A - D | E - L | M - Z
- MacGuffin: The golden Book of the Living, the black Book of the Dead, and the canopic jars containing Anck-Su-Namun's internal organs.
- Make an Example of Them: A possible logical reason behind the harsh punishment of Imhotep was to prevent anyone else in the future to dare to kill a Pharaoh and commit deicide.
- Man on Fire: One Medjai gets set on fire during the boat attack.
- Mass Hypnosis: Imhotep uses his powers to brainwash the common folk of Cairo to mob the heroes.
- Mauve Shirt: Burns, Daniels, Henderson, the Egyptologist and Winston. All end up dead over the course of the film, but have enough character to make them somewhat less expendable.
- Meaningful Echo: Anck-Su-Namun's second death is shot almost exactly like her first; her shadow is cast upon the wall while she doubles up as a weapon is driven into her stomach. Only this time, instead of killing herself, she's being stabbed and then hacked to pieces by the mummy guards.
- Mercy Kill: In a sense, the scarabs provide this for Beni when he gets sealed inside the treasury.
Imagine what would have happened if they hadn't showed up. - Mexican Standoff: When the two rival archeology teams bump into one another in the ruins of Hamunaptra, everybody draws guns and points them at each other before Evy manages to talk them down.
- Mirror Scare: Evy gets one on the barge. She goes to pick up a book from the floor and when she straightens up, the hook-handed Medjai is standing behind her.
- Mortality Ensues: It turns out that the Book of the Living doesn't kill the villain when read from. What it does is remove his immortality, allowing him to be killed like a mortal.
- Mr. Fanservice: Imhotep is often shirtless in both this and the sequel.
- Ardeth Bay is in no way, shape, or form a pain to watch, courtesy of the handsome Oded Fehr.
- Murder Into Malevolence: Imhotep is a fairly shady character in life — murdering his liege lord for the sake of his lover, who is strongly hinted not to have had a choice in her relationship with said lord — but then gets The Punishment of a terrible curse that makes him suffer for eternity in undeath. When his sarcophagus is disturbed, he rises from the grave with horrific powers and a long list of grievances against the world.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: The villain's Arc Words: Death is only the beginning.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Said by the Egyptologist during the locust swarm heralding Imhotep's rebirth as the full weight of the situation dawns upon him.
- Mysterious Veil: Evy rocks one briefly with her native outfit after the riverboat battle.
- Mythology Gag: Since the movie is a loose remake of The Mummy (1932) there are plenty of references:
- Evelyn's father was an Englishman and her mother was Egyptian - just like with Helen Grosvenor, female heroine of the original movie.
- The Medjai who helps the heroes is called Ardeth Bay - in original movie it's the alias that Imhotep used after he had risen from the sarcophagus.
- The whole plot of Imhotep getting cursed and brutally mummified for the attempt to resurrect his lover Anck-su-namun - only here she is Pharaoh’s concubine who killed Pharaoh and committed suicide, while in the original movie she was Pharaoh's daughter (Princess Anck-es-en-Amon) who died from illness.
- The Egyptologist echoes Dr. Muller when he warns his fellows that the powers that held forth in ancient times still hold sway in these places.
- The chest contain the Book of the Dead has the same warning as the chest in the original film, "Death will come on swift wings to whoever opens this chest."
- Beni tells Daniels that Imhotep does not like to be touched describing it as "a silly Eastern superstition", echoing the original Imhotep's explanation to Joseph Whemple.
- When Evelyn fights Mummy!Anck-su-namun, Jonathan is struggling to read some hieroglyphics from the Book of Amun-Ra. Evelyn tells him that the word he can't remember is "Amenophis." In the original movie Amenophis was name of the Pharaoh.
- A museum curator who's part of a secret society guarding a mummy references Andoheb from The Mummy's Hand.
- Myth Prologue: Before the title, Ardeth Bay tells how the high priest Imhotep was punished for loving the pharaoh's mistress and using forbidden magics to try to bring her back to life, for which he was given their most powerful curse, transforming him into the eponymous monster.
- Near-Villain Victory: Imhotep twice during the climax.
- The soldier mummies are centimeters away from impaling Rick before Jonathan takes control of them.
- After the soldier mummies kill Anck-Su Namun's mummy, Imhotep beats up both Jonathan and Rick and is a breath away from absorbing the latter's fluids and organs before Evy casts the spell to summon Anubis to take away Imhotep's powers.
