The Mummy 1999 / The Mummy (1999) - Tropes E to L

The Mummy (1999) Trope Examples
A - D | E - L | M - Z

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• Eagleland:
  • The Americans, oh so very much. It's lampshaded a bit, though.
    [The barge is burning, and the Trigger-Happy Americans are gleefully shooting up the Medjai, complete with whooping]
    Jonathan: [with disgust] Americans.
  • That being said though, they are still benevolent and team up with our British/American/Egyptian heroes to stop the mummy, so they are a combination of type 1 and 2.
  • Rick O'Connell is heavily implied, if not outright stated, to be American. Every time Evy or Jonathan says something disparaging about them, they quickly add a "No offense" for Rick's benefit.
• Eat the Camera: Rick decapitates one of the priest mummies, who continues to juggle its head until Rick bats it at the camera mouth-first.
• Elite Mooks: The mummy soldiers that Jonathan accidentally summons and that battle O'Connell. Compared to Imhotep's mummy priests, they are faster, wield weapons, can jump great heights, can Wall Crawl, and are skillful with the weapons they wield, giving Rick a considerably difficult fight. Fortunately, they're just as fragile as the mummy priests.
• Emergency Multifaith Prayer: When facing Imhotep approaching him, Beni starts praying using Muslim, Christian, Buddhist and Hindu icons and prayers. It's not until he reaches Judaism that Imhotep recognizes the Hebrew language as "the tongue of the slaves" and spares his life in exchange for his services.
• Emerging from the Shadows: Imhotep emerges from a shadowy corner when Evy encounters him for the first time, with a bold low-brass rendition of his theme.
• Empathic Environment: After awakening Imhotep, once the story cuts back to Cairo, the sky is growing dark with clouds, setting up the danger that is to come.
• Establishing Character Moment: Beni is first seen smugly telling Rick he just got promoted and is in command of their Foreign Legion company after the original commander gallops away, before he decides to also run for it and leave the others to their fate.
• Everybody Calls Him "Barkeep": Hassan, the Cairo warden who joins the journey to Hamunaptra.
  Jonathan: Let's see what our friend the warden believed in.
• Eye Scream
  • When Imhotep is accidentally released he is a rotting corpse, without eyes. Guess how he gets them... not to mention the "My eyes! My eyes!" screams from Burns. Imhotep also takes his tongue and then his very life essence the next day.
  • When the boat is attacked, Evy uses a candle to the eye as self-defense. She also pokes one of the enslaved mobbers in the car chase in the eyes to get him off the car.
• Fan Disservice: Imhotep sneaks into Evy's room and kisses her while she's asleep. To make it even creepier, his face is partially rotted.
• Fear-Induced Idiocy: Beni is a sniveling coward that will try and avoid danger in any way he can at a moment's notice: electing to flee at first instinct and abandoning his fellow Legionnaires (Rick included) to die at the hands of their enemies during the Battle at Hamunaptra in the past and helping Imhotep out of cowardly self-preservation. His greed doesn't help him much either. It literally comes back to bite him when he ends up trapped in Hamunaptra's treasure chamber with a mob of scarabs that eat him alive. The main catch is that his cowardice and greed caused Genre Blindness: he was fully convinced that Imhotep would spare him, even after he slowly and diligently robbed from his temple. Everyone would run away the second Imhotep is away but falsely convinced Beni couldn't stopped because of his avarice (the only Beni's feeling that is stronger than his cowardice).
• Forced Kiss: Evy gives one to Imhotep to distract him while attempting to kill the heroes by attacking them in the form of a sandstorm. It works, but the plane still ends up crashing.
• Foreshadowing:
  • In the prologue, Anck-su-Namun stabs herself in the stomach. Imhotep gets killed at the end by being stabbed through the stomach.
  • Terence Bey refers to the plagues of Egypt when scolding Evy for destroying the library, and she herself later refers to them about an hour into the film when telling the others about the Hom Dai. Imhotep brought these plagues back with him when he was resurrected.
