Rick O'Connell

Richard “Rick” O’Connell is a fictional character appearing in Universal Pictures’ remake trilogy of The Mummy franchise: The Mummy (1999 film), The Mummy Returns and the upcoming The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. First introduced in the trilogy’s first installment, actor Brendan Fraser has portrayed him in all three live-action films and the character has also appeared in the short-lived children’s television show The Mummy: The Animated Series.

Fictional biography:
O’Connell states in The Mummy Returns that, during his childhood, he was once at an orphanage. While there, Young Rick was given a mysterious tattoo on his right arm, depicting a pyramid with the Eye of Horus above. This is revealed by the Medjai leader Ardeth Bay to be a Medjai symbol, and suggests that Rick was chosen at childhood by the covert society to be one of them, and that he was destined to slay the Scorpion King. However, this is only touched upon and discovered in the first sequel, and is a nonexistent problem in the first film.

The Mummy
As shown in the beginning scenes of The Mummy, Richard O’Connell was at one time an American recruit in the French Foreign Legion, along with his traitorous, cowardly semi-comrade Beni Gabor. In the battle at the ruins of the legendary Hamunaptra, ancient Egyptian City of the Dead, Rick participated in the massive fight against a raging army of Tuareg, showcasing his excellent skill with guns. But he was eventually overcome by the sheer number of Tuareg and retreated deep into the ruins, where Beni had scrambled into a stone doorway and closed the heavy stone door before Rick could make it.

When the pursuit ended with O’Connell trapped in front of a half-buried statue of the Egyptian God Anubis, Rick surrendered and braced himself for death. But suddenly the Tuareg’s horses went into a wild panic, sensing the supernatural energy radiating from the stone statue, and the desert people were compelled to retreat. Unable to believe his luck, Rick then began to hear ghostly ancient Egyptian words echoing from the foreboding statue, and then a mysterious force began to carve the haunting image of a shrieking human face in the sand at Rick’s feet. Terrified, O’Connell rushed out of the ruins and into the open desert where he noticed a group of mysterious desert people watching him from afar. He then made his way back to civilization.

Three years later, Rick had found himself imprisoned in Cairo after “just looking for a good time” and waiting on the gallows. Now filthy, ragged and feral in appearance, O’Connell was visited just before his sentence by a beautiful British librarian, Evelyn “Evey” Carnahan and her bumbling brother Jonathan. They questioned him about a small Egyptian puzzle box that Rick had found and taken as a souvenir from Hamunaptra all those years ago. It turned out that the little artifact had come into their possession after Jonathan stole it from Rick at a bar awhile beforehand, and that inside was hidden a tattered map to the legendary city itself. Being an avid Ancient Egypt enthusiast, the proper, inexperienced Evelyn believed this fabled location to be the burial site of King Seti I’s massive treasure…as well as the hiding place of the Book of Amun Ra, an Egyptian artifact made of pure gold and containing magical incantations. Rick is asked if he could reveal the city’s location (Evelyn planning an expedition to find the Book of Amun Ra), and responds by unexpectedly kissing Ms. Carnahan full-on-the-lips through the prison bars. After snarling “then get me the hell outta here!” Rick is dragged away to the gallows while a shocked and insulted Evey watches.

During the hanging, as Rick is being strangled to death by the taut rope (which incredibly did not break his neck upon the drop through the floorboard), Evelyn strikes a deal with the prison warden, and O’Connell is cut down just in time before he blacks out. Afterwards, Rick gets a massive haircut and shave job, turning himself into a polished, intimidating and extremely handsome man, which shocks Evelyn at first. He, the girl and her brother (as well as the greedy prison warden, who also wants to reap benefit from the city’s riches) then board a boat down a river in the approximate direction of the city.

During a night on the voyage, Rick reveals to Evelyn his opinion on the city: He thinks that some kind of evil is buried under that sand, and that the place truly is cursed, which a skeptical Evelyn scoffs at. When questioned about why he kissed Evey at the prison before being dragged to the gallows, Rick just mischievously replies with a chuckle that “I was about to be hanged, seemed like a good idea at the time…”

As an insulted Evelyn stomped off, Rick came across an old friend shifting through the baggage…Beni Gabor, who also survived Hamunaptra. Fully prepared to shoot the traitorous little pig, Rick is told by his former friend that Beni is now guiding a group of treasure-seeking American hotshots to the city as well, and then O’Connell tosses Beni over the side into the water. However, immediately afterward Rick discovers wet footprints on the ship deck-headed straight for Evelyn’s cabin.

He arrives in time to save Evey from a hook-handed man dressed in black with strange tattoos, who seeks the map and the ‘key.’ A large battle then ensues on the deck, with a whole group of black-clad tattooed men setting fire to the ship as the passengers escape into the river. After arriving on shore, the next morning Rick and Jonathan purchase camels (while Evey buys a beautiful black dress) and begin the long trek through the Sahara desert toward the ruins, with Rick acting as guide. Evelyn ends up being the first one to reach the city in a race with her party and the American treasure hunters’ group.

While camping in the ruins of Hamunaptra, Rick and Evelyn discover the feet of the half-buried Anubis statue O’Connell had encountered three years prior. Inside is hidden what Evey hopes is the Book of Amun Ra, but the American group claims that they found the statue first. Undaunted, Evelyn and Rick decide to travel deeper into a subterranean cave beneath the base of the statue and secretly dig up right between the statue’s legs and take the book first. In the course of this plan, they accidentally dislodge a sarcophagus buried at the feet of the statue above, which is locked shut by a strange lock of Ancient Egyptian design. Evey then realizes that the little puzzle box that Jonathan stole from Rick is the key to unlock the cover.

