Beth and Michelle return to 1920s Egypt for The Mummy, the 1999 adventure where a brilliant librarian, a world-weary gunslinger, one extremely lucky brother, and several deeply unqualified treasure hunters accidentally awaken an ancient priest determined to resurrect the woman he loves.

What initially looked like another attempt to imitate Indiana Jones became something far warmer, funnier, and more romantic. Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz bring effortless chemistry to Rick and Evelyn, whose attraction grows through mutual respect rather than instant declarations. He notices her intelligence and replaces the archaeological tools she lost; she discovers the humanity beneath his swagger. Meanwhile, Imhotep and Anck-su-namun provide the story’s darker romantic mirror, a love powerful enough to survive death, but destructive enough to consume everyone standing in its way.

Beth and Michelle celebrate the movie’s swashbuckling energy, cozy sense of adventure, perfectly blended comedy, impressive effects, and pansexual dream of a cast. They also examine its fictionalized Egyptian history, colonial archaeology, cultural appropriation, exploited labor, and the uncomfortable habit of Western adventurers treating another civilization’s dead as treasure waiting to be claimed.

In the episode’s proto–Stitch Count, The Mummy passes the Castellini Test through Evelyn and Anck-su-namun, both of whom are essential to the story’s existence and resolution. Its cast offers meaningful racial diversity, but that representation is complicated by colonialism, cultural substitution, and the absence of LGBTQ inclusion. Even with those problems, Beth and Michelle award it a formidable 9 out of 10 on the Tremors Index.

It has romance without becoming syrupy, horror without excessive gore, history without much historical accuracy, and enough Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz to leave nearly everyone questioning something about themselves.

Background Music by Ruud from Pixabay