- Necessarily Evil: Ardeth Bay leads a secret society dedicated to preventing anyone from discovering the location of Hamunaptra in order to prevent Imhotep from being revived. He feels this is so important that his organization attacks anyone attempting to reach the city, even innocent explorers with no ill intent.
- Neck Lift: Imhotep does two. One to Jonathan, and plenty more to O'Connell.
- Nerd Glasses: Worn by Evy in the beginning, and shed for good not long after with no ill effects. One of the things clarified in the novelisation is that Evy didn't actually need glasses, she only wore them to look intelligent and the fact that they messed with her depth perception was what caused her to misjudge the ladder and knock over all the shelves in the library.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- Evy levelling the shelves of the library by accident thanks to Bookshelf Dominoes and a ladder.
- Evy reading from the Book of the Dead, which awakens Imhotep. She at least resolves to fix it.
- While not heroes, the British Egyptologist and the three Americans removed the book from the chest in the first place, despite reading the inscriptions warning them not to.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: The final fight with Imhotep mostly consists of Rick being thrown across the room by Imhotep and trying to keep him busy while Evy and Jonathan try to find a spell to render Imhotep mortal.
- No Immortal Inertia: When Imhotep is deprived of his immortality and mortally wounded, he rapidly decays back to his mummified state, although that may have been the pool he was in at the time.
- No Name Given:
- Ardeth Bay in the first film, to the point where it's surprising on repeat viewings to realise they never mention it once.
- The Egyptologist's name is Dr. Allen Chamberlain, but you wouldn't know that from the film. Even Henderson, one of the members of his party, only calls him "that Egyptologist fella".
- Noodle Incident: The movie never tells us why O'Connell is in prison when Evy first meets him. All the prison warden ever says of the incident is "He was just looking for a good time." Later, as Rick is being taken away to be hanged, the warden comments that "Apparently, he had a very good time."
- Nothing Personal: Both Evy and Jonathan take turns insulting the American members of the rival expedition, pausing to add "no offence" to Rick each time.
- Odd Name Out: Evy's colleagues apparently include Abdul, Mohammed, and Bob.
- Offhand Backhand: Rick kills a couple of the priest mummies with backhand punches and kicks during the climax.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Ardeth Bey gets two.
- At some point after Imhotep awakens, the Medjai briefly chase Imhotep away from Burns before he can finish assimilating his organs and fluids.
- At the climax, he gets dragged off fighting Imhotep's priests, and is presumed dead. He reappears once everything's over, alive and well, having apparently destroyed all those mummies he was fighting single-handed. (It's worth noting that the original script for the film had Ardeth being killed by the attacking mummies, but Stephen Sommers ultimately decided against this idea.)
- Oh, Crap!: A lot of them.
- Imhotep, Anck-sun-Namun and Imhotep's priests have one after the Pharaoh is killed and Pharaoh's bodyguards pound on the door to the chambers they're in.
- Evy has two in the library scene. First when she tries to put up a book on the shelf behind her and gets stuck on top of the ladder. The second is after the Bookshelf Dominoes moment with the shelves with her standing unharmed amidst the rubble. Oops, indeed.
- Evy on the barge when the hook-handed Medjai grabs her and demands to know where the map is.
- The Egyptologist when Evy reads from the Book of the Dead, thus awakening Imhotep.
- Rick, Jonathan and Evy when the scarabs burst out of the floor in front of them.
- Burns when Beni steps on his glasses, breaking them, while he and the others are fleeing from the locusts. Then when he hears something behind him and he slowly turns around, he has another.
- Evy when she sees Burns turn to face her, with no eyes. Then again when she sees Imhotep behind her.
- Burns after Beni tells him that Imhotep intends to kill him after having already taken his eyes and his tongue.
- Pretty much everyone when hail and fire start raining down from the sky, after the water has turned to blood.
- Rick, after he sees the corpse of Burns, and then he sees Imhotep. He lampshades it with this: "We are in serious trouble."
- Any time Imhotep, prior to his full regeneration, sees a cat, as cats are the guardians of the underworld.
- Evy when she wakes up to find Imhotep kissing her, while the lower half of his face is rotted. And immediately after that, Imhotep has one when Rick shows him the cat. He flees after it hisses at him.
- Daniels after his pistols run out of ammo while firing on the mob. Then Imhotep approaches him...
