Just A Moose @justmoosingaround - Tumblr Blog

what's so great about the mummy 1999?

are you ready for this?

it is the most wonderfully made, historically inaccurate, giddily fun, perfectly paced, goofy horror movie romance novel bullshit bonanza that has ever blessed the silver screen.

i mean it is just so beautifully full of every genre without being overwhelming.we’ve got: comedy, action, suspense, horror, romance, adventure, ancient aesthetics, and it’s a period piece. all perfectly balanced and blended into one movie.

and the characters are so LIT

we got our main babe, evelyn “motherfucking” carnahan, a super-klutz librarian, total history nerd, and certified badass/damsel in distress. she raises the dead on accident, because she cannot resist books, and has the guts to put that motherfucker back where he came from and literally saves the world.evie’s greatest hits:

“what is a place like me, doing in a girl like this?!”

*after totally destroying the library* “i’ve just made a bit of a mess in the library.”

“no harm ever came from reading a book.”

evelyn: *upon opening the tomb* “i’ve dreamt about this since i was a little girl.”rick: “you dream about dead guys?”

“oops.”

then we’ve got rick “brendan fraser” o’connell, your not-so-typical battle hardened gun slinger with a heart of gold. he seems filthy, rude, and a complete scoundrel at first, but then he turns into a literal puppy, with massive heart eyes, that worships the ground evie walks on.rick’s greatest hits:

*screams at mummy*

*screams at sand*

*screams at things that are illogical to scream at*

*screams*

next is our Comedic Relief Character™, jonathan carnahan, who also rises above his trope. he’s there for the laugh sure, but is never useless. he actively helps to move the plot along and isn’t just there. he also is the farthest thing from brainless and annoying.jonathan’s greatest hits:

evelyn: “have you no respect for the dead?”jonathan: “of course i do, but sometimes i’d rather like to join them.” same.

oh and that time he was like “IMHOTEP” and saved his own ass like that was so smooth, y’all know what i’m talking about right??

then there is ardeth BAE. he is the audience rolling his eyes because *sighs* white people. he’s tired of these motherfucking mummies in this motherfucking desert. literally prettier than everyone.(he has a much bigger role in the mummy returns, but is still so fab here)

and of course THE MUMMY. imhotep. actual emo. literally carved some poetry into the back of his sarcophagus when he was buried alive with flesh eating bugs, because he is that Extra™. just wants to bring his girlfriend back to life so he can make out with her without it being treason.

and all the side characters are also gr8.

now i wanna take a moment to talk about the romance. because it is so BEAUTIFUL. like usually in action movies it’s macho man undermines girl and they bone. not here. no time for that shit.

rick and evie have such a great relationship based on mutual respect and affection. they both cater to each other’s strengths and cover each other’s weaknesses. they are the literally definition of: “those two. in a fight, they’re lethal. around each other, they melt”

what else, i could literally talk about this movie all day.

the special effects have held up pretty well.the music score is GORGEOUS.the costumes are amazing.the makeup, especially for anck su namun, OH WOW.the george of the jungle era brendan fraser sign me the fuck up.rachel weisz.

so many good things.

it’s just great.

#i secretly rate every action movie from 0 to the mummy

it’s a beautiful mess of a movie that can be enjoyed by people of all ages and transcends time and posterity as the alpha mummy movie, and to those who disagree i beseech you:

microcosmicobservations

I want to organize local hikes where people from different specialties (geologists, botanists, entomologists, etc.) point out all the cool things they see and teach the others about it.

Crash

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

i think more haunted houses should have haunted clawfoot bathtubs that move and exist as separate, distinct demonically possessed entities

feral-renaissance-cat

Fun fact! Haunted bathtubs are an example of coevolution with haunted houses! As houses became more elaborate, haunted water fixtures changed to match the opulence. As such, the haunted hut and its symbiotic counterpart, the haunted well, gradually changed into the more inviting haunted estate with the haunted tub now being an internal parasite instead of an external one. You are correct, more haunted houses SHOULD have haunted clawfoot bathtubs because they promote the health of the house and indicate a functional paranormal ecosystem.

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

this website is so utterly detached from reality i love it

its-me-cryptotech

I just imagined a haunted house as a full on ecosystem that needs each haunted piece in order to function as a whole. So if one spirit is exorcised then the whole system goes nuts and eventually ceases to operate. Meaning that once an exorcism takes place the entire house suddenly gets 10x worse till balance is restored.

azzandra

“Listen, ma’am, we can’t just exorcise this one poltergeist, this is a load bearing poltergeist, ok? We remove this one, we may as well rip out the whole damn ectosystem.”

