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The Mummy Movie Review: Wastes Tom Cruise's Charm on a Cobbled Together Franchise Starter

The Mummy Movie Review: Wastes Tom Cruise's Charm on a Cobbled-Together Franchise Starter

The Mummy releases June 9 worldwide
It stars Tom Cruise, Russell Crowe, and Sofia Boutella
The film kick-starts Universal's Dark Universe

Before it pelts you with its thinly-sketched characters, baffling motivations, and various takes on skeletal zombies, Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy – a reboot of the 1932 original that has spawned a dozen follow-ups since – wants you to know that it's a small part of a much bigger creation that's being drummed up by the studio, called the “Dark Universe”. Having seen Marvel and Warner Bros. make billions off their intellectual properties, Universal too wants to get in on the act, and it's identified its classic monster movies as ripe for the taking.

To stitch together its various gods and monsters, as it likes calling them, Russell Crowe has been called upon to appear across its shared universe of films, à la Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury in the Marvel world. The Mummy sees Crowe play Dr. Henry Jekyll, a modern update on the character envisioned by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1886, who now serves as the head of a mysterious organisation that deals with the study, capture, and extermination of evil. To entice its audience, the film intentionally takes us through his lab of fermented skulls, lingering long enough on one to hint at a future Dracula outing.

The Mummy begins with an extended prologue that is set in two different, yet inter-connected eras: the first in 1127 England, and the other in ancient-era Egypt. The connection between the two is Princess Ahmanet ( Star Trek Beyond's Sofia Boutella), whose power-craving drives her to make a deal with the ancient Egyptian deity of chaos and war, Set. But before she can complete her end of the bargain, she is captured, mummified and buried alive far from her homeland. (These scenes of her past have been terribly spoiled by the Indian censor board, which is completely against any form of nudity.)

In the present day, that faraway place is now called Iraq, where insurgents are destroying ancient treasures as part of their agenda. It's as direct a reference to ISIS as it can be, but The Mummy strays away from any such mention. Tom Cruise is Nick Morton, a US Army reconnaissance scout by profession, but an artefacts hunter by trade, who makes riches by selling them on the black market. Cruise has made a name for himself in the past two decades by being the engine for high octane action films where he's mostly on the run (literally), and dives headlong into dangerous situations. Here too, he makes his entrance in a similar fashion, running from a hail of bullets being sprayed in his direction by said insurgents.

Nick, his buddy Chris (New Girl's Jake Johnson), and archaeologist Jenny (Annabelle Wallis) come across Ahmanet's tomb thanks to a lucky break, and immediately orchestrate a way to transport the sarcophagus out of the country, while ignoring the ominous signs unfolding around them. The film's wish to return the action to England seems to stem more from the future narrative demand of having everything revolve around Dr. Jekyll and his team, than the want to tell the best possible standalone story, of an Egyptian princess bent on taking revenge.

Even though the film is called The Mummy, the bigger focus is on Nick, given the character's high-profile casting. He's meant to serve as a complex protagonist – an anti-hero, if Kurtzman and his team of five script-writers were capable enough – for this adventure, and the movie also conveniently leaves him on a note that Cruise could be called upon for a sequel, should Universal's experiment provide desired rewards at the international box office. Unfortunately, unlike the goofy charm of the Mission: Impossible franchise, The Mummy affords only rare flashes of Cruise being allowed to showcase a silly side of his.

Drowning in material that's meant to sound worrying, and is so filled with self-seriousness of its prophecies, rituals and ancient past drawl that it borders on parody, The Mummy comes across as a cheap horror take on a lesser Dan Brown novel. It's unable to find the humour through it all, delivering with such infrequency that Cruise's traditional action-star performance dissolves in the sludge. And it doesn't help that the character hasn't been conceived properly in the first place, as is the case with almost everyone else, including the wholly under-developed relationship and unbelievable connection between Nick and Jenny. The forceful nature of their faltering romance comes from the script's necessity to pit her against Ahmanet, who has identified Nick as a chosen ritual sacrifice, and needs Jenny to be pushed out of the way.

And apart from becoming a damsel repeatedly put in distress, Jenny seems shooed in to deliver the much-needed exposition. To top that off, Nick isn't an active agent in his own story for the most part, and hence spends much of the film being thrust into one thing to another. For what it's worth, Ahmanet is the best developed character of the lot, which at least shows that despite multiple rewrites The Mummy does understand the makings of an engaging villain. But though the film presents an interesting gem of her slide towards darkness – she's angry for losing the kingdom she believed to be rightfully hers, to a male son born to the Pharaoh – it's not at all interested in exploring those ideas after her resurrection in present day, and instead chooses to focus on creating mayhem and horror as befits an empty-calorie popcorn flick.

Moreover, Kurtzman – a veteran franchise manager having worked on Transformers , Star Trek , and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 – seems to have learnt the wrong lessons from his commercial successes, and doesn't understand what makes an enjoyable summer blockbuster visually. Instead of lingering in the bright yellow-and-orange pop of the Middle East desert, and with the billowing dress and radiant make-up provided to Boutella's character during the centuries-old flashbacks, Kurtzman opts to drench The Mummy in nearly-desaturated hues of blue and grey after the opening half hour. The rest of the film even squanders the rich skin tones for a shrivelled, dry skin for Boutella, and it uses its London setting by spending much of the time underground.

As terrible as the film itself is, The Mummy is also the worst possible start for a new franchise that has seven more films – Bride of Frankenstein, Dracula, The Invisible Man, The Wolf Man, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Phantom of the Opera, and Hunchback of Notre Dame – already in some stage of development, with the likes of Johnny Depp and Javier Bardem attached to star. For one, it's fighting the uncalled-for task of assembling these myriad characters into a single universe. And two, Kurtzman setting a gritty tone with The Mummy, and his role as a core creative for the Dark Universe makes you wonder if this is indeed the right path.

Owing to those two baselines, Crowe's presence in The Mummy is mostly to introduce us to this world, with some of his lines and the way they are delivered almost feel intentionally directed as if they're addressing the audience through the screen. And aside from using his accent and his poise to sell the self-seriousness charade of the whole thing, the character's reimagination lacks any heart or investment to it, much unlike how its inspirations – Mark Ruffalo's Hulk and Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face – have fared in recent years.

But though Crowe's Dr. Jekyll can be fleshed out with future instalments, there's no such respite for everyone else involved with The Mummy, including the film itself. Bogged down by unimaginative CGI-laden set-pieces, and lacking any character arcs, it's a limp attempt at capturing the summer-movie market overflowing with contenders, one that can't be saved by Tom Cruise's willingness and mastery of playing the indomitable action hero. If only it could be mummified and buried alive.

The Mummy (2017)

Release Date 9 June 2017
Language English
Genre Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Cast Tom Cruise, Annabelle Wallis, Sofia Boutella, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe, Marwan Kenzari, Javier Botet
Director Alex Kurtzman
Producer Alex Kurtzman, Chris Morgan, Sean Daniel, Sarah Bradshaw

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The Mummy trailer: watch Tom Cruise die in monster reboot – video

The first in Universal’s planned series of new monster movies, The Mummy sees Tom Cruise amongst a team of military commandos who bring an entombed mummy from the Egyptian deserts to London. But their plane malfunctions and the mummy awakens, in a bad mood. Sofia Boutella co-stars in the title role, while Russell Crowe plays friendly Dr Henry Jekyll

The Mummy is released on 9 June

theguardian.com

Mon 5 Dec 2016 13.32 GMT Last modified on Tue 6 Jun 2017 17.10 BST

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Watch the First Full Trailer for ‘The Mummy’ Reboot Starring Tom Cruise

By Alex Stedman

Alex Stedman

News Editor, Variety.com

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The first extended look at “ The Mummy ” reboot is here, and with it, a whole new world of gods and monsters.

