Franchises: Universal's Modern Mummy Series. The Mummy Returns (2001)

When AMC had its annual Monsterfest marathon of horror movies in October of 2000, one of their promos featured a cadaver on a slab talking to the audience about how lucky they were, since they were alive and could enjoy the marathon. He also mentioned being able to go over to AMCTV.com where, among other things, viewers could enter into a sweepstakes to attend the red carpet premiere of The Mummy Returns the following summer. That was when I first learned that The Mummy from the year before, and which I still hadn't seen at that time, was getting a sequel. Like that movie, I didn't see the sequel in the theater, but I did see a fair amount of trailers and TV spots for it, a major one being when, during a school retreat in my freshman year, we were watching Meet the Parents on the bus-ride there and it was one of the previews on that VHS. And also like the first one, I saw an ad for its home video release on Universal VHS tapes I got around that time, like Halloween II and An American Werewolf of London. Since I was now older, and beginning to get into more contemporary and hardcore horror films, the glimpses of The Mummy Returns didn't have the same impact as those for the first one. Of course, that could've been because they made it clear this was an adventure movie first and foremost, with only a few horror elements sprinkled in. But, like with the first one, there were images that stuck with me, like the tidal wave with Imhotep's face, a close-up of him removing his mask, the shots of the enormous army led by the Scorpion King (I can remember how The Rock playing that role was a big selling point), a low-angle shot of an Anubis warrior roaring up into the sky, Rick and Imhotep battling once again, and a mummified soldier swinging into a bus, among others. Unlike the first movie, which I saw for the first time just a few years after it was released, I didn't see The Mummy Returns for many years, until I got both it and the first one on Blu-Ray in the 2010's. Its not so great reputation preceded it, though, as I learned from a lot of online sources that it was deemed to be very inferior to the first one and was a perfect example of style over substance and overuse of CGI, most of which was said to have looked bad even in 2001, particularly a monster version of the Scorpion King that appeared at the end.

When I finally saw it for myself, I thought it was... not that bad. I agree that it's definitely not on par with the first one, and does have a number of issues, such as the aforementioned overuse of mostly bad visual effects, the story being rather complex and a bit overstuffed, as well as not quite as well-written, a major toning down of the horror elements and going more towards adventure and even fantasy, and not as much focus on the characters this time around, with Imhotep himself having nowhere near the same presence or impact as before. But, that said, this is another fun, rollicking adventure, with a lot of entertaining action setpieces, a really good pace (for a movie that's 129 minutes long, it flies by and I never find myself getting bored), a bigger scope than the first one, another great music score, this time by Alan Silvestri, and while they're not utilized quite as well as before, the characters are still just as likable and memorable, and the same goes for the new characters who are introduced.

Egypt, 3067 B.C. A ferocious warrior called the Scorpion King leads a campaign to conquer the known world, but after seven years, he and his forces are defeated and driven into the desert of Ahm Shere. Eventually, all of his men die from the elements, until he himself is the only one left alive. Close to dying himself, the Scorpion King swears a pact with Anubis, offering his soul in exchange for his life being spared so he could crush his enemies. Anubis accepts his offer, creating a huge oasis and pyramid for him in the middle of the desert, and allowing him to take command of his army. The Scorpion King is then able to conquer all of Egypt, including the mighty city of Thebes, but once his task is completed, Anubis claims his soul and his army returns to the underworld. Thousands of years later, in 1933, Rick O'Connell and his wife, Evelyn, explore an ancient temple in Thebes, which Evy seems to recognize from a dream she had recently; also along for the ride is their eight-year old son, Alex. Narrowly surviving a booby-trap set off when they find and collect the legendary Bracelet of Anubis, while Alex is nearly killed by a trio of thieves who enter the ruins, the O'Connells return to their home in London. Unbeknownst to them, a cult has unearthed Imhotep at the site where Hamunaptra once stood, and when the three thieves, commissioned by them to get the bracelet, return empty-handed, the cultists travel to London themselves to retrieve it. There, while Rick and Evy talk about possibly going out to Ahm Shere, Alex fiddles with the bracelet and locks onto his wrist, showing him visions of Egypt. The cultists break into the house and, after a battle that ends up involving Evy's brother, Jonathan, who's staying there without their knowledge, and Ardeth Bay, who's been tracking the cultists, Evy is captured and taken to the British Museum. There, using the Book of the Dead, Baltus Hafez, leader of the cult and the museum curator, resurrects Imhotep. He tells him it is the Year of the Scorpion, meaning that the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis will rise soon, and is also introduced to Meela Nais, the physical reincarnation of Anck-su-namun. Discovering he has the bracelet, Alex is eventually abducted by the cult, who travel back to Egypt and use the visions it gives him to find Ahm Shere. Not only do Rick and Evy, along with their friends, now have to save Alex, but also the world, as the cult and Imhotep plan to slay the Scorpion King to take control of Anubis' army.

According to Stephen Sommers himself, the sequel was planned immediately after Universal realized the first film was going to be a massive hit; as he described it, the morning after The Mummy was released, the head of the studio phoned him and said, "We need another one." So, he went straight into the sequel, with no other producing or writing assignments in between them, and with a bigger budget of $98 million, decided to make it even bigger in scope and bring in more mythological and fantastical elements. This, however, is where Sommers' flaws, specifically his tendency to really go overboard (he's on record as saying, "Don't let them tell you less is more. More is more,"), become apparent. While the first film wasn't exactly light in the visual effects department itself, this one cranks it up far past ten, with copious amounts of CGI, much of which has aged very poorly. By extension, while there is still a fair amount of location work, this film feels much more studio-bound, with a lot of very obvious green screen shots. Also, the story is more complex, with instances of the new mythology introduced feeling not only contrived but also confusing. Most significantly, while it's nice to see so many of the characters return, and the actors still play them as well as before, they feel more like devices to move the plot around, with little meaningful development, except in the most rudimentary ways.

One thing that is great about The Mummy Returns is that it's one of those rare sequels where, not only do just about all of the main characters from the first movie return (save for those who died and weren't undead, of course), but their actors reprise their roles as well; this is in very stark contrast to the third film, where only Brendan Fraser and John Hannah return. Speaking of which, seven years after the events of the first movie, Rick O'Connell is in a very different place than he was before. Instead of a reckless adventurer and gunfighter, he's now happily married to Evy, as the two of them live in a very large house outside of London and have an eight-year old son, Alex. He often accompanies Evy on her archeological digs, but as much as he loves her, he finds her need to pry into and meddle with things that could have supernatural and even apocalyptic properties very tiring, as he does Alex's precocious nature. One thing that you find definitely hasn't changed about Rick is his desire to let sleeping dogs lie when it comes to this kind of stuff, and he's very reluctant to go with her to search for Ahm Shere, especially when he learns it's where Anubis' army and the Scorpion King are said to be. He's also concerned about the fact that the strange dream Evy had coincided with the Egyptian New Year, and that it now happens to be the Year of the Scorpion, feeling it's a sign that they may want to take it easy. But Rick quickly finds himself drawn back in with the Medjai and their battle against Imhotep when first Evy and then Alex are abducted by the cultists who have awakened the Mummy and plan to use Anubis' army to conquer the world. Eventually, he, Evy, Jonathan, and Ardeth Bay must travel back to Egypt and track down the cult, as they and Imhotep force Alex to use the Bracelet of Anubis attached to his wrist to show them the way to Ahm Shere.

Here, we get to see Rick as a family man who, as much as they may sometimes frustrate him, can't live without his wife and son, and when they're in trouble, he will die to protect them. Despite quickly learning that Imhotep is tied to Evy's abduction after the cultists storm his house, Rick rushes to the British Museum to save her, and then, when Alex is initially taken, he runs after the car he's pulled into across the Tower Bridge and even attempts to run up the center of the bridge when it's raised.

Once they lose them, Rick decides to employ the services of his old friend, Izzy, and use his hot-air balloon and dirigible to find Alex. When they do find and rescue him at the Oasis of Ahm Shere, only to learn that the bracelet will suck the life from him unless they reach the Scorpion King's pyramid before the rising sun hits it, Rick grabs Alex and hauls ass to the pyramid, managing to reach it with mere seconds to spare. And then, when Evy is killed by the resurrected Anck-su-namun before she can enter the pyramid, Rick,

filled with grief and rage, storms into the pyramid by himself, intent on confronting and killing Imhotep, only to have to face the Scorpion King as well. Throughout the journey, Rick is told that, just as they learn that Evy is Princess Nefertiri reincarnated, he himself is a descendant of the Medjai, pointing to the tattoo on his wrist as proof. It's something Rick has trouble accepting, as he's mostly focused on getting his son back and returning home with his family, but eventually, he grows to live with it, especially when he sees undeniable proof. However, what hasn't changed about Rick are his skills as a gunfighter and swordsman, as he's still able to effectively kick some mummy ass, and his snarky, wisecracking personality.

At the beginning of the film, Evy (Rachel Weisz) shows that she's no longer the timid, bookish, aspiring Egyptologist she was before, as she's now a respected scientist and, according to her, is often begged by the Bembridge scholars, who once rejected her applications, to run the British Museum. And while she was never an entirely helpless damsel in distress in the first film, here, she's much braver and tougher, pulling out a sword when she's faced with the cultists in her home and really holding her own in the ensuing fight. Though she is briefly kidnapped and has to be saved by Rick, she continues holding her own in the ensuing action sequence, and when Alex is abducted, she, like her husband, is determined to get him back, no matter what. However, one thing that hasn't changed about Evy is her willingness to go into ancient ruins and tombs and fiddle with stuff that might be dangerous in a supernatural manner. At the beginning of the movie, when she and Rick are exploring an ancient temple in Thebes and discover the chest containing the Bracelet of Anubis, she tells him, "It's only a chest. No harm ever came from opening a chest,"; Rick has to remind her that, right before she read from the Book of the Dead and resurrected Imhotep, she said the same thing about reading a book. And when they return to their London home after nearly dying in a horrible booby-trap in that tomb, she's ready to go try and find the Oasis of Ahm Shere, much to Rick's chagrin and not at all concerned about the possible revival of the Scorpion King or Anubis' army, or the fact that multiple past expeditions to find the place have either failed or perished. And when Rick points out that the strange dream she had, which she's been obsessed with, coincided with the Egyptian New Year, which also happens to be the Year of the Scorpion, she responds, "Oh, that's right. What a coincidence." Speaking of which, the dream leads to her having a large feeling of deja vu while exploring the temple in Thebes, to where she knows where everything is and what's around every corner. She also has a vision of Ancient Egypt there, showing her where the Bracelet of Anubis is stored.

These visions eventually lead to the revelation that, just as Meela Nais is the reincarnation of Anck-su-namun, Evy is that of Nefertiri, the daughter of Pharaoh Seti I and the bracelet's keeper. What's more, she and Anck-su-namun were rivals in their past lives, and Nefertiri, after learning of Anck-su-namun's affair with Imhotep, is the one who warned the Medjai of the attack on her father, leading to Anck-su-namun's suicide and Imhotep's attempt to resurrect her. In short, she's the one who

set just about everything in motion. Unlike Rick, Evy is more willing to accept this fact about herself, as it explains her visions and why she was the one who found the bracelet. And because of their past rivalry, when Anck-su-namun's soul is returned to Meela Nais' body, she specifically targets Evy and kills her outside the pyramid of Ahm Shere. But thanks to Alex and the Book of the Dead, which he steals from Anck-su-namun, Evy is resurrected, complete with Nefertiri's memories and fighting prowess. She and Anck-su-namun then fight a brief but fierce battle, and after the Scorpion King and Anubis' army are defeated and sent back to the underworld, she saves Rick from being dragged down into it with them and Imhotep.

Despite being just eight years old, Alex O'Connell (Freddie Boath) is shown to be both quite intelligent and brave. In the movie's opening, when his parents are exploring the temple in Thebes, he follows his father down into the catacombs, just to tell him that he saw a marking akin to his tattoo on a wall by the entrance. After being told to go back up there and wait for them, he spends his time making a mousetrap, as per his father's suggestion, and plants to test it on some nearby mice. Then, when a trio of criminals arrive to kill his parents and take the Bracelet of Anubis, Alex uses a slingshot to freak out two of them, making one think the place is cursed. On top of that, when they flee and his parents are nearly killed when a booby-trap floods the catacombs, he inadvertently manages to save them by causing a chain reaction of pillars falling against each other until they smash through the wall, and Rick and Evy are washed out. Once they're back home, Alex becomes curious about the bracelet, and it ends up latching onto his wrist and showing him visions of the locations leading to the Oasis of Ahm Shere. Because of this, he's eventually captured by the cultists and forced to use the bracelet to show them the way. Despite this, Alex is hardly afraid, and even acts very snarky and bratty towards the cultists, especially Lock-Nah, the cult's enforcer. When faced with Imhotep, Alex is a bit intimidated, and terrified when he sees the decayed face behind his mask, but still defiant, only agreeing to show them the way when he learns the bracelet will suck away his life if he doesn't enter the Scorpion King's temple before a week has passed after he put the bracelet on. He even goes as far as to tell Imhotep, "My dad is going to kick your ass," (I always remembered how they would show that in the previews but cut before he'd say "ass,"), and manages to briefly escape the train when they reach the ruins of Karnak, though Imhotep manages to retrieve him. As the journey continues, Alex leaves clues to his location for his parents to find at each spot they stop at, and is rescued and freed from the bracelet just in the nick of time. While he and his father are devastated when Evy is fatally stabbed, Alex steals the Book of the Dead from Anck-su-namun and, thanks to his mother's teachings, is able to read it in order to bring her back to life.

