The Mummy Returns goofs

As the bus crosses Tower Bridge, the structure is shown in a red, white and blue colour scheme. The bridge was not painted in those colours until the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977; in 1933 it was a plain brown.

Evelyn appears to be wearing contemporary, seamless nylon tights.

A chain reaction of toppling columns would not be feasible. Columns situated alongside the walls of such buildings were secured to the wall at their rear to provide additional stability.

The protagonists visit the Temple of Philae while following Alex to the oasis, which is depicted in its present-day condition. In the 1930s the temple was partly submerged by the old Aswan Dam and was only relocated to its current (dry) site by UNESCO in the 1960s.

When Alex fires at the trio of thieves with a slingshot, he is plainly using an aluminium Wrist-Rocket (tm). That slingshot was not commercially available until 1954, according to the manufacturer's website.

When initially worn, the bracelet projects a view of the Giza Plateau in its present-day condition; afterwards it presents Karnak as it stood in antiquity rather than in its modern form.

In the front windscreen of Rick's car there is a modern Road Fund Licence disc.

The dirigible is fitted with a period brass carbon tetrachloride fire extinguisher, yet when Izzy Buttons attempts to extinguish the flames after Imhotep causes it to crash, he is plainly using a modern dry-chemical extinguisher (repainted to conceal its contemporary appearance) — a device that was not invented until more than 30 years after the period in which the film is set; indeed, the model shown dates from over fifty years later.

The film is set in 1933, yet contains a chase scene featuring an AEC Routemaster double-decker bus — a model that was not produced until 1954.

Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez engage in two separate duels armed with the sai. The sai is an Asian weapon that was not used in ancient Egypt. It is designed to counter longer weapons such as swords or hafted arms. In combat it is used with the point; it cannot slash, as it has no cutting edges.

In several scenes where Rick is wearing a bandolier of shotgun cartridges, the white wads inside the cases are plainly visible instead of the fronts being crimped shut, indicating they are blank cartridges. The shells are further anachronistic: plastic shotgun cartridges did not appear until the 1960s.

The airship is fitted with a period-correct brass carbon tetrachloride fire extinguisher, yet when Izzy Buttons tries to douse the flames after Imhotep causes it to crash, he is plainly using a modern dry-chemical extinguisher that has been repainted to hide its contemporary appearance — that type of extinguisher was not developed until more than thirty years after the period in which the film is set, and the specific model depicted did not appear until over fifty years later.

The double-decker's number plate reads KLB 713. It identifies the bus as a Leyland AEC, originally registered in 1950 — seventeen years after the events depicted in the film.

When Ardeth Bay is riding ahead of the Medjai whilst they wait for the Army of Anubis, the horse's hoofbeats are distinctly audible, as if it were moving on firm ground such as dry land. In reality, a horse galloping over soft sand would not produce that kind of sound.

At Magic Carpet Airways the pilot bolts the door and runs off. Clunk, clunk, clunk. Nevertheless, Rick manages to open the door by shooting off just one lock.

When Jonathan brings the bus to a halt on Tower Bridge and switches off the engine, the sound effect is unmistakably that of a propeller-driven aeroplane being shut down.

While the girls fight to entertain the Pharaoh's court, they switch to using wooden staves tipped with metal. When the staves are struck together they sound wooden, but when they are drawn across one another they give a metallic, sword‑like ring.

After the sword battle in the O'Connels mansion, when Evy picks up the chest to leave the house, Alex can be heard saying "Mum, look out!" However, at the moment the line is heard the camera is pointed at Freddie (Alex) and his mouth remains closed the whole time.

When Rick and Evelyn first return to their home in England, Evelyn runs her hand across the top of the piano and then steps backwards into a green potted plant behind her, causing its leaves to visibly tremble.

At roughly the 34‑minute mark, Ardeth Bay delivers the line "Whomever can kill the Scorpion King can send his army back to the underworld...". Grammatically, he ought to have used "Whoever...".

