The Mummy (1999) Is Now Free to Watch on YouTube

No one really knows why a movie works. Hollywood is a century old, and it still struggles to read an audience that keeps changing. We are now in an era of remakes and IP grabs, and decades-old stories have become the studios’ easiest bets. That is poor ground for creativity, but movie fans take their wins where they can.

One property ready for a big return is The Mummy, a somewhat generic horror character with a long film history. In 1999, a fun and romantic take on The Mummy redefined the concept for a generation. Starring Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, the film launched a franchise and became a gateway into the action-adventure genre. A new sequel has now been announced, and fans are cautiously excited.

Production on The Mummy: The Book of the Dead began early last month, with a release set for late 2027. Radio Silence, the filmmaking duo behind Ready or Not and the Scream reboot, is directing. The original cast returns, including Fraser, Weisz and John Hannah.

The 1999 film is also streaming for free on YouTube. That makes it a good moment to revisit this Millennial favorite, or to watch it for the first time.

The Mummy takes place in Egypt in the mid-1920s. Rick O’Connell (Fraser), an American serving in the French Foreign Legion, sits in prison with a hanging sentence. His luck turns when Evelyn Carnahan (Weisz) bargains with the warden and gets him released. She and her brother Jonathan (Hannah) own a puzzle box that holds a map to Hamunaptra, the lost City of the Dead, where a pharaoh’s treasure is said to lie. They believe O’Connell is the best guide to the site.

During the search, Evelyn finds a locked black book hidden in the ruins. It is the Book of the Dead, an ancient text that can bring the dead back to life. She reads a passage aloud and unknowingly wakes Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a high priest of ancient Egypt who is determined to revive his lover, Anck-su-namun (Patricia Velasquez).

The Mummy knows how to have fun

The plot of The Mummy is nothing revolutionary. It is efficient, though. The story moves its heroes from place to place at a zippy pace, backed by good jokes and serviceable action. Fraser gives one of the most memorable performances of his career, and Rick became a key action hero of the era. He is handsome and capable, and also dumb. When a screeching, crumbling mummy comes at him, Rick screams back and then shoots.

Evelyn balances him. She is a brilliant librarian and Egyptologist whose sharp observations and historical knowledge keep the story moving. She is guilty of reanimating the mummy, but she is so intoxicated by the material that it is hard to fault her. It is even charming.

The brawn-versus-brains pairing is a big reason the film works. It is as if the filmmakers split Indiana Jones into his two main traits, put them in separate characters and had them fall in love. The story needs both Rick and Evelyn. The great romance that results is icing on the cake.

If any of this suggests The Mummy was critically acclaimed on release, I should correct that. It was not. The film did well at the box office and inspired two sequels, but critics were mixed and picked at the story and script. Most still admitted it was fun. Roger Ebert wrote that he was “cheered by nearly every minute of it.” He gave the film three stars out of four.

The Mummy has been remade twice in recent years. Tom Cruise led the first attempt, which was meant to launch a cinematic universe to rival Marvel and DC. The film bombed at the box office, and the universe was quietly dropped, even though Javier Bardem, Russell Crowe and Johnny Depp were already on board.

Fraser summed up the problem best. “The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in the new one, was fun,” he told Variety in 2022.

The second remake was Lee Cronin’s The Mummy, a straight horror take about a missing girl who returns cursed. It was not fun at all. The marketing was terrifying, and the director’s name sat right in the title, but the film could not escape Fraser’s shadow. Weeks before release, Blumhouse, which produced it, went viral after tweeting, “BRENDAN FRASER IS NOT IN LEE CRONIN’S THE MUMMY.”

That is the thing with movies. Studios can research a project and follow trends closely, and they still can’t predict what audiences want or what will click onscreen. Chemistry that lifts average writing can’t be manufactured. We don’t know how the 2027 sequel will turn out, but it does have Fraser and Weisz.

The Mummy is streaming on YouTube.

Source: Polygon