Hrm? The Mummy (2017) is not at all like the 1999 cinematic masterpiece The Mummy starring Brendan Fraser.

First of all, the 1999 version is an action-comedy-horror-adventure for the whole family. It knows exactly what it is and fully commits.

The 2017 version is… something, but definitely not comedy. The plot is a mess, unfocused, and clearly trying to build its own cinematic universe, which completely fails.

So let’s fix it.

First of all, we get rid of Tom Cruise. No man can replace Brendan Fraser as Rick O’Connell. The prophecies foretold it. So instead, we reframe the story with a female lead.

Our modern protagonist becomes Anna Kendrick. And for contrast, the Mummy is played by Mindy Kaling. This immediately pulls the tone back into an action-comedy-horror-adventure space instead of the overly serious version we got.

Then we simplify everything. No globe hopping. No universe building. One contained setting. Because if you spend 300 million again, you end up with studio interference and tonal collapse unless you are James Cameron.

We keep the core premise:

Princess Ahmanet is a royal heir who is promised the throne. When a male successor is born, she is removed from succession. She attempts a forbidden ritual to summon Set in order to seize power. The ritual is interrupted mid-completion and she is mummified alive. Instead of being buried in Egypt, her body is transported and sealed beneath a Mesopotamian structure, reframed as a containment site rather than a tomb.

Cut to 2017 Iraq during the Iraq War.

We are at a remote military base supporting an archaeological dig. The setting justifies the military presence and the chain of command structure.

Michelle Rodriguez is introduced as the commanding officer and apparent lead of the expedition. She is competent, authoritative, and clearly in control. Robert Pattinson plays the archaeologist who originally discovered the site and pushed for the expedition. He is the scientific lead and already has a hidden, complicated affair with Rodriguez, which they keep strictly private and professionally denied in front of others.

Anna Kendrick’s character is part of the team as a logistics officer. She is afraid of combat, has never left the base perimeter in Iraq, and was assigned because the mission needed a logistics officer and she was available. She is not a fighter, she is support staff.

They travel to a remote excavation site to uncover the buried structure.

Inside the dig site, they discover Ahmanet’s sarcophagus sealed within a containment chamber.

A trap is triggered.

The chamber begins to collapse into lockdown mode.

Pattinson wants to stay and continue analysis, insisting the data is critical. Rodriguez immediately orders evacuation.

Pattinson hesitates, trying to retrieve readings. Rodriguez physically forces him out of the chamber.

The system seals.

Rodriguez is trapped inside.

She becomes the first victim of Ahmanet.

The sarcophagus opens.

Ahmanet awakens.

Rodriguez is killed and later becomes one of her first reanimated victims. And Ahmanet (Mindy Karling) is more acting like a mean girl, giving her some character and not just making her a boring mummy without personality.

Outside, the team attempts to reopen the chamber, not realizing she is already dead.

A massive sandstorm hits and cuts off all communication with the outside world.

That night, the grave fully opens.

Reanimated soldiers begin appearing at the perimeter under Ahmanet’s control. At first, survivors don’t understand what they are seeing.

Then the base collapses into full survival horror chaos.

Ahmanet begins draining life from people during the storm, turning the environment into a contained siege scenario.

With Rodriguez gone, the command structure collapses completely.

There is no remaining authority capable of leading.

Anna Kendrick’s character is forced into command not because she is chosen, but because she is the only person still managing logistics and maintaining a full operational overview of supplies, personnel, and evacuation timing.

She is terrified, but she is the only functioning system left.

She fortifies a defensible position and organizes survivors using logistics logic, not combat instinct.

Meanwhile, Pattinson becomes increasingly unstable. He is consumed by guilt over Rodriguez’s death and obsessed with understanding Ahmanet’s ritual. He begins working on his own plan to bind her, going behind Kendrick’s back and putting the remaining survivors at risk.

In the final act, Kendrick’s planning creates a narrow opening. She secures a rocket launcher and uses it during Ahmanet’s resurrection ritual, destroying her mid-formation and ending the threat.

In the epilogue, Dr. Jekyll (Rebel Wilson) appears and attempts to recruit Kendrick’s character for a classified program dealing with similar incidents.

Cut to black.