The Mummy

The Mummy (1999)

1 answered question since 26 Jan '25, 05:45

(26 votes)

Question: Is it me, or do all of Ardeth's Egyptian dialogue lines end sounding the same way, despite completely different words being used to make his sentences? Is there a reason for this or something that I'm not picking up on, or is there no reason at all?

Answer: The script writers chose to truncate (shorten) the Egyptian words as they were often quite long which made for slow and clunky dialogue. The familiar sounds from Ardeth are simply due to the truncation limiting the variety of words being spoken.

Answer: He repeats two phrases most often: "yalla" and "imshii", which are modern colloquial Egyptian Arabic. Yalla is "let's go" or "go quickly" or even "let's begin". You hear the prison warden yell it before he jumps into the water during the boat fire, much as one would yell "Geronimo" at one point in American history. Imshi or imshak/ik is the verb "go", so either I go or you/we go.

Continuity mistake: In the scene where Jonathan picks up the scarab, it breaks open and the beetle inside starts to crawl under his skin. We see Brendan Fraser tear Jonathan's shirt and cut the beetle out of him. However, in the very next scene, we see Jonathan walking into the temple, his shirt is intact and there is no blood to be seen. (01:37:05 - 01:38:30)

More mistakes in The Mummy

Rick: Well if it ain't my little buddy Beni. I think I'll kill you.
Beni: Think of my children.
Rick: You don't have any children
Beni: Someday I might.

More quotes from The Mummy

Trivia: An explanation for why there is no salt acid booby-trap protecting the gold book like there was protecting the black book. In the missing scene some of Imhotep's priests burst through the floor/ground and attack Jonathan and Rick, who get tossed aside. The priests then open the gold book's hiding place and get burned all up by the salt acid. You can even see when Rick grabs the TNT that there is smoke rising from the hole.

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Chosen answer: The tattoos on his forehead are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs that spell "Underworld", and the ones on his cheeks are the Egyptian Hieroglyphs for the word "truth." All Medjai males get these tattoos as part of the coming-of-age rite, when they turn sixteen, of which the most important is the tattoo on their right wrist (which Rick O'Connell also has) that marks them as "warriors for God." Other tattoos specific to Medjai males are on their arms, forearms, hands, pectorals, shoulder blades and beneath the navel - the tattoos on the nose and chin are no longer used, since the time of Seti I. Medjai females only get the wrist tattoo when they come of age, but are not marked with any of the other symbols that are particular to men. Fun fact: If the Medjai - male and female alike - shows any sign of pain or cries during the tattooing process, it is considered that they have brought shame to their family.

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