Goofs for
The Mummy Returns (2001) More at IMDbPro »

• Errors in geography: In London, Tower Bridge is eight bridges downstream from the Houses of Parliament, and St Paul's Cathedral is on the north side of the Thames between Blackfriars and Southwark bridges. The three famous landmarks are not close together.
  
  
• Continuity: As they jump through the window, Jonathan is wet, having just climbed out of the bath tub. When he and Rick are outside and try to follow their opponents, Jonathan is dry again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There are several flaws in the CG battle, with dog-warriors "attacking" thin air, and troops and horses running straight through each other.
  
  

• Continuity: The dirigible gets drenched by a wall of water twice, but both times everyone on board stays completely dry.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Rick's car has a modern Road Fund Licence disc in the front window.
  
  
• Anachronisms: In the flashback when Imhotep embraces Anck-Su-Namun, two vaccination scars are visible on his upper arm.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the museum, when Evie is firing the pistol that Rick handed her, the slide locks back after a shot, indicating that the gun is empty, yet she's still shooting, her arm is still recoiling, and the gun is still flashing.
  
  
• Continuity: Imhotep's arms as he hangs from the ledge.
  
  
• Anachronisms: Evelyn appears to be wearing modern, seamless, nylon pantyhose.
  
  
• Errors in geography: The railway line in Egypt is on the opposite side of the Nile from the city of Thebes, not the same side as the film shows
  
  
• Continuity: Rick grabs Evie by her right arm as she tries to block a door yet in the next cut he's dragging her by her left arm.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: A shotgun shell jams in the top of Rick's gun without hampering its ability to continue firing.
  
  
• Anachronisms: They visit the temple of Philae while following the boy to the oasis. It is shown in its present state. In the 1930s, the temple was partially flooded by the old Aswan dam and was only moved to its present (dry) state by UNESCO in the 1960s.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The actor's solid flesh can be seen beneath the mask of the "decomposed" man on the train.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The sai, the weapon used by Anuk-su-namun and Nefertiri, and again during the climactic battle at the end of the film, was never used by the Egyptians and never existed in that region. It is believed the weapon was developed during the Ming dynasty (A.D. 1368-1644).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Rick and Evelyn slide up to Alex through the broken wall on skateboards.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The masks worn by Imhotep, Anck Su Namun, and Nefertiri are supposed to be metal, but when the characters lift the masks they flex as though made of rubber or plastic.
  
  
• Anachronisms: A servant's modern grey underwear can be seen in the fight sequence as the Scorpion King throws him over his shoulder.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the fight scene where Rick shoots the formaldehyde, the red-cloaked henchman on the left is wearing a fire protection suit, visible around his face.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the Scorpion King's upper pincer passes by the second door a small bit of it can be seen going through the door.
  
  
• Continuity: Evie's hands change size four times during the close-ups of her opening the case containing the Bracelet of Anubis.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the sun "rises" to the pyramid over the mountain at the end of the movie, it is shown coming from the base of the pyramid to the top. When the sun rises over the mountain, it would hit the top of the pyramid first.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick, Evie, and Jonathan drive up to Izzy's, in the course of the next few minutes, Jonathan is seen getting out of the car twice, before Rick asks him to get the bags.
  
  
• Continuity: At the point where Rick kicks open the gate to Izzy's compound, the pistol in the shoulder holster under his left arm bounces out of the holster and drops. In the next scene it has magically reappeared.
  
  
• Continuity: As Ardeth is bidding farewell to the Commanders of the Twelve Tribes of the Medjai at Izzy's Magic Carpet Airways, his right arm alternates between being raised and down by his side between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Imothep's followers are bringing Evie into the ritual area, before she is set down you can see her turn her head to the right in the long shot. Immediately afterward there's a close-up of her being set down and her head's turned to the left. After she sits up, all close-ups show her sitting up. But when we see the table she's on from Rick and Ardeth's point of view from a balcony, sometimes she's laying down flat and other times the table appears empty.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Evie kicks a snake towards Rick, who admonishes her, saying that it's poisonous. The snake itself is actually a harmless king snake but it is clearly acting, playing the part of a deadly coral snake for the movie. It's a Hollywood thing.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: As Ardeth Bey watches the second wave of Anubis's army, the tattoos on his forehead are being sweated off.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick is silhouetted against the spider web, he takes out his pistol and cocks it - it stays cocked while he investigates the tomb, then uncocks it when he thinks he's saved. An instant later, after being frightened by Alex, the pistol is cocked again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: During the flashback fight between Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri, Rachel Weisz is wearing a brown plaster on her right index finger.
  