Universal dropped the full trailer for the first in its planned monster universe on Sunday night, featuring star Tom Cruise in “Mission: Impossible”-level Ancient Egypt action. In the new movie, after an ancient princess, played by Sofia Boutella, is awakened from her crypt beneath the desert, she brings malevolence and great terrors that endanger modern-day people.

“Please meet Princess Ahmanet,” Russell Crowe tells Cruise in the trailer, as the princess wreaks havoc over London. “She will claim what she has been denied.”

While there’s plenty of action — including Cruise dying in the first 30 seconds in a plane crash, and then appearing to come back to life — Crowe has previously talked up the horror aspects of the reboot. “This one is kind of more designed to seriously scare the s— out of you,” he said in May .

The previous “Mummy” franchise spanned four movies released between 1999 and 2008. They famously starred Brendan Fraser, who will not be returning for the new film.

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“The Mummy” also stars Courtney B. Vance, Annabelle Wallis, and Jake Johnson. Alex Kurtzman is directing.

“The Mummy” reboot will hit theaters on June 9, 2017.

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Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis Photos from The Mummy Set

Following our first look at Sofia Boutella as the mummy, we’ve got new Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis photos from the last day of filming of The Mummy in London. The June 9, 2017 release is officially described as follows:

Thought safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient queen (Sofia Boutella of Kingsman: The Secret Service and Star Trek Beyond) whose destiny was unjustly taken from her, is awakened in our current day, bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.

From the sweeping sands of the Middle East through hidden labyrinths under modern-day London, The Mummy brings a surprising intensity and balance of wonder and thrills in an imaginative new take that ushers in a new world of gods and monsters.

Tom Cruise stars along with Annabelle Wallis ( Knights of the Roundtable: King Arthur, Annabelle ), Sofia Boutella ( Kingsman: The Secret Service , Star Trek Beyond ), Jake Johnson ( Jurassic World ) and Courtney B. Vance (“American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ Simpson”). Russell Crowe ( Gladiator , A Beautiful Mind , Man of Steel ) is reportedly in talks to join the cast as Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde.

The Mummy is directed by Alex Kurtzman, who also produces alongside Chris Morgan ( Fast & Furious series, Wanted ) and Sean Daniel ( The Mummy trilogy, The Best Man series). Jon Spaihts ( Prometheus ) wrote the screenplay, and Bobby Cohen executive produces. It’s being planned as the first film in the Universal Monster cinematic universe with plans for The Wolfman, The Invisible Man , Bride of Frankenstein , and Van Helsing all in various stages of development.

The original monster was made famous on the big screen by Boris Karloff in Karl Freund’s 1932 feature. Subsequent sequels to the original The Mummy saw Tom Tyler (who played Captain Marvel/Shazam in the original 1941 serials) and later Lon Chaney Jr. playing a different mummy than the one Karloff played. Stephen Sommers’ more recent The Mummy and The Mummy Returns films set Arnold Vosloo in the title role. Jet Li then played the villain in Rob Cohen’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor .

(Photo Credit: WENN.com)

The Mummy Set 2

The mummy set.

Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis film a scene for The Mummy. Both can be seen dancing in celebration of the last day of filming. Where: London, United Kingdom. When: July 17, 2016. Credit: WENN.com.

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Spoiler Warning: There are some spoilers ahead for The Mummy . While Universal Pictures were obviously happy to reveal them to the public, they might be a little too revelatory for some of you out there. So please proceed cautiously.

Normally studios like to keep the biggest revelations about their blockbusters completely hidden from the public until the films are actually released. And while I'm sure there will be plenty of reveals and surprises in The Mummy once it finally crashes into cinemas later this summer, the latest trailer has already confirmed that Tom Cruise is both possessed and will have equal powers to The Mummy . Need proof? Here's a spooky look at his character Nick Morton with two corneas in his eyeballs. It's freaky.

I must admit that this seems like a pretty ingenious way to approach the reboot of The Mummy , which is what we should really have expected considering that the script has been written by Jon Spaihts ( Prometheus , Doctor Strange ) and Christopher McQuarrie ( The Usual Suspects , Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation ). You can fawn over just how majestic The Mummy looks by watching the latest trailer for the film below.

Isn't Tom Cruise just the greatest? Despite the fact that he's 54, he continues to throw himself into action scenes with the vigor and enthusiasm of a much younger man. Clearly we can expect more of the same in The Mummy ; however, this time around his stunts will come with a supernatural tinge that we haven't seen from the actor since Interview With The Vampire .

The prior trailer for The Mummy confirmed that Tom Cruise's Nick Morton miraculously survived the plane crash that opened the footage, and the latest sees Russell Crowe 's Dr. Henry Jekyll explaining to Cruise that he only did just that because he was cursed by Sofia Boutella's Mummy. Unfortunately for Tom Cruise, I've got a very bad feeling that things aren't going to go so well for him in The Mummy . Not just because the trailer clearly shows him being tossed around like a rag-doll by the titular phenom, but also because not too many good things come of being cursed.

At least the latest trailer for The Mummy shows that Tom Cruise and his co-star Annabelle Wallis will be able to make us smile through their shenanigans, as the footage has teased that the film will definitely have a sense of humor. We'll get to see just how funny The Mummy actually is when it's released on June 9.

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Tom Cruise's The Mummy , recently unearthed on Netflix, is the flop that re-made him

By Sam Moore

Image may contain Human Person Clothing Sleeve Apparel and Pants

2022 is the year of Tom Cruise . Here we are at the end of a summer dominated by cinema’s diminutive giant and Top Gun: Maverick , which has single-handedly been putting bums on cinema seats across the globe. But it took a nadir to get here. Cruise has carried movies his entire working life, and survived controversial public outbursts, three very public divorces and a close affiliation with Scientology in the process. He very nearly didn’t survive 2017's The Mummy .

While the original iteration of The Mummy , starring Brendan Fraser as a slapstick Indiana Jones, has become a comic-action movie staple, Cruise’s version, despite what its current position in the Netflix charts suggests, will never be beloved. Fraser’s matinee idol romantic adventurer is swapped out for Cruise's Nick Morton, who accidentally awakens an Egyptian princess from her crypt and he then has to spend 100 minutes trying to put her back there. Somewhere therein: Ghosts, Russell Crowe as Jekyll and Hyde, and an unsuccessful attempt to fit Cruise into the modern action hero landscape in the mould of Robert Downey Jr’s wisecracking Iron Man . Most unforgivably – especially for a Cruise movie – it engorges on risible CGI to create a digital smudge when Cruise has always pushed for physical authenticity.

Image may contain Clothing Apparel Sleeve Human Person Russell Crowe Long Sleeve Coat Overcoat and Suit

The film performed okay internationally but was a huge commercial flop in the US and was utterly destroyed by critics. Intended to birth a cinematic universe of classic movie monsters including Frankenstein and Dracula, The Mummy instead imploded all of the studio’s plans. Cruise seemed a man out of time, chasing trends and a kind of conformity when he was always the pioneering one.

