With all the recent re-imaginings of the classic Universal monsters being released, I recently realized that I have never seen the 2017 Tom Cruise movie “The Mummy” - the movie that killed a cinematic universe before it even had the chance to take off. So, I finally decided to give this a shot.
Nick Morton is a soldier of fortune who plunders ancient sites for timeless artifacts and sells them to the highest bidder.
When Nick and his partner come under attack in the Middle East, the ensuing battle accidentally unearths Ahmanet, a betrayed Egyptian princess who was entombed under the desert for thousands of years.
With her powers constantly evolving, Morton must now stop the resurrected monster as she embarks on a furious rampage through the streets of London.
When this movie was released in 2017, “The Mummy” ended up receiving really negative responses from critics and audiences. Yes, there are some moments that are kind of entertaining. Yet, this iteration of “The Mummy” should have remained buried in the sand.
“The Mummy” (2017) does deliver a few action-packed moments that can entertain you. There’s an entire sequence where things go awry and the plane that the characters are flying in goes down. The entire scene sees the characters trying to move around in zero gravity, which makes the scene even more fun and chaotic. Plus, it’s a Tom Cruise movie. He needed a big stunt!
Unlike the previous “Mummy” entries (1999s The Mummy, 2001s The Mummy Returns, and NOT The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor) that had quite a bit of adventure-filled fun, this “Mummy” lacked the fun. The adventure scenes can be sort of decent, such as when they find the Egyptian princess and when the princess causes chaos in London.
Since this was supposed to start a cinematic universe for the rebooted Universal monsters, the movie also crams a lot in this movie to get the world-building going. This movie also tries to blend the horror elements with the action-adventure, which can be great when done right (like the “Mummy” movies I previously mentioned). This reboot did have potential to be a dark and gritty take, but falls flat. Even the comedic bits between Morton and his partner aren't really that funny.
Cast: Tom Cruise (Nick Morton); Russell Crowe (Henry Jekyll); Annabelle Wallis (Jenny Halsey); Sofia Boutella (Ahmanet); Marwan Kenzari (Malik); Courtney B. Vance (Col. Greenway); Jake Johnson (Sgt. Vail).
Writer/director: David Koepp (writer) (Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny); Christopher McQuarrie (Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning; Top Gun: Maverick) (writer); Dylan Kussman (writer); Alex Kurtzman (director) (he has written The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Star Trek Into Darkness, Cowboys & Aliens, and numerous Star Trek spin-offs for Paramount Plus - this was his first big budget movie)
Trivia: The zero gravity scene took 64 takes and was shot for 2 days in a special plane that was lined in padded green fabric covered in reference marks. The plane would fly to a high altitude then dive along a parabolic push, falling at the same rate as the gravitational pull. With a 15% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of 2024, this is the second worst reviewed movie in Tom Cruise’s career, after “Cocktail” (1988), with 9%.
MPAA: Rated PG-13 for violence, action and scary images, and for some suggestive content and partial nudity (running time 110 minutes)
Where to find the movie? “The Mummy” (2017) is currently available to rent on YouTube, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.
The zero gravity scene took sixty-four takes and was shot for two days in a special plane that was lined in padded green fabric covered in reference marks The plane would fly to a high altitude then dive along a parabolic path, falling at the same rate as the gravitational pull. This has been used for several films in the past, including Apollo 13 (1995) 22 years earlier. It was invented by NASA, where it was used for zero-G training for astronauts. Reportedly, a lot of the crew got nauseous during the scene and vomited, except for the main stars, Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis, who were really proud of the stunt.
This film was intended to be the first installment in a film universe known as "Dark Universe". Javier Bardem had already been announced as Frankenstein's monster in Bill Condon's 'Bride of Frankenstein', and Johnny Depp was gearing up to play the titular character in 'The Invisible Man'. Other movies planned were 'Creature of the Black Lagoon', 'The Wolf Man', 'Van Helsing' and 'Dracula', as well as 'Dark Army' (where several of the monsters would team up). However, plans for a shared film narrative were canceled after this film was a critical and commercial failure.
The film's tagline, "Welcome to a new world of gods and monsters," is a quote from Bride of Frankenstein (1935), which was also produced by Universal and would have been the next installment in the Dark Universe franchise if "The Mummy (2017)" caught on.
On December 20, 2016, IMAX mistakenly released a trailer with no audio except for the actors' grunts and screams, inspiring many internet memes.
The film's original plot was set in Iraq and followed a Navy SEAL and his team that battle mummies led by Ashurbanipal.
Released 85 years after the original The Mummy (1932).
The book from Jekyll's library that Jenny uses to knock out an adversary is the Book of Amun-Ra from The Mummy (1999).
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