  • The collapsing bookshelves in the library set up the destruction of Hamunaptra at the end, especially the falling pillars.
  • When Evy and Jonathan show Terence Bey the map a scene or so later, lines of dialogue from Jonathan refer to the treasure chamber at Hamunaptra and how the city would sink into the ground at the flip of a switch. This is seen and goes on to happen at the end of the film.
  • Doubles as Rewatch Bonus: watch Terence Bey. He deliberately burns the map, which hints at his true allegiance later in the film.
  • Rick's Forced Kiss to Evy while imprisoned early on sets up how the two will end up together at the end of the film and the sequels, as does the later scene of Evy nearly falling asleep on Rick's shoulder while riding camels and when Evy is very drunk and passes out before she can kiss Rick.
  • The prison warden's hatred of bugs. He's later killed by the scarabs.
  • The prison warden showing awe at the scarabs and wondering what they are sets up how Jonathan, while helping Rick and Ardeth to rescue Evy, will later do the same. The warden dies, but Jonathan survives.
  • Burns's first line is that he needs his glasses or he can't see. Sure enough he loses his glasses when fleeing from the locusts, Beni steps on them, and he is the first one to get killed by Imhotep.
  • One of the first things Imhotep says to Evy (translated by Bennie) is "Come with me my princess." at first, viewers will believe he's still confusing her with Anck-su-Namun. Come the sequel we learn that Evy is a reincarnated Egyptian Princess.
• Forgot About His Powers:
  • Imhotep has the ability to take over the minds of an entire town's population and turn them all into mindless slaves. Yet for some reason, it never occurs to him to use this power against Rick or any of the other main characters. Or for that matter, retaining said population as Mooks for the Final Battle that could have proved very useful against the handful of heroes pitted against him.
  • After Jonathan gains control of the remaining Mummy Soldiers and sics them on Anck-Su-Namun, Imhotep conveniently forgets that he has God-like powers and could have easily dispatched them to save her, but instead tries to take the Golden Book from Jonathan in an attempt to reverse the spell. However, he is not fast enough, and Anck-Su-Namun is killed (again).
• Four Is Death: Four men (the Americans apart from O'Connell and the Egyptologist) open the chest with the Book of the Dead and Anck-Su-Namun's canopic jars in it, ignoring the warning that they will be marked for certain death if they do and the "Undead" (Imhotep) is brought back to the mortal world. Sure enough, Evelyn reads from the Book and wakes Imhotep, and the next part of the film sees him track down and kill all four hapless men.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: The four Americans in the first film: O'Connell is choleric, while Henderson is sanguine, Daniels is melancholic, and Burns is phlegmatic.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus/Wardrobe Malfunction: This was most likely an accident on the actor's part, but during the scene where the Warden is panicking as he feels the scarab crawling under the skin of his leg, if you pause it just right... you can actually see his penis peeking through the fly of his pants.
• Genre Throwback: A behind-the-scenes featurette presents Imhotep's priests as one of these to the original type of mummies: wrapped up and shambling to contrast the more realistic-looking Imhotep.
• Gilligan Cut: There's this exchange in the American camp:
  Mr. Henderson: Do they know something we don't?
  Dr. Allen Chamberlain: thanks They're led by a woman. What does a woman know?
  • Cut to Evy explaining to her group that they're at the right entry point to find a secret compartment beneath the statue of Anubis.
• Good All Along: The Medjai. Yes, they murder people, but it's to prevent even the possibility of anyone finding Hamunaptra and resurrecting Imhotep.
• Good Guns, Bad Guns: Albeit with the "Bad" being closer to Grey morality. The mostly heroic Americans use American weapons like Smith & Wesson revolvers, Colt Single Action Army revolvers, Colt M1911 semi-auto handguns, and Webley revolvers. The decidedly more murky Medjai who are primarily Knight Templars, use Mauser-manufactured weapons like Chilean copies of the Mauser Gewehr or Mauser C96 pistols.