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

#velvet highbacked armchairs live at the top of the predatory chair hierarchy despite being pack poltergeists much like their haunted kitchenware counterparts #apex poltergeists such as haunted beds and chaise lounges and dining tables strongly dislike being moved

sorcererest-sorcerer

Haunted lamps flicker in alluring ways to attract mates. They typically lay only one or two bulbs at a time and guard them fiercely due to both their fragility and small numbers. A bulb eventually hatches into a spooky Halloween nightlight. This process has never been witnessed, and thus is not very well understood. The nightlights are entirely dependent on their outlets, and must still rely on the protection of their parents to survive. Only until they grow into their juvenile state, table lamps, can they leave their parents to explore their surroundings and find their first lampshade. Like hermit crabs, lamps must replace their shades periodically as they reach their adult state, the floor lamp.

tachyon-at-rest

Elaborate haunted carpets and bloodthirsty Persian rugs may seem like scavenging bottom feeders, and technically they are, but if stomped on or run upon they have been known to take down a full grown adult with ease.

Demonic doors are obviously capable locking/unlocking, jamming/releasing at will but their hinges only squeak when they are asleep so you only have to worry about the doors when it’s quiet.

demonicae

But Imagine: DOMESTICATED clawfoot bathtubs… running out of the bathrooms, shaking themselves off like dogs, trailing a shower fixture like a lead. Dropping soap at your feet and wagging its bathtub butt as it begs you to play fetch with it.

0verc00ked-simp

Where can I get a pet clawfoot bathtub…?

biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist

please adopt don’t shop!!!

followthebluebell

‘adopt don’t shop’ is all well and good but you need to remember that adoption isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to the clawfoot bathtub problem. A poorly bred clawfoot bathtub isn’t easy to take care of and can cause massive problems in a haunted house! People who adopt their tubs really ought to be aware of the risks of it and not just get swayed by the pictures of adorable tubs begging for a home. I don’t want to scare people away from it—- my childhood tub was a rescue and the sweetest thing ever; she used to steal the bottles of bubble bath when they were empty and store them in random places. Sometimes when she was bored, she’d just fill herself overnight and i’d wake up to a flooded bathroom.

now i can see that for what it was: a sign of understimulation and boredom. Getting her into a proper schedule of bathing and getting her into herding the dust bunnies that scurried across the library did WONDERS for her. honestly, i was incredibly lucky that she was such an easy case.

if you adopt a tub, you need to be ready for the possible baggage that comes with it. If your house absolutely needs a particular temperament, it may be better to buy from a breeder instead. Get involved with the community! The haunted house community is so open and accepting. Please come in. The door is open.

the door is open

sosuperawesome

Chotronette on Etsy

bard-owl

sharper-and-bigger

The Army of Poland employed a brown bear as part of an artillery team in the Second World War. His name was Wojtek (pronounced "voytek") and he worked in the 22nd Artillery Company.

In spring of 1942, after the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, thousands of Polish citizens and elements of the Polish military were deported from Soviet territory. They journeyed through Iran to British Palestine.

Along the way, they encountered an Iranian boy with an orphaned bear cub. According to the boy, the cub's mother had been killed by hunters. The teenage neice of a Polish general convinced an officer to buy the bear cub, which they nursed back to health and eventually made their mascot.

The bear was trained to perform a military salute, cuddle with soldiers on cold nights, and even march with them by standing on his back legs. He copied the soldiers in every way, even attempting to smoke cigarettes (he usually just ate them).

When the Polish army finally reunited with allied forces, they were assigned to join the invasion of Italy alongside the British 8th Army. However, the transport ships banned all pets and mascot animals.

The Poles refused to leave Wojtek, and got around the rule by drafting the bear into the army as a legally recognized soldier. He had his own personal records files, his own paycheck, his own dogtag ID number, and even held the rank of Private.

It wasn't symbolic, either. Private Wojtek actually participated in combat at the Battle of Monte Casino by carrying 100-pound crates full of artillery shells. It was a job that normal required four men, but Wojtek did it alone and perfectly, never dropping a single shell. His actions kept the artillery barrage well supplied until Allied forces finally seized the fortified mountaintop from Nazi paratroopers.

In recognition of his excellent performance, Private Wojtek was promoted to Corporal Wojtek and the 22nd Artillery Company made their flag the image of a bear lifting an artillery shell. They still use that flag today.