  
• Continuity: When Imhotep is reborn, he breaks the shell he is in, but as he walks away it can be seen over his shoulder whole
  
  
• Continuity: In "The Mummy", O'Connell had a tattoo on the back of each hand near his lower thumb joint. These tattoos do not appear in "The Mummy Returns”.
  
  
• Plot holes: If Evelyn was in fact Nefertiri reincarnated, why is it that Imhotep did not recognize her in the first movie? If he was a priest of her father, he had to have seen her often and would have known what she looks like.
  
  
• Plot holes: In the first film, Imotheps chambers overlook a gigantic square. In Evy's flashback, her chambers are just across Imhoteps.
  
  
• Continuity: In the jungle, Ardeth tells Jonathan that the only way to kill an Anubis warrior is to take off his head. When the Medjai fight them, two Medjai stab a warrior in the chest and he dies.
  
  
• Continuity: During the competition between Nefertiri and Anck-su-namun, Anck-su-namun knocks Nefertiri to the ground, and Nefertiri has dropped her sais. In the next shot, Nefertiri jumps to her feet and has the sais in her hands without having had time to retrieve them, and there is no sound of her having picked them up.
  
  
• Continuity: When the thug is climbing up the ladder to get Alex he is barehanded, but when we see show him sliding down the ladder to escape the flood, he is suddenly wearing gloves.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick, Evie, Ardeth Bey, Jonathan and Alex are fighting the soldier mummies on the double decker bus, they begin by fighting four mummies but only eliminate three. (Caused by a deleted scene.)
  
  
• Anachronisms: When Alex shoots the three thieves with a slingshot he is using an aluminum Wrist-Rocket (tm) as can be clearly seen. This slingshot was not sold until 1954 (according to the manufacturer's web site).
  
  
• Factual errors: In "The Mummy Returns" the outside of what is supposedly the British Museum is shown. It is actually the quad of UCL in Gower St. Even in the moonlight, the world famous dome is evident.
  
  
• Anachronisms: After the escape from the British Museum, Jonathan breaks the ignition key in the car. Ignition keys in automobiles weren't invented until 1949.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: At the end, when waving farewell to the horseman from the balloon, we see hundreds of horse tracks where the rider was obviously milling around for numerous takes, rather than flat desert he was supposedly riding through
  
  
• Continuity: In the Hamunaptra scene after the treasure hunters confront Hafez and his men and they draw guns, in a close-up shot, the Indian cultist holds up a Mauser C98. When it shifts to a wider shot, he's seen holding a Colt .45 pistol, and in the following close-up of the same cultist, the gun has shifted back to a Mauser C98.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: The scene where Evelyn walks through the temple of Karnak to search for Alex. Someone can be seen moving his or her head out from behind a stone pillar, just as Evelyn walks behind it.
  
  
• Continuity: When Richard is fighting a few mummies off a double decker bus, there is sometimes a leather strap on his wrist, but in other shots, there isn't one.
  
  
• Continuity: When about to be engulfed by the flood in the tomb, Rick's facial expression changes from frightened to blank while holding Evy between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: About 53 min into the movie Imhotep is flipping an hour glass over in front of Alex. When the glass has been turned upside down Imhotep's hand is flat with his thumb on the left side of the snake and fingers on the right side, but once he sets the hour glass down on the table his hand has instantly flipped over to the other side of the snake as if he was just going to pick up the hour glass.
  
  
• Continuity: During the bus-fight numerous windows are destroyed as a result of the fight, but in exterior shots of the bus driving through the streets all windows appear to be intact.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Jonathan Carnahan brings the bus to a stop on Tower Bridge and switches off the engine, the sound effect heard is clearly a propeller plane being switched off.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ardeth Bey and the Maji prepare for battle against Anubis' army, there are about 10,000 Maji on the field (according to DVD commentary). However, when the battle ends, and the Maji reform the line to fight the larger force of Anubis' army, there are three rows of soldiers forming the line, indicating thousands of them had perished. Yet there isn't one dead Maji on the field.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: If you watch the hawk after Ardeth Bay sends it with a message, you can see the fishing line they have tied to it's leg to prevent it from flying away.
  