In 2017, Cruise's future as an action hero seemed far less certain. He was still making good movies, like the brilliant Edge of Tomorrow, but he hadn't had a genuine megahit (outside of the Mission: Impossible franchise) in a while. The Mummy was about to set him in a very particular trajectory. It had a lot of the typical Cruise beats that we all love him for – the Jackie Chan-like flailing, broad, slightly corny humour and lots and lots and lots of running. And yet the end result is borderline incomprehensible, not helped a performance that’s utterly unsure of itself. And Tom Cruise has never seemed unsure of anything.

But, of course, Cruise rose again. At some point, he must have sat down (or more likely gone base-jumping) and wondered how to hit his past heights – what could he offer the world that no other man or woman in Hollywood would? The answer: his body. Cruise has made two films since The Mummy – Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick – and both have hinged around the insane things he will do to get the perfect shot. Whether that be a HALO jump from 25,000 feet or actually piloting a fighter jet, Cruise, like Ethan Hunt and Maverick, has no limit. What people seem to want from late-era Tom Cruise is full-bodied extremity. It took The Mummy to realise that.

The Mummy is streaming now on Netflix UK

Tom Cruise officially signs on for Universal’s The Mummy reboot

universal the mummy reboot tom cruise boris karloff

The news also comes with yet another in Hollywood’s recent string of blockbuster premiere date swaps , as the film will be released in June of 2017, instead of its original date of March 24.

The new film is being helmed by prolific writer/producer/director Alex Kurtzman, who will reportedly produce and direct. Sofia Boutella ( Kingsman: The Secret Service ) will be playing the role of the monster, with Cruise apparently taking on the protagonist role once played by Brendan Fraser in the previous recreation of the classic monster movie, which came out in 1999 and spawned several sequels and the spinoff film, The Scorpion King .

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There isn’t much known about the plot at this point but Variety reports that the film will take place in present day, unlike the Fraser films. Jon Spaihts is tasked with writing the script.

While it appears Cruise isn’t taking on his usual dual role as star/executive producer, it’s expected he’ll have a hand in guiding the new film. Kurtzman, meanwhile, is charged with helping Universal build out its universe for its other monster properties, which include Frankenstein’s monster, The Wolfman, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Dracula, among others.

Coming off a monumental year in which Universal creamed the competition on the strength of blockbuster franchise anchors Jurassic World , Furious 7 , and animated spinoff Minions , the studio is doubling down on the franchise formula with the resurrection of its storied monster properties.

That said, it should be interesting to see if the formula that has worked so brilliantly with Disney’s Marvel properties will translate into the horror/action genre. It’s expected that the singular monster films will eventually combine for a super-group film in the vein of The Avengers . Just how that will work with a bunch of mythical monsters remains to be seen — the first attempt to spark the new universe, Dracula Untold , was a major disappointment. Universal is no doubt hoping Cruise’s star power and Kurtzman’s vision will give the next attempt a lot more audience appeal.

Universal’s latest take on The Mummy is slated for release June 9, 2017.

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At this point, what can't Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) do? In Paramount's new trailer for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise's Ethan Hunt drives a motorcycle off a cliff, fights on top of a moving train, and hangs off the edge of train car hundreds of feet in the air.

In Dead Reckoning Part One, Hunt and his team are tasked with tracking down a deadly new weapon that threatens all of humanity. However, a new, powerful enemy puts those he loves at risk, forcing Ethan to decide if completing the mission is worth more than his own life.

Top Gun: Maverick may have cemented Tom Cruise’s return to the top echelon of the Hollywood ranks last year, but that film is far from the only impeccably made blockbuster that Cruise has worked on in recent years. As a matter of fact, Cruise has been on a bit of a hot streak for well over a decade now, basically ever since his practical stunts in 2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol helped put him back on viewers’ radars again

In the 12 years since then, Cruise has had a few misses here and there (we’re looking at you, Rock of Ages), but he’s nonetheless managed to steadily rebuild his reputation among moviegoers with blockbuster hits like Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and Mission: Impossible — Fallout and cult favorites like Edge of Tomorrow. In 2013, Cruise also teamed up for the first time with Top Gun: Maverick director Joseph Kosinski for the original sci-fi adventure film, Oblivion. Unlike Maverick, though, Oblivion received a lukewarm critical and financial response upon its release.

Tom Cruise thanked fans yesterday for their support of Top Gun: Maverick after jumping out of a plane and completing a solo freefall dive. Yet, that wasn't the craziest thing captured on camera as Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (also known as Mission: Impossible 7 or M:I 7) released a behind-the-scenes look at the "biggest stunt in cinema history."

The 9-minute video brings the audience back to the first day of shooting M:I 7 in September 2020 when Cruise prepared to jump a motorcycle off a cliff, complete a base jump, and parachute to safety. While the stunt seems out of this world, Cruise calmly says that he's wanted to do this since he was a "little kid."

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‘the mummy’ trailer: tom cruise faces the ultimate evil.

"It takes a monster to defeat a monster."

By Aaron Couch

Aaron Couch

pmc-editorial-manager

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'The Mummy' Trailer: Tom Cruise Faces the Ultimate Evil

Things are unraveling in the final trailer for The Mummy .

After a plane crash, Nick Morton ( Tom Cruise ) wakes up without a scratch, and is informed he’s only alive because he was cursed “by the ultimate evil.”

“It takes a monster to defeat a monster,” says Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe) — a reference to Cruise’s Morton being something of a monster himself as he faces off against The Mummy (Sofia Boutella ).

A tagline in the trailer hints at what’s to come: “witness the beginning of a dark universe.” The Mummy , from director Alex Kurtzman , is poised to set a shared universe for Universal featuring its monsters. Javier Bardem is on board for a future Frankenstein film, while Johnny Depp has signed on for The Invisible Man .

The Mummy hits theaters June 9.

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‘The Mummy’ Re-Release Unwraps Impressive Domestic Box Office Haul

The millennial hit is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

The Big Picture

The box office lean period has led to re-releases of classic films like Alien and The Mummy , catering to nostalgic millennials.
The Mummy (1999) grossed $417 million globally, cementing Brendan Fraser as a 90s movie star, spawning sequels and a reboot.
Universal's Dark Universe was scrapped after Tom Cruise's The Mummy flopped, leading to a focus on standalone projects like The Invisible Man.

The lean period that the box office has been experiencing in recent weeks, perhaps a side effect of last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes, has encouraged a string of re-releases of older classics. While Dune and Shrek 2 had solid recent runs, not to mention the ongoing re-release of every live-action Spider-Man movie, this past weekend saw the re-issue of Ridley Scott ’s Alien and director Stephen Sommers ’ The Mummy , which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year . Whether we like it or not, millennials are now old enough to revisit childhood favorites in theaters.

Over 1,200 of them across North America played The Mummy this weekend . Originally released in 1999, the film grossed a little over $1 million in three days , falling short of the $1.5 million that Alien made from 1,700 nationwide theaters, and the $1.4 million that the Shrek 2 re-release had generated in its first three days a couple of weeks ago. The Mummy ’s cumulative global gross now stands at $417 million , with $156 million coming from domestic theaters. The film served as a reboot of the classic Universal Monsters franchise , and spawned two sequels and a spin-off before being rebooted itself several years later.

The film also cemented Brendan Fraser as one of the biggest movie stars of the 1990s . Fraser experienced a bit of a career slump in the 2010s, before his grand rebound a couple of years ago with his Oscar-winning performance in Darren Aronofsky ’s The Whale . He reprized his role as the adventurer Rick O’Connell in 2001’s The Mummy Returns , which was an even bigger hit with $435 million in global box office revenue. He played Rick one last time in 2008’s The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor , directed by Rob Cohen . The movie grossed $405 million worldwide. Sommers went on to direct big-budget films such as Van Helsing and G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra , but hasn’t directed a feature film in over a decade.

