Imhotep (Remake)

The Mummy (1999)[edit]
In the 1999 remake, Imhotep is portrayed by Arnold Vosloo 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 Seti's mistress Anck-su-namun and they murder the Pharaoh when he discovers it. They are discovered and Anck-su-namun commits suicide intending that Imhotep resurrect her. He and his priests later steal her corpse from her burial place. Imhotep attempts to resurrect Anck-su-namun, but is captured at Hamunaptra (City of the Dead) by the Medjay (the Pharaoh's sacred bodyguards). His priests are mummified and buried alive. Imhotep, meanwhile, is condemned to endure the Curse of the Hom Dai: the ritual involves cutting out his tongue, mummifying him alive, and sealing him in a sarcophagus filled with carnivorous scarab beetles. The curse transforms Imhotep into an undead fiend kept in a state of living death. If revived, he would gain control over sand and other elements.

During an archaeological dig three thousand years later, Imhotep is accidentally revived when Egyptologist Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) reads the Book of the Dead at Hamunaptra, where his sarcophagus was. Imhotep regenerates himself using the flesh of four thieves who breached his burial chamber and opened a cursed chest. He attempts to resurrect Anck-su-namun again, using Evelyn as a sacrifice. Ultimately, Imhotep is defeated when he is stripped of immortality by the Book of Amun-Ra, and he is stabbed with a sword by the film's protagonist Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser). As he degenerates into a skeletal form and falls into the pool from which he summoned Anck-su-namun's Ba, Imhotep vows he will return to have his revenge.

Once revived, Imhotep gained several powers, including regeneration, invulnerability, and the ability to turn himself into sand and control the desert sands. He could also wield the Ten Plagues of Egypt to an unspecified degree; he could turn water to blood, unleash swarms of locusts, and control the people of the city by inflicting them with boils and sores. Early in the film, Imhotep expresses an intense fear of cats, screaming in fear when a white one appears in Evelyn's room. Ardeth Bay (the leader of an ancient secret society devoted to guarding Imhotep's tomb, rather than an alias of Imhotep) and Evelyn's employer 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 fear against Imhotep later in the film.

The Mummy Returns (2001)[edit]
In the 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns, 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, the son of Rick and Evey, Imhotep captures the boy and uses him to find the lair of the Scorpion King, rejuvenating his body using the flesh of mercenaries Anck-su-namun tricks into opening the cursed chest. 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, Imhotep begs Anck-su-namun for assistance to save him, but she selfishly refuses and leaves him to die. 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 fully reciprocate his affection. He gives Rick and Evelyn a sad smile, understanding their love is genuine, and willingly casts himself into the pit, thus ending his reign of terror once and for all.