• Gory Discretion Shot: the film uses these alot, especially as Shadow Discretion Shots, but special mention has to go to Imhotep's death at the end of the film. He's been shot and sliced up throughout the movie, along with being in various states of grotesque decay from his resurrection up until regaining his full power, which are all clearly shown. After Evey uses the Golden Book of Amun-Ra to take away his immortality, though, he tries to attack O'Connell but is impaled with his sword and visibly in pain. Notably, this injury happens just out-of-frame and there's no visible blood, whereas only minutes earlier he'd gotten his arm cut off and casually reattached its still-desiccated mummy-flesh to that of his stump.
• Grave Robbing: Early on, it's mentioned that Imhotep and his priests broke into Anck-su-Naumn's crypt and stole her body before taking it to Hamunaptura to resurrect her.
• Grievous Harm with a Body:
  • After absorbing Burns, Imhotep walks through a hail of bullets from Rick and tosses him into Jonathan, Henderson, and Daniels before returning his attention to Evy.
  • During the climax, Rick gets the skull of one of the soldier mummies stuck on his sword, so he uses it to bludgeon another mummy.
• Groin Attack: This is ultimately how Beni escapes from Rick shortly after being interrogated. Later Rick does it to one of Imhotep's mummy priests.
• Guns Akimbo: Rick routinely dual-wields his pistols in combat. Some of the American treasure hunters do so as well; even Jonathan does so in the treasure room when the priest mummies awaken when he pulls both Rick's pistols.
• Gun Porn: If you're a fan of vintage 1920s weaponry, this is the film for you. Pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns, machine guns, this movie has everything.
• Half the Man He Used to Be: Some of Imhotep's mummy priests are missing various pieces of themselves. When Rick slices one in half, that doesn't stop it from trying to attack.
• Hanging Around: Subverted. Evy rescues Rick in the middle of his public hanging in the prison courtyard.
• Heroes Gone Fishing: On the barge, the American team are playing cards with Jonathan before the attack starts.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • Terence Bey pulls one off to give Rick, Ardeth and Jonathan time to escape down a manhole after Imhotep orders the hypnotised townspeople to kill them.
  • Subverted later. Ardeth charges into the horde with only an empty shotgun to buy time for Rick and Jonathan to save Evy and kill Imhotep. Once this is done and they make it out of Hamunaptra, he is seen to have survived.
• Hidden Depths: Jonathan, while being lazy, childish and a thief, is also surprisingly knowledgeable about the Bible, thinks quickly on his feet by pretending to be under Imhotep's spell to escape the mob, and can kind-of read Ancient Egyptian. He's also a brilliant pickpocket, being able to lift the key off Imhotep when he's barely even wearing anything more than a loincloth.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • One of the priest mummies gets its legs cut off by Rick, causing it to crush itself with the heavy slab it was going to drop on his head.
  • IMDB trivia states that the sword Rick uses in the Final Battle and to kill Imhotep was the same one that Imhotep used to kill Seti I.
• Hollywood Density: Downplayed. The solid-gold Book of the Living is clearly heavy and unwieldy, but it's not nearly as hard to carry as a book that size made of solid gold would be.
• Hook Hand: The Medjai warrior who leads the assault on the boat has a serrated hook for a hand.
• "I Can't Look!" Gesture:
  • Imhotep closes his eyes and looks away from the shadow of Anck-su-Namun stabbing herself.
  • Beni does a more subdued version when Imhotep absorbs Mr. Daniels.
• Idiot Ball: The heroes learn from Dr. Bey that Imhotep will fear cats until he's fully regenerated. Despite this, none of the protagonists think it would be useful to keep the hotel's white cat on hand to ward him off, particularly when Rick and Jonathan go off and leave Henderson and Daniels in the hotel to guard Evy; by the time O'Connell uses the cat to scare Imhotep away a second time, Henderson has been sucked dry and Imhotep is that much stronger.