One character who hasn't changed at all is Jonathan (John Hannah), as at the beginning of the movie, he's squandered his share of the family's newfound wealth, save for a golden scepter, which he keeps with him at all times. He also happens to be squatting at Rick and Evy's home, and when the cultists arrive for the amulet, he's mistaken for Rick until he's rescued. As expected, he gets dragged along in the adventure, first when Rick and Ardeth Bay go to save Evy at the British Museum, and then when the group travels back to Egypt to save Alex (there's really no reason for him to be part of the latter). Like before, Jonathan is mostly a lazy coward and a load, and is not happy when Rick gives Izzy his scepter as payment for his services. And as terrified as he is of facing the undead once again, he is intrigued by what he hears concerning a large diamond atop the golden pyramid at Ahm Shere. But, like in the first movie, Jonathan comes through when needed, working with Evy to shoot down the cultists as Rick and Bay sneak into the oasis to save Alex, with Jonathan flat-out saving Bay's life at one point. Like Rick and Alex, he's devastated when Evy is killed, but when he tries to console Alex, he gives him the idea to use the Book of the Dead to revive her. To do this, he distracts Anck-su-namun by challenging her to a fight, despite horribly outmatched, but does manage to get one sucker punch in. And just like how Evy had to tell him what one symbol in the book meant in the first movie, Jonathan has to help Alex in the same way, with the exact same symbol, while fending off Anck-su-namun. Most significantly, it turns out his golden scepter is actually a folded up spear that's needed to kill the Scorpion King. In doing so, Jonathan loses the last bit of his fortune, but manages to get it back by grabbing the diamond off the top of the pyramid before it and the oasis disappear forever. However, as they fly off at the end of the movie, Izzy tells him they're splitting the diamond, something he's reluctant to do.

Good old Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) is back, and he's just as wise, mysterious, and badass as before, as well as provides us with the Scorpion King's backstory in the opening, just as he did for Imhotep in the first film. Unbeknownst to the cultists, Bay is among them when they dig up Imhotep at Hamunaptra, and after learning of their plans for him, follows them to London to stop them from getting the Bracelet of Anubis. He arrives at the O'Connell home in time to help Evy and Alex when they're confronted by Lock-Nah and his goons. He also aids Rick in saving Evy when she's abducted and taken to the British Museum, though they're unable to stop the cultists from resurrecting Imhotep. And when Alex is kidnapped following the chase involving a double-decker bus, Bay assures Rick and Evy that the Alex's wearing the bracelet will ensure that the cultists don't harm him. However, he doesn't pull punches when it comes to letting everyone, including Alex, know what's at stake now that he's put on the bracelet: namely that the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis will rise within seven days and potentially destroy the world. Like before, he aids them in their journey to find Alex, and also gathers together the twelve Medjai commanders. With his falcon, Horus, he keeps them abreast of their progress, and tells the others that the commanders and their warriors will fight to the death should Anubis' army rise. Along the way, he repeatedly tries to convince Rick that his tattoo means he's a descendant of the Medjai, and it's his destiny to be a warrior of God. Later, when Rick doesn't see what good it does him, Bay tells him, "If a man does not embrace his past, he has no future... It is a missing piece of your heart. If you embrace it, if you accept it, you can do anything." And when Evy realizes she's Nefertiri reincarnated, Bay assures the two of them that it's another sign of Rick's destiny, as well as that Alex was always meant to show the way to Ahm Shere. Rick still shrugs it all off as coincidence (ironically adopting the same attitude Evy had about her having her strange dream at the very moment it became the Year of the Scorpion), but Bay assures him, "My friend, there is a fine line between coincidence and fate."

After Izzy's dirigible is downed by Imhotep's powers right before they reach the oasis, Bay, again, sends Horus to tell the Medjai commanders where they are. But this time, Horus is gunned down by Lock-Nah. Horrified at this, Bay initially plans to leave the party to inform the commanders himself, but with Rick's pleading, he opts to help rescue Alex first. When they come upon the cultists as they make their way through the oasis, Rick and Bay rush them, with Rick going for Alex,

while Bay crosses swords with Lock-Nah once again. He manages to kill him, but is almost killed himself by a cultist; fortunately, Jonathan snipes the man out, much to Bay's gratitude. He then goes to rally the Medjai and leads them in the battle with Anubis' army. Despite being vastly outnumbered by the seemingly endless Anubis Warriors, Bay and the other Medjai vow to fight to the death, and Bay himself manages to slay a number of the warriors. Fortunately for him and many of the others, Rick's slaying the Scorpion King sends the army back as well, and like before, Bay ends the movie by bidding his friends a respectful farewell.

Although Rick describes Izzy (Shaun Parkes) as an old friend of his, when they arrive at his personal airfield, Izzy immediately barricades himself inside the building. You learn it's because, according to Izzy, he gets shot every time he gets involved with Rick, with the last time leading to him getting shot in the rear end. Even when Rick throws a wad of money at him, Izzy refuses, saying he has nowhere to spend the money. But when he sees the golden scepter, he tells him, "O'Connell, you give me that gold stick there and you can shave my head, wax my legs, and use me for a surfboard,"; to that, Rick asks, "Didn't we do that in Tripoli?" This causes friction between him and Jonathan, as the two of them fight over the scepter, and at the end of the movie, Izzy intends on claiming half of the large diamond Jonathan retrieves from the pyramid. Izzy is also afraid of being shot when the Medjai show up, but when Rick learns he now uses a dirigible instead of a plane, saying they're a thing of the past, Rick is about ready to shoot him himself, until he assures him that it's fast. When they first meet him, Izzy has an eyepatch, in addition to his several silver teeth, but he's not missing his eye; he just thinks the patch makes him look dashing. Despite his hot-headed, brash nature, Izzy proves invaluable to the group, as he manages to save them from being downed by the huge wave Imhotep creates, and he rescues them just in time at the end, having managed to somehow repair his dirigible after it had crashed.

For me personally, the biggest sin The Mummy Returns commits is how it neuters the character of Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo). This time, instead of being a deadly threat who could wipe out the world once his body is fully restored, much of the movie is spent with him traveling across Egypt to battle and defeat an even bigger threat for even more power. Like in the first movie, he does regenerate from an undead, ancient corpse to his human form, and reacquires his powers, but despite Ardeth Bay saying that, by the time he faces the Scorpion King, Imhotep may be more than able to take him down, we don't really get that sense. Yeah, we see his powers of telekinesis, the ability to create mummified soldiers from mere sand, the tidal wave to kill the heroes, and repulse the pygmy mummies they come across at the oasis, but he doesn't come off as the enormous threat he was before (the Ten Plagues of Egypt don't even manifest following his resurrection). In fact, Baltus Hafez says Imhotep will be vulnerable until he has command of the Army of Anubis, ignoring how, originally, the heroes were only able to defeat him when they used the Book of the Dead to take his powers and immortality away. And speaking of which, when he goes to face the Scorpion King, he's suddenly robbed of his powers, which he sees as Anubis' will, so it didn't matter anyway. But the aspect of his character that does remain is his motivation, and he's given further incentive when he meets Anck-su-namun's reincarnation, Meela Nais. Initially, he sees her as his beloved only in body, and later uses the Book of the Dead to restore her soul, planning for the two of them to rule the world with Anubis' army. Since Alex has the Bracelet of Anubis on his wrist, he uses him as a way to find the Oasis of Ahm Shere, ensuring his cooperation by telling him of how the bracelet will kill him if he doesn't reach the pyramid within seven days of putting it on (in this one scene, Imhotep speaks English, possibly because of the bracelet's power).

Everything about Imhotep feels rushed and contrived. Although at the end of the first movie, he sank into a pool that seemed to be connected to the underworld, when the cultists find him at the site of Hamunaptra, he's encased within a structure made of an amber-like resin, which he breaks out of when they resurrect him. His regeneration also happens much quicker this time around, as when he's first awakened, he immediately goes from his first stage into the second stage that we first saw

after he fed on Burns, complete with eyes and a tongue. That said, it is cool how we see much more of this form than in the first movie, where it featured in one scene; here, he interacts with Meela Nais and the cultists, and, again, wears a dark robe and mask to conceal himself when they're on the train. But then, how does he fully regenerate his body, you're wondering? In a pretty unimaginative way: when the three thieves bring them the cursed chest that once held the Book of the Dead and the canopic jars, they're locked in a room with him and

one of them is tricked into opening the chest, thus allowing Imhotep to enact the curse and suck them dry. The reason it's done this way is because it was generally felt that the first film's second act was slow, as it followed Imhotep enacting this curse on the members of the American team one by one, and I get that you don't want to completely retread what happened before, but it feels like they really speed through it. (That said, we do get to see how exactly Imhotep sucks his victims of their organs and fluids, which we never did onscreen in the first

movie.) And as I hinted at up above, he has no new powers to speak of, save for when he lifts some people, like Alex, up into the air using his telekinesis. His most memorable display of power, the wall of water, is just a repackaging of the sandstorm he generated previously, and his climbing along walls and the ceiling is something we've already seen the mummified soldiers do (he is able to walk across water in one scene, though, so I guess there's that).

Despite all these issues with his character, though, Arnold Vosloo is, again, clearly giving it his all in his performance, both in the motion-capture and when he's physically onscreen. While in the first film, he portrayed Imhotep as mostly dead serious, with moments of exaggerated, dastardly villainy, here he manages to give him a more gregarious and, at times, playful personality. Upon first being resurrected, when Baltus Hafez tells him it's the Year of the Scorpion, he excitedly asks if he's

serious and then chuckles evilly, knowing what that means. He's also clearly pleased when Meela Nais shows him they have Evy and are about to kill her, telling her, "The underworld awaits you." Later, when he's informed that the O'Connells have the Scepter of Osiris in their possession, he scoffs at it, confident that, by the time they reach Ahm Shere, his powers will be regenerated to where he won't need it to kill the Scorpion King. I particularly like his interactions with Alex. When they're on the

train and Alex is brought before him, he takes delight in telling the boy that the Bracelet of Anubis will eventually kill him, advising him that it would be best if he not "get lost" like he says. Later, when Alex attempts to escape after they reach Karnak, Imhotep catches him with his telekinesis and wags his finger while making, "Tsk, tsk," sound. And after seemingly killing the heroes with his wave, he walks back by the saddened Alex and pats him on the head. In the scene where the thieves are locked in a room with him, when they

open fire on him, Imhotep has fun playing with them before devouring them, delightfully swinging back and forth and laughing as the bullets pass through him without causing any harm. After he absorbs one of them, he looks at the helpless others with an evil smile. And near the end of the movie, when Baltus Hafez is about to be killed by the Scorpion King, he begs Imhotep for help, only for Imhotep to flippantly ask, "Why?", and allow him to die. Finally, he manages to come off as surprisingly romantic in his scenes with Meela, even when he's still an undead corpse, talking about how their love will soon be whole again and they'll rule the world.

When he finally goes to face the Scorpion King, Imhotep, despite having been stripped of his powers, is determined to do it alone, despite Anck-su-namun's fears of what might happen. But, when he's rung the gong to summon him, he finds himself fighting Rick, telling him he can't allow him to defeat the Scorpion King himself. The two of them are pretty evenly matched in their fight, with Rick managing to have the upper-hand when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, while Imhotep is

more proficient with weaponry. But then, when the Scorpion King emerges as an enormous half-man, half-scorpion monster, Imhotep does something truly cowardly: he tosses his weapons away, tells him that he's his servant, and has him attack Rick. He then hangs back, waiting for Rick to die, and when Jonathan attempts to help Rick by tossing the Spear of Osiris at the Scorpion King, Imhotep intercepts it. When he gets the chance, he throws it himself, but Rick catches it in midair and uses it to impale the Scorpion King himself. Imhotep is

absolutely devastated when this happens, but even worse disappointment follows afterward. As the oasis and the pyramid are sucked down into the underworld, he and Rick grab onto a ledge of a chasm that leads down into it, with the damned souls trying to pull them in. While Evy runs in to help Rick, Imhotep is shocked when, despite his own pleas for help, Anck-su-namun runs off to save herself, proving she never truly loved him. Heartbroken, he glances at Rick and Evy, and smiles at them, realizing their love is real. With no reason to go on living, he allows himself to fall into the underworld.

