Imhotep (character)
Encyclopedia
Imhotep is a fictional character and the titular antagonist
in the 1932 film The Mummy
, and later featured in its 1999 remake
and its sequel The Mummy Returns
again as one of the main antagonist
s. He is loosely inspired by the historical figure Imhotep
, a counselor to the Pharaoh Djoser
in the 27th century BC
.
as a priest of Ancient Egypt
who is mummified
by pharaoh Amenhotep III
as punishment for attempting to resurrect his lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. Imhotep is accidentally revived when an archaeological expedition discovers his mummy and one of the archaeologists unknowingly reads an ancient life-giving spell.
Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists and assumes the identity of Ardath Bey, a modern Egyptian. In this form he helps the archaeologists find the tomb of Ankh-es-en-amon. When Bey meets a woman, Helen Grosvenor, who bears a striking resemblance to Ankh-es-en-amon, he realizes that she is a reincarnation
of the princess, and attempts to mummify Grosvenor and make her his bride. In the end Grosvenor, recalling her past life, appeals to the goddess Isis
who causes Imhotep to be dissolved.
, though this character has a back story that is very similar to Imhotep's.
and is the main antagonist
of the film. In 1290 BC., Imhotep was high priest under the rule of Pharaoh Seti I
. He began an affair with Pharaoh Seti's mistress, Anck-su-namun, and they murder the Pharaoh when he discovers it. After doing so, they are discovered and Anck-su-namun commits suicide with the intention of having Imhotep resurrect her. He attempts to do so but is captured at Hamunaptra, and is punished by enduring the Curse of Hom Dai, a ritual that involved cutting out his tongue and mummifying Imhotep alive with his sarcophagus filled with carnivorous scarab beetles. As a result of the curse, Imhotep was made an undead fiend with control over sand and other elements. Three thousand years later, during an archaeological dig, Imhotep was accidentally unleashed and revived. After regenerating his body using the flesh and organs of the thieves who had opened a cursed chest, in this case an Egyptologist and three Americans, he set about trying to resurrect Anck-su-namun again, this time using Evelyn- a librarian who had discovered his body and accidentally awoken him by reading an Egyptian enchantment- for a sacrifice. Ultimately, Imhotep is defeated when his immortality is taken by the powers of the Book of Amun-Ra and he is stabbed with a sword by the film's protagonist
, Rick O'Connell. As he decays back into his skeletal mummy form and falls into the pool from which he summoned Anck-su-namun's Ba
, Imhotep vows to return to have his revenge, before returning to the Underworld
.
When he was restored to life, Imhotep gained several powers, including regeneration, invulnerability, turning himself into sand, and controlling the desert sands, as well as the ability to wield the Ten Plagues of Egypt to an unspecified degree; he was seen to turn water to blood, unleashing locust
s, and control the people of the city by inflicting them with boils and sores (Although these last were used before he regained his full powers, which may account for him only using some of the plagues rather than all of them). During the first part of the movie, Imhotep expresses an intense fear of cats, screaming in fear when a white one appears in Evy's room. Ardeth Bay and Evy's superior explain that Imhotep will fear them until he is fully regenerated, cats being associated with the Guardians of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology; Rick uses this information to good effect later in the film.
In the 1999 version, Ardeth Bay is not Imhotep's pseudonym, but rather the leader of an ancient secret society
devoted to guarding Imhotep's tomb.
, Imhotep, having been resurrected and freed from the resin he had been trapped in at the end of the first movie by a group of cultists and Anck-Su-Namun's reincarnation, proceeds to seek out the Bracelet of Anubis, which was the key to finding the lair of the Scorpion King, an ancient warrior whose defeat will grant Imhotep control over the Scorpion King's near-indestructible Army of Anubis. After finding the bracelet on the arm of Alex O'Connell, Imhotep captures the boy and uses him to find the lair of the Scorpion King. Once Imhotep reaches the lair, he walks over a magic seal on the floor which causes him to be robbed of his telekinesis, immortality, and other powers granted by the Curse of Hom Dai by Anubis, who seemingly wishes him to face the Scorpion King as a normal mortal. When the Scorpion King responds to Imhotep's summons, Imhotep tricks him into attacking Rick O'Connell. When Rick kills the Scorpion King and sends him and his army to the Underworld, the palace begins to collapse. Rick and Imhotep both nearly fall into a chasm, that apparently leads to the underworld, and grab onto the ledge. While Rick is rescued by Evelyn, Anck-Su-Namun leaves Imhotep to die while he begs for her assistance. After this betrayal, Imhotep loses all will to live, since his only reason for returning from the grave was to be reunited with his lover, who apparently did not love him the same. He gives Rick and Evelyn a sad envious smile and willingly casts himself into the pit, thus ending his reign of terror once and for all.
