Mummy (2017) Analysis

#1

Author’s intention seems to the following

Resolve of Change (Nick stops selfish behavior and sacrifices himself)
Approach Do-er (Nick acts first and deals with consequence later. shooting vail, shooting at tomb, stealing petty jewels)
PS Style of linear? (can’t find a good example)

Driver of Action (Discovering ancient tomb, Jekyll capturing Ahmanet)
Limit of Optionlock: (When the every single remaining curse (Ahmanet, Nick, jewel) is eliminated, the story end)
Outcome of Failure (they fail to contain the evil as Nick escapes with the curse in his body)
Judgement of Good: Nick seems pretty happy to live with the curse at the end

OS througline - Universe (Ahmanet’s Curse)
OS Concern - past (undoing the ancient curse)

MC througline - Activity (Nick’s thievery and selfish actions cause him trouble)
MC concern - understanding (he doesn’t know what do with the cursed body)

IC throughline - possibly Jenny (she is very inconsistent in her character)

RS throughline - NONE

Overall Story seem like a situation domain with the concern of Past because everyone seems to talk about the history, fate, chosen one. At the beginning, Ahmanet is framed as the source the of the curse. However, the story goal is muddled when they try to humanize her.

Even worse, MC throughline is all over the map as they constantly try to phone in morality vs self interest argument. And his problem/symptom dynamic is not developed at all. Nick seems to realize that his selfish behavior is causing the problem from the get-go.

What do you think? Something wrong with my analysis? Anything to add?

ps: If you already haven’t watched Mummy, keep it that way.This movie itself is the product of the ancient curse!

#2

Full confession: I actually kind of liked it. :sweat_smile:

I thought it would be dreadful, and it kind of is, but actually, I found it rather fun in a messy sort of way. That said, I don’t think there is any semblance of a storyform whatsoever. Nick didn’t really have any personal issues that I can recall. The stealing thing is abandoned for most of the plot, and his possession would come under the OS, I think. And I think Jake Johnson’s character is intended to be a joint IC with Jenny (a character that could easily be removed from the plot, let’s be honest) – he’s a kind of angel on Cruise’s shoulder, influencing his decisions.

Honestly, I don’t even know what the Outcome and Judgment are. There didn’t seem to be a clear goal, so to speak. No “get the jewel” or “understand the mummy”, etc. It was just a lot of stuff happening and some wanted the jewel; others wanted to kill Ahmanet, etc. There was nothing uniting them. Also, the original Universal Monster Movies (particularly Frankenstein and Bride of Frankenstein) are complete tragedies, with awkward happy endings stuck on at the end by producers. This feels like a similar thing. My gut tells me they wanted a tragic ending with Nick forced to be cursed forever, but it didn’t really feel like a total tragedy.

Anyway, I think with movies as structurally chaotic as this one, it’s more productive to discuss what kind of storyform you think it should have had. There’s a good idea for a Discuss Dramatica round robin challenge, actually: turn a tale into a complete story!

So, basically… it’s a bit all over the shop. But it’s not quite as narratively incoherent as Transformers (then again, what is?).

#3

haha. I can’t believe you actually like the movie! I was just trying to salvage the storyform by trying to guess the author’s intention. Author clearly wanted it to be some sort of horror flick, which would indicate situation domain. But then, I guess I’m reading between the line too much.

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#4

Nothing wrong with reading between the lines! I think you have the dynamics down (though I still think they wanted it to be a somewhat tragic end, and botched it), but it’s been a while since I saw the movie so I have no way of working out the throughlines. It was definitely mixed somewhere between horror and action but it just didn’t bridge the gap terribly well.

Had I been hired to write the movie (that is, my author’s intent), I would have had a slightly more boring storyform (and I would have cut ALL of the Jekyll nonsense):

RESOLVE: Change (Nick stops selfish behavior and sacrifices himself)
GROWTH: Stop (Nick stops his recklessness)
APPROACH: Do-er (Nick is impulsive and reckless when it comes to his job – shooting the rope, etc.)
PS-STYLE: Linear

DRIVER - Action (Discovery of the Tomb; The Mummy is released; The Mummy is Captured; Jenny dies; Nick sacrifices himself)
LIMIT - Optionlock (I like what you said about every remaining curse being destroyed, I’ll keep that)
OUTCOME - Failure (Nick is cursed with the evil, ensuring the Mummy will live on)
JUDGMENT - Bad (Nick is forever separated from Jenny)

OS THROUGHLINE: Activity (Finding the Sarcophogus/Studying the Mummy/Chasing the Mummy)
OS CONCERN: Obtaining (Capturing the Mummy/Destroying the Evil)

Since Nick is apparently lacking any real MC throughline, I’ll have to create one. To fit in with the IC throughline, I’m going to make a few changes to the narrative.

MC THROUGHLINE: Situation (Nick is a mercenary for hire, stuck paying off debts with one-off jobs that see him traveling the world and taking out ‘bad guys’. Until his debt is paid off, he’s stuck in that role.)
MC CONCERN: The Future (Nick’s future is nothing. He cannot imagine settling anywhere, having become too accustomed to traveling around the world every other week.

I’m going to cut the Jake Johnson thing out, and just make Jenny the solid influence character with a determined belief that man is the monster in the world, forcing Nick to reconsider who he’s working for.

IC THROUGHLINE: Fixed Attitude (Jenny believes that mankind should not play God, as it only creates monsters. Her beliefs are in direct conflict with the archaeologists and scientists she has worked for and befriended.)
IC CONCERN: Innermost Desires (I’d need a little think about this one.)

And the RS is obviously going to be a romance, but I won’t go into that.

Anyway, just my little take on what the story could have been.

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#5

Yes, I like your version better. It’s straightforward with obtaining story goal. It makes sense because consequence is going to be changing one’s nature. (Nick becoming a monster)

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#6

I genuinely hadn’t even thought of that, but you’re totally right. The other story points seem to work pretty well, too:

GOAL: Obtaining (To Capture the Mummy)
CONSEQUENCE: Changing One’s Nature (Nick becomes the monster)
COST: Innermost Desires (Nick’s romance with Jenny is forever unachievable) – this one’s especially good.
DIVIDEND: The Future (Nick’s future as a mercenary is no longer a problem)
REQUIREMENT: Understanding (To catch the Mummy, they have to understand the Mummy)
PREREQUISITE: Developing a Plan (Envisioning plans on how to stop the Mummy.)
PRECONDITION: Memories () – I’d need to think about this.
FOREWARNINGS: The Past (Nick keeps seeing flashes of the past – Ahmanet’s history, etc.)

That’s not too bad. So clearly (like we needed any more convincing…), Dramatica could have fixed The Mummy!!

This was actually a really good creative exercise. I might start doing this as a blog or something: ‘Fixing broken movies with Dramatica’.