Fraser's Three 'Mummy' Movies Grossed a Combined Total of $1.2 Billion Worldwide

The Mummy franchise was rebooted in 2017 , with the ill-fated Tom Cruise vehicle of the same name. The film was designed to spawn a shared universe of Universal Monsters films, but its lukewarm box office — $410 million worldwide — and toxic reviews brought the entire franchise crashing down . Universal pivoted to focusing on standalone director-driven projects in the aftermath of the Dark Universe’s failure; the studio tasted success with this strategy in early 2020, with The Invisible Man reboot. Also starring Rachel Weisz , John Hannah , and Arnold Vosloo , The Mummy is currently playing in theaters . Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.

The Mummy (1999)

At an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Hamunaptra, an American serving in the French Foreign Legion accidentally awakens a mummy who begins to wreak havoc as he searches for the reincarnation of his long-lost love.

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New 83% horror movie is the perfect way to reboot the dark universe 7 years after tom cruise's failure.

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Universal’s New Horror Movie Confirms Dracula’s Perfect Character Replacement After 127 Years

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Universal Pictures has the perfect way to reboot the Dark Universe years after Tom Cruise failed to do so thanks to its new vampire horror movie Abigail . The catalog of iconic horror characters at Universal's disposal put the studio in a position where it wanted to relaunch its Dark Universe for modern audiences. Tom Cruise's 2017 movie The Mummy was meant to be the start of a sprawling monster universe that included everyone from the Invisible Man to Frankenstein and Van Helsing. However, these hopes came to an abrupt end after The Mummy 's box office did not match expectations.

With Tom Cruise failing to relaunch the shared universe, the Dark Universe could not move forward, even after the studio infamously brought Cruise, Russell Crowe, Javier Bardem, Johnny Depp, and Sofia Boutella together for a photo shoot to promote the cinematic universe. This left Universal in a position where it began reprioritizing individual horror movies involving monsters and supernatural creatures instead of worrying about setting up the Dark Universe . That has now led to Abigail , and the movie about a Dracula-esque vampire's daughter could now be what gets the Dark Universe up and running again.

2024's Abigail is an exciting reimagining of the vampire horror subgenre, potentially showing the best way to replace a classic character.

Abigail Is A Better Starting Point For A New Dark Universe Than The Mummy

Tom cruise's movie was weighed down by universe plotting.

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By the time that Abigail 's ending comes to a close, the movie proves how it could be the perfect reset for the Dark Universe. The film primarily focuses on the main story of survival as the people who kidnap Abigail try to avoid becoming her latest victims. With Radio Silence at the helm, Abigail is a thrilling and gory vampire film that introduces great new characters, including a revamped version of Dracula and his daughter. It is through this approach that the movie still manages to plant enough seeds that there is a greater mythology at play in Abigail 's universe .

The difference between Abigail and The Mummy is that the newer vampire flick is able to get audiences invested in this world and characters and leaves them wanting more. The Mummy was not able to do that. The film was weighed down by expectations that it would set up the Dark Universe. This meant including several moments that felt like they were only included to set up a larger franchise, like Russell Crowe's Dr. Henry Jekyll appearing. That distracted from the main story The Mummy was telling, leaving audiences without strong connections to Tom Cruise's character.

Abigail 's smaller focus and expectations gave it a major advantage over The Mummy . Abigail could work as a standalone vampire movie and still be a satisfying adventure without Joey and Abigail's story continuing. However, The Mummy was much too focused on being big enough and successful enough that the Dark Universe plans could come to fruition. The end result was The Mummy being maligned by critics and performing moderately at the box office, while Abigail 's Rotten Tomatoes score is incredibly high and word of mouth is strong.

Abigail's Horror Approach Would Be Great For The Dark Universe

The dark universe can be scary again.

One of the biggest benefits to Abigail launching the Dark Universe would be how it utilizes the horror genre. The film fully leans into the amount of scares and blood that should be in a vampire movie. The Radio Silence team are no strangers to reinventing horror franchises for modern audiences after their work on Scream , and they have done it again with Abigail . It might seem obvious that a vampire movie should embrace the horror genre, but that is not what the Dark Universe did before.

Even before The Mummy really tried to launch the Dark Universe, Universal's 2014 movie Dracula Untold attempted the same. The vampire movie had some tinges of horror, but the PG-13 movie leaned more into action when it could. The Mummy went a step further with that approach by utilizing Tom Cruise's greatest strengths to make the film a major action blockbuster, one that just happened to include supernatural creatures. Although none of the other canceled Dark Universe movies were made, it seems that Universal wanted PG-13 movies that skewed more action than horror to be made.

Abigail establishes the precedent for R-rated, full-horror entries in a potential new Dark Universe. After seeing how well it worked with vampires, Universal could apply the same approach to other characters. The studio already did so with Invisible Man in 2020, and the upcoming The Wolf Man reimagining could do the same. It would make sense for any other potential additions to a new Dark Universe would follow Radio Silence's lead with Abigail and give the iconic horror creatures the genre treatment they deserve.

Abigail's Shared Universe Teases Set Up How The Dark Universe Can Be Reborn

Other universal monsters could exist in abigail's universe.

There is already some groundwork for how Abigail could relaunch the Dark Universe thanks to the world it sets up. Abigail's father is designed as a stand-in for Dracula , and the movie includes enough teases that he is the proper version of the legendary vampire for Matthew Goode's character to take on that role in future installments. There are no other Universal Monsters who definitively or subtly are suggested to exist in Abigail 's universe. But, the movie does tease that Abigail and Ready or Not exist in the same universe , which could be key to a new Dark Universe beginning.

Abigail 's Ready or Not Easter egg is notable beyond the Radio Silence connection because it means that demons also exist in this world. The fact that demons and vampires are now confirmed to occupy the same franchise is a great way for Universal to get the Dark Universe off the ground. It now becomes easier to accept that other supernatural beings and characters exist in this world beyond vampires. This could be how Wolfman, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Invisible Man, and other classic Universal Monster characters are seamlessly introduced.

Will Universal Move Forward With Abigail's New Dark Universe?

Abigail was not intended to launch a shared universe.

Just because Abigail could be the start of a new Dark Universe doesn't mean that it will. The fate of the potential new horror franchise is undecided. Universal has not confirmed any plans for Abigail 2 to be made, nor that the film will directly connect to any other upcoming horror movies. The studio has learned from The Mummy and the previous attempt to launch the Dark Universe. Instead of announcing an entire slate of interconnected horror movies, Abigail is currently just another standalone movie. Abigail, her Dracula-inspired father , and Joey are all left with uncertain futures as a result.

If a new Dark Universe does start, Abigail 's box office is likely the key. The movie was made on a budget of $28 million, meaning it needs to make nearly $60 million at the box office to break even for Universal. It would only be at that point that the studio would probably consider continuing the franchise, let alone expanding it into a Dark Universe reboot. Considering Abigail has not even made its budget back at the box office worldwide, it is far from guaranteed that audiences will get a chance to return to this universe and watch it grow.

Abigail (2024)
Horror Movies

A 2017 Tom Cruise box office bomb is climbing up the Netflix charts

Universal's The Mummy has been resurrected

Universal's 2017 reboot of The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, is sitting at no. 2 on the Netflix Daily Top 10.