Meela's costume is a textile reproduction of the "chastity" paint the pharaoh used on Zanuck-Sun-Amun. The scene in which they kill the pharaoh is included in both films to show her willingness to kill in order to escape the relationship. Given her aversion to that relationship, as his reincarnation, she would not have chosen clothing that echoed that paint.

In Muumio (1999), the opening sequence of Rick O'Connell and the French Foreign Legion fighting the Bedouins is dated 1923. The subsequent museum scene is marked "3 years later", which would place it in 1926. Muumion paluu (2001) dates the first scene with the O'Connells searching for the Bracelet of Anubis to 1933, and Alex yells at his uncle outside the museum that he is "only 8 years old!" For Alex to be eight in 1933 his parents would have needed to have him in 1925 (possibly conceived in 1924), yet Evy and Rick would not have met by that time. They could alternatively have had him in 1924.

In Muumio (1999) the key was required on several occasions to unlock both the Book of the Dead and the Book of Amun-Ra; however, in Muumion paluu (2001) the Book of the Dead is opened and utilised repeatedly without any assistance from the key.

In Muumio (1999), O'Connell bore a tattoo on the back of each hand by the lower joint of his thumb. Those tattoos are absent from Muumion paluu (2001).

In The Mummy (1999), Imhotep addresses Evelyn as Anck-Su-Namun. However, in The Mummy Returns (2001) it is revealed that Evelyn is the reincarnation of Nefertiti. The earlier film was essentially a reworking of Boris Karloff's The Mummy (1932), in which the resurrected priest Imhotep becomes convinced that the hero's girlfriend is the reborn form of his lost princess. Apparently the film-makers of The Mummy (1999) had not anticipated its enormous success and had to rush a sequel, and the screenwriters overlooked that element of the plot when developing The Mummy Returns (2001). It's worth noting that the villain in Karloff's version is spelled "Ardath Bey", while the hero in Fraser's film is rendered as "Ardeth Bay", a distinction intended to separate the two.

On two occasions a wall of water drenches the airship, yet everyone aboard remains entirely dry each time.

After Imhotep is reawakened, he smashes the shell he comes out of, yet as he walks off it can be seen still intact resting across his shoulder.

In the climactic battle with the Anubis warriors, who are depicted as immensely powerful, none of the shots during or after the fight show any dead people or horses.

When Imhotep's followers are escorting Evy into the ritual chamber, in the long shot one can see her turn her head to the right just before she is put down. Immediately afterwards there is a close-up of her being laid on the table with her head turned to the left. Once she sits up, all close-ups show her upright; yet from Rick and Ardeth's vantage point on the balcony the table alternates between showing her lying flat and appearing empty.

When Evelyn first turns the key to open the chest containing the Bracelet of Anubis, the lock's "open" position shows the star points aligned at roughly 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. Later, when Alex repeats the action at the O'Connell house, the "open" setting again displays the star points at 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. During Baltus and Lock-Nah's attempt to open the chest with a syringe of chemical at Imhotep's awakening ceremony, a close-up reveals the star is already set to the 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock positions, indicating the chest had already been unlocked.

During the flashback, Anck-Su-Namun is not holding a dagger when she confronts the Pharaoh, yet in the subsequent scene she plunges one into him.

During Rick's battle with the mummies on the double-decker bus, a leather strap is visible on his wrist in some shots, but it is missing in others.

As Rick goes to fetch the magic carpet, he takes the sceptre from Jonathan; after Izzy locks the door, Rick still has the sceptre in his hand. When Rick then kicks the door in the sceptre is no longer in his grasp, and when it later shoots back to him as he walks towards Izzy he is once again holding the sceptre.

When the tidal wave containing the face first strikes the 'magic carpet' (on the first occasion), Izzy can be seen getting soaked. A few seconds afterwards, however, none of the characters appear to be wet.

