The narration of the film is, as it was in The Mummy, spoken by Ardeth Bay, portrayed by actor Oded Fehr.

The opening scenes of Mathayus' rule as the Scorpion King are stated to take place in 3067 BC. He is said to have been in battle with the army of Thebes for seven years before being driven into the desert, defeated.

Mathayus and his army are said to have finally been driven off into the desert of Ahm Shere. This appears to be a fictional region of the Sahara desert.

Mathayus makes an unholy pact with Anubis to be given victory over Thebes. Anubis was the jackal-headed god of the afterlife and mummification in ancient Egypt.

When Mathayus grabs the scorpion at 3:18 on the DVD, he seems to allow it to sting him several times. He may be immune to the venom due to the poisoning from scorpion venom he suffered at the hands of Memnon and for which he was treated by the sorceress Cassandra, as depicted in The Scorpion King.

As the camera pans across the screen over the burning city of Thebes at 4:03 on the DVD, notice that two people are being thrown from the top of a temple by Anubis' warriors.

At 4:16 on the DVD, notice that the eyes of Anubis' statue in the background light up just as he takes Mathayus to the underworld to be forced to serve him there.

It would seem that the part of the city seen when the Anubis warriors conquer Thebes and then fall back into sand themselves was never reinhabited. Notice that the obelisk we see fall during the battle is still laying in the sands millennia later in 1933 AD. (Although the abandonment theory is belied by the fact that Evie has visions of her past self, Nefertiri, being in at least one of the chambers of the temple during her life millennia ago.)

In this film, it does not appear that Rick has the small tattoo on the back of his right hand that was seen in The Mummy. Instead, of course, he does have the Medjai tattoo on his wrist, normally hidden by his leather wrist guard.

At 6:11 on the DVD, when Alex gives his father a scare, it seems as if he is somehow almost as tall as his father. But when the boy falls and Rick helps him up, a granite block can be seen next to him that he must have been standing on.

The temple engraving on the wall at 7:03 on the DVD looks as if it could be a depiction of the ceremonial duel between Anck-su-namun and Nefertiri later on in the movie. But if this part of the city was abandoned after its fall from the attack of Anubis warriors as speculated earlier, the engraving couldn't be of that actual battle since it takes place almost 2,000 years later.

The snake that Evie kicks away from herself at 7:15 on the DVD is probably meant to be a species of the venomous Old World coral snake. The colored banding of Old World coral snakes is more difficult to identify from harmless mimicking snakes than the New World variety, but most likely the snake used for the shot was a harmless king snake.

At 9:01 on the DVD, it appears that Alex has taken his father's earlier advice and is attempting to "build a better mousetrap". The phrase is generally attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

When Evie sees the vision of herself as Nefertiri sealing the vault containing the Bracelet of Anubis, two guards are sealed in with it! Their two desiccated bodies are still standing there when Evie and Rick open the vault in 1933.

At 11:57 on the DVD, notice that one of the three bandits must have smashed Alex's mousetrap; the small structure is now flattened!

At 12:04 on the DVD, Alex appears to be using a wrist-rocket type of slingshot to harass the thieves. But the wrist-rocket was not invented until the 1950s. Possibly the one seen here is intended to have been designed by Alex himself since he is depicted as extremely intelligent and inventive (though the device sure looks like a modern day version, such as the official Wrist-Rocket made by Trumark today).

At 14:04 on the DVD, we can see more clearly that the Bracelet of Anubis features the form of a scorpion with Anubis' head.

When the thug Jacque slides down the ladder at 15:15 on the DVD, he is wearing gloves that protect his hands; in all other scenes he is not.

The scene at 15:43 of the temple pillars falling like dominoes is a callback to the scene of the falling library bookshelves in The Mummy. 

At 16:29 on the DVD, we see the engraving on the temple wall that Alex spoke of earlier, which is the same symbol as the tattoo on his father's right wrist.

Excavators are seen digging up Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. The ancient, lost site was buried underneath the sands at the end of The Mummy.

Why have the Medjai not stopped the excavation of Hamunaptra? Shouldn't that be one of their main directives since they are supposed to prevent Imhotep from rising from his tomb?