A reboot of the Brendan Fraser-led Mummy franchise, the film stars Cruise as a US Army sergeant who unearths the tomb of an Egyptian princess named Ahmanet. The fantasy-adventure flick was directed Alex Kurtzman from a screenplay by David Koepp ( Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny ), Christopher McQuarrie ( Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One ), and Dylan Kussman. Sofia Boutella plays Ahmanet, a loosely reimagined version of Imhotep from the original franchise, with Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson, Courtney B. Vance, Russell Crowe, Javier Botet, and Marwan Kenzari.

After the 2008 release of The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, a fourth entry in the Fraser franchise was ultimately scrapped. The concept of a reboot was developed in order to kickstart what Universal would call its 'Dark Universe,' a modern-day cinematic universe based on classic Universal Monsters. The Mummy premiered to mostly negative reviews and made $410 million against a rumored budget of $195 million, effectively canceling the Dark Universe.

"It is hard to make that movie," Fraser told Variety , sharing his thoughts on why the movie flopped. "The ingredient that we had going for our Mummy, which I didn’t see in that film, was fun. That was what was lacking in that incarnation. It was too much of a straight-ahead horror movie. The Mummy should be a thrill ride, but not terrifying and scary.”

The Mummy is streaming on Netflix now, where it threatens to nab the no. 1 spot. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies to stream right now.

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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent's Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

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Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy reboots a franchise I would gladly have dispensed with from the start.
Observer Thelma Adams You only have to watch the trailer to know that Producer-Director Alex Kurtzman's reboot of Brendan Fraser's once-charming mummy movies is full of embalming fluid.
San Diego Reader Matthew Lickona I was curious enough about Universal's decision to exhume its classic monsters to hold on until the zombie crusader frogmen started swimming after amoral (but maybe-redeemable) soldier of fortune Tom Cruise. No one would blame you for checking out sooner.
Salon.com Matthew Rozsa It feels less like a movie than a series of compromises worked out by a corporate committee.
Vox Emily St. James The Mummy doesn't have anywhere near enough adequate bits to get people excited for its own third act -- which unfurls in a gigantic maelstrom of computerized effects -- much less a whole franchise.
MovieFreak.com Sara Michelle Fetters Let's not mince words. As a kickoff to a proposed new series of films, dubbed the "Dark Universe"... The Mummy is a very bad movie.
Movie Mom Nell Minow A plane crash scene is viscerally exciting, and sets up the movie's funniest line later on. But it cannot make its mind up whether it wants to be adventure, horror, or camp.
Hypable Valerie Complex The Mummy is everything wrong with the current state of cinema. Hollywood is giving movie fans content they didn't ask for, and are expecting them to accept it with applause.
Culturess Kristen Lopez This incarnation of the wrapped figure is a dusty combination of Fatal Attraction and Mission: Impossible, making for one of the year's worst films.
National Newspaper Publishers Association Dwight Brown Pathetic on just about every level.
Mashable Angie Han It's not enough to promise moviegoers that the two hours of movie they just sat through will pay off in another year or two or three, when the sequel arrives. They have to pay off now.
CBR Kristy Puchko Miscast and misdirected, Cruise can't conquer the towering monstrosity that is Kurtzman's ugly, senseless, and boring monster movie.
The Atlantic David Sims As the beginning of an ongoing series, it's an utter bore, one with only the faintest grasp of what made Universal's monster pictures so iconic all those decades ago.
BuzzFeed News Alison Willmore The Mummy promises a fantastical world of supernatural beings colliding and collaborating, forgetting that if no one cares about any one of these beings in particular, they're not going to be sold on seeing them together, either.
CNN.com Brian Lowry The Mummy is a mess, a movie in such a hurry to introduce more monsters under Universal's "Dark Universe" banner that it comes awkwardly wrapped in impenetrable layers of exposition.
New York Magazine/Vulture David Edelstein It has been made with skill and hits its marks. But those marks are so low and so brazenly mercenary that it doesn't feel like much of an achievement. It's not involving.
leonardmaltin.com Leonard Maltin Visual effects alone can't draw in an audience when a film is fatally overlong and we don't really care about the characters. I would offer one word of advice to the filmmakers, based on this cluttered remake of The Mummy: simplify.
New York Post Sara Stewart It's hard to tell if it's Cruise or the dragging weight of the movie, but he's almost totally devoid of the star power that makes the "Mission: Impossible" movies compulsively watchable.
Chesapeake Family Magazine Roxana Hadadi The reboot of The Mummy is a whole mish-mash of nothing. It's loud, it's action-packed, and it's full of Tom Cruise running, but barely anything about it is truly memorable.
Detroit News Adam Graham Kurtzman does a decent job with the film's tone, keeping it light and humorous, but the only thing at stake seems to be the future of the Dark Universe, which means more to Universal's bottom line than it does to modern audiences.

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Film / The Mummy (2017)

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"Please meet Princess Ahmanet. She will claim what she has been denied." — Dr. Henry Jekyll

The Mummy is a 2017 fantasy Action Horror film released by Universal as the first, and ultimately only , installment of the Dark Universe , a Shared Universe based on its classic Universal Horror films. note Dracula Untold was originally re-shot to serve as a prequel, but has since been scrapped from continuity. The movie has Tom Cruise in the lead role, Sofia Boutella as the title mummy , Princess Ahmanet, as well as Annabelle Wallis , Jake Johnson , Courtney B. Vance , Javier Botet, Chasty Ballesteros, Marwan Kenzari , Dylan Smith, Selva Rasalingam and Russell Crowe as Dr. Henry Jekyll .

This reboot was directed by Alex Kurtzman, known for co-writing the first two Transformers and the first two rebooted Star Trek movies, and was written by David Koepp ( Jurassic Park ) Christopher McQuarrie ( Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation ), and Dylan Kussman, from a story by Jon Spaihts ( Prometheus ), Jenny Lumet ( Rachel Getting Married ) and Kurtzman.

It has a tie-in game made by WayForward Technologies known as The Mummy Demastered .

Sergeant Nick Morton ( Tom Cruise )
Colonel Gideon Foster ( Courtney B. Vance )
Dr. Henry Jekyll ( Russell Crowe )
Corporal Chris Vail (Jake Johnson)
Jenny Halsey ( Annabelle Wallis )
Princess Ahmanet ( Sofia Boutella )
Kira Lee (Chasty Ballesteros)
Set (Javier Botet)
Lorenzo Montanari (Dylan Smith)
King Menehptre (Selva Rasalingam)
Malik ( Marwan Kenzari )

A group of military commandos bring the entombed Mummy of Egyptian princess Ahmanet from Iraq note ancient Egyptians buried her far away from Egypt, in Mesopotamia to the UK. However, the long dormant mummy awakens, revealing herself as an ancient princess whose destiny was taken from her, and sets out unleashing her revenge.