During the fight between Nefertiri and Anck-Su-Namun, Anck-Su-Namun knocks Nefertiri to the floor, causing her to drop her sais. In the next shot Nefertiri is suddenly back on her feet and holding the sais, despite not having had any time to retrieve them, and there is no audible indication that she picked them up.

Around 53 minutes into the film, Imhotep is turning an hourglass over in front of Alex. With the glass inverted, Imhotep's hand lies flat, his thumb on the left side of the snake and his fingers on the right, but as soon as he places the hourglass on the table his hand has instantly flipped to the other side of the snake, as though he were about to pick the hourglass up.

Rick and Alex dive into the pyramid just as the sun is rising. Shadows should therefore be very long, yet moments later, outside, Evelyn's shadow cast by the sun appears comparatively short.

As they leap through the window, Jonathan is still wet, having only just climbed out of the bath. But when he and Rick are outside and attempt to follow their pursuers, Jonathan is dry once more.

When Alex tears the toilet off the train, you can still see water running from the pipe. Yet when the camera looks through the floor it's completely dry and no water is falling through or around the hole. Even if the water were only set to run for a fixed period, the floor ought to have been wet.

Initially, the thug climbs the ladder to reach Alex bare‑handed, but when we later see him sliding down the ladder to escape the floodwaters, he is suddenly wearing gloves.

The arms of Imhotep as he dangles from the ledge.

When Rick is outlined against the spider web, he draws his pistol and cocks it; it stays cocked while he examines the tomb, then he uncocks it when he believes he's safe. A split second later, after Alex startles him, the pistol is cocked once more.

Rick seizes Evy by her right arm as she attempts to hold a door closed, but in the subsequent cut he's hauling her by her left arm.

Evy's hands change size on four separate occasions in the close-up shots as she opens the case that contains the Bracelet of Anubis.

When Rick, Evy and Jonathan pull up at Izzy's, over the next few minutes Jonathan is seen alighting from the car on two occasions, before Rick asks him to fetch the bags.

When Evy is knocked out before being kidnapped, the man strikes her on her left-hand side. Later, when she comes round at the museum, she touches the right-hand side of her face as though she had been struck there.

During the fight on the bus many windows are smashed, but in exterior shots of the vehicle travelling through the streets all the windows seem intact.

The full moon is observed on two distinct nights.

During the museum skirmish, Bey is shown shooting several "baddies" with the Thompson, as well as those O'Connell kills; yet when they fall back up the stairs the view below shows no bodies lying about.

When Rick kicks open the gate to Izzy's compound, the pistol in the shoulder holster beneath his left arm is jostled loose and falls. In the following shot it has inexplicably reappeared.

When we first encounter Rick he is making his way along a passage, carrying a gun and a torch. After a short while he peers round a corner and sees the very passage he has just walked through, only now unlit — with the same number of columns, the same sand build-up on the floor and the same amount of cobwebs on the ceiling.

As the tunnel fills, the apparent gap between Rick and Evy and the water shifts depending on the camera angle. The forward camera suggests the water is up to, and even in front of, their feet, while the view from behind them continually shows the water at least 5-10 feet back. When they reach the dead end the rearward shot still indicates the water is 5-10 feet behind, yet a close-up of their panic endures for several seconds before the water overtakes them. That's a long time if the water was only a few feet away and moving as quickly as it appears.

As Ardeth says goodbye to the Commanders of the Twelve Tribes of the Medjai at Izzy's Magic Carpet Airways, his right arm alternates from being held aloft to hanging at his side from shot to shot.

In the Hamunaptra sequence, after the treasure hunters confront Hafez and his men and they draw their weapons, a close-up shows the Indian cultist holding a Mauser C98. In a wider shot he is shown holding a Colt .45 pistol, and in the subsequent close-up of the same cultist the firearm has reverted to a Mauser C98.

When Anck-Su-Namun threatens Alex's life inside the train carriage, a tight two-shot shows her holding Alex's face with one hand. The scene's final cut is a wider shot, and her hands are no longer close to his face.