At 19:36 on the DVD, the cultists working with Baltus Hafez are seen using flame-throwers to eradicate the carnivorous scarabs that emerge from one of the dig pits. This suggests they had foreknowledge of what to expect from the cursed city.

The cultists are dressed in red and black turbans and robes that are very similar to what was worn by King Memnon's men in The Scorpion King.

The excavation worker holding the rope on the right-hand side of the screen who is pushed aside by Hafez as he rushes through at 20:09 on the DVD is the disguised Ardeth Bay.

The gun pulled by the cult member at 20:44 on the DVD appears to be a Mauser C-96, a semi-automatic pistol manufactured by the German company Mauser from 1896-1937. This weapon was also the basis for Han Solo's blaster in the Star Wars series. (However, when the scene briefly switches to a wider shot, it is not the same gun!)
Cult member's gun	Mauser C96
Blastech DL44, Han Solo's blaster (from Parts of Star Wars website)

At 21:27 on the DVD is a false image of London, England, where the O'Connell family lives. In the image we see the Tower Bridge, Big Ben, and St. Paul's Cathedral. But, in the real world, these three landmarks are not all within sight of each other as depicted here.

In London, we see that the O'Connell's live in a large mansion, bought with the wealth gained from the Hamunaptra artifacts left in the camel bags by Beni at the end of The Mummy.

During her discussion with Rick about whether to search for the Oasis of Am Shere, Evie tells him that the legendary Scorpion King is said to awaken just once every 5,000 years to command Anubis' army. This helps to set up the Scorpion King's appearance in Ahm Shere later in the film since the 20th Century AD is roughly 5,000 years from his fall in 3060 BC as seen at the beginning of the film.

After Evie tells him about the Scorpion King's foretold reawakening, Rick guesses that if someone doesn't then kill him, he will wipe out the world. Evie asks how he knew that and he responds, "I didn't. But that's always the story." Is Rick simply talking about the legends of ancient Egypt (and other civilizations) he's heard of or is he speaking of past adventures other than just the one they lived through in The Mummy? He could be referring as well to the (never completed) story of "Valley of the Gods". Might Rick also have other, untold, adventures in his past?

Evie tells Rick that the last known expedition to reach Ahm Shere was sent over 3,000 years ago by Rameses IV. Rameses IV was the Pharaoh of Egypt in the range of 1155-1145 BC. She also says that Alexander the Great, Caesar, and Napoleon also all sent expeditions to find it; these three were all real world rulers of the Greek, Roman, and French empires, respectively.

A painted portrait of a man is seen hanging over the staircase in the O'Connell mansion at 22:51 on the DVD. Possibly it is intended to be that of Evie's father, Howard Carnahan. Her father was based on a combination of the real world explorer Howard Carter (1874-1939), best known for his discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in 1922, and George Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the financial backer of Carter's excavation of Tut's tomb.
Portrait in O'Connell mansion	Howard Carter

Trying to convince Rick to look for the Oasis of Ahm Shere, Evie says to him, "Did I mention there was a pyramid of gold?" to which Rick answers, "Twice." But we never heard her mention the pyramid even once!

   Rick tells Evie that her recent strange dreams started exactly six weeks ago, on the day of the Egyptian new year, the Year of the Scorpion. The ancient Egyptian calendar is believed by some to have started on what would be July 20 in our modern Gregorian calendar, with the heliacal rising of the star Sirius in the night sky. This may indicate that Evie's first strange dream occurred on July 20, 1933 and the current date of the scene is six weeks later, August 31.

   Oddly, Rick had a precognitive dream about the Scorpion King six years earlier, in 1927, in "Valley of the Gods".

   None of the known Egyptian calendars use animals to name the years; the reference to the Egyptian Year of the Scorpion appears to be a fictional addition for the sake of the story.

When Evie tossed the Bracelet of Anubis back into its chest at 14:26 on the DVD, the bracelet was in its closed position. But when Alex opens the chest later at 24:23, it is in the open position. It may be that the clatching sound heard by Alex before he opened the chest was the bracelet opening itself so that someone would put it on and thus see the magic, hologram-like map pointing out the steps to the Oasis of Ahm Shere in order to instigate the awakening of the Scorpion King.

When Alex activates the map by putting on the Bracelet of Anubis at 24:38 on the DVD, the face of Mathayus, screaming, is the first image seen, very briefly.

