Speaker 1: Hey, this is Anny and welcome to Stephan Never Told
Speaker 1: You A production of iHeartRadio. And yes, I am still
Speaker 1: by myself while Samantha recovers from being sick and gets
Speaker 1: ready for going on vacation. And you know, she's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna be happy that I re rm this one
Speaker 1: without her. She has a lot of thoughts about it.
Speaker 1: We're bringing back the Mummy for this one because we
Speaker 1: did miss feminist movie Friday this month. There was also
Speaker 1: some scheduling confusion, which was largely my fault, but it
Speaker 1: was comical because no one seems to know what month
Speaker 1: it is right now. But we're doing a bunch of
Speaker 1: disaster movies and movies that really shaped me in one
Speaker 1: way or another, good or bad when I was younger
Speaker 1: in the nineties, and I just couldn't in good conscience
Speaker 1: not bring back the Mummy if we're talking about that,
Speaker 1: because I watched I watched that movie so much as
Speaker 1: we talk about in this episode, and EV's an amazing
Speaker 1: heroin I will stand by that, so please enjoy this
Speaker 1: classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome
Speaker 1: to steph moa Never Told You protection of iHeartRadio. It
Speaker 1: is time for another feminist movie Friday, the first of
Speaker 1: twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Yes, and we're starting it with one of my absolute
Speaker 3: favorite movies of all time, the nineteen ninety nine classic
Speaker 3: The Mummy Mummy, And by Samantha's insistence, the Mummy too.
Speaker 4: I feel it has to be there.
Speaker 3: According to you, you're very, very passionate about it. Yes,
Speaker 3: and the Mummy was a listener suggestion, So thank you, Kayla.
Speaker 3: I always love when listeners suggests something that I love anyway,
Speaker 3: So it's like I get to just rewatch something that
Speaker 3: I already really enjoy. And she sent us a link
Speaker 3: to a blog post by Lena in a Red Dress
Speaker 3: that was really helpful. In all of this made a
Speaker 3: lot of great points about the kind of feminist take
Speaker 3: on this movie. We'll be getting into that later. Also,
Speaker 3: I recently ish watched this with coworker and friend Lauren Vogelbaum,
Speaker 3: and we kept saying how much Rachel Advice's character still
Speaker 3: holds up.
Speaker 4: We kept being like, wa, like that, Yeah, I feel
Speaker 4: like unlike a lot of the movies or TV that
Speaker 4: we watched from twenty years ago, twenty years ago, I
Speaker 4: know it doesn't hold up. And you kind of squirm
Speaker 4: and have to accept, yeah, that it was made back
Speaker 4: when even though it shouldn't have been made back when.
Speaker 4: And this one doesn't do that as much. So you
Speaker 4: were like okayor cool, wor cool, although the second one
Speaker 4: a little less, a little less, we'll say that.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Well, I absolutely adore The Mummy. It's one of six
Speaker 3: movies that I can quote the whole way through the
Speaker 3: Egyptian and all, which I have no idea if that's
Speaker 3: actually Egyptian, but I can say it similarly.
Speaker 2: To how they say it to the movie.
Speaker 3: And I remember I had to campaign really hard to
Speaker 3: see this movie in theaters as my dad because he's like.
Speaker 2: I think it might scare you, and I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't I was at the age where it still
Speaker 3: my parents would go with me to PG thirteen movies,
Speaker 3: and I just I worked so hard convince him, and
Speaker 3: then I was trying really really hard to hide how
Speaker 3: scared I was, because he was right. The Beatles, the
Speaker 3: scare of Beatles really scared me. And I think I
Speaker 3: had a crush on pretty much half the people in
Speaker 3: this movie at one point in time. And I love
Speaker 3: the ride at Universal. It is so fun. That is
Speaker 3: a good ride. I hope they don't take it down
Speaker 3: because it's funny. It's like about the making of the movie. Right,
Speaker 3: And I'm not sure how much like the younger generation
Speaker 3: gets it, but right, fun right.
Speaker 4: And it's definitely old Brendan Fraser too. It's definitely way
Speaker 4: back when Brendan Fraser, right, because when you see him
Speaker 4: today it looks a little different. Has gone through a
Speaker 4: lot of stuff, unfortunately, or dude, and it's trying to
Speaker 4: come out of it on the other side. But it's
Speaker 4: definitely taking him a minute. I don't know how else
Speaker 4: to do this. So it was prime Brendan Fraser. I
Speaker 4: will say that, although I will say he was one
Speaker 4: of my first questions, not because of this movie, but
Speaker 4: because of movies like Incino Man and School Ties. Those
Speaker 4: two movies are the one things that made him for me.
Speaker 2: That's so great.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, I've never seen any of those, but I
Speaker 3: know the image like on the cover.
Speaker 4: So oh yeah. In Sino Man, my friend and I
Speaker 4: in high school, we memorize that movie. We know all
Speaker 4: of everything to do with that movie. We even got
Speaker 4: the soundtrack to that movie. Yeah, we were really into it.
Speaker 3: Oh wow, Oh yes, wow, I know I've spoken before
Speaker 3: about my New Year's tradition on this show, where I
Speaker 3: very specifically choose the last movie I want to end
Speaker 3: a year on in the first movie I want to
Speaker 3: start the New Year on. And a couple of years ago,
Speaker 3: I was in South Africa for work over New Years
Speaker 3: and the last movie I saw was The New Mummy
Speaker 3: with Tom Cruise on the plane. Oh no, it was
Speaker 3: not good. It was bad, bad, bad, bad movie to
Speaker 3: go out on. So when I got home, the first
Speaker 3: movie I watched the New Year was the nineteen ninety
Speaker 3: nine versions for it.
Speaker 4: Never had a desire to see the Tom Cruise version
Speaker 4: because I was like, what is this. I trying to
Speaker 4: make something that was like, yes, action filled, but also
Speaker 4: fun to just action watch Tom Cruise get hurt and
Speaker 4: hurt things.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah yeah, And I mean the ending was pretty
Speaker 3: weird too, because they were trying to set up that
Speaker 3: whole like the new Universal Monster series.