- Rick, when Imhotep creates a sandstorm that comes after Winston's plane.
- Jonathan, after one of the scarabs burrows itself into his arm. Rick manages to dig it out and save him.
- Evy when Imhotep is about to fatally stab her. Luckily for her, Imhotep is distracted by Jonathan shouting that he and Rick have found the Book of Amun-Ra.
- Jonathan when Imhotep turns on him after he (Jonathan) has commanded the mummified soldiers to kill Anck-su-Namun.
- Imhotep after being rendered mortal and fatally stabbed in the stomach.
- Beni at the end when the scarabs appear and surround him, before his torch blows out.
- One-Handed Shotgun Pump: Done by Rick, stating, "I believe in being prepared."
- Only One Name: Burns and Henderson, who are only referred to by their surnames. Beni is only referred to by his first name.
- Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: John Hannah keeps up an English accent for most of his lines, but his Scottish accent is heard when he's heard saying, "Put your backs into it!" to Rick and Ardeth.
- Pay Evil unto Evil: As Rick and Beni's groups are racing to Hamunaptra, Beni whips Rick repeatedly as they're riding alongside. In retaliation, Rick grabs Beni and pulls him right off his camel. For good measure, Evy says to him, "Serves you right."
- Picky People Eater: Imhotep is probably one of the pickiest people eaters around, although he doesn't actually eat them, per se, just takes specific parts to replace his own. He took body parts only from the people who had basically stolen his. Justified in that his curse requires him to consume the specific people who opened the container holding the book in order to regenerate. Then again, after being fully regenerated, he decides to do this to Rick.
- Plot Hole: The film explains that Imhotep was put to death by scarabs because they cause a slow agonizing death, consuming flesh over a long period of time. But when we see one of the tomb explorers get killed by scarabs, it shows him being killed and stripped of his flesh in seconds, though this could be explained by the swarm of scarabs being influenced by Imhotep’s curse.
- Plucky Comic Relief: Thy name is Jonathan.
- Poor Communication Kills: If Ardeth Bey had given some explanation of why the Medjai wanted the dig parties to leave Hamunaptra as soon as possible (tailored to leave out the supernatural, of course) instead of being cryptic and telling them they had one day to leave, things likely would have gone a lot better.
- Present Company Excluded:Jonathan: And when those damn Yanks go to sleep—no offense—
Rick: None taken.
Jon: —we'll dig our way up and steal that book right out from under them.
Rick: Are you sure you can find this secret compartment thing?
Evy: Oh, yes, if those beastly Americans haven't beaten us to it—no offense.
Rick: None taken. - Pretend We're Dead: Jonathan tries to blend in with the crowd of mind-controlled minions by walking in lockstep with them and chanting "Imhotep! Imhotep!" unconvincingly. It not only works, but even calms down their possessed rage somewhat.
- Protagonist-Centred Morality: The main characters constantly go around stealing things, which is presented as Kleptomaniac Hero, but when Burns notices that Evy has his stolen tool kit O'Connell points a gun in his face to get him to back off, and Evy refuses to give the kit back. One podcast even questions why the American dig team is portrayed as the bad side,
when the protagonists are doing the exact same things as them; essentially grave-robbing an ancient site, getting innocent local people killed (albeit accidentally) and refusing to listen to the warnings of the Medjai, all of which ends up unleashing Imhotep and endangering the world. - The Psycho Rangers: Though they are neither actually evil nor equal in number, the American expedition in the first part of the first film are identifiably counterparts to the main team: both groups have scholars (Evy/the Egyptologist), American adventurers (Rick/the "cowboys"), early casualties (the warden/the laborers), and heavily flawed comic relief (Jonathan/Beni).
- The Punishment: Imhotep's being mummified alive in a sarcophagus full of man-eating scarabs for his blasphemous acts. On the up side, he gets Cursed with Awesome and can return from death with very little help from stupid people. Meanwhile, his punishers spend the rest of their lives (as do all of their descendants) keeping him cooped up. Clearly, the punishment was worth it!
- Raised Hand of Survival: As the surviving adventurers leave Hamunaptura for Cairo, Imhotep smashes his hand through the ground right behind them, beginning his pursuit.
- Rasputinian Death: Happens to the Medjai with the Hook Hand on the boat. Evy stabs him in the eye with a candle, Jonathan pushes him onto a burning sofa setting him on fire, he stumbles around for several minutes aflame, then Henderson shoots him about a dozen times, causing him to fall off the boat and presumably drown.