• I'm a Humanitarian: Per Imhotep's backstory, awakening him would cause him to became an unholy flesh eater among other terrible things. Proven true when Imhotep "eats" his victims by absorbing their flesh and organs to regenerate. The novelization adds that the Imhotep awakened with the taste and desire for human flesh.
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: After being rendered mortal, Imhotep is killed when he gets stabbed through the stomach with a sword.
• Improbable Aiming Skills: The Tuaregs horsemen at the beginning, firing rifles one-handed on horseback at full gallop. Logically they shouldn't be able to hit the Hamunaptra city wall or even the mountainside behind it, but they inflict massive casualties against Legionnaires in fortified positions on the wall. That's before we get to the rapid-fire Guns Akimbo.
• Improbable Weapon User: Rick throws a chair at escaping Beni without any warning and with enough force to get the poor bastard on the ground. Thankfully, it wasn't a solid one, or O'Connell might kill, instead of simply stop Gabor.
• Irony: Evy tells Rick and Jonathan that people who get mummified are already dead. The irony being that we already know Imhotep's priests were mummified while still alive.
• It Has Been an Honor:
  • Rick salutes Winston as he is buried by the quicksand.
  • Ardeth Bey warmly says farewell to Rick, Evy, and Jonathan, saying they've earned his people's respect.
• It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time: Rick says this about his first kiss with Evy, since he was about to be hanged. He seems surprised when she takes offense.
• I Warned You: Rick warned Evy not to mess with the Book of the Dead.
  Evy: We woke him up, and we are going to stop him!
  Rick: "We"? What "we"? We didn't read that book. I told you not to mess around with that thing, didn't I tell you not to mess around with that thing!?
  Evy: [rolls eyes] Fine! Me, me, me, me, I, I, I woke him up and I intend to stop him!
• Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Rick O'Connell interrogates Beni for information about Imhotep's plan by shoving him just inches away from a ceiling fan.
• Jerkass:
  • The British Egyptologist is both sexist and annoyingly smug. Unlike his American associates, who are a trio of cocky-but-friendly thrill-seekers, he's lacking in sympathetic qualities.
  • The Warden, who attempts to extort Evelyn for sex in exchange for releasing Rick and requires a hefty share of the treasure to pay.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Rick. He is definitely a good guy who defends and comes to Evy's rescue a lot, but Evy describes him early on as a filthy, rude scoundrel. Given that he kissed Evy in their first scene together because It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time, she's probably right.
  • Jonathan too, to an extent. He's greedy, lazy, a thief and a coward, but he's also a Lovable Coward who pulls through when needed and helps Rick, Evy and Ardeth save the day.
  • The American team start out as a bunch of jerkasses, but quickly show themselves to be close friends willing to defend anyone who needs help, such as Jonathan on the river boat. After their initial hostile encounter with Rick and company at Hamunaptra, they develop into Friendly Rivals who don't mind hanging out with Rick and Jonathan.
• "Join Us" Drone: One of the curses Imhotep inflicts is boils that turns a good chunk of Cairo's citizens to his control which he uses to storm the building where the heroes are located in trying to find where the Book of the Dead is, all the while chanting his name. Amusingly when Jonathan runs out to start up the car so they can escape and runs into a mob of them, he uses the chant himself to get them to halt their attack and ignore him.
• Jump Scare:
  • Jonathan pulls a prank on Evy with a mummy this way. She's not amused.
  • When Rick and Jonathan first open Imhotep's sarcophagus, his wet corpse jerks out and catches everyone by surprise, with Evy angrily noting she "hates it when they do that." Though the fear is quickly replaced with disgust and confusion on why he looks "juicy" rather than dry as dust.
• Karmic Death:
  • Beni Gabor's greed comes back to bite him, just as Evy warned. In scarab form.
