Under-wraps: An Autopsy on The Mummy Returns

Alright, so picture this: it's 2001, Brendan Fraser is on top of the world, The Rock hasn't even made a single movie yet, and Universal tells Stephen Sommers they need a sequel... the DAY AFTER The Mummy opens. One day. That's how fast Hollywood moves when they smell money. Today we're breaking down The Mummy Returns - a movie that somehow launched The Rock's entire acting career, nearly killed Brendan Fraser (for real), and features some of the most hilariously bad CGI ever put on film. And honestly? I kind of love it anyway.

Let's get into it.

QUICK PLOT BREAKDOWN

It's 1933, seven years after the first movie. Rick and Evie are married now, living in a big fancy house in London, and they've got an eight-year-old son named Alex who's basically a tiny version of both of them - brave like his dad, nerdy about Egypt like his mom. The family digs up the Bracelet of Anubis from some ruins, Alex puts it on like an idiot (as kids do), and now it's stuck on his wrist. Turns out whoever wears it has seven days to reach this mystical oasis called Ahm Shere or they die when the sun hits them on the eighth day. Oh, and wearing it also shows him a supernatural GPS route to get there. Fun times.

Meanwhile, a cult resurrects Imhotep AGAIN because they want him to kill the Scorpion King - an ancient warrior who sold his soul to Anubis and is about to wake up with a whole army of jackal soldiers. Whoever kills the Scorpion King gets to control that army, which is exactly what the cult and Imhotep are after. Alex gets kidnapped because he's wearing the magic bracelet roadmap, Evie gets killed (temporarily), Rick has to fight through pygmy mummies, and the whole thing ends with a really rough-looking CGI scorpion monster and the oasis collapsing into the sand. Standard Tuesday for the O'Connells, honestly.

THE RUSH JOB

So here's the thing - Universal wanted this sequel so badly that Sommers was basically writing and developing while they were still counting opening weekend receipts. The first movie made $43 million opening weekend in 1999, and the studio was like "yeah, we're gonna need another one of those, thanks."Sommers had actually been thinking about a sequel during production of the first film, but now he had to actually make it happen. His solution? Jump forward 7 years so Rick and Evie could have a kid.

And his reason for the time jump is hilarious - he literally said he didn't want to work with a baby. Fair enough, man. Babies are unpredictable. The kid, Alex, was played by Freddie Boath, and here's a wild piece of trivia - this kid turned down an audition for Harry Potter to audition for The Mummy Returns instead because he loved the first movie so much. Imagine choosing to fight CGI scorpions over going to Hogwarts. Bold move.

RETURNING CHARACTERS VS NEW FACES

The returning crew:

• Brendan Fraser is back as Rick O'Connell, but he's evolved from reckless adventurer to protective family man. Still punches mummies, but now he's got dad energy.

• Rachel Weisz returns as Evie, and she gets WAY more to do this time - she's having past life visions, doing martial arts fights, literally dies and comes back. Her arc is wild.

• John Hannah is back as Jonathan, and Sommers specifically wanted him to have learned absolutely nothing from the first movie. He's still a greedy coward who stumbles into heroism, which is exactly why we love him.

• Arnold Vosloo returns as Imhotep, though he doesn't show up until 50 minutes into the film - before that he's just a voice and a digital model.

• Oded Fehr comes back as Ardeth Bay, leader of the Medjai, though his role is smaller this time around.

• Patricia Velasquez also returns as Anck-su-namun, but this time she's playing a reincarnation named Meela Nais who gradually remembers her past life. She gets that incredible fight scene with Evie and has a much more significant role than in the first film.

The new blood:

• Freddie Boath joins as Alex O'Connell, the kid who basically drives the whole plot by putting on the bracelet. This was his first and only feature film role - he'd do a few TV shows after this and then leave acting entirely by 2013. The kid actually consulted with cast and crew on details from the first movie because he was such a fan.

• Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson makes his film debut as the Scorpion King. Technically more of a bookend villain than a character - he's in the prologue, then gone until the CGI disaster finale. But that brief appearance launched an entire career and a spinoff franchise.

• Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje (who'd later play Mr. Eko on Lost) shows up as Lock-Nah, the cult's enforcer.

• Alun Armstrong plays Baltus Hafez, the museum curator secretly leading the cult. And Shaun Parkes plays Izzy, Rick's old pilot buddy who has an amazing grudge-filled dynamic with him and owns the dirigible they use to chase down Alex.

• Then you've got the three treasure hunters working with the cult - Red, Jacques, and Spivey. They're the guys Alex runs into at the pyramid in the beginning. Red is played by Bruce Byron, Jacques by Joe Dixon, and Spivey by Tom Fisher. They're basically comic relief henchmen who spend most of their screen time getting outsmarted by an eight-year-old. Not exactly criminal masterminds.

One notable absence: Beni from the first movie, obviously, since he got eaten by scarabs. But honestly, the ensemble works well - they found a good balance between nostalgia and fresh faces.

THE ROCK'S DISASTROUS DEBUT

Okay, we need to talk about The Rock. Or as the credits called him back then, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson - still rocking the wrestling name. This was his very first movie role ever, and the story behind filming it is absolutely insane. Stephen Sommers wasn't even a wrestling fan. He had no idea who this guy was when Universal suggested him. But once he saw footage of The Rock performing, he immediately knew the casting was perfect. Natural charisma, physically imposing - everything you'd want for an ancient warrior king. But here's where it gets rough. The Rock flew into Morocco on a Wednesday. Thursday was hair, makeup, and wardrobe. Friday was his only shooting day. ONE DAY. Because Saturday morning he had to fly from the Sahara desert to Detroit for a WWE event.

And on that single shooting day? He had severe food poisoning AND heat stroke. Sommers described him shivering under blankets between takes even though it was 110+ degrees outside. Every time he heard "background" he'd throw off the blankets, charge forward, do his scene, and then immediately go back to shaking under the covers. Absolute trooper. He made $500,000 for The Mummy Returns, but that performance landed him the Scorpion King spinoff where he got $5.5 million - a Guinness World Record for highest salary paid to a first-time lead actor. And look where he is now. The guy literally built an empire off that one food-poisoned day in the desert.

THE CGI DISASTER EVERYONE REMEMBERS

Alright, we gotta address the elephant in the room. Or should I say, the half-scorpion Rock in the room. The visual effects for the Scorpion King at the end of the movie were only completed EIGHT DAYS before the film's release. Eight. Days. For something that was supposed to be the climactic villain of your blockbuster sequel.

And it shows. The CGI Rock looks like he wandered out of a PS2 cutscene. The face is wrong, the movement is wrong, it's all wrong.

And here's why - The Rock's WWE schedule meant the VFX team couldn't get proper facial scans of him. They were basically working from limited reference material, trying to recreate his face digitally without the data they needed. But honestly? This has become part of the movie's charm. People watch it now and laugh at the Scorpion King reveal, but the movie still made $435 million worldwide - more than the original. Sometimes you can have bad effects and still win.

REAL EGYPTIAN LORE VS MOVIE NONSENSE

Look, I love these movies, but they absolutely butcher Egyptian mythology. Let's break down what they got right, what they got wrong, and what they just straight up invented:

• Anubis - mostly wrong:

The movie calls Anubis a "dark god" who commands armies of jackal warriors. In reality? Anubis was the protector of tombs and the god of mummification. He was actually one of the GOOD guys - he helped guide souls to the afterlife and presided over the weighing of hearts. He wasn't some war deity you'd sell your soul to for an army. That would be Set (or Seth), the god of chaos, disorder, and violence. The Scorpion King should've been praying to Set, not Anubis. Anubis was basically a supernatural funeral director, not a demon lord.

• The Bracelet of Anubis - completely made up:

Not a real thing. Doesn't exist in Egyptian mythology at all. The whole concept of a bracelet that shows you visions and kills you in seven days is pure Hollywood invention.

• The Book of the Dead - half right:

There WAS a Book of the Dead in ancient Egypt, but it wasn't a physical spellbook that raises mummies. It was actually a collection of funerary texts - spells and instructions written on papyrus and buried with the dead to help guide them through the underworld. Think of it like a tourist guide for the afterlife, not a necromancy manual.

