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Trivia: Director Stephen Sommers has said that part of the reason he wanted to work on this film was because the original 1932 version of the movie was the only classic Universal monster movie to scare him as a child. He thought Dracula was a little too sexy and cool to be totally scary, while Frankenstein was more tragic and sad than frightening... whereas he found the original mummy just plain old creepy.

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Trivia: One of the background extras in the film was unknowingly given the exact same cloak worn by Alec Guinness in the original "Star Wars." It had inadvertently been mixed in with various generic monk robes at a costume company that works on film and television productions, and was later rented out to this film. It was identified a few years later as the "Star Wars" robe and sold in an auction for over $100,000, making "The Mummy" its last confirmed on-screen appearance.

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Visible crew/equipment: In the opening action-scene, as Rick backs away from the wall when the raiders start to leap over, there's a shot behind him where the camera pulls back... and you can see a near-perfect row of white markers (likely for the extras or actors) in the sand. There's at least five of them in a line.

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Revealing mistake: In the first shot of the movie, the camera moves from the Sphinx through a town square. If you pay attention to the people in the crowd, it becomes painfully obvious which people are real (who were filmed in front of a green screen and composed into the scene) and which people are CGI. There's at least 4 (likely more) CGI people in the town square to populate it more, and they all noticeably move with a stiff, generic "walk-cycle" and even look slightly "blocky," like they're low-polygon models.

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Other mistake: During the opening action scene, as Rick is firing the pistols after he backs up from the outer wall (shortly before he finds Beni and is locked outside the tomb), pay attention... you can see that many of the extras in the background aren't really doing much of anything even though the two groups are supposedly in battle. A lot of the raiders and doreign legion members are just standing around or aimlessly walking. Only a few of them are (poorly) pretending to "fight." (00:09:50)

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Visible crew/equipment: In the opening action scene, when the raiders start firing their guns towards the French Foreign Legion, there's a wide-shot of several French troops being killed, and a few of them fall over a balcony to their death. As some of the soldiers on the left side of screen fall of screen and land behind some piles of sand, you can briefly see the edge of an air bag (or some other form of padding) pop up a few times with each one. (00:09:06)

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Visible crew/equipment: In the beginning of the film, when Ardeth Bay is first seen and talking about how "We, the Medjai, the descendants of pharaoh's bodyguards, kept watch," look closely. You can see the shadow of the camera move up Ardeth's horse's head as it closes in on him.

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Trivia: Reportedly the cast had to have "kidnappers insurance" in case they were abducted and held for ransom during production. Most of the cast didn't realise this was part of their contracts until after filming was complete.

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Trivia: Tom Cruise was reportedly offered the role of Rick O'Connell, but turned it down. He would later go on to star in the 2017 reboot eighteen years later.

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Trivia: Director Stephen Sommers intended to use the old 1930's "Universal Studios" logo as a throwback to the original film, but the idea was vetoed by Universal. Sommers also reportedly didn't much like the current studio logo at the time and was annoyed at having to use it.

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Trivia: Somewhat ironically, the mummy's actor Arnold Vosloo really didn't like the look of the CGI mummy when he is first awakened. He felt the design was a little hokey and over-the-top. (Although he did like the look of the later "stages" the mummy takes on as he begins to regenerate).

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Trivia: Much about the character Ardeth Bay was changed during filming. For example: Originally, he was meant to be tattooed head-to-toe. But director Stephen Sommers opted to only give him a few tattoos, feeling actor Oded Fehr was too handsome to cover in ink. He was also meant to die in the final battle, but Sommers fell in love with the character and decided to let him live.

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Trivia: Reportedly, for some reason all of the camels inexplicably hated Kevin J. O'Connor, and wouldn't cooperate with his commands. The rather humorous scene of his character Beni trying to drag a camel who won't budge was a result of this.

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Trivia: There is a persistent rumor that Leonardi DiCaprio was originally cast as Rick, but was forced to drop out due to other contractual obligations. This rumor has never been completely confirmed or denied.

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Trivia: Arnold Vosloo actually had to be wrapped head-to-toe in bandages for his mummification scene. He found it incredibly distressing, and even joked in the commentary that the scene made him realise that "bondage isn't [his] thing."

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Trivia: The opening voice over was meant to be darker in tone and be provided by the titular mummy, Imhotep, as he recounts his curse. However, it was decided that it was simply too weird to hear his voice narrating in English when he obviously wouldn't speak it. The voice-over was then given to Ardeth Bay.

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Trivia: While shooting on location, the crew had to hire additional animal wranglers specifically to catch poisonous snakes and insects that would wander onto set.

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Revealing mistake: When the scarab beetles surround Benni at the end of the film, watch closely... you can see many scarab beetles running directly "through" each other, revealing they are just a digital effect. (This is also visible in other scenes with the beetles, but it's most obvious in this scene, particularly in the first shot when the beetles begin to swarm towards Benni).

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Trivia: Prior to director Stephen Sommers becoming attached to the film, Universal had tried for a number of years to make a new "Mummy" movie. At one point, renowned horror author and filmmaker Clive Barker was even attached, and was going to write and direct a low-budget, hard-R "Mummy" movie, but he eventually walked away. Subsequently, filmmakers including Joe Dante and George A. Romero became attached at different points. Finally, Sommers pitched his vision - a cross between Indiana Jones and Jason and the Argnonauts, with a new flashier Mummy created with modern-day effects - which the producers loved.

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Trivia: When fireballs and hail begin to rain down from the sky, the "hail" we see onscreen in a few shots is just dry dog-food that had been spray-painted white and was bring dropped from above camera by a few stage-hands.

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