‘The Mummy’ Trailer Pits Tom Cruise Against ‘The Ultimate Evil’ Monster [Video]
Universal Pictures released a new trailer for The Mummy, which is to be a new reboot of the classic Mummy tale, ushering in a new generation of monster movies based on the classic horror genre films. Hoping to capitalize on his celebrity status, the studio brings Tom Cruise in as Nick Morton, the lead character in The Mummy, and in holding true to the name Cruise has built for himself, The Mummy ambitiously melds the horror genre with Cruise’s reality-defying action sequences. The meld of fright and flight may just work for the reboot, as the new trailer suggests.
Tom Cruise Unleashes “the Ultimate Evil” in The Mummy
The Mummy is more than just the story of an ancient villain returned to wreak havoc on the world, and as Entertainment Weekly reports, Sofia Boutella is terrifying as Egypt’s dark queen, Ahmanet. The new trailer starts out with a bang, sending Tom Cruise into the heart of danger as Nick Morton, but, while the opening scenes in the teaser offers action akin to Mission: Impossible or Jack Reacher, it soon evolves into something different. Something darker.
The trouble begins when Nick accidentally uncovers Ahmanet and opts to transport the mummy via airplane. While The Mummy trailer doesn’t delve into his motivations for moving Ahmanet, a freak plane accident makes much of that moot, sending everyone aboard the plane to their deaths. Not to worry. While Tom Cruise is also killed off, Ahmanet soon revives him for her own nefarious purposes.
What purposes are those? The mummy, reinvented as one of the darkest female figures in Egyptian history, is out to destroy and remake human civilization into her own vision, and considering warnings calling her “the ultimate evil,” that can’t be good. The Mummy trailer indicates that Cruise’s character is the key to bringing all of this darkness about, though it’s not really explained exactly why or what makes Nick so special, other than the fact that he was re-animated by the mummy in the first place.
Hopefully, the full film will give a little more exposition on this, because it seems to be a crucial plot point and not something The Mummy should just throw at audiences without revealing if there’s something about Nick’s genetics, history, or his own personal past that makes him the key to Ahmanet’s rise.
Creating A Zero-Gravity Plane Crash Was Harder Than Resurrecting the Mummy
One of the most important scenes in The Mummy is the plane crash that kills Tom Cruise and releases Ahmanet, the spirit of the mummy, and as Variety shares, creating that mid-flight mishap was no easy task. In fact, the scene involved a zero-gravity sequence that ended up taking 64 takes, encompassing a full two days of filming and four high altitude stunt flights.
Alex Kurtzman, who is the mastermind behind The Mummy, having written and directed the Cruise-led reboot, revealed that the cast and crew were made sick by the demands of filming the sequence. The blame can be placed at Tom’s feet, reveals The Mummy director, because, when Cruise was offered the option of filming on a sound stage, he declined. The actor insisted on filming the scene in zero gravity to achieve the most realistic shot possible.
Annabelle Wallis, who plays Jenny Halsey, says Cruise was one of the few who didn’t become nauseous by the experience. She says she didn’t throw up either, but felt assured that Cruise would have done the gentlemanly thing, had she needed to vomit on The Mummy set.
“I was happy to have Tom on hand to hold back the hair, if needed,” says The Mummy actress.
Mr. Cruise is said to have asked the rest of the cast to do most of their own stunts, something Tom frequently does in many of his action films.
“We jump off buildings … and Tom really does it all,” said Jake Johnson, who plays second fiddle to Cruise in The Mummy. “My character dies. I almost died.”
The Mummy premieres in theaters on June 9.
[Featured Image by Universal Pictures]