The Mummy contains examples of:

Affirmative Action Girl : A meta-example. In a franchise that usually only has one female lead per-film, this remake has two, one of whom is the main antagonist.
Always Save the Girl : At the climax, when having to make the choice between saving the world from destruction through the god of death and saving the girl he met a couple of days back , Jack naturally goes for the latter.
Ambiguously Evil : While he's very much on Ahmanet's side after the first act , Vail insists that his earlier zombified killing spree was done to prevent her from getting her claws into Nick.
Ambition Is Evil : Ahmanet was mummified alive after she murdered most of her immediate family (father, stepmother and baby half-brother) in a bid to seize power in ancient Egypt .
Ancient Evil : Ahmanet was sealed away long ago and was accidentally released in the modern day.
Ancient Order of Protectors : Dr. Jekyll is part of a group called Prodigium, which at least appears to be one, as they have known about monsters for a long while.
And the Adventure Continues : Even lampshaded by Nick again saying "Where is your sense of adventure?"
Artistic License – History : Pretty much every detail about ancient Egypt is wrong — the look of the pyramids, the Egyptian beliefs of the dead, and Anubis. The biggest standout, though, is that the birth of a brother wouldn't challenge Ahmanet's ascension, it'd ensure it — the Egyptian royal family very much believed in Brother–Sister Incest to preserve the bloodline.
Artistic License – Linguistics : Jenny is shown to be a competent speaker of Ancient Egyptian. It's actually completely unknown what the language sounded like, as even the writing was a mystery until the discovery of the Rosetta Stone in 1799; even the "simple" Egyptian she speaks is well beyond what real-world linguistics would allow. This could be Handwaved by the fact that she works for Prodigium, who probably have much better resources for translating and linguistics seeing as they have to deal with ancient horrors.
Artistic License – Religion : Set is constantly described as the god of death. In actuality, he was the god of chaos, destruction, and war (and deserts, storms, foreign lands and so on), while death was wholly the domain of the more or less benign Osiris (god of the afterlife) and Anubis (god of funeral rites and cemeteries).
Back from the Dead : Ahmanet of course, but apparently also Nick Morton after his plane, carrying Ahmanet's sarcophagus, crashes. Jenny and Vail are also resurrected after Nick gains the power of Set.
Black Dude Dies First : Colonel Foster, the only black person in the movie, is the first to die courtesy of a possessed Vail.
Body Horror : The sight of a rotting killer mummy regenerating her flesh, fluids, organs and setting her shattered bones sure ain't pretty. What she does to the poor slobs she kills and resurrects, even less so. God, Ahmanet's mummified form is a twisted dessecated corpse after her awakening.
Bookends : The first and last scenes of the movie are Nick and Vail discussing a new place to go, with Vail disagreeing, Nick saying "Where's your sense of adventure?", and the two of them finally riding away on horses towards their next destination . The only difference is that in the end, while they are riding their horses, a sandstorm is trailing behind Nick, to indicate his new powers gained from Set .
Buried Alive : Ahmanet's punishment for murder, especially given she had accepted a Deal with the Devil . It took a lot of effort to hold her there, given how an entire tomb was built for it, a weight to keep her tomb under mercury, a pipe system to bring in fresh mercury to counteract her powers and keep them dormant, and all built a thousand miles away from Egypt, in what's currently Iraq.
Came Back Strong : Ahmanet apparently gave Nick super powers after she brought him back from the dead.