They do so, and discover within a still-decomposing male mummy, an oddity for a mummified corpse. Inside are fingernail-marks carved into the inside of the coffin, which reveals that the man was buried alive. Scratched into the coffin in hieroglyphics is a cryptic message: “Death is only the Beginning…”

Meanwhile, the Americans have uncovered a box from the statue base; inside is a black book made of obsidian, the evil companion volume to the Book of Amun Ra, titled the Book of the Dead. Ignorant of the warning written on the box, the Americans remove the book and five sacred jars. That night, Rick catches Evey stealing this book from the Americans’ camp, and she succeeds in opening it with the same key for the mummy’s coffin. After a wary O’Connell advises that she not play around with the sacred object, a skeptical Evelyn tries reading a few lines of the book, and in doing so unknowingly resurrects the mummy they discovered earlier back to life. A massive swarm of locusts suddenly appear out of the night, and attack the camp. While running away from the terrible insects, Rick, Evey, Jonathan and the American group encounter carnivorous scarab beetles, and Evelyn falls down a trap door hidden in a stone wall. A few moments later, Rick finds a terrified, staring Evey and chastises her for hiding and not regrouping with them…until her looks where she is staring and freaks out at the walking, talking mummy snarling at them. With a single blow of his shotgun and a defiant scream at the creature, Rick temporarily incapacitates the mummy while they flee the corridor.

They, along with Jonathan and the Americans, are then confronted by the same team of black-clothed men that attacked their boat en route, who lament that they have now failed (thanks to Evelyn) in their lifelong ambition to prevent the mummy from being resurrected. They advise that the strangers leave immediately, and the group’s leader, Ardeth Bay, tells O’Connell that the mummy is an immortal monster which cannot be killed by mortal weapons, and that “he will never eat, he will never sleep, and he will never stop…”

After fleeing the city (unaware that the mummy has recruited Beni Gabor as his servant in exchange for sparing the Hungarian’s life), Rick and Evelyn take refuge in a Cairo hotel. They argue over whether to stay and find a way to stop the monster or leave and spend the rest of their lives together. An uncaring Rick claims that he fulfilled his part of the deal by leading Evey to Hamunaptra, and says that a reanimated corpse is no longer his problem. A bitter Rick then visits the local bar, chatting with his old friend Sir Winston Havelock, who is a disgraced World War I pilot who laments not dying a martyr. When O’Connell, Jonathan and the paranoid Americans spit out bourbon that tastes eerily like blood, Rick realizes the mummy’s presence in the city. He and Evelyn make haste the hotel of one of the unfortunate Americans, Burns, who had suffered his eyes and tongue being ripped out during an encounter with the mummy back in Hamunaptra. They discover the poor man’s body reduced to a shriveled-up skeletal corpse, and witness the mummy (having absorbed the life essence of Burns) instantaneously growing a new layer of skin and muscle: stage one of his regeneration. It is here that Rick discovers the creature’s fear of cats and the fact that the mummy seems to have mistaken Evelyn for his former lover back in ancient times.

After this encounter, Rick and Evelyn meet up with Ardeth Bay, who revealed the long-kept-secret history of the mummy. In the year 1290 BC Ancient Egypt, there was a priest named Imhotep, the closest friend of Pharaoh Seti I. He was the one who presided over the death ceremonies of the deceased, and was secretly having an affair with the King’s mistress, the beautiful Ank-su-namun. When they were caught together by the Pharaoh himself, they teamed up and murdered the King themselves, but then the Medjai, Seti’s loyal bodyguards and greatest warriors, arrived in response to a call for help by Seti’s daughter Nefertiti, who had secretly witnessed the murder. Ank-su-namun, in defiance, committed suicide, having made a deal with her love Imhotep to resurrect her from the Underworld in secret at a later time. True to his promise, Imhotep secretly stole the body of his beloved, and took her to Hamunaptra, where he attempted a ritual with the stolen Book of the Dead to revive her. However, Imhotep had been followed by the Medjai and was caught before the ceremony was completed. His servants were to be buried alive as punishment, but Imhotep would be punished by being cursed with the Hom Dai, a terrible spell which would transform him into the undead for all time, and grant him the power to control and command the Ten Biblical Plagues. Buried at the feet of the Anubis statue in Hamunaptura, the Medjai became a secret society, who throughout history they and their great descendants would guard the ruins of the City of the Dead, and try with all their power to prevent anyone from accidentally (or purposefully) reviving Imhotep.

Thanks to Evelyn and her gang, Ardeth Bay and his men, the descendants of the Medjai and the same desert warriors which Rick had glimpsed three years prior, had failed this mission. They would now have to find a weapon capable of killing Imhotep before he carried out the curse which the American hotshots had unleashed by opening the crate carrying the Book of the Dead. A side effect of the Hom Dai was a task that Imhotep was bound by sacred law to carry out: whoever opened the box holding the Book would be hunted down by the Creature himself and he would drain them of their organs and fluids one after the other until his body was completely restored to its original human state. Evelyn states her belief that if the Book of the Dead brought him back to life, then possibly the Book of Amun Ra has the power to kill him. The problem is that it was originally thought that the golden Book was hidden in the statue of Anubis, but that was where the Americans found the Book of the Dead, so that would imply that the original hiding place of the black Book, the statue of Horus, is actually where the Book of Amun Ra is now located. They all create a plan to find the remaining Americans and bring them to safety before Imhotep reaches them first, and then they must return to Hamunaptra, find the Book of Amun Ra and then use the sacred incantations within to defeat Imhotep.

