We all know that Imhotep was one powerful dude, not to be messed with. Who else could raise a sandstorm in the desert? Though he did fall apart (quite literally) when faced with an innocent little cat! During the filming of the desert sandstorm scene, the camera operator struggled to capture the magnitude of the storm from the angle he was required to shoot Arnold Vosloo’s back.
The wind machines kept blowing Vosloo’s cape up. Not only did this get in the way of capturing the scene, it revealed far more of Vosloo’s back side than the camera operator was willing to see. Poor guy!
Fully Sick
In The Mummy 2017, the actors and staff got sick for the sake of the film. They wanted the plane crash scene to look realistic, so they took over the highway. They used The Vomit Comet and parabolic flight to appear like they were weightless. They had to retake 64 times and, each time, had to fight the urge to purge.
Director Alex Kurtzman suggested at first that they try shooting the scene using harnesses and a rotating set. Tom Cruise stepped in and insisted that wasn’t good enough, and they needed to go to whatever length necessary to make the scene real, believable and spectacular. While you’ve got to admire him for this, it seems Cruise made everyone on-set sick to their stomachs with his perfectionism!
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Cloak
Did you know that some costume rental companies let movies share the same wardrobe? Angels, a British costume rental company, lent The Mummy a cloak to be worn by one of the extras in the film. While it didn’t take a starring role, that cloak was no ordinary piece of attire.
It was none other than the cloak used by Alec Guinness when he played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, way back in 1977. What a second life for such an eminent piece of clothing to have! We wonder if it’s back, lurking in the racks at Angels, awaiting its next resurrection.
A Swarm of Locusts
No self-respecting fan of The Mummy could possibly forget that locust swarm scene. If we were to tell you that scene had to be shot over and over again before they finally got the deceptively simple footage they needed, you’d likely imagine the issue was something to do with the difficulties of locust-wrangling.
In actual fact, the reason that scene took so much time and agony to capture was due to the cameras. They just couldn’t focus on the small, fast-moving locusts. Yet it was essential to capture the face of Jonathan Hydes being drowned by a swarm of locusts in epic detail! Confounding the issue, was the fact that Hydes (very understandably) struggled to stay calm and in character with locusts crawling all over him. Funny that!
Imhotep IRL
Imhotep was the imposing bad guy we all loved to hate. The real-life Imhotep, however, is a figure worthy of admiration, who did a whole lot to support the growth of Egypt. Considering his characterization in the film, it’s ironic that the name “Imhotep” actually means “one who comes in peace.” Imhotep was a Pharaoh’s chancellor, and it was said that he was the architect of the first pyramids, one of which was the Pyramid of Djoser.
People in ancient times believed that Imhotep came from the gods, because of his unparalleled talent. He was actually not just a celebrated architect, but also a community physician. Imagine how he might’ve reacted if he’d been told that, thousands of years in the future, he would be portrayed as a vengeance-seeking, world-destroying mummy?