Evie remarks that the Bembridge scholars have been begging her to run the British Museum. This is a callback to The Mummy, in which those same scholars were said to have rejected her application due to lack of experience. Obviously, she is now well-known for her experiences in Egypt. The British Museum was established in 1753 and is one of the most prestigious museums in the world. However, neither Bembridge School nor its scholars have ever had any significant role in running the museum.

When Jonathan is ambushed in his room at the O'Connell mansion by Hafez and the cult members, he says, "If you work for Johnny, I was going to pay him back on Tuesday." This may be a reference to the character of Wimpy who appeared in the Thimble Theater comic strip (best known for the character of Popeye the Sailor), whose catch phrase "I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today," became well-known beginning in 1932. Presumably, "Johnny" is the name of a bookie or loan shark to whom Jonathan owes money.

At 27:16 on the DVD, notice in the background that Jonathan has apparently used a bust in his room as a holder for a hat and tie.

Trying to throw the cultists off the trail, Jonathan tells them he thinks Evie "went off to Baden-Baden or Tibet or something." Baden-Baden is a town in Germany known for its natural spring baths. Tibet is currently an autonomous region within China.

Meela threatens Jonathan and Rick with an Egyptian asp. These are venomous vipers from the deserts of North Africa.

The O'Connells and Jonathan seem to have just arrived at the mansion, yet there are already fires burning in the fireplaces of the living room and Jonathan's room. Not to mention a full bath has been drawn in Jonathan's bathroom; notice also that a bottle of champagne is chilling in a bucket on the rim of the tub at 30:18 on the DVD, so Jonathan probably intended to share a sensual bath with his lady friend! I guess the house must have servants working for the O'Connells who prepared things ahead of time for the residents' return.

When they first meet in the O'Connell mansion, Ardeth Bay and the warrior Lock-Nah seem to already know each other before doing battle.

At 29:35 on the DVD, notice that Rick's hat is still on the floor of the living room where Evie tossed it while trying to seduce him into going in search of the Oasis of Ahm Shere.

When Evie's swordsmanship against the cultists proves to be greater than she imagined she tells Alex she has no idea when she learned to do it. Her skill is presumably a carryover from her previous life as Nefertiri, whom we later see did have such skills.

At 30:19 on the DVD, the letters SPQR are seen on the sword display in the O'Connell mansion. SPQR is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome"). The letters appeared on many documents, coins, banners and other artifacts of the Roman Empire. (Another SPQR appears among the skeletons found in the jungle of Ahm Shere at 1:23:25, suggesting that a Roman contingent also discovered the oasis but were killed before reaching the temple.)

When Ardeth runs one of the cultists through with his sword at 30:37 on the DVD, you can tell the sword has simply been run through the space between the actor's arm and torso.

I hadn't noticed before, but at 32:30 on the DVD, we can see that Ardeth has a tattoo on the back of his hand. Presumably it is a symbol of the Medjai as the ones on his face are.

Alex says that the vision he saw when he put on the Bracelet of Anubis was an image leading from Giza to Karnak. Karnak is a complex of ancient temples just outside the Egyptian city of Thebes. 

The exterior of the British Museum used in the movie is similar but not the same as the real one.
Movie British Museum	Real British Museum

During the discussion with Ardeth about his wrist tattoo, Rick reveals that he spent time as a child at an orphanage in Cairo. At the same time, Ardeth reveals that the tattoo indicates Rick is a Medjai. Rick denies this, but then how does he know the proper response to the code phrase given by Ardeth?

   Ardeth: If I were to say to you, "I'm a stranger travelling from the east, seeking that which is lost"? 

   Rick: Then I would reply that I am a stranger travelling from the west; it is I whom you seek.

At 39:23 on the DVD, we see that the statuette that Alex had placed in the chest in place of the Bracelet of Anubis was that of a baseball player with an engraved label stating "Princeton 1920". This is presumably a reference to the Ivy League Princeton University in New Jersey, United States; possibly this is an indication that Rick spent some time as a student and athlete there.

At 40:14 on the DVD, the newly resurrected Imhotep's brain appears to be jouncing around in his open skull as he moves his head!