Patricia Velasquez has a lot more to do this time around, playing both Anck-su-namun in flashbacks to Ancient Egypt and her physical reincarnation, Meela Nais. She's very eager to release Imhotep after unearthing him, and journeys with the cultists to London to retrieve the Bracelet of Anubis. She proves herself to be very ruthless throughout the movie, threatening Jonathan with a deadly asp when he's interrogated, and going to poison him with it even after he "tells them" where the bracelet is hidden; when he says he figured they'd let him live if he told, Meela asks, "When did we make that arrangement?" Later, when they've abducted Alex, and he acts all bratty and uncooperative, asking her why he should behave for her the way he would his parents, she answers, "Because your parents wouldn't slip poisonous snakes into your bed, while you were sleeping," and kisses him on the cheek. And she dooms the three thieves they hired by tricking them into opening the cursed chest so Imhotep can use them to regenerate himself. Speaking of which, when he's resurrected, he and Meela begin plotting to rule the world using the Army of Anubis, as well as for him to truly revive her as Anck-su-namun so they can be together once again. Imhotep does so at the ruins of Karnak, using his power to unlock her memories and then the Book of the Dead to raise her soul and place it within her body. They travel on to Ahm Shere, where Anck-su-namun, recognizing Evy as her old rival, Nefertiri, reincarnated, kills her before she and Imhotep enter the pyramid. Inside, she's shocked when Imhotep is stripped of his powers, and becomes unsure if he can slay the Scorpion King as a mortal, claiming she doesn't want to lose him again. Regardless, he goes off alone, and in the meantime, Anck-su-namun finds herself faced first with Jonathan, then Evy when Alex uses the Book of the Dead to revive her. The two women pick up their ancient rivalry from where they left off, and with her renewed process at fighting, as well as some moves she's learned from Rick, Evy overwhelms Anck-su-namun and forces her to retreat. Then, in a very telling moment, she abandons Imhotep when he's about to be pulled into the underworld, proving she likely only "loved" him for the power she could obtain through him. But, karma pays her back immediately, as she falls into a pit of scorpions while trying to escape.

While I talked about him only in passing in the first movie, I'd like to mention that, in this one, Pharaoh Seti I (Aharon Ipale) is depicted in a more positive light in the flashbacks. Rather than a possessive man who decrees that no one else can even touch Anck-su-namun, he's shown as a rather benevolent ruler, a loving father towards Nefertiri, and someone who genuinely adores his future wife. After she and Anck-su-namun battle each other in front of Seti and an audience in his throne room, both showing how talented and apt they are in combat, he is absolutely pleased. He says, "Who better to protect the Bracelet of Anubis than my lovely daughter, Nefertiri? And who better to protect me, than my future wife, Anck-su-namun?", and lovingly hugs his daughter, telling her, "Well done, daughter." Though they then replay much of the first movie's opening, they remove the moment when Seti sees that Anck-su-namun's body makeup has been smudged and demands to know who touched her. Instead, they focus on how Nefetiri noticed the affair between Imhotep and Anck-su-namun, as well as their murdering Seti, making him come off far more like a benevolent man who was betrayed by two people he trusted, and that his daughter couldn't save him in time.

Unfortunately, aside from Meela Nais/Anck-su-namun, the cultists who resurrect Imhotep are pretty one-note villains, with their only goal being to use Anubis' army to rule the world for no other reason than just because. (Their red costumes are quite memorable, though, making me think of the Thugees in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.) That's certainly true of the leader, Baltus Hafez (Alun Armstrong), who's something of an evil version of the first movie's Dr. Bey, as he's also the curator of the British Museum. That said, though, he does manage to be fairly memorable because of how overly stoic and serious he comes off for most of the movie, while also being the one who serves and looks up to Imhotep the most. He also proves to be a total coward near the end, when everyone's being chased by the pygmy mummies at the oasis and he tells two of his subordinates, "The two of you must sacrifice yourselves for me. You shall be rewarded in heaven!", before running off to save his own skin. Once they reach the pyramid, Hafez personally unleashes the Army of Anubis. However, he inexplicably gets his hand reduced to little more than bone, apparently by something in the wall where he sticks his hand while wearing the bracelet. And not long afterward, he's killed by the Scorpion King, with Imhotep opting to let him die since he's fulfilled his purpose.

While most of the cultists are faceless cronies, that can't be said of Lock-Nah (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbage), a big, burly black guy who acts as the cult's enforcer and takes great pleasure in his work. He has a rivalry with Ardeth Bay, as the two of them have clearly crossed swords before, and looks down on him for being a Medjai. However, Lock-Nah's most famous scenes are with Alex who, knowing that they need him alive, annoys him to no end. In one scene, as they're riding the train, he repeatedly asks, "Are we there yet?", until Lock-Nah loses his patience, pulls out a knife, and stabs them right between Alex's fingers without cutting him at all. Alex exclaims, "Whoa! That was amazing! Perfect aim!", but Lock-Nah kills his smile when he tells him, "What are you talking about? I missed." Shortly afterward, he has to accompany Alex to the restroom, where the kid annoys him further with his stalling, and then accuses him of being a creep when he tells him, "I don't trust you. You'll look." That night, as they stay at Karnak, Lock-Nah tells Alex, "When the time comes, I shall truly enjoy killing you," and Alex, in turn, tells him, "But until that time, you better be a little nicer to me. Now, where's my water?" Lock-Nah shoves a container of water into his arms and stomps off, stopping to seethe when Alex comments, "No ice?" By the time they reach the oasis, Hafez decides they only need the bracelet rather than Alex himself, and he gives Lock-Nah permission to kill him. Lock-Nah, even in the midst of the attack by pygmy mummies, attempts to carry it out with pleasure, but Rick and Bay intervene. Lock-Nah, who'd killed Bay's falcon, Horus, earlier, crosses swords with him again, and this time, Bay manages to kill him.

At the beginning of the movie, three thieves, Red (Bruce Byron), Spivey (Tom Fisher), and Jacques (Joe Dixon), show up at the temple in Thebes which Rick and Evy are exploring. Looking for something, Red has the other two search the O'Connells' stuff to see if it's there, while he goes to deal with Rick and Evy himself. In this opening scene, you get a sense of their personalities, with Red being the intelligent and ruthless leader, while Spivey is rather dim-witted and Jacques, while

smarter, is extremely superstitious, believing that the temple is cursed and that they mustn't anger the gods. It turns out that Jacques sees curses in just about everything and everyplace, although he isn't wrong when he fears the chest that housed the Book of the Dead. In any case, after Alex messes with them for a bit, hitting Spivey with his slingshot, which Jacques initially thinks is the work of an angry god, he realizes what's going on and nearly corners and kills the kid. However, the three of them have to flee when the place is flooded by

an ancient booby-trap. You soon learn that they were hired by the cultists to retrieve the Bracelet of Anubis, and when they arrive at the excavation site of Hamunaptra and tell them they didn't get it, it results in a standoff, as they, Lock-Nah, and another cultist point guns at each other. Though Red offers to go to London to get the bracelet, Hafez instead sends them on another errand, namely to fetch the cursed chest. Knowing of the fate that befell the American team after they found it in the first movie, Red doubles their fee for retrieving it, much to Hafez's irritation. However, Meela comes up with a way to get rid of them, by tricking them into opening it so Imhotep can feed on them.

Since he was still best known for wrestling at the time, The Mummy Returns was highly touted as Dwayne Johnson's first feature film appearance, and it might've been a big factor as to why it became another huge hit. Of course, his character, the Scorpion King, would go on to have his own series of films (the first of which I remember seeing a preview for on my VHS copy of Jurassic Park III), and while I'm guessing he's a hero in those films, here, he's depicted as having been a megalomaniac who attempted to conquer the known world in 3067 B.C. But after seven years of battle, he and his army were defeated and banished to the desert of Ahm Shere, where they each succumbed to the blistering heat and dehydration. When he himself was the only one left and at death's door, he asked Anubis to spare his life and give him the power to crush his enemies in exchange for his soul. Anubis obliged and, thus, with the god's very army at his disposal, the Scorpion King was able to conquer all of Egypt. But once he'd accomplished his goal, Anubis came to collect and took his soul, sending his army back to the underworld. In essence, the Scorpion King became what Imhotep was in the first movie: an undead force of evil that, if ever awakened, could destroy the world with the Army of Anubis. Of course, the movie's main story is set in the Year of the Scorpion, when he can be awakened, and the cultists revive Imhotep so he can defeat the Scorpion King so they can rule the world with the army. And when Alex puts on the Bracelet of Anubis, once worn by the Scorpion King himself, he sets in motion his awakening, which will occur a week afterward.

I don't know if it was because Stephen Sommers was rushed by the studio to come up with something for a sequel, or if he never even planned to do one in the first place, but there's no getting around the fact that The Mummy Returns is not as polished in its storytelling as the first one. I would never, ever call Sommers a master screenwriter anyway, and you can certainly poke holes in the first movie, especially when it comes to its historical accuracy, but it told a fairly tight and concise story; you can't say about The Mummy

Returns. Not only does Imhotep's reintroduction feel rushed and he never comes across as the threat he was before, but there are so many aspects of the story that are either contrived, underdeveloped, or don't make sense when you think about them. For example, I've never understood everything concerning the awakening of the Scorpion King. When Rick and Evy are talking about it, Evy says the Scorpion King only awakens once every 5,000 years, which is followed by Rick pointing out that it happens to be the Year of the Scorpion,

something that Baltus Hafez relates to Imhotep. So, it seems like this is all happening because it's the year when the Scorpion King will arise and need someone to defeat him. But then, after Alex puts on the Bracelet of Anubis, Ardeth Bay says that, as a result, the Scorpion King will rise within seven days, something the cultists and Imhotep are also aware of. So, would this have happened even if this hadn't been the Year of the Scorpion? What's more, why does this bracelet, which was worn by the 

Scorpion King himself, now point the way to Ahm Shere, supposedly so the wearer can go there and challenge him? Does Anubis want that? If he's had the Scorpion King's soul for thousands of years, why would he care? But, most of all, why would there be murals in the Scorpion King's own temple depicting that the Scepter of Osiris is what can kill him (I've heard that, on the audio commentary, Sommers himself admits that that's ridiculous)? And let's also not forget how it's awfully convenient that Jonathan happens to have the scepter as the last part of his squandered fortune from the end of the first movie.

Also, I'm not entirely sold on the reincarnation subplots that permeate the movie, such as the character of Meela Nais being the reincarnation of Anck-su-namun. Where was she when Imhotep attempted to resurrect Anck-su-namun's soul in the previous movie, and when did she suddenly realize who she is? If she's initially just Anck-su-namun physically, how does she know about her supposed true identity, and what would've happened to her had Imhotep succeeded in the first movie? Why is she so ruthless and eager to be with Imhotep if

she's not truly Anck-su-namun yet (I guess she just has a strong desire for power)? And when Anck-su-namun's soul does return to her, do her current soul and personality disappear, or did they merge, kind of like what happens at the end of the movie with Evy? Speaking of Evy, I thought it was interesting how, in the first movie, they hint at her perhaps being Anck-su-namun's reincarnation, following in the tradition of the original movies of the 30's and 40's, only to then reveal that Imhotep has actually decided to sacrifice her in order to

revive his beloved. But here, they not only do go with the reincarnation angle with her, but they happen to make her that of Nefertiri, Seti I's daughter and rival to Anck-su-namun. That feels particularly contrived to me, and seems to only be an excuse for the resurrected Anck-su-namun to target her, and to give her a fighting chance because of Nefertiri's fighting skills, when Evy could've easily learned how to fight thanks to Rick. Also, there doesn't seem to be much of any point to

her past memories beginning to reawaken as soon as it becomes the Year of the Scorpion, and I feel the same way about Rick possibly being a descended Medjai and Ardeth Bay insisting that, when taken into account with Evy's past life and Alex being the way to reach Ahm Shere, it was all preordained. I liked it better when it was just a bunch of ordinary people caught up in bizarre circumstances.

Like I said before, the cultists have no obvious motivation for unearthing and resurrecting Imhotep to fight the Scorpion King and gain control of the Army of Anubis aside from their just being typical, mustache-twirling villains who want to rule the world. Not to dump on them, but the villains in James Bond and Indiana Jones movies often have more to what they want than these guys. Hell, not only did we get a reason for Dr. Bey's double life in the previous movie but, going all the way back to The Mummy's Hand, we get some backstory on the

main villain of Andoheb, who's a museum curator but also a High Priest of Karnak and must look after Kharis and give him the strength to punish anyone who enters Princess Ananka's tomb. Baltus Hafez? He's the curator of the British Museum, but also the leader of this cult... and that's it. And finally, while this is nitpicky, I have to mention how this movie takes place in 1933, seven years after the main events of the first, and yet Alex is said to be eight years old. Since Rick and Evy

didn't even meet until 1926, at the minimum, this should be set in either 1934 or '35. Sommers said he set the film nearly ten years after the first so he wouldn't have to deal with Rick and Evy's child being a baby or really young, but you'd think he could keep track of his own chronology.

