September 16, 2023 • 43 mins
While the 1999 action-adventure classic The Mummy might not top a lot of feminist movie lists, that didn't stop us from finding some feminist elements in it (and due to Samantha's insistence, The Mummy Returns) to talk about. Come along on this sometimes terribly CGI-ed adventure as we discuss the feminism of these movies and the iconic heroine Evie in this classic episode.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, this is Anny and welcome to Stephan Never Told
You A production of iHeartRadio. And yes, I am still
by myself while Samantha recovers from being sick and gets
(00:25):
ready for going on vacation. And you know, she's probably
not gonna be happy that I re rm this one
without her. She has a lot of thoughts about it.
We're bringing back the Mummy for this one because we
did miss feminist movie Friday this month. There was also
some scheduling confusion, which was largely my fault, but it
(00:48):
was comical because no one seems to know what month
it is right now. But we're doing a bunch of
disaster movies and movies that really shaped me in one
way or another, good or bad when I was younger
in the nineties, and I just couldn't in good conscience
not bring back the Mummy if we're talking about that,
(01:11):
because I watched I watched that movie so much as
we talk about in this episode, and EV's an amazing
heroin I will stand by that, so please enjoy this
classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome
(01:34):
to steph moa Never Told You protection of iHeartRadio. It
is time for another feminist movie Friday, the first of
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, and we're starting it with one of my absolute
favorite movies of all time, the nineteen ninety nine classic
The Mummy Mummy, And by Samantha's insistence, the Mummy too.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I feel it has to be there.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
According to you, you're very, very passionate about it. Yes,
and the Mummy was a listener suggestion, So thank you, Kayla.
I always love when listeners suggests something that I love anyway,
So it's like I get to just rewatch something that
I already really enjoy. And she sent us a link
to a blog post by Lena in a Red Dress
(02:28):
that was really helpful. In all of this made a
lot of great points about the kind of feminist take
on this movie. We'll be getting into that later. Also,
I recently ish watched this with coworker and friend Lauren Vogelbaum,
and we kept saying how much Rachel Advice's character still
holds up.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
We kept being like, wa, like that, Yeah, I feel
like unlike a lot of the movies or TV that
we watched from twenty years ago, twenty years ago, I
know it doesn't hold up. And you kind of squirm
and have to accept, yeah, that it was made back
when even though it shouldn't have been made back when.
And this one doesn't do that as much. So you
(03:06):
were like okayor cool, wor cool, although the second one
a little less, a little less, we'll say that.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, I absolutely adore The Mummy. It's one of six
movies that I can quote the whole way through the
Egyptian and all, which I have no idea if that's
actually Egyptian, but I can say it similarly.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
To how they say it to the movie.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And I remember I had to campaign really hard to
see this movie in theaters as my dad because he's like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I think it might scare you, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I don't I was at the age where it still
my parents would go with me to PG thirteen movies,
and I just I worked so hard convince him, and
then I was trying really really hard to hide how
scared I was, because he was right. The Beatles, the
scare of Beatles really scared me. And I think I
had a crush on pretty much half the people in
(04:02):
this movie at one point in time. And I love
the ride at Universal. It is so fun. That is
a good ride. I hope they don't take it down
because it's funny. It's like about the making of the movie. Right,
And I'm not sure how much like the younger generation
gets it, but right, fun right.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And it's definitely old Brendan Fraser too. It's definitely way
back when Brendan Fraser, right, because when you see him
today it looks a little different. Has gone through a
lot of stuff, unfortunately, or dude, and it's trying to
come out of it on the other side. But it's
definitely taking him a minute. I don't know how else
to do this. So it was prime Brendan Fraser. I
will say that, although I will say he was one
(04:40):
of my first questions, not because of this movie, but
because of movies like Incino Man and School Ties. Those
two movies are the one things that made him for me.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's so great.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Oh yeah, I've never seen any of those, but I
know the image like on the cover.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
So oh yeah. In Sino Man, my friend and I
in high school, we memorize that movie. We know all
of everything to do with that movie. We even got
the soundtrack to that movie. Yeah, we were really into it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Oh wow, Oh yes, wow, I know I've spoken before
about my New Year's tradition on this show, where I
very specifically choose the last movie I want to end
a year on in the first movie I want to
start the New Year on. And a couple of years ago,
(05:28):
I was in South Africa for work over New Years
and the last movie I saw was The New Mummy
with Tom Cruise on the plane. Oh no, it was
not good. It was bad, bad, bad, bad movie to
go out on. So when I got home, the first
movie I watched the New Year was the nineteen ninety
nine versions for it.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Never had a desire to see the Tom Cruise version
because I was like, what is this. I trying to
make something that was like, yes, action filled, but also
fun to just action watch Tom Cruise get hurt and
hurt things.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Okay, yeah yeah, And I mean the ending was pretty
weird too, because they were trying to set up that
whole like the new Universal Monster series.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So it's like, clearly meant to.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Be a series, but you just knew it probably wasn't
gonna happen, so what fu Yeah yeah, And also when
The Mummy too, the Mummy returns, I keep saying Mummy returns.
Let me get it correct. But when that came out
that there was this website for the movie, which I
actually after we watched You've Got Mail, I got really
into that for a minute, remembering those like old Remember
(06:30):
when movies would come out, they would have these like
websites and you can play games on them and stuff. Well,
The Mummy Returns had one where you could see what
you were. You would take this test and it would
tell you what you were in a past life. And
I got dumb beetle, and I've never forgotten it. I
have never forgotten it.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I see. I mean, you've come out on top. That's
the good news, I guess. So you're not a dune beetle. Congratulations,
proud of you, Thank you, thank you. So yeah, I
am not a dug beetle. You're not a dung beetle.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Proud of you.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Thanks for being here. But yes, let's talk about the
Mummy and all the dung beetles. So The Mummy is
a nineteen ninety nine, twenty two years Old We Are Old,
nineteen ninety nine American adventure movie and remake of the
nineteen thirty two film, and it stars yes, Brendan Fraser
and Rachel Weiss and has written and directed by Steven Summers.
(07:27):
Apparently there were all kinds of issues while they filmed
it in Morocco, like snakes and sandstorms and yeah no
thank you, but I think that's also how they play
into the ride. But when the movie came out, it
was a financial success, which is why we have three
of them. The critics were so so on it, but
the audience obviously, like us, really love it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know, there's like a cartoon series too, Oh is there.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, there's a lot of stud I think it is
something in twenty seventeen some series came out, so yeah, people.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Really really dug it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's funny because a lot of reviews I was reading
of it, like recent review said, you.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Know, the CGI isn't great, but it holds up. I
think it holds up pretty there's clearly oh.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
This is obviously for the first one, the Scorpion King.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Is like notoriously one of the worst CGI things ever.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But in this one.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, so the plot. I could again, I could just
quote the whole movie. I could do the sound effects.
I could do it all, but I know that you
don't want it, so I won't. It opens an ancient Egypt,
and we learn that a ox in the Moon, the
pharaoh's mistress, is having an affair with its high priest Emotep,
whose spoiler alert is the Mummy. On one of their
forbidden pays, the pharaoh catches them making out and they
(08:36):
both kill him. The guards are hammering down the door
to get in, so a ox in the Moon convinces
Emotep to leave, telling him to use his abilities to
resurrect her. So he does, and before the guards can
arrest her, in oxy in the Moon kills herself. Emotep
and his priest steal her body and take it to
the lost city of the Dead Hominoptra. Amotep begins the
(08:59):
ritual to bring her back, but is interrupted by the Meggi,
who are the pharaoh's bodyguards, before he can complete the ritual.
So as punishment for this, Emotef is sentenced to the Hondai,
which is a punishment so horrific that it's never been
used before. Basically, he's mumma fied alive, his tongue is
cut out, He's wrapped tightly in bandages, put in a sarcophagus,
(09:23):
and buried alive with those flesh eating beetles.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
A curse is.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Placed on him too, for good measure that if he's
ever brought back, he would unleash the seven plagues of
Egypt and you know, like destroy everything. So to top
it off, the Meggi are sworn to guard him to
make sure no one brings him back.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
So cut to the early nineteen hundreds, American Ric O'Connell
played by Brendan Fraser leading some soldiers in the midst
of the battle at the sights of the ruins of Hawenoptra.
He also meets his Weasley acquaintance Benny. We all know, Benny,
you're gonna get yours. And as the battle goes on,
Rick realizes there's something supernatural going on him away, and
(10:00):
he makes off into the desert under observation of the magi.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Then we jump to nineteen twenty six and we meet
Eve played by Rachel VIIs, who is the daughter of
famous egyptologist. She's a librarian, but she wants to follow
in her parents' footsteps. However, as movie opens, she has
once again been rejected by the prestigious Bimbridge scholars and
(10:24):
she has one of the best worst intros ever in
my opinion. While she's precariously balanced on a ladder trying
to replace a book on the top shelf. The latter
falls into the shelves and it's a domino effect, knocking
over all these huge shelves. The books go skew, the
papers everywhere. Oh so good. Then we meet her screwup brother, Jonathan,
(10:44):
who shows her an ancient key he quote found aka stole.