Alex yells at his uncle Jonathan that he is only 8 years old. But, since Rick and Evie only first met in 1926 (in The Mummy), he could only be 7 years old at the most.

Jonathan accidentally breaks the key off in the ignition of Rick's car. But cars did not use ignition keys until 1949! Before then, automobile ignitions were either crank or push-button.

When Imhotep's warrior mummies chase them out of the British Museum, Rick chides Evie for trying to block the doors with a bench outside, saying, "These guys don't use doors." How does he know? Their previous appearance in The Mummy did not involve either using or avoiding doors.

The double-decker bus stolen by Jonathan shows destination signs for Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, and Marble Arch. These are all real world locations in London. There is also an advertisement for the Daily Sketch on the bus. The Daily Sketch was a conservative British tabloid newspaper published off and on from 1909-1971, when it merged with one of its rival tabloids, the Daily Mail. On the side of the bus is another ad for Brymay Safety Matches; "Brymay" is an abbreviated brand name for Bryant and May, a British match manufacturing company.

The side of the double-decker bus says London Transport. This was the company primarily responsible for providing public transport in London from 1933-2000; it is now known as Transport for London.

The back of the double-decker bus has an ad stating simply, "Aspro Stops Pain". "Aspro" is another word for "aspirin". Here, it may also be intended as a fictional brand name. There is also an ad for RCA electronics as revealed by the "His Master's Voice" dog/phonograph graphic seen there, and, in a later shot, inside the bus.

At 43:18 on the DVD, one soldier mummy crushes the roof of Rick's car flat simply by running over it. He must be awfully heavy for a desiccated husk!

At 43:43 on the DVD, one of the soldier mummies takes out two Bobbies at once in a split second!

At 44:36 on the DVD, an advertisement for Oxo Cube Beef Extract is seen. Oxo has been a brand name of foods in the U.K. since 1899.

At 45:17 on the DVD, on the driver's side exterior of the bus is an ad for Huntley & Palmer's Biscuits. This has been a real world biscuit brand since 1822.

Also inside the bus is an ad for Guinness Stout as evidenced by the slogan of the time "Guinness for Strength".

At 46:59 on the DVD, the bus appears to drive over the Tower Bridge. Anachronistically, it is seen in the modern paint scheme of red, white, and blue in which it was painted in 1977. Before that it was brown.

Four mummies were seen chasing the bus through London, but only three are seen to be eliminated. The scene of the fourth mummy's elimination was cut from the film.

Hafez tells Imhotep that the O'Connells have the Scepter of Osiris and he seems worried about it. We see later in the film that the scepter turns into the Spear of Osiris and is capable of killing the Scorpion King. The Spear of Osiris was also mentioned in Rise of a Warrior.

In the audio commentary on the DVD, director Stephen Sommers says that the train in Cairo at 50:12 on the DVD is the same train that was used in the classic 1962 film, Lawrence of Arabia.

From the trip on the train car onward, Meela is wearing clothing that is similar in look to the painted costuming she wore in her previous life as Anck-su-namun in The Mummy.

When our heroes drive out to Magic Carpet Airways, it appears that Jonathan is still driving the same car he did in The Mummy. If that's the case, he must have a place he keeps it in or near Cairo, since it is there in both films that we see it, even though Jonathan appears to mostly live in London at the time of this film.

Izzy implies that he and Rick were involved in a bank robbery in Marrakesh (a city in Morocco) in the past.

At 57:19 on the DVD, at Magic Carpet Airways, there is a man reading a newspaper in a bathtub in the background. (The audio commentary on the DVD reveals that the man's humming was actually the voice of director Stephen Sommers.)

Rick cracks a joke with Izzy about surfing in Trinidad. Trinidad is an island in the Caribbean.

Ardeth's trained falcon is named Horus. In ancient Egypt, Horus was one of the chief gods and was depicted as having a falcon's head.

The prow of the gondola slung beneath Izzy's dirigible has the Eye of Horus painted on it. In ancient Egypt, this symbol was known to be painted on the prows of boats as a sign of protection to ensure safe travel at sea.

The gondola of Izzy's dirigible has red and blue running lights on the back, on the port and starboard sides, respectively. This is similar to modern running lights on aircraft, though the starboard light is green in modern aircraft.