As the tomb starts to flood and he is about to be swept away, Rick's face shifts from terrified to expressionless while he holds Evy between shots.

When Alex breaks free from the train, the first time the aperture he uses is shown it is blocked by three bars, which would have made it impossible for him to fit through. A few seconds later the same opening is shown with only two bars, allowing Alex to pass.

In the Scorpion King's opening fight, he appears with the sword in his right hand and the shield on his left arm; in a mid-battle close-up, the two weapons have swapped sides.

On board the bus, O'Connor is shown inserting a single cartridge into his shotgun, yet he proceeds to fire into the roof several times.

As Evelyn makes her way through the Karnak temple searching for Alex, one can spot someone poking their head out from behind a stone column just as Evelyn passes behind it.

In the fight sequence where Rick fires at the formaldehyde, the henchman clad in a red cloak on the left is wearing a fire-retardant suit, visible around his face.

As the villains pull up at the mansion and halt outside the house, a camera briefly appears on the right-hand side of the frame, almost clipped by the car just before it comes to a stop.

The sai, the weapon wielded by Nefertiri and Anck‑Su‑Namun, was not used by the ancient Egyptians and did not exist in that region. The weapon originated in Okinawa, where it was adapted from a farming implement for use against the Japanese occupiers.

In London, Tower Bridge lies eight bridges downstream of the Houses of Parliament, while St Paul's Cathedral stands on the north bank of the Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and Southwark Bridge. The three renowned landmarks are not situated close to one another.

The railway line in Egypt lies on the opposite bank of the Nile to the city of Thebes, rather than on the same bank as portrayed in the film.

After the Scorpion King is defeated, a wisp of black smoke rises from the pyramid's summit, containing his soul. Ardeth and the Medjai can see it close by from where they are battling Anubis's army. The pyramid stands at the centre of an oasis that appears to spread for miles, yet as far as the Medjai can see around them there is only desert.

Shortly after the balloon crashes in the Ahm Shere oasis, the calls of howler monkeys can be heard in the surrounding jungle. Those primates are native to South America rather than Africa.

In the opening shot of the London skyline at dusk, the perspective is from St Paul's looking towards the Houses of Parliament. Tower Bridge appears on the right of the frame, although in reality it would lie directly behind that viewpoint and thus would not be visible.

In the film the Karnak temple complex appears to be surrounded only by desert. Yet, even in 1933, Karnak was actually situated in the heart of Luxor (ancient Thebes), so there should have been town buildings and people nearby.

The exterior of the British Museum is actually UCL's quadrangle on Gower Street. Even by moonlight, the world-renowned dome remains clearly visible.

In the opening shot of Cairo's railway station, the city appears to extend right up to the pyramids. In reality, the pyramids stand on the Giza plateau, which at the time the story is set was a few miles beyond the city's limits.

When the characters step into the scorpion-filled chamber, the film shows several shots of red-kneed tarantulas, a species native to Mexico. In Egypt, however, they would be more likely to encounter black tarantulas.

Early in the film, immediately after the battle sequence, the narrator asserts that the Scorpion King appealed to "the dark god, Anubis". In ancient Egyptian belief, Anubis was the deity of the dead and the guardian of tombs; consequently, the Scorpion King would more likely have invoked Seth (Set), brother of Osiris and the god associated with chaos, disorder and violence.

The peregrine falcon used by Ardeth Bay would not have been relegated to the status of a "messenger pigeon," but would instead have been trained, honoured and revered as a hunting partner and companion in the ancient art of falconry. Furthermore, being Egyptian, the Medjai would probably not have been falconers. There is evidence that the nearby Assyrians were keen falconers. The Egyptians, perhaps because of their devotion to the god Horus, never took up falconry despite their close contact with the Assyrians.

Ardeth Bay asserts that Rick, Evy and Alex represent "three sides of the pyramid" destined to fulfil a prophecy. Pyramids, however, have four sides.