Jonathan takes ev to a jail to meet the person
who stole it from, because she recognizes immediately like this
might be something special. And of course he stole it
from none other than Rick O'Connell, who is scheduled to
be hanged. O'Connell promises to take them to Homonoptra if
(11:05):
they can secure his release, and this is after he
grabs Evie's face and kisses her. Of course, she's able
to cut a deal with the warden and O'Connell is
freed in the nick of time, So off they go
to Hamanatra.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You know, so they introduce Alex in the second one, Yeah,
the kid by having the Domino efface with the pillars,
so you know, they leak it a little bit, so
our intrepid crewe us off for Hemonopdra, and Evie is taken,
of course with O'Connell's new, cleaned up look, as would
I be. On their way, they encounter a group of
(11:41):
cocky Americans, those those nasty Americans also making their way
to Homonoptra with a cut with the help of O'Connell's
old frenemy Biddy. As EV's ruminating about the kiss between
her and O'Connell, the boat they're on actually gets attacked
by members of the Magi, which they don't want. They're
not aware of who they are, and they make a
narrow escape, switching over to Camel's and it's the O'Connell's
(12:04):
turn to be impressed with Evie's new clothes and looks right.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So as the sun rises, I'm notachro is revealed like
no longer these ruins, but fully restored. And these groups
race to the Americans, and our heroes race to ho'm
Natra to see who can get their first.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And Evie wins. Cut up. Yeah. After a few run.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Ins with the Americans, you know, like O'Connell stole some tools,
they get to ev They fought over dig site. Evie
realizes that they can go underneath the Americans and dig
up through there to beat them to this book that
they both want this bury there are this treasure that
they both want this buried there, So while doing so,
they find a sarcophagus of a still quote juicy mummy.
(12:48):
The Americans, on the other hand, find the Book of
the Dead after setting off a booby trap protecting it,
and they also find some ancient jars holding organs, which
they divide amongst themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Big mistake.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And this is where one of my most quoted lines
of all time. Check over a movie, chrish wantz ask me, like,
what's a movie thing? You say a lot that you
think no one gets? It's this beware of like us
be aware.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And every time she says that, she says in that
manner exactly too. Yeah, and that exactly and you can't
see her, but she's definitely doing the fist of the air. Yes,
say she does that every time as well. Just go
ahead and that so yeah. The Magi attacked their camp
their back to warn them away, giving them a day
to leave. The warden dies by the way by a
(13:33):
scara beetle because it goes inside of his skin, drives
him mad and he runs into a wall with his
head first. So you know, Evie gets really drunk and
flirts with Rick while who of course flirts back. And
also a great line quote, you're wondering, what is a
place like me doing a girl like this? Of course,
but then she passes out right as she's about to
kiss him, and he does the okay, And the following night,
(13:58):
Evie steals the book because she can't help it, which
is the Book of the Dead from the Americans. And
he's a professor, right, He's not an American though, who is?
He's English.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
He's an Egyptologist. He's English, so there's like one non
American in the Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
He knows what he's going for, and it's for the
same like intellectual properties as where they're all looking for treasure.
And she has the key and uses it to open it,
and she dumbly reads it out loud, accidentally bringing back
em tip yes, good job. Chaos ensues, Locus descends on them,
scare beetles, swarm people and strip them of their flesh.
(14:31):
Eve falls down a trick passage where she sees the
shambling mummy who calls her a nuts on the moon,
and Rick finds her shoes in the face but as
they flee, they don't see him rise back up. And then,
by the way, right before the mummy takes the eyes
of one of the Americans for hisself.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, and just note in case you haven't seen this,
at this point, he's like a mummy, Like there's skin
hanging off with him. You know, he's like a corpse
walking around. And yeah, this part with the America care
where he takes the eyes. Friends of mine that have
glasses or have trouble seeing, they always tell me the
scene is terrifying because he breaks his glasses down in
(15:07):
the dark tombs and he can't see, and he's like,
sees this shape and thinks that somebody's gonna help him,
and then it's some mean it takes his eyes. Right.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah, I would say that, except last night I watched
it again and I was like, but wait, his glasses
are way too thin, especially way back when, because I
have horrible eyesight, and y'all when I say I have
to get those special duty glasses where it thins them out,
it's literally hundreds of dollars to make it thinner, because
if not, I would have the bottled capped glasses. Yeah,
(15:35):
there's no way his hotsite.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Was that bad judgment?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, When they turned to is a point of view,
I was like, there's no way it was that bad.
Like he may have had trouble seeing for sure, but
it would have been that bad. Those glasses were way
too thin.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Maybe his night vision so bad there.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Was nothing about night vision on those glasses. Then he
couldn't have seen in the first place.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's true, That's what I saw.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I was like, wait, because I'm so aware, like I
just recently bought some wor glasses and I had to
pay an extra fee to make it not you know,
bottom of like it's really sad y'all anyway, But yeah,
so I just I think he's his eyesight was not
as bad.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
As I love this.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I love when you see a movie with anybody with
a certain profession and after they leave their like, actually, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Not gonna lie. It's definitely like anything I see with
the social work involved are in like school law and
when i'm you know, juvenile detention stuff. But that's not
how that goes, but you know whatever. By the way,
when this is all happening, he stumbles on Benny, who
can speak many languages, and starts praying to every god
there is. And when he says, oh, you're speaking the
language of my slaves, he assumes that he could, you know,
(16:46):
serve him, and so promises Benny a fortune if he
helps the Mummy regenerate, which of course involves killing all
the Americans and retrieving the jars. And because he is Benny,
he says, of course, yes, yes, please, let's do this.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes, yes, So now the Mummy and has got a
little psidekick, Benny Henchman.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Now that's better. So Evie refuses to leave like they
fled the scene and they're back in a city. They're
back in Cairo, I believe, but they're like.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Evie refuses to leave until she can put a stop
to the curse, despite Rick's attempts to convince her otherwise.
And more and more of the plagues are starting out.
The water turns into blood. They're slains in the sky,
darkness descends, even though it's.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
The middle of the day.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
The Mummy arrives, kills one of the Americans, kisses ev
while she is asleep, again, calling her a Oxona moon.
Rick arrives and scares him away with a cat. As
you know cats regardings of the underworld, in Egyptian mythology,
and the group meets up with a member of the Magi,
artist Bay and the Egyptologist at the library ev works at,
who also works with the Magi, and they realize that
(17:50):
the Mummy is planning on using Evie as a sacrifice
to bring back his beloved a Oxuona Moon. Evie is
able to correct a mistranslation to learn the location of
the Book of the Living, which should be enough to
destroy the Mummy, and it's a Bimbage scholar mistranslation, so
that's a powerful moment. But the Mummy corners them after
killing all the Americans and fully regenerating himself, so now
(18:11):
he looks human and Edy agrees to go with him
in order to save the rest of the group.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Right, So Rick and Jonathan and the Magi are at
Bay Sexy self make their way to Haminaptra, fight their
way through the mummy five priest a half resurrected a
knocks on the Moon and the Mummy himself, and succeed
in killing him thanks largely to Evie's wits, and escape
the collapsing city. Of course, then Rick and Evie kiss
(18:36):
after they're like, oh, you know, I didn't get anything
out of that that are any treasures, and Rick says, oh,
I don't know about that, and they read right off
happily ever after, of course, until the second one of comes. Right.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, that's always a funny thing when a movie, and
so happily after ever but then you know there's a sequel,
so you're like, well, sure.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, to give it sometimes, yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
And I just wanted to put in here because every
time I watch this, I think that this. Even as
a kid, I remember believing like Emy's armpits were so
well shaved, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Was like, did women do that back then or did
they get that close? Like I don't know, but every
time that sticks out to me.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
All right, So that's the Mummy, And now I guess
we should talk about the Mummy Returns the Mummy Too.
But first let's pause for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Okay, So, yes, the Mummy Too or the Mummy Returns
as actually correct. Honestly, I love all of the Mummy movies.
I know they're not great, not all of them are winners,
but yes, I love them, and I just really wanted
to make any watch this because she refuses to do so.
And honestly, I would have chosen to do the third
one two, but I thought it maybe too much for
(20:05):
her to handle, so I gave it up. But I mean,
come on, Russell long Gently and Michelle Yao. They're some
of my favorite actors and I really do love who
they are and the fact that they are part of
this franchise too.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, and okay, so Samantha was very adamant that we
watched this, and I'm actually not even sure why I'm
so resistant to it, but I watched it last night.
I kept putting it off and putting it off, and
I was like, well, I guess I'd better watch it.
And then after it was over, I checked the outline
and yeah, we so this was happening. We're recording it
(20:39):
the day after, and I had a moment because Samantha
hadn't added anything to the outline about then returns, where
I thought she had played a prank on me and
tricked me into watching it.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
And I was like ourge.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
By the way it was done. But I did have
a moment of like, what if I just deleted all
that part she put it in about the Mummy too
and just moved on.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I would have been furious. So like last night, I
was fuming, even though for all I knew you were
going to we.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Were going to talk about it, but even the possibility, right,
it wouldn't be a good break.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
But fortunately for everyone around, it's not a prank. And yes,
we are going to talk about it. Very briefly though,
because we are mainly going to focus on the original.