- Rated M for Manly: You know a film is manly, when the protagonist's solution to every problem (literally every problem) is to shoot guns at it.
- Recoiled Across the Room: When Evy kills one of the Medjai with Rick's shotgun during the camp skirmish, the recoil knocks her down and she stays like that for the rest of the scene.
- Red Herring: During the climax, Beni takes a moment to pull a small golden relic from one of the bags of loot he's carrying, and the camera lingers for a moment as he examines it. It looks similar to the key to the Book of the Dead, implying that as the black book had a black key, the golden Book of the Living needs a gold key that Beni has found... nope. Both books use the same key, and this scene is just there to throw you off.
- Redshirt: The Warden. The moment he mentions that he hates bugs, you basically know how he's going to die.
- Redshirt Army: The unnamed Arab diggers in the American expedition, who are whittled down throughout the first half by the salt acid Booby Trap, the attack by the Medjai, the plague of locusts, and the scarabs respectively. None of them survive to flee back to Cairo.
- The Remake: It's a re-imagining of the original black and white horror classic.
- Removable Turret Gun: Ardeth plucks the mounted machine gun from the plane before it sinks into the quicksand. Justified as the gun in question, the aircraft version of the Lewis light machine gun note could be dismounted by removing a couple of pins and used the same way.
- Riddle for the Ages: Nobody knows why the fifth canopic jar (the one with the lion head) was broken.
- Rivers of Blood: The Bible example gets a Shout-Out. Upon Imhotep's arrival in Cairo and his murder of Burns, all the water in Egypt (not to mention the booze) turns into blood.
- Romance-Inducing Smudge: Inverted, where Imhotep's romance with Anck-Su-Namun leads him to smear her body paint.
- Sadly Mythtaken:
- The Ten Plagues of Egypt were caused by the Hebrew God in order to liberate the Hebrew people, so it's pretty bizarre that an Egyptian curse would recreate or utilize said plagues. Made stranger by the fact that Imhotep identifies Hebrew as the language of slaves, meaning when he was cursed the plagues hadn't even happened yet.
- According to Ancient Egyptian religion there was no way Anck-Su-Namun could have been resurrected or reincarnated - in Ancient Egyptian mythology there was only one afterlife, Duat. Punishment for the wicked was not eternal torment, but having their souls eaten by Ammit the Devourer, causing Cessation of Existence (something the Ancient Egyptians feared more than anything, due to the importance of souls). Anck-Su-Namun betrayed and killed Pharaoh (embodiment of God Amun-Ra on Earth) and committed suicide - such crimes meant that her soul would have been devoured by Ammit in afterlife and erased from existence.
- Save the Villain: Rick attempts to save Beni at the end, but the latter doesn't make it out in time. Rick's not broken up about it, though, and only tried in the first place on a spur-of-the-moment "what the hell" basis.
- Say My Name: Evy screams Rick and Jonathan's names when Imhotep starts the ceremony to sacrifice her and resurrect Anck-sun-Namun. Imhotep then does it when Jonathan commands the mummified soldiers to kill Anck-su-Namun, right before they do.
- Say Your Prayers: Beni's prayers are played humorously, as he prays to several gods in several different languages before praying in Hebrew actually winds up saving him, because it's a language Imhotep understands.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- The Americans try to do this, and Rick is fully in favor of the idea, much to Evy's disgust. Unfortunately, Imhotep catches up to them in Cairo before they can get safely out of the country.
- Being a Dirty Coward, Beni does this a few times, including in his Establishing Character Moment. He mentions to Rick on the barge that he can't do it to the Americans while leading them to Hamunaptra because otherwise he won't get paid by the Americans when they return to Cairo.
- Seeks Another's Resurrection: After murdering the pharaoh, Imhotep attempts to resurrect Anck-su-Namun, but is caught by the pharaoh's bodyguards before he can complete the ritual. He later attempts to resurrect her again after he is restored to life as a Mummy.
- Self-Destruct Mechanism: Apparently Hamunaptra comes equipped with one for some reason, and Beni accidentally sets it off while looting.
- Shadow Discretion Shot: Several.
- Parts of the Pharaoh's death at the beginning are seen as this, others are actually seeing Imhotep and Anck-su-Namun doing it.
- After being reassured by Imhotep that he will resurrect her, Anck-su-Namun fatally stabs herself in the stomach, which we see in shadow.
