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)
Continuity mistake: You'll notice that they put a lot of emphasis on the sun rising and "showing the way." The sun then rises IN FRONT of them. When the camera gives us a view of the riders on the camels, the shadows from their hats fall directly on their faces, when instead there should be no shadows. When the camera moves to show them all riding towards Humanaptra, their shadows fall a little to the left and behind, like it's high noon or something. (01:37:45)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Imhotep's priests first pop up, Jonathan is on Rick's left, and the guy in black is on his right. But in that split-second shot that shows them starting to fire, they are on the opposite sides. [In the director's commentary he does mention this but says it's because they had to cut some scenes out due to time, still a mistake but has a reason.] (01:39:20)
Continuity mistake: On the DVD version of the movie there are some deleted scenes - one would have explained two mistakes that occurred towards the end of the movie. Mistake one was that there was a hole in the ground when Jonathan and Rick are at the base of the statue of Horus. You can see the hole clearly when Rick lights the TNT - but without the missing scene there is absolutely no reason for that hole to be there and it just sort of appears. (01:42:30)
Continuity mistake: When Rick stabs Imhotep, at the end of the movie, we can see blood on the hands of the mummy. In the next shot, however, his hands are clean and there's no blood coming off the wound. (01:51:00)
Continuity mistake: Just out of curiosity, where did the bandage come from on Fraser's hand at the end of the movie? [He got burned by the salt acid in the deleted scene. An explanation, but given the editing, still a valid mistake.] (01:55:25)
Continuity mistake: Ardeth Bay removes the Lewis gun from Winston's plane after it crashes in the desert. If you look at the gun, it has the correct 97 round drum (it's really noticeably thick) with a leather carrying handle on top and no paint marks on it - this is correct for aircraft use. Aside from the fact we never see Ardeth Bay remove any spare magazines for it (which would also have been of the 97 round variety), which would have left the gun with little if any ammunition after shooting at the wall of sand, by the time they all arrive in the treasure room, the magazine suddenly changes to the 47 round variety (thinner than the 97 round magazine), which does not have the leather carrying handle, and has the painted marking on the top of it to enable the magazine to be more easily changed at night.
Continuity mistake: When Evie wakes up with the rat on her, she rolls over and sees Anck-Su-Namun's body and screams. A split second before the camera cuts, you can see a large crack form in the top-left corner of the table Anck is on. The next time you see the table, the crack is gone. Clearly, it was unintentional damage done to the set that was later fixed. (This mistake has been fixed in the 4K version, which seems to have the crack painted out, but it's still visible in older DVD/Blu-Ray versions).
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Imhotep's sarcophagus is opened: Rick and Jonathan stand the sarcophagus up against the wall, and Evie steps a few paces away and stands in front of it. Then the "lid" falls on the floor, where Evie was standing. Then Evie approaches the juicy corpse of Imhotep from an angle. Next she is seen stood directly in front of him, where the lid should be, yet the lid has mysteriously disappeared.
Continuity mistake: When Imhotep's priests break out of the ground, we see a shot of Ardeth, Jonathan and O'Connell starting to shoot them. It flashes back to the priests and then back to the trio and we only THEN see Jonathan reach over and grab some revolvers from beside O'Connell to start shooting.
Continuity mistake: When the biplane dives from the sandstorm created by the mummy, it shows Evelyn looking towards the plane, with the city of the dead behind her. The plane is seen, from her viewpoint, to be flying away when it crashes. However, after the plane sinks O'Connell and his friends walk in the same direction that the plane was flying, presumably AWAY from the city of the dead but the camera shows them walking towards it.
Continuity mistake: During the scenes when Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan are walking through the passageways by torchlight, Rick's leather wrist bracer disappears and reappears.
Continuity mistake: After the scarab enters his body, Jonathan contorts his arm in pain/reaction giving a view of his palm, through which the scarab entered. But there is no visible wound, blood, or any other sign of entry for the scarab to have gotten in. Also there is no visible blood when Rick stabs Jonathan to get the scarab out.
Continuity mistake: On the boat, as Rick is checking his weaponry, he cocks his 45 and puts a magazine in. Hearing a noise, he walks over to deck cargo and pulls Benny out. He then places the 45 against Benny's chest and threatens him. The 45 is no longer cocked.
Continuity mistake: In the beginning, during the initial battle sequence, there is a scene where some men on horses go up a little hill, over all these dead bodies. The body right in the middle of the shot jumps two different times when a horse runs over his legs.
Continuity mistake: When the hero and heroine are kissing, you first see it from behind him looking at her face. From that viewing angle they both turn their heads to the right to kiss each other. Then we see it from behind her and in front of him, but now they are both turning they heads a little to the left.
Continuity mistake: When Rachel Weisz gets the chains cut that are holding her down, just the chains are cut but soon afterward the restraint part that goes around the wrist is gone also.
Continuity mistake: When Imhotep and his zombies are going after the group in the building where Evie reads to locate the other book, watch the mummy's CG mouth when he is walking in the zombie crowd, raises both hands and shouts something. You can see in that scene the CG decay shift on his face a bit.
Continuity mistake: When the blonde bad guy is walking towards the open window with his gun, the plants near the window, and even the ones against the back wall, are blowing in the wind, but the plants and trees outside are perfectly still.
Continuity mistake: When the Medjai watch Rick run out of the city of the dead into the open desert after the opening title, none of the bodies of the men on horseback are seen on the ground even after many of them were shot minutes before.
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.