Goofs for
The Mummy (1999) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Dawn in the desert strangely creates mid-day shadows.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Beni's shadow is not cast by the torch that he is carrying, but by some other source of light.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Imhotep takes the Burns' (the American man with eyeglasses) eyes when he begins to become human again. While Burns is very near-sighted, it's been established that Imhotep doesn't receive the actual organ he steals (if he did, he'd appear to be even more of a patchwork creation). In the novel of the film and script, however, it's been stated that Burns, having poor eyesight, gave his faulty vision to the mummy when his eyes were taken. The concept was furthered in the script when Imhotep uses a pair of spare eyeglasses to fully see Burns and kill him.
  
  

• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Beni is bringing bags of treasure out of the city of the Dead, he loads the bags on camels. The camels were left behind by the French Foreign Legionnaires, as explained in the novel, though the camels would likely not have survived as long if the Legionnaires abandoned their camels in 1923 and expeditions came back in 1926. And the camels shown are not likely to be those of the expeditions, as only five people among them (O'Connell, Evelyn, Jonathan, the Warden, and Beni) rode camels. The rest rode horses, with the exception of the Egyptologist, who rode a donkey.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the opening shot of Thebes, pyramids are visible, but there were no pyramids built around Thebes.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Beni jumps out of the window and breaks it. When Imhotep breathes out the flies, Rick and Jonathan close the unbroken shutters, not the broken window.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Although the 2,000-year-old mummy of Anck-Su-Namun is dead, you can see a pulse beating in her neck under the bandages and again when Imhotep passes his hand over her face.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Rick, Jonathan, Winston and the Americans are sitting at the bar in Fort Brydon (after the introduction of Winston), you can see a crew member looking at his watch on the very left side of the screen.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick and Evelyn argue about leaving Egypt and she slams the suitcase on his hand, he grabs a stuffed animal and exits the room with it. Outside the door to the room it is gone.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: While on the boat, O'Connell confronts Beni. You hear the sound of a handgun being cocked. Yet, when the .45 is shown, the hammer is still down.
  
  
• Factual errors: O'Connell repeatedly fires more than six shots from a six-shot revolver without reloading. Daniels also fires 12 shots on the boat.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the lid is taken off Imhotep's coffin, Evie looks at the carving- Death Is Only The Beginning. The beetles presumably ate away his bandages, freeing his hands.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the opening scene where Rick & Beni are crouching behind the wall with their buddies ready to shoot the approaching armed horsemen and the camera is panning along the side of the galloping horsemen. In the background is a quite visible camera stand and two camera operators shooting the scene from another angle.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At the time, regular air travel consisted mainly of mail routes, which would have little reason to fly over (and thus see) the city of the dead.
  
  
• Continuity: Notice the gunshot-wound that one the Americans of O'Connell's entourage has in the car-chase sequence when he is unsuccessfully fighting off Imhotep's followers in the village. The scene in which it was established that he got shot was cut from the movie when it turned out to be too long. (Source: director's commentary on DVD-release)
  
  
• Factual errors: When Evelyn and Rick climb down into the vault under the statue, Evelyn uses mirrors to illuminate the chamber. You see the light passing from one mirror to the next. The speed of light is way too fast to be tracked like that.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Evie and Rick are running from the flaming balls falling from the sky in the courtyard of the fort, the light is too bright for an overcast day (which we can see that it is from the shots of the sky).
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Imohtep is scared by the cat on the piano, you see the cat's paws hit the piano keys. The last pitch played does not match the corresponding key that the cat stepped on.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Americans and the British are racing to the City of the Dead, the sun is behind the city. Their shadow goes off to the left, meaning that the sun is to the right of them. If they were racing towards the city their shadow should be behind them.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Imhotep has "eaten" the blonde haired man, and the bug crawls up his face, you can see the edges of the appliance used to create the CG holes in his skin.
  
  
• Factual errors: The "Royal Air Corps" has never existed. It was the Royal Flying Corps until 1918 and has been the Royal Air Force ever since.
  
  
• Factual errors: When they seek Winston's help, the Victrola is playing at 33 rpm. Victrolas only play at 78 rpm; long-playing (33 rpm) records did not appear until the '50s.
  
