12 Incredible Facts About “The Mummy” Franchise That Made Us Highly Appreciate The Movies

Jimmy Henton
Oct 12, 2022
Oct 12, 2022

“The Mummy” is a name that requires no introduction. Coming to the scene in 1932, the movie was initially rejected by test audiences, yet became a big fav of millions of moviegoers thereafter. Along with a unique horror-adventure story, the movies draw attention thanks to many top-notch scenes that really float the boat of audiences.When the scenes come to viewers, everybody believes that the filming production is grueling and the screw had to work at full throttle. In fact, everything behind the scenes is much more than people can imagine. From locating the scene in the real volcano to preparing special screws to keep actors hydrating while filming, that even makes us wonder how they could have gotten through that.
In this post, we’ve highlighted 12 crazy facts about “The Mummy” franchise. In the end, you will actually admire and appreciate all members of the movie crew, including producers, actors, and even supporters. Keep scrolling down to explore, and share with us your opinion.

#12 The Medjai were intended to be completely covered in tattoos

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

The Medjai were going to be tattooed from head to toe, but Stephen Sommers opposed it because Oded Fehr was "too good-looking" to be covered up. And we think he’s right!

#11 The actors on set had to drink a special brew every few hours

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

Filming in the desert has a slew of challenges, the most obvious of which is the intense heat. Because it's not quite practical to have a complete convoy of air-conditioned trailers large enough for the entire cast and crew to retreat into between each shot, The Mummy's production team had to devise another method of preventing dehydration. Then the medical crew on site devised a specific concoction that the actors had to drink for a couple of hours to help mitigate the risk of dehydration.

#10 Even the camels didn’t like the actor who played Beni

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

Beni, played by Kevin J. O'Connor, is a vile character in the film, and even the camels agreed. The camels refuse to move in the scenario where he packs them. This, on the other hand, was not written, and it appears that the camels decided to give their own spin to the picture.

#9 The scene in the library was filmed in just one take.

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

This scene is remarkably funny, yet its filming isn’t. In this scene, Rachel Weisz's Evelyn is putting books away in a library and accidentally causes a domino effect of many large wooden shelves falling down. Putting them all back on the shelf would have taken ages, but thanks to Weisz's excellent performance, the scene was shot in just one take.

#8 The movies were actually filmed in Morocco, not Egypt.

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

Although the first two films in the trilogy take place in Egypt, cast members were unable to film there due to a variety of issues. Instead, they chose Morocco as the setting, and what we see in the movies as early twentieth-century Cairo is actually Marrakech.

#7 Rachel Weisz’s role was inspired by a real-life person.

Source: © The Mummy / Universal Pictures and co-producer

Movies like The Mummy are frequently based somewhat on real persons and events but are primarily fictional. The fact that Evelyn Carnahan is based on a real-life, pretty notable person may be the most intriguing of the many little real-life details that provided inspiration for various aspects of The Mummy.

#6 Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez trained for months just for one scene.

Source: © The Mummy Returns / Universal Pictures and co-producers

Although stunt doubles might have easily been used for The Mummy Returns' fight scene, both actresses made the conscious decision to forgo this. Instead, they put in up to 8 hours a day of training over the course of 3 months to get in condition and be able to film the scene themselves.

#5 During filming, the actor who played Imhotep had to be fully shaved twice a day

Source: © The Mummy Returns / Universal Pictures and co-producers

For the duration of filming, Arnold Vosloo's character needed to be fully hairless on his entire body. Vosloo didn't want to repeat the uncomfortable waxing procedure, so staff personnel decided to shave his body twice a day instead.

#4 Tom Cruise was offered the starring role, but he turned it down.

Before Brendan Fraser, there were many big names considered for Rick O’Connell, yet many of them turned it down. Tom Cruise is one of those cases. It took him 2 decades to change his mind, and then he played the star in the 2017 reboot of The Mummy.

#3 Brendan Fraser nearly died while filming the gallows scene

While Evelyn strives to secure Rick O'Connell's release and ultimately saves his life, he is imprisoned and led to the gallows in one of the scenes. Fraser needed a rope around his neck for close-ups even though a stunt double was used for the body shots. The actor had to be resuscitated by the set EMTs after truly passing out during the second take when the rope was tightened to make Fraser's performance more believable.

#2 The Set mas made within a volcano.

Some of the movie's scenes were filmed on indoor soundstages, but other parts were shot on outdoor sets in the natural environment. In particular, the fictionalized ancient city of Hamunaptra from the film was actually constructed within a real, but dormant, volcano. The small things are what set a good film crew apart from a great one, even though it may seem like a lot of extra labor for something that most viewers won't even notice.

#1 Real rats and insects were utilized for some of the scenes

Rats and insects are the stuff of nightmares, especially for women. But in the movie, the rat crawling over Weisz while being tied up is real. And we can see the fear on her face seems to be real too. Besides, Jonathon Hyde (as Dr. Chamberlain) had to reshoot a scene in which locusts crawled over his neck, face, and head several times because it was hard for him to maintain the requisite straight face for the take.

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