The humor in this film feels much more lowbrow and even cartoonish at points, as opposed to the first film's wry, more tongue-in-cheek tone, wherein Jonathan provided the goofier moments. Some of it has to do with Alex and his antics, like his popping Spivey with a slingshot and making Jacques think it's the temple's curse at work, and his acting bratty towards the bad guys, particularly Lock-Nah, whom he annoys to no end. The most lowbrow the humor gets is when, on the train, Alex goes to the restroom and finds it to be really

disgusting. He finds some papers hanging on the wall, to which he comments, "Hey, reading material!", and when he opens the toilet, he exclaims, "Oh, my God! Does anyone around here know how to flush a toilet?!" (Thankfully, we don't see what prompted him to say that.) He even goes as far as to accuse Lock-Nah of being a pervert who'll watch him as he relieves himself, making him wait outside. Save for Beni, in the first movie, the villains were never made into figures of fun, but that's not quite the case here. While Imhotep

(despite his more charismatic and delightfully evil moments), Meela Nais/Anck-su-namun, and the Scorpion King are played fairly straight (although, the terrible CGI of the latter's monstrous form is definitely laughable, but we'll get to that), Lock-Nah, again, becomes a foil for Alex, Baltus Hafez proves himself to be a simpering coward during the third act, many of the mooks are made out to be poor schmucks who can't win during times of danger, and Red, Jacques, and Spivey have a bit of

a Three Stooges vibe about them, especially Spivey in how dumb he is; also, Jacques' tendency to see curses in just about everything is played up for humor. Finally, even the mummies are sometimes played for laughs. During the action sequence on the double-decker bus, Rick eye-pokes a mummified soldier he's fighting with and then flicks goo off his finger, and when the bus crashes into a low bridge, the soldier is shown splatted flat against it like in a cartoon. And while they are

shown to be a serious threat for the most part, the pygmy mummies in the Oasis of Ahm Shere also have their silly moments: they hop across the heads of some cultists sinking in quicksand (one goes out of his way to pound him all the way into it), another is freaked out by Jonathan's screaming and runs off, and two of them fight over a stick of dynamite Rick throws at them before they get blown to kingdom come. Not only that but, in general, they can be hard to take seriously, with how they're portrayed as these little buggers who run around while making high-pitched snarling and yelling that make them come off like a cross between ferocious chihuahuas and Ewoks.

The climax suffers from the issue that a lot of people have with that of The Phantom Menace, as it consists of several different battles going on at the same time. Granted, during the first film's climax, you had Rick fighting the mummified priests and then the soldiers, Evy having to fend off the resurrected Anck-su-namun, Jonathan trying to figure out how to read from the Book of Amun-Ra, and finally, Rick fending off Imhotep while Evy and Jonathan try to find the spell to kill him, but it all took place within the same, enormous chamber

in the catacombs of Hamunaptra and was closely connected. Here, you have Rick fighting Imhotep, and then the Scorpion King, Jonathan fighting Anck-su-namun before the resurrected Evy arrives to have her own battle with her, the Medjai battling the seemingly endless Army of Anubis in the desert near the oasis, and finally, the oasis and the pyramid sinking down into the underworld once the Scorpion King has been vanquished and the heroes have to escape, which is like Hamunaptra

sinking into the sand, only much bigger and more elaborate. The constant cutting back and forth between these big action setpieces really makes it hard to get invested in anything, and by the time the oasis and pyramid are disappearing around everyone, you're ready for it to be over.

Despite the problematic writing, what keeps the movie from being a complete bust is, one, the likable main cast and the actors' great performances, two, the exciting action sequences, and three, the gorgeous visuals. Like in the first movie, Sommers and cinematographer Adrian Biddle prove that they knew how to make a movie look very pleasing to the eye. Again, they take advantage of the Egyptian setting by bathing the exterior daytime scenes and the flashbacks to Ancient Egypt in a lovely, golden lighting and

color scheme, simulating the bright, scorching sun, and create some very nice moments that take place with a deep orange or even reddish sunset in the background of a great view of the landscape. This time, instead of going for the kind of surreal, bluish look to the exterior nighttime scenes, they're shot in a more naturalistic manner, notably during the section that takes place in London, but that doesn't make them any less appealing, especially when we're in Egypt. And while the movie never goes for the instances of mood that the first one did, there's

still a hint of it at the beginning, when Rick and Evy are exploring the dark catacombs under the temple in Thebes. Sommers also sometimes goes for moments of dramatic slow-motion during the action scenes, like when Ardeth Bay charges with his sword during the climactic battle between the Medjai and Anubis' army, and during Rick's battle with Imhotep, such as when does a flip in the middle of it. It's something that was a gimmick at that time, especially in the wake of stuff like The

Matrix, and while they come and go quickly enough, they are definitely noticeable. And I especially like how Sommers depicts Evy's first flashback to her past life, as it suddenly and smoothly transitions from the old, dank catacombs to the way it looked thousands of years ago when she swings her torch. Then, as she continues watching her vision, Rick walks into it from the left and it dissipates.

Like with the first movie, the locations meant to be Egypt were actually Morocco, as well as Jordan in some instances. Also like before, you get some lovely landscapes, many of which were either augmented or totally created through visual effects, like the sand-dunes of the desert of Ahm Shere in the opening, the exteriors of the temple in Thebes, the railroad station in Cairo, the site where Izzy's "Magic Carpet Airways" service is located, the ruins of Karnak, the temple on the island of Philae, and the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. And while

the first film was set entirely in Egypt, a big section of the first act here is set in London, using locations such as Mentmore Towers in Buckinghamshire for the exteriors of the O'Connell home, University College in London itself for the exteriors of the British Museum, and the Tower Bridge for the ending of the big action scene on the double-decker bus. And, like with the first movie, there's an exterior that's supposed to be in Egypt but was actually shot in England: the site where Hamunaptra once stood was actually Heath and Reach in Bedfordshire.

We get many more sets and work on the backlot this time around, with the first being the interiors of the temple in Thebes. Right inside is an enormous chamber containing a number of huge pillars and some wooden scaffolding, while down below are some dank, dark, cobweb-covered catacombs. One of the corridors leads to a room hidden behind a wall that's filled with the long decayed remains of numerous people, and with a secret panel in the back, activated by pulling a lever on the wall. This secret panel leads to another

door that, when opened by turning an ancient, star-shaped handle and lock in the correct way, opens up to reveal a room housing the chest which contains the Bracelet of Anubis. However, as Rick and Evy learn the hard way, removing the bracelet activates a major booby-trap, where water comes smashing through the walls and floods the catacombs. Thanks to Evy's visions, we get to see what this place looked like back in Ancient Egypt, which is a prelude to later on, when both she and

Meela Nais remember their past lives. During this sequence, we get to see Seti I's elegant throne-room, where Nefertiri and Anck-su-namun spar against each other, as spectators seated around the throne watch. We also see some equally lovely balconies, both one which Nefertiri stands on and that of Seti's palace when she sees Imhotep and Anck-su-namun's tryst, and the courtyard when Nefertiri calls the Medjai to action. And at one point, Meela has a vision of the entire city in ancient times, which is quite lovely to look at.

During the section that takes place in London, we see that the O'Connells have done very well for themselves, no doubt thanks to the stolen treasures they rode off with at the end of the first movie. They have an enormous, posh house just outside the city which, although we don't get to see a lot of it, has all the luxuries one could ask for, and also seems full of many artifacts they've collected during their travels. Imhotep's resurrection takes place within the British Museum, which you don't see a lot of, as the resurrection itself takes place in

a big storage area in the back of the building. However, Rick and Ardeth Bay do get a nice surprise when they're sneaking in through an Egyptian display area and the Book of the Dead also resurrects some mummies there, along with Imhotep. Much of the following action sequence is set within the claustrophobic confines of a double-decker bus, sort of a prelude to a number of scenes that take place aboard the train Imhotep and the cultists use to travel through the desert. While

Imhotep, Meela, and Hafez get to stay in some very nice, luxurious cars, Lock-Nah and Alex get stuck in a very small one with a tiny little table separating their benches (considering that a number of the other cultists had to ride atop the train, though, they're not doing so bad). And when Alex goes to "use" the restroom, the place is absolutely disgusting, with some nasty-looking stains on the wall and, according to Alex, whoever used it last didn't flush.

The most significant location, naturally, and the setting for the third act is the Oasis of Ahm Shere, the resting place of the Scorpion King and the Army of Anubis. Leading up to it is a large canyon with a river running through it, where Imhotep attempts to down Izzy's dirigible with the wall of water he creates. From up above, the oasis looks quite beautiful and serene, but when the characters journey through it, they find it to be quite creepy, with a number of unsettling signs like skeletons in cages, skulls impaled on stakes, and even shrunken

heads. It also happens to be home to a race of small but very ferocious and deadly pygmy mummies, who make skilled use of the thick foliage covering much of the oasis and armed with sharp teeth and claws, poisonous blowdarts, and spears, as well as more physical strength than you would think. They manage to wipe out nearly all of the cultists, apart from Hafez, who gets away only because of his cowardice. Other hazards to be found here include quicksand pools and a log extending over an enormous chasm (a possible shout-out to King

Kong, especially when it's shattered by an explosion and many of the mummies plummet down to the depths). The centerpiece is the Scorpion King's golden pyramid, which has an enormous diamond sitting atop it and a large yard with Anubis-like statues leading up to it. Inside the pyramid is one chamber with a big, scorpion-shaped statue up against the wall which, when Hafez places the bracelet in its center, raises the Army of Anubis and restores the interiors to their

former glory. Another chamber starts with some stairs leading down to a large platform with the symbol of a scorpion on it, where Imhotep loses his powers, and this leads to another chamber, one filled with fire and made up of several platforms overlooking a chasm that leads to the underworld and is filled with thousands of souls ready to drag anybody down there. On one platform is an enormous gong that Imhotep bangs on to summon the Scorpion King, who emerges from behind a pair of gigantic, double-doors.

Like the first movie, there are some callbacks to the original Mummy movies of the 30's and 40's. The most blatant one is the scene where Imhotep awakens Anck-su-namun's soul by showing her a vision of Ancient Egypt that appears within some swirling mist in a pool, which is exactly how Imhotep does the same for Helen Grosvenor in the 1932 original. The cultists who resurrect Imhotep are akin to the High Priests of Karnak in the "Kharis" Mummy movies, with Hafez, again, being specifically akin to Andoheb in The Mummy's

Hand. And speaking of the name "Karnak," it's also used here, this time as that of the ruins which are part of the path to Ahm Shere. There are also callbacks to the previous movie, with Alex accidentally knocking over the pillars in the Thebes temple being akin to when Evy did the same to the bookshelves in the Cairo museum, Jacques almost reading the same inscription on the cursed chest that Dr. Chamberlain did, Rick's

consternation about having to deal with the mummified warriors again, the wall of water with Imhotep's face being this film's version of the sandstorm in the first, and Alex unable to identify one symbol in the Book of the Dead, namely the same one Jonathan got hung up on before.

Where it differs from the first movie is that the series' horror roots are starting to become more diluted, with them being almost totally gone in the third one. Some of it is still here, mind you, like some atmosphere in the opening scene, the mummies in the museum being brought back to life along with Imhotep, Imhotep feeding on the thieves when they're locked in a room with him, and moments such as people being eaten alive by the scarabs and the hordes of scorpions in the pyramid and Hafez's hand getting chewed almost

totally down to the bone. But, for the most part, the film leans far more into the action-adventure aspect of the first, while the supernatural aspects begin to feel more mystical and fantastical, rather than eerie or otherworldly.

Remember what I said in my review of the first movie, that, for a visual effects extravaganza, said effects were where it suffered the most? Well, The Mummy Returns is even worse in that regard. Like before, though, there are plenty of good visual effects to be found here, specifically in the creation and augmentation of the big, sweeping landscapes, conceived through really good matte paintings, miniatures, and compositing, and the realization of the huge battle sequences with the Scorpion King's forces at the beginning of the movie, and between

the Medjai and the Army of Anubis during the climax, which effectively make it look as though you are watching enormous armies fighting to the death. What's more, the visions that the Bracelet of Anubis shows Alex are also very well done, as are Evy's visions of her past life as Nefertiri, and more subtle instances of Imhotep's powers, like when he lifts up Alex using his telekinesis. And there are some occasional well-done, practical creature and makeup effects, such as the mummies in the

museum that are resurrected along with Imhotep, the thieves' shriveled corpses, and the grisly sight of Hafez's chewed up hand (possibly the work of some unseen pygmy mummies). Unfortunately, the overabundance of bad CGI is something the movie is often, deservedly, called out for. As cool as the sandstorm with Imhotep's face was in the first movie, the tidal wave he conjures up here looks really bad, almost on the level of the CGI water in the notorious "paragliding" scene in Die Another

Day (in fact, you can tell that the water Imhotep is wading in before he creates the wave is digital as well). The same goes for stuff like the chasm leading to the underworld in the Scorpion King's pyramid, which doesn't even look totally finished to me, the creation of the oasis at the beginning of the movie, and both it and the pyramid disintegrating and getting sucked down in a whirlwind shape at the end. And there are many instances of really bad green screen work for the scenes with the characters standing and sitting in Izzy's dirigible, with the backgrounds and digital environments around them.

