The Hero of "The Mummy" (1999)

As I already pointed out in this post about Imhotep, the real hero of the 1999 version of “The Mummy” isn’t Rick O’Connell, but Evie Carnahan. I promised a post about her as well, to show how she was created as the perfect hero to oppose Imhotep, so here we go.

Once the movie has left the historical prelude, which sets up Imhotep’s fate for later, we get a glance at Rick, who is a Foreign Legionary and currently stationed in the City of the Dead. That is, essentially, all we need to know about him. It’s where he found the key which Jonathan later on steals from him and it’s why he’s useful to Evie - because only those who have been there before can find the city. Despite the first impression, Rick is not the hero of the tale.

That might seem strange to a lot of people at the first glance, because the movie never makes a secret of being what it is: a pulp-based adventure movie really, really enjoying itself. That is actually why it’s still fun to watch today, almost twenty years after it was originally released. An adventure story like this one usually has a male lead, a hero going up against the evil villain - with the female lead being the love interest and the damsel in distress at some point. It’s traditional and it’s what people expect. But it’s not what they get in “The Mummy.”

Sure, Rick O’Connell makes a great sidekick and comic relief and he surely is a great love interest for Evie as well (few men make such great gifts, stealing some archaeological tools for the woman they court). But he’s not the hero, he’s never set up as one by the movie.

The hero of any given tale is the one who really drives the story. The one who is set up to oppose the villain, the one who develops throughout the story, becoming stronger, better, something new in some way. In “The Mummy,” there’s two people with a clear ambition, as there should be: Imhotep, who is set on reviving his lover (bringing about the end of the world is just a side effect for him, obviously), and Evie, who is set on stopping him (and, if at all possible, not becoming the new body for his aforementioned lover). Since it’s easy enough to establish Imhotep as the villain, this makes Evie the hero, not matter how you twist and turn it. Their ambitions are on cross-purpose, none of them can achieve theirs without the other one losing, which is also as it should be. If both hero and villain can get what they want without the other one losing the chance to fulfil their own wish, you’ve been doing it wrong. “The Mummy” does it right.

From the first time we see Evie, putting away books in a library, the story focuses on her ambitions. She is a working woman, a 1920s career woman. She might be clumsy and she might be a little naive every now and then, but she knows what she wants and she does what she can to make it come true. So when she learns her application for the Bembridge Scholars has been rejected because she doesn’t have the necessary experience, she seeks for a way to gain that experience. Her brother’s little gift (they key to several things in the City of the Dead - honestly, you can make a city disappear at will, but everything is unlocked with the same piece of equipment? WTF?) provides a way. If she can find the City of the Dead and the Book of Life within it, she can basically force her way into that group, whether they like it or not. And after the map has been ‘accidentally’ burned, what does Evie do? Sit around and mope and give up? No, she finds and frees the only guy her brother can point her to who knows where that city lies - Rick O’Connell, who is literally hanging on to life by a piece of rope (until the piece strangles him). She makes a deal for his life, she organizes the trip, she is absolutely set on finding the city and the book.

Whatever opposes her on her way is averted. Evie is not physically strong enough to push things aside, but she is intelligent and determined. When the ship is attacked, she still holds on to the plan, seeking other means of reaching the city. When faced with the much stronger American party also searching in the city, she doesn’t try to fight them, she tries to literally undermine them by digging for the same spot from below, from the catacombs. She steals the Book of the Dead from the other party, just to read in it, because she knows she can. She is a proud librarian and she is a woman who knows and never doubts her worth.

And what happens after she accidentally has revived Imhotep? The others, Americans, Rick, and Jonathan alike, want to run for it. Evie is the only one ready to take responsibility for what she did - another mark of the hero. She refuses to be put somewhere safe (which doesn’t work with a guy who can turn to sand, anyway). She still actively seeks out the solution for the problem, figuring out that if the Book of the Dead was where the Book of Life should have been, then the Book of Life may be where others (Bembridge Scholars) have expected the Book of the Dead to be. When things seem hopeless, because the enemy has cornered them, she gives herself up, in order to save the others. In the desert, she successfully distracts Imhotep, so her friends can survive his sandstorm.

Yes, Rick is the one who basically gets knocked around by Imhotep until Evie has found the right words to make the old priest mortal again, but only Rick’s last attack (which, essentially, only works because Imhotep doesn’t realize he’s mortal at that point - something Rick also doesn’t know) can do real harm and end Imhotep’s current life. Evie is indeed the one who called the mummy forward and also banished it again. She’s the one who opposes Imhotep at every turn. She’s the hero.

And, as already mentioned in the post linked above, she is the ideal hero for the tale. Imhotep is an un-dead creature of unbelievable power. Not only is he impossible to kill (on accounts of not being alive), he can regenerate himself by killing other people and absorbing their life force. He has power over insects, wind, sand, water, can dish out a disease which allows for him to control those who have it. He’s an ultimate power, even those created to guard him are unable to stop him, once he has risen and recovered. That means any hero who is physically strong and has regular weapons is helpless against Imhotep (as is show through Rick, especially in the last battle, where he gets knocked around a lot).

No, the right hero to face off a villain like Imhotep is one who has other means at her disposal: knowledge. Evie never even tries to physically attack him, because it’s so obvious that won’t work. The only time she physically approaches him is in the desert, where her kiss breaks his concentration and stops the deadly sandstorm just in time. Apart from that, she pits her mind against him. And from this point of view, it makes a lot of sense to have a female character pitted against this specific villain. There is no real option for physical violence for Evie, even against a human opponent. She’s a librarian, as she proudly claims. Her weapons aren’t guns or maces or swords, her weapon is knowledge. And as a woman, she’s not supposed to know how to use swords, maces, and guns, not in the 1920s. And this is Imhotep’s weakness. He can’t be attacked physically (well, not successfully), so he doesn’t fear the humans at all. But there are ways to take his powers from him and Evie finds those in the Book of Life, sending him to the afterlife (finally, one might say).

For a movie which never denies its roots, “The Mummy” does have a very surprising hero in Evie Carnahan. So the next time you watch the movie (and if you haven’t so far, you should give it a try), you might see it with different eyes, but it won’t be any less enjoyable.