Film Plot Summary

In the opening, the Univeral Studios logo, an earthly globe, transformed into a hot burning sun above the pyramids in Egypt at Thebes. In voice-over, a narrator (Imhotep himself) introduced the setting and its three main characters: "Thebes, City of the Living, crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti the First, home of Imhotep, Pharaoh's high priest, keeper of the dead, birthplace of Anck-su-namun. Pharaoh's Mistress. No other man was allowed to touch her. But for their love, they were willing to risk life itself." Aristocratic, elderly ruling Pharaoh Seti I (Aharon Ipale) unexpectedly entered the temple of Osiris, where bald, muscular high-priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) was the "keeper of the dead." The Pharaoh's exclusive thong-wearing mistress Anck-su-namun (Patricia Velasquez), with netting over her almost-naked body, entered the temple where she passionately and lustfully embraced Imhotep, who grasped her arm and smeared her body paint. When Pharaoh Seti discovered and confronted his traitorous high priest who was engaged in an affair with her, she plunged a dagger into his back, and Imhotep finished the monarch off with a sword. As Pharaoh's bodyguards approached, Anck-su-namun told her lover: "You must go. Save yourself. Only you can resurrect me." As he was dragged away by his priests to the balcony, he promised: "You shall live again! I will resurrect you!" When the bodyguards reached her, she told them: "My body is no longer his temple!" and suicidally drove a dagger into her own midsection.

The narrator continued about how the dead mistress was resurrected during a secret ritualistic ceremony, but returned to the underworld when interrupted mid-way: "To resurrect Anck-su-namun, Imhotep and his priests broke into her crypt and stole her body. They raced deep into the desert, taking Anck-su-namun's corpse to Hamunaptra, City of the Dead [1290 BC], ancient burial site for the sons of pharaohs and resting place for the wealth of Egypt. For his love, Imhotep dared the gods' anger by going deep into the city where he took the black Book of the Dead from its holy resting place. Anck-su-namun's soul had been sent to the dark underworld, her vital organs removed and placed in five sacred canopic jars. Anck-su-namun's soul had come back from the dead. But Pharaoh's bodyguards had followed Imhotep and stopped him before the ritual could be completed."

As punishment for their sacrilege, "Imhotep's priests were condemned to be mummified alive. As for Imhotep, he was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai, the worst of all ancient curses, one so horrible it had never before been bestowed." Imhotep was forced to have his tongue excised, and then he was wrapped and mummified alive, and placed for burial in a coffin that was filled with swarming, flesh-eating scarab beetles. His sarcophagus was sealed, dropped in a pit, and covered with shovel-fuls of dirt - overseen by Medjai (descendants of Seti's palace body guards) who forbid his exhumation or release, threatening that his "undead" powers would cause him to unleash destruction upon the earth. "He was to remain sealed inside his sarcophagus, the undead for all of eternity. The Medjai would never allow him to be released, for he would arise a walking disease, a plague upon mankind, an unholy flesh eater with the strength of ages, power over the sands, and the glory of invincibility." Looking down upon his sarcophagus was the statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, the jackal-headed god of death.

Time lapse photography showed decay and the passage of many years to the year 1923. The narrator continued: "For 3,000 years, men and armies fought over this land, never knowing what evil lay beneath it, and for 3,000 years, we, the Medjai, the descendants of Pharaoh's sacred bodyguards, kept watch." A group of face-tattooed, black-robed medjai on horseback watched from a ridge, looking down at the hidden Egyptian ruins of Hamunaptra, where French foreign legionnaires fought against Arab warriors. One of the mercenaries who was fighting with the French was American legionnaire Richard "Rick" O'Connell (Brendan Fraser), accompanied by cowardly weasel-like French assistant Beni Gabor (Kevin J. O'Connor). They retreated from fierce gunfire into the interior of the ruins, and while Beni entered a door to hide, O'Connell was cornered by a group of riders with raised rifles, as he stood before the statue of Anubis. But suddenly, they were thrown to the ground and scared off, and he heard whispering voices and echoing shrieks. The sand shifted before his feet, forming an image of Imhotep's screaming face. The leader of the Medjai on the ridge, Ardeth Bay (Oded Fehr) exclaimed (in Arabic): "The Creature remains undiscovered," as he watched O'Connell, the only survivor (with Beni) of the battle, wander off into the desert: "The desert will kill him off."