Speaker 2: So it's like, clearly meant to.
Speaker 3: Be a series, but you just knew it probably wasn't
Speaker 3: gonna happen, so what fu Yeah yeah, And also when
Speaker 3: The Mummy too, the Mummy returns, I keep saying Mummy returns.
Speaker 3: Let me get it correct. But when that came out
Speaker 3: that there was this website for the movie, which I
Speaker 3: actually after we watched You've Got Mail, I got really
Speaker 3: into that for a minute, remembering those like old Remember
Speaker 3: when movies would come out, they would have these like
Speaker 3: websites and you can play games on them and stuff. Well,
Speaker 3: The Mummy Returns had one where you could see what
Speaker 3: you were. You would take this test and it would
Speaker 3: tell you what you were in a past life. And
Speaker 3: I got dumb beetle, and I've never forgotten it. I
Speaker 3: have never forgotten it.
Speaker 4: I see. I mean, you've come out on top. That's
Speaker 4: the good news, I guess. So you're not a dune beetle. Congratulations,
Speaker 4: proud of you, Thank you, thank you. So yeah, I
Speaker 4: am not a dug beetle. You're not a dung beetle.
Speaker 2: Proud of you.
Speaker 4: Thanks for being here. But yes, let's talk about the
Speaker 4: Mummy and all the dung beetles. So The Mummy is
Speaker 4: a nineteen ninety nine, twenty two years Old We Are Old,
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety nine American adventure movie and remake of the
Speaker 4: nineteen thirty two film, and it stars yes, Brendan Fraser
Speaker 4: and Rachel Weiss and has written and directed by Steven Summers.
Speaker 4: Apparently there were all kinds of issues while they filmed
Speaker 4: it in Morocco, like snakes and sandstorms and yeah no
Speaker 4: thank you, but I think that's also how they play
Speaker 4: into the ride. But when the movie came out, it
Speaker 4: was a financial success, which is why we have three
Speaker 4: of them. The critics were so so on it, but
Speaker 4: the audience obviously, like us, really love it.
Speaker 2: You know, there's like a cartoon series too, Oh is there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a lot of stud I think it is
Speaker 3: something in twenty seventeen some series came out, so yeah, people.
Speaker 2: Really really dug it.
Speaker 3: It's funny because a lot of reviews I was reading
Speaker 3: of it, like recent review said, you.
Speaker 2: Know, the CGI isn't great, but it holds up. I
Speaker 2: think it holds up pretty there's clearly oh.
Speaker 4: This is obviously for the first one, the Scorpion King.
Speaker 3: Is like notoriously one of the worst CGI things ever.
Speaker 2: But in this one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so the plot. I could again, I could just
Speaker 3: quote the whole movie. I could do the sound effects.
Speaker 3: I could do it all, but I know that you
Speaker 3: don't want it, so I won't. It opens an ancient Egypt,
Speaker 3: and we learn that a ox in the Moon, the
Speaker 3: pharaoh's mistress, is having an affair with its high priest Emotep,
Speaker 3: whose spoiler alert is the Mummy. On one of their
Speaker 3: forbidden pays, the pharaoh catches them making out and they
Speaker 3: both kill him. The guards are hammering down the door
Speaker 3: to get in, so a ox in the Moon convinces
Speaker 3: Emotep to leave, telling him to use his abilities to
Speaker 3: resurrect her. So he does, and before the guards can
Speaker 3: arrest her, in oxy in the Moon kills herself. Emotep
Speaker 3: and his priest steal her body and take it to
Speaker 3: the lost city of the Dead Hominoptra. Amotep begins the
Speaker 3: ritual to bring her back, but is interrupted by the Meggi,
Speaker 3: who are the pharaoh's bodyguards, before he can complete the ritual.
Speaker 3: So as punishment for this, Emotef is sentenced to the Hondai,
Speaker 3: which is a punishment so horrific that it's never been
Speaker 3: used before. Basically, he's mumma fied alive, his tongue is
Speaker 3: cut out, He's wrapped tightly in bandages, put in a sarcophagus,
Speaker 3: and buried alive with those flesh eating beetles.
Speaker 2: A curse is.
Speaker 3: Placed on him too, for good measure that if he's
Speaker 3: ever brought back, he would unleash the seven plagues of
Speaker 3: Egypt and you know, like destroy everything. So to top
Speaker 3: it off, the Meggi are sworn to guard him to
Speaker 3: make sure no one brings him back.
Speaker 4: So cut to the early nineteen hundreds, American Ric O'Connell
Speaker 4: played by Brendan Fraser leading some soldiers in the midst
Speaker 4: of the battle at the sights of the ruins of Hawenoptra.
Speaker 4: He also meets his Weasley acquaintance Benny. We all know, Benny,
Speaker 4: you're gonna get yours. And as the battle goes on,
Speaker 4: Rick realizes there's something supernatural going on him away, and
Speaker 4: he makes off into the desert under observation of the magi.
Speaker 3: Then we jump to nineteen twenty six and we meet
Speaker 3: Eve played by Rachel VIIs, who is the daughter of
Speaker 3: famous egyptologist. She's a librarian, but she wants to follow
Speaker 3: in her parents' footsteps. However, as movie opens, she has
Speaker 3: once again been rejected by the prestigious Bimbridge scholars and
Speaker 3: she has one of the best worst intros ever in
Speaker 3: my opinion. While she's precariously balanced on a ladder trying
Speaker 3: to replace a book on the top shelf. The latter
Speaker 3: falls into the shelves and it's a domino effect, knocking
Speaker 3: over all these huge shelves. The books go skew, the
Speaker 3: papers everywhere. Oh so good. Then we meet her screwup brother, Jonathan,
Speaker 3: who shows her an ancient key he quote found aka stole.
Speaker 3: Jonathan takes ev to a jail to meet the person
Speaker 3: who stole it from, because she recognizes immediately like this
Speaker 3: might be something special. And of course he stole it
Speaker 3: from none other than Rick O'Connell, who is scheduled to
Speaker 3: be hanged. O'Connell promises to take them to Homonoptra if
Speaker 3: they can secure his release, and this is after he
Speaker 3: grabs Evie's face and kisses her. Of course, she's able
Speaker 3: to cut a deal with the warden and O'Connell is
Speaker 3: freed in the nick of time, So off they go
Speaker 3: to Hamanatra.