The film opens with an on-screen caption stating the year 3067 BC, while a narrator intones "Five thousand years ago...." It then cuts to the then-"modern" period of 1933. The film-makers evidently meant 3067 BC to lie roughly five millennia before 1933. However, because the calendar proceeds from 1 BC directly to AD 1 (there is no year zero), the actual span is 4,999 years, so 5,000 is only an approximation. For example, in 1933 one might casually describe 1830 as "100 years ago"; the filmmakers were therefore indicating "close to" 5,000 years rather than claiming a precise count.

The Magic Carpet balloon has rockets fitted to the gondola for propulsion. In reality, the balloon’s drag would cause the rocket‑driven gondola to pivot and rotate vertically about the balloon’s axis. The gondola would spin around the envelope and the craft would not move forward. Moreover, the balloon would produce so much aerodynamic resistance that the engines couldn't push it to those speeds. Even if the engines were powerful enough, the envelope would either be crushed by the air resistance or torn away entirely while the rockets were firing.

Contrary to their depiction in this film and its predecessor as fast-moving, aggressively carnivorous threats, the beetles venerated in ancient Egypt are actually a type of dung beetle. Scarabaeus sacer, the sacred scarab, is neither swift nor predatory, and although its bite can be painful it does not possess the strength to penetrate human skin.

All the characters display a conspicuous absence of body hair; even the ancient Egyptians show no chest, underarm or leg hair.

When Rick is racing towards the temple with his son, the light seems to be pursuing them from behind. It ought to be travelling down the temple and then back towards the mountain over which the sun is rising.

In the film's opening sequence, Evy kicks away a colourful banded snake, which Rick declares to be venomous; this was presumably intended to represent a coral snake. However, the snake's banding — red with thin black/yellow/black stripes — is almost certainly that of Lampropeltis triangulum syspila, a type of banded mountain king snake commonly known as the Milk Snake, which is frequently confused with the venomous North American coral snake that features broad red and black rings separated by narrow yellow bands. Intriguingly, coral snakes originated in Asia, and Old World forms that one might conceivably encounter in Egypt can exhibit various banding patterns, including red-black combinations. So, while the individual in the film is non-venomous, it plausibly resembles venomous species that could occur in the region (probably unbeknownst to the film-makers).

When Imhotep returns to Egypt, he travels by train with uniformed, armed guards posted on the carriage roofs. In 1933, Egypt was under British rule, and the British Army would not have permitted a private force to move unchallenged for fear of insurrection and the possible loss of the Suez Canal.

At 1:05:50, when Ihmotep reproaches Alex for attempting to flee, he makes the "tsk tsk" gesture. The use of "tsk tsk" as a way to chastise someone didn't appear until the 1940s, whereas The Mummy films are set in the 1920s, 1930s and in the BCE era — long before he would have known that polite form of scolding.

In the sequence where Rick and his companions are pursued by mummies on the double-decker bus, Rick is shown with a plastic shotgun cartridge in his mouth. The film is set in 1933, and plastic shotgun cartridges did not appear until the 1960s. At that time the cartridge would have been made of brass or of paper coated in wax.

The coral snake that Evy kicks, which almost falls onto Rick, is not native to Egypt. Coral snakes are found in Asia and the Americas.

Fleeing their attackers, Rick and Jonathan leap through a stained-glass window. It shatters as if it were a single pane of glass, and the lead cames that would normally hold the separate pieces of coloured glass are nowhere to be seen.

The film opens in the year 3067 BC. It portrays the Scorpion King. The narrative refers to two ''Scorpion Kings'' — Scorpion I and Scorpion II. Historical records suggest Scorpion II may have lived roughly a century before 3067 BC.

Moments before Alex is kidnapped, he peers through the bus's shattered rear window and apparently notices nothing out of the ordinary. Yet when Lock-Nah snatches him and forces him into the car, the pursuit would have been visible through that rear window, and Alex could have warned Rick, Evy, Ardeth and Johnathan that they were being followed to Tower Bridge.

