Perpetuating ‘‘The Big Lie^
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it is Anck Su Namun who initially stabs the Pharaoh, triggering the events
culminating in her suicide and Imhotep’s burial alive.
Later, at Hamunaptra, the American party uncovers the box holding the
book containing the incantation that will bring Imhotep back from the dead. But
it is Evelyn whose curiosity leads her to steal it and unwittingly read aloud the
passages that bring Imhotep to life. “It’s just a book,” says Evie. “No harm ever
came from a book.” This statement proves astonishingly wrong when it is
discovered that not only has Imhotep been brought back, his curse will unleash a
variety of plagues upon the descendants of those who tormented him.
The film’s conclusion also casts Evie in an apparently feminist light,
for she eventually discovers and reads aloud the incantation from the Book of the
Dead that sends Imhotep back to the afterworld. A close look at the scene,
however, shows that Sommers is suggesting that Evelyn’s knowledge is of little
value without men to do the heavy work and get the Job done. Rick is
responsible for keeping Imhotep occupied, displaying a James Bondian
threshold of pain as he alternately mugs for the camera and discovers himself
flying across the funerary room as a result of Imhotep’s inhuman strength. It
falls upon Evelyn’s lowlife brother, Jonathan (John Hannah), to steal the key to
the Book of the Dead from Imhotep so his sister may find and read aloud the
words making the undead priest mortal and allow O’Connell to finish him off
With the help of the men, Evie has redeemed herself for unleashing Imhotep in
the first place. Thus, to paraphrase Fry, the invader is repelled and the female
saved so she may find her man and contribute to the continuation of the species,
thus affirming the traditional view of the female’s role in society Sommers’s
script pretends to downplay.
The Mummy became a surprise bonanza for Universal, which had
released the film before the summer “tentpole” season featuring each studio’s
major big-budget release began, in part because the studio brass were not certain
how the film would be received. The box office revenues surpassed expectations
to the degree that a sequel was hurried into production, once again relying on a
Sommers script leavened with a substantial dose of special effects technology.
One thing that had not changed, however, was Sommers’s depiction of his major
female characters.
The Mummy Returns is set ten years following the first film, with Rick
and Evie the happily married parents of a son, Alex (Freddie Boath), who shares
their archeological adventures with them. Evelyn has begun having dreams and
visions depicting herself in an earlier life as Nefertiri, a member of the
Pharaoh’s court. The film’s story revolves around attempts by Imhotep’s
contemporary followers to bring him back from the dead so he can seek and
subdue the Scorpion King (The Rock), thus taking over the world.
Once again Sommers writes his lead female characters, Evelyn and
Meela Nais, as women who appear at first glance to be equal to their male
counterparts, and once again Sommers’s script ultimately subverts these initially