  
• Errors in geography: Just after the balloon crashes in the Ahm Shere oasis, howler monkeys can be heard in the surrounding jungle. Those animals are native to South America, not Africa.
  
  
• Continuity: When the tidal wave with the face in it hits the 'magic carpet' (the first time) you can see Izzy getting drenched. A few seconds later, none of the characters are wet.
  
  
• Continuity: After fighting the dogs in the desert only a few of them had horses. In the next scene when they line up to fight the next wave there were no horses.
  
  
• Anachronisms: The dirigible is equipped with a period brass carbon tetrachloride fire extinguisher, yet when Izzy Buttons is trying to put the fires out after Imhotep causes it to crash, he is clearly using a modern dry chemical extinguisher (resprayed so as not to be obviously modern) - this extinguisher was not invented for over 30 years after the film was set. In fact, the model used dates to 50+ years after the film is set.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When the bus crosses Tower Bridge, the bridge is seen in its red, white and blue livery. The bridge wasn't painted this way until the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and would have been a plain brown in 1933.
  
  
• Continuity: In the first film, in the scene showing Imhotep and his girlfriend being caught by the pharaoh, the pharaoh asks "Who has touched you?" when seeing the girl's arm. But in the second movie, he does not ask her this when the scene is replayed. And in the first, we never hear Evie screaming for the guards.
  
  
• Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Ardeth Bay is riding in front of the Maji waiting for the Army of Anubis, the sound of the horse's hoof-beats are clearly as if the horse was on a hard surface, such as dry land. A horse's hoof-beats would not make such a sound galloping across soft sand.
  
  
• Factual errors: The gasbag of Izzy's airship is far too small to lift a carriage of that size. Using hydrogen gas, it would take a spherical balloon about 36 feet in diameter to lift a ton. Furthermore, at the end of the film, Izzy was using hot air (as evidenced by the burner and the open hole at the bottom of the bag), which is even less buoyant. (The gas Izzy referred to had to have been hydrogen, since helium was unavailable for airship use outside the United States until the 1950s).
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Rick and Jonathan are in the bathroom, about to jump out the window while the gun is firing, you can see the window crack in place. This could not be caused by a bullet because the entire window would be gone. Apparently the director wanted to make it easier for them to break through the fake glass.
  
  
• Factual errors: At the end of the movie we see Rick holding Evelyn aboard the dirigible. Judging from the shadows they make the sun is located to the left of the camera. Though looking at the sand dunes in the background indicates the sun shining from the right.
  
  
• Continuity: Rick and Alex dives into the pyramid just as the sun rises. Shadows should thus be huge but moments later outside Evelyn's shadow from the sun is relatively short.
  
  
• Plot holes: In "The Mummy" the key was needed multiple times to open the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra, but in "The Mummy Returns", the Book of the Dead was opened and used many times without aid of the key.
  
  
• Plot holes: If the twelve tribes of the Med-Jai number in the thousands, why weren't they able to stop the excavation of Hamanauptra in the first place?
  
  
• Factual errors: In the opening sequence, Evy kicks a coral snake at Rick. Coral snakes are indigenous to North, Central and South America only.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evie is knocked out before being kidnapped, the man hits her on her left side. Later, when she wakes up at the museum, she touches the right side of her face as if she was hit on that side.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the fight between Nefertiri and Anuck, they were using Sais. Sais did not exist in ancient Egypt. Their origins date back to the days of Samurai in Japan. They were also found to be used in Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, and India. Originally thought of as an agricultural tool.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rick goes to find the magic carpet,hHe takes the scepter from Jonathan, then Izzy locks the door, and Rick is still holding the scepter. When Rick kicks the door down he is no longer holding the scepter, and when it shoots back to him walking toward Izzy, he is again holding the scepter.
  
  
• Plot holes: The bulk of the action in "The Mummy" takes place in 1926, and in "The Mummy Returns" it's 1933, so seven years later. However, Alex says "I'm only eight years old, for Christ's sake," so, including Evelyn's pregnancy, the action should take place no earlier than 1935.
  