After the war, Corporal Wojtek retired to the Edinburgh Zoo in Scotland, where he was frequently visited by fellow Polish veterans, who game him cigarettes just like old times. He enjoyed a long and happy life, weighing over 1,000 pounds as any successful brown bear should. There are several memorials in his honor, both in Poland and Scotland.

diioonysus

greek mythology | more cursed images

sosuperawesome

Alexandra Khitrova on DeviantArt / Instagram

leepacey

I say, jolly good show, chaps. And did I panic? I think not.

zombeesknees

#the comic relief who is genuinely comic #and who makes the ‘incompetent bufoon’ trope actually work as an endearing quality as originally intended #well played movie - well played #john hannah #WHAT A FOX

antivillain

#but! BUT!!!#THE GREAT THING ABOUT JONATHAN#IS HE’S NOT INCOMPETENT#he can read ancient Egyptian albeit not as well as his baby sister#he clearly has an interest in archaeology if only for treasure-related reasons#he had to go through intensive schooling to get the sort of permit required#to even have digs of his own#WHICH HE CLEARLY DOES#on a dig down in Thebes#he says and Evie believes him#Jonathan reads from the Book of the Living and he’s an excellent shot with a rifle and is clearly a boxer#Jonathan is SO COMPETENT and SO IMPORTANT#while simultaneously being plucky comic relief without JUST being plucky comic relief#u get me?

star-anise

Jonathan, like Phryne Fisher, clearly hasn’t taken anything seriously since 1918.

jkthinkythoughts

And, I would suspect, for similar reasons.

thebluemeany

^^^This. Jonathan being in World War I makes total sense. It’s almost impossible for him not to have been. Given his age and background, he probably volunteered in 1914.

Of course he’s going to not take anything seriously. Of course he can shoot. The drinking, the skittishness, the recklessness, the sense of ‘keeping your head down’, the scepticism about traditional heroism….

The one with more actual experience of death, carnage and fighting is Jonathan. Not Rick. Not Ardeth Bey. Jonathan.

When Rick says ‘I’ve had worse (situation/odds)’ and Jonathan replies “ Me too”. That’s probably true.

Drop The Mummy into the real world context and that’s a character who’s going to have seen a lot of his school friends die, along with the myths and tales of heroism they were raised on. Sort of makes the line where Evie’s scolding him for drinking/messing about a lot darker…

Evie: Have you no respect for the dead? Jonathan: Of course I do, but sometimes I’d rather like to join them.

gingersnapwolves

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS RIGHT NOW

deadcatwithaflamethrower

*record scratch*

Wait a minute. Why is it being assumed that Rick and Ardeth wouldn’t have fought in WWI, as well? Johnathan isn’t that much older than any of them–in fact, there is a good chance that he, Rick, and Ardeth are all of an age. Just because Johnathan’s hair is thinning doesn’t mean he’s a decade older.

It was a LOT easier to lie about your age back in the day. So much easier.

Johnathan is the soldier who fought in WWI and became disillusionsed with pretty much everything except wanting to live (most of the time) and live well–and where is the shame in that? He would have seen some of the darkest shit humanity has to offer, and he kept going. And the thing is, though, archaeological digs at that time were DANGEROUS. Not from curses (usually) but from assholes who would turn up with guns to try and steal anything you discovered. Johnathan never really STOPPED having to deal with dangerous pricks, it was just less dangerous than death raining down from the sky in bomb, bullet, and mustard gas form all the time.

Rick grew up in Egypt as an orphan. What paperwork? He joined the French Foreign Legion, which fought in World War I in some seriously critical battles on the Western Front in Europe. Rick is the soldier who quickly grew disillusioned with everything, but he didn’t know how to stop being a soldier. Johnathan had a career and schooling to fall back on. Rick had guns, the talent of not dying easily, and not much else. When the army finally left him behind because he was literally the only survivor of his last FFL battle, he literally didn’t know what to do. At all. “Looking for a good time” was code for “Please someone give me a fucking purpose.”

Ardeth grew up in the desert. He probably never enlisted…but if you think his people didn’t fight against invading forces during WWI, think again: that region of North Africa was swarming with soldiers on both sides, and they alll tried to claim everything they stumbled over even while in the midst of fighting each other. Ardeth spent his entire life fighting to protect what belonged to him, what belonged to his people, and trying to keep assholes from stealing things that didn’t belong to anyone (for good reason). By the time the war was over, Ardeth was disillisioned in everyone except his own people, and seriously fucking done with stupid idiots who stole in the name of archaeology. He is completely (justifiably) resigned to the worst when Rick the Magic Survivalist returns to Hamunaptra.

serpentine-sorceror-deactivated

This has been another episode of “Actual History adding context and depth to character behavior”

filthybonnet

I love when “The Mummy” fandom comes out to play. But it’s even better when the history side of tumblr is also in “The Mummy” fandom.

knottingthewind

Every time this post comes around I am compelled to watch The Mummy again.

rachelladytietjens

There is an explicitly nihilistic ‘old soldier’ in the movie too, just to drive home the point.