Just then Ardeth Bay notices that the citizens of Cairo have become Imhotep’s slaves due to some mind-controlling spell, and sport ghastly boils and sores on their skin. Chanting repeatedly, “Imhotep, Imhotep, Imhotep,” the zombified people break into the Cairo Museum where the heroes are discussing their plans and are forced to escape in a car, while Beni Gabor alerts his master to their escape. While speeding through the Cairo streets, the car is savagely attacked by a horde of hypnotized people, and Rick fends them off by punching and tossing. However he is unable to save Daniels, the last doomed American, from being knocked over the side by the ravaging zombies, and is quickly sucked dry by Lord Imhotep, thus completing his regeneration and now fully restored to his humanity. The car is inevitably overrun and crashes, and while Rick and his companions flee the vehicle they become trapped in a small corner of the street. Imhotep then steps forward and commands that Evelyn come with him, and in return he will spare Rick and Jonathan and Ardeth Bay’s lives. Rick is very reluctant and unwilling to let Evelyn leave, but Ardeth convinces him to “live today, fight tomorrow.” After promising that Rick and he will meet again, a smug Imhotep breaks his word and orders his army of hypnotized slaves to kill them. Rick and his companions manage to escape down a manhole, but cannot save the Curator from being overrun by the vast mob.

The next day O’Connell recruits Sir Winston Havelock and his biplane in a mission to rescue Evey before Imhotep returns to the city and sacrifices her so that he may raise Ank-su-namun’s soul, which would then possess Evelyn’s body. During the flight, Imhotep creates a monstrous sandstorm, which takes on the form of Imhotep’s horrifying visage. The vast wall of sand then swallows up the tiny biplane, and Rick and his friends are only saved when Evelyn distracts Imhotep with a desperate kiss, throwing off his concentration and causing the sandstorm to dissipate. The plane is forced to make a crash-landing, and in the impact Havelock is killed, finally fulfilling his wish of dying a hero.

When Rick and Jonathan and Ardeth Bay arrive at Hamunaptra, they are just in time to uncover the Book of Amun Ra and disrupt the sacrificial ceremony. Rick steals a sword from a nearby golden statue and then valiantly leaps to Evey’s rescue, slicing her chains and fending off Imhotep’s mummified priests, having been recently revived by their master. With incredible agility and fighting skills, Rick slices and kicks and battles the horde of mummies in a slightly comical moment of action heroics. Unfortunately, when Jonathan desperately reads an inscription on the Book of Amun Ra’s cover, a battalion of soldier mummies are revived and are ordered by Imhotep to kill Rick. While the reanimated corpse of Ank-su-namun (who attempts to finish the ritual herself) attacks Evelyn, Rick is left alone to fight the soldiers, and gets quite a beating at the finish. Just when Rick is about to be slain, Jonathan finally reads the correct incantation, giving him authoritative power over the soldiers, and then orders them to kill Ank-su-namun. A furious Imhotep attempts to murder Jonathan, and Rick rushes to the rescue, slicing off the mummy’s arm. Livid, Imhotep tosses O’Connell clear across the room, and Jonathan manages to retrieve the key from Imhotep’s cloak.

As Evelyn and Jonathan unlock the Book of Amun Ra and begin searching the gold pages, Imhotep continues to mercilessly toss Rick into the air, landing with bone-breaking pain. The undead priest then lifts Rick up into the air by his neck, and states that, “now, it’s your turn…” At that very moment, Evelyn finds the crucial spell, calling forth a supernatural chariot of blue energy from the Underworld, driven by Anubis himself, which strips Imhotep of his immortal powers granted by the Hom Dai. Rick is disappointed that the spell has apparently unaffected Imhotep, but when O’Connell impales the mummy in the gut with his sword, Imhotep reacts in shock and pain, and for the first time in more than 3,000 years, Imhotep holds his own blood. The now-mortal priest then stumbles backward into a bog pit where ghostly spirits beckon him to the Underworld. As Rick watches with the slightest hint of sympathy, Imhotep disappears beneath the water, after stating once more, “death is only the beginning…”

Suddenly the entire chamber begins to collapse and close up, activating stone doors and locks. While they quickly rush out of the treasure chamber, the still-surviving Beni Gabor, who pleads for them to wait follows Rick and Evey and Jonathan, but the gigantic stone door closes shut before Beni can crawl under. Silently biding farewell to his old friend, Rick then leads the others out of the city as it collapses upon itself, disappearing into the sands of the Sahara. As the heroes catch their breath and say farewell to Ardeth Bay (who survived a horde of mummies that attacked Rick and himself while digging out the Book of Amun Ra), Rick finally admits his love for Evey with a passionate kiss, and the three of them then set off into the sunset back home, unaware that the camels are carrying large sacks of gold that Beni had hidden while trying to escape with the riches during the final battle.