The disgusting, brown, smudgy handprints in the dirty restroom on the train at 1:03:35 on the DVD are Sommers' own, according to the audio commentary.

The toilet paper hanging next to the toilet mentioned above appears to be made up of squares torn from Arabic newspapers.

A train track is shown running right past the Karnak Temple Complex at 1:04:42 on the DVD. I don't believe there has ever been a track that ran so close to the monument. There is a train station about 2 miles from it in Luxor.

When she has the vision of herself fighting Anck-su-namun as Nefertiri, Evie realizes that the strange dreams she's been having were actually visions of her previous life. Her vision also reveals that she, as Nefertiri, was the one who called the Pharaoh's guards (the Medjai) to go to his rescue in The Mummy, forcing Imhotep to flee and Anck-su-namun to kill herself.

At 1:14:50 on the DVD, the head of a film crewmember pokes out from behind a pillar as the camera pans past it.

The sand castle Alex leaves as a clue for his parents tells them he's being taken to Philae. This is a real world island in the Nile River which houses an ancient temple with monuments of various ages dating from 360-180 BC. The sand castle shown is a reasonable approximation of what the site actually looks like.

The second sand carving clue left by Alex, at Philae, is a representation of the Great Temple of Abu Simbel, one of two temples carved of stone in the 13th Century BC as a monument to Pharaoh Rameses II and his queen Nefertari (who was the real world analog of the Nefertiri character seen in this film!).

At 1:16:22 on the DVD, there appears to be a jet contrail in the sky behind Lock-Nah. Obviously this would not have been present in an actual 1933 setting.

How did there get to be such a huge army of Medjai in 1933? (See 1:16:50 on the DVD.)

At 1:20:16 on the DVD, a flag is seen hanging on the back of the wheelhouse on the dirigible's gondola. It is the Red Ensign, the flag flown by British merchant or passenger ships. (Thanks to Pablo Lopez for identifying the Red Ensign!)

Notice that the river is much lower after Imhotep has sent the wall of water after the dirigible.
Before	After

The dirigible gets blasted with water twice during its flight through the canyon, but the characters on board all seem to remain mostly dry!

Regarding where he's supposed to get gas for the dirigible in the middle of the Ahm Shere jungle, Izzy asks Rick if he's supposed to get it out of "Tarzan's ass". Tarzan, of course, is the world-famous character of a British boy who was lost in the African jungle and raised by apes, created by Edgar Rice Burroughs in 1912.

According Sommers on the DVD audio commentary, the flight of bats at 1:22:45 on DVD is the same one seen in his 1994 film adaptation of The Jungle Book.

The scenes of the pygmy mummies taking out the cultists in the tall grass of the Ahm Shere jungle seems as if it was inspired by the similar scenes of Velociraptors taking out many of the InGen men in the Jurassic Park film The Lost World.

According to the DVD audio commentary, the scene of the pygmy mummy riding the falling log at 1:34:04 is an homage to Slim Pickens riding the nuclear missile at the end of the 1964 classic film Dr. Strangelove. I am also reminded of the falling log scene in the 1933 King Kong.

Obviously the rising of the sun at 1:34:36 on the DVD occurs much too fast, as Rick and Alex outrace its beams to arrive at the pyramid before the light touches them.

The scene at 1:37:31 on the DVD seems to indicate that Imhotep, Anck-su-namun, and Hafez are arriving in the underground chamber of the pyramid for the first time...yet the torches in the room are already lit! It's possible the later scene at 1:39:12, where Hafez uses the Bracelet of Anubis to release the army of Anubis and which also lights up the torches of the pyramid, was supposed to take place first but got reshuffled in editing.

From the way he motions the torch over the hieroglyphs at 1:41:37 on the DVD, we can see that Alex is reading them from right-to-left, which is correct in this instance. Though Egyptian hieroglyphs could be written from either right-to-left, left-to-right, or top-to-bottom, the major determinative of which direction to read is which direction the asymmetrical glyphs are facing, such as the falcon and scorpion in the image below. Since they are facing left, the glyphs are meant to be read from the left-to-right.

According to the DVD audio commentary, the shot of Imhotep striking the gong at 1:42:49 on the DVD is an homage to the man striking a gong at the beginning of films made by the Rank Organization, one of Britain's leading film studios from 1937-1995.

