The Mummy Returns

"Adventure is reborn."

2001 2h 10m EN

😐

6.4

MID

🥫

46%

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

6.4

IMDB

★6.4TMDB · 7,945🥫46%Rotten Tomatoes●48Metacritic★6.4IMDB · 362,637

AdventureActionFantasy

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Rick and Evelyn O’Connell, along with their 8-year-old son Alex, discover the key to the legendary Scorpion King’s might: the fabled Bracelet of Anubis. Unfortunately, a newly resurrected Imhotep has designs on the bracelet as well, and isn’t above kidnapping its new bearer, Alex, to gain control of Anubis’s otherworldly army.

“Adventure is reborn.”

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Cast

Brendan Fraser
Rick O'Connell
Rachel Weisz
Evelyn O'Connell / Nefertiri
John Hannah
Jonathan Carnahan
Oded Fehr
Ardeth Bay
Arnold Vosloo
Imhotep
Patricia Velásquez
Meela / Anck-Su-Namun
Freddie Boath
Alex O'Connell
Dwayne Johnson
Mathayus / The Scorpion King

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Stephen Sommers
Writers: Dean Clegg, Stephen Sommers
Languages: English, Arabic
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Mid-budget at $98M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

25 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Arabic.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "The Mummy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Stephen Sommers, shot by Adrian Biddle. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Bob Ducsay shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Stephen Sommers directs. Adrian Biddle behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Bob Ducsay cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English, Arabic.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Mid-budget at $98M — the now-extinct middle tier of Hollywood.
2Made its money back 4.5× over at the box office.
325 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Dialogue crosses 2 languages: English, Arabic.
5Part of the "The Mummy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
6Directed by Stephen Sommers, shot by Adrian Biddle. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Bob Ducsay shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz and John Hannah carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "Adventure is reborn.".
11IMDB entry: tt0209163 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
12Classified under 12 themes, including "egypt", "pyramid", "son", "mummy".

The technical file

Cinematography: Adrian Biddle
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Bob Ducsay
Production design: Allan Cameron
Costume design: John Bloomfield
Makeup / hair: Beatrice De Alba
VFX supervisor: Craig Barron
Sound: Leslie Shatz
Stunt coordinator: Steve Dent
Runtime: 130 min · 2h 10m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $98,000,000
Box office: $443,280,904
Return: 452% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: The Mummy Returns (2001)
Rotten Tomatoes: 46% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 48/100
IMDB rating: 6.4/10 · 362,637 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

6 wins & 19 nominations total

Part of

The Mummy Collection

The Mummy film series is a remake of The Mummy, loosely based on the original 1932 film. The first two films in the series were written and directed by Stephen Sommers.

Also by

Stephen Sommers

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

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Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

Gimly2017-06-21
★ 6/10
Suffers a little from the belief commonly held by sequels that "Bigger is better". Does expand the mythology (arguably not a positive), but more importantly is still a good time, thanks primarily to the relationship between the Brendan Fraser and Rachael Weisz characters. Final rating:★★★ - I personally recommend you give it a go.
Wuchak2019-12-07
★ 4/10
Bigger is NOT always better; here it’s overKILL I'm a fan of the first movie from 1999 and was naturally looking forward to this 2001 sequel. I originally saw it at the theater with two friends; after about 10-15 minutes we were all bored by the bombardment of action and F/X. We just laid back in our seats in tedium for the remaining couple hours. It's a curious thing that too much action and F/X in a film can be boring. It may not seem logical but it's true; and "The Mummy Returns" is Exhibit A. I usually give certain movies second and third chances in the hope that my first impression may have been in error, which I’ve done with this one over the years. Unfortunately I keep finding myself relatively detached from the story even though there are all kinds of exciting things going on; or, at least, things that SHOULD HAVE been exciting. "The Mummy Returns" has a lot going for it: A great cast, locations, costumes, cinematography, F/X, etc. (although some of the CGI is woefully cartoony, like the Scorpion King at the close). It has great Indiana Jones appeal. Unfortunately it all adds up to a forgettable piece of cinematic dung. What went wrong? Simply put, no substance. "The Mummy Returns" abandons the characters while the plot is utilized as a clothesline for action and F/X sequences. The flick curiously has so many ingredients right, but it somehow utterly fails to absorb the viewer. It is unadulterated cinematic JUNK. It should be utilized in filmmaking classes as the quintessential example of style over substance or overKILL: having all the right elements, including budget, and yet stupefyingly fumbling the ball. The film runs 2 hours, 10 minutes (overlong), and was shot in England, Morocco, Jordan and Egypt. GRADE: C-
John Chard2020-01-07
★ 7/10
Yeah, right, and no harm ever came from reading a book. You remember how that one went? After the financial success of "The Mummy" two years earlier, the sequel was inevitable. The big players from the first film are back, Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo and Oded Fehr. Stephen Sommers once again directs (and writes), Patricia Velasquez comes in to be a main player after her cameo in the first film, and young Freddie Boath plays the son of Rick and Evelyn who are now married. This time the cameo goes to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson who plays The Scorpion King and who is replaced by a very bad CGI version of himself at film's finale. When the second sequel, "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor" (2008), was released, Brendan Fraser went on record as saying that for "The Mummy Returns" they basically remade the film they had already made in 1999! This is absolutely true, some new characters and an expansion on the O'Connell romance have been put in to beef it up, while some Zombie Pygmies are around to add extra monster factor, but yes! It's a re-tread only with more money spent, more effects (and better effects apart from Scorpion King) and more noise. This actually is OK for those who enjoyed the first film immensely, because "Returns" is every bit as enjoyable as family blockbuster entertainment. The Worldwide box offices rang to the tune of over $330 million in profit. That's a lot of happy families you would think!. So yes, it's a bit of a cheat, but much like the film before it, it gets away with it because the makers do everything they can to entertain the action/adventure loving crowd. With legions of Anubis warriors, those awesome Pygmies and the all round funny by-play between a cast comfortable with the material (again), "The Mummy Returns" delivers exactly what can reasonably be expected of it. 7/10