In Cairo, Egypt, three years later in 1926, at the Museum of Antiquities, prim, bumbling Cairo librarian and aspiring Egyptologist, Evelyn "Evy" Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) was working in the stacks. Losing her balance on a ladder, she accidentally toppled all of the bookshelves like a stack of dominos, sending thousands of books and documents to the floor ("Oops!"). She was reprimanded by the exasperated Curator Dr. Terrence Bay (Erick Avari): "Compared to you, the other plagues were a joy!...You are a catastrophe." She reminded him that she was hired because she could read and write ancient Egyptian, and could decipher hieroglyphics and hieratic. He responded that she was hired because her mother and father were the "finest patrons" of the museum. When Evelyn heard a noise in the adjoining Ramesseum, a torch-lit area filled with treasures unearthed from the Middle Kingdom, she tentatively entered. She was startled by her prank-playing brother, boozing and inept Jonathan (John Hannah), who was hiding in an open coffin next to a mummy. "Have you no respect for the dead?" she scolded him. He presented her with what she called a "worthless trinket," a small box that he claimed he had unearthed on a dig in Thebes - it was the collapsed key used to lock Imhotep's sarcophagus (with a coffin inside). When she turned it in her hand, its slats opened or unfolded (the key to unlocking the sarcophagus), and inside was a folded piece of papyrus - a 3,000 year-old map with the royal seal of Seti I, the second Pharaoh of the 19th Dynasty - one of the wealthiest. It displayed a map of the mythical Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead, where the wealth of the pharoahs had been hidden in a big underground treasure chamber, and the legendary city was "protected by the curse of a mummy" although it had since vanished into the sand dunes. The Curator was skeptical: "Hamunaptra is a myth...It's all fairy tales and hokum." As the Curator looked at the map, it caught fire, and the 'lost city' part of the map was burned away.

Jonathan and Evelyn visited the Cairo prison where they met the warden (Omid Djalili) and were escorted to the jail cell of imprisoned Rick O'Connell. On the way, Jonathan admitted to his sister that he had actually pickpocketed the map "from a drunk at the local casbah," who was then jailed while "looking for a good time." Evelyn asked him about his stolen "puzzle box" - O'Connell claimed he found it at the fabled city of Hamunaptra: "I was there, Seti's place, City of the Dead," and offered to show them the legendary city's exact location if he was set free. As he was about to be executed by hanging in an open courtyard, Evelyn offered the warden 500 pounds to save his life, although the trap door was opened and he was hanged. However, his neck didn't break and he dangled there slowly strangling to death. She revealed that he knew the location of Hamunaptra and would give the corrupt warden 25% of their findings if he was cut down and released.

At the Giza port in Cairo, Evelyn and her brother met up with the "filthy scoundrel" O'Connell for their "adventure" to the ruins, navigating there on the Nile. They boarded a passenger barge, and noticed the warden boarding also, claiming to "protect my investment." Meanwhile, a group of Medjai rowed their skiff toward the Nile barge on a moonlit night - they were the secret group of members sworn to protect the lost city from the release of Imhotep. On board the vessel was another band of competing treasure-seekers, three American cowboys: Henderson (Stephen Dunham), Daniels (Corey Johnson), and Burns (Tuc Watkins), and their leader, famed Egyptologist Dr. Allen Chamberlain (Jonathan Hyde). Speaking to Evelyn who claimed she was looking for a book made of pure gold - the Book of Amun-Ra filled with secret incantations of the old kingdom, Rick suspected that at the end of their search, they would instead find "evil." He was prepared with a pack of revolvers, pistols, hunting knives, ammunition, and sticks of dynamite. He told her: "The Bedouin and the Tuaregs believe that Hamunaptra is cursed." Rick discovered his old cowardly "buddy" Beni hiding on deck -- he was guiding the Americans, and was to be paid half up-front, and the balance when they returned to Cairo. Beni noted Rick's motivation to return to Hamunaptra with Evelyn: "You always did have more balls than brains."

