Mummy, The

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Mummy, The
• a review of Mummy, The completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 15 June 2017.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) and his buddy Vale (Jake Johnson) are U.S. soldiers who moonlight as treasure hunters. They come under fire in Iraq and, with unintentional military assistance, find the prison of the evil Egyptian Princess Ahmanet (Sophia Boutella). The Princess has been erased from history and hidden beneath the sands of Mesopotamia in the hopes that she will never again be able to unleash her horror on humankind. With the help of English archaeologist Jenny Halsey (Annabelle Wallis) Nick and Vale attempt to take the sarcophagus (stone coffin) to England unleashing a series of terrifying events. Nick awakens in the morgue to find that he is Ahmanet's chosen one. She is determined to use his body as the temple into which the god of the dead can take human form. Nick and Jenny, with the assistance of Dr. Jekyll (Russell Crowe), try to find a way to break the curse and stop Ahmanet before she destroys the world, all the while battling her ever increasing army of the undead.

There are supernatural themes involving death, resurrection and unnatural phenomenon which are triggered by evil, the thirst for power and immortality.

There is a lot of violence in this movie including:

• Ahmanet slices her arm open with a dagger and uses her own blood for a ritual.
• Ahmanet slices the throats of her father, his wife and the baby prince. Blood is seen spraying across the room on each occasion.
• Ahmanet is about to stab a man to death with a dagger when guards grab her.
• Ahmanet is mummified alive.
• Nick and Vale are shot at by a group of insurgents. They return fire but are both convinced they will die when a U.S. air attack on the village saves them.
• In a vision Nick sees Ahmanet about to stab him.
• Vale stabs an army captain in the chest twice.
• Nick shoots Vale three times as Vale tries to stab them all.
• Ahmanet puts her mummified finger through a man’s eye and into his brain.
• Ahmanet attacks anyone she can and sucks the life out of their faces leaving them looking like undead mummies as she herself slowly takes human form. This happens frequently throughout the film.
• While trying to flee from an undead creature Nick is attacked by hundreds of huge rats.
• There are numerous fight scenes where Nick is fighting off the undead. He steps on a head and the skull explodes, he puts legs and hands through the undead and rips them apart or bashes them with bricks or anything that is handy.
• Nick stabs Ahmanet and hits her with a candlestick.
• Dr. Jekyll’s team subdue Ahmanet with darts and hooks they shoot into her body. Nick is also shot with a dart.
• Ahmanet is being mummified with mercury in her veins. She screams about how it burns as if she is being tortured until Nick begs Dr. Jekyll to stop.
• Dr. Jekyll tries to break Nick’s ribs and Nick knocks his tooth out.
• Jenny must fight off one of Dr. Jekyll’s guards. They wrestle, knock things over and slam into glass.
• Ahmanet throws Nick into the air; he slams against a wall and later a crypt. She slams into him, there is a horrible crack and he screams as if his bones were broken by the blows.
• Nick stabs himself in the chest with the ritualistic knife.
• Nick and Ahmanet attack each other, then Nick sucks the life out of Ahmanet and she returns to mummy form.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• As Ahmanet performs a ritual tattoos appear all over her naked body and her eyes begin to change. She appears to have two eyes within each eye. The same thing later happens to Nick. The effect is very creepy.
• There are hooded men chanting in a burial chamber during the crusades as they bury a body. The music is intense and eerie.
• Vale is bitten by a spider and his eyes glaze over with white, he takes a raspy breath and then his face changes to look like one of the undead.
• Two officers look for the sarcophagus in the wreckage at night. There are screaming crows and unwound bandages before they are caught, killed and slowly transformed into undead creatures.
• There are creepy, undead, creatures scurrying through a church, closing in on Nick as he looks around. Four of them seize him and hold him down on an altar while Ahmanet prepares to stab him with an ancient dagger.
• As Nick and Jenny flee in a car undead creatures follow them through the woods, bashing their way through the windshield and attacking them in the car. Nick smashes them into the trees but the car flips over and over in a horrible smash. Jenny is trapped inside while Ahmanet slowly approaches through the foggy forest. Nick tries to fight her off but he is tossed into the air and violently flung against trees.
• The undead crusaders pursue Nick and Jenny through the underground tunnels often appearing from nowhere.
• After having sacrificed himself using the ritualistic dagger Nick screams at Ahmanet, his face contorting, in a non-human, terrifying way.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• As they are flying toward England a swarm of black birds fill the sky and fly into the plane, blasting through the glass and taking out engines. Feathers and pieces fly everywhere as the plane begins to break apart and the passengers are tossed around. Nick helps Jenny escape with a parachute and he dies in the crash. There is horrible screaming as the plane goes down.
• An undead version of Vale with his bullet ridden shirt and zombie-like face appear throughout the film.
• In a rage Ahmanet causes glass to shatter throughout London as Nick and Jenny run for their lives through the streets.
• Ahmanet summons the sands of Egypt which she blasts through the streets of the city, destroying buildings and engulfing people. As it comes to an open space a terrifying face appears to be screaming from the sand. Ahmanet stands in the midst of the storm partially bandaged, grasping her knife, summoning evil forces.
• Ahmanet summons the crusaders from their crypts below the streets of London to help her capture Nick. He and Jenny try to escape through an underground subway system but are hunted from every direction.
• Jenny is terrified. Nick tells her to stay with him as Ahmanet silently swims up behind and grabs Jenny dragging her underwater to her death.

In addition to the above mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged eight to thirteen, including the following:

• Children between the ages of eight to thirteen may also be frightened by some of the above mentioned scenes.

Apart from the above mentioned scenes there is nothing further in this film that would frighten children over the age of thirteen.

Product placement

There is no product placement in this film.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• Vale is told to: “Get a hoe.”
• Jenny tells the Colonel that she and Nick slept together and that it only lasted 15 seconds. Nick brings this up on a couple of occasions.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Ahmanet is naked as she performs an evil ritual to join forces with the god of the dead.
• In a vision Nick watches as a naked Ahmanet walk towards him and lies seductively on top of him.
• Nick awakens in the morgue and hops out of the body bag naked.
• As Ahmanet begins to look more human more and more skin is shown through her bandages to the point that she appears to be wearing almost nothing.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Nick and Jenny are in a bar and Nick is drinking heavily.
• Dr. Jekyll offers Nick a drink and he downs it in one gulp.
• Dr. Jekyll injects himself with a serum that helps prevent him from turning evil.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Repeated use of “Son of a bitch”, also “Kick her ass!” “What the hell?” “You scared the shit out of me!” “Piss her off.” and “Crazy bastard.”

In a nutshell

The Mummy is a supernatural thriller horror film aimed at adolescents and adults.

The main messages from this movie are that there is good in (almost) everyone, that love is stronger than hate and that, ultimately, good will conquer evil.

However, the sustained suspense and violence in this movie alongside supernatural themes involving death, resurrection and unnatural phenomenon makes it unsuitable for children under the age of 15, and if children over the age of 15 watch this movie parental guidance is recommended.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Loyalty, selflessness, honesty and courage.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children the importance of respect for ancient customs and cultures of the past.