But I just had to put a very quick synopsis
so we can all bask in this glory of the sequel.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Sure, all right, So I like the first movie. We
have the opening scene that begins with a legend, the
Legend of the Scorpion King, played by the one and
only the Rock, Dwayne at the Rock Johnson, who I
believe this is one of his first acting It was
a first actually, yeah, and I that was one of
the first things I texted Samantha last night was Wow,
(21:51):
the acting is.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
He's improved a lot, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And yeah, So he the Scorpion King became the Scorpion
King by giving his soul to the god I knew this,
who takes him after giving him victory over his enemies
with the help of his army. So there's just like
the Scorpion King Laura's again with the army of the
dead thing. And then we cut to the O'Connell's rickin
Evelyn Evy with their son Alex and yeah, they're still
(22:17):
getting into mischief by digging up things they shouldn't. Yeah,
archaeologists that keep digging things up. And it is really
funny because it plays on the whole how many mummies
and dead armies and things can we raise?
Speaker 2 (22:29):
And they seem to have just accepted this, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So they discover a new treasure, the bracelet of a
nuboza oh, which is a huge mistake. And as they
discover it, they also learned that there is a trap
that for anyone who removes it too late.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Do they see the inscription saying like don't open this warning.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You And we cut to like waters from the nile
rushing into their dig site where are they almost drowned?
But by chance, their son, who was trying to protect
the site from some shady thieves, breaks through the wall,
leasing them in yew. That's the pillar scene that's very
reminiscent of how we meet ev in the first one, right.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
And poor kid I really like him, but his acting
is on par with the rock as well. Just going
with that out there. All the while, Ev is having
visions as if she was present during the time of
the pharaoh Seti and is able to know where everything
is mysteriously as if she's been there before. Cut too,
we see a crew of the bad guys digging up
(23:29):
the mummy Emmotep, and the crew is led by the
reincarnation of Immotep's love a Noxana Moon, who, like Ev,
is able to know where things are without being there before.
And of course they bring him back to life and
try to retrieve the bracelet from the O'Connell's so that
Imotep can command the Army of Anubis and take over
the world. Unbeknownst to all the adults, Alex has actually
(23:51):
put the bracelet on and started the journey of the
Bracelet that will lead them to the Scorpion King.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Why does everybody want to rule the world with these armies?
I don't need to.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Also just just note Phari Setti is the one that
a Noxuner Moon Emotep killed, so that's kind of the
visions EV's having.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Alex is then kidnapped by the mummy and.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
The bad the bad dudes, which lead all of them
on a journey to get to the location of Scorpion King.
And we couldn't have a good mummy adventure without magi
Ardith Bay. He returns Evie's brother Jonathan, and this time
we added a dirigible. Of course, I was like, woh,
my god, flown by an old friend of Rick's Izzy
(24:34):
and some shrunken heads pygmy mummies to the mix. We
also discover that not only do we have the reincarnation
of a noxuoner Moon, but Princess nepher Titi, which turns
out to be Evi from a past life who was
the daughter of Pharaoh Seti. Uh yeah, again a Oxuna
moon and Emotep kills him and she she witnessed that
(24:56):
from like a balcony away and she is the protector
of of the bracelet as well. I guess we should
also say Rick is apparently some like guardian Yeah I.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Tried to look that up, but yeah, somebody he is
the guardian of.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
He's like part of the magi think yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Yeah, brotherhood of sorts because he has.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
The two as they say.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And yeah, this is where my whole dumb beetle past
life test comes from so as they arrived to get
Alex back and try to stop the Scorpion King. Eb
is killed and then brought back to life through the book.
At the Dead of course by Alex. She fights ANX
in the moon while Rick is fighting a really ridiculous
(25:41):
looking CGI of the Rock as a scorpion King. I'm
not exaggerating when I say this consistently comes up on
list of the worst CGI of all time, especially from
like a big budget movie.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I think it was like I remember seeing this either
in the theaters I can't remember, but the audible laughter
of the in two years, seeing him come out of
the wall or the doors or the cave, and we
were all like.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
What, Yeah, that guy like appears out of nowhere, that
kind of top He was ahead of the British Museum.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And he's sort of like top goon.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, he sort of appears and the Scorpion King rips
him into five pieces and I.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Was like, why is what.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
He's got to show strength?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Yeah, they were trying to They were trying to show
what he could do with his little scorpion limbs. Again,
if no one's seen this, this is essentially the Rock
with the scorpion bottom right, he's the top half is
the rock.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
But it's all CGI, is all badly CGI, And at
this point in time, there's really no excuse about how
bad it was, why it was so bad.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm sure that people working on it would argue, do you.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Think so I've seen? But that's the thing is, like
we've seen so much better.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Why, Yeah, they were working things out back then. I
don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Okay, she'd made the Mummy noise noise. So as these
fights are going, Ev races in, so does the NOx
in the Moon.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
See they're kind of loves in this battle.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Although Emo Tep is really thrown Rick under the bus,
which I get, but yeah, whatever. So Rick is able
to kill the Scorpion king, and Emotep and Rick are
both like hanging precariously over this chasm of dead souls
heale essentially yes, and they're trying to pull them the
these souls are trying to pull Rick in Emo Tip
(27:38):
down and the whole place is collapsing. EV runs in
and saves Rick, while Ox in the Moon abandons Emo
Tip and Imotep is so heartbroken he lets go and
presumably dies.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Who knows, Anyway, the escape a.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Oxy moon gets eaten by the scare of beetles, but
Ev and Rick and Jonathan all the crew escape via dirigible.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Did they ever explain how they fixed it and got
the guests? He found something old, right, I shouldn't ask
any questions. Eusy came through.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, So they escape and again happily ever after until
the next one comes along.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I guess right, And there's a third one. And in
this one, we're not gonna talk anything, but I had
to mention it because I love it so much, just
the fact that they are now wealthy people. Oh yeah,
and they're no longer digging, they are now retired, and
they're both very bored. And yes, Rachel Weiss is no
longer there. It is now Maria Bellows. So it's not
(28:41):
Mummy three but The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which,
by the way, got a one star rating.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We only talk about the finest films on the show.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
And also twelve percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
The lowest we've ever hit. Pocus and Practical Magic. We're
like at twenty twenty eight percent.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Okay, o, go twelve percent on that, But eighty three
of the Google users like it, so hey, hey, okay,
maybe three percent. Sorry, So anyway, all of that is say,
they kind of jump into a new one where Alex
becomes an older archaeologist and is digging in China and
finds the Dragon Emperor and his vast army in the field. Whatever.
(29:28):
I'm not gonna go do into it, but it's fantastic
because I do love again those Asian actors, and I
think they're fantastic and to see them for just a
split second is delightful. But yes, that's the ridiculousness, like ooh,
I don't know how Rick O'Connell could possibly beat in
combat gently but okay, yeah the Dragon King who was
also magical and knows a lot of martial arts, but hey,
(29:51):
who cares?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Right? Who cares?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
But yes, that one is also a franchise. But the
Mummy is no longer a motep. They've now moved on
to China. Kind of finished us this child a little bit,
but whatever, still a delight to me, a delight and
worth one watch, but not a second one to talk about.
But I just had to throw that in there.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yeah, I've only seen it once and the only part
I really remember is when it zooms in on should
be Rachel Weiss, and it's like it's like, I'm a
whole new person or something.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Her line an American actor was not great English accent,
say she's a whole new person, which is true.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
That was one thing I noticed when I watched The
Mommy Returns, because I think I'd seen that like two
or three times before, but it's been I mean since
it came out. It was like a classic action sequel
in the sense that everything was way bigger. And Rick O'Connell,
like I love him, but he was doing things where
I was like, Wow, you've really upped your game. You
(30:48):
caught the knife, like over here, you're doing all kinds
of stunts. I'm very impressed.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
But right, and also we're not going to talk about
the side of the There was a whole franchise of
The Scorpion King, but yeah, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Oh boy, that was also a one and done for
me in that movie. But if you're looking for a
laugh the Scorpion King, there you go. So all right,
now that we've gone through the plots of these we
did want to talk about some themes, but first we're
gonna pause for one more real quick for word from
our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Thank you sponsor. So I did want to put a
disclaimer in here that maybe I should have put it
at the top.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
But whatever, neither of these movies, or I guess none
of these movies, if we're gonna count with third one
would be a movie that pops into my head if
somebody asked me, like, name a feminist movie. Like if
I was trying to list feminist movies, I might get
to the nineteen ninety nine Mommy, but it would be way, way,
(31:57):
way way down the list. But then, you know, honestly,
I have some trouble thinking of feminist movies when people
ask me. So I don't know, but it's definitely not
something that it would come to mind for me until
the listener suggested it. The first one doesn't pass the
Bechdel test, I don't think. I don't think the second
(32:17):
one does either. Not that that's the end all be
all of feminist movies, but of note, and there are
definitely some problematic sayings in all of them, but there
are some excellent feminist elements too, particularly in the character
of ev. So let's start with her, and I'll be
focusing on the first one. So Evie is a really competent, smart, funny, determined, adventurous, charming,
(32:44):
and decisive character. Most of the plans she comes up
with them on her own, quickly and under pressure. I
also really appreciate how she's just sort of she's really
quick to anger or to be happy, like she's just yeah,
I don't know, firey or so, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Oh, I like it.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
She is feminine in a dress and with her long hair,
but that doesn't hold her back. She still has a
lot of agency and in a flip, her brother Jonathan
is the mess up in their family. Although it's kind
of funny because, especially in the beginning, I feel like
there's this vibe where I guess she thinks she's the
screw up in the family, but compared to Jonathan, she's
(33:21):
definitely not right.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Evie is the one that gets to Hamnatcha first.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
She's the one that decides to stop the Mummy after
she brought him back, but she accepts her fault in
that she's the one to correctly translate something from the
Bimbage scholars that they had messed up, and this is
all after they consistently rejected her she's the one that
helps Jonathan translate an Egyptian inscription that saves them. And
(33:46):
this is while she's being attacked and strangled by a
Knox sunamoons mummified half alive corpse.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Well, you know, there's that to distracting.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And I love her reaction when Jonathan accidentally drops the
Book of the Living into that pool and has the
city is collassing.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
She stops and is like, what have you done?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
They have to drag her away because she's just so
passionate about these things.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yeah, she's a scholar. Yeah, And Evie generally serves as
the leader of the group. Obviously, she's the one that
that's like, we need to go dig here instead of
let's do this this way. And Rick is the muscle,
you know. Even in the second one, she does the
same thing. She leads them to where they need to
go and she's like here, you know, start working. And
then he uses the bigger tools because of course he's
(34:29):
a man and he's comfortable in that position and comfortable
following her lead. The only time Rick takes the lead
is during physical situations or obviously when EV's not there,
and he he pretty much listens to her and trusts her,
follows her lead without complaint, and when they do disagree
or argue, they do as equals. So that's nice.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean it is funny because she
is leader and often, especially in the second one, which
again I hadn't seen in a very long time, but
he's like, are you have to do this? And she's like,
for yes, She's just so adventurous and passionate about these things,
and he's kind of resigned to Okay, okay, I guess.