Snakes are venomous, not poisonous. They inject venom into their prey or a threat, rather than passing toxins on by being eaten.

During the bus chase sequence Evelyn shouts at Johnathan to turn. He complies, striking a street lamppost yet the bus appears unscathed. Any time a car or bus collides with an object such as those lampposts they'd, at the very least, slow to a crawl and might even come to a halt. Clearly the bus should have sustained some damage when they hit it.

After Alex is kidnapped, the car drives off and the number plate is clearly visible on screen. Rick makes no attempt to phone the police to trace the vehicle that abducted Alex, even though he could easily read and memorise the letters and numbers on the plate. The police ought to have been notified so they could try to locate the car.

The names Seti I, Nefertari, Imhotep and Anck Sun Amun (spellings vary) belong to real historical figures, but in this film they are applied to fictional characters.

The depiction of Imhotep's initial betrayal is presented somewhat differently from the version in Muumio (1999). This is intended to offer alternative perspectives on the event, reflecting how eyewitnesses' recollections often vary in real life.

(at around 1h 45 mins) Rick ultimately accepts that he is "some kind of sacred Medjai" when he notices several depictions on a stone wall of a man, tattooed on his left arm, turning the "golden staff-like object" into a spear and using it to kill the Scorpion King. Whilst Rick's tattoo is on his right arm (not his left), the important point is that he bears the mark at all, especially in light of what Ardeth Bay had already told him.

While battling the soldier mummies aboard the double-decker bus, Rick, Evy, Ardeth Bay, Jonathan and Alex face four of them but only manage to subdue three; the fourth's fate is revealed in a deleted scene.

The airship is struck from behind by a wall of water in the canyon. This suggests it was flying directly away from the kidnapped boy they were trying to follow.

At 1:17:07 into the film, Imhotep looks up to see the airship passing overhead and moving away from Imhotep’s group. The airship continues to follow the river as it departs, having passed over the party they had been searching for. If that is the case, Rick, Evelyn and their companions would be hit from behind by a wall of water, since their airship is now ahead of their son and Imhotep.

While various bands of troops are shown entering the oasis, Napoleon Bonaparte's soldiers are labelled as "turn of the century". Since the film is set in 1933, they would more properly be expected to be from the previous century. In fact, Napoleon mounted his Egyptian expedition in 1798 and returned to France in 1801, so calling those French troops "turn of the century" is not incorrect.

When Evie is revealed to be the reincarnation of Nefertiti, audiences point out that in the original film Imhotep had mistaken her for Anck-su-Namun — so why the confusion? The discarded explanation was that Imhotep had taken the eyes of Mr. Burns, who was virtually blind without his spectacles, and therefore Imhotep inherited Burns' blindness. The scene was cut after director Stephen Sommers realised it would leave Imhotep nearly blind for the entire film; instead, he chose to centre the plot on Imhotep mistaking Evie for his lost love.

Four guards on the roof of the train carriage open fire on Alex as he flees the train at Karnak. When Imhotep uses his powers, only two guards remain on the carriage roof; after he throws them, there are suddenly six guards on top of the carriage.

At the opening of the film Rick is exploring inside a temple. He turns around and is surprised to see Alex standing there. Alex, equally taken aback, jumps and topples backwards. At first Alex appears to be at eye level with Rick, yet when Rick helps him to his feet Alex only comes up to Rick's chest.

I'm not entirely sure how O'Connor survived sheltering behind a chair that was later peppered with submachine-gun fire.

If the twelve tribes of the Medjai number in their thousands, why were they unable to prevent the excavation of Hamunaptra in the first place?

In The Mummy, it is explained that for Imhotep to fully regenerate he must assimilate bodily organs and fluids. The first thing he does is take Mr Burns' eyes and tongue so he can see and speak, and when he dissolves into the waters at Hamunaptra after being killed by Rick he reverts to his original form. But when he is resurrected this time he is "reborn" with eyes, a tongue and a fair amount of muscle and sinew.