After tossing Beni overboard in spite, Rick noticed wet footprints on the deck. Evelyn was startled in her cabin by a threatening, hook-handed member of the Medjai, demanding the map and the key. Rick saved her and fired his pistols at other Medjai who had infiltrated onto the barge, claiming that he had the map memorized in his head. Flames swept through the barge after a lantern overturned in Evelyn's cabin, and eventually, all the passengers (even the Americans) evacuated overboard by diving into the river. Jonathan was able to snatch the lock/key before he jumped in. On the Nile River shore, Evelyn was distraught that all their equipment and her clothes were lost. The next day at a Bedouin trading post, Jonathan bartered for four camels, where Evelyn had been outfitted in a Bedouin costume with a veil. The four (including the warden) proceeded on their expedition into the Saharan desert, where they encountered the harsh sun, sandstorms, and the existence of the Medjai - who watched them from a distance (Ardeth Bay noted: "This one is strong"). At sunrise, the group of four arrived simultaneously near Hamunaptra with the appearance of Beni and the American group, and they raced toward their mutual destination to win the bet of $500 dollars for the first to get there. Evelyn and Rick were the first to steer their galloping camels into the ruins of the fabled city.

While the Americans were digging and excavating in one area of the city, Evelyn had a theory that they should look at the base of the Anubis statue: "Its legs go deep underground. According to Bembridge scholars, that's where we'll find a secret compartment containing the golden Book of Amun-Ra." She was planning on setting up a series of large reflective ancient mirrors along a crevice, explaining to Rick: "It's an ancient Egyptian trick." After rappeling down into the crevice, they found themselves in the 4,000 year old stench-filled Embalmer's Chamber. Evelyn brushed cobwebs away from a metal disk in the chamber, repositioned it so it would catch a ray of light from one of the outside mirrors, and discovered that the light bounced around the room's many disks - lighting the passageways of the "preparation room...for entering the afterlife." Jonathan commented simply: "This is where they made the mummies." In one of the passageways, they heard a skittering noise that sounded like bugs. Deeper inside, they located the legs of Anubis, where Evelyn claimed the "secret compartment" was hidden. A moaning sound alerted them to the presence of the larger American team - both teams cocked their guns in a stand-off, and claimed the statue. Evelyn hinted to Rick that there were other more important areas to dig.

In Imhotep's chamber, she instructed Rick as he used a sledgehammer on the ceiling: "According to these hieroglyphics, we're underneath the statue. We should come up right between his legs." The group talked about the gruesome process of mummification: the removal of the brain (through the nostrils) and other organs, and their placement in jars. Suddenly, a chunk of the ceiling dropped and crashed to the floor - Evelyn exclaimed: "It's a sarcophagus buried at the base of Anubis. He must have been someone of great importance. Or he did something very naughty." Hieroglyphics on the top of the sarcophagus identified it: "He That Shall Not Be Named." They also noticed the peculiar lock - and Evelyn deduced that the box with the opened slats was the key - it fit perfectly into the keyhole. Meanwhile, the warden had explored off on his own into another chamber, coming upon a wall covered with glittering, black amethyst ("blue gold") scarabs. He pried them away with his knife and was collecting them into his pouch. One fell on the sandy ground, transformed, and became activated as a wiggling, alive scarab beetle. It burrowed into his boot, climbed up his pants leg, and emerged as a burrowing lump under the skin of his fat belly. It crawled to his neck and then vanished into the interior of his head. His screams brought Evelyn and Rick to his side - crazed and holding his hands to his pained head, he ran by them and slammed his head straight into a rock wall - dead on impact.

At the same time, the Americans and the Egyptologist found the secret compartment inside Anubis, and ordered their Arabic diggers to open it. When the seal was broken, they were sprayed in the face with a melting substance and killed. The diggers' faces were "melted" - by "pressurized salt acid, some kind of ancient booby trap." Jonathan wondered whether the place was really "cursed." Suddenly, the Medjai rode into the two camps and attacked the explorers with guns and scimitars. During a pause in the fighting, Medjai leader Ardeth Bay warned: "Enough...We will shed no more blood, but you must leave. Leave this place or die. You have one day." The Americans sensed that there definitely was something being protected under the sand: "You know there's treasure down there." That night, a drunken Evelyn told Rick: "Egypt is in my blood. You see, my father was a very, very famous explorer and he loved Egypt so much he married my mother, who was an Egyptian and quite an adventurer herself." She stood up and further explained herself: "I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O'Connell, but I am proud of what I am...I am a librarian" - and then passed out.

The next day, the American team removed a large ornate chest from the secret compartment, and although the Egyptologist warned of a curse, the cowboys ignored him. He translated the inscription for them: "Death will come on swift wings to whomsoever opens this chest...There is one, the undead, who, if brought back to life, is bound by sacred law to consummate this curse...He will kill all who open this chest and assimilate their organs and fluids, and in so doing, he will regenerate and no longer be the undead, but a plague upon this Earth." Beni fled, fearing the "curse," as the chest was opened. It contained the Book of the Dead (with a key lock). Another lower compartment broke open and revealed jewel-encrusted canopic jars with Anck-su-namun's preserved organs. Each of the American cowboys took one of the "treasure" jars as loot.