(35:10):
And I would argue that the first movie especially is
driven by her and Rick just follows her. I think
you could make a good argument that she's the main character.
At the very least. They kind of share that role
of main characters. And even when Evie is the damsel
in distress in the first one, it is by choice
to give the group the best chance of success. She's
(35:32):
not a passive victim, she is not cow. During her imprisonment,
she does use her ef femininity to kiss Emotep and
distract him from killing her friends. She threatens and vox binny,
which I do love. That seems she's like always He's like,
oh no. She helps her brother translate the inscription while
she's being attacked, and she's the one that reads the
(35:55):
passage that renders the mummy as mortal and allows Rick
to kill him.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And in the second one they do blame her for
killing Emotep, and that's why they kidnap her because they
won't revenge against her. They could care less about Rick.
They obviously blame her as they should, as well as
the fact that when you look at the second one,
it's her and a NOx on a moon who are
the protectors of pretty much the realm, whether it's the
bracelet or the Pharaoh. They protect, and they were chosen
(36:20):
to protect and fight, so it's kind of interesting to
get that. And yes, she actually gets to fight a
little bit in this one where she has some sore
play and play with size, even of course it was
very obvious it wasn't her during those scenes. But so
nice to think on and of golf. Of course, we
could also talk about the constant use of white women
(36:42):
with dark hair for characters like Neffherkadie and Cleopatra, but
that's a whole other conversation because she is supposed to
be a lineage of that in English as well. From
what I understood from the first one, right, her mother
was Egyptian, her father was Oh yeah, yeah, but you
know whatever, they know, we know all know this has
to be a stretch to tie things together perfectly, to
(37:02):
bring it to one. But yes, in both movies that
she also saves Rick, whether she saved them from the
gallows or she saves them from the pet of Hell obviously,
so she is the hero in both of these things.
They also still follow her footsteps in the second one,
and she even has her maternal instincts as a drive
and a push for this one as well to get
her son back. So yeah, you know, she's the main character.
(37:25):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
She's the leader for sure, absolutely, And I did want
to talk about the relationship aspect between Evie and Rick,
because Rick is clearly attracted to more than just her looks,
which is unfortunately kind of rare in these adventure action
adventure movies. He gives her the tools that he stole
(37:51):
because he knows that she's passionate about what she does
and good at what she does, and he wants her
to be able to lead them and find what she
wants to find. And Rick doesn't pursue romance with her
like most male characters from these adventure movies do. He
isn't showing off for her. He's just kind of this consistent, capable, respectful,
(38:13):
kind tender in the way that he follows her and
respects her. That's really allowed in male characters in this genre.
And also you do see, like as we mentioned when
we were doing the plot synopsis, you see Evie kind
of pining after him, which is rare too. Like normally
it's just like it's the guy's perspective and he and
(38:35):
she's just over the moon about him and so smitten
with him, and it's very one dimensional.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
But in this she's like it's equally.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
You can tell that they're both charmed equally by each other,
which is nice and yeah, pretty pretty rare for this
genre or especially at that time, right, And it does
continue in the second one, you do you see them
bill on that on this trust and like loving and
care and being on this equal ground and having their
(39:07):
like areas of expertise right where they trust that their
partner to handle this part of it or this part
of it, and the very accepting of each other, I would.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Right, I think, Yeah, in the second one, you definitely
see the relationship of them compromising, because they do still
go on adventures. They do go on a dangerous sight digging, yes,
but she gives in by saying, let's not go to
the next one. Now, let's go ahead and say here.
And of course they also have to add that the
Bimbridge scholars have been begging her of course for them now,
(39:42):
so that did equal out. We do get to see
all of that. You see the conversations they have as parents,
but at the same time still being madly in love,
so of course they have to one up that one
as well. So it is good to see that type
of relationship. We also see Jonathan still being a rake,
as they would say, and watching bridgerden y'all, it's it's
(40:02):
sleeping that language is sleeping in. But yeah, so you
see that as well, and I found that really of
course on par like with everything else, his greed and
his playboy acting, I guess. But it's also fun to
see their relationships still intact, and him being pretty childish
(40:22):
still and them kind of taking care of him.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, of course, troublemaker for sure, Yes, yes, and I
did it. I did appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You get to see Evi and Rick separately as being
I would say good parents are very caring parents, like protective,
so you do, like it's kind of understood often that
you're going to see the mother in those maternal.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Instincts, but you did with Rick.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
You really saw him being protective and his paternal protective
instincts too, so that was nice. And yeah, you do
have the comparison of because this whole thing starts with
the NOx suner mood an Emo tap trying to be together,
although I guess now after the second one you could
(41:06):
argue that a Noxyny Moon really wanted power and ultimately, yeah,
and that moment and the end of the second one
where Evie and a k Oxunamun are watching their their
husbands like I don't know if Moon is maritimetap, but
you know, lovers in danger and ev decides to save
Rick and a noxnymum flees. I always thought that part
(41:29):
was interesting, that there's like which one is the true
love and that you know, you still have this sort
of a oxy Moon throughout is kind of painted as
this power player who's got something else going on, which
is pretty common among female villains.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Right. The thing is like the first one, she was
not the villain. She was definitely someone you felt sorry
for because we don't see. What we don't see is
that the pharaoh's kind of evil. He keeps her as
a slave, essentially, like he calls her protector, and we
talk about that. But essentially she has no choice because
we know that her body paint is to show her purity,
that she would only be touched by him, right, And
(42:06):
so she was in love with another man. So it's
kind of a sad story in himself. But at the
same time, he'll become a mummy kill everyone else.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
The moral of the story.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
That's not cool.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
The moral of the story. Yeah, I think we could
end on that.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Thanks again to the listener who suggested this and the
blog post lean in Red Dress. I know that that
blog post was written after another podcast really tore into
this movie for not being feminist.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So yeah, we're just presenting a different point of view.
We know it's not the most feminist.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
It's definitely not the most feminist, but it is this
enjoyable and there are some things to take away from
for sure.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh yeah, and like I said at the top, Evie
still holds up.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Ev is still a pretty great character, so if you
haven't seen it, we highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Samantha recommends the other two as well.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Go for it. Just go ahead and enjoy it, enjoy,
get your favorite drink. Go.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
I agree, and in the meantime, we would love to
hear from you listeners, especially if you've got suggestions for
what our next movies or movie should be. You can
email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can also find us on Instagram at stephone Never
Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks
is always to our super producer Andrew Howard. Oh, thanks
(43:25):
and thanks to you for listening stephone Never Told You
to protection from iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to
your favorite shows.
Hey, this is Anny and welcome to Stephan Never Told
You A production of iHeartRadio. And yes, I am still
by myself while Samantha recovers from being sick and gets
(00:25):
ready for going on vacation. And you know, she's probably
not gonna be happy that I re rm this one
without her. She has a lot of thoughts about it.
We're bringing back the Mummy for this one because we
did miss feminist movie Friday this month. There was also
some scheduling confusion, which was largely my fault, but it
(00:48):
was comical because no one seems to know what month
it is right now. But we're doing a bunch of
disaster movies and movies that really shaped me in one
way or another, good or bad when I was younger
in the nineties, and I just couldn't in good conscience
not bring back the Mummy if we're talking about that,
(01:11):
because I watched I watched that movie so much as
we talk about in this episode, and EV's an amazing
heroin I will stand by that, so please enjoy this
classic episode. Hey, this is Annie and Samantha and welcome
(01:34):
to steph moa Never Told You protection of iHeartRadio. It
is time for another feminist movie Friday, the first of
twenty twenty one.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yes, and we're starting it with one of my absolute
favorite movies of all time, the nineteen ninety nine classic
The Mummy Mummy, And by Samantha's insistence, the Mummy too.
Speaker 4 (02:04):
I feel it has to be there.
Speaker 3 (02:06):
According to you, you're very, very passionate about it. Yes,
and the Mummy was a listener suggestion, So thank you, Kayla.