  
• Continuity: While Rick, Jonathan and Ardeth are shooting Imhotep's priests in the treasure room, Jonathan switches from the left side of Rick to the right side of him.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The term "salt acid" is used; while no longer in use, this is an old name for hydrochloric acid. The term is also still used for salts of partially neutralized polyprotic acids, as NaHSO4 or NaHCO3.
  
  
• Continuity: When O'Connell flies back to Hamunaptra he is wearing a black scarf around his neck. In the following scenes the scarf disappears then returns a few times.
  
  
• Continuity: When the warden who gets the beetle in his brain runs into the wall, his shirt is untucked. The camera changes angle and it is tucked in.
  
  
• Continuity: When Beni is looking for the black book in the office, he gets caught by O'Connell. When they are standing under the fan, you hear the scream of the Egyptologist. They all look toward the camera but when Beni runs out the window behind them, the Egyptologist is there.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Pharaoh's guards lock Imhotep in the sarcophagus by turning the knob to the left. Later, when Jonathan, Evelyn and Rick are opening the sarcophagus, they also turn the knob to the left. Apparently that's how the locking mechanism works.
  
  
• Continuity: Rick places Evie's clothes in her suitcase. Evie grabs them out and puts them on the bench in the background. Later, she walks right in front of the bench and the clothes are gone.
  
  
• Continuity: Near the very end of the movie (just after Imhotep becomes mortal again), O'Connell runs Imhotep through with a very large sword. Imhotep's hands are placed over the wound, then taken away. As he looks at his hands, he sees blood, and the blood has run through his fingers to the backs of his hands. When he places his hands over the wound again, there is no blood visible on the backs of his hands or on his body.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: During the car chase through Cairo, film lights can be seen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the American "cowboys" are shooting at the Medji on the boat, they are all wearing earplugs.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick and Evelyn are traversing a tunnel in the city of the dead (near the beginning of the movie), Rick is wearing a leather band around his wrist which disappears and reappears between shots.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The codex-style books (pages, covers and binding) were not invented until the Roman Empire. Ancient Egyptians used scrolls. Therefore the Book of the Dead or book of Amun-Ra should not look like modern 'books' at all.
  
  
• Continuity: In the library, Evelyn drops a book from the top of the ladder, but in the next shot, it is nowhere in sight, and we never hear it hit the ground.
  
  
• Continuity: When Jonathan is attacked by the insect, Rick rips Jonathan's shirt open and cuts the bug from his shoulder. When we see them later on walking down into the gold-filled chamber, Jonathan's shirt is intact.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the yellow car pulls up to the hotel, the wheels on the car are not turning.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Evelyn is on the ladder unsupported by a bookcase, the stunt double is obvious, especially by his shoes.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the film, Seti I, the second pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty, is killed by Anck Su Namun, whereas, in fact, the historical Seti I died peacefully in his summer palace in the Nile Delta in 1279 B.C.
  
  
• Continuity: Just before the warden is killed you can see Rick's right wrist without his leather band, and his band-less wrist has no tattoo.
  
  
• Continuity: In the mummy prep room, the warden picks up his things twice.
  
  
• Continuity: When Jonathan gets the beetle in his shoulder and Rick pries it out with the knife, the shot shows Rick shoving the knife into Jonathan's shoulder; however, in the next shot, Jonathan has no evidence of a bandage or blood anywhere on his shoulder. He also appears to have full mobility of his arm.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick enters the room after Imhotep has killed Burns, he has only one gun out and ready. After the cutaway to Imhotep regenerating in front of the fire place, Rick has both guns out and ready.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Evey, Rick and Jonathon are running through the collapsing Hamunaptra, a pulley and cord are visible in the lower left corner.
  