The Mummy Returns
At the time of the events in the first sequel The Mummy Returns eight years have passed and Richard O’Connell is now happily married to Evelyn. They have conceived a son, Alexander, a mischievous 8-year-old boy with the courage and wit of his father, and the love and respect for Ancient Egypt from his mother. Jonathan, now Rick’s stepbrother, has not changed much in the recent years, but appears to have a girlfriend at the time of his first appearance in the film. Rick and Evey have enjoyed the fame of their new profession, traveling the world on archeological expeditions (especially of Egyptian nature), and now own a grand mansion in London, England, thanks to the treasure which they discovered on their camels returning from Hamunaptra at the end of the first film.

Rick is now a caring, but rather uncomfortable father, who sometimes disapproves of Evelyn’s adventurous nature and knack for finding trouble while on their numerous travels. Evey herself has become a much stronger, confident woman in the years following her adventure at Hamunaptura, and has recently been having cryptic visions and dreams, many times concerning an Egyptian woman who guards a mysterious Ancient Egyptian artifact.

In her quest to track down the temple that she sees in her dreams and find an answer to her strange visions, she and Rick travel to Thebes, Egypt. The two of them, along with their son Alex, begin excavating and exploring a dark, ruined temple, where they find a room filled with scorpions…and a mysterious chest. Inside is the Bracelet of Anubis, a golden scorpion bracelet which, according to myth, belonged to the legendary Scorpion King: a great warrior who attempted to conquer Egypt in ancient times. When his armies were defeated in a battle against Thebes, the Scorpion King made a pact with the god Anubis, swearing that if Anubis gave him command of the deity’s army of jackal demons he would build a Golden Pyramid in his honor and give the god his very soul. Anubis accepted the offer and Mathayus (this being the warrior's true name, revealed in the spin-off The Scorpion King) conquered Thebes with the aid of the Army of Anubis, but when his task was done the god removed his spirit and mutated him into a monstrous scorpion-like creature that would serve Anubis for all time until the day when the Scorpion King would awaken from slumber and wreak havoc upon Earth once again with the Army of Anubis.

The bracelet is said to be a map, which leads to the location of the Golden Pyramid at the Oasis of Ahm Shere, where the Scorpion King patiently sleeps until the End of Days, which turns out to be in six days after Alex accidentally puts on the Bracelet later in the story. Evelyn insists on taking both the chest and the priceless artifact within, but Rick advises, as he did when Evey opened and read the Book of the Dead those many years ago, to not “play around with that thing.” But it is already too late, as the very moment Evelyn opens the chest an ancient curse activates a massive flood of water inside the temple. Running away from the surge chasing them down the corridors, Rick and Evelyn become trapped in a dead end, and before the wave engulfs them they both embrace. The two are only saved from drowning when young Alex, who has been playing mischief with a trio of bloodthirsty thugs hired to kill the O’Connells and steal the bracelet, breaks a hole in the wall with a toppled pillar and Rick and Evey are sent tumbling at the feet of their bewildered son.

Back in London, Rick and Evey discuss an expedition to find the legendary Oasis of Ahm Shere, with Rick opposing yet another long trip, but Evelyn claims that both Napoleon Bonaparte and Alexander the Great sent troops to try and find it, and were lost forever. Rick shows his understanding of the popular cliches in legends and myths, saying, “that’s always the story.” As they discuss, down below in another room Alex becomes curious about the chest and opens it, trying on the Bracelet of Anubis in wonder. Instantly a projection emerges, showing the way to the lost Oasis and the Gold Pyramid located there. By putting on the Bracelet, Alex has activated a sacred timer that in six days he must enter the Gold Pyramid or the bracelet itself with suck the life out of him. Above on the balcony, Rick states his worry that they must be cautious with the Bracelet, and that if anything ever happened to either Evelyn or Alex, he would never be able to forgive himself. Just then, while Rick leaves to talk with Jonathan, and Evey is searching for the key to open the chest, a group of red-turbaned occultist warriors break into the household, lead by an imposing man named Lock-Na, and the strangers demand the chest be handed over. In anger and confusion, Evey draws a sword and a battle erupts, with Rick, Alex, Evey, Jonathan and a newly arrived Ardeth Bay fighting off the intruders, who eventually do make off with the chest and an unconscious Evelyn. Furious, Rick pins Ardeth against a pole outside the house, demanding an explanation. Bay reveals that the strangers are the devoted worshippers of Imhotep, and have succeeded in recovering the mummy’s frozen body and wish to resurrect him, in order to defeat the Scorpion King at the end of the six days and use the Army of Anubis to conquer the Earth. He states that whoever can slay the Scorpion King has a choice of taking command of the Army or sending them back to the Underworld forever.

Rick, Jonathan, Ardeth and Alex take a car to the British Museum of Antiquities where the cultists have set up base for the resurrection ceremony. While packing up for their break-in, Ardeth Bay notices a tattoo on O’Connell’s right arm, which was covered with a leather strap during the first film. He claims to a skeptical Rick that this is a Medjai symbol, and that he is a destined Warrior for God. When the two sneak into the museum, guns loaded, they arrive in time to see the leader of the cult, the Curator of the museum, return Imhotep’s mummified body (with his Hom Dai powers somehow returned to him) to life with the Book of the Dead, taken from the ruins of Hamunaptra. Seconds after Lord Imhotep reawakens, a beautiful Egyptian woman approaches the mummy, claiming to be the modern reincarnation of Imhotep’s long-lost love, Ank-su-namun. During this, Lock-Na and the Curator open the chest expecting to see the Bracelet, but find a small statue hidden inside after Alex put it on. Furious, Lock-Na realizes that they boy has what they are looking for.

