Battling the Undead
It wouldn’t be a Mummy movie without interesting fight sequences that keep the audiences’ hooked. The Mummy weaves a total of five different fighting styles namely, martial arts, swordplay, kung fu, martial arts-inspired street fighting, and Krav Maga, an eclectic self-defense and military hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel.
Rob Cohen, director of The Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor Movie, came up with the idea of portraying hero O’Connell as a skilled street fighter with moves that take after the Krav Maga style.
“It’s a system of combat defense devised by the Czech Jews during the Second World War. They started fighting back by using a system of body motions based on instinct,” explains Fraser.
To execute this style of fighting well, Brendan Fraser needed much training and exercise. Victor Armstrong commends Fraser’s skills as an action star, “Brendan is a fantastic action actor. He’s really been working out, and he is rock solid. He loves his action and knows what he is good at, so we catered to that in all fights we’ve done with him.”
Asian fight coordinator Mike Lambert, who worked with Michelle Yeoh in her breakout role in Tomorrow Never Dies, was primarily responsible for training the actors and choreographing fight sequences in conjunction with stunt coordinator Mark Southworth.
One sequence that fascinated the Chinese press was the sword fight between Jet Li and his longtime friend Michelle Yeoh. The fight takes place in the desolate beauty of Tian Mo desert and represents the first time Li and Yeoh have been on opposing sides of a film fight.
“It’s funny,” says Yeoh. “If you looked at our shooting schedule, it said, ‘The fight that the whole of Asia is waiting for.’”
“Jet’s fight coordinator, De De Ku (commonly known as Master De), is a longtime collaborator. He is so brilliant. We just stand there