, only mentioned by Rick as "the same mummy I put down twice". Ironically, he ends up having a nightclub in Shanghai
named after him as a tribute by Jonathan Carnahan, who toasts to him: "May the bugger actually stay dead!"
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
in the 1932 film The Mummy
The Mummy (1932 film)
The Mummy is a 1932 horror film from Universal Studios directed by Karl Freund and starring Boris Karloff as a revived ancient Egyptian priest. The movie also features Zita Johann, David Manners and Edward Van Sloan...
, and later featured in its 1999 remake
The Mummy (1999 film)
The Mummy is a 1999 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers and starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah and Kevin J. O'Connor, with Arnold Vosloo in the title role as the reanimated mummy. The film features substantial dialogue in ancient Egyptian language, spoken...
and its sequel The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy...
again as one of the main antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
s. He is loosely inspired by the historical figure Imhotep
Imhotep
Imhotep , fl. 27th century BC was an Egyptian polymath, who served under the Third Dynasty king Djoser as chancellor to the pharaoh and high priest of the sun god Ra at Heliopolis...
, a counselor to the Pharaoh Djoser
Djoser
Netjerikhet or Djoser is the best-known pharaoh of the Third dynasty of Egypt. He commissioned his official, Imhotep, to build the first of the pyramids, a step pyramid for him at Saqqara...
in the 27th century BC
27th century BC
The 27th century BC is a century which lasted from the year 2700 BC to 2601 BC.-Events:*2900 BC – 2334 BC: Mesopotamian wars of the Early Dynastic period.*2775 BC – 2650 BC: Second Dynasty wars in Egypt....
.
The Mummy (1932)
In his original appearance, Imhotep was portrayed by Boris KarloffBoris Karloff
William Henry Pratt , better known by his stage name Boris Karloff, was an English actor.Karloff is best remembered for his roles in horror films and his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein , Bride of Frankenstein , and Son of Frankenstein...
as a priest of Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt was an ancient civilization of Northeastern Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in what is now the modern country of Egypt. Egyptian civilization coalesced around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh...
who is mummified
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
by pharaoh Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III
Amenhotep III also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died...
as punishment for attempting to resurrect his lover, Princess Ankh-es-en-amon. Imhotep is accidentally revived when an archaeological expedition discovers his mummy and one of the archaeologists unknowingly reads an ancient life-giving spell.
Imhotep escapes from the archaeologists and assumes the identity of Ardath Bey, a modern Egyptian. In this form he helps the archaeologists find the tomb of Ankh-es-en-amon. When Bey meets a woman, Helen Grosvenor, who bears a striking resemblance to Ankh-es-en-amon, he realizes that she is a reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of the princess, and attempts to mummify Grosvenor and make her his bride. In the end Grosvenor, recalling her past life, appeals to the goddess Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
who causes Imhotep to be dissolved.
Sequels
In the immediate sequels to the 1932 film, the mummy is known as KharisKharis
Kharis is a fictional character featured in Universal Studios's Mummy series in the 1940s following their original 1932 film The Mummy, which starred Boris Karloff as a different mummy character, Imhotep...
, though this character has a back story that is very similar to Imhotep's.
The Mummy (1999)
In the 1999 remake, Imhotep is portrayed by Arnold VoslooArnold Vosloo
Arnold Vosloo is a South African American actor, best-known for playing Imhotep in The Mummy and its 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns, as well as the role of the superhero Darkman in the sequel Darkman II: The Return of Durant and its 1996 sequel, Darkman III: Die Darkman Die...
and is the main antagonist
Antagonist
An antagonist is a character, group of characters, or institution, that represents the opposition against which the protagonist must contend...
of the film. In 1290 BC., Imhotep was high priest under the rule of Pharaoh Seti I
Seti I
Menmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II...