The Bracelet grants its wearer seven days to reach the oasis at Ahm Shere, a deadline that is only narrowly met in the film by means of modern transport (a train, the Magic Carpet, etc.), resources that would have been impossible to marshal in ancient times. It seems unlikely that such a set of circumstances could ever have been arranged.

When Alex pulls the emergency brake on the train in an attempt to escape, everyone aboard is taken aback that the train is coming to a halt, including the "conductor", who promptly brings the train to a stop himself. Imhotep, however, seems to welcome the interruption because they have arrived at Karnak. If Karnak was their intended destination, they should have been prepared to stop and not surprised by the brakes.

Imhotep puts the bracelet on Alex's arm to disclose clues about the location of the Scorpion King's valley. Yet when he and his henchmen enter the valley they discover the corpses of Roman legionnaires, Napoleon's French soldiers and numerous other would‑be conquerors who apparently had no difficulty locating the valley without the bracelet.

As the curator steps into the Scorpion King's tomb, he uses Anubis's bracelet to drive away thousands of scarabs. Yet when he reaches the inner chamber, two torches are already alight, one on each side of the Scorpion King's statue. Since anyone else who tried to enter would have been devoured by the scarabs, no one could have entered before the curator to light those torches.

It is stated in one scene that the three Americans (Burns, Henderson and Daniels, from ''The Mummy'') succumbed to the curse of the chest nine years earlier. ''The Mummy'' is set in Hamunaptra in 1923. Three years afterwards, in Cairo (1926), Evelyn is shown as a single librarian. In ''The Mummy Returns'' the events take place in Egypt in 1933. In reality, though, the three Americans died seven years earlier.

Jon begins driving the double-decker bus in an attempt to flee the mummies with his family and Ardeth. Once the mummies have boarded, there is no need to keep driving — he could have stopped at any point, avoiding high-speed manoeuvres, forcing other cars off the carriageway, or nearly striking pedestrians.

When the three thieves open the box, Imhotep exploits the curse to drain them of all life so he can be reincarnated. The curse was originally placed by the Medjai in ancient Egypt; there is no indication that the Medjai reimposed it for the new victims to violate.

It seems implausible that in the seven years since the first film ended nobody at that museum had opened the chest to inspect it, if only to check there were no hazardous pests inside. Therefore it’s entirely possible that Imhotep would have needed to travel to England to siphon the life force of several museum staff members to restore himself, rather than drawing solely from Parris and his companions.

Once Alex places the bracelet on, he has 7 days to reach Ahm Shere. In the 1930s the quickest journey from London to Cairo by aeroplane was roughly five days, and about 7 days by rail; yet whilst travelling on a train in Egypt he discovers he has only 5 days remaining.

In the original instalment of The Mummy, after Burns and his companions pry open the chest, each of them takes one of the sacred jars containing Anck-su-Namun's vital organs. The chest itself never reappears. However, in the sequel it is revealed to have turned up in a museum in England; how it left Hamanaptra is never explained, as there is no scene showing it being removed.

Ardeth Bay asserts that Meela / Anck-Su-Namun possesses knowledge that no living person could conceivably have. He also says she knew precisely where the creature had been interred. Even if she experienced visions — or, more accurately, recollections of a previous life — similar to Evy, that would be of little use. The O'Connells resurrected Imhotep in the first film, and he met his end in a different part of Hamunaptra, so he was no longer in his original tomb.

As Rick runs with Alex to reach the temple before the sun catches up with it, the sunlight appears to be pursuing them towards the temple. At dawn the light would strike the top of the temple first, rather than seeming to creep up from ground level.

During the ancient cat‑fight, Nefirtiri is knocked to the ground and the fight briefly pauses. She then removes her mask with her right hand; a plaster is visible wrapped around the third phalanx of her right ring finger.

In the flashback sequence where Imhotep embraces Anck-Su-Namun, two inoculation scars can be seen on his upper arm.

