imatep, the and just that whole sequence with the eyeballs and uh Benny getting recruited with all the totems and things like that. Uh the curses in Egypt into the car chase with the zombies. Um, the plane ride, Zach mentioned it, just the joy um of the plane ride, the priest attacks, and kind of that final sequ sequence, uh, and then Benny getting his uh at the end. What what scene stands out to you guys? What's what's your favorite?

SPEAKER_00 1:31:08

I really, really like the uh the the library scene, the the Evelyn intro, but I like it. I mean, I like it because of the whole library falling down and one take thing. That's pretty sweet, but I actually like it for Eric Cavari because I think that he is he's actually Casses himself, and he's it's like his it's actually his home library that they shot this in, and they didn't tell him about it, and he comes, he like comes running in and is like you know, totally like that. That's what I just imagine Eric Avari is like in real life.

SPEAKER_02 1:31:44

It's a great sequence, but he's we also don't know he's part of protecting, he's trying to thwart this whole thing. I I didn't catch that when he burns the map. He's doing that on purpose. He's kind of blame bubbling, but he's doing that because he's trying to throw them off.

SPEAKER_01 1:31:59

Yeah. Were you awake for his final final scene in the movie too, Mike? No, no, he sacrifices himself so everybody else can get down in the sewer and get out.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:08

Yeah, to the zombies, zombie horde.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:10

Yeah. Oh, Mike, you missed a good. You gotta go back, man. Gotta check that one out.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:16

Um, you did you bring up camel ride, Luke?

SPEAKER_02 1:32:20

I guess I didn't. Um I I did not put that in there. I thought I did.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:26

It was it was there earlier, but I might have got deleted. I just put it back in for historical.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:31

The camel ride. The camel race, actually, I would say.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:35

Sprint.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:36

Right. I mean, again, Rachel Weiss being awesome at riding camels.

SPEAKER_02 1:32:40

I I was like, I was impressed because I was watching the cuts. They obviously have close-ups, which were, I don't know if that was on set. But when the in the wide shot, they're both riding those camels. I mean, it's it's impressive.

SPEAKER_01 1:32:54

Yeah. And she has some type of I some type of um some type of magic to her when she starts the words that she's the incantation she says. Yes, the call.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:06

She could talk to the camels, she knows, and they could just they accelerate. The camel whisperer.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:11

Yes. Um, I think for me, I kind of like Benny getting his. I love that it um it's a good ending, I think, for if we want to close this off, but also leave it a little bit open-ended for future stuff, like you and I were just talking about. Does Benny come back? We don't know. Really thought he was gonna get crushed. Really was hoping, uh, but then when he just ends up in this sea of treasures, that's a pretty cool way to go out, um, especially for his character.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:40

Um, yeah, that has uh that has kind of references to last last crusade.

SPEAKER_01 1:33:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 1:33:46

Um, where it's kind of the chambers falling apart and the treasures there, uh like in the the cup of Christ. I do like that this bobs and weaves against that is uh but when they're both escaping, Evelyn goes back for the book. Yes, and they're all like, We have to go come back, and then Jonathan's like, Can we do the gold? And then they both have to get him kind of more humorously playing at the the that final scene in Last Crusade where um I'm trying to remember her name. Uh she's reaching for the cup of Christ, she dies, and then uh Sean Connery's uh Dr. Jones says, Let it go, Indiana. Um this is playing with that idea, but doing it more humorously, which I appreciate.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:32

Yeah, and it also sets up so the Benny thing might be a thing, but also Jonathan does end up riding away with a little bit of gold, which kind of is like, what does that mean? I mean, could could this also be a curse? We don't know. Um, there's some cool stuff there.

SPEAKER_02 1:34:48

Like we've learned from Pirates Caribbean do not take treasure from anything that has or close to association with curses on it. Yeah, especially if you like apples.

SPEAKER_01 1:34:58

Exactly. And I mean that's the end of it, but I I think the more the higher on the list for me of best scene is I the resurrection is actually of Immotep is actually there's a change in the movie in that scene. I like that movie from then on, is my absolute favorite movie. It's fun leading up to that, but weird and slow. You don't know what how it's getting situated, but there's a new level. The moment he like actually is resurrected, then it just doesn't stop.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:28

We're going 100 miles per hour to the end of the movie, and it's so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:35:32

I love this, like this long drag back of the Matchbox car, and then the release for like another hour and a half, like hour 15. I think that's there's so much more movie there, and I'm so glad that they they set it up that way. They Velma that that one guy, like there's a lot of cool, like fun things going on in the tomb. It's just a different energy level that I really appreciate, and I like that scene for setting that up.

SPEAKER_02 1:35:57

I think it's a great, great best scene. Uh that leads into another uh I would say a domino effect of other great scenes. All right, friends, let's move on to ratings and meetings. Let's wrap this up. Uh, we're gonna get to the letterbox second. I'm gonna change this up a little bit. Um, Mike, what does this movie mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 1:36:19

Um, I mean, nothing significant. It was very fun. I enjoyed watching it. Um, I am excited to do the rewatch of it. I think that will be fun. Um, like the rewatch series of the franchise. Mummy cast. Uh mummy cast. Uh it's not about mom. Are you sure that's are you are you sure that's not just like a a podcast for moms?