Rick and Ardeth then watch as Evelyn, now conscious is prepared for premature cremation, to appease Imhotep who is infuriated at the sight of her. Just in time, Rick leaps through the air and snatches Evey away from the flames, and Ardeth Bay unleashes his Thompson machine gun on the cultists while Rick and Evelyn fend off the warriors. During this, Imhotep meets Rick eye-to-eye for the first time in eight years, and screams, “YOU!” in fury and shock. O’Connell just responds by blasting Imhotep in the ribs with a single blast of his shotgun, the exact same move Rick did upon meeting the reanimated Imhotep eight years prior.

As Rick, Evelyn and Ardeth Bay flee the building, Imhotep summons a team of soldier mummies (the same Rick encountered in Hamunaptra in the climax of the first film) to hunt down and kill the O’Connells. Rick sees the soldiers as they are resurrected from sand, and moans, “Oh, no, not these guys again!” He then races out the museum entrance to find that Jonathan, who had been waiting outside with Alex during the rescue mission, had stolen a double-decker bus as transportation (due to him accidentally snapping the key to Rick’s car in half). The O’Connells with Ardeth Bay quickly board and drive off in the bus while the soldier mummies break through the museum walls and into the street, crushing Rick’s car and in hot pursuit of the bus down the busy London streets. From the back window of the upper level of the speeding bus (driven by Jonathan), Rick begins firing at the pursuing mummies, which then begin to scale the walls of the passing buildings at lightning speed, resembling spiders. Overwhelmed by their powers and agility, Rick battles with a single soldier mummy inside the top deck of the bus, while below Ardeth Bay fends off a soldier which had it’s lower torso blown off by the Medjai’s gunfire. This soldier is defeated when Evelyn takes a shotgun and blasts the leg-less mummy out the windshield. Above, Rick is being strangled by the soldier mummy, and in desperation stabs the mummy in the eye sockets. Just then Rick notices the bus approaching a tunnel too small for the vehicle, and O’Connell quickly ducks to the floor as both the surprised soldier mummy and the entire upper deck of the bus is sheared off by the tunnel as Jonathan drives straight into it.

When the bus finally comes to a rest on the London Bridge, an exhausted Rick shares a moment with his wife before Alex is suddenly snatched from the bus door by the cultists and stuffed into a car, which then escapes across the bridge (which has also been cherry-rigged to split in half at that very moment). In desperation, Rick, showing his intense love for his son and disregard for his own life in the face of saving a loved one, attempts to leap across the splitting bridge, but to no avail. Defeated and saddened by the kidnapping of his son, Rick then gets a spark of inspiration, stating that in order to rescue Alex, they will need a “magic carpet…”

It turns out that O’Connell was referring to Magic Carpet Flying Services, a run-down fly-for-hire shop owned by an old friend of Rick’s: Izzy Buttons, a black-skinned, gold-toothed pilot with a fake eyepatch who resents O’Connell for abandoning him long ago during the War, which resulted in Izzy being captured and half of his ass shot off (whether this is truly genuine or just sarcasm by Izzy is not known). He says that Rick left him to flirt with an anonymous belly-dancer girl, which arouses Evey’s suspicions and to which Rick just shrugs in embarrassment. Izzy then agrees through persuasion (Rick will give Izzy a golden stick taken from Jonathan, the last of his lost treasure according to him) to fly them to Ahm Shere in pursuit of Alex in a homemade dirigible (which Rick derogatorily refers to as a ‘balloon’). During the flight across the world, Rick discusses with Ardeth Bay his supposed destiny. The Medjai warrior states that his meeting of Evelyn, his son being the one to wear the bracelet, and his prior defeat of Imhotep (as well as him hopefully killing the Scorpion King) was all preordained centuries ago, and that Rick was destined for these events to happen, as part of a complete circle of fate. Evey also finally discovers the truth of her strange dreams: These are actually her own distant memories of her past life. She is in fact the reincarnation of Princess Nefertiri, the daughter of King Seti I, and in ancient Egyptian times was both the guardian of the forbidden Bracelet of Anubis and the apprentice of Ank-su-namun in combat skills, and secretly witnessed the affair between Imhotep and the Ank-su-namun that was shown in the first film. She also watched in horror as both Imhotep and Ank-su-namun murdered her father. This supports Ardeth Bay’s destiny theory, saying that Rick was always meant to protect this reincarnated princess.

Meanwhile, the search for Alex continues as Rick and Evey’s son has managed to secretly build sand castles of every landmark that leads to the Oasis of Ahm Shere, guiding his family to his location while being held prisoner by Imhotep’s followers (by this time Imhotep has also been able to regenerate himself back to human form by sucking dry the three mercenaries from the film’s beginning, and has summoned Ank-su-namun’s true soul back into her reincarnated body). Eventually the dirigible being piloted by Izzy arrives at the Nile River inside a deep canyon, where below Imhotep’s party has taken rest. The immortal former priest then creates a massive tsunami with his Hom Dai powers, and sends this wave after the small balloon, when the wall of water forms the face of Imhotep, the exact same effect which Imhotep used with a sandstorm in the first film. Izzy activates a pair of emergency rocket thrusters which propels the dirigible out of the wave’s path at incredible speeds, but cannot evade the tidal wave for long, and soon the aircraft is taken down by the wave, crashing into the primordial jungles of the Oasis of Ahm Shere. Having miraculously survived the crash (perhaps another instance of destiny protecting the heroes in order for them to fulfill their respective tasks), Rick, Jonathan (who has stolen back his gold stick), Evelyn and Ardeth Bay head into the jungle, while Izzy stays behind to repair the dirigible.