I always love when listeners suggests something that I love anyway,
So it's like I get to just rewatch something that
I already really enjoy. And she sent us a link
to a blog post by Lena in a Red Dress
(02:28):
that was really helpful. In all of this made a
lot of great points about the kind of feminist take
on this movie. We'll be getting into that later. Also,
I recently ish watched this with coworker and friend Lauren Vogelbaum,
and we kept saying how much Rachel Advice's character still
holds up.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
We kept being like, wa, like that, Yeah, I feel
like unlike a lot of the movies or TV that
we watched from twenty years ago, twenty years ago, I
know it doesn't hold up. And you kind of squirm
and have to accept, yeah, that it was made back
when even though it shouldn't have been made back when.
And this one doesn't do that as much. So you
(03:06):
were like okayor cool, wor cool, although the second one
a little less, a little less, we'll say that.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, I absolutely adore The Mummy. It's one of six
movies that I can quote the whole way through the
Egyptian and all, which I have no idea if that's
actually Egyptian, but I can say it similarly.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
To how they say it to the movie.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
And I remember I had to campaign really hard to
see this movie in theaters as my dad because he's like.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
I think it might scare you, and I don't know.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
I don't I was at the age where it still
my parents would go with me to PG thirteen movies,
and I just I worked so hard convince him, and
then I was trying really really hard to hide how
scared I was, because he was right. The Beatles, the
scare of Beatles really scared me. And I think I
had a crush on pretty much half the people in
(04:02):
this movie at one point in time. And I love
the ride at Universal. It is so fun. That is
a good ride. I hope they don't take it down
because it's funny. It's like about the making of the movie. Right,
And I'm not sure how much like the younger generation
gets it, but right, fun right.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
And it's definitely old Brendan Fraser too. It's definitely way
back when Brendan Fraser, right, because when you see him
today it looks a little different. Has gone through a
lot of stuff, unfortunately, or dude, and it's trying to
come out of it on the other side. But it's
definitely taking him a minute. I don't know how else
to do this. So it was prime Brendan Fraser. I
will say that, although I will say he was one
(04:40):
of my first questions, not because of this movie, but
because of movies like Incino Man and School Ties. Those
two movies are the one things that made him for me.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
That's so great.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Oh yeah, I've never seen any of those, but I
know the image like on the cover.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
So oh yeah. In Sino Man, my friend and I
in high school, we memorize that movie. We know all
of everything to do with that movie. We even got
the soundtrack to that movie. Yeah, we were really into it.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Oh wow, Oh yes, wow, I know I've spoken before
about my New Year's tradition on this show, where I
very specifically choose the last movie I want to end
a year on in the first movie I want to
start the New Year on. And a couple of years ago,
(05:28):
I was in South Africa for work over New Years
and the last movie I saw was The New Mummy
with Tom Cruise on the plane. Oh no, it was
not good. It was bad, bad, bad, bad movie to
go out on. So when I got home, the first
movie I watched the New Year was the nineteen ninety
nine versions for it.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
Never had a desire to see the Tom Cruise version
because I was like, what is this. I trying to
make something that was like, yes, action filled, but also
fun to just action watch Tom Cruise get hurt and
hurt things.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Okay, yeah yeah, And I mean the ending was pretty
weird too, because they were trying to set up that
whole like the new Universal Monster series.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
So it's like, clearly meant to.
Speaker 3 (06:08):
Be a series, but you just knew it probably wasn't
gonna happen, so what fu Yeah yeah, And also when
The Mummy too, the Mummy returns, I keep saying Mummy returns.
Let me get it correct. But when that came out
that there was this website for the movie, which I
actually after we watched You've Got Mail, I got really
into that for a minute, remembering those like old Remember
(06:30):
when movies would come out, they would have these like
websites and you can play games on them and stuff. Well,
The Mummy Returns had one where you could see what
you were. You would take this test and it would
tell you what you were in a past life. And
I got dumb beetle, and I've never forgotten it. I
have never forgotten it.
Speaker 4 (06:48):
I see. I mean, you've come out on top. That's
the good news, I guess. So you're not a dune beetle. Congratulations,
proud of you, Thank you, thank you. So yeah, I
am not a dug beetle. You're not a dung beetle.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Proud of you.
Speaker 4 (07:04):
Thanks for being here. But yes, let's talk about the
Mummy and all the dung beetles. So The Mummy is
a nineteen ninety nine, twenty two years Old We Are Old,
nineteen ninety nine American adventure movie and remake of the
nineteen thirty two film, and it stars yes, Brendan Fraser
and Rachel Weiss and has written and directed by Steven Summers.
(07:27):
Apparently there were all kinds of issues while they filmed
it in Morocco, like snakes and sandstorms and yeah no
thank you, but I think that's also how they play
into the ride. But when the movie came out, it
was a financial success, which is why we have three
of them. The critics were so so on it, but
the audience obviously, like us, really love it.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You know, there's like a cartoon series too, Oh is there.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Yeah, there's a lot of stud I think it is
something in twenty seventeen some series came out, so yeah, people.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
Really really dug it.
Speaker 3 (07:56):
It's funny because a lot of reviews I was reading
of it, like recent review said, you.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Know, the CGI isn't great, but it holds up. I
think it holds up pretty there's clearly oh.
Speaker 4 (08:06):
This is obviously for the first one, the Scorpion King.
Speaker 3 (08:09):
Is like notoriously one of the worst CGI things ever.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
But in this one.
Speaker 3 (08:14):
Yeah, so the plot. I could again, I could just
quote the whole movie. I could do the sound effects.
I could do it all, but I know that you
don't want it, so I won't. It opens an ancient Egypt,
and we learn that a ox in the Moon, the
pharaoh's mistress, is having an affair with its high priest Emotep,
whose spoiler alert is the Mummy. On one of their
forbidden pays, the pharaoh catches them making out and they
(08:36):
both kill him. The guards are hammering down the door
to get in, so a ox in the Moon convinces
Emotep to leave, telling him to use his abilities to
resurrect her. So he does, and before the guards can
arrest her, in oxy in the Moon kills herself. Emotep
and his priest steal her body and take it to
the lost city of the Dead Hominoptra. Amotep begins the
(08:59):
ritual to bring her back, but is interrupted by the Meggi,
who are the pharaoh's bodyguards, before he can complete the ritual.
So as punishment for this, Emotef is sentenced to the Hondai,
which is a punishment so horrific that it's never been
used before. Basically, he's mumma fied alive, his tongue is
cut out, He's wrapped tightly in bandages, put in a sarcophagus,
(09:23):
and buried alive with those flesh eating beetles.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
A curse is.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Placed on him too, for good measure that if he's
ever brought back, he would unleash the seven plagues of
Egypt and you know, like destroy everything. So to top
it off, the Meggi are sworn to guard him to
make sure no one brings him back.
Speaker 4 (09:40):
So cut to the early nineteen hundreds, American Ric O'Connell
played by Brendan Fraser leading some soldiers in the midst
of the battle at the sights of the ruins of Hawenoptra.
He also meets his Weasley acquaintance Benny. We all know, Benny,
you're gonna get yours. And as the battle goes on,
Rick realizes there's something supernatural going on him away, and
(10:00):
he makes off into the desert under observation of the magi.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
Then we jump to nineteen twenty six and we meet
Eve played by Rachel VIIs, who is the daughter of
famous egyptologist. She's a librarian, but she wants to follow
in her parents' footsteps. However, as movie opens, she has
once again been rejected by the prestigious Bimbridge scholars and
(10:24):
she has one of the best worst intros ever in
my opinion. While she's precariously balanced on a ladder trying
to replace a book on the top shelf. The latter
falls into the shelves and it's a domino effect, knocking
over all these huge shelves. The books go skew, the
papers everywhere. Oh so good. Then we meet her screwup brother, Jonathan,
(10:44):
who shows her an ancient key he quote found aka stole.
Jonathan takes ev to a jail to meet the person
who stole it from, because she recognizes immediately like this
might be something special. And of course he stole it
from none other than Rick O'Connell, who is scheduled to
be hanged. O'Connell promises to take them to Homonoptra if
(11:05):
they can secure his release, and this is after he
grabs Evie's face and kisses her. Of course, she's able
to cut a deal with the warden and O'Connell is
freed in the nick of time, So off they go
to Hamanatra.
Speaker 4 (11:19):
You know, so they introduce Alex in the second one, Yeah,
the kid by having the Domino efface with the pillars,
so you know, they leak it a little bit, so
our intrepid crewe us off for Hemonopdra, and Evie is taken,
of course with O'Connell's new, cleaned up look, as would
I be. On their way, they encounter a group of
(11:41):
cocky Americans, those those nasty Americans also making their way
to Homonoptra with a cut with the help of O'Connell's
old frenemy Biddy. As EV's ruminating about the kiss between
her and O'Connell, the boat they're on actually gets attacked
by members of the Magi, which they don't want. They're
not aware of who they are, and they make a
narrow escape, switching over to Camel's and it's the O'Connell's
(12:04):
turn to be impressed with Evie's new clothes and looks right.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
So as the sun rises, I'm notachro is revealed like
no longer these ruins, but fully restored. And these groups
race to the Americans, and our heroes race to ho'm
Natra to see who can get their first.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
And Evie wins. Cut up. Yeah. After a few run.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
Ins with the Americans, you know, like O'Connell stole some tools,
they get to ev They fought over dig site. Evie
realizes that they can go underneath the Americans and dig
up through there to beat them to this book that
they both want this bury there are this treasure that
they both want this buried there, So while doing so,
they find a sarcophagus of a still quote juicy mummy.