But it's the digital creatures where the effects fall the flattest. While it's cool that they felt confident enough to have the decayed, undead Imhotep interact more with real actors this time, he looks even faker here than he did in the first movie, so it's probably a good idea they sped up his rejuvenation. The mummified soldiers don't look much better, either, nor do the flesh-eating scarabs that appear at Hamunaptra and, like before, devour some poor souls alive and burrow through the flesh of others, exploding out of one guy's mouth. The

pygmy mummies that feature throughout much of the third act are horribly synthetic, and the same goes for the hordes of scorpions in the pyramid and the Anubis warriors who, just to make things worse, get really big close-ups whenever they're onscreen, allowing you revel in how fake they look. And finally, there's the infamous Scorpion King monster that appears during the climax. Years before I actually saw the movie, I'd read on the IMDB message boards that this effect was

considered bad even at the time, but it wasn't until I saw it on YouTube, possibly on a WatchMojo list, that I saw it for myself and, yikes! Now, to be fair, the people behind that effect were terribly rushed, finishing it only eight days before the movie opened, and admitted to Brendan Fraser himself before the opening that they wished they'd had more time, but there's still no getting around the fact that it is only a few notches above PS2 and Gamecube graphics of the time.

Like the first movie, this one begins thousands of years ago, in Ancient Egypt. In this case, it's the year 3067 B.C., as the Scorpion King's enormous army arrives outside the city of Thebes and faces off against its own army. Led by the man himself, the army charges at the other and a fierce battle breaks out when they come together. The Scorpion King himself proves to be a formidable opponent to those who attempt to take him on, easily beating, tossing, and slashing them. But, in the next cut,

we're seven years in the future, when the Scorpion King and his forces have been defeated and driven into the desert of Ahm Shere. There, the men all die one by one, until the Scorpion King himself is left. He falls to his knees atop a sand dune and, in his narration, Ardeth Bay tells us of his pact with Anubis, as he shouts up to the sky while raising his first. Anubis' acceptance of the pact is indicated by the sudden appearance of a large, black scorpion, which the King grabs and, ignoring its stings, bites

into it. As soon as he does, the lush Oasis of Ahm Shere sprouts up all around him. At first, he's shocked at what he sees, but when it's finished, the Scorpion King lets out a triumphant yell that transitions into a monstrous roar. Following that, we see him attack Thebes while commanding Anubis' army, which is a much more unsettling and apocalyptic sight, with dead people lying in the streets, the sky dark from thick smoke caused by the fires ravaging the place, women screaming, and parts of the city literally toppling over. Bay then

tells us, "When his task was done, Anubis forced the Scorpion King to serve him for all time," and we see Anubis appear behind the Scorpion King in the midst of the mayhem and force his soul out, with the Bracelet of Anubis dropping off his wrist and onto the ground. The warriors all disintegrate into dust, as Bay says, "His army was returned to the sands from whence they came, where they wait, silently, to be awakened once again." With that, the film transitions to Thebes in the year 1933.

Inside a temple there, Rick O'Connell is introduced as he explores the dark tunnels and catacombs beneath it. Getting past a large spiderweb obscuring the entire width of a passageway, he cautiously makes his way down it, armed with a torch and a revolver. He checks an alcove on his left and then peeks around the corner up ahead, hearing eerie sounds around him. Seeing nothing, he turns back around and is startled to see someone looking at him. However, it turns out to only be his

eight-year old son, Alex, who falls back onto the floor with a big grin on his face (somehow, he was able to get up to his dad's height to surprise him, but I don't know how he did it). Helping his son up, Rick tries to tell him to wait back up in the temple, but Alex says he saw the symbol of the tattoo on his wrist on a wall up there. More confused than anything else, he sends Alex back up, saying he'll be up to take a look at it soon. He then joins Evy farther down in the catacombs, where she kicks

away a potentially dangerous snake, which flies right past Rick (said snake was clearly a King snake, which isn't venomous). They prepare to make their way through a wall, only for Evy to offer Rick a very tiny pick and chisel to work with. He looks at them and then her incredulously, and she opts to give him a crowbar instead. He uses it to knock down the section of wall, revealing a room containing the ancient remains of a number of people, and a floor that's infested with throngs of

scorpions and tarantulas. As they make their way through it, Evy mentions her dream and how she's been unable to stop thinking about the tomb since then. She also mentions feeling like she's been there before, and proves Rick's skepticism wrong when she knows to pull a lever and open a panel in the wall behind them. Outside, three men arrive on horseback, while inside the temple, Alex does what his father suggested and attempts to create a mousetrap, even putting a slice of cheese atop it. Hearing the sound of approaching voices, and

seeing shadows in the hallway leading from the entrance, he grabs his bag, and climbs and hides up on some scaffolding. The three men walk inside, and Red, gun in hand, goes to deal with Rick and Evy, leaving Spivey and Jacques to search their stuff for what they're looking for. Back down below, Rick and Evy head into a room at the end of a corridor, when Evy suddenly has a vision of what the place looked like when it was in use, thousands of years ago. She watches as someone exits through a large door ahead, housing a room where

two, large men stand guard over a chest sitting on a podium. The door is then closed and Evy watches as the person seals it using a star-shaped lock. Rick then steps in front of her, ending the vision. She tries to bring it back by swiping her torch back and forth in front of her, which is when it materialized: this perplexes Rick, as he comments, "You know, if you move that fast enough, you can almost write your name." Evy tells him about her vision and, when he asks if it means she can show him how to open the door, she does exactly that with the star-shaped lock. This creeps Rick out and Evy admits she's starting to scare herself.

Up in the temple, Alex pops Spivey in the side of the head with his slingshot, while Jacques tells him to be quiet, saying, "We don't want to wake the gods." Red follows Rick and Evy's path through the catacombs, stepping into the one room and getting freaked out by the bugs crawling all over his boots, while Evy finds a plate with the emblem of the supposedly mythic Scorpion King. She then opens the chest below it, despite Rick warning her that it might not be a good idea. Up above, Alex

pops Spivey again, this time on the butt, and accidentally lets out a giggle, which Jacques hears. Down below, Red watches from the doorway as Rick and Evy attempt to pry open the chest with the crowbar. Spying a small medallion that turns out to be a key to it, Rick hands it to Evy and she uses it to unlock the chest. She opens it to find the Bracelet of Anubis inside. Back in the temple, Alex fires another shot, only for Jacques to swing around, catch the projectile, and crush it in his

hand. He heads towards the scaffolding to deal with the kid, while down below, Red prepares to shoot Rick and Evy. Suddenly, the place starts shaking violently, with dust and sand falling from the ceiling. Evy places the bracelet back inside the chest and closes it, preparing to take it with them, while Red gets out of there. They then stop to read the inscription on the chest: "He who disturbs this bracelet shall drink from the Nile." Evy doesn't think it sounds so bad, but when they try to leave,

they see what it means when a huge torrent of water breaks through the wall and rushes towards them. They run down an alternate passageway, while up in the temple, Jacques climbs up the scaffolding towards the trapped Alex, carrying his knife in his mouth. Just as he reaches the top, Red comes running and tells them they need to get out. Spivey joins him in escape and Jacques slides down the ladder, but kicks one of its supports out from under it before leaving Alex to his fate. Down in the catacombs, Rick and Evy try to outrun the

water, only to find a dead end. With no way to go, they grab onto each other, as the water rushes over them, while up above, the scaffolding collapses and Alex jumps onto a nearby pillar. He pushes it over, starting a domino effect where one falls into the other, until almost all collapse around him, to which he says, "Whoa." Rick and Evy's tunnel fills up with water, until they're almost being pushed up against some grating on the ceiling, while Alex sees that the one pillar that didn't fall is listing

towards the wall across from it. He runs in front of it and actually tries to push it back but, of course, that's not happening. It falls towards the very section of wall with the symbol of Rick's tattoo on it and smashes it open, sending Alex running. The water comes flooding through and washes Rick and Evy out of the tunnel and to safety, right in front of Alex. Thinking he's in trouble, he tells them, "Mom, Dad, I can explain everything."

At the site where Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, once stood, a large digging operation is being overseen by the cultists, as they're introduced. The three thieves arrive at the site, but just as Baltus Hafez asks if they got the bracelet, the ground suddenly shakes violently. After several moments of silence, a muffled rumbling sound fills the air, and a section of earth at the center of one of the large, digging pits rises up in a mound-like shape, the sand cascading over itself. An enormous

horde of Imhotep's tell-tale, flesh-eating scarabs bursts through and those who'd foolishly gathered around the mound try to climb out of the pit. Naturally, though, many of them fall prey to the ravenous insects. In the midst of all this chaos, Meela Nais comments, "We're getting very close." Wielding flamethrowers (the exact type used in John Carpenter's The Thing, I might add), the cultists manage to destroy the scarabs. At another pit, there's sudden excitement, as the cultists realize they've found Imhotep. A structure made of a

strange resin is lowered to the ground there, and Hafez, Meela, and Lock-Nah approach the structure, knowing Imhotep is locked within it. They then prepare to raise his soldiers, when they learn that the thieves failed to acquire the bracelet and that it's on its way to London. Hafez sends them on another assignment, while he and the other cultists prepare to head to London themselves. Unbeknownst to them, they have a stranger in their midst: a disguised Ardeth Bay.

The O'Connells arrive home in London, and while Rick and Evy discuss going to find the Oasis of Ahm Shere, a pair of cars, driven by and housing the cultists, appear outside. Inside, Alex puts the chest containing the bracelet on a small table, complaining about its weight. When he turns around, he hears a strange sound emit from it, attracting his attention. While, upstairs, Rick notes how Evy's strange dream coincided with the Egyptian New Year, and that it happens to be the

Year of the Scorpion, Alex opens the chest and is amazed when he sees the bracelet. He lifts it out of the chest and snaps it onto his wrist, only to be taken aback when a huge, holographic vision emits from it, starting with the Great Pyramids of Giza and then traveling crazily across the landscape to the ruins of Karnak. It then disappears and Alex struggles to remove the bracelet. Upstairs, Rick and Evy see a sign that they have an uninvited house-guest, namely Jonathan. Evy goes down to 

see to Alex, who puts something in the chest in place of the bracelet; elsewhere in the house, Jonathan is showing a lovely showgirl around, talking about how he killed Imhotep and stole his riches. But, when they walk into one room, they're suddenly confronted by the cultists. They force the girl out and plop Jonathan down in a chair, as Hafez, mistaking him for Rick, questions him about the bracelet. Jonathan tells him the truth, at first, but when one of the cultists puts a blade to his

throat, he plays along with being Rick and claims to have lost the bracelet in a card game. Hafez is then shocked when he sees the golden scepter Jonathan is holding and takes it from him. Meela enters, carrying a small basket, and while Jonathan, initially, attempts to flirt with her, that changes when she pulls a menacing, black snake out of the basket. When she tells him it's a deadly Egyptian asp, he babbles about the bracelet being in a safe downstairs, and makes up a number for it. However, he turns out to be very wrong when he

thought doing so would save his life, as she approaches him with the snake. Just as it's about to bite him, Rick walks in and is quite surprised by what he finds. Seeing Jonathan, he comments, "I thought I said no more wild parties," and Jonathan says, "Well, when you're popular..." Downstairs, Evy searches Alex for the key to the chest, which he says he can't find. Suddenly, they're confronted by Lock-Nah, who demands the chest. Evy pulls out a sword to her right and tells him to get out, while Alex picks up the chest and moves behind

her. Other cultists appear from behind Lock-Nah, who tells Evy, "Now, I will kill you, and take it anyway." But then, Ardeth Bay shows up, while upstairs, Rick tells those threatening Jonathan, "Knowing my brother-in-law, he probably deserves whatever you're about to do to him, but this is my house; I have certain rules about snakes and dismemberment."