• The Book of Amun-Ra - nope:

The golden book that sends mummies back to the afterlife? Completely fictional. Doesn't exist. Never did.

• Imhotep - real person, fake story:

Here's the wild part - Imhotep was a REAL historical figure. He was a famous architect, physician, and advisor to Pharaoh Djoser in the 27th century BC. He designed the Step Pyramid at Saqqara and was so respected that he was eventually deified - worshipped as a god of wisdom and medicine. He absolutely did NOT murder any pharaohs or get mummified alive for forbidden romance. The real Imhotep was basically the Leonardo da Vinci of ancient Egypt.

• The Scorpion King - sort of real:

There actually WAS a King Scorpion in Egyptian history - a ruler from the Protodynastic Period around 3200 BC, way before the pyramids. Archaeological evidence including the "Scorpion Tableau" confirms he existed. But he was a unifier of Egypt, not some warrior who sold his soul for an army. The movie borrows the name and absolutely nothing else.

• The sai weapons - wrong continent:

Those cool three-pronged weapons Nefertiri and Anck-su-namun fight with? Those are sai - and they're from Okinawa, Japan. They were developed from farming tools hundreds of years ago on the other side of the planet. Egyptians never used them. Someone in the props department just thought they looked cool.

• The scarab beetles - misunderstood:

Those terrifying flesh-eating scarabs that chase everyone? In reality, scarab beetles were sacred in Egypt and were... dung beetles. They rolled balls of poop. Egyptians associated this with the sun god Ra rolling the sun across the sky, so scarabs became symbols of rebirth and transformation. They definitely didn't strip people to the bone in seconds.

BRENDAN FRASER'S BODY PAID THE PRICE

This one hits different now that we know more about what Brendan Fraser went through during his career. The Mummy Returns absolutely wrecked his body.

During production, Fraser tore a spinal disc, cracked a rib, and messed up both his knees. These weren't minor injuries either - they caused him pain for YEARS after filming wrapped. It's part of why he stepped back from action movies.

And remember in the first movie where he gets hanged? He almost actually died during that scene. Rachel Weisz has talked about how the knot was too tight and he stopped breathing - they had to resuscitate him on set. The man was literally putting his life on the line for these movies. By the time Tomb of the Dragon Emperor rolled around, he was apparently in constant physical agony during filming but committed to the role anyway. The guy deserves so much more credit for what he put himself through.

EASTER EGGS AND HIDDEN DETAILS

• The stork callback:

When Alex is reading the Book of the Dead, he needs help translating a hieroglyph of a stork. Jonathan helps him out. Here's the thing - Jonathan needed help with the exact same symbol in the first movie. It's a little callback showing that despite the years, Jonathan hasn't learned anything. Which Sommers confirmed was intentional - he wanted to show that Jonathan had learned "absolutely nothing" from the first adventure.

• The Dr. Strangelove homage:

When the bridge explodes and the pygmies fall into the river, watch closely. One of them climbs on top of the falling debris and rides it down while waving his hand - it's a direct reference to the iconic bomb-riding scene from Dr. Strangelove. Blink and you'll miss it.

• The Rank Films tribute:

The scene where Imhotep is hitting a big gong? Bald guy, loincloth, giant gong - that's a direct reference to the opening logo of Rank Films, a classic British film company.

• Director's audio cameo:

At Izzy's place, there's a guy in a bathtub reading a newspaper, and you can hear him humming. That humming was actually done by director Stephen Sommers - they looped it over the scene. Contrary to popular belief though, Sommers isn't actually the guy in the tub, just his voice.

Anck-Su-Namun's costume detail:

In The Mummy Returns, reincarnated Anck-Su-Namun wears a shirt with sleeve details that mirror the body paint she wore in the first film - the same paint that got rubbed off during that infamous scene. Subtle costume callback.

ALTERNATE CASTINGS THAT ALMOST HAPPENED

Now, The Mummy Returns kept the core cast, but the original 1999 film almost looked completely different - and that casting would've obviously changed everything about the sequel.