(12:48):
The Americans, on the other hand, find the Book of
the Dead after setting off a booby trap protecting it,
and they also find some ancient jars holding organs, which
they divide amongst themselves.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
Big mistake.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
And this is where one of my most quoted lines
of all time. Check over a movie, chrish wantz ask me, like,
what's a movie thing? You say a lot that you
think no one gets? It's this beware of like us
be aware.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
And every time she says that, she says in that
manner exactly too. Yeah, and that exactly and you can't
see her, but she's definitely doing the fist of the air. Yes,
say she does that every time as well. Just go
ahead and that so yeah. The Magi attacked their camp
their back to warn them away, giving them a day
to leave. The warden dies by the way by a
(13:33):
scara beetle because it goes inside of his skin, drives
him mad and he runs into a wall with his
head first. So you know, Evie gets really drunk and
flirts with Rick while who of course flirts back. And
also a great line quote, you're wondering, what is a
place like me doing a girl like this? Of course,
but then she passes out right as she's about to
kiss him, and he does the okay, And the following night,
(13:58):
Evie steals the book because she can't help it, which
is the Book of the Dead from the Americans. And
he's a professor, right, He's not an American though, who is?
He's English.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
He's an Egyptologist. He's English, so there's like one non
American in the Yeah.
Speaker 4 (14:10):
He knows what he's going for, and it's for the
same like intellectual properties as where they're all looking for treasure.
And she has the key and uses it to open it,
and she dumbly reads it out loud, accidentally bringing back
em tip yes, good job. Chaos ensues, Locus descends on them,
scare beetles, swarm people and strip them of their flesh.
(14:31):
Eve falls down a trick passage where she sees the
shambling mummy who calls her a nuts on the moon,
and Rick finds her shoes in the face but as
they flee, they don't see him rise back up. And then,
by the way, right before the mummy takes the eyes
of one of the Americans for hisself.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yeah, and just note in case you haven't seen this,
at this point, he's like a mummy, Like there's skin
hanging off with him. You know, he's like a corpse
walking around. And yeah, this part with the America care
where he takes the eyes. Friends of mine that have
glasses or have trouble seeing, they always tell me the
scene is terrifying because he breaks his glasses down in
(15:07):
the dark tombs and he can't see, and he's like,
sees this shape and thinks that somebody's gonna help him,
and then it's some mean it takes his eyes. Right.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
Yeah, I would say that, except last night I watched
it again and I was like, but wait, his glasses
are way too thin, especially way back when, because I
have horrible eyesight, and y'all when I say I have
to get those special duty glasses where it thins them out,
it's literally hundreds of dollars to make it thinner, because
if not, I would have the bottled capped glasses. Yeah,
(15:35):
there's no way his hotsite.
Speaker 2 (15:36):
Was that bad judgment?
Speaker 4 (15:42):
Yeah, When they turned to is a point of view,
I was like, there's no way it was that bad.
Like he may have had trouble seeing for sure, but
it would have been that bad. Those glasses were way
too thin.
Speaker 2 (15:51):
Maybe his night vision so bad there.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
Was nothing about night vision on those glasses. Then he
couldn't have seen in the first place.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
That's true, That's what I saw.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
I was like, wait, because I'm so aware, like I
just recently bought some wor glasses and I had to
pay an extra fee to make it not you know,
bottom of like it's really sad y'all anyway, But yeah,
so I just I think he's his eyesight was not
as bad.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
As I love this.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
I love when you see a movie with anybody with
a certain profession and after they leave their like, actually, yeah, I'm.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Not gonna lie. It's definitely like anything I see with
the social work involved are in like school law and
when i'm you know, juvenile detention stuff. But that's not
how that goes, but you know whatever. By the way,
when this is all happening, he stumbles on Benny, who
can speak many languages, and starts praying to every god
there is. And when he says, oh, you're speaking the
language of my slaves, he assumes that he could, you know,
(16:46):
serve him, and so promises Benny a fortune if he
helps the Mummy regenerate, which of course involves killing all
the Americans and retrieving the jars. And because he is Benny,
he says, of course, yes, yes, please, let's do this.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
Yes, yes, So now the Mummy and has got a
little psidekick, Benny Henchman.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Now that's better. So Evie refuses to leave like they
fled the scene and they're back in a city. They're
back in Cairo, I believe, but they're like.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Evie refuses to leave until she can put a stop
to the curse, despite Rick's attempts to convince her otherwise.
And more and more of the plagues are starting out.
The water turns into blood. They're slains in the sky,
darkness descends, even though it's.
Speaker 2 (17:25):
The middle of the day.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
The Mummy arrives, kills one of the Americans, kisses ev
while she is asleep, again, calling her a Oxona moon.
Rick arrives and scares him away with a cat. As
you know cats regardings of the underworld, in Egyptian mythology,
and the group meets up with a member of the Magi,
artist Bay and the Egyptologist at the library ev works at,
who also works with the Magi, and they realize that
(17:50):
the Mummy is planning on using Evie as a sacrifice
to bring back his beloved a Oxuona Moon. Evie is
able to correct a mistranslation to learn the location of
the Book of the Living, which should be enough to
destroy the Mummy, and it's a Bimbage scholar mistranslation, so
that's a powerful moment. But the Mummy corners them after
killing all the Americans and fully regenerating himself, so now
(18:11):
he looks human and Edy agrees to go with him
in order to save the rest of the group.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
Right, So Rick and Jonathan and the Magi are at
Bay Sexy self make their way to Haminaptra, fight their
way through the mummy five priest a half resurrected a
knocks on the Moon and the Mummy himself, and succeed
in killing him thanks largely to Evie's wits, and escape
the collapsing city. Of course, then Rick and Evie kiss
(18:36):
after they're like, oh, you know, I didn't get anything
out of that that are any treasures, and Rick says, oh,
I don't know about that, and they read right off
happily ever after, of course, until the second one of comes. Right.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
Yeah, that's always a funny thing when a movie, and
so happily after ever but then you know there's a sequel,
so you're like, well, sure.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
Yeah, to give it sometimes, yeah, sometimes.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
And I just wanted to put in here because every
time I watch this, I think that this. Even as
a kid, I remember believing like Emy's armpits were so
well shaved, and I.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
Was like, did women do that back then or did
they get that close? Like I don't know, but every
time that sticks out to me.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
That's true.
Speaker 3 (19:17):
All right, So that's the Mummy, And now I guess
we should talk about the Mummy Returns the Mummy Too.
But first let's pause for a quick break for a
word from our sponsor, and we're back, Thank you sponsor.
Speaker 4 (19:44):
Okay, So, yes, the Mummy Too or the Mummy Returns
as actually correct. Honestly, I love all of the Mummy movies.
I know they're not great, not all of them are winners,
but yes, I love them, and I just really wanted
to make any watch this because she refuses to do so.
And honestly, I would have chosen to do the third
one two, but I thought it maybe too much for
(20:05):
her to handle, so I gave it up. But I mean,
come on, Russell long Gently and Michelle Yao. They're some
of my favorite actors and I really do love who
they are and the fact that they are part of
this franchise too.
Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, and okay, so Samantha was very adamant that we
watched this, and I'm actually not even sure why I'm
so resistant to it, but I watched it last night.
I kept putting it off and putting it off, and
I was like, well, I guess I'd better watch it.
And then after it was over, I checked the outline
and yeah, we so this was happening. We're recording it
(20:39):
the day after, and I had a moment because Samantha
hadn't added anything to the outline about then returns, where
I thought she had played a prank on me and
tricked me into watching it.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
And I was like ourge.
Speaker 4 (20:55):
By the way it was done. But I did have
a moment of like, what if I just deleted all
that part she put it in about the Mummy too
and just moved on.
Speaker 3 (21:03):
I would have been furious. So like last night, I
was fuming, even though for all I knew you were
going to we.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
Were going to talk about it, but even the possibility, right,
it wouldn't be a good break.
Speaker 4 (21:16):
But fortunately for everyone around, it's not a prank. And yes,
we are going to talk about it. Very briefly though,
because we are mainly going to focus on the original.
But I just had to put a very quick synopsis
so we can all bask in this glory of the sequel.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Sure, all right, So I like the first movie. We
have the opening scene that begins with a legend, the
Legend of the Scorpion King, played by the one and
only the Rock, Dwayne at the Rock Johnson, who I
believe this is one of his first acting It was
a first actually, yeah, and I that was one of
the first things I texted Samantha last night was Wow,
(21:51):
the acting is.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
He's improved a lot, I'll say.
Speaker 3 (21:54):
And yeah, So he the Scorpion King became the Scorpion
King by giving his soul to the god I knew this,
who takes him after giving him victory over his enemies
with the help of his army. So there's just like
the Scorpion King Laura's again with the army of the
dead thing. And then we cut to the O'Connell's rickin
Evelyn Evy with their son Alex and yeah, they're still
(22:17):
getting into mischief by digging up things they shouldn't. Yeah,
archaeologists that keep digging things up. And it is really
funny because it plays on the whole how many mummies
and dead armies and things can we raise?
Speaker 2 (22:29):
And they seem to have just accepted this, I guess.