Meela throws the asp at Rick, who actually manages to catch it and secure its head. She tells another cultist to shoot him but he throws the snake at the man and he falls back on the floor. Another cultist pulls out a knife and throws it, but Rick catches that, as well, and throws it back. The cultist manages to dodge it, but it does strike another standing behind him. Down below, Lock-Nah orders his men to attack, and Bay fends them off with his own sword, while Evy shows off some

surprising acrobatics, doing a cartwheel that whacks one thug under the chin and fends off some others with her sword. Bay manages to deal with two cultists at once, and as Alex watches his mother fight in amazement, he asks her where she learned to do it; Evy says she has no idea, but when one man pins her against the wall, only for her to knee him, kick him in the gut, and then punch him in the face, she tells Alex, "That I learned from your father." Upstairs, a cultist with a machine gun

comes into the study. Jonathan takes his scepter back from Hafez and runs for it, while Rick quickly runs and uses the chair he was in as a shield, before ducking into the bathroom. Back downstairs, Bay deals with more cultists, as Lock-Nah comments, "Not bad, for a Medjai," while Rick has to dodge more bullets as the cultist shoots through the bathroom door. Alex and another cultist get into a tug-o-war for the chest, which the boy loses. Bay then has to deal with Lock-Nah

himself, as Evy tells him that the chest contains the Bracelet of Anubis. Lock-Nah proves to be both a formidable swordsman and brawler, and Bay warns Evy to take the bracelet and escape. Alex does his part by pushing a bookcase onto one cultist, but just as Evy takes the chest, another one rushes in, blindsides and knocks her cold, and runs out with both her and the chest. When Bay is distracted, Lock-Nah manages to slice him across his right shoulder and knock him to the floor. As he goes to leave, he tries to finish Bay off by throwing a large,

serrated, shuriken-like weapon, but it misses him and sticks into the wall beside him. Upstairs, Rick finds Jonathan hiding in the bathtub, which is full of water and bubbles. He pulls him out, demanding to know what he did this time; Jonathan insists he hasn't screwed anybody over lately, when more shots blast through the door. The two of them run and jump through a window, landing and rolling off a canopy above the main door. They jump over the guardrail to avoid more shots and run around the corner of the house. Reaching the head of the

driveway, they see the cultists driving away, and Rick sees Evy through the back-window. He tries to run after the car, but he and Jonathan take cover behind a statue when the cultists' other car drives by, shooting at them. When they're gone, Alex comes running, but when Rick sees Bay, he becomes enraged and demands to know who those people were and why they took Evy. Bay shows him a photo of Hafez and, when Alex sees it, he tells them he's the curator of the British Museum.

On the way to the museum, Bay explains the cult's plan to resurrect Imhotep and have him defeat the Scorpion King, as well as that, now that Alex has activated the bracelet, he will rise in seven days. Arriving there, Rick tells Alex to stay and guard the car, which he knows is just a ploy to keep him out of danger; naturally, Jonathan also opts to stay with him. As Rick and Bay load up outside, Bay notices Rick's tattoo and says, "If I were to say to you, 'I am a stranger traveling from the East,

seeking that which is lost,'" to which Rick, without any hesitation, responds, "Then I would reply that, 'I am a stranger traveling from the West. It is I whom you seek.'" Bay tells Rick it's a sign that he's a Medjai, but he dismisses it. Inside the museum, the cultists are gathered around the resin housing Imhotep, bowing and chanting, while Evy is brought in on a slab. She awakens when they place her down, and sees Hafez among the cultists, reading an incantation from the Book of the Dead.

She then sees the structure and, realizing what it is, says, "They've found him." Upstairs, Rick and Bay enter through the Egyptian display area, when Hafez's chanting, "Rise up!", from the book causes a couple of mummies in there to awaken. Though it's startling, they're in no shape to pose any threat, and Rick and Bay move on. As lightning flashes above the museum, they find a spot overlooking the back area where the ceremony is taking place. The chanting and Hafez's reciting reach a fever pitch, when Imhotep's hand bursts through the top

of the resin. He quickly breaks his way out with a roar and is promptly restored by several stages. At first confused and angry, when Hafez tells him it's the Year of the Scorpion, he chuckles evilly. He's then introduced to Meela, who tells him she's the reincarnation of Anck-su-namun, something Evy recognizes as well. Imhotep tells Meela, "Only in body. But soon, I shall bring your soul back from the underworld, and our love shall once again be whole." After witnessing the whole thing from their vantage point, Rick tells Bay, "You know, a

couple of years ago, this would've seemed really strange to me." Lock-Nah and Hafez manage to open the chest with acid, but are surprised when they find only a little statue instead of the bracelet; Lock-Nah, however, says he has an idea where the bracelet is.

Meela tells Imhotep she has a surprise for him, which is when he sees Evy. Meela tells him that she figured he'd enjoy watching her die and, with a snap of her fingers, the cultists carry Evy over to a burning pyre. Imhotep tells her that the underworld is waiting for her, while Evy promises to stop him again. Just as they're about to throw her into the flames, Rick jumps through them from the other side, breaks the wooden slab with his weight, and grabs Evy, while Bay provides cover from another

level with a Tommy gun; some of the bullets going through Imhotep's body. Outside, Jonathan and Alex, hearing the gunfire, try to take cover in the car. Lock-Nah tosses Meela her own machine gun, while he whips out two revolvers, and they both fire back on Bay, forcing him to take cover. Rick cuts Evy free of her binds, then sends two cultists into the fire with a blast of his own rifle. Outside, Jonathan and Alex climb into the car, only for Jonathan to break the key in the ignition. Inside,

Bay runs while firing his Tommy gun down below, avoiding Lock-Nah's shots, and Rick adds in more of his own shots. Imhotep finally sees and recognizes Rick, and he, in turn, fires and hits him in the shoulder. He takes cover from some cultists firing on him, gives Evy a handgun, and the two of them open fire, while heading back for the stairway. Their shots hit some flammable liquids behind the cultists, lighting some of them up, and Bay provides more fire from up above. Seeing Rick and Evy escaping, Imhotep stomps past the

cultists and, chanting, "Collect your bones! Gather your limbs! Shake the earth from your flesh! Your Master is here!", he opens the urn they found with him. Sand spews out of it and forms into four mummified soldiers, to which Rick goes, "Oh, no. Not these guys again!" He, Evy, and Bay run for it, as Imhotep orders the soldiers to kill them. Like before, they let out a monstrous roar while stretching open their mouths; Jonathan and Alex hear this outside and abandon the car, the former frantically asking Alex, an eight-year old, what they're going to do.

Rick, Evy, and Bay run out of the museum, when Evy stops, goes back, and puts a bench in front of the door. Rick goes and grabs her, telling her, "These guys don't use doors." (I remembered that clip from an attraction at Universal Studios in Orlando.) They run to the car, only to find no sign of Jonathan or Alex. Then, the two of them show up in a double-decker bus. Rick demands to know what's wrong with his car, but decides to forget about it and climbs into the back. The soldiers

explode through the museum's wall and, much to Rick's chagrin, two of them jump onto his car's hood and crush it; he grumbles, "Oh, I hate mummies." He climbs to the bus' top level and fires on the soldiers as they run after them. Two of them stumble a bit when hit but, otherwise, they keep on running, with two jumping onto and scuttling along the buildings on the left side of the street; the other two follow suit, jumping and swinging across pillars on the opposite side. Rick

blasts one of them apart when he tries to swing towards him, but is unable to get a bead on the other. The other swings around and tries to enter through the passenger door, but Bay opens fire on him with his Tommy gun, blowing his legs off. The soldiers on the opposite side of the street jump onto the roof, and Rick fires up through it, while Jonathan tries to keep the bus steady as he drives. Just as Bay goes to reload, the animate torso of the soldier he blew in half swings in, knocks the gun out of his hands, and slams him back and forth.

The soldier comes at him by grabbing onto the overhead bars and poles, but Bay manages to punch him down onto the seat next to him. Up above, another soldier manages to tear open a hole in the roof and jump in, knocking Rick to the floor and causing him to lose his rifle. He crawls towards it but the soldier grabs him, pulls him back, and slams him up and down against the ceiling and floor. Below, the torso pulls himself up in front of Evy and Alex and produces sharp claws from the fingers on his right hand. He jumps at Bay, when Evy yells at Jonathan to turn. He makes a very sharp turn to the left, driving over a streetlamp and some railing, but manages to fling the torso against the window before he can attack Bay. 

While Rick continues fighting with the one soldier up above, punching him in the face while he has a hold of his throat, Jonathan finds himself going the wrong way down the street. A car dodges him and slams into the back of another parked on the side, sending Bay and the torso slamming against the window. The momentum flings Rick loose from the soldier's grip and he tries to go for his rifle. He flops forward and grabs the gun, only for the soldier to grab him again, causing him to lose his

grip on it. It slides out and lands on the hood outside the passenger door. Bay slams the torso down but he then slashes him across his shoulder, corners him, and prepares to finish him off, roaring ferociously. That's when Evy, having grabbed the rifle, blasts the torso, blowing him out the back window. She screams, "Look out!" at Jonathan, as he heads down a back alley, sending some homeless people fleeing. Up above, Rick punches the soldier in the face a couple of times, then gives

him two fingers right into his empty eye-sockets and pulls them out, flinging goop off them. After another punch, Rick sees what's coming up ahead and jumps down to the floor. The soldier turns and sees the bus heading right for a low bridge, and Rick shields himself as the entire roof gets sheared off, with the soldier getting smashed right into the bridge. Rick stands up, as Jonathan drives across the Tower Bridge and finally comes to a stop. (If you're wondering what became of the fourth soldier, he was supposed to attack Alex at this

point, but Stephen Sommers felt the sequence was going on longer than necessary and cut it.) There's a short lull, as everybody sees if they're alright, when Alex walks to the open passenger door, only to be grabbed by Lock-Nah and forced into a waiting car outside. Rick tries to chase after them as they drive off, but some other cultists who've infiltrated the bridge's control room raise it and then hop in the car. Rick runs even as the bridge raises up but, in the end, he's unable to save his son.

Back at the museum, as Imhotep and Meela plot to rule the world with the Army of Anubis, and he dismisses the fact that Jonathan has the Scepter of Osiris, the scene suddenly shifts to them back in the time of Ancient Egypt, as well as their guises then, as they're standing on a balcony of a lovely palace, overlooking Thebes. The two of them then kiss, and it shifts back to the present and the very nasty sight of Meela kissing the decaying corpse of Imhotep. After that, upon learning that they need to

reach the city of Karnak before them in order to save Alex, Rick notes, "Seems to me... it's like we need a 'magic carpet,'" referring to his old friend, Izzy's, stock and trade. The movie slows down for a bit, with Imhotep and the cultists departing from Cairo on a train. The next major scene is when, after Red doubles their payment for delivering the cursed chest, Meela leads them into a train car, telling them, "In here, gentlemen. You shall receive your just rewards." Red tells them they're not

giving up the chest until they're satisfied, and she says, "Oh, don't worry. There is much satisfaction to be had." Suddenly, there's an eerie sound and Red turns and looks to see a mist rising from a small table with candles ahead of them. Meela then closes the door and locks them inside. Right after Jacques says, "This place is cursed," and the others mock him for saying that about everything, Imhotep jumps down from the ceiling and rushes at them. While Spivey tries to open the door, Red and Jacques open fire on him, but their bullets, of

course, do nothing but pass through him harmlessly. Meela opens a small latch on the door from outside and tells Spivey that Imhotep wants him to open the chest. Panicking, he does so, and while they're distracted by the eerie mist that comes out of it, Imhotep disappears. While the other two cautiously walk forward, Spivey stays near the door, when Imhotep lowers down while attached to the ceiling. He quickly corners Spivey, jumps down, grabs him, and feeds on his vitals, partially regenerating himself. Red and Jacques open fire on him again but he just smiles at them evilly, knowing there's nothing they can do.

After Rick, Evy, and Jonathan manage to enlist Izzy's services, and Bay arrives after gathering together the heads of the Medjai tribes, the five of them lift off in the dirigible and travel into the night. The next day, on the train, Meela enters the one car to find the thieves' shriveled, drained corpses, and Imhotep fully rejuvenated. Meanwhile, Alex opts to go to the restroom, and after getting Lock-Nah to stand outside the door, he tries to rip the bars off the small window, but is

unable to budge them. Then, when he flushes the toilet in disgust, he sees that it leads down to the tracks. He rips the toilet loose and pushes it aside, completely exposing the hole below it. He pulls on the lever on the wall, signaling for the train to stop, which it does right in front of Karnak; as soon as they stop, Imhotep knows it's Alex's doing. The men who were riding on the train's roof fire at Alex as he runs off into the temple, but Imhotep stops them by using his power to raise up two of them

and slam them together, then fling them against the pillars across from the train. Alex runs deep into the temple until he feels he's lost them. But the bracelet then activates, showing the next destination on the journey to Ahm Shere. Imhotep appears and stops him from running away, as well as subtly admonishing him for it. That night, at the temple, Imhotep conjures up Meela's memories of her past life, and we get the flashback to where Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri show off their fighting skills in front of Seti I, Imhotep, and a

crowd of onlookers. Fighting with sai, they prove to be equally matched, with Nefertiri nearly besting Anck-su-namun with a choke-hold, only to get knocked back with a kick to the head and then floored with a leg-sweep. When Nefertiri briefly removes her mask, we see that she's Evy's past self, and that Evy is remembering this as well on the dirigible. Anck-su-namun tells her, "Put your mask on. Let's not scar that pretty face," but Nefertiri goes back at it unmasked. In their ensuing battle, Anck-su-namun manages to disarm her, but

Nefertiri cartwheels away and she jumps up onto a small ledge on the wall. Frustrated, Anck-su-namun tosses both of her sai at some statues (each hitting their respective statue in the crotch) and flips backwards. Nefertiri grabs a blade from the wall, while Anck-su-namun takes a spear from the opposite one, and both charge at each other, twirling their new weapons. They dodge and block each other very skillfully, with Anck-su-namun running two steps up the side of a pillar, bounding off it, and landing with a split on the floor. She

blocks Nefertiri's blade and, after some more sparing, she disarms her, flips her over onto her back, and pins her. She tells her, "You are learning quickly, Nefertiri. I'll have to watch my back," and Nefertiri says, "Yes... and I'll watch mine."