- Henderson is killed by Imhotep this way later, as we see his body shrivel and dry out before it's tossed aside.
- When Jonathan commands Imhotep's priests to kill Anck-su-Namun at the end, we see this happen as shadows, except this time she's being killed instead of doing it herself.
- She Cleans Up Nicely: A male version with O'Connell when he meets Evy and Jonathan at the docks. When Evy met him in jail he was in serious need of a bath, a shave, and a haircut. When he appears at the docks he's cleaned up and gotten a new set of clothes. Evy is noticeably thrown by his change in appearance.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Winston is the Lone Survivor of his RFC squadron from the Great War, is carrying some Survivor Guilt, and is ecstatic at the chance to go out in a blaze of glory. Johnathan is also implied to be one, though he never says so explicitly: he's the right age to have fought in the war, he's not only proficient with a gun, but also stays calm enough in a gunfight (unless he's unarmed, understandably, or if his opponent is Immune to Bullets), and when Rick openly doubts his claim of having faced worse odds than the Mexican Standoff with the American treasure hunters, he gives a quiet but remarkably sincere "Yeah, I have!" His alcoholism and immature behavior also fit with this.
- Shooting the Swarm: When a horde of flesh-eating scarab beetles are chasing the heroes, O'Connell first resorts to hurling his torch at them, then emptying a shotgun at the mass of insects. Each blast sends a fountain of dead bugs flying, but doesn't even slow the swarm down. Just legging it is a far more practical solution.
- Shooting Superman: People will not stop shooting Imhotep even though he is Immune to Bullets. Even after Ardeth has told people that no mortal weapons can harm him, they shoot Imhotep. At least they slow him down. Probably also a case of When All You Have Is a Hammer….
- Shut Up and Save Me!: Jonathan bursts into the chamber just as Evy is about to be sacrificed, gleefully shouting that he and Rick have found the Book of Amun-Ra. Evy's reaction is this trope.
- Shown Their Work: While the film is known for sacrificing historical accuracy about Ancient Egyptian religion and culture for the sake of a rousing adventure, they get a few things right, mostly in regard to funerary practices. The description of mummification is generally accurate, including removing the brain through the nose (a process called Excerebration), though this was probably done with a tool made from the monocotyledon plant. Imhotep's regeneration process makes a lot more sense here, since retrieving the canopic jars (less so the sucking the life out of those who opened the canopic chest, a very violent re-interpretation of the "curse of the pharaohs") is basically him trying to reverse the mummification process. Also, the ancient Egyptians did believe that not following the rules of correct burial meant damnation since it prevented the soul from being able to pass the dangers in Duat, among other things. The name (rn in Egyptian) was one of the parts of the soul, so Imhotep being referred to as "he who must not be named" and having the funerary prayers/spells effaced from his sarcophagus would have not have been surprising; the Ancient Egyptians were noted for effacing the names and images of those considered to have been blasphemers like Akhenaten. Also, while the Book of the Dead never existed in a codex form as presented in the film, it WAS essentially a collection of spells designed to enable the dead person to pass successfully through Duat.
- A small one in the prologue where the Foreign Legionairres are fighting the Bedouins at Hamunaptra. After emptying the magazine of his Lebel Mle 1886 rifle, Rick is clearly seen single-loading and firing his weapon until he gives up and switches to his sidearms. The Lebel, already obsolete before WWI (but still in active service into the 1930s), uses a Kropatschek-type tubular magazine that could only be loaded one round at a time. French soldiers rarely bothered reloading the magazine in combat, finding it faster to essentially pretend their rifle was a single-shot weapon.
- Skewed Priorities: Both Carnahans exhibit this when Hamunaptra is falling apart - Evy is more concerned that Jonathan dropped the Book of the Living and Jonathan stops to gawk at the treasure room. While the place is actively collapsing.
- Slimeball: Beni Gabor.
- Smug Smiler: When Imhotep corners the last of the cursed treasure hunters to harvest his life force and organs, he smugly smiles at the doomed man with most of his lips still missing.
- Sound-Only Death: Beni, after he's locked in the treasure room with a swarm of scarabs and his torch goes out. Also, when Imhotep catches up to the last of the Americans, we cut away to watch Beni's reaction and only hear the screams.
- Spit Take:
- Jonathan is getting drunk in the camp battle; Beni runs up and takes a heavy swig of the Glenlivet, and then spit-takes it onto Jonathan as Ardeth Bay rides up behind them.