• Tom Cruise as Rick O'Connell:

Tom Cruise was Universal's first choice for Rick in the original. He was at the very top of the wishlist. But he was completely consumed by Eyes Wide Shut - that Kubrick film started shooting in November 1996 and didn't wrap until June 1998. The scheduling just didn't work. And honestly? It's hard to imagine now. Fraser brought this specific mix of action hero charm and comedic timing that Cruise probably wouldn't have delivered the same way.

• Brad Pitt was also considered:

After Cruise passed, Brad Pitt was approached. He was coming off movies like The Devil's Own and Meet Joe Black at the time. But his commitment to Fight Club with David Fincher likely ruled him out.

• Evelyn was almost called Nefertiti:

In The Mummy Returns, Evie's past life was originally going to be named Nefertiti. But Sommers realized how silly that sounded when said out loud and changed it to Nefertiri. Small change, but probably the right call.

THINGS THAT GOT CUT

• Jonathan's casino:

Originally, Jonathan was supposed to own a casino that he bought with his share of the treasure from the first film. The opening battle where Evelyn gets kidnapped was going to take place there. But building a whole casino set for one or two scenes blew out the budget, so they moved the fight to Rick and Evelyn's house instead.

The fourth mummy:

In the British Museum scene, four mummy guards chase out, but only three get killed. The fourth was supposed to pop up and attack Alex after the bus stopped. But Sommers felt the audience had enough of the scene at that point and cut the extra moment.

The Scorpion King's followers scalped themselves:

In the novelization (and the original script), the Scorpion King has his followers scalp themselves as a sign of loyalty, and did so himself. A tiny remnant of this survives in the final film - when Imhotep slaps his head while declaring loyalty to the Scorpion King, he was originally supposed to be ripping his scalp off. Glad they toned that down.

BEHIND THE SCENES CHAOS

• The Tower Bridge incident:

They got permission to close Tower Bridge in London for 20 minutes to film the jumping scene. But the traffic jam got so bad that Scotland Yard threatened to arrest the entire film crew and reduced their filming time. Imagine getting arrested for making a mummy movie.

• The fight scene nobody wanted to do:

Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez trained for FIVE MONTHS just for their fight scene. Five months of martial arts training for one sequence. And they did the whole thing themselves - no stunt doubles. The characters are wearing masks for most of it, so they could've easily used doubles, but they wanted to do it themselves.

• Arnold Vosloo's daily routine:

To maintain Imhotep's completely hairless look, Arnold Vosloo had to shave his entire body twice a day during filming. Head to toe, every single day, twice. That's commitment to a role.

• The music drama:

Jerry Goldsmith, who did the iconic score for the first movie, was supposed to return. But he couldn't due to health issues and reportedly hated the first movie anyway. Alan Silvestri stepped in and didn't reuse any of Goldsmith's themes - he created an entirely new score.

THE LEGACY

The Mummy Returns became the fastest-selling DVD ever at the time of its release - 2 million units in the first week. And that was when DVD was still fighting with VHS for dominance. People WANTED to own this movie. It launched The Scorpion King spinoff series, which somehow spawned FIVE movies (most of them direct-to-video with different actors). It proved that Brendan Fraser could carry a franchise. And it introduced The Rock to moviegoing audiences in a way that changed his entire life trajectory.

And now, as of late 2025, there's reportedly a fourth Mummy movie in development with Fraser and Weisz coming back. Fraser himself has said the third movie (Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) was basically a standalone that he wants to ignore - they went to China just to tie into the Olympics that year. He considers the first two films the real story. So maybe we'll finally get the continuation fans have wanted for over two decades.

Look, The Mummy Returns isn't a perfect movie. The CGI Scorpion King is legitimately embarrassing. Some of the plot doesn't totally make sense. The timeline math with Alex's age is actually broken if you think about it too hard. And apparently ancient Egyptians used Japanese weapons while worshipping gods whose jobs they completely misunderstood. But it's got heart. It's got fun. It's got a cast that clearly loves being there. And it's got Brendan Fraser doing ridiculous stunts while slowly destroying his body for our entertainment.

Sometimes that's enough...