Meanwhile, Evelyn, Jonathan, and Rick opened the lid of the coffin holding the remains of Imhotep, as Evelyn noted: "His sacred spells have been chiseled off. This man must have been condemned not only in this life but in the next." They were all surprised by the over 3,000 year-old mummified corpse inside, described as not entirely decomposed - a sinewy mess of decayed flesh and exposed musculature -- "juicy...still decomposing." Inside the coffin's cover were marks made by fingernails, Evelyn observed: "This man was buried alive." He had also left an inscribed message: "Death is only the beginning."

Now that the discoveries had been made, the two camps joined together. Evelyn suggested to the Egyptologist that she could open the Book of the Dead with a key. She also showed everyone scarab skeletons - "flesh eaters" found within Imhotep's coffin that "very slowly" ate him alive. Evelyn described the Hom-Dai Egyptian curse "reserved only for the most evil of blasphemers." It was never used because it was so highly feared: "If a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever arise, he would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt." That evening, Evelyn snatched the Book of the Dead from the arms of the sleeping Egyptologist, and returned to her camp with it. She claimed to Rick: "It's just a book. No harm ever came from reading a book." After unlocking it, she began reading, outloud, the ancient Egyptian text inside of it - "Amun Ra. Amun Dei." As she continued to read, the Imhotep corpse howled and growled - she had inadvertently and accidentally awakened the high priest in the underground chamber. The Egyptologist sat upright and screamed: "No, you must not read from the book." A huge swarm of locusts swirled into the camp - the first of the 10 plagues - and enveloped everyone, and they ran for cover inside the labyrinth of passageways. The Egyptologist rhetorically asked: "What have we done?" In the stampede for cover, Burns' glasses were knocked away and crushed, and he was left virtually sightless in the darkness. As he stumbled around, he saw a blurry figure and then screamed.

Chittering scarabs erupted from the ground and viciously scurried toward Evelyn, Rick, and Jonathan - but continued by them up a concrete pathway when they all lept out of the way. Evelyn leaned back and fell through a trap-door/wall opening, finding herself next to Burns who was turned away and moaning. When he faced her, both of his eyes were missing, in vacant eye sockets. Behind her as she backed away and screamed, she looked upon Imhotep - who had two fresh eyeballs in his eyesockets. He was rebuilding and regenerating himself - he had also appropriated Burns' tongue positioned between his rotting teeth - he used it to question her: "Anck-su-namun?..Come with me my princess Anck-su-namun." One of the Arab diggers was consumed by the scarabs - all that was left was a devoured skeletal shape. Rick came upon Evelyn, blasted Imhotep with his gun, and grabbed Evelyn to flee. As the group exited the crevice to the outside, they were confronted by the Medjai, who had been alerted by the Egyptologist. Ardeth Bay explained how they had refused his command to leave, possibly dooming them all: "You have unleashed a creature that we have feared for more than 3,000 years...No mortal weapon can kill this creature. He's not of this world." He warned that they should all leave quickly "before he finishes you all." His group vowed to try to hunt down and kill the 'undead' Mummy: "This creature is the bringer of Death. He will never eat, he will never sleep, and he will never stop."

Still down in the underground chamber at the foot of the statue of Anubis, Beni met face-to-face with Imhotep, and vainly attempted to use various religious chants and charms around his neck to save himself. When Beni held up the Star of David and spoke in Hebrew, the Mummy recognized the language, "the language of the slaves", and proposed: "I may have use for you. And the rewards will be great." In return for jewels, Beni was forced to pledge allegiance, and help to track down the other sacred canopic jars of his long-dead lover-mistress that had been stolen by the Americans. When all of the other adventurers left the ruins at Hamunaptra that night, Imhotep's skeletal hand broke out of the ground and he shrieked as they fled.

At British Fort Brydon in Cairo, Evelyn vowed to continue their quest: "We woke him up, and we are going to stop him." She proposed using "immortal" weapons to kill the reborn creature, fearing that "his curse is going to spread until the whole of the Earth is destroyed." Rick believed he had fulfilled his contract to Evelyn and it was now terminated. In the casbah of the fort's compound, elderly, mustached British WWI fighter pilot Winston Havelock (Bernard Fox) was introduced, claiming to Rick that he was retired and just sitting around "rotting of boredom and booze." In another part of the compound, Beni accompanied a death-masked individual identified as "Prince Imhotep" and told blindfolded and tongueless Burns that the Prince required more to "finish the job and consummate the curse" that the Americans had brought upon themselves. Imhotep removed his desk mask, revealing his hideous corpse-skull.

