The Mummy

Synopsis

by Michael Tresca

In Thebes, 1290 BC. Pharaoh Seti I's mistress, Anck-su-namun, has a dalliance with the pharaoh's high priest Imhotep and both are mummified, alive, in Hamunaptra. Imhotep suffers a worse fate, the dreaded "Hom Dai" curse. Three thousand years later, American adventurer Rick O'Connell, a beautiful Egyptologist named Evelyn Carnhan, and her treasure-seeking brother Jonathan, accidentally release Imhotep the mummy by reading a passage from the Book of the Dead. It's up to Rick and Evelyn to stop him before he brings about the end of the world.

The Mummy faithfully recreates the look and feel of an ancient Egyptian tomb with beautifully rendered panels, sphinxes, statues and sarcophagi. The movie's musical score accompanies the atmospheric pre-lighting and spot effects. Numerous mummies, each with unique abilities, must be battled to the death and our heroes will face other villains such as tomb robbers, flesh eating beetles, locusts and the undead. Mummies galore dot the landscape: slaves, archers, swordsmen, spear toting mummies and spirit mummies, as well as the dreaded high priest

Rick O'Connell is well equipped to fight the forces of the Egyptian undead with weapons like flaming torches, dual pistols, machetes, dynamite, shotguns, explosive amulets and even a magical golden sword. But monsters are only part of the challenge as trapdoors, pitfalls, breakaway platforms and hidden traps also try to thwart the hero. Rick must gather six pieces of a star key by solving trap-laden puzzles, beating a certain number of enemies or similar quests in order to escape each level.

In addition to its shooter aspect, The Mummy features action adventure elements as games-within-the-game, including surfing down an underground river on a log, avoiding swarms of locusts or jumping over rolling pillars in 2D-style action.