Speaker 4: You know, so they introduce Alex in the second one, Yeah,
Speaker 4: the kid by having the Domino efface with the pillars,
Speaker 4: so you know, they leak it a little bit, so
Speaker 4: our intrepid crewe us off for Hemonopdra, and Evie is taken,
Speaker 4: of course with O'Connell's new, cleaned up look, as would
Speaker 4: I be. On their way, they encounter a group of
Speaker 4: cocky Americans, those those nasty Americans also making their way
Speaker 4: to Homonoptra with a cut with the help of O'Connell's
Speaker 4: old frenemy Biddy. As EV's ruminating about the kiss between
Speaker 4: her and O'Connell, the boat they're on actually gets attacked
Speaker 4: by members of the Magi, which they don't want. They're
Speaker 4: not aware of who they are, and they make a
Speaker 4: narrow escape, switching over to Camel's and it's the O'Connell's
Speaker 4: turn to be impressed with Evie's new clothes and looks right.
Speaker 3: So as the sun rises, I'm notachro is revealed like
Speaker 3: no longer these ruins, but fully restored. And these groups
Speaker 3: race to the Americans, and our heroes race to ho'm
Speaker 3: Natra to see who can get their first.
Speaker 2: And Evie wins. Cut up. Yeah. After a few run.
Speaker 3: Ins with the Americans, you know, like O'Connell stole some tools,
Speaker 3: they get to ev They fought over dig site. Evie
Speaker 3: realizes that they can go underneath the Americans and dig
Speaker 3: up through there to beat them to this book that
Speaker 3: they both want this bury there are this treasure that
Speaker 3: they both want this buried there, So while doing so,
Speaker 3: they find a sarcophagus of a still quote juicy mummy.
Speaker 3: The Americans, on the other hand, find the Book of
Speaker 3: the Dead after setting off a booby trap protecting it,
Speaker 3: and they also find some ancient jars holding organs, which
Speaker 3: they divide amongst themselves.
Speaker 2: Big mistake.
Speaker 3: And this is where one of my most quoted lines
Speaker 3: of all time. Check over a movie, chrish wantz ask me, like,
Speaker 3: what's a movie thing? You say a lot that you
Speaker 3: think no one gets? It's this beware of like us
Speaker 3: be aware.
Speaker 4: And every time she says that, she says in that
Speaker 4: manner exactly too. Yeah, and that exactly and you can't
Speaker 4: see her, but she's definitely doing the fist of the air. Yes,
Speaker 4: say she does that every time as well. Just go
Speaker 4: ahead and that so yeah. The Magi attacked their camp
Speaker 4: their back to warn them away, giving them a day
Speaker 4: to leave. The warden dies by the way by a
Speaker 4: scara beetle because it goes inside of his skin, drives
Speaker 4: him mad and he runs into a wall with his
Speaker 4: head first. So you know, Evie gets really drunk and
Speaker 4: flirts with Rick while who of course flirts back. And
Speaker 4: also a great line quote, you're wondering, what is a
Speaker 4: place like me doing a girl like this? Of course,
Speaker 4: but then she passes out right as she's about to
Speaker 4: kiss him, and he does the okay, And the following night,
Speaker 4: Evie steals the book because she can't help it, which
Speaker 4: is the Book of the Dead from the Americans. And
Speaker 4: he's a professor, right, He's not an American though, who is?
Speaker 4: He's English.
Speaker 3: He's an Egyptologist. He's English, so there's like one non
Speaker 3: American in the Yeah.
Speaker 4: He knows what he's going for, and it's for the
Speaker 4: same like intellectual properties as where they're all looking for treasure.
Speaker 4: And she has the key and uses it to open it,
Speaker 4: and she dumbly reads it out loud, accidentally bringing back
Speaker 4: em tip yes, good job. Chaos ensues, Locus descends on them,
Speaker 4: scare beetles, swarm people and strip them of their flesh.
Speaker 4: Eve falls down a trick passage where she sees the
Speaker 4: shambling mummy who calls her a nuts on the moon,
Speaker 4: and Rick finds her shoes in the face but as
Speaker 4: they flee, they don't see him rise back up. And then,
Speaker 4: by the way, right before the mummy takes the eyes
Speaker 4: of one of the Americans for hisself.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and just note in case you haven't seen this,
Speaker 3: at this point, he's like a mummy, Like there's skin
Speaker 3: hanging off with him. You know, he's like a corpse
Speaker 3: walking around. And yeah, this part with the America care
Speaker 3: where he takes the eyes. Friends of mine that have
Speaker 3: glasses or have trouble seeing, they always tell me the
Speaker 3: scene is terrifying because he breaks his glasses down in
Speaker 3: the dark tombs and he can't see, and he's like,
Speaker 3: sees this shape and thinks that somebody's gonna help him,
Speaker 3: and then it's some mean it takes his eyes. Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would say that, except last night I watched
Speaker 4: it again and I was like, but wait, his glasses
Speaker 4: are way too thin, especially way back when, because I
Speaker 4: have horrible eyesight, and y'all when I say I have
Speaker 4: to get those special duty glasses where it thins them out,
Speaker 4: it's literally hundreds of dollars to make it thinner, because
Speaker 4: if not, I would have the bottled capped glasses. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's no way his hotsite.
Speaker 2: Was that bad judgment?
Speaker 4: Yeah, When they turned to is a point of view,
Speaker 4: I was like, there's no way it was that bad.
Speaker 4: Like he may have had trouble seeing for sure, but
Speaker 4: it would have been that bad. Those glasses were way
Speaker 4: too thin.
Speaker 2: Maybe his night vision so bad there.
Speaker 4: Was nothing about night vision on those glasses. Then he
Speaker 4: couldn't have seen in the first place.
Speaker 2: That's true, That's what I saw.