In the perilous jungles, Rick and Ardeth Bay track down Imhotep and his followers, who at that moment are ambushed by a tribe of Pygmy Mummies: the guardians of the Gold Pyramid that rests in the middle of the Oasis. These little devils wield daggers, spears and blow-darts, and massacre the helpless red-turbaned party. Imhotep and Ank-su-namun are able to escape thanks to the mummy’s mind-controlling powers, but during this attack Rick manages to finally rescue Alex from a murderous Lock-Na. The nefarious warrior is finally defeated once and for all in a vicious duel with Ardeth Bay.

Afterwards, while Ardeth Bay leaves to join his Army of the Medjai in case the Army of Anubis arises, Rick and the others race through the jungle towards the pyramid, and Rick and Alex make it inside the entrance just in time before the sun rises on the sixth day. Exhausted, Rick is resting with Alex when suddenly Evelyn is stabbed in the gut by Ank-su-namun, who sneaked upon her while Imhotep tossed Jonathan away into the air. A shocked Rick immediately rushes out of the Pyramid entrance, and falls down beside Evelyn as Imhotep and his lover walk past into the Gold Pyramid. In tears, Rick O’Connell tries to comfort the dying Evey during her last breaths, when she tells Rick to take care of Alex and that she always will love him. Sobbing, Rick holds her in his arms as Evelyn Carnahan-O’Connell passes away, and Rick silently begs his wife to “come back…” in between tears of sadness.

Meanwhile, Imhotep and Ank-su-namun enter the chamber where the Scorpion King slumbers in solitude, and at that moment the god Anubis removes Imhotep’s Hom Dai curse and powers, making Imhotep mortal and giving the Scorpion King a fair chance in battle. Outside the Pyramid, a sober, vengeance-obsessed Rick tells the mourning Alex and Jonathan to stay put, and he makes his way into the pyramid with an ax, intent on murdering Imhotep. It is this moment when the Curator, the only surviving cultist of the Pygmy Mummy attack, uses the Bracelet of Anubis to activate a lock that summons the Army of Anubis in the desert surrounding the Oasis, where Ardeth Bay and his army are waiting. The jackal-headed soldiers rise from the sand, and with a single battle cry an epic war begins between the smaller and weaker than expected Army of Anubis and the combined forces of the Medjai. During the battle waging outside, inside the Gold Pyramid Rick comes across Imhotep banging a large gong to summon the Scorpion King into battle. In fury, Rick leaps across a deep chasm in the floor of the chamber, which is populated by ghostly spirits: a gateway to the Underworld. Imhotep, however, sees his attacker just in time and moves out of the way of Rick’s vengeful blow. After claiming that he will not allow O’Connell to slay the Scorpion King and send the Army back to Hell, the two then enter a brutal one-on-one fight, punching, kicking, backhanding and the occasional swordplay. Just then, during their struggle, a gigantic door opens ahead of them and out crawls the monstrous Scorpion King himself, still cursed in his scorpion-man-hybrid form. Surprised by this particular revelation, Rick and Imhotep abandon their struggle and slowly back away from the advancing beast. In desperation, Imhotep claims to be a loyal servant, and that O’Connell was the one sent to kill the King. The Scorpion King then goes after a befuddled Rick, who wisely runs off in terror as the creature snaps and chases him with it’s claws and tail.

At the same time, Jonathan and Alex have come up with a plan to resurrect Evelyn: If they can get their hands on the Book of the Dead (which is being guarded by Ank-su-namun while her beloved fights the Scorpion King), then they can maybe find the proper inscription to revive her. While Jonathan distracts Ank-su-namun, Alex sneaks away the black Book and reads from it (having been taught to read Ancient Egyptian by his mother), healing Evelyn’s wound and returning her to life. When she confronts her old teacher from centuries past, Evelyn tells Jonathan and Alex to go and help Rick, and she defeats Ank-su-namun in a duel. Shocked and amazed, Evey’s female nemesis runs into the chamber with Evelyn on her heels.

Meanwhile, in the desert, the fight against the Army of Anubis goes surprisingly well, with the last jackal-man soldier being killed by Ardeth Bay himself. As his comrades cheer in triumph, Ardeth notices the strange ease of their victory, and then runs off into the near distance. There, atop a dune, he and his men see an even bigger, endless army of Anubis warriors: this is the true ‘army,’ the smaller one being a mere warm up to lull the Medjai into a false sense of security.

Back inside the Pyramid, while Rick is hiding from the Scorpion King, he notices a series of Egyptian illustrations and paintings drawn on a wall, depicting a warrior with the exact same tattoo on Rick’s right arm using a golden spear to kill the Scorpion King. Now finally accepting his true destiny, Rick sees Jonathan and Alex rush into the room, and realizes that Jonathan’s golden stick is actually the fabled Spear of Osiris: the very same spear that Rick needs to kill the Scorpion King. But as he is telling this to his stepbrother, the Scorpion King appears and chases after Rick once again, while Jonathan and Alex open up the stick into a deadly looking spear. Imhotep notices this, realizing what the golden weapon is and it’s significance, and snatches it out of the air when Jonathan attempts to toss it at the Scorpion King. At the same time Evey and Ank-su-namun appear in the room, and when Evelyn calls out her husbands name, Rick looks up in shock and delight at his revived wife. Imhotep then tosses the Spear himself after saying that the Army of Anubis is now surely his, but just before the spear pierces the Scorpion King, Rick leaps into its path and snatches it in mid-air.