We then see the opening of the first movie play out from Nefertiri's point of view: Imhotep and Anck-su-namun's tryst, their murdering Seti, and, after Nefertiri alerts the Medjai, Anck-su-namun's suicide. As Evy remembers this, she gets so caught up in Seti's murder that she falls over the side of the dirigible and Rick has to leap over and grab her leg, with Jonathan and Bay grabbing onto him. At Karnak, Meela speaks as Anck-su-namun when she remembers telling Imhotep to get out and resurrect

her; she also mimes stabbing herself in the stomach. Imhotep then reads from the Book of the Dead and Anck-su-namun's soul emerges from the pool of water they've been sitting in front of and becomes one with Meela. Meanwhile, Evy realizes that her dreams and visions have been memories of her past life, and Bay tries to convince Rick that it's also proof he's a descended Medjai. Back at Karnak, Alex, who's chained to a stake in the ground, uses the water he had Lock-Nah fetch him to create some mud out of the sand at his feet and begins sculpting it.

Arriving at Karnak, the heroes find the train completely abandoned. At first, it looks as though all hope is lost, but when Evy investigates the ruins, she finds Alex's necktie, as well as the sandcastle he made, indicating that they've gone to Philae. They head there in the dirigible and find another sand sculpture under Alex's discarded coat, this one of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel. Each time, Bay sends his falcon, Horus, off with a message telling the Medjai where they are; elsewhere, Imhotep, Anck-su-namun, Alex, and the

cultists are traveling to Ahm Shere via camels. Horus flies over them to deliver one of his messages, and this doesn't go unnoticed by Lock-Nah. When the falcon arrives at his destination, a huge army of Medjai head out. Eventually, the dirigible arrives at a large canyon with a river running through it, but the group is unaware that they're being watched by Imhotep. Lock-Nah then catches Alex attempting to leave another sign for his parents on the riverbank and is about to severely punish him for it, when Imhotep stops

him. He tells Alex, "I hope your parents enjoyed their journey," then conjures up a massive tidal wave and sends it forward through the canyon. In the dirigible, the heroes begin to hear the sound of the wave, when Izzy turns around and sees it. He yells that they're in trouble, and everyone else turns around to see Imhotep's face appear within the water. Bay sends Horus away, while Rick tells Izzy to cut hard to the right. The face's mouth nearly engulfs them but Izzy activates the rockets on

either side of the dirigible and they blast out. The wave chases them through sharp corners and nearly gets them when it slams into a wall and blasts at them, soaking Izzy at the wheel. It grows calm for a few moments, when they reach the end of the canyon and come upon the breathtaking sight of Ahm Shere up ahead. Rick grabs a telescope and looks through it to spot the pyramid, with its sparkling diamond atop it, on the other side of the oasis. Suddenly, the wave rises back up behind 

them and Izzy, again, hits the thrusters. But, when they get clear of the canyon walls, the thrusters burn out and they stop in midair. Izzy comments, "Well, that's not good," as the wave catches them and they get caught up in the mouth. Miles back, Imhotep, thinking he's vanquished his enemies, emerges from the now very shallow river and cruelly pats Alex on the head as he walks by him.

Though they've crashed down in the oasis, everybody is unharmed; the dirigible and the balloon, however, are pretty much totaled. After being told to make the repairs as quickly as he can, Izzy argues with Rick about how he's supposed to do so, exclaiming, "You don't understand, goddammit! This thing was filled with gas! Not hot air, gas! I need gas to get this thing off the ground. Where am I gonna get gas from around here, huh?! Bananas?! Mangoes?! What, Tarzan's ass?! Well, maybe I could finagle it to take hot air, but do you

know how many cubic meters I'd need? It's too big!" Rick, however, assures him, "If anybody can fill this thing up with hot air, Izzy... it's you," giving him an encouraging slap on the arm. Before they head out into the oasis, Jonathan grabs the gold scepter and Bay sends Horus up with another message. But they don't get far before they hear a gunshot, as Lock-Nah kills Horus with a rifle. Realizing what's just happened, Bay is about to leave to personally alert the Medjai to where they are, but Rick convinces him to help them find Alex

first. Come nightfall, with a full moon up in the sky, the cultists make their way through the oasis, finding the grisly remains of past expeditions strewn throughout it. Unbeknownst to them, they're also being watched from the foliage. The heroes are perched on a nearby ledge, as Rick notes the eerie silence, while Jonathan finds some shrunken heads nearby and perplexes everyone by saying he wonders how they're made. He then picks up his rifle, and when Bay asks him if he's any good with

it, he boasts, "Three times Fox and Hound's grand champion, I'll have you know." He, in turn, asks if Bay is any good with his sword and Bay quickly pulls it out and puts it to his neck, saying, "We'll know soon enough. Because the only way to kill an Anubis warrior is by taking off its head." Rick gives Evy a quick refresher on how to use a rifle, before he and Bay head down into the midst of the oasis.

Led by Imhotep and Anck-su-namun, the cultists head through the oasis, towards the pyramid, still unaware that they're being watched from the thick foliage. Now that the pyramid is within sight, Lock-Nah, eager to kill Alex, asks Hafez if he may. Hafez, in turn, tells Imhotep that there's no need for Alex anymore, but he says they still need the bracelet, as it will release the Army of Anubis. With that, Hafez tells Lock-Nah to "retrieve" the bracelet from Alex, which he's more than willing to do. He turns and goes back through the foliage to

intercept Alex farther down the line. Suddenly, everyone stops, as first Imhotep and then the others sense something ominous around them, as a gust of wind blows through and lightning flashes. Rick and Bay, running through the jungle, sense it too, and Lock-Nah, pulling out his sword, tells his men to fan out and keep their eyes open; up on their ledge, as they prepare to defend them with their rifles, Evy tells Jonathan to make her proud and he promises to do so. Down below, Imhotep tells Anck-su-namun not to fear whatever it is, saying it

can't harm him. The cultists make their way through some very high grass, one of them approaching the base of a tree with what looks like a small idol sitting within it. He approaches it, armed with a torch and gun, as something begins attacking the others, yanking them down below the tall grass (reminds me of the scene in The Lost World: Jurassic Park with the Velociraptors). When he gets close, the "idol's" face lunge forward and it screeches at him. As he screams, it jams its 

hand into his chest. More and more of the cultists are yanked down through the grass, and they begin firing back at their attackers; hearing the gunshots, Rick and Bay rush to the site. Hafez and other cultists run, and see someone ahead of them get hit with poisonous blow-darts. Others fall from them as well, as the little pygmy mummies fully reveal themselves. A man carrying the Book of the Dead is brought down, but Anck-su-namun grabs it, while Imhotep uses his power to repel the pygmies.

The two of them continue on to the pyramid, while elsewhere, Lock-Nah finds Alex and approaches him with his sword, slashing at the grass and telling him, "The time has come, my little friend." He manages to escape the man holding him hostage and runs, just as Rick and Bay enter the fray and begin firing on the cultists, as more of them fall prey to the pygmies. Lock-Nah chases after Alex, who yells for his dad; Rick, in turn, yells back, when Evy saves him from two cultists who come at him from behind.

Lock-Nah chases Alex until he corners him against a palm tree and prepares to cut the bracelet off him. But, with Evy and Jonathan clearing a path for him, Rick runs in, grabs Alex in the nick of time, and runs off with him over his shoulder. Bay then crosses swords with Lock-Nah again, while Alex warns Rick of a pygmy chasing after them and he swings around and blasts him. Another one then leaps at them from a great distance but Rick blasts him as well. Bay and Lock-Nah battle in the midst of the ongoing massacre, with several cultists

falling into some quicksand. Hafez and the other fleeing cultists leave them to their fate, as the pygmies chasing them leap across their heads, with one taking the time to cruelly force them down into it by hopping on them. During the sword-fight, Bay manages to get some punches and even a kick to the face in at Lock-Nah. Though Lock-Nah is undeterred by this, the fight is settled immediately afterward, when Bay manages to fatally slice him across his midsection and then his neck. Lock-Nah falls to his knees, chuckling in disbelief up at Bay,

and then slumps over dead, a shocked expression on his face. Another cultist comes up to Bay's side and points his gun at him, but when a shot rings out, it's he who collapses. Bay realizes that Jonathan saved him and, nodding at him in thanks, he runs off to gather the Medjai. Jonathan and Evy then head to join up with Rick and Alex. Elsewhere, Hafez tries to convince two men running with him that they must sacrifice themselves for his sake. But when they hear the pygmies approaching, they decide, "To hell with

that," and continue running. They don't get far before a big horde of the pygmies run them down and slaughter them. Finally the family is reunited, but Alex tells his parents and Jonathan about how, if he doesn't reach the pyramid before the rising sun hits it, the bracelet will kill him. They then hear the pygmies coming and run for it again. The pygmies chase after them either on the ground or by swinging through the trees, and in their haste, Jonathan gets separated from the others and runs

into one of the cultists. The two of them run into a small burial ground and Jonathan babbles about how the pygmies won't cross these "sacred stones" on the edge of it. And then, one pygmy pole-vaults over them and onto the cultist when Jonathan ducks, stabbing him in the chest with a spear. Jonathan's screaming actually scares the pygmy away, and he tells the mortally-wounded man, "Sorry, my mistake," before running off. The others run across a fallen tree spanning across a very  

deep chasm,with Jonathan lagging behind and crossing it while, on the other side, Rick pulls out a stick of dynamite and lights it. When Jonathan's across, he tosses it at the pygmies as they start to cross. One of them grabs it, only for he and another to fight over it, leading to the challenger getting kicked off the log. Holding the dynamite, the one pygmy leads the others across the log, only for it to explode, blowing the tree in half and sending both halves and the pygmies plummeting down the chasm.

However, there's no time for the heroes to rest, as the sun is coming up over the horizon. Rick grabs Alex and the two of them run like crazy for the pyramid, with Rick having to pick up Alex and carry him in order to go faster. They literally outrun the sun, as it's right behind them as they run through the pyramid's yard, and Rick has to dive through the entrance in order to beat it. Once they've made it, the two of them lay there, with Rick out of breath. He says, "You know... it's not... easy being... a dad," but Alex assures him, "Yeah,

but you do it real good,"; Rick breathlessly says, "Thanks." The bracelet then detaches from Alex's wrist and he gladly tosses it away, before he and Rick embrace. Evy and Jonathan arrive outside, both relieved that they made it... when Anck-su-namun suddenly comes in and stabs Evy in the gut. Rick, hearing her grunt, looks up and, seeing what happened, screams, gets to his feet, and runs. Imhotep tosses Jonathan aside and, as Rick comes running, Anck-su-namun removes the knife and walks away, as Evy collapses to the ground. Alex

comes running as well, seeing Imhotep and Anck-su-namun enter the pyramid, the latter carrying the Book of the Dead and cruelly waving at him. Jonathan returns and, at Rick's urging, shields Alex from the sight, telling him that his mother will be fine. As Evy lies on the ground, a frantic Rick asks her what he can do; her answer is, "Take care of Alex." Then, with a shaky, "I love you," she dies, devastating Rick, who tearfully begs her to come back (Brendan Fraser plays this moment really

well), while Jonathan continues shielding Alex. Meanwhile, directly inside the pyramid, Hafez grabs the bracelet and goes to awaken Anubis' army, while elsewhere, Imhotep gets a shock when he's suddenly stripped of his powers, believing it's Anubis' will. Back outside, Rick tells Alex to stay with Jonathan, as he heads inside the pyramid to settle the score with Imhotep.