Speaker 4: I was like, wait, because I'm so aware, like I
Speaker 4: just recently bought some wor glasses and I had to
Speaker 4: pay an extra fee to make it not you know,
Speaker 4: bottom of like it's really sad y'all anyway, But yeah,
Speaker 4: so I just I think he's his eyesight was not
Speaker 4: as bad.
Speaker 2: As I love this.
Speaker 3: I love when you see a movie with anybody with
Speaker 3: a certain profession and after they leave their like, actually, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4: Not gonna lie. It's definitely like anything I see with
Speaker 4: the social work involved are in like school law and
Speaker 4: when i'm you know, juvenile detention stuff. But that's not
Speaker 4: how that goes, but you know whatever. By the way,
Speaker 4: when this is all happening, he stumbles on Benny, who
Speaker 4: can speak many languages, and starts praying to every god
Speaker 4: there is. And when he says, oh, you're speaking the
Speaker 4: language of my slaves, he assumes that he could, you know,
Speaker 4: serve him, and so promises Benny a fortune if he
Speaker 4: helps the Mummy regenerate, which of course involves killing all
Speaker 4: the Americans and retrieving the jars. And because he is Benny,
Speaker 4: he says, of course, yes, yes, please, let's do this.
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, So now the Mummy and has got a
Speaker 3: little psidekick, Benny Henchman.
Speaker 2: Now that's better. So Evie refuses to leave like they
Speaker 2: fled the scene and they're back in a city. They're
Speaker 2: back in Cairo, I believe, but they're like.
Speaker 3: Evie refuses to leave until she can put a stop
Speaker 3: to the curse, despite Rick's attempts to convince her otherwise.
Speaker 3: And more and more of the plagues are starting out.
Speaker 3: The water turns into blood. They're slains in the sky,
Speaker 3: darkness descends, even though it's.
Speaker 2: The middle of the day.
Speaker 3: The Mummy arrives, kills one of the Americans, kisses ev
Speaker 3: while she is asleep, again, calling her a Oxona moon.
Speaker 3: Rick arrives and scares him away with a cat. As
Speaker 3: you know cats regardings of the underworld, in Egyptian mythology,
Speaker 3: and the group meets up with a member of the Magi,
Speaker 3: artist Bay and the Egyptologist at the library ev works at,
Speaker 3: who also works with the Magi, and they realize that
Speaker 3: the Mummy is planning on using Evie as a sacrifice
Speaker 3: to bring back his beloved a Oxuona Moon. Evie is
Speaker 3: able to correct a mistranslation to learn the location of
Speaker 3: the Book of the Living, which should be enough to
Speaker 3: destroy the Mummy, and it's a Bimbage scholar mistranslation, so
Speaker 3: that's a powerful moment. But the Mummy corners them after
Speaker 3: killing all the Americans and fully regenerating himself, so now
Speaker 3: he looks human and Edy agrees to go with him
Speaker 3: in order to save the rest of the group.
Speaker 4: Right, So Rick and Jonathan and the Magi are at
Speaker 4: Bay Sexy self make their way to Haminaptra, fight their
Speaker 4: way through the mummy five priest a half resurrected a
Speaker 4: knocks on the Moon and the Mummy himself, and succeed
Speaker 4: in killing him thanks largely to Evie's wits, and escape
Speaker 4: the collapsing city. Of course, then Rick and Evie kiss
Speaker 4: after they're like, oh, you know, I didn't get anything
Speaker 4: out of that that are any treasures, and Rick says, oh,
Speaker 4: I don't know about that, and they read right off
Speaker 4: happily ever after, of course, until the second one of comes. Right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's always a funny thing when a movie, and
Speaker 3: so happily after ever but then you know there's a sequel,
Speaker 3: so you're like, well, sure.
Speaker 4: Yeah, to give it sometimes, yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 3: And I just wanted to put in here because every
Speaker 3: time I watch this, I think that this. Even as
Speaker 3: a kid, I remember believing like Emy's armpits were so
Speaker 3: well shaved, and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, did women do that back then or did
Speaker 2: they get that close? Like I don't know, but every
Speaker 2: time that sticks out to me.
Speaker 4: That's true.
Speaker 3: All right, So that's the Mummy, And now I guess
Speaker 3: we should talk about the Mummy Returns the Mummy Too.
Speaker 3: But first let's pause for a quick break for a
Speaker 3: word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 4: Okay, So, yes, the Mummy Too or the Mummy Returns
Speaker 4: as actually correct. Honestly, I love all of the Mummy movies.
Speaker 4: I know they're not great, not all of them are winners,
Speaker 4: but yes, I love them, and I just really wanted
Speaker 4: to make any watch this because she refuses to do so.
Speaker 4: And honestly, I would have chosen to do the third
Speaker 4: one two, but I thought it maybe too much for
Speaker 4: her to handle, so I gave it up. But I mean,
Speaker 4: come on, Russell long Gently and Michelle Yao. They're some
Speaker 4: of my favorite actors and I really do love who
Speaker 4: they are and the fact that they are part of
Speaker 4: this franchise too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and okay, so Samantha was very adamant that we
Speaker 3: watched this, and I'm actually not even sure why I'm
Speaker 3: so resistant to it, but I watched it last night.
Speaker 3: I kept putting it off and putting it off, and
Speaker 3: I was like, well, I guess I'd better watch it.
Speaker 3: And then after it was over, I checked the outline
Speaker 3: and yeah, we so this was happening. We're recording it
Speaker 3: the day after, and I had a moment because Samantha
Speaker 3: hadn't added anything to the outline about then returns, where
Speaker 3: I thought she had played a prank on me and
Speaker 3: tricked me into watching it.
Speaker 2: And I was like ourge.
Speaker 4: By the way it was done. But I did have
Speaker 4: a moment of like, what if I just deleted all
Speaker 4: that part she put it in about the Mummy too
Speaker 4: and just moved on.
Speaker 3: I would have been furious. So like last night, I
Speaker 3: was fuming, even though for all I knew you were
Speaker 3: going to we.
Speaker 2: Were going to talk about it, but even the possibility, right,
Speaker 2: it wouldn't be a good break.
Speaker 4: But fortunately for everyone around, it's not a prank. And yes,
Speaker 4: we are going to talk about it. Very briefly though,
Speaker 4: because we are mainly going to focus on the original.