Speaker 3 (22:32):
So they discover a new treasure, the bracelet of a
nuboza oh, which is a huge mistake. And as they
discover it, they also learned that there is a trap
that for anyone who removes it too late.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
Do they see the inscription saying like don't open this warning.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
You And we cut to like waters from the nile
rushing into their dig site where are they almost drowned?
But by chance, their son, who was trying to protect
the site from some shady thieves, breaks through the wall,
leasing them in yew. That's the pillar scene that's very
reminiscent of how we meet ev in the first one, right.
Speaker 4 (23:06):
And poor kid I really like him, but his acting
is on par with the rock as well. Just going
with that out there. All the while, Ev is having
visions as if she was present during the time of
the pharaoh Seti and is able to know where everything
is mysteriously as if she's been there before. Cut too,
we see a crew of the bad guys digging up
(23:29):
the mummy Emmotep, and the crew is led by the
reincarnation of Immotep's love a Noxana Moon, who, like Ev,
is able to know where things are without being there before.
And of course they bring him back to life and
try to retrieve the bracelet from the O'Connell's so that
Imotep can command the Army of Anubis and take over
the world. Unbeknownst to all the adults, Alex has actually
(23:51):
put the bracelet on and started the journey of the
Bracelet that will lead them to the Scorpion King.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Why does everybody want to rule the world with these armies?
I don't need to.
Speaker 3 (24:01):
Also just just note Phari Setti is the one that
a Noxuner Moon Emotep killed, so that's kind of the
visions EV's having.
Speaker 2 (24:09):
Alex is then kidnapped by the mummy and.
Speaker 3 (24:11):
The bad the bad dudes, which lead all of them
on a journey to get to the location of Scorpion King.
And we couldn't have a good mummy adventure without magi
Ardith Bay. He returns Evie's brother Jonathan, and this time
we added a dirigible. Of course, I was like, woh,
my god, flown by an old friend of Rick's Izzy
(24:34):
and some shrunken heads pygmy mummies to the mix. We
also discover that not only do we have the reincarnation
of a noxuoner Moon, but Princess nepher Titi, which turns
out to be Evi from a past life who was
the daughter of Pharaoh Seti. Uh yeah, again a Oxuna
moon and Emotep kills him and she she witnessed that
(24:56):
from like a balcony away and she is the protector
of of the bracelet as well. I guess we should
also say Rick is apparently some like guardian Yeah I.
Speaker 4 (25:06):
Tried to look that up, but yeah, somebody he is
the guardian of.
Speaker 2 (25:11):
He's like part of the magi think yeah.
Speaker 4 (25:13):
Yeah, brotherhood of sorts because he has.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
The two as they say.
Speaker 3 (25:19):
And yeah, this is where my whole dumb beetle past
life test comes from so as they arrived to get
Alex back and try to stop the Scorpion King. Eb
is killed and then brought back to life through the book.
At the Dead of course by Alex. She fights ANX
in the moon while Rick is fighting a really ridiculous
(25:41):
looking CGI of the Rock as a scorpion King. I'm
not exaggerating when I say this consistently comes up on
list of the worst CGI of all time, especially from
like a big budget movie.
Speaker 4 (25:53):
I think it was like I remember seeing this either
in the theaters I can't remember, but the audible laughter
of the in two years, seeing him come out of
the wall or the doors or the cave, and we
were all like.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
What, Yeah, that guy like appears out of nowhere, that
kind of top He was ahead of the British Museum.
Speaker 2 (26:16):
And he's sort of like top goon.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Yeah, he sort of appears and the Scorpion King rips
him into five pieces and I.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Was like, why is what.
Speaker 4 (26:24):
He's got to show strength?
Speaker 3 (26:26):
Yeah, they were trying to They were trying to show
what he could do with his little scorpion limbs. Again,
if no one's seen this, this is essentially the Rock
with the scorpion bottom right, he's the top half is
the rock.
Speaker 4 (26:38):
But it's all CGI, is all badly CGI, And at
this point in time, there's really no excuse about how
bad it was, why it was so bad.
Speaker 2 (26:48):
I'm sure that people working on it would argue, do you.
Speaker 4 (26:52):
Think so I've seen? But that's the thing is, like
we've seen so much better.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
Why, Yeah, they were working things out back then. I
don't know. I don't know.
Speaker 3 (27:02):
Okay, she'd made the Mummy noise noise. So as these
fights are going, Ev races in, so does the NOx
in the Moon.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
See they're kind of loves in this battle.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
Although Emo Tep is really thrown Rick under the bus,
which I get, but yeah, whatever. So Rick is able
to kill the Scorpion king, and Emotep and Rick are
both like hanging precariously over this chasm of dead souls
heale essentially yes, and they're trying to pull them the
these souls are trying to pull Rick in Emo Tip
(27:38):
down and the whole place is collapsing. EV runs in
and saves Rick, while Ox in the Moon abandons Emo
Tip and Imotep is so heartbroken he lets go and
presumably dies.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Who knows, Anyway, the escape a.
Speaker 3 (27:53):
Oxy moon gets eaten by the scare of beetles, but
Ev and Rick and Jonathan all the crew escape via dirigible.
Speaker 2 (28:02):
Did they ever explain how they fixed it and got
the guests? He found something old, right, I shouldn't ask
any questions. Eusy came through.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Yeah, So they escape and again happily ever after until
the next one comes along.
Speaker 4 (28:19):
I guess right, And there's a third one. And in
this one, we're not gonna talk anything, but I had
to mention it because I love it so much, just
the fact that they are now wealthy people. Oh yeah,
and they're no longer digging, they are now retired, and
they're both very bored. And yes, Rachel Weiss is no
longer there. It is now Maria Bellows. So it's not
(28:41):
Mummy three but The Mummy Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, which,
by the way, got a one star rating.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
We only talk about the finest films on the show.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
And also twelve percent on Rotten Tomatoes.
Speaker 3 (28:57):
The lowest we've ever hit. Pocus and Practical Magic. We're
like at twenty twenty eight percent.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
Okay, o, go twelve percent on that, But eighty three
of the Google users like it, so hey, hey, okay,
maybe three percent. Sorry, So anyway, all of that is say,
they kind of jump into a new one where Alex
becomes an older archaeologist and is digging in China and
finds the Dragon Emperor and his vast army in the field. Whatever.
(29:28):
I'm not gonna go do into it, but it's fantastic
because I do love again those Asian actors, and I
think they're fantastic and to see them for just a
split second is delightful. But yes, that's the ridiculousness, like ooh,
I don't know how Rick O'Connell could possibly beat in
combat gently but okay, yeah the Dragon King who was
also magical and knows a lot of martial arts, but hey,
(29:51):
who cares?
Speaker 2 (29:52):
Right? Who cares?
Speaker 4 (29:53):
But yes, that one is also a franchise. But the
Mummy is no longer a motep. They've now moved on
to China. Kind of finished us this child a little bit,
but whatever, still a delight to me, a delight and
worth one watch, but not a second one to talk about.
But I just had to throw that in there.
Speaker 3 (30:09):
Yeah, I've only seen it once and the only part
I really remember is when it zooms in on should
be Rachel Weiss, and it's like it's like, I'm a
whole new person or something.
Speaker 4 (30:17):
Her line an American actor was not great English accent,
say she's a whole new person, which is true.
Speaker 3 (30:28):
That was one thing I noticed when I watched The
Mommy Returns, because I think I'd seen that like two
or three times before, but it's been I mean since
it came out. It was like a classic action sequel
in the sense that everything was way bigger. And Rick O'Connell,
like I love him, but he was doing things where
I was like, Wow, you've really upped your game. You
(30:48):
caught the knife, like over here, you're doing all kinds
of stunts. I'm very impressed.
Speaker 4 (30:54):
But right, and also we're not going to talk about
the side of the There was a whole franchise of
The Scorpion King, but yeah, oh yeah, that's right.
Speaker 3 (31:01):
Oh boy, that was also a one and done for
me in that movie. But if you're looking for a
laugh the Scorpion King, there you go. So all right,
now that we've gone through the plots of these we
did want to talk about some themes, but first we're
gonna pause for one more real quick for word from
our sponsor, and we're back.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
Thank you sponsor. So I did want to put a
disclaimer in here that maybe I should have put it
at the top.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
But whatever, neither of these movies, or I guess none
of these movies, if we're gonna count with third one
would be a movie that pops into my head if
somebody asked me, like, name a feminist movie. Like if
I was trying to list feminist movies, I might get
to the nineteen ninety nine Mommy, but it would be way, way,
(31:57):
way way down the list. But then, you know, honestly,
I have some trouble thinking of feminist movies when people
ask me. So I don't know, but it's definitely not
something that it would come to mind for me until
the listener suggested it. The first one doesn't pass the
Bechdel test, I don't think. I don't think the second
(32:17):
one does either. Not that that's the end all be
all of feminist movies, but of note, and there are
definitely some problematic sayings in all of them, but there
are some excellent feminist elements too, particularly in the character
of ev. So let's start with her, and I'll be
focusing on the first one. So Evie is a really competent, smart, funny, determined, adventurous, charming,
(32:44):
and decisive character. Most of the plans she comes up
with them on her own, quickly and under pressure. I
also really appreciate how she's just sort of she's really
quick to anger or to be happy, like she's just yeah,
I don't know, firey or so, I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:00):
Oh, I like it.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
She is feminine in a dress and with her long hair,
but that doesn't hold her back. She still has a
lot of agency and in a flip, her brother Jonathan
is the mess up in their family. Although it's kind
of funny because, especially in the beginning, I feel like
there's this vibe where I guess she thinks she's the
screw up in the family, but compared to Jonathan, she's
(33:21):
definitely not right.
