The Egyptian Other: Orientalism and Otherness in The Mummy

The Mummy (1999) is, without a doubt, an enjoyable action-adventure romp, full of endearing characters, fun action sequences, and engaging relationships. Below this surface-level charm, however, runs a deep undercurrent of racial otherness, taking shape in the form of Orientalism. Its characters and historical setting are entrenched in Orientalist stereotypes and power imbalances, falling into a tradition of racial and ethnic otherness between the white and Egyptian characters throughout the film.

The film’s main characters raise several questions of racial otherness. In his book Orientalism, Edward Said gives several definitions for Orientalism; we will be focusing on how the idea of the Orient—the Middle East, Asia, and North Africa—as it exists in the Western literary tradition helps to define Europe as its other. Bennett and Royle note in An Introduction to Literature, Criticism and Theory how the concept of Western human identity as universal is a “historical construct constituted by the exclusion, marginalization and oppression of racial others” (283). Through this tradition of otherness, it creates and reinforces “a Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority over the Orient” (Said 3). This is seen materially in the ways that European culture has been able to manage, affect, and even produce the Orient through politics, military, science, ideology, and the very imagination of Europe. The protagonists of The Mummy—librarian and aspiring Egyptologist Evelyn, her Egyptologist brother Jonathan, and their guide Rick—are visibly white, though Evelyn and Jonathan are, through their mother, half-Egyptian (both are played by fully white actors). This is revealed in a throwaway line meant to justify Evelyn’s passion for Egyptology: “Egypt is in my blood. You see, my father was a very, very famous explorer. And he loved Egypt so much, he married my mother, who was an Egyptian, and quite an adventurer herself” (00:52:10–00:52:28). This line has no real bearing on the rest of the film’s plot, but reveals a disturbing Orientalist attitude. Evelyn and Jonathan’s white British father apparently harbored such an intense obsession with Egypt that he sought out and married an Egyptian woman, solely for her proximity to the culture—for her otherness. This crosses into fetishization territory, and is especially troubling when considering the immense power and authority that Britain historically held and still holds over Egypt. Neither Evelyn nor Jonathan has any connection to their mother’s culture beyond their penchant for Egyptology. Jonathan even comes at his profession like a treasure hunter, valuing ancient Egyptian artifacts for their monetary value rather than their intrinsic cultural value. Evelyn and Jonathan’s father is emblematic of this white British obsession with and power over Egypt, creating an exotified other in its people. Most of the named characters in the film are white as well; the cast consists of mostly white American treasure hunters searching for the legendary treasure buried in the (fictional) ancient Egyptian necropolis of Hamunaptra. In other words, they are white grave robbers looking to get rich by stealing historical Egyptian artifacts. Evelyn has a more scholarly motivation of research and discovery, but even this cannot be removed from an Orientalist lens. As a wealthy, visibly white British woman, Evelyn’s fascination with Egypt cannot be removed from the cultural context in which she grew up. As Said notes: “for a European or American studying the Orient there can be no disclaiming the main circumstances of his actuality: that he comes up against the Orient as a European or American first, as an individual second” (11). Evelyn may not show an outright racist attitude towards Egypt, but there is no erasing the fact that she was raised in a culture that helped to create and still perpetuates the Western fantasy of the Orient, and therefore brings her culture’s biases, prejudices, and constructed ideas about Egypt to her work.

The characters of color in the film are treated with a considerable difference from the white characters. Many unnamed Egyptians are killed off throughout the film to demonstrate the danger that the white protagonists face. Additionally, the white protagonists encounter a Bedouin tribe after getting stranded on the shores of the Nile River; these Bedouin people remain unnamed and serve as plot devices, selling camels to Jonathan for transportation and dressing Evelyn in traditional Bedouin garb, which she wears for most of the film thereafter. Despite this crucial assistance in their journey, the tribe is portrayed as greedy savages. When Jonathan complains about the price of the camels, Rick remarks: “You probably could’ve got them for free. All we had to do was give him your sister” (00:34:01–00:34:05). The only named nonwhite characters in the film are the villain Imhotep, his lover Anck-Su-Namun, and Medjai leader Ardeth Bay. Imhotep is a typical cartoonishly evil villain, terrorizing the white characters with plans to take over the world after resurrecting his lover. Anck-Su-Namun serves as Imhotep’s motivation in his evil plans, having no real character beyond her affair with Imhotep. She kills herself after their affair is discovered, trusting Imhotep to bring her back. Ardeth and the Medjai are a warrior tribe descended from the pharaoh’s bodyguards, devoted to preventing the rise of Imhotep. They are initially presented as mysterious, aggressive antagonists that the white characters must evade and fight back against, though they eventually ally together to defeat Imhotep. Also among the nonwhite cast are prison warden Gad Hassan and museum curator Terence Bey, though their names are only given in the novelization. Hassan is characterized as a greedy man repeatedly disparaged for his smell, and is at one point compared to a camel for his hygiene habits. He is killed off soon after the characters arrive in Hamunaptra, again to demonstrate the danger and mystical power present in the city. Bey sacrifices himself later in the film to help the white characters escape and stop Imhotep. All of these characters are constructed as racial others, used either as antagonists or plot devices to highlight the danger that the white characters face. They adhere to one-dimensional Orientalist tropes and fantasies, rather than dynamic, realistic portrayals of Egyptian people. While other white characters, such as the team of American treasure hunters, are shown some sympathy before their untimely deaths, the film does not extend the same grace for characters such as Hassan. Especially pertinent is the fact that none of these Egyptian characters are played by ethnic Egyptian actors. Ardeth is played by an Israeli, and Imhotep’s actor is an Afrikaner. Hassan is played by an Iranian, Bey by an Indian, and Anck-Su-Namun by an indigenous Wayuu actress. The Mummy is content to use the constructed Orientalist image of Egypt to build its aesthetic and show danger, but neglected to include real Egyptian people in its production, opting instead for “racially ambiguous” actors. In this way, the film continues the literary tradition of the Orientalist fantasy.

The film’s setting in 1926 compounds its unintentional Orientalist effect. Egypt had only recently gained independence from protectorate status under Britain in 1922, with several British-imposed conditions: “the security of imperial communications, defense of Egypt against aggression, protection of foreign interests and minorities, and continued British administration of the Sudan” (Botman 285), effectively retaining their authority over the Egyptian people and state. The Mummy contains several references to this British occupation; at one point, the characters take refuge in Fort Brydon, a fictional fort built by the British Embassy in Cairo. When they later need transportation, Rick and Jonathan seek assistance from Winston Havelock, an English Royal Air Force pilot stationed in Cairo. These elements serve as backdrops and plot devices rather than any purposeful look into British colonialism and imperialism in Egypt, but their inclusion creates questions of racial difference and otherness for anyone who knows the historical context of the time period. Through their continued occupation of Egypt, Britain was able to maintain its domination over the country and its people. This affords the film’s white characters a position of power, privilege, and authority over the characters of color and contributes to their othering in the narrative. By neglecting to confront the presence of British colonialism in its setting, The Mummy reinforces historical and contemporary British power over Egypt, which is created and reinforced by Orientalist fantasy.

Though The Mummy is not about racial and ethnic otherness, it both draws from and contributes greatly to the Western literary tradition of Orientalist themes. The film’s characters and aesthetics often fall under Orientalist stereotypes and tropes. This tradition has created a fantasy of the Orient that defines it and its people as “other” to the West. This, in turn, creates and reinforces the authority that the West has over the Orient; in The Mummy’s case, the power that Britain holds over Egypt due to a long history of colonialism and imperialism.