Speaker 4: But I just had to put a very quick synopsis
Speaker 4: so we can all bask in this glory of the sequel.
Speaker 3: Sure, all right, So I like the first movie. We
Speaker 3: have the opening scene that begins with a legend, the
Speaker 3: Legend of the Scorpion King, played by the one and
Speaker 3: only the Rock, Dwayne at the Rock Johnson, who I
Speaker 3: believe this is one of his first acting It was
Speaker 3: a first actually, yeah, and I that was one of
Speaker 3: the first things I texted Samantha last night was Wow,
Speaker 3: the acting is.
Speaker 2: He's improved a lot, I'll say.
Speaker 3: And yeah, So he the Scorpion King became the Scorpion
Speaker 3: King by giving his soul to the god I knew this,
Speaker 3: who takes him after giving him victory over his enemies
Speaker 3: with the help of his army. So there's just like
Speaker 3: the Scorpion King Laura's again with the army of the
Speaker 3: dead thing. And then we cut to the O'Connell's rickin
Speaker 3: Evelyn Evy with their son Alex and yeah, they're still
Speaker 3: getting into mischief by digging up things they shouldn't. Yeah,
Speaker 3: archaeologists that keep digging things up. And it is really
Speaker 3: funny because it plays on the whole how many mummies
Speaker 3: and dead armies and things can we raise?
Speaker 2: And they seem to have just accepted this, I guess.
Speaker 3: So they discover a new treasure, the bracelet of a
Speaker 3: nuboza oh, which is a huge mistake. And as they
Speaker 3: discover it, they also learned that there is a trap
Speaker 3: that for anyone who removes it too late.
Speaker 2: Do they see the inscription saying like don't open this warning.
Speaker 3: You And we cut to like waters from the nile
Speaker 3: rushing into their dig site where are they almost drowned?
Speaker 3: But by chance, their son, who was trying to protect
Speaker 3: the site from some shady thieves, breaks through the wall,
Speaker 3: leasing them in yew. That's the pillar scene that's very
Speaker 3: reminiscent of how we meet ev in the first one, right.
Speaker 4: And poor kid I really like him, but his acting
Speaker 4: is on par with the rock as well. Just going
Speaker 4: with that out there. All the while, Ev is having
Speaker 4: visions as if she was present during the time of
Speaker 4: the pharaoh Seti and is able to know where everything
Speaker 4: is mysteriously as if she's been there before. Cut too,
Speaker 4: we see a crew of the bad guys digging up
Speaker 4: the mummy Emmotep, and the crew is led by the
Speaker 4: reincarnation of Immotep's love a Noxana Moon, who, like Ev,
Speaker 4: is able to know where things are without being there before.
Speaker 4: And of course they bring him back to life and
Speaker 4: try to retrieve the bracelet from the O'Connell's so that
Speaker 4: Imotep can command the Army of Anubis and take over
Speaker 4: the world. Unbeknownst to all the adults, Alex has actually
Speaker 4: put the bracelet on and started the journey of the
Speaker 4: Bracelet that will lead them to the Scorpion King.
Speaker 2: Why does everybody want to rule the world with these armies?
Speaker 2: I don't need to.
Speaker 3: Also just just note Phari Setti is the one that
Speaker 3: a Noxuner Moon Emotep killed, so that's kind of the
Speaker 3: visions EV's having.
Speaker 2: Alex is then kidnapped by the mummy and.
Speaker 3: The bad the bad dudes, which lead all of them
Speaker 3: on a journey to get to the location of Scorpion King.
Speaker 3: And we couldn't have a good mummy adventure without magi
Speaker 3: Ardith Bay. He returns Evie's brother Jonathan, and this time
Speaker 3: we added a dirigible. Of course, I was like, woh,
Speaker 3: my god, flown by an old friend of Rick's Izzy
Speaker 3: and some shrunken heads pygmy mummies to the mix. We
Speaker 3: also discover that not only do we have the reincarnation
Speaker 3: of a noxuoner Moon, but Princess nepher Titi, which turns
Speaker 3: out to be Evi from a past life who was
Speaker 3: the daughter of Pharaoh Seti. Uh yeah, again a Oxuna
Speaker 3: moon and Emotep kills him and she she witnessed that
Speaker 3: from like a balcony away and she is the protector
Speaker 3: of of the bracelet as well. I guess we should
Speaker 3: also say Rick is apparently some like guardian Yeah I.
Speaker 4: Tried to look that up, but yeah, somebody he is
Speaker 4: the guardian of.
Speaker 2: He's like part of the magi think yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, brotherhood of sorts because he has.
Speaker 2: The two as they say.
Speaker 3: And yeah, this is where my whole dumb beetle past
Speaker 3: life test comes from so as they arrived to get
Speaker 3: Alex back and try to stop the Scorpion King. Eb
Speaker 3: is killed and then brought back to life through the book.
Speaker 3: At the Dead of course by Alex. She fights ANX
Speaker 3: in the moon while Rick is fighting a really ridiculous
Speaker 3: looking CGI of the Rock as a scorpion King. I'm
Speaker 3: not exaggerating when I say this consistently comes up on
Speaker 3: list of the worst CGI of all time, especially from
Speaker 3: like a big budget movie.
Speaker 4: I think it was like I remember seeing this either
Speaker 4: in the theaters I can't remember, but the audible laughter
Speaker 4: of the in two years, seeing him come out of
Speaker 4: the wall or the doors or the cave, and we
Speaker 4: were all like.
Speaker 3: What, Yeah, that guy like appears out of nowhere, that
Speaker 3: kind of top He was ahead of the British Museum.
Speaker 2: And he's sort of like top goon.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he sort of appears and the Scorpion King rips
Speaker 3: him into five pieces and I.
Speaker 2: Was like, why is what.
Speaker 4: He's got to show strength?
Speaker 3: Yeah, they were trying to They were trying to show
Speaker 3: what he could do with his little scorpion limbs. Again,
Speaker 3: if no one's seen this, this is essentially the Rock
Speaker 3: with the scorpion bottom right, he's the top half is
Speaker 3: the rock.