The next plague was visited upon them - water and other liquids turned to blood. Rick sensed: "He's here." Bolts of fire rained down from the darkened, stormy skies, and Rick and Evelyn heard loud roars from inside the compound. They ran to the source of the noise, shocked to see Burns in a chair with all of his organs and liquids drained from his body. On the far side of the room, the walking corpse of Imhotep growled at them - now regenerated with skin over his skeletal musculature. Rick worried: "We are in serious trouble" - and although he opened fire, his gunblasts were ineffective. The Mummy tossed Rick across the room and then told Evelyn: "You saved me from the undead. I thank you" - and was about to kiss her when a white cat hissed at him. In a swirl of sand and wind, he disappeared from the room. [It was later explained that cats were guardians of the Underworld, to be feared by the 'undead' until fully rejenerated.]

In the Museum of Antiquities, Rick and Evelyn walked in on the Curator speaking to Ardeth Bay. The Curator claimed being a member of the Medjai, guarding the City of the Dead for over 3,000 years to prevent the High Priest Imhotep for being "reborn" by killing everyone who had opened the chest (Henderson, Daniels, and the Egyptologist). He was cursed because of his love for Anck-su-namun, and had confused Evelyn for his dead mistress. The Curator surmised that he might once again try to raise her from the dead, by intending to sacrifice Evelyn: "It appears he has already chosen his human sacrifice." Rick decided to find the Egyptologist, presumably next to be killed by Imhotep, and bring him into the safety of the fort. The haunted man was seen in a dark alleyway, carrying the Book of the Dead in one hand and a sacred canopic jar in another - stalked by Imhotep. Rick and Jonathan found Beni ransacking the Egyptologist's office, looking for the black Book of the Dead, related to the Mummy's goal of "bringing his dead girlfriend back to life." Beni admitted his 'friendship' with the creature: "It is better to be the right hand of the devil than in his path. As long as I serve him, I am immune." Down on the street, Imhotep took the jar and book from the shriveled corpse of the Egyptologist and became further regenerated. He turned, opened his unhinged jaw, and unleashed a swarm of buzzing black flies from his mouth. Rick and Jonathan feared: "That's two down, two to go. Then he'll be coming after Evy."

Back at the fort, Henderson approached an open window and was seized by a mass of swirling sand - his body was sucked dry (seen in shadowy silhouette) and then tossed away. Imhotep stepped into view - almost fully regenerated. He entered into Evelyn's locked bedroom where she was sleeping, by streaming himself as sand through her keyhole into a large mound of sand that then transformed into bodily form. He sat at her bedside and kissed her lips, causing his own mouth and lips to instantly decay and rot, as Rick and Jonathan burst through the door with a white hissing cat in Rick's arms. Shrieking in horror, Imhotep spun himself into a sand-devil and vanished out the window. The group returned to the Museum of Antiquities, where Evelyn spoke about how the Book of the Dead was supposed to bring people back from the dead. She thought: "If the black book can bring dead people to life...," Rick added: "...then maybe the gold book can kill him." It was important for them to find where the gold book - the Book of Amun-Ra, was hidden. More plagues affected a chanting group of crazed Egyptians in the streets, with boils and sores, who broke down the museum's doors and were led by Imhotep. Ardeth stated: "They have become his slaves. So it has begun, the beginning of the end." Using the Rosetta Stone, Evelyn determined that if the black book was inside the statue of Anubis, then the gold Book of Amun-Ra must be located at Hamunaptra inside the statue of Horus [Bembridge scholars had mixed up the two locations]. On their way out of the city in a convertible, Daniels was seized, and although he offered up his sacred canopic jar to Imhotep, he was also sucked dry - fully regenerating the Mummy creature back to human form.

The remaining survivors lept out of the car when it crashed and were surrounded by the mob. As the crowd parted, Imhotep stepped toward them and demanded his "princess" Evelyn to join him: "It is time to make you mine for all eternity." When he offered: "Take my hand and I will spare your friends," Evelyn had no choice but to accept, knowing that she still had to be taken to Hamunaptra to perform the ritual to resurrect Anck-su-namun. Rick threatened Imhotep: "I'll be seeing you again." All but the Curator escaped from the mob by jumping down a manhole cover into the sewer.