Outside, the Medjai stand in anticipation of their imminent demise as the Army of Anubis barrels across the desert towards them, swords held high. Inside the Gold Pyramid, Rick dodges the Scorpion King’s claws as Evelyn struggles with Ank-su-namun and Jonathan and Alex watch in hope. Just as Rick is about to trip into the canyon leading to the Underworld, he manages to impale the Scorpion King on the Spear of Osiris. As the Army of Anubis is about to reach and slaughter the helpless Medjai, Rick shouts to the monster, “Go to Hell, and take your friends with you!” The Scorpion King then explodes into a cloud of ash and the Army of Anubis vaporizes into nothing, saving Ardeth Bay and his men at the very moment of death. But Rick still cannot keep himself from stumbling backwards along with a lamenting Imhotep into the nightmarish chasm. Both he and Imhotep manage to cling onto the edge by their hands, while Evelyn and Ank-su-namun hesitate to save their respective lovers. The temple has begun to collapse, and Rick pleads his wife to go and save herself. Imhotep, however, begs his love to come and pull him to safety. In a moment of cowardice, Ank-su-namun betrays Imhotep by running of in fear.

Shocked and deeply affected by her abandonment, the pitiful Imhotep watches as Evelyn risks her own life to save her husband, pulling him out of the chasm. As Rick and Evey match eyes with their enemy in one final moment, Imhotep seems to have finally accepted the error of his ways and willingly allows the spirits of the dead to drag him down into the Underworld. Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan, as well as Alex, then retreat from the Pyramid…to find the entire Oasis swallowing itself up in a massive vacuum. They begin climbing to the very top of the Gold Pyramid as the jungle disappears into the desert around them, and they arrive at a small altar atop the peak of the structure. Trapped, with no hope of escape, Rick embraces his family one last time…until suddenly he hears a voice calling out. It’s Izzy, who has managed to repair his dirigible so that it could take on hot air, and was now floating above the Pyramid’s peak, quickly beckoning them aboard. They get onto the dirigible and fly off just as the entire Oasis along with the Golden Pyramid disappears forever in a gigantic cloud of sand. Relieved, alive, and unharmed, Rick O’Connell and his family have finally defeated Imhotep for the last time, and down below Ardeth Bay bid them all a final farewell before riding off on his horse. On the deck of Izzy’s balloon, Rick shares a tender moment with Evelyn, saying how he almost lost her. She asks if he would like to know what Heaven looks like, and he replies with, “maybe later.” They then share a loving kiss as the dirigible heads off into the sunset.

The Mummy: The Animated Series
This short-lived animated television show starred the O’Connell family, especially Alex, in a collection of episodes concerning a quest to find a collection of sacred scrolls with magical powers before the once-again-resurrected Imhotep finds them and uses them for his own purposes. This is a much more child-friendly depiction of the O’Connells, without the usual black humor and elaborate action seen in the films. Due to the failure of this series both in the ratings and in failing to find an appreciative audience, the true canonical status of this show (whether or not it is a genuine depiction of the O’Connell’s adventures following the second film or if this is a non-existent alternate continuity from the films) can be questionable.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Rick O’Connell has been confirmed to return once again in the second sequel now directed by Rob Cohen, replacing Stephen Sommers who is now signed on as a producer, and is still being portrayed by signature actor Brendan Fraser. According to plot details leaked so far from director Rob Cohen himself, the third film in the franchise will feature such story elements as a trek through the Himalayas, an encounter with the Yeti, Shangri-La, a massive avalanche, a Chinese military zealot who teams up with Jet Li’s character, Qin Shi Huang, to try and conquer China, three-headed dragons, pools of eternal life, a female sorceress who resurrects the arch-nemesis of the film’s new Chinese mummy villain to do battle, and an epic climatic war involving the Dragon Emperor’s reanimated Terra Cotta that have been buried for millennia.

Appearance:
Rick O’Connell is usually wearing a white unbuttoned shirt and brown pants on his adventures, while also being armed with numerous guns and weapons. He has wavy brown hair; blue eyes, a square handsome face, and usually wearing a belt with pistol holsters. His boots are also brown, and he also has a mysterious Medjai tattoo located on his right wrist. Rick can also be seen wearing a well-made suit on occasion (as in his first handsome, clean appearance in The Mummy) as well as a brown fedora in a very brief scene in The Mummy Returns, an obvious homage to Indiana Jones, a major stylistic influence on the character. In a teaser photo released on Rob Cohen’s blog page, in the third film Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Rick is shown wearing a pulp-fiction-inspired fur winter coat with gloves while looking outside during a snowfall.

Characterization:
In the first film, Rick O’Connell is introduced as a soldier in the French Foreign Legion in the 1920’s. At this time he was a mere soldier of fortune, and the junior novelization states that he was recruited into the Legion because he was apparently “looking for a good time,” which seems to be his favorite excuse. But by the time that Evelyn Carnahan and Jonathan meet him to discuss the key he stole from Hamunaptura, Rick had become a disgusting, poor-tempered man with little manners, calling Evey a “broad” and punching Jonathan in the face. He also took advantage of the girl by kissing her while she came close to hear him whisper in her ear. He also strongly believes in revenge and punishing those who hurt him or his friends.