Speaker 4: But it's all CGI, is all badly CGI, And at
Speaker 4: this point in time, there's really no excuse about how
Speaker 4: bad it was, why it was so bad.
Speaker 2: I'm sure that people working on it would argue, do you.
Speaker 4: Think so I've seen? But that's the thing is, like
Speaker 4: we've seen so much better.
Speaker 2: Why, Yeah, they were working things out back then. I
Speaker 2: don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3: Okay, she'd made the Mummy noise noise. So as these
Speaker 3: fights are going, Ev races in, so does the NOx
Speaker 3: in the Moon.
Speaker 2: See they're kind of loves in this battle.
Speaker 3: Although Emo Tep is really thrown Rick under the bus,
Speaker 3: which I get, but yeah, whatever. So Rick is able
Speaker 3: to kill the Scorpion king, and Emotep and Rick are
Speaker 3: both like hanging precariously over this chasm of dead souls
Speaker 3: heale essentially yes, and they're trying to pull them the
Speaker 3: these souls are trying to pull Rick in Emo Tip
Speaker 3: down and the whole place is collapsing. EV runs in
Speaker 3: and saves Rick, while Ox in the Moon abandons Emo
Speaker 3: Tip and Imotep is so heartbroken he lets go and
Speaker 3: presumably dies.
Speaker 2: Who knows, Anyway, the escape a.
Speaker 3: Oxy moon gets eaten by the scare of beetles, but
Speaker 3: Ev and Rick and Jonathan all the crew escape via dirigible.
Speaker 2: Did they ever explain how they fixed it and got
Speaker 2: the guests? He found something old, right, I shouldn't ask
Speaker 2: any questions. Eusy came through.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So they escape and again happily ever after until
Speaker 3: the next one comes along.
Speaker 4: I guess right, And there's a third one. And in
Speaker 4: this one, we're not gonna talk anything, but I had
Speaker 4: to mention it because I love it so much, just
Speaker 4: the fact that they are now wealthy people. Oh yeah,
Speaker 4: and they're no longer digging, they are now retired, and
Speaker 4: they're both very bored. And yes, Rachel Weiss is no
Speaker 4: longer there. It is now Maria Bellows. So it's not
Speaker 4: Mummy three but The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which,
Speaker 4: by the way, got a one star rating.
Speaker 2: We only talk about the finest films on the show.
Speaker 4: And also twelve percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 3: The lowest we've ever hit. Pocus and Practical Magic. We're
Speaker 3: like at twenty twenty eight percent.
Speaker 4: Okay, o, go twelve percent on that, But eighty three
Speaker 4: of the Google users like it, so hey, hey, okay,
Speaker 4: maybe three percent. Sorry, So anyway, all of that is say,
Speaker 4: they kind of jump into a new one where Alex
Speaker 4: becomes an older archaeologist and is digging in China and
Speaker 4: finds the Dragon Emperor and his vast army in the field. Whatever.
Speaker 4: I'm not gonna go do into it, but it's fantastic
Speaker 4: because I do love again those Asian actors, and I
Speaker 4: think they're fantastic and to see them for just a
Speaker 4: split second is delightful. But yes, that's the ridiculousness, like ooh,
Speaker 4: I don't know how Rick O'Connell could possibly beat in
Speaker 4: combat gently but okay, yeah the Dragon King who was
Speaker 4: also magical and knows a lot of martial arts, but hey,
Speaker 4: who cares?
Speaker 2: Right? Who cares?
Speaker 4: But yes, that one is also a franchise. But the
Speaker 4: Mummy is no longer a motep. They've now moved on
Speaker 4: to China. Kind of finished us this child a little bit,
Speaker 4: but whatever, still a delight to me, a delight and
Speaker 4: worth one watch, but not a second one to talk about.
Speaker 4: But I just had to throw that in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've only seen it once and the only part
Speaker 3: I really remember is when it zooms in on should
Speaker 3: be Rachel Weiss, and it's like it's like, I'm a
Speaker 3: whole new person or something.
Speaker 4: Her line an American actor was not great English accent,
Speaker 4: say she's a whole new person, which is true.
Speaker 3: That was one thing I noticed when I watched The
Speaker 3: Mommy Returns, because I think I'd seen that like two
Speaker 3: or three times before, but it's been I mean since
Speaker 3: it came out. It was like a classic action sequel
Speaker 3: in the sense that everything was way bigger. And Rick O'Connell,
Speaker 3: like I love him, but he was doing things where
Speaker 3: I was like, Wow, you've really upped your game. You
Speaker 3: caught the knife, like over here, you're doing all kinds
Speaker 3: of stunts. I'm very impressed.
Speaker 4: But right, and also we're not going to talk about
Speaker 4: the side of the There was a whole franchise of
Speaker 4: The Scorpion King, but yeah, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3: Oh boy, that was also a one and done for
Speaker 3: me in that movie. But if you're looking for a
Speaker 3: laugh the Scorpion King, there you go. So all right,
Speaker 3: now that we've gone through the plots of these we
Speaker 3: did want to talk about some themes, but first we're
Speaker 3: gonna pause for one more real quick for word from
Speaker 3: our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 2: Thank you sponsor. So I did want to put a
Speaker 2: disclaimer in here that maybe I should have put it
Speaker 2: at the top.
Speaker 3: But whatever, neither of these movies, or I guess none
Speaker 3: of these movies, if we're gonna count with third one
Speaker 3: would be a movie that pops into my head if
Speaker 3: somebody asked me, like, name a feminist movie. Like if
Speaker 3: I was trying to list feminist movies, I might get
Speaker 3: to the nineteen ninety nine Mommy, but it would be way, way,
Speaker 3: way way down the list. But then, you know, honestly,
Speaker 3: I have some trouble thinking of feminist movies when people
Speaker 3: ask me. So I don't know, but it's definitely not
Speaker 3: something that it would come to mind for me until
Speaker 3: the listener suggested it. The first one doesn't pass the
Speaker 3: Bechdel test, I don't think. I don't think the second
Speaker 3: one does either. Not that that's the end all be
Speaker 3: all of feminist movies, but of note, and there are
Speaker 3: definitely some problematic sayings in all of them, but there
Speaker 3: are some excellent feminist elements too, particularly in the character
Speaker 3: of ev. So let's start with her, and I'll be
Speaker 3: focusing on the first one. So Evie is a really competent, smart, funny, determined, adventurous, charming,
Speaker 3: and decisive character. Most of the plans she comes up
Speaker 3: with them on her own, quickly and under pressure. I
Speaker 3: also really appreciate how she's just sort of she's really
Speaker 3: quick to anger or to be happy, like she's just yeah,
Speaker 3: I don't know, firey or so, I don't know.