The Chosen One : Ahmanet chooses Nick to be the vessel for Set . This is why she resurrected him after the plane crash.
Creepy Crows : Ahmanet's original ritual includes the sacrifice of a large number of crows or ravens (we see them strung up by their feet, twitching). Later, gatherings of living corvids indicate her presence.
Curb-Stomp Battle : As is the case with most mummies, every single attempt to even try and impede Ahmanet sans Prodigium managing to capture her ends up with her opposition getting the shit kicked out of them or killed. Nick returns the favour when he impales himself with Set's powers.
Curse of the Pharaoh : The mummy this time is a Princess who tried to summon Set but was caught and then buried alive. After her tomb is discovered and her remains are removed, she starts cursing the people transporting her and begins feeding on people to regain strength.
Cute Monster Girl : Ahmanet seems far more attractive and human-like than the typical mummy, but this doesn't hide the fact that she's an undead Obviously Evil abomination.
Darker and Edgier : The film itself, while dark, is nowhere near as dark as the trailers made it look, but it is still much less comedic than The Mummy Trilogy .
Death from Above : Nick's allegedly foolproof plan in the beginning ends in a drone-launched missile strike against the small army of Iraqi insurrectionists they managed to piss off. One of the explosions accidentally opens up a hidden cavern beneath them and thus serves to kick off the present-day plot.
Dishing Out Dirt : Ahmanet unleashes a sandstorm on London. It doesn't come from nowhere: all glass in the vicinity is destroyed and turned into sand.
Distressed Dude : Many of the original Universal Monster movies featured a male monster chasing after a leading lady. This film features a female monster pursuing a male lead character.
Durable Deathtrap : Ahmanet's tomb, complete with a system of weights that keeps the sarcophagus dipped in mercury.
Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette : Ahmanet, combining a mane of black hair and an Undeathly Pallor .
A bit of Truth in Television as the Egyptian Pantheon operated under a more Order Versus Chaos morality than Black-and-White Morality , the closest they had to a God of Evil in actuality was Apep.
Evil Overlooker : Ahmanet's eyes are menacingly hovering over Nick on the poster.
The Evil Prince : Gender flipped , Ahmanet was a princess, and she became a vengeful mummy.
Explosive Instrumentation : One of the most blatant examples since the good old Star Trek days - when Ahmanet escapes Prodigium's hold, the entire room lights up like a New Year's Eve fireworks display in the wake of their tech detonating as if it was made from Semtex and magnesium.
Extra Eyes : Set's powers grant an extra pair of irises, as seen in Ahmanet's eyes. So does Nick after being possessed.
Eye of Horus Means Egypt : A very large "Eye Of Horus" is seen among the hieroglyphics in Princess Ahmanet's tomb. Possibly justified, as the Eye of Horus was actually a symbol of protection, which would be fitting in a tomb imprisoning an unspeakably powerful and evil being.
Face–Heel Turn : Dr. Jekyll's alter ego Mr. Hyde pretty much decides that aligning himself with Set would be much more fun in regards to just causing random chaos.
Feathered Fiend : Nick's plane crashes after a flock of Creepy Crows plows through the cockpit.
Gender Flip : Unlike many previous mummies from Universal and Hammer, the titular mummy of this film is female.
Gilligan Cut : The movie's present-day action begins with Nick assuring his reluctant partner-in-crime that entering the nearby Iraqi village is completely safe. Cue both of them being chased through the streets by angry insurrectionists with Michael Bay -level volumes of gunfire and explosions.
Girl Friday : Kira Lee is this to Dr. Henry Jekyll.
Glass-Shattering Sound : Ahmanet lets loose a shriek powerful enough to shatter various glass items after she's chained down.
God Save Us from the Queen! : Well, princess; Ahmanet was a princess, and she became a vengeful mummy.
God of Evil : Ahmanet, the eponymous Mummy, makes a Deal with the Devil with Set, the Egyptian God of the Desert (symbolizing chaos, storms, death, and the like). While Set is portrayed as somewhat more benign in the original myths, this does get the title for the Egyptian God of Evil a lot closer than works that promote Anubis to this role.
Going in Circles : Nick and Jenny escape from Ahmanet in an ambulance, but since she has a level of influence over Nick , he just drives straight back to the ruined abbey, thinking that he's found the highway.
Good Powers, Bad People : Set could bring the dead back to life in pristine condition. But doing the opposite is just more appealing for him.
Greater-Scope Villain : Set, the Egyptian god of evil, who had been made a deal with Ahmanet to kill her father.
Half the Man He Used to Be : One of Ahmanet's mummy goons gets his lower half torn off during a car chase with Nick and Jenny. He doesn't even seem to notice and continues to fight until his upper body gets torn apart as well.
Heir Club for Men : Ahmanet was the heir to her father's throne but lost the status as soon as her brother entered the line.
Incongruously-Dressed Zombie : The lesser mummies Nick encounters, unlike most film mummies, are the product of Ahmanet's life-draining attacks on modern-day victims. Therefore, they're dressed in ordinary street clothes, with nary a bandage, funerary mask, or hieroglyph to be seen. Doubly applies to the re-animated Crusader corpses, whose period outfits don't match modern England or ancient Egypt.
Insistent Terminology : Nick tries to tell Jenny what happened to him but as he is using layman's terms (coffin, writing) she keeps interrupting to correct his nomenclature (sarcophagus, hieroglyphics).
Jar of the Bizarre : In the Prodigium Headquarters, various objects are found in storage, including a human skull with fangs in a jar and a preserved gill-man arm in a cube-shaped case .
Jerkass : Nick is an arrogant, selfish, and occasionally cowardly and self serving guy. In layman's terms, he's kind of an asshole. Says something about Tom Cruise's performance that he still turns into an Loveable Rogue .
Kiss of Death : Ahmanet's preferred method of draining her victims of life force. Nick uses Set's powers to do the same to her at the end of the movie.
Living MacGuffin : Being the guy who broke the protective barrier, revealed the sarcophagus and first looked at its "face", Nick is imprinted by Ahmanet to become her "chosen one", to the point he survives a plane crash without a scratch.
Magic Pants : Regardless of how much Ahmanet regenerates or attacked, There always is juust enough wrappings left over to cover her naughty bits.
Male Gaze : There are a few scenes of the camera focused firmly on Ahmanet's behind as she's doing her evil thing.
Nick as in Old Nick the Devil, and Mort on, as in French for 'death'.
Monumental Damage : The sandstorm engulfs the British Houses of Parliament and destroys the clock faces of Big Ben.
Morality Pet : Jenny tends to bring out the best in Nick, but in the end he's savvy enough to admit that his love for her isn't powerful enough to keep Seth at bay by itself.
"A new world of gods and monsters" refers to a famous quote from Bride of Frankenstein .
Ahmanet can summon a face in her conjured sandstorms, something done previously in The Mummy Trilogy
Also from the previous Mummy movies, during the battle in the Prodigium library, Jenny punches someone with the Book of Amun-Ra note (The book is clearly shown to be made of gold, with the Eye of Horus engraved in the center of the lock - it is therefore not the Book of the Dead, which was black and had an embossed scarab in the lock).
In Jekyll's underground facility , the camera lingers on a hand belonging to Gill-Man , and on a vampire skull .
Naked on Revival : Nick wakes up naked within a body bag in a morgue, after being part of a plane crash.
Naked People Are Funny : After Nick's aforementioned morgue awakening, he is initially startled by Chris' ghost appearing before him, but Jenny and two coroners enter the room, leading to a comical beat where he remembers he's naked and quickly covers himself.
Night of the Living Mooks : Every living being that Ahmanet drains of their life turns into a withered undead husk that follows her every whim. The only upside is that they're about as durable as you'd expect. The resurrected crusaders are this as well.
Nipple and Dimed : Hilariously, Ahmanet's nude scene at the beginning has her nipple clearly and clumsily blurred out.
Obviously Evil : In addition to the mummy wrappings, Ahmanet has scarification tattoos on her face, and two irises/pupils in each eye . Yeah, she's clearly a demonic sorceress.
Orifice Invasion : Ahmanet escapes Prodigium's holding facility by summoning a spider, have it crawl into one of the prison operators' ear, take control of him and let him disable the mechanisms that are keeping her restrained .
Our Liches Are Different : After she's resurrected as a mummy, Princess Ahmanet displays vast sorcerous powers courtesy of her Deal with the Devil with Set, including necromancy, telepathy, and summoning sandstorms.
The Power of Glass : With the Dagger of Set, Ahmanet destroys all of the glass in the London to create a massive storm as a show of power.
Punny Name : Nick Mort on is a guy who apparently dies and comes back to life.
Recycled Trailer Music : The second trailer has the instrumental parts of The Rolling Stones ' "Paint It Black".
Revisiting the Roots : The movie seems to be going back to its original concept as a horror film like the 1932 movie whereas previous installments were more action-adventure with some horror and some comedy.
Reconstruction : Reconstructs a major complaint about the previous entry in the franchise: rather than her god-like power and immortality coming from her mummification, she'd already made a deal with Set for them and the mummification was to imprison her.
Sadly Mythtaken : Set is not the Egyptian god of the dead, death, OR evil. note That would be Osiris, Anubis, and the closest approximation (but still not quite a god of evil) would be Apep. He was the god of the desert, storms, foreigners, and chaos.
Sealed Evil in a Can : Ahmanet was Buried Alive in a tomb build specifically for that purpose, which the movie's protagonists conveniently break open.
Seductive Mummy : When Ahmanet is first resurrected she starts out as a dessicated walking corpse, but after devouring enough lifeforce from her victims to restore her body she becomes a Cute Monster Girl . She also tries to seduce the hero by sending him visions, though she appears as she did when she was human.
Shirtless Scene : Three from Tom Cruise 's character; two from visions Ahmanet gives him, and one when he wakes up naked in the morgue .
One of the first things Dr Jekyll says to Nick: Dr Jekyll: I would like, if I may, to tell you a story...
The protagonist talking to the decayed corpse/spirit of his comrade in a London pub is a fairly direct reference to An American Werewolf in London .
The basic premise of a beautiful, undead woman with godlike powers rampaging through London whilst raising an army of undead by sucking out the life-force of her victims bears more than a passing resemblance to the infamous 1985 "Naked Space Vampire Movie" Lifeforce (1985) .
There are two nods to The Mummy (1999) : the visual of an evil screaming face appearing in a sandstorm, and the Book of Amun-Ra from that film used as an improvised weapon.
Nick is drawn to Ahmanet, just as Helena is drawn to Imhotep in the 1932 Mummy.
Nick steals the dagger off Ahmanet in the same way Jonathan steals the star-shaped key off Imhotep; during a Neck Lift .
A scarab worms its way into a hapless Red Shirt 's brain in the 1999 movie.
The underwater fight with Ahmanet and her undead minions alludes to a similar scene in Lucio Fulci 's Zombi 2 .
Sadly Mythtaken : The assumption that Set is the God of Evil is a common misconception continued in the film, with the closest God of Evil to the Ancient Egyptians being Apep.
There's also the use of mercury as a weapon against monsters, given its similar properties to silver.
The Smurfette Principle : Downplayed. Jenny is the only woman among the expedition group, but she isn't the only woman of major importance in the film.
Spirit Advisor : Vail is one retaining his fatal injuries , something which reviewers made sure to compare to An American Werewolf in London .
Start X to Stop X : Prodigum's plans for the dagger involve releasing Set into Nick so they can destroy his body in a controlled environment, vanquishing the dark god while he's still freshly installed in a mortal shell.
Super-Empowering : Ahmanet does this to Nick when she brings him back.
Superpowered Evil Side : Hyde for Jekyll and ultimately Set for Nick.
Tailor-Made Prison : The Egyptians buried the mummified Ahmanet in one of these; buried thousands of miles from Egypt beneath the Iraqi desert in a cavern miles below the surface, her sarcophagus submerged in a pool of mercury and surrounded by protective statues of Anubis to keep her imprisoned within. At the film's end, Prodigium places the defeated Ahmanet back in her sarcophagus, flood it with mercury and then bury it in the catacombs beneath London to imprison her once more .
Takes One to Kill One : Dr. Jekyll states this at the end of the movie, after Nick completes the ritual and allows Set to inhabit him in order to defeat Ahmanet . Dr. Henry Jekyll : Sometimes, it takes a monster to fight a monster.
Tragic Monster : A strange example with Nick Morton . He has the typical beginnings of a tragic monster — in order to save someone he loves, he adopts a dark power that alters his personality and forces him into exile as he becomes a hunted man — but the trope ends up played more optimistically, with Nick's human side retaining a large amount of agency as he searches for a way to lift the curse, while he's set up to become a central hero in the franchise as a monster who fights other monsters .
Undeath Always Ends : Subverted. By the end of the film Nick uses Set's power to take away Ahmanet's lifeforce, but the fact that the Prodigium goes through the effort of resealing her corpse back inside her warded sarcophagus indicates that she's still not truly destroyed.
Villainesses Want Heroes : Nick is resurrected by Ahmanet as part of her plans, but she also appears to have a more personal interest in him if her leaning in close to Nick longingly on more than one occasion is any indication. Ahmanet: Come to me...
Waking Up at the Morgue : Nick does this after the plane crash, apparently without a scratch on him. Its depiction in the trailer also doubles as a Jump Scare due to its editing.
We Can Rule Together : Ahmanet says such to Nick, claiming that he can rule beside her after she has Set possess his body. Since doing so involves getting stabbed in the chest by a ceremonial dagger , Nick's not too keen on it. Hyde makes a similar offer a few minutes later, but he's not very interested in dominion and is more keen on all the destruction he and Set can cause.
"This isn't a tomb. It's a prison."
For those unprepared for it, "My name is Jekyll, Dr. Henry Jekyll." can throw people in for a loop.
In a way, Nick grabbing a berserk Jekyll's hand to activate the handprint scanner, which detects him as "E Hyde" instead.
It appears that Nick has willingly handing over the dagger for Ahmanet to complete her ritual, and then suddenly, he completes the ritual himself, by stabbing himself in the abdomen .
Would Hit a Girl : After the clear threat level Ahmanet displays and later killing Jenny and smacking him around the room like rag doll, Nick has zero qualms delivering a return beatdown upon gaining Set's powers before violently draining the life energy from her.
Yandere : Ahmanet. While her goal is to resurrect Set inside of Nick , Ahmanet seems to actively despise Jenny, reacting in jealously and rage when Jenny pulls Nick away from her to escape Prodigium and later drowns Jenny so that she can have Nick.
You Can't Kill What's Already Dead : Zigzagged Trope . The mummies in the film raised by Ahmanet are actually far more vulnerable than human mooks, as one might expect from a decaying body. However, they still ignore all pain and keep coming after losing one or more limbs . Ahmanet herself is much tougher, in no small part thanks to her magic.
You Taste Delicious : In the climax Ahmanet pins down Nick (whom she is looking to make her consort ) and licks his face with an Overly-Long Tongue .