Speaker 2 (33:23):
Evie is the one that gets to Hamnatcha first.
Speaker 3 (33:25):
She's the one that decides to stop the Mummy after
she brought him back, but she accepts her fault in
that she's the one to correctly translate something from the
Bimbage scholars that they had messed up, and this is
all after they consistently rejected her she's the one that
helps Jonathan translate an Egyptian inscription that saves them. And
(33:46):
this is while she's being attacked and strangled by a
Knox sunamoons mummified half alive corpse.
Speaker 2 (33:51):
Well, you know, there's that to distracting.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
And I love her reaction when Jonathan accidentally drops the
Book of the Living into that pool and has the
city is collassing.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
She stops and is like, what have you done?
Speaker 3 (34:04):
They have to drag her away because she's just so
passionate about these things.
Speaker 4 (34:08):
Yeah, she's a scholar. Yeah, And Evie generally serves as
the leader of the group. Obviously, she's the one that
that's like, we need to go dig here instead of
let's do this this way. And Rick is the muscle,
you know. Even in the second one, she does the
same thing. She leads them to where they need to
go and she's like here, you know, start working. And
then he uses the bigger tools because of course he's
(34:29):
a man and he's comfortable in that position and comfortable
following her lead. The only time Rick takes the lead
is during physical situations or obviously when EV's not there,
and he he pretty much listens to her and trusts her,
follows her lead without complaint, and when they do disagree
or argue, they do as equals. So that's nice.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Yeah, yeah, And I mean it is funny because she
is leader and often, especially in the second one, which
again I hadn't seen in a very long time, but
he's like, are you have to do this? And she's like,
for yes, She's just so adventurous and passionate about these things,
and he's kind of resigned to Okay, okay, I guess.
(35:10):
And I would argue that the first movie especially is
driven by her and Rick just follows her. I think
you could make a good argument that she's the main character.
At the very least. They kind of share that role
of main characters. And even when Evie is the damsel
in distress in the first one, it is by choice
to give the group the best chance of success. She's
(35:32):
not a passive victim, she is not cow. During her imprisonment,
she does use her ef femininity to kiss Emotep and
distract him from killing her friends. She threatens and vox binny,
which I do love. That seems she's like always He's like,
oh no. She helps her brother translate the inscription while
she's being attacked, and she's the one that reads the
(35:55):
passage that renders the mummy as mortal and allows Rick
to kill him.
Speaker 4 (36:00):
And in the second one they do blame her for
killing Emotep, and that's why they kidnap her because they
won't revenge against her. They could care less about Rick.
They obviously blame her as they should, as well as
the fact that when you look at the second one,
it's her and a NOx on a moon who are
the protectors of pretty much the realm, whether it's the
bracelet or the Pharaoh. They protect, and they were chosen
(36:20):
to protect and fight, so it's kind of interesting to
get that. And yes, she actually gets to fight a
little bit in this one where she has some sore
play and play with size, even of course it was
very obvious it wasn't her during those scenes. But so
nice to think on and of golf. Of course, we
could also talk about the constant use of white women
(36:42):
with dark hair for characters like Neffherkadie and Cleopatra, but
that's a whole other conversation because she is supposed to
be a lineage of that in English as well. From
what I understood from the first one, right, her mother
was Egyptian, her father was Oh yeah, yeah, but you
know whatever, they know, we know all know this has
to be a stretch to tie things together perfectly, to
(37:02):
bring it to one. But yes, in both movies that
she also saves Rick, whether she saved them from the
gallows or she saves them from the pet of Hell obviously,
so she is the hero in both of these things.
They also still follow her footsteps in the second one,
and she even has her maternal instincts as a drive
and a push for this one as well to get
her son back. So yeah, you know, she's the main character.
(37:25):
I would agree with that.
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Yeah, I definitely think so.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
She's the leader for sure, absolutely, And I did want
to talk about the relationship aspect between Evie and Rick,
because Rick is clearly attracted to more than just her looks,
which is unfortunately kind of rare in these adventure action
adventure movies. He gives her the tools that he stole
(37:51):
because he knows that she's passionate about what she does
and good at what she does, and he wants her
to be able to lead them and find what she
wants to find. And Rick doesn't pursue romance with her
like most male characters from these adventure movies do. He
isn't showing off for her. He's just kind of this consistent, capable, respectful,
(38:13):
kind tender in the way that he follows her and
respects her. That's really allowed in male characters in this genre.
And also you do see, like as we mentioned when
we were doing the plot synopsis, you see Evie kind
of pining after him, which is rare too. Like normally
it's just like it's the guy's perspective and he and
(38:35):
she's just over the moon about him and so smitten
with him, and it's very one dimensional.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
But in this she's like it's equally.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
You can tell that they're both charmed equally by each other,
which is nice and yeah, pretty pretty rare for this
genre or especially at that time, right, And it does
continue in the second one, you do you see them
bill on that on this trust and like loving and
care and being on this equal ground and having their
(39:07):
like areas of expertise right where they trust that their
partner to handle this part of it or this part
of it, and the very accepting of each other, I would.
Speaker 4 (39:18):
Right, I think, Yeah, in the second one, you definitely
see the relationship of them compromising, because they do still
go on adventures. They do go on a dangerous sight digging, yes,
but she gives in by saying, let's not go to
the next one. Now, let's go ahead and say here.
And of course they also have to add that the
Bimbridge scholars have been begging her of course for them now,
(39:42):
so that did equal out. We do get to see
all of that. You see the conversations they have as parents,
but at the same time still being madly in love,
so of course they have to one up that one
as well. So it is good to see that type
of relationship. We also see Jonathan still being a rake,
as they would say, and watching bridgerden y'all, it's it's
(40:02):
sleeping that language is sleeping in. But yeah, so you
see that as well, and I found that really of
course on par like with everything else, his greed and
his playboy acting, I guess. But it's also fun to
see their relationships still intact, and him being pretty childish
(40:22):
still and them kind of taking care of him.
Speaker 2 (40:25):
Yeah, of course, troublemaker for sure, Yes, yes, and I
did it. I did appreciate that.
Speaker 3 (40:30):
You get to see Evi and Rick separately as being
I would say good parents are very caring parents, like protective,
so you do, like it's kind of understood often that
you're going to see the mother in those maternal.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Instincts, but you did with Rick.
Speaker 3 (40:45):
You really saw him being protective and his paternal protective
instincts too, so that was nice. And yeah, you do
have the comparison of because this whole thing starts with
the NOx suner mood an Emo tap trying to be together,
although I guess now after the second one you could
(41:06):
argue that a Noxyny Moon really wanted power and ultimately, yeah,
and that moment and the end of the second one
where Evie and a k Oxunamun are watching their their
husbands like I don't know if Moon is maritimetap, but
you know, lovers in danger and ev decides to save
Rick and a noxnymum flees. I always thought that part
(41:29):
was interesting, that there's like which one is the true
love and that you know, you still have this sort
of a oxy Moon throughout is kind of painted as
this power player who's got something else going on, which
is pretty common among female villains.
Speaker 4 (41:45):
Right. The thing is like the first one, she was
not the villain. She was definitely someone you felt sorry
for because we don't see. What we don't see is
that the pharaoh's kind of evil. He keeps her as
a slave, essentially, like he calls her protector, and we
talk about that. But essentially she has no choice because
we know that her body paint is to show her purity,
that she would only be touched by him, right, And
(42:06):
so she was in love with another man. So it's
kind of a sad story in himself. But at the
same time, he'll become a mummy kill everyone else.
Speaker 2 (42:14):
The moral of the story.
Speaker 4 (42:16):
That's not cool.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
The moral of the story. Yeah, I think we could
end on that.
Speaker 3 (42:22):
Thanks again to the listener who suggested this and the
blog post lean in Red Dress. I know that that
blog post was written after another podcast really tore into
this movie for not being feminist.
Speaker 2 (42:33):
So yeah, we're just presenting a different point of view.
We know it's not the most feminist.
Speaker 4 (42:42):
It's definitely not the most feminist, but it is this
enjoyable and there are some things to take away from
for sure.
Speaker 2 (42:47):
Oh yeah, and like I said at the top, Evie
still holds up.
Speaker 3 (42:51):
Ev is still a pretty great character, so if you
haven't seen it, we highly recommend it.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
Samantha recommends the other two as well.
Speaker 4 (42:58):
Go for it. Just go ahead and enjoy it, enjoy,
get your favorite drink. Go.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
I agree, and in the meantime, we would love to
hear from you listeners, especially if you've got suggestions for
what our next movies or movie should be. You can
email us at Stuff Media, mom Stuff at iHeartMedia dot com.
You can also find us on Instagram at stephone Never
Told You or on Twitter at mom Stuff Podcast. Thanks
is always to our super producer Andrew Howard. Oh, thanks
(43:25):
and thanks to you for listening stephone Never Told You
to protection from iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit
the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or where you listen to
your favorite shows.
Stuff Mom Never Told You News
Hosts And Creators
Anney Reese
Samantha McVey
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.