The Mummy

The film begins in 1290 BC. High priest Imhotep (Vosloo) is having an affair with the mistress of King Seti I, Anck-su-namun (Patricia Velasquez). When the king discovers the lovers, Imhotep and his priests flee. Anck-su-namun kills herself, intending for Imhotep to resurrect her. After her burial, Imhotep breaks into her crypt and steals her corpse. He and his priests then flee across the desert to Hamunaptra, the city of the dead, where they commence the resurrection ceremony. However, they are caught by Seti's guards before the ritual can be completed, and her soul is sent back to the Underworld.

As a punishment for this sacrilege, Imhotep's priests are mummified alive, and Imhotep himself is forced to endure the curse of Hom Dai: his tongue is cut out, and he is buried alive, wrapped like a mummy, along with a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. The horror of the ritual is that it grants eternal life, forcing him to endure the agony of his wounds for all time. He is buried under high security, sealed away in a sarcophagus below the statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, and kept under strict surveillance by the Medjai, descendants of Seti's palace guards. If he were ever to be released, the powers that made him immortal would allow him to unleash a wave of destruction and death upon the Earth.

Three thousand years later, in 1923, Rick O'Connell (Fraser) is serving as a sergeant in a unit of the French Foreign Legion who have voluntarily journeyed to Hamunaptra in search of the treasure rumored to be stored there. When they reach the fabled city, a group of Arabs attack. When the unit's commanding officer deserts during the battle, Rick is left in charge. Retreating into the city, he runs out of ammunition right before the statue of Anubis. Upon seeing the statue, the attackers flee and Rick is left to walk out of the desert. Unbeknownst to him, the battle was witnessed by the Medjai.

Three years later, Cairo librarian and aspiring Egyptologist, Evelyn "Evie" Carnahan (Weisz) and her bumbling brother Jonathan (John Hannah) contact Rick while he is imprisoned. When he reveals that he knows the location of Hamunaptra, Evelyn strikes a deal with the warden to keep him from being hanged. He is then recruited into an expedition that quickly becomes a race against a group of Americans led by the famed Egyptoligist Dr. Allen Chamberlain (Jonathan Hyde) and guided by Beni Gabor (Kevin J. O'Connor), a former Legion Seargent under the command of Rick, who also knows the way to Hamunaptra.

Shortly after reaching Hamunaptra, both groups are attacked by the Medjai, led by Ardeth Bey (Oded Fehr). Rather than heed Bey's warning, they continue to excavate in search of the Book of Amon-Ra, a golden book capable of taking life away. The team of Americans discover a wooden chest under the statue of Anubis adorned with a curse. Skeptical, Chamberlain opens the lid, just after Beni scrambles out shouting, "Beware of the curse! Beware!". When the dust clears, they find the Book of the Dead, accompanied by several canopic jars.

Evelyn takes the book and reads a page aloud, unintentionally awakening Imhotep. The mummy promptly begins sucking out the life force and thus, killing Chamberlain and his colleagues who opened the box. Beni survives a meeting with Imhotep by pledging allegiance to him and helps him track down the remaining Americans. Imhotep eventually brings the Ten Plagues upon Egypt and captures Evelyn, intending to use her to resurrect his long-dead lover, Anck-su-namun. Rick and Jonathan rescue Evelyn and, after an intensive battle with Imhotep's mummies, thwart his resurrection attempts. Johnathan reads from the Book of Amon-Ra, which Rick assumed would kill Imhotep. Imhotep thinks he has failed to do anything, but Johnathan in fact took away Imhotep's immortality, and Rick kills him.

As they are leaving, Beni falls behind to plunder the treasures of the lost city and is trapped by a swarm of flesh-eating scarabs. They surround him and kill him as his torch flame goes out. The heroes escape and ride off into the sunset on a pair of camels, unaware that their saddlebags are packed with the treasures that Beni looted earlier.