Rami Malak - Tumblr Posts
Night of the Museum is actually mythologically accurate and here’s why:
Ok so most of us probably remember that old Ben Stiller movie where he’s a night gaurd at a Museum and everything comes to life right? You’ve got Robin Williams as Teddy Roosevelt, the little cowboy and Roman general (best characters btw) and the T-Rex skeleton that acts like a dog. Cute right? But the reason everything comes to life in the Museum actually makes a lot of sense.
So, in the movie the Mummy exhibit at the museum has this magic golden tablet, and its this tablet that causes everything to come to life at night
It was given to Prince Ahkmenra (played by Rami Malek) when he was buried so that he and his family could “live on past death”
Now in Egyptian mythology, people believed that your soul was made up of many parts. The Ka left the body and split into two parts when you died: the Ba (soul) stayed on earth with the body, and the Akh (spirit) was the part that went to the underworld.
(The bird is the Ka)
It was believed if the body was destroyed that both parts of the soul, the Ba and Ahk would be destroyed. That’s part of why mummification and preservation was so important. But to be extra sure that wouldn’t happen it was also believed that the Ba would stay with a statue of the deceased if it was placed in the tomb. That way instead of coming and going from the body as it pleases, the souls is attached to the statue likeness!
Ok so now you’re probably wondering what this has to do with NatM right? While obviously the tablet brings Ankmenra back to life while it’s on the Museum with him, like it’s his new tomb. He even looks like he does when he was alive.
It also brings back everything else in the museum like the stuffed monkey and all the statues and little figurines of real historical people
So the tablet isn’t meant to just work on things that were actually alive at one point, but also on statues in the likeness of real things and people. Almost like the tablet calls the Ba and Akh back into the body or statue!
Now obviously this probably wasn’t intentional on the writers’ part, and there are some exceptions like with fictional characters like Lancelot, but it’s such a cool and deeper way of looking at it! And I’m not saying someone could make another version of this idea where that is looked at from a deeper angle....but hey if that happened I’d be all for it!