Notice that we first see the engravings of the Scepter/Spear of Osiris in the background at 1:43:37 on the DVD.

At 1:44:20 on the DVD, notice that the arms of the scorpion statue jiggle as Rick is pushed against them by Imhotep.

During the final battle in the pyramid, Alex doesn't remember the Egyptian word corresponding to the stork hieroglyph as he reads aloud the spell from the Book of the Dead that will allow Evie to come back to life. Jonathan is able to provide the word, "Ahmenophus". This is because he also was hung up on the same hieroglyph in reading the spell that would send Imhotep back to the underworld until Evie provided it for him in The Mummy.

As the Scorpion King is revealed as a beast with a scorpion's body and Mathayus' torso and head, his torso on his left side appears to be half scarred by burns. But his absorption by Anubis at the beginning of the movie does not seem to indicate a burning nature. Was there some kind of unseen battle in between the BC scenes and this 1933 one that brought on the injury?

At 1:49:28 on the DVD, it looks as if there is a cable laying across the floor during Evie's duel with Meela.

Notice that Meela falls into a pit of scorpions at 1:57:38 on the DVD, not a pit of flesh-eating scarabs as I had always assumed on previous viewings.

After coming back from the dead, Evie seems to imply she knows what Heaven looks like. 

Revenge of the Scorpion King later reveals that Jonathan eventually sold the giant diamond he steals from the top of the pyramid here to a wealthy couple in Oxford, England. It is then stolen by Nazis and used to bring the pyramid back to the surface of the Ahm Shere desert in order to resurrect the Scorpion King.

Unanswered Questions

How did Izzy get his dirigible airborne again at the end of the movie? It's not explained how he managed to do it without gasoline to provide the flame for the hot air.

Notes from the Audio Commentary on the DVD

Director Stephen Sommers remarks that the scene at 7:19 on the DVD, where Evie kicks the snake away from her, was lampooned on the MTV Movie Awards.

Sommers points out that if you watch closely, you'll notice that in the London scenes, it's always seen as raining when the characters are inside, but the rain has always stopped when they're outside! Since London is pretty much always wet, they had to show rain, but they didn't want to shoot in rain to save hair and make-up time.

The commentary reveals that Izzy was named after Sommers' dog. (Apparently the novelization also reveals that Izzy's last name is Buttons, which also sounds like it could have been the name of someone's pet!)

The stony canyon through which our heroes fly before arriving in the Oasis of Ahm Shere was actually in Petra, Jordan and is the same canyon used as the Canyon of the Crescent Moon in Indiana Jones and Last Crusade.

Notes from the "Spotlight on Location" bonus feature on the DVD

Actress Rachel Weisz (who plays Evie) comments on her character's growth, stating nothing spooky has happened to her since the events of the first film. We know this is not quite true; Evie faced some spooks in "Valley of the Gods". 

Memorable Dialog

I'll tell you a story sometime.wav

that kid gets more like you every day.wav

no harm ever came from opening a chest.wav

I thought that was my job.wav

what's the catch.wav

that's always the story.wav

I hate it when you do that.wav

did I mention rich?.wav

when did we make that arrangement?.wav

I have certain rules about snakes and dismemberment.wav

not bad for a Medjai.wav

the old wipe out the world ploy.wav

the only guy tough enough to take out the Scorpion King.wav

if you see anyone come running out screaming.wav

a stranger travelling.wav

a couple years ago this would have seemed really strange.wav

I'll put you in your grave again.wav

if there's to be any hysterics, they'll come from me.wav

not these guys again.wav

I hate mummies.wav

get a room.wav

your parents wouldn't slip poisonous snakes into your bed.wav

the chosen one.wav

my dad is going to kick your ass.wav

not exactly catching me at my best.wav

reliable-ish.wav

it is written.wav

doesn't anyone around here know how to flush a toilet?.wav

she's a reincarnated princess and I'm a warrior for God.wav

only the journey is written, not the destination.wav

a fine line.wav

I shall truly enjoy killing you.wav

make me proud.wav

you shall be rewarded in Heaven.wav

I have released the army of Anubis.wav

Anck-su-namun!.wav

Anck-su-namun?.wav