- All the characters in the bar do spit-takes when they realise the water has turned to blood.
- Spill Stain Sabotage: So, you're part of an Ancient Order of Protectors, and someone presents you with a map that leads to a Sealed Evil in a Can, but there is nothing to spill on a said map? Oh, well, luckily, there is a candle nearby. Whooopsie...
- Squick: In-universe, both Rick and Jonathan are disturbed when Evy goes in to explicit detail as to what mummification entails.Rick: Let me get this straight, they ripped out your guts and they stuffed them in jars?
Evy: And they take out your heart as well. Oh, and you know how they took out your brains?
Jonathan: Evy, I don't think we need to know this.
Evy: They take a sharp, red hot poker, stick it up your nose, scramble things about a bit, and then rip it all out through your nostrils!
Rick: Ooh, that's got to hurt.
Evy: It's called mummification, you'll be dead when they do this.
Rick: For the record, if I don't make it out of here, don't put me down for mummification.
Jonathan: Likewise. - The Swarm: Rick, Evelyn and Jonathan evade a river of carnivorous scarabs, which returns to devour one of the other excavation party's workers alive.
- Tempting Fate:
- "No harm ever came from reading a book."
- Evy gets separated from Jonathan and Rick thanks to a trapdoor, and finds Burns. She's relieved and comments she was just starting to get scared, only to get an Oh, Crap! when he turns to face her and she sees he now has no eyes.
- This little gem:Rick: You're gonna get yours, Beni! YOU'RE GONNA GET YOURS!
Beni: Oh like I never heard that before! - Then later on:Evy: You know nasty little fellows like you always get their comeuppance.
Beni: Hehehe... They do?
Evy: Always.
- Tome of Eldritch Lore: The Book of The Dead and the Book of the Living. The Book of the Living gives power over the living and can take life, the Book of the Dead gives power over the dead and can give it. Also, the Book of the Living can remove an undead person's immortality and grant command of mummies. Fancy.
- Tongue Trauma: The opening shows Imhotep suffering this as part of the Hom-Dai. When Imhotep partly drains Mr. Burns in Hamunaptra, the man loses his tongue to Imhotep along with his eyes.
- Trap Door: At least one of the walls in Hamunaptura features a pressure-activated door that causes Evy to get lost in a passageway where she finds the now eyeless Burns and Imhotep. Rick attempts to follow her by going through the same door, but it's sealed itself shut thanks to the weights, causing Rick to call this trope by name.Rick: [hits door with his shotgun]'' Damn it! It's a trap door. There's gotta be a switch or something around here someplace.
- Traveling at the Speed of Plot:
- The initial journey to Hamunaptra takes several days, including journeying by river boat and camel. After they awaken the mummy, the Americans and O'Connell's team manage to flee back to Cairo in a single day. Given that they were being chased by an unkillable abomination, they were probably hauling ass like nobody's business. Also, they set out with large amounts of supplies, not knowing how long it would take them to find Hamunaptra or how long they would stay there. Going back, they know exactly where to go and are only taking the bare essentials.
- Near the climax, the heroes enlist Winston to fly them back to Hamunaptra. In the time it takes them to escape from Imhotep's minions, recover their car, drive to Winston's airfield, prepare the bi-plane and get all the way to Hamunaptra, Imhotep (who's been traveling in the form of a sandstorm with Evie and Beni since the night before) has only just arrived.
- Truth in Television: When the Americans tell the protagonists they can dry Imhotep out and burn him for firewood, apparently not showing much concern about possibly destroying an important historical figure, this was during the era where finding a mummy was so common that people actually used them for very mundane things, such as the squicky fact that butchers would use their wrappings as butchers paper to wrap meat in and people had unwrapping parties where a man would publicly unwrap a mummy for audiences and friends.
- Undeathly Pallor: After Imhotep consumes two of the American expedition leaders, he's a chalk-white, partially decayed corpse-like figure.
- Unexpectedly Real Magic: Evy has no idea that reading from the book she's just found will release Imhotep.
- Un-person: After betraying the Pharoah, Imhotep is written out of Egyptian history, to the point that the inscription on his sarcophagus refers to him as "he who must not be named."