SPEAKER_01 1:36:40

Yeah. I was thinking call your mummy. Call your mummy.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:44

Call call him.

SPEAKER_03 1:36:49

Call him mummy.

SPEAKER_00 1:36:50

Call him mummy. Yeah. Where's my mummy? I yeah, I I I mean, yeah. I look, I love I like the movie. I'm not like I'm not gonna drag it. I like that it doesn't have any special like nostalgic hold on me, or um, I think it actually held up really well, which was surprising for a movie with this level of technology used during that time. I mean, like Star Wars was made during that time, let's be honest. This is better than Star Wars.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:22

Whoa, um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:25

So yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:28

Mike, you you came in, you were like, Oh, I don't know. I you know, I I took mini naps through this movie, but you came in strong.

SPEAKER_00 1:37:34

I think I took mini naps through this podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:37:36

Yeah, you were you you brought your game. I a lot of good hot takes. Uh, and we had a new new segment. So you I would say you're in great shape, you're ready to go on a long adventure of this entire series. Zach, what about this uh movie meets to you? What does the mummy mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 1:37:52

I mean, I think looking back, 1999 was a formal year for me in general, like and also I just as I'm like also looking at what else came out that year, I do truly understand why I love the warm VHS tape cover. Mask of Zoro came out this year, Armor Gaming came out this year, Blade came out this year.

SPEAKER_03 1:38:13

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 1:38:14

The Man in the Atter Mask, a personal favorite of mine of DiCaprio's, came out this year. Like, there's a lot, there's a lot. If you know who I am and what I come to these things to talk about, there's a reason why I really do like visually love this movie. It's great on CGI. There's just a couple elements that are like, eh, but the rest is revolutionary, I hope as revolutionary as what Mike was talking about with the ride itself. Um, and it also just really is inundated in my mind as a great action comedy, but with as someone who g got really scared as a child in horror movies, like the right lob of horror too. Like it is horrific. And like you said, it's that Jackson kind of horror that I think really translated well as a kid, as a nine-year-old, um, to actually appreciate it and watch it all the way through and then want to watch it again and again and again. Um, and it's just got great characters, and I remember these characters for the rest of my life. Um, and it I just love how it takes an old property and makes it actually something that I would rewatch again. I don't care about the 1932 movie, uh, even the King Tut curse, this is all based on fine, fun, whatever. Not probably it was most likely just a virus. So, like, this is actually something that I actually actually they said it was fungi, um, which is funny to me. But I think that this is instead like a really great way to take a franchise that is stale, open up that crypt, and let it air out enough so we can enjoy it um as a group. And then 20 years later, um maybe 25 years later, 30, it'll be 30 in like just a couple more years. Um really enjoy it more. I hope I hope my everybody in future generations also likes this as much as I do.

SPEAKER_02 1:40:15

I agree. I think it's a great point that this is this is Hollywood at its biggest budget business doing it right. You're taking an old property, totally refreshing it. It's not that tied to the original, and you're making it for a new audience. Uh, but it doesn't happen very often. Obviously, you don't have to look further than the universal mummy with Tom Cruise, uh, where it didn't work. So I think that's why this is so special. I think, as you mentioned, Zach, for me, this movie has all the elements of a movie I love, both in the sense that it was mysterious, a little scary, uh, a childhood crush, fun, always rewatchable. It is the cross-section of why I love movies and I think it is enjoyable for every generation to come. Uh, I'm excited to walk through this crypt of films and the mummy. I want to end. We typically talk about our letterbox ratings, and uh I I I don't we can do that maybe as we go through, but I think we need to end this episode of the Mummy Cast, aka Least Important Things, the Mummy Rewatch franchise series with Zach Hall's letterbox review of the mummy. Zach, please pull up your letterbox and end us on this masterful review. If you don't follow Zach Hall Letterboxd, you must because this gave me so much joy and happiness. We couldn't end the show any other way than Zach Hall reading his review of the 1999 mummy.

SPEAKER_01 1:41:50

Please like this review if you'd rather be watching the 1999 cinematic masterpiece, The Mummy, starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weiss. Four and a half scarabs out of five. The mummy slaps and it always will. It's really just about a sexy daddy mummy trying to bring the painted woman of his dreams back to life. The true conflict is white imperialism tragically stopping him from reuniting with this flame 3,000 years later. And this is I'm gonna add on rest in peace, emotep.

SPEAKER_02 1:42:25

Alright, gentlemen, we will see you for the return of our franchise rewatch series on the mummy. And uh thank you, listeners, viewers, for going on this journey with us. Please like, comment, do all the things. Let us know why you love this movie, why you love this franchise, and we'll talk to you next time on least important things.