Hafez enters a dark chamber with scorpions and uses the bracelet to ward them off so he can reach the large statue of one on the wall across from him. Still wearing the bracelet, he sticks his arm in an opening in the center of the statue, which returns the interior of the room to its former, golden glory, and does the same to the outside corridor, which Rick walks down. A huge shadow of a scorpion appears outside and travels across the pyramid and then the desert, stopping where the Medjai have assembled. At the front of them, Bay motions for

them to stop, saying, "So it begins." Back at the pyramid, Alex realizes that the Book of the Dead can help his mother, while Rick enters the chamber where Hafez is, apparently unable to remove his hand from within the wall. Ignoring Hafez's claims that Imhotep will soon be unstoppable when he kills the Scorpion King, Rick grabs a large battleaxe from a statue. Suddenly, Hafez starts screaming in pain, and Rick turns around to see him pull out his hand, which has been eaten down to the bone. Elsewhere, Imhotep and Anck-su-

namun find the Scorpion King's chamber and Imhotep removes his robe, preparing for the battle. Though Anck-su-namun is unsure of his chances without his powers, Imhotep assures her that it is their destiny to come out victorious. She takes the Book of the Dead and the two of them kiss before he heads inside. Out in the desert, the shadow has changed into a huge, black mass, which then materializes into hundreds of Anubis warriors. Meanwhile, Jonathan finds Anck-su-namun and

challenges her to a fight, while Alex sneaks in and takes the Book of the Dead. Though Jonathan acts like he's about to pound her in revenge for Evy, she quickly scratches him across the face with her fingernails. Rick finds a different way into the Scorpion King's chamber, and sees Imhotep hitting a large gong to summon him. He makes his way towards him, jumping across a large fissure that leads down into the underworld, when a loud roar shakes the place, nearly knocking both him and

Imhotep off-balance. He lunges at Imhotep with his battleaxe, and while he blocks it with the gong mallet, both of the weapons get thrown down into the chasm in the struggle. Rick punches Imhotep in the face, but after he wipes away the blood, they circle each other, as he confidently says, "So, you wish to kill me? And then you would kill him and send his army back to the underworld. This I cannot allow."

Bay rides to the head of the Medjai army, as the Army of Anubis gathers across from them. While both armies prepare to battle, Rick and Imhotep engage in hand-to-hand combat, while Jonathan keeps getting hit by Anck-su-namum, and then, gets a sucker punch in, much to her shock. The war between the Medjai and the Anubis warriors begins, while Anck-su-namun takes a couple of sai from a nearby statue. Jonathan, with only the scepter to use as a weapon, tells Alex to hurry up with the book. He reads from it, sitting in front of

his mother, while Rick, despite getting kicked and flipped in midair, manages to clock Imhotep again and again. Out in the desert, Bay manages to successfully behead and kill one of the Anubis warriors by flinging his sword at him, while Rick and Imhotep grab blades of their own to continue their battle. Like with the fisticuffs, they match each other, though Imhotep, at one point, manages to balance himself on the floor with his weapon and kick Rick into a large torch behind him. Out in the desert, Bay rides through, beheading Anubis

warriors left and right, but falls off his horse when he has to duck to avoid one's blade when he flings it at him. Alex then gets stuck while reading the incantation in the book and asks his uncle for help. When Alex describes the unfamiliar symbol as a bird, Jonathan, who's still fighting and manages to disarm Anck-su-namun of one of her sai, excitedly tells him that he knows it as "Amenophus," all while trying to keep from getting stabbed. Alex then finishes the incantation, and there's a bright 

flashing in front of him. Meanwhile, Rick manages to cut Imhotep's weapon in half, though another rumbling roar throws them off-balance, and the desert battle continues. Anck-su-namun slices Jonathan across his chest and is about to finish him off, when Evy suddenly appears, grabs her arm, and asks, "Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?" She pushes her away and tells Jonathan to get Alex and go help Rick, as she pulls out her own pair of sai and prepares to fight Anck-su-

namun herself. Just as Rick and Imhotep reach a stalemate in their own fight, the large doors across from them open and the Scorpion King emerges in his gigantic half-man, half-scorpion form. The two of them forget about fighting each other and both go to face him instead. He looks back and forth at both of them, and decides to go for Imhotep first. Cornered, Imhotep bows to him, twice saying, "I am your servant!" This stops the Scorpion King, who sizes him up and says, "We shall see." Imhotep then points at Rick and says, "But he was sent yo kill you!" The Scorpion King turns to Rick and charges at him, as he desperately tries to defend himself and dodge the monster's incredibly sharp claws, which slices off the heads and torsos of some statues behind him.

After squaring off, Evy and Anck-su-namun begin their battle, acting even more ferociously than when they sparred back in Ancient Egypt (this whole fight is actually all Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez, without any stunt doubles). Anck-su-namun manages to pin Evy against the wall, commenting, "You have remembered the old ways," when Evy gives her a headbutt, knocking her back, and retorts, "That's a little something new," before charging at her again. She manages to overwhelm her in her fighting power, even slicing

her across the cheek. Knowing she's outmatched, Anck-su-namun runs for it and Evy gives chase. Clutching his eaten away hand, Hafez stumbles into the Scorpion King's chamber, when Rick comes running, with the monster right behind him. Rick runs by Hafez, who's grabbed by the Scorpion King and taken up to the ceiling. Hafez begs for Imhotep to save him but his lord betrays him and the Scorpion King rips him apart. Out on the desert, the Medjai actually manage to defeat all of the Anubis Warriors and begin celebrating their

victory. Bay, however, senses something and runs to the top of a dune, followed by them. They then see a seemingly endless number of warriors charging at them, to which Bay says, "God help us." Meanwhile, Rick, while hiding, finds a mural of a Medjai warrior with the same tattoo that he has on his wrist, as well as holding the scepter he recognizes as Jonathan's. He then sees other murals depicting the scepter being lengthened into a long spear and impaling the Scorpion King; he

comments, "Okay, now I'm a believer." Jonathan and Alex enter the chamber and Rick, hearing them call for him, runs out and frantically tries to explain to Jonathan that the scepter opens into a spear. But then, the Scorpion King appears on the wall and begins chasing Rick again, as well as freaking out Jonathan and Alex. 

While the Medjai prepare to meet the oncoming warriors, Evy and Anck-su-namun enter the chamber, just in time to see Rick get knocked across the platform by the Scorpion King. Evy calls for him and Rick, though ecstatic to see that she's back, still has to avoid getting snapped in half. Alex and Jonathan try to figure out how to open up the spear, while Imhotep spots that they have it. Evy goes to help Jonathan, only for Anck-su-namun to attack again, while Rick tries to fend the Scorpion King off with another spear he finds

Finally, they activate the Spear of Osiris and, with Evy's prompting, Jonathan throws it at the Scorpion King, only for Imhotep to catch it. While Rick knocks over a large torch, driving the Scorpion King back, Imhotep declares, "The Army of Anubis shall now be mine!", and tosses the spear. But before it can impale the Scorpion King, Rick jumps and grabs it in midair. He tumbles with it and, as he falls back across the chasm into the underworld, stabs it into the Scorpion King's torso

when he lunges at him. Imhotep yells in frustration at this, while Rick, yelling, "Go to hell, and take your friends with you!", finishes the Scorpion King off. His body literally explodes into black dust, and the same happens to the Army of Anubis, just as they're about to reach the Medjai. Once the dust clears, Bay and the Medjai, realizing what it means, let out victorious yells. A huge black cloud with a roaring face at the center of it appears out of the pyramid and engulfs much of the Oasis of Ahm Shere. The Medjai are able to see this from where they are, when the cloud is suddenly sucked back into the pyramid, sending a shock-wave throughout the oasis.

Inside, the ceiling begins to cave in, and both Rick and Imhotep are hanging onto the ledge overlooking the chasm that leads down into the underworld, with some of the thousands of damned souls there trying to pull them both down by the legs. Also, the pieces of ceiling that keep falling in threaten to cause them to lose their grip. Looking at Evy, and knowing what she's thinking, Rick yells at her to get out but she, of course, runs to his aid, despite the danger. She dodges dangerous pieces of falling stone all around her, jumps forward to avoid

getting hit, and grabs Rick's hand right after he nearly slips. She begins pulling him up and Imhotep, seeing them, yells at Anck-su-namun for her help. But, she opts to save herself and runs, leaving him stunned and heartbroken. Seeing Evy pull Rick to safety, and the two of them back against a pillar, Imhotep smiles at them sadly and allows himself to fall back into the underworld. Anck-su-namun doesn't get far in her scrambling to escape, falling into a mass of scorpions, which kill her almost instantly. Rick, Evy, Alex, and Jonathan

run up through the pyramid, seeing the oasis disappearing in a whirlwind-like vortex. After reaching the highest opening to the outside, they climb up along the side of the pyramid, to the very top. Reaching it offers no refuge, though, and it becomes clear that they're trapped. But just as they embrace and accept their fate, Izzy's dirigible suddenly appears behind them (reminds me of when Bishop arrives just in time to save Ripley and Newt in Aliens). He yells for them and then swings

in close enough for them to climb aboard. But while Alex and Evy get on flawlessly, Rick grabs onto the edge of the hull, while Jonathan grabs onto some nets on the side, only to lose his grip and fall, his foot getting snagged in the net. They rush to pull him up, but Jonathan's panic gives way to greed when he spies the diamond atop the pyramid and goes for it. Despite Rick calling him out on this, he goes for and manages to grab the diamond. As soon as he has it, Izzy sends a blast of hot air up into the balloon and they lift off. Jonathan then yells for them to pull him up and they do, with both him and Rick slamming onto the deck, and the dirigible exploding out of the mass of sand that swallows the oasis completely.

Once they realize they've made it, Izzy lets out an excited yell, then admonishes Rick for almost getting him killed, with Rick saying, "At least you didn't get shot." Evy gives Izzy some very appreciative kisses and, while Jonathan is ecstatic over his diamond, Izzy asks Rick, "O'Connell, who the hell you been messin' with this time, huh?" Rick answers, "Oh, you know, the usual: mummies, pygmies, big bugs." The dirigible then sets off for home, as Bay appears on horseback down below, bidding his friends farewell in Arabic

and making a friendly gesture to them. Evy asks Rick if he'd like to know what heaven looks like but answers, "Later," then kisses her passionately, much to Jonathan and Alex's disgust. Izzy notes the large diamond and tells Jonathan that half of that is his, saying, "You took my gold stick! I know you took my gold stick!" Jonathan says, "I swear on the head of my wife, I have no idea what you're talking about," and Izzy, incredulously, yells, "You ain't got a wife!" They continue arguing and the movie ends with the dirigible heading off into the sunset.

I've heard that the falling out between Stephen Sommers and original composer Jerry Goldsmith occurred after a London concert in 2000 where, before playing one of his tracks from The Mummy, Goldsmith called the movie, "A piece of shit." Unbeknownst to him, Sommers was in the audience, and that ended their professional relationship. To replace him, Sommers went with Alan Silvestri, who would go on to score his new two films as director. While I prefer Goldsmith's score, Silvestri's music here more than matches it. He manages to capture that same flavor of exotic adventure and romanticism, and incorporates that familiar Egyptian feel in his music, but does it in his own style. His music for the action and heroic moments come off like something you'd hear in an adventure movie from the 30's and 40's, and he manages to create his own spin on the love theme from the first one. I especially enjoy his more low-key, atmospheric music, wherein he incorporates the Egyptian motif, such as in the opening, when the Scorpion King first makes his pact with Anubis. And while he doesn't have as many horror or suspense sequences to score, he does well with what he's given, such as using this building and intense chorus of voices in the scene where the Medjai wait as the Anubis warriors charge at them. But I think my favorite part of the score is this awesome symphony that you first hear when the heroes are following the signs that Alex leaves for them, and which is used during the first part of the credits (which is an elaborate, expressionistic montage of the inside of ancient tombs, statues, and mummies). It's a beautiful, fun piece of music that is exactly what you want to hear during an exotic and fantastical adventure like this, with a catchy beat and awesome vocalizations. The only downside to the music is this song, Forever May Not Be Long Enough, performed by Live, which plays over much of the ending credits. Never cared for it, don't think it fits, and I forget it as soon as the movie's over.

If I were to sum up The Mummy Returns in one word, it certainly wouldn't be bad; it would be more along the lines of "rushed" or "shallow." It has a number of problems that have plagued summertime blockbuster movies since the 90's and early 2000's, such as underused and underdeveloped characters, not so great writing, a rather convoluted and sometimes contrived plot, and a lot of really bad CGI. Moreover, Imhotep doesn't have the same presence as before, the humor gets a bit lowbrow and childish at points, the climax is a bit overstuffed, and the horror elements that were quite present in the first aren't as strong here. But, that doesn't mean the movie is out-and-out terrible; in fact, I find myself having a rather good time with it. The characters and actors are just as likable and memorable as they were before, the new ones prove to be welcome additions, it's beautifully photographed, there are plenty of great and thrilling action scenes, a fair amount of visual effects that do look nice, a great music score, and, despite being over two hours long, it's never boring. If you haven't seen it in a while but remember it as being bad, I'd say give it another chance. It's not as awesome as the first but, for a fantastical action-adventure flick, you could do a whole lot worse.