Speaker 2: Oh, I like it.
Speaker 3: She is feminine in a dress and with her long hair,
Speaker 3: but that doesn't hold her back. She still has a
Speaker 3: lot of agency and in a flip, her brother Jonathan
Speaker 3: is the mess up in their family. Although it's kind
Speaker 3: of funny because, especially in the beginning, I feel like
Speaker 3: there's this vibe where I guess she thinks she's the
Speaker 3: screw up in the family, but compared to Jonathan, she's
Speaker 3: definitely not right.
Speaker 2: Evie is the one that gets to Hamnatcha first.
Speaker 3: She's the one that decides to stop the Mummy after
Speaker 3: she brought him back, but she accepts her fault in
Speaker 3: that she's the one to correctly translate something from the
Speaker 3: Bimbage scholars that they had messed up, and this is
Speaker 3: all after they consistently rejected her she's the one that
Speaker 3: helps Jonathan translate an Egyptian inscription that saves them. And
Speaker 3: this is while she's being attacked and strangled by a
Speaker 3: Knox sunamoons mummified half alive corpse.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, there's that to distracting.
Speaker 3: And I love her reaction when Jonathan accidentally drops the
Speaker 3: Book of the Living into that pool and has the
Speaker 3: city is collassing.
Speaker 2: She stops and is like, what have you done?
Speaker 3: They have to drag her away because she's just so
Speaker 3: passionate about these things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, she's a scholar. Yeah, And Evie generally serves as
Speaker 4: the leader of the group. Obviously, she's the one that
Speaker 4: that's like, we need to go dig here instead of
Speaker 4: let's do this this way. And Rick is the muscle,
Speaker 4: you know. Even in the second one, she does the
Speaker 4: same thing. She leads them to where they need to
Speaker 4: go and she's like here, you know, start working. And
Speaker 4: then he uses the bigger tools because of course he's
Speaker 4: a man and he's comfortable in that position and comfortable
Speaker 4: following her lead. The only time Rick takes the lead
Speaker 4: is during physical situations or obviously when EV's not there,
Speaker 4: and he he pretty much listens to her and trusts her,
Speaker 4: follows her lead without complaint, and when they do disagree
Speaker 4: or argue, they do as equals. So that's nice.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I mean it is funny because she
Speaker 3: is leader and often, especially in the second one, which
Speaker 3: again I hadn't seen in a very long time, but
Speaker 3: he's like, are you have to do this? And she's like,
Speaker 3: for yes, She's just so adventurous and passionate about these things,
Speaker 3: and he's kind of resigned to Okay, okay, I guess.
Speaker 3: And I would argue that the first movie especially is
Speaker 3: driven by her and Rick just follows her. I think
Speaker 3: you could make a good argument that she's the main character.
Speaker 3: At the very least. They kind of share that role
Speaker 3: of main characters. And even when Evie is the damsel
Speaker 3: in distress in the first one, it is by choice
Speaker 3: to give the group the best chance of success. She's
Speaker 3: not a passive victim, she is not cow. During her imprisonment,
Speaker 3: she does use her ef femininity to kiss Emotep and
Speaker 3: distract him from killing her friends. She threatens and vox binny,
Speaker 3: which I do love. That seems she's like always He's like,
Speaker 3: oh no. She helps her brother translate the inscription while
Speaker 3: she's being attacked, and she's the one that reads the
Speaker 3: passage that renders the mummy as mortal and allows Rick
Speaker 3: to kill him.
Speaker 4: And in the second one they do blame her for
Speaker 4: killing Emotep, and that's why they kidnap her because they
Speaker 4: won't revenge against her. They could care less about Rick.
Speaker 4: They obviously blame her as they should, as well as
Speaker 4: the fact that when you look at the second one,
Speaker 4: it's her and a NOx on a moon who are
Speaker 4: the protectors of pretty much the realm, whether it's the
Speaker 4: bracelet or the Pharaoh. They protect, and they were chosen
Speaker 4: to protect and fight, so it's kind of interesting to
Speaker 4: get that. And yes, she actually gets to fight a
Speaker 4: little bit in this one where she has some sore
Speaker 4: play and play with size, even of course it was
Speaker 4: very obvious it wasn't her during those scenes. But so
Speaker 4: nice to think on and of golf. Of course, we
Speaker 4: could also talk about the constant use of white women
Speaker 4: with dark hair for characters like Neffherkadie and Cleopatra, but
Speaker 4: that's a whole other conversation because she is supposed to
Speaker 4: be a lineage of that in English as well. From
Speaker 4: what I understood from the first one, right, her mother
Speaker 4: was Egyptian, her father was Oh yeah, yeah, but you
Speaker 4: know whatever, they know, we know all know this has
Speaker 4: to be a stretch to tie things together perfectly, to
Speaker 4: bring it to one. But yes, in both movies that
Speaker 4: she also saves Rick, whether she saved them from the
Speaker 4: gallows or she saves them from the pet of Hell obviously,
Speaker 4: so she is the hero in both of these things.
Speaker 4: They also still follow her footsteps in the second one,
Speaker 4: and she even has her maternal instincts as a drive
Speaker 4: and a push for this one as well to get
Speaker 4: her son back. So yeah, you know, she's the main character.