  
• Factual errors: There are five canopic jars pictured in the chest. However, only four canopic jars were ever used during mummification. The heart was left in the body, and there for would not have had a corresponding canopic jar.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When O'Connell jumps off the ship into the Nile, his bag full of weapons floats when it hits the water.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the movie, Pharaoh Seti's mistress is called Anck-Sun-Amun and is a fictional character. A queen of that name lived more than a century before Seti I: it was Ankh-Sen-Amon, the wife of the now famous young pharaoh, Tut-Ankh-Amon. As with Imhotep, the film seems to use real known Egyptian names in completely fictional historical accounts.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick, Evelyn, Jonathon and the Americans come across Ardeth Bay and the curator in the museum, Rick, Jonathon and the Americans draw their guns. When the camera switches to the curator greeting them, Jonathon's hands come into screen as he draws his gun a second time.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Imhotep throws O'Connell into the group (Evy, Jonathan and Daniels) after consuming Henderson, the actor playing Daniels is clearly a stunt double.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While Ardeth, Rick and Jonathan are trying to dig through a cave-in, Jonathan's accent suddenly switches from English to Scottish when he says "Come on, put your backs into it!", then it returns to English for the remainder of the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: Both times, when the Arab horsemen are attacking Hamunaptra, the sound of ululation is heard. In the Middle East, this sound is traditionally made by women, and during times of celebration or grieving. It wouldn't be made by attacking men on horseback.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evie is showing the curator the map that Jonathon found, she points to the bottom right of the map and says "Hamunaptra." Yet when the curator "burns off the bit with the lost city," it is the left side of the map that catches on fire from the lamp.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: After Rick is thrown by Imhotep he says "no problem" even though his lips are not moving.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: After Beni is going through the Egyptologist's desk, Rick slams him into a table and a camera flash is clearly visible on the walls behind them.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the scene of Thebes, as we see Anck Su Namun enter, the nearest priest of Imhotep is wearing a wireless earpiece which is painted to look like an earring and becomes evident when he turns profile to the audience.
  
  
• Continuity: When Jonathan goes to start the yellow car, the car is facing away from the direction that they need to go. Within a split second as everyone else is running to get in the car, the car has turned around in the opposite direction. There wasn't enough time to turn the car around between the time that he started the car until the time that everyone else got in.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end where Rick, Jonathan and Evie are fleeing from the death city a huge dust cloud and collapse of rocks takes place. The three of them are running but the camels seem to take no notice of the dangerous situation. Some of them are lay on the ground and all of them are unimpressed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Jonathan was able to steal the key of the book of Amun-Ra Evelin, he opens the book and reads the hieroglyphics upside down.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evie is on the ladder, she's holding a book that she tries to put on the adjacent bookcase. When she drops the book, there is no sound of the book landing, and when she leans over and the ladder is supporting itself, the book is nowhere to be seen.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Imhotep is being placed in his coffin and they begin to pour scarabs over him, a few of the CGI scarabs come through the sides of the jar.
  
  
• Continuity: It has already been established that some of these beetles/scarabs break out of the golden shells that are part of the decoration on the wall and which allures it's prey. When Jonathan is attacked by the insect, the broken shell disappears as nothing falls away when he holds his hand up.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Imotep holds up Rick by the neck, a wire is visible behind Rick, clearly holding him up.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Cables and pulleys used to pull down the columns are briefly seen when Rick, Evey, and Jonathan are fleeing the destruction of Hamanauptra.
  
  
• Factual errors: Rick uses English when calling out orders to his fellow Legionaries. Only French is used in the French Foreign Legion; a rule that is strictly enforced.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the solar eclipse scenes, the city is surprisingly well lit. A total solar eclipse, as is depicted, would leave the affected area as dark as night rather than the dusk-light that is evident in the movie. After all, it was the "plague of darkness", not the "plague of reduced visibility".
  
  
• Continuity: On the river boat, the window that Evie half heartedly slams closed before brushing her hair has its' hinges on the right and closes on the left. A few seconds later when Rick bursts in, a Medji wielding guns appears in the window which now has hinges on the left and opens on the right.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The ancient Egyptians believed that there was a strong link between death and the compass direction west (where the sun "died" every evening). The fact that the adventurers see the sun rising over Hamunaptra as they approach it suggests that they have been traveling eastwards from the Nile, but if the ancient Egyptians had built a "City of the Dead" they would never have built it on the eastern side of the Nile.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evie steals the Book of the Dead from the Egyptologist, his left arm is around the book and his right arm is around a canopic jar. When he awakes, after Evie has read from the book, the jar is still cradled in his right arm as he sits up, but in the very next shot it is in his left arm with no time at all for him to have moved it there.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Rick and Evie are up on deck on the ship, and the deck is empty except for them, and Rick begins checking his guns, a crew member's shadow is visible behind Evie. It appears twice.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Evie's mirror trick for lighting the underground room would only work for a few minutes, at best. The movement of the sun across the sky would necessitate constant corrections in the placement of the mirrors.
  