"She's got plans for you, Nick."

Video Example(s):

Condemned to eternal darkness.

Ahmanet goes from being the heir to Egypt to its potential destroyer when she sells her soul to Set. After killing her family, she tries to bring Set into the mortal realm, only to be imprisoned for eternity.

Example of: Start of Darkness

Princess Ahmanet

There's a time ...

Just WAKE UP!!!!!

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'The Mummy' Ending: Tom Cruise Movie Transformation, Sequel Explained
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The Mummy (2017)
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The Mummy
On June 9, #TheMummy will be awoken. Watch the new trailer now.--Follow:https://www.facebook.com/TheMummy/https://twitter.com/themummyhttps://www.instagram.c...
The Mummy (2017 film)
The Mummy is a 2017 fantasy action-adventure film directed by Alex Kurtzman and written by David Koepp, Christopher McQuarrie, and Dylan Kussman, with a story by Kurtzman, Jon Spaihts, and Jenny Lumet.A reboot of the Mummy franchise as part of Universal's scrapped Dark Universe, it stars Tom Cruise as U.S. Army Sergeant Nick Morton, a soldier of fortune who accidentally unearths the ancient ...
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Alex Kurtzman, who directed Tom Cruise in 2017's The Mummy reboot, admitted there are "a million things" he regrets about the film. Alex Kurtzman admitted there are "a million things" he regrets ...
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Before it pelts you with its thinly-sketched characters, baffling motivations, and various takes on skeletal zombies, Alex Kurtzman's The Mummy - a reboot of the 1932 original that has spawned a dozen follow-ups since - wants you to know that it's a small part of a much bigger creation that's being drummed up by the studio, called the "Dark Universe".
'The Mummy' 2017: What to Know About Tom Cruise Movie and Its Cast
Nope, he's Nick Morton, a morally ambiguous tomb raider who gets involved in the same kind of stunts as Cruise's Mission: Impossible character while also having to fight off an ancient undead ...
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The prior trailer for The Mummy confirmed that Tom Cruise's Nick Morton miraculously survived the plane crash that opened the footage, and the latest sees Russell Crowe 's Dr. Henry Jekyll ...
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It's not often that a film with a megastar like Tom Cruise, along with a decorated cast including Russell Crowe, falls flat on its face. Yet, the 2017 reboot of "The Mummy" managed just that ...
Tom Cruise's The Mummy , recently unearthed on Netflix, is the flop
The Mummy. , recently unearthed on Netflix, is the flop that re-made him. The movie that torpedoed an entire cinematic franchise has 15 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, but that hasn't stopped fans ...
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Universal's latest take on The Mummy is slated for release June 9, 2017. Editors' Recommendations. 7 best Tom Cruise 1990s movies, ranked This underrated 1994 Tom Cruise movie is on Hulu in October.
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The Mummy, from director Alex Kurtzman, is poised to set a shared universe for Universal featuring its monsters. Javier Bardem is on board for a future Frankenstein film, while Johnny Depp has ...
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The Mummy franchise was rebooted in 2017, with the ill-fated Tom Cruise vehicle of the same name. The film was designed to spawn a shared universe of Universal Monsters films, but its lukewarm box ...
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The Mummy went a step further with that approach by utilizing Tom Cruise's greatest strengths to make the film a major action blockbuster, one that just happened to include supernatural creatures. Although none of the other canceled Dark Universe movies were made, it seems that Universal wanted PG-13 movies that skewed more action than horror ...
Watch The Mummy
The Mummy. 2017 | Maturity rating: M | 1h 50m | Action. A treasure-hunting soldier reawakens an ancient Egyptian princess who has waited for centuries to take revenge on a world that wronged her. Starring: Tom Cruise,Annabelle Wallis,Sofia Boutella. Watch all you want.
A 2017 Tom Cruise box office bomb is climbing up the Netflix charts
Universal's 2017 reboot of The Mummy, starring Tom Cruise, is sitting at no. 2 on the Netflix Daily Top 10. A reboot of the Brendan Fraser-led Mummy franchise, the film stars Cruise as a US Army ...
Watch The Mummy (2017) Full Movie Online
Though safely entombed in a crypt deep beneath the unforgiving desert, an ancient princess, whose destiny was unjustly taken from her, is awakened in the current day bringing with her malevolence grown over millennia and terrors that defy human comprehension.
The Mummy (2017) (Film)
The Mummy is a 2017 fantasy Action Horror film released by Universal as the first, and ultimately only, installment of the Dark Universe, a Shared Universe based on its classic Universal Horror films. note The movie has Tom Cruise in the lead role, Sofia Boutella as the title mummy, Princess Ahmanet, as well as Annabelle Wallis, Jake Johnson ...
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