Winston: “Is it dangerous?”

Rick: “Well, you probably won’t live through it.”

Winston: “By Jove, do you think so?”

petermorwood

That “old soldier” is one element which jars with me. YMMV, of course.

“The Mummy” is set in 1926, so Winston is far too old to have been a pilot in WWI (actor Bernard Fox was 72 at time of filming). He should have been a “young soldier” or more correctly, “young airman” of about Rick or Jonathan’s age.

The script was also a wee bit confused about what he served in…

The British air arm was the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) until 1918, when it became the Royal Air Force (RAF).

His survivor’s guilt and heavy drinking is spot on, though: average aircrew life expectancy was between ten days and three weeks. In “Bloody April” (1917) when superior new German aircraft were introduced before the Allies had anything to match them, average life expectancy dropped to about two days. The RFC lost almost 250 planes during that month, the Imperial German Air Service lost just over 60…

WWI pilots didn’t have parachutes until 1918, and even then Allied pilots NEVER had them: the top brass, who of course didn’t fly, considered they would “impair a pilot’s nerve” to continue fighting.

Pilots who saw combat soon saw the results of that policy when a plane caught fire (gasoline, linen and canvas in a 120 mph draft makes a great barbecue). No parachute left three options: a long jump, a slow roast or the service pistol carried “in case of being forced down in enemy territory”. Seeing that happen, and the thought of experiencing it personally, would make anyone hit the bottle.

The pilot of this German aircraft is having a very bad day final few minutes…

Also, in WWI the only oil that didn’t thicken at altitude was castor oil - it’s where the “Castrol” oil company’s name originated - so aircraft engines were lubricated with that. Breathing the vapour had the same laxative effect as swallowing the stuff, so aircrew fought diarrhoea as well as enemy aircraft, trying to stun their insides with enormous amounts of booze. US ace Eddie Rickenbacker swore by cherry brandy. Pints of it.

Funny thing is that Winston could have been Biggles - not the silly subject of Monty Python skits, but the original character from WWI air-combat stories written for late-adolescents, before they were revised for children with the removal of serious adult elements like alcohol abuse and PTSD.

Biggles in those early stories was like many real-life WWI pilots, a chain-smoking, heavy-drinking young man of about 20, living on his nerves and skating along the edge of a breakdown, whose principal talents were killing the enemy, not being killed himself, and not letting the deaths of his squadron mates affect him. He wasn’t as good at that last one as he thought he was.

Left to right: Major James McCudden, VC, DSO & Bar, MC & Bar, MM, killed in action July 1918, aged 23. Lieutenant Arthur Rhys-Davids DSO, MC & Bar, killed in action October 1917, aged 20. Captain Albert Ball, VC, DSO & Two Bars, MC, killed in action April 1917, aged 20.

The unrevised stories suggest Biggles might well have turned out like Winston. By the time of “The Mummy” he’d have been about 27-28, and looking like this pilot painted by J.C. Leyendecker.

At a guess, that age casting didn’t happen because a young alcoholic pilot with haunted eyes and a death-wish wasn’t as automatically funny as an old alcoholic pilot with a pompous accent and a death-wish, and would have the wrong “tone” for the movie.

explorerrowan

I think it says something about the American movie audience of the time. The Mummy was released in 1999. Bush’s disastrous Iraq War wouldn’t start for another couple of years. Americans were used to allowing veterans of WW2 and the Korean War their traumas, but veterans of every conflict since then were treated like their trauma was either unimportant, a joke, or attention seeking. You only have to look at how often “Nam flashbacks” were treated as a punchline, or how the “agent orange” business of the Gulf War was disregard by the rest of society. (It was a concerted propaganda effort by the people in power, of course, both so they could continue justifying imperialist wars and so they wouldn’t have to take care of returning veterans, but that’s a different discussion.)

American audience wouldn’t have known what to think about a young traumatized, alcoholic pilot. It didn’t fit the narrative of old heroes that they had been fed since the end of WW2.

m-r-levine

This fandom conversation just gets better every time it makes the rounds.

I agree with the probable motivations for age adjustment of the character. Balancing the worldbuilding and the way the audience will most likely relate at the time any given story hits the public eye seems astoundingly challenging.

Its a little unsettling how 1999 feels a world away right now.