Speaker 4: I would agree with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 3: She's the leader for sure, absolutely, And I did want
Speaker 3: to talk about the relationship aspect between Evie and Rick,
Speaker 3: because Rick is clearly attracted to more than just her looks,
Speaker 3: which is unfortunately kind of rare in these adventure action
Speaker 3: adventure movies. He gives her the tools that he stole
Speaker 3: because he knows that she's passionate about what she does
Speaker 3: and good at what she does, and he wants her
Speaker 3: to be able to lead them and find what she
Speaker 3: wants to find. And Rick doesn't pursue romance with her
Speaker 3: like most male characters from these adventure movies do. He
Speaker 3: isn't showing off for her. He's just kind of this consistent, capable, respectful,
Speaker 3: kind tender in the way that he follows her and
Speaker 3: respects her. That's really allowed in male characters in this genre.
Speaker 3: And also you do see, like as we mentioned when
Speaker 3: we were doing the plot synopsis, you see Evie kind
Speaker 3: of pining after him, which is rare too. Like normally
Speaker 3: it's just like it's the guy's perspective and he and
Speaker 3: she's just over the moon about him and so smitten
Speaker 3: with him, and it's very one dimensional.
Speaker 2: But in this she's like it's equally.
Speaker 3: You can tell that they're both charmed equally by each other,
Speaker 3: which is nice and yeah, pretty pretty rare for this
Speaker 3: genre or especially at that time, right, And it does
Speaker 3: continue in the second one, you do you see them
Speaker 3: bill on that on this trust and like loving and
Speaker 3: care and being on this equal ground and having their
Speaker 3: like areas of expertise right where they trust that their
Speaker 3: partner to handle this part of it or this part
Speaker 3: of it, and the very accepting of each other, I would.
Speaker 4: Right, I think, Yeah, in the second one, you definitely
Speaker 4: see the relationship of them compromising, because they do still
Speaker 4: go on adventures. They do go on a dangerous sight digging, yes,
Speaker 4: but she gives in by saying, let's not go to
Speaker 4: the next one. Now, let's go ahead and say here.
Speaker 4: And of course they also have to add that the
Speaker 4: Bimbridge scholars have been begging her of course for them now,
Speaker 4: so that did equal out. We do get to see
Speaker 4: all of that. You see the conversations they have as parents,
Speaker 4: but at the same time still being madly in love,
Speaker 4: so of course they have to one up that one
Speaker 4: as well. So it is good to see that type
Speaker 4: of relationship. We also see Jonathan still being a rake,
Speaker 4: as they would say, and watching bridgerden y'all, it's it's
Speaker 4: sleeping that language is sleeping in. But yeah, so you
Speaker 4: see that as well, and I found that really of
Speaker 4: course on par like with everything else, his greed and
Speaker 4: his playboy acting, I guess. But it's also fun to
Speaker 4: see their relationships still intact, and him being pretty childish
Speaker 4: still and them kind of taking care of him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, of course, troublemaker for sure, Yes, yes, and I
Speaker 2: did it. I did appreciate that.
Speaker 3: You get to see Evi and Rick separately as being
Speaker 3: I would say good parents are very caring parents, like protective,
Speaker 3: so you do, like it's kind of understood often that
Speaker 3: you're going to see the mother in those maternal.
Speaker 2: Instincts, but you did with Rick.
Speaker 3: You really saw him being protective and his paternal protective
Speaker 3: instincts too, so that was nice. And yeah, you do
Speaker 3: have the comparison of because this whole thing starts with
Speaker 3: the NOx suner mood an Emo tap trying to be together,
Speaker 3: although I guess now after the second one you could
Speaker 3: argue that a Noxyny Moon really wanted power and ultimately, yeah,
Speaker 3: and that moment and the end of the second one
Speaker 3: where Evie and a k Oxunamun are watching their their
Speaker 3: husbands like I don't know if Moon is maritimetap, but
Speaker 3: you know, lovers in danger and ev decides to save
Speaker 3: Rick and a noxnymum flees. I always thought that part
Speaker 3: was interesting, that there's like which one is the true
Speaker 3: love and that you know, you still have this sort
Speaker 3: of a oxy Moon throughout is kind of painted as
Speaker 3: this power player who's got something else going on, which
Speaker 3: is pretty common among female villains.
Speaker 4: Right. The thing is like the first one, she was
Speaker 4: not the villain. She was definitely someone you felt sorry
Speaker 4: for because we don't see. What we don't see is
Speaker 4: that the pharaoh's kind of evil. He keeps her as
Speaker 4: a slave, essentially, like he calls her protector, and we
Speaker 4: talk about that. But essentially she has no choice because
Speaker 4: we know that her body paint is to show her purity,
Speaker 4: that she would only be touched by him, right, And
Speaker 4: so she was in love with another man. So it's
Speaker 4: kind of a sad story in himself. But at the
Speaker 4: same time, he'll become a mummy kill everyone else.
Speaker 2: The moral of the story.
Speaker 4: That's not cool.
Speaker 2: The moral of the story. Yeah, I think we could
Speaker 2: end on that.
Speaker 3: Thanks again to the listener who suggested this and the
Speaker 3: blog post lean in Red Dress. I know that that
Speaker 3: blog post was written after another podcast really tore into
Speaker 3: this movie for not being feminist.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're just presenting a different point of view.
Speaker 2: We know it's not the most feminist.
Speaker 4: It's definitely not the most feminist, but it is this
Speaker 4: enjoyable and there are some things to take away from
Speaker 4: for sure.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and like I said at the top, Evie
Speaker 2: still holds up.
Speaker 3: Ev is still a pretty great character, so if you
Speaker 3: haven't seen it, we highly recommend it.
Speaker 2: Samantha recommends the other two as well.
Speaker 4: Go for it. Just go ahead and enjoy it, enjoy,
Speaker 4: get your favorite drink. Go.
Speaker 3: I agree, and in the meantime, we would love to
Speaker 3: hear from you listeners, especially if you've got suggestions for
Speaker 3: what our next movies or movie should be. You can
Speaker 3: email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
Speaker 3: You can also find us on Instagram at stephone Never
Speaker 3: Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks
Speaker 3: is always to our super producer Andrew Howard. Oh, thanks
Speaker 3: and thanks to you for listening stephone Never Told You
Speaker 3: to protection from iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
Speaker 3: the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to
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