- Up Close with the Monster: As Beni tries to escape the cursed Pyramid, he turns a corner and finds himself face to face with Imhotep himself. The mummy slowly advances on him as Beni tries to pray to whatever god will help him. Imhotep stays his hand when he discovers that Beni's knowledge of Hebrew makes him useful enough to keep alive.
- Walking Armory: In the opening battle scene, Rick wields a Lebel M1886 rifle, two Chamelot-Delvigne Model 1873 revolvers, and two 1911 pistols. He also usually carries multiple weapons whenever he goes into combat for the remainder of the film.
- Walking Disaster Area: Evy, at the beginning, manages to level an entire library by accident. Her employer's horrified reaction, and following rant ("Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!") suggests this isn't the first time she's done something like this.
- Wardrobe Malfunction: It turned out that Rachel Weisz's nightgown from the boat scene got very translucent when wet, and Weisz wasn't wearing anything underneath. Of course, by the end of the scene she ended up in the water, giving the rest of the cast and crew an eyeful and requiring touching up in post-production to keep the movie's rating.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Imhotep's curse renders him terrified of cats. It Makes Sense in Context, though, given that cats are the guardians of the underworld, a place to which he surely does not wish to return. He eventually manages to overcome this weakness.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: The Medjai. When Evy, scandalized, asks if they're willing to kill innocents to stop Imhotep (who is fully capable of ending the world), they snap out an emphatic "Yes!"
- We Will Meet Again: Imhotep corners the heroes, and is taking Evy away to be sacrificed. Before the bad guy can leave, Rick O'Connell looks right into Imhotep's eyes and says, "I'll be seeing you again," with all the menace and hatred and promise the man can muster. Imhotep, who doesn't understand a word (the man's an ancient Egyptian who doesn't speak English) gets the message anyway, but he's so assured of his near invincibility that he only reacts with mild amusement. Turns out, underestimating O'Connell was a huge mistake.
- Wham Line:
- In-universe for Imhotep, when Beni is praying to several different gods in hopes of rescue, until he begins praying in Hebrew, a language Imhotep actually understands.
Imhotep: The language of the slaves!- Burns gets another in-universe one when he realizes who's come to buy the canopic jar.
Beni: Mr. Burns, Prince Imhotep thanks you for your hospitality... and for your eyes, and for your tongue. - What Could Possibly Go Wrong?: Instead of simply executing Imhotep for murdering the pharaoh or torturing him to death using conventional means, the Pharaoh's guards decided to kill him with the curse of the Hom-Dai. While this gives him the slowest most painful death imaginable, it also means he could come back as an unstoppable demon if anyone ever finds his tomb and reads from the Book of the Dead. But hey, what are the chances of that happening? On the other hand nobody had ever tried cursing someone with the Hom-Dai and besides, Who Would Be Stupid Enough? to open the coffin of such an individual.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- The other Medjai aside from Ardeth Bey disappear after telling the surviving members of the expedition to leave Hamunaptra. Ardeth mentions that they must "go on the hunt, and try to find a way to kill [Imhotep]" but that's all we get.
- The people that Imhotep brainwashes and sics onto the heroes in Cairo disappear after Imhotep leaves, leaving him with only Beni and later a handful of other mummies as Mooks once the action goes back to Hamunaptra.
- What's an X Like You Doing in a Y Like This?:Evelyn: [completely drunk] I know—you're wondering, what is a place like me doing in a girl like this?
Rick: ...Yeah, something like that. - Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?:
- "Watch for bugs. I hate bugs." Guess what gets him.
- Imhotep for cats due to the whole "guardians of the underworld" thing. Too bad this is only used in a rather throwaway manner.
- You Are in Command Now: In the intro, the commander of the French Foreign Legion unit abandons his men, leaving O'Connell in charge.Beni: You just got promoted.
- "You!" Exclamation: Evelyn exclaims this to Ardeth Bey when he turns up in the Cairo Museum.
- You Said You Would Let Them Go: Without the stock phrase exchange, but Imhotep promises to spare the rest of the party if Evy comes with him so that he can perform the ritual. Naturally, once she's in hand, he orders his followers to kill the rest of them. Of course, the rest of the group had made it extremely clear they planned to follow and try to stop the ritual, so not attacking them would have been fairly silly.
- Zombie Gait:
- Imhotep's enthralled townspeople. Lampshaded, somewhat, by Jonathan, who shambled along with them to avoid their wrath.
- Averted with the actual mummies, though; they all move almost as quickly as living people and Imhotep can move considerably faster.