I should do a Mummy homage art at some point…

fluffmugger

Winston I believe is a case of the character being much younger than the actor - I can easily see him being in his fifties. And while today fifty is not seen as an “end of life” age and it seems preposterous for a 70 year old (even one who looks as damned decent as Bernard Fox) to play one, for the time period it fits perfectly. This “youthful fifty” is a relatively modern invention, and it definitely was a very different matter before the postwar (II) prosperity (for a very stark example compare Hartnell’s 1st Doctor with Capaldi’s 12th - both actors were roughly the same age during their tenures). The RFC did have officers born in the 1860′s and later, so while it would have be career military, including air corps (which fits Winston to a T, including his old soldier persona) it is believable that he was an older First World War veteran. If he was serving for a large enough period before the name change, then yes, it would explain the word salad, especially as an older soldier well used to working under the RFC moniker. I suspect Ardeth very likely at least peripherally was involved with TE Lawrence’s shenanigans - you can’t tell me the Meiji weren’t keeping a bloody close eye on the Great Arab Revolt, especially since the whiteboy involved was a goddamn archaeologist who had previously been digging around an Egyptian necropolis…

stereden

@deadcatwithaflamethrower more history about The Mummy!

deadcatwithaflamethrower

More history, and @fluffmugger pointing out that the “Youthful Fifty” years of age is SO VERY NEW, GUYS.

Example: Alec Guiness, in 1975, filmed his role with Harrison, Mark, Carrie, & Co. at the tender age of 57. In today’s terms of fifties, he looks like he’s in his late 70s to early 80s.

Peter Cushing, same year, same film: age 62, looked like a healthy and well-groomed modern era mid-to-late 80s.

Casting Bernard Fox was actually spot-on. The Mummy might’ve gone for comedy, but they didn’t fuck around when it came to acknowledging that all of these characters were PTSD-riddled from at least one major war, and also completely fucking nuts.

spadesandaces

If I ever don’t reblog this it’s because I died

obaewankenope

I would like to point out that, tho Winston is too old to have been an active WW1 pilot, he could have been someone who trained those pilots who went up and died in the war.

Imagine, for a moment, you are the teacher of a group of young men. It’s 1912. The flight school is new, these kids are going to learn how to fly machines and you’re the one responsible for that. How, then, do you think you’d feel when war begins two years later and the men you taught go to fight and die in flames?

Survivors guilt doesn’t just affect the pilots who didn’t die, you know. The shame and guilt, the responsibility, a superior officer can feel for essentially sending young men to die… That’s very real too.

If Winston wasn’t an active pilot in WW1 because of his age, the next thing is to have been the teacher of those pilots who were. Hundreds of pilots died. How many did Winston teach how to use the throttle, steer the plane, reach the right altitude for costing along and minimising fuel waste? How many funerals with empty coffins did Winston attend, feeling responsible for the absence of a body to inter?

Winston may well have not flown in WW1, but he likely wished to have an end just like the men he taught, an equivalent exchange. The only way to absolve him of the guilt and responsibility for the young men who died in a war they should never have had to fight in in the first place.

anotherdayforchaosfay

A small note regarding Jonathan is something seen in the second film: he’s a sniper. Snipers were the soldiers hunted down first. In that scene from the first film where he days he’s had worse odds? It applies.

I fucking love how much discussion and bonding The Mummy provides for its fans.

pariztexas-deactivated20210721

Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999) dir. Jim Stenstrum

knightofleo

fugottron

I’ve seen this on my dash so many times and I honestly can’t tell if this is a real animal or just a super realistic puppet

salamencerobot

Its a Pallas cat, it’s a real animal, and they really do look like that..I’m convinced they are the inspiration for Fuzzy’s

thebiscuiteternal

This cat just told a bad pun.

tygermama

I just realized there’s an entire nibble ring around that hole

sarasa-cat

Pallas’ Cats (Otocolobus manul) also known as Manul are an absolute treasure.

Native Habitat:

casmick-consequences

thanks, i would like 10 please

sosuperawesome

Jonna Hyttinen on Instagram

catchymemes

urbanfantasyinspiration

My God they actually look like dogs now

introvertbard

Lord, the changes! DO PUGS NEXT!!!

dusky-phantom

ACTUALLY! A breeder in Germany started to breed healthier pugs called “retro mops” and currebtly ppl are trying to get AKC and UKC to recongnize them as the new standard.

heres the comparison:

introvertbard

Reblogging with updates! Healthy bulldogs AND healthy pugs! ❤️

rpmaniac

The absurd breed standards are a recent thing, developed in the past 100-150 years. The healthier breeds are much closer to their 19th century ancestors.