. He began an affair with Pharaoh Seti's mistress, Anck-su-namun, and they murder the Pharaoh when he discovers it. After doing so, they are discovered and Anck-su-namun commits suicide with the intention of having Imhotep resurrect her. He attempts to do so but is captured at Hamunaptra, and is punished by enduring the Curse of Hom Dai, a ritual that involved cutting out his tongue and mummifying Imhotep alive with his sarcophagus filled with carnivorous scarab beetles. As a result of the curse, Imhotep was made an undead fiend with control over sand and other elements. Three thousand years later, during an archaeological dig, Imhotep was accidentally unleashed and revived. After regenerating his body using the flesh and organs of the thieves who had opened a cursed chest, in this case an Egyptologist and three Americans, he set about trying to resurrect Anck-su-namun again, this time using Evelyn- a librarian who had discovered his body and accidentally awoken him by reading an Egyptian enchantment- for a sacrifice. Ultimately, Imhotep is defeated when his immortality is taken by the powers of the Book of Amun-Ra and he is stabbed with a sword by the film's protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
, Rick O'Connell. As he decays back into his skeletal mummy form and falls into the pool from which he summoned Anck-su-namun's Ba
Egyptian soul
The ancient Egyptians believed that a human soul was made up of five parts: the Ren, the Ba, the Ka, the Sheut, and the Ib. In addition to these components of the soul there was the human body...
, Imhotep vows to return to have his revenge, before returning to the Underworld
Duat
In Egyptian mythology, Duat is the underworld. The Duat is a vast area under the Earth, connected with Nun, the waters of the primordial abyss. The Duat is the realm of the god Osiris and the residence of other gods and supernatural beings...
.
When he was restored to life, Imhotep gained several powers, including regeneration, invulnerability, turning himself into sand, and controlling the desert sands, as well as the ability to wield the Ten Plagues of Egypt to an unspecified degree; he was seen to turn water to blood, unleashing locust
Locust
Locusts are the swarming phase of short-horned grasshoppers of the family Acrididae. These are species that can breed rapidly under suitable conditions and subsequently become gregarious and migratory...
s, and control the people of the city by inflicting them with boils and sores (Although these last were used before he regained his full powers, which may account for him only using some of the plagues rather than all of them). During the first part of the movie, Imhotep expresses an intense fear of cats, screaming in fear when a white one appears in Evy's room. Ardeth Bay and Evy's superior explain that Imhotep will fear them until he is fully regenerated, cats being associated with the Guardians of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology; Rick uses this information to good effect later in the film.
In the 1999 version, Ardeth Bay is not Imhotep's pseudonym, but rather the leader of an ancient secret society
Secret society
A secret society is a club or organization whose activities and inner functioning are concealed from non-members. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence agencies or guerrilla insurgencies, which hide their...
devoted to guarding Imhotep's tomb.
The Mummy Returns
In the 2001 sequel, The Mummy ReturnsThe Mummy Returns
The Mummy Returns is a 2001 American adventure film written and directed by Stephen Sommers, starring Brendan Fraser, Rachel Weisz, John Hannah, Arnold Vosloo, Oded Fehr, Patricia Velásquez and Freddie Boath. The film is a sequel to the 1999 film The Mummy...
, Imhotep, having been resurrected and freed from the resin he had been trapped in at the end of the first movie by a group of cultists and Anck-Su-Namun's reincarnation, proceeds to seek out the Bracelet of Anubis, which was the key to finding the lair of the Scorpion King, an ancient warrior whose defeat will grant Imhotep control over the Scorpion King's near-indestructible Army of Anubis. After finding the bracelet on the arm of Alex O'Connell, Imhotep captures the boy and uses him to find the lair of the Scorpion King. Once Imhotep reaches the lair, he walks over a magic seal on the floor which causes him to be robbed of his telekinesis, immortality, and other powers granted by the Curse of Hom Dai by Anubis, who seemingly wishes him to face the Scorpion King as a normal mortal. When the Scorpion King responds to Imhotep's summons, Imhotep tricks him into attacking Rick O'Connell. When Rick kills the Scorpion King and sends him and his army to the Underworld, the palace begins to collapse. Rick and Imhotep both nearly fall into a chasm, that apparently leads to the underworld, and grab onto the ledge. While Rick is rescued by Evelyn, Anck-Su-Namun leaves Imhotep to die while he begs for her assistance. After this betrayal, Imhotep loses all will to live, since his only reason for returning from the grave was to be reunited with his lover, who apparently did not love him the same. He gives Rick and Evelyn a sad envious smile and willingly casts himself into the pit, thus ending his reign of terror once and for all.
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Imhotep does not appear in the third filmThe Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor is a 2008 American action adventure film and sequel to The Mummy and The Mummy Returns . The film stars Brendan Fraser, Maria Bello, John Hannah, Luke Ford, and Jet Li, and was released on August 1, 2008 in the United States...
, only mentioned by Rick as "the same mummy I put down twice". Ironically, he ends up having a nightclub in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
named after him as a tribute by Jonathan Carnahan, who toasts to him: "May the bugger actually stay dead!"