  
• Continuity: In "The Mummy", the first scene of Rick O'Connell and the French foreign legion fighting the Bedouins is tagged as 1923. The next scene at the museum is "3 years later", presumably 1926. The Mummy Returns tags the first scene with the O'Connells searching for the Bracelet of Anubis as 1933. And Alex screams at his uncle when they are outside the museum he is "only 8 years old!" For him to be 8, his parents would have had to have him in 1925, possibly conceived in 1924, and Evy and Rick hadn't even met at that point.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the first shot of the train station in Cairo, it appears that the city stretches all the way to the pyramids. They are actually located on the Giza plateau, which, at the time the story takes place, was a few miles outside the city border.
  
  
• Anachronisms: When first donned the bracelet shows a vision of the Giza Plateau in its modern state. It then shows Karnak in its ancient state rather than modern.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): While entering the oasis various groups of soldiers are identified. When Napoleon's soldiers are identified they are stated to be "turn of the century". As this movie takes place in 1933 they should instead have been from the last century.
  
  
• Continuity: During the tunnel flooding the distance of the water from Rick and Evie changes as the camera angle changes. The front camera view shows the water reaching their feet and even in front of their feet, but the camera view behind them always shows the water at least 5-10 feet behind them. When they reach the dead-end the rear view shows the water 5-10 feet behind them, but the close-up of them panicking lasts a few seconds before the water overtakes them. That's a long time if the water was just a few feet behind them and traveling as fast as it was.
  
  
• Continuity: When Evelyn first uses the key to open the chest containing the Bracelet of Anubis, the "open" position of the lock shows points of the star at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions. Later when Alex does the same at the O'Connell house, the "open" position again shows star points at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions. When Baltus and Lock-Nah are using a chemical in a syringe to open the chest at Imhotep's awakening ceremony, a close-up shows the star positions are already at the at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions, meaning the chest was already unlocked.
  
  
• Continuity: When the heroes reach the temple, it is sunrise but at the end of the film, when they are sailing away in the airship, the sun is already setting. Hard to believe they spent the entire day inside the temple.
  
  
• Anachronisms: During the Anck Su Namun and Nefrititi fight scene, Evie gets knocked to the ground and the fight temporarily stops. Evie then takes off her mask with her right hand. On her right ring finger around the 3rd phalanx, you can see a band-aid wrapped around it. Band-aids obviously weren't available in that time period.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Near the start of the film, the Scorpion King is seen walking in retreat to the desert with the remains of his army after 7 years of battle. Not so much as a scratch on him or anyone else. However, nearly all of them have a bit of a limp.
  
  
• Continuity: When we first see Ricky he is walking down a passage holding a gun and a torch. After a while he looks round a corner to see the passage he just walked through, but with no lighting. Same number of columns, same sand buildup on the floor, same amount of cobwebs on the ceiling.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When the water starts pouring in just after Evelyn says "drink from the Nile" watch the shot where the henchman previously watching them runs left to right as the water pours in right to left. Just before the next cut, a rock falls away in the top right corner, revealing the bright sunshine of the world outside the set. Subsequent water dumps reveal a similar bright light behind them, but not as obviously as this.
  
  
• Errors in geography: In the first opening shot showing the London skyline at dusk. The view is from St Paul's towards the Houses of Parliament. To the right of frame is shown Tower Bridge, when in reality it would be directly behind this viewing position and not visible at all.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Ricky and Evelyn are first back at their home in England, she brushes the top of the piano and then backs into the green pot plant behind her, visibly shaking the leaves.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: At Magic Carpet Airways, the pilot runs away and locks the door. Clunk, clunk, clunk. However, Rick manages to open the door by shooting just ONE lock away.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Where the girls are having the dagger fight to entertain the court of the Scorpion King. One of the girls kicks the other one by lifting her right leg up and backwards. Her foot comes nowhere close to hitting the other girl, but she reacts as if it has.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Where the girls are having the dagger fight to entertain the court of the Scorpion King. They switch to fighting with wooden poles with metal tips. When these poles are banged together, they sound like wooden poles. When they are allowed to scrape together, they make a metal sword sound.
  
  
• Continuity: The dirigible is hit by a wall of water in the canyon, from behind. This implies that they were flying directly away from the kidnapped boy they are trying to follow.
  
  

Related Links