  
• Factual errors: Evey's trick of reflected sunlight for illumination would require constant adjustment, as the Earth's rotation would quickly move the mirrors out of position.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: Every time we see Ardeth Bey at the beginning of the movie, he says the same phrase every time he talks, even though the translation is always different.
  
  
• Continuity: When the Egyptologist is running through the streets of Cairo, he is wearing the same outfit that he wore before in the film: a light colored suit, black vest, black patterned tie, gray scarf, and a fez. In the beginning of the film, his fez had a tassel, but when he runs, the tassel is gone. When the mummy kills the Egyptologist and the crowd is around the body, however, the Egyptologist's body has no scarf, tie, vest, or shoes; they are all surrounding the Egyptologist's corpse. The fez is still on his head and has a tassel on it.
  
  
• Continuity: Any character using the star "key" to operate the lock on a sarcophagus in earlier scenes turns it counterclockwise, and yet when used later in the film to open the Book of the Dead (and also the gold book), it is turned clockwise. In addition, whoever operates the "key" in each scene always knows which way to turn it on their first attempt, even if they have never seen either the key or the lock before.
  
  
• Continuity: When the men are at the bar, Mr. Henderson's bangs (hair) first seen as uncombed, but in a second shot, his bangs are combed.
  
  
• Continuity: In this movie, Rick has a tattoo on his right hand, the symbol of Amun-Ra. In "The Mummy Returns" however the tattoo "changes" to something more elaborate. This could have been explained as a "touch-up" or "addition" to the tattoo during the 7 years span between the movies, if it weren't for him saying (in the sequel) "...that's nothing. I got that slapped on at an orphanage in Cairo.." Which would be assumed to have been in his early childhood.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick, Evie, Jonathan and the Warden are beginning their first exploration, Rick pulls a gun out of his left holster when Evie informs him of where they stand is the preparation room for "the after life". When they are in the hallway and hear the bugs around them, Rick is holding a gun in his left hand and the gun he had drawn before was back in the holster.
  
  
• Continuity: O'Connell removes the scarab in Jonathan's arm by slicing into the skin, but when the scarab is flung to the ground, it is perfectly clean, without any evidence of the blood or tissue it should have been covered in.
  
  
• Continuity: When the scarabs are poured over Imhotep, they appear to begin devouring him gradually, a fact which Evelyn later confirms, stating that the beetles devoured a corpse "very slowly." However, whenever the scarabs devour anyone else later on in the film, they do so almost instantaneously.
  
  
• Continuity: When Imhotep kills the last of the Americans, Beni has a considerable amount of stubble on his face and a thicker mustache. When Imhotep corners the rest of the group after they crash the car, Beni has much less stubble and a more defined mustache.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Soon after the main characters pick up their camels, there is a left to right panning shot of them riding in the desert. At least five dust marks on the camera lens are revealed as pale shadows against the sand.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick is holding Beni against the wall on the boat, first his hammer is cocked and ready to fire, when it cuts back to Rick, the hammer is down.
  
  
• Factual errors: Evelyn says in the movie that they take out all your organs during mummification including your heart. It is believed that the Egyptians left the heart in the body because it was the seat of intelligence and feelings.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evey is talking to Rick by the campfire, since she's drunk, she tries to kiss him. The angle at which she's leaning changes multiple times. First, she leans to her right, then a different angle shows her leaning the opposite way. These shots alternate until the moment she passes out.
  
  

• Audio/visual unsynchronized: SPOILER: When Burns is crawling backwards, he says to Evie, "He took my tongue" (without a tongue, of course, so it is a throaty vocalization). Still, his lips do not match what he is trying to say.
  
  

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