From the Royal Air Force airfield, the group (Rick, Jonathan, and Ardeth) were flown by Winston Havelock to Hamunaptra, "to rescue the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy and save the world." Beni and Evelyn were transported there as well by a large sand-devil whirlwind formed by Imhotep, who also used the forces of nature to create a massive, blowing wall of sand to entrap the small biplane inside. He formed a giant face in the sand, and attempted to engulf the plane in his mouth. Evelyn kissed Imhotep long enough to distract him so that the plane could escape, although it crash-landed, and Winston died. The plane sank and vanished into quicksand, as the trio made their way to Hamunaptra, where Jonathan curiously plucked an amethyst scarab from a wall - the heat of his hand caused the scarab to break out of its cocoon shell and burrow into his arm. Rick cut into Jonathan's skin and flicked the scarab away, and then blasted it with his gun. In another area of the ruins, Imhotep opened up one of the canopic jars with the dusty remains of Anck-su-namun, and blew the dust against a mausoleum wall - where the carved forms on the rock came to life. Two mummified corpses, Imhotep's priests, bowed to their High Priest. He ordered them: "Kill them and wake the others."

The trio found themselves in a treasure chamber filled with sparkling artifacts and gold, just as Imhotep's many mummies burst through the floor. As they retreated and fired upon the horde of mummies, they found the statue of Horus in a chamber. (Meanwhile, Beni was looting treasure, staggering while dragging heavy saddlebags to the camels.) They located the secret compartment at the base of the statue and removed the gold Book of Amun-Ra. Evelyn was strapped to an altar next to the rotted corpse of Anck-su-namun and surrounded by chanting mummified priests. Imhotep opened the black Book of the Dead to perform the ritual. As Ardeth Bay fought off the mummies, he told his pals: "Save the girl. Kill the creature." Imhotep read from the Book of the Dead, and a gray spirit-mist passed into Anck-su-namun's corpse and her eyes popped open. He raised an ancient sacrificial ceremonial dagger over Evelyn: "With your death, Anck-su-namun shall live. And I shall be invincible." At that moment, Jonathan located Evelyn, who ordered her brother to open the Book of Amun-Ra and find the inscription, while Rick fought off the skeletal mummies with his sword and rescued her. Jonathan finally was able to read the entire inscription on the book's cover, summoning and controlling a group of mummified soldier-guards, and ordering them to kill Anck-su-namun. Rick sliced off Imhotep's right arm with his sword, but it was reattached. As they fought, Evelyn unlocked the book (Jonathan had pickpocketed the key from Imhotep) and read "Kadeesh mal, Pared oos," summoning a spirit-chariot that took away Imhotep's 'immortal' spirit, making him mortal. Rick impaled Imhotep in the chest with a sword, causing him to rapidly decay as he fell backwards into a detritus bog and sank into the swampy black bile. Evelyn translated his final words of revenge: "Death is only the beginning."

As Beni was taking another load of treasures out, he accidentally triggered an ancient booby trap (a staff sticking out of a wall), causing Hamunaptra to begin collapsing and crumbling. He was trapped inside the sealed treasure chamber where he was soon consumed by a swarm of chittering flesh-eating scarabs as his torch extinguished. The heroic survivors made it outside as all of Hamunaptra was crashing down and sinking into the sand, covered by massive clouds of dust. Ardeth suddenly appeared next to them on a camel and blessed them before riding off. Rick kissed Evelyn, not leaving "empty-handed" as Jonathan rolled his eyes at their romance. The group rode off into the orangish-sunset, not realizing that they were on a camel loaded up with Beni's looted treasure.

Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.)

This film was a semi-remake of Universal's original Boris Karloff horror film from director Karl Freund, The Mummy (1932). It was the first installment of a lucrative franchise, followed by two sequels (2001 and 2008) and a 2002 prequel. A second prequel, The Scorpion King 2: Rise of a Warrior (2008), was released direct-to-DVD.

With a production budget of $80 million, and box-office gross receipts of $155 million (domestic) and $416 million (worldwide).

With one Academy Awards Oscar nomination: Best Sound.

About a fifth of the film's budget was spent on the special effects produced by Industrial Light & Magic (ILM). It followed in the footsteps and style of the trilogy of Indiana Jones films (1981, 1984, and 1989) at the time, as a serial-style, action-adventure comedy.