The Mummified Political Economy 25th Anniversary of The Mummy

Notice to readers: This article contains multiple spoilers for both The Mummy (1999) and The Mummy Returns (2001).

This year we include 25th an anniversary film starring Rachel Weisz, Brendan Fraser, and Oded Fehr Mother (1999). With books of gold and iron trowels, the battle between the high priest’s mother and the brilliant Egyptologist stole the hearts of an entire generation. This action-packed adventure movie also inspired a series of books, multiple roller coaster rides, and one impressive sequence (we leave the proof to the reader).

However, when you think about this 1999 cinematic classic, you can also think about the economic themes that guide the behavior and decisions of the main characters. Revisiting Hamunaptra gives us an opportunity to think about how the economic way of thinking can help us solve problems – or at least help us avoid the Hom-Dai curse. This movie has the nuances and themes of both an introductory student of economics and educators like Medjai who ensure that economic knowledge is not used to bring about the end of the world.

Classic Questions in Economics

Especially for an introductory student of economics, Mother again Mother is coming back presents clear examples of value that suits your needs, rational choice behavior, trade-offs, and cost-benefit analysis.

One of the core principles of economics is that value is individual. Rick shows that importance makes sense when he comments in the first film that “These men are desert people; they value water, not gold.” We see Rick, Evelyn (Evy), and Jonathan use the market exchange to solve their sudden shortage Motheralthough Jonathan complains about the cost of the camels (but – he still pays for the camels). Market exchange also does not require currency, and instead may be based on any exchange of goods and services between two or more parties where things of nominal value can be exchanged for the benefit of the participants.

In Mother is coming backinstead we see Rick using a trade with Izzy to secure passage through the desert on Izzy’s plane. The golden rod that Rick took from Jonathan, catches Izzy’s attention with Rick’s pleas not to take him anywhere. The market price of a gold bar may be very high if sold to a jeweler or collector, but Rick has an unshakable need – they need to travel quickly, and have few substitutes for travel. If there were a perfect market with safety in all regions of the environment, the value exchanged for a stick would certainly be more than the cost of a single adjustable round-trip flight, but in imperfect markets, the benefits of trade are not fully realized.

Many characters in both films also display rational behavior choices, even if their behavior seems ridiculous or silly. For example, Rick’s old friend Beni understands cost-benefit analysis, at least in the short term. When his team is about to trigger the curse by removing the holy jars from the sealed casket, he flees the scene rather than stay where the curse might befall him. Later, the lost lives (and limbs) of Americans who removed the pots reveal that Beni made the right decision. Beni similarly exhibits rational choice behavior in serving Imhotep, as the cost of losing his life far outweighs any benefit he would gain by refusing to associate with the dead. Beni also shows the effects of time-honoring, however, as his focus on current wealth at the risk of his life leads to his death. You might say that his economic analysis has bugs.

The calculation between the short-term benefits of mining wealth and the long-term benefits of longevity is not the only example of trade-offs in this film. Trade-offs are everywhere, like when Evelyn tells Rick to leave her with Imhotep Motheras he still needed to get him back to Hamunaptra, trading Rick’s life for what he thought was safety. Evelyn also engages in game theory against Imhotep and Beni, as she treats her kidnapping as a multi-period game, rather than a one-period game with a discrete solution. Similarly, in Mother is coming back, Medjai Ardeth must choose between helping to save his friends son Alex and warning Medjai of the coming rise of another immortal monster.

A fundamental principle of economics is that generally, on the edge of the possibility frontier, choosing one outcome ensures that you will lose the other. For example, to resurrect the Scorpion King, Hafez loses the skin and muscle on his arm to put the bracelet on the statue. Hafez might have been able to avoid this fate if he had mastered the hieroglyphics and hieratics on the relic bracelet like the scholars of Bembridge or Evelyn. The set of information – be it complete, incomplete, or asymmetric – is important in the selection matrix and whether we achieve efficient results.

Finally, movies provide great opportunities to negotiate broken window and sunken costs. When Imhotep destroyed Cairo in his attempt to complete the curse, some might argue that at least Cairo could rebuild. However, as Frederic Bastiat wrote in The Seen and the Unseen“There is only one difference between a bad economist and a good one: a bad economist forbids a visible result; a good economist considers both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen.” Instead of rebuilding, Cairo could invest its resources elsewhere, such as human investment or innovation. Similarly, when Ahm Shere sinks back into the desert, we may mourn the loss of such fertile land. However, what is lost is lost – and the opportunity cost of pursuing the fortunes of Hamunaptra or Ahm Shere comes with high economic costs.

But it doesn’t end there! In our next post, we will turn to it More economic concepts, such as labor markets, comparative advantage, and externalities.