At the museum, while Evy is firing the pistol Rick has handed her, the slide locks to the rear after a round, signalling the weapon is empty — yet she's still firing, her arm continues to recoil, and the muzzle keeps flashing.

A servant's modern grey underwear can be spotted in the fight scene when the Scorpion King flings him over his shoulder.

While Ardeth Bey watches the second wave of Anubis's army, the tattoos on his forehead are being sweated away.

The masks worn by Imhotep, Anck Su Namun and Nefertiri are intended to be crafted from metal, but when the characters lift them they bend as though they were made of rubber or plastic.

Shortly after the film begins, the Scorpion King is shown withdrawing into the desert with the remnants of his army after seven years of fighting. There isn't a single scratch on him or any of his men. Yet almost every one of them moves with a slight limp.

There are several problems in the CGI battle: the canine warriors "attack" thin air, while soldiers and horses pass straight through one another.

The actor's actual flesh is visible beneath the "decomposed" man's mask in the carriage.

When the Scorpion King's upper pincer moves past the second door, a small portion of it can be seen protruding through the door.

A shotgun cartridge becomes lodged at the top of Rick's shotgun but doesn’t prevent it from continuing to fire.

As the soldiers flee the pygmies, three of them tumble into what appears to be quicksand. One lands on his front and bends his knees rather than sinking, and the soles of his boots remain clearly visible.

Rick and Evelyn glide on their skateboards through the shattered wall and up to Alex.

As Imhotep strikes the gong, which ought to be metallic, it bounces.

As Jonathan carried Eve into the cave, her arm was draped around his neck despite her being dead.

If you watch the falcon after Ardeth Bay releases it carrying a message, you can spot a fishing line tied to its leg to prevent it from flying away.

When the water begins to pour in shortly after Evelyn utters "drink from the Nile" notice the shot in which the henchman, who had been watching them, moves from left to right while the water rushes from right to left. Immediately before the next cut, a rock dislodges in the top-right corner, exposing the bright sunlight of the world beyond the set. Subsequent water releases similarly reveal a bright light behind them, though not as visibly as in this instance.

The Temple of Karnak depicted in the film bears no resemblance to the actual temple, which more closely resembles the Luxor Temple situated just to its south. However, neither the Luxor nor the Karnak temples resemble the version shown in the film.

The balloon's red and green navigation lights are mounted at the rear, rather than at the front as required.

When Rick and Jonathan are in the bathroom, just about to jump through the window as shots are fired, you can see the glass crack yet remain in place. A bullet wouldn't have caused that — the entire pane would have been blown out. Presumably the director staged it that way to make it easier for them to break through the prop glass.

During the mansion battle, Rick jumps into the bathroom to dodge machine-gun fire. At first he is shown, as you would expect, lying on the floor while bullet holes are blown through the door. In the following cut he is suddenly standing upright while "bullets" hit the wall immediately beside him. These are clearly squibs, not real bullets, causing the bursts.

When Evy is in the tomb, with Rick holding the chest and asking what it says, she places her fingers on the lid as though she is reading ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Yet in the mansion, a close-up of the chest reveals no hieroglyphs on the lid — they are only on the side. Still, she didn't read the side; she read the lid.

In the museum shoot‑out sequence, the henchmen who are burnt by the exploding cases of formaldehyde are plainly wearing masks and protective gloves.

When Evelyn is rescued by Rick in the museum, they're shown entering from the left-hand side of the museum. However, when the mummy soldiers pursue them, they're shown coming from the right-hand side of the museum.

When Imhotep drains Spivey dry, a hole can be seen beneath his right eye. However, it has been shown on several occasions that the flesh around both of his eyes is fully formed, albeit decayed. So how did that hole appear, and why was it not present in the previous film? Given that no one fired a bullet at his head, no bullet could have caused that wound.

During the bus chase, when the mummified soldier attacks Ardeth and knocks the machine-gun from his hand, it falls onto a seat near the back of the bus. A few shots later the weapon has vanished, with no one shown to have retrieved it.