The Mummy Returns (2001)
- During the filming of The Mummy Returns, Brendan Fraser improvised one of the most famous lines in the movie.
- Before Brendan Fraser was cast, several major A-list stars turned down the lead role because they felt the script was too risky.
- Eagle-eyed viewers have noticed a hidden easter egg referencing Stephen Sommers's previous film in the background of the opening scene.
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American action-adventure fantasy directed by Stephen Sommers, the sequel to his 1999 hit. Set in 1933, ten years after the events of the original, the film finds Rick and Evelyn O'Connell, played by Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz, now married with a precocious eight-year-old son Alex who accidentally activates the Bracelet of Anubis, a powerful artifact that summons both the resurrected Imhotep, played by Arnold Vosloo, and the ancient Scorpion King, whose army of Anubis warriors could destroy the world. The race to Ahm Shere, the legendary oasis where the Scorpion King's pyramid awaits, pits the O'Connells against Imhotep and his cult while Alex must survive wearing a bracelet that will kill him if not removed at the pyramid before sunrise.
The Mummy Returns was bigger, louder, and more effects-heavy than the original, trading the intimate adventure charm for large-scale spectacle including pygmy mummy warriors, a wall of water chasing a double-decker bus through London, and an airship battle over the Egyptian desert. Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson made his film debut as the Scorpion King in a memorable opening sequence, though his fully CGI appearance in the climax was widely criticized as one of the era's most unconvincing digital effects. The film earned $433 million worldwide on a $98 million budget and launched Johnson's acting career through a Scorpion King spin-off.