  • Winston gets a benevolent version—more heroic and meaningful than any death he could have had in the Great War.
• Kiss of Distraction: Evy kisses Imhotep in order to break his concentration so the sandstorm he's creating to kill the heroes disperses.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: Rick and Evy both steal from the American team at different points. Jonathan, on the other hand, is just a kleptomaniac.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The Americans' bravado quickly evaporates after Ardeth Bey explains that the mummy will be hunting them down and they book passage on the first ship out of Egypt. Not that it helps.
• Lampshade Hanging:
  • After yet another dramatic wind: "That happens a lot around here."
  • The director Steven Sommers and editor Bob Duscay do a lot of lampshading in their commentaries.
  • "Rescue the Damsel in Distress. Kill the bad guy. Save the World." Troperiffic, indeed.
  • When Evy is captured by Imhotep:
    Evy: You know, nasty little men like you always get their comeuppance in the end.
    Beni: Heh heh... they do?
• The Last Dance: RAF pilot Winston Havlock is yearning for one after having missed his chance to go out with a blaze of glory with his buddies in World War I. O'Connell manages to give him one when the heroes need to get back to Hamunaptra. Winston gets them there, but dies in the crash landing.
• Last-Name Basis: Evy refers to Rick by his surname of O'Connell throughout the film, only referring to him as Rick once while she's drunk. Also, Burns, Daniels and Henderson, though Only One Name applies to Burns and Henderson.
• Last Request: Comes up humorously when Rick is about to be hanged:
  Executioner: Any last requests, pig?
  Rick: Yeah, loosen the knot and let me go.
  [The executioner hesitates, and asks the warden in Arabic if they should honor the request.]
  Warden: Ya hmar!^note Arabic, literally "You donkey!", equivalent to "You idiot!" in English. Of course we don't let him go!
• Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone: In the beginning of the film when Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun have one of their trysts, Imhotep's priests close the doors... then are forced to open them again when the Pharaoh enters.
• Legion of Lost Souls: Rick and Beni are in one at the beginning of the film.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: Jonathan may be a ridiculously greedy, swindling Plucky Comic Relief, but he is also a crack shot with a rifle, a skilled pickpocket, pretty good behind the wheel and disturbingly competent with a book of ancient spells. When the first reanimated mummies appear in the treasure room and his two-shot derringer proves almost useless, he promptly pulls the revolvers from Rick's holsters to continue shooting. Then when Evy's in danger, Jonathan orders the guard mummies to kill Anck-Su-Namun without any hesitation.
• Let's Get Out of Here: After Imhotep is killed, the whole place starts to collapse thanks to Beni triggering a switch by accident. Cue this trope from Rick, Evy, Jonathan and Beni. The first three make it out alive. Beni doesn't.
• Letting Her Hair Down: Evy, increasingly throughout the movie.
• The Load: Jonathan tends to need help from the party in getting out of scrapes a little more often than he helps them out of scrapes. But boy does he come through at the end.
• Load-Bearing Boss: Subverted; when the heroes finally "kill" Imhotep, the whole place starts coming down on them. It was actually Beni's fault, leading to his Karmic Death.
• Logical Weakness: The mummies of Imhotep's priests, and the Pharoah's guards, being walking dried-out corpses, are weak to fire or just plain physical force, which makes them shatter like glass.
• Logo Joke: The globe in the Universal logo becomes the sun above Thebes.
• "London, England" Syndrome: Because apparently we can't figure out that yes, this is the Cairo in Egypt.
• Lovable Coward:
  • Jonathan. While he tends to respond to danger about as well as Beni, what sets him apart is his charm, hilarity, ability to nut up when the going gets tough, and his undying loyalty to his sister.
  • Warden Hassan also counts, especially during the boat battle.
• Loves Only Gold: Jonathan, Beni, and Hassan (the warden) are all varying levels of obsessed with treasure, with Beni being the worst.

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