However, after he was released from prison, O’Connell got a massive appearance makeover, shaved and now in a much more tolerable mood. Rick is portrayed throughout the film as a cocky, sarcastic man who just seems to stumble through life without any real sense of goal or purpose, perhaps because of his experiences in an orphanage during childhood (first mentioned in The Mummy Returns). Despite this, he does show an almost suicidal willingness to get in a fight and solve problems through shooting, although usually he is only kidding when he does this. Indeed, in a conversation between him and Evelyn on a boat in The Mummy, Rick claims, “I only gamble with my life, never my money…”

But by film’s end, Rick seems to have overcome his gruff, skeptical attitude, and now finds himself in love with the woman that he originally considered a ‘broad.’ He married Evelyn and had a child, Alex, during the years leading up to the sequel’s events. This resulted in a change of demeanor for O’Connell, who was now a father and loving husband, and now considered Evelyn and Alex to be the two most precious things in his life, saying he could never forgive himself if anything were to happen to either of them. However, despite this new responsibility, Rick still retained a sarcastic wit and tough demeanor, often being the voice of reason when Evey gets carried away with handling sacred objects such as the Book of the Dead or the Bracelet of Anubis. He still has a love/hate relationship with his bumbling stepbrother Jonathan, and apparently has followed his wife around the world on many archeological expeditions.

But when the servants of Imhotep kidnap Alex, who is wearing the Bracelet of Anubis, Rick becomes focused on saving his son, and comforts a terribly worried and sad Evelyn, promising that he will rescue Alex with all his heart. Also in this film, Rick confronts the mystery of the Egyptian tattoo on his right wrist when Ardeth Bay says that this marks O’Connell as a warrior for God, a Medjai. He is at first disbelieving and unwilling to accept his destined purpose, but when he himself sees a painting inside the Scorpion King’s Gold Pyramid which depicts a warrior with the same mark killing the monster, Rick has no choice but to accept his predetermined fate. And when Evelyn is killed by Ank-su-namun after racing his son into the Gold Pyramid, Rick reacts with great confusion and frustration, begging Evey what he should do. As she passes away, Rick sadly calls her to come back to him, showing an emotional care for others that did not apparently exist at the time of the first film. However, later in the movie Evelyn is resurrected by her son, who read from the Book of the Dead, and Rick is overjoyed to see her alive again.

When Rick finally succeeds in rescuing Alex and sending Imhotep back to the Underworld once and for all, Rick and Evelyn seem to have finally found peace with their own personal destinies, and they return home with a new awareness of their purpose in life: to combat evil and protect the world from the threat of supernatural beings and people.

It can be speculated that in Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Rick is now much older and wiser due to having acted as a spy for the British government during World War II, and a video clip on Rob Cohen’s official blog page shows a scene where Rick attempts to relax and enjoy simple hobbies such as fishing while bored of retirement. In the clip, he becomes frustrated at his inability to catch anything, and finally resorts to shooting the fish in the water with his pistol, yelling, “Swim straight, swim straight!”

Inspirations for the Character:
Being an adventurous hero in the tradition of many cinematic protagonists, Rick O’Connell has obviously been influenced (either indirectly through coincidence or on purpose) by prior characters, some outright or in small details. These include:


 * Indiana Jones: The Indiana Jones series-perhaps the most obvious example. Rick shares a trait with Dr. Jones in that they both end up in supernatural adventures that involve some kind of legendary artifact or location (The Ark of the Covenant compared to the Book of Amun Ra, Hamunaptura or the Oasis of Ahm Shere [including the Gold Pyramid] compared to the Thuggee’s Temple of Doom, and the Well of Souls compared to the Egyptian temple in Thebes seen in the beginning of The Mummy Returns [note that both places have popular-phobia critters littered in the room where the desired prize is located]).


 * Allan Quatermain: King Solomon’s Mines-another adventurer who uses guns and is a somewhat reluctant participant in an adventure where he is hired to lead the other characters to find a location or help rescue someone.


 * Jack T. Colton: Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile-both fortune-seekers share the fact that both are hired by the heroine to help in her mission/problem, and both end up falling in love and marrying despite starting out disliking and irritating each other.

Critical Reaction and Legacy:
The Mummy revisionist film trilogy helped shoot actor Brendan Fraser to stardom, and his role in the series is even joked upon in the film Looney Tunes: Back in Action. The films continue to get mixed reactions: some say they are far too tongue-in-cheek to be taken seriously and the story-lines suffer enormous plot holes and impossibilities, while others enjoy the fun, adventurous atmosphere and humor of the movies, as well as the Academy-Award-nominated visual effects, action and likable actors. Much praise going to Brendan Fraser: “Handsome in a funny way, swaggering in a goofy way, Fraser gooses the movie with his deft comic timing," in the words of Jess Cagle of Entertainment Weekly. But for the most part, the series still remains popular and remembered, with a Universal Studios theme park attraction entitled Revenge of the Mummy created at Universal theme parks and a spin-off film focusing on Mathayus, the Scorpion King, was created due to the financial success of the Mummy films.

Weapons
Rick has used several firearms of various kinds. Here is a list of some.
 * Colt M1911 .45 Pistol
 * Webley .455 Revolver
 * Winchester Model 1887/1901 Lever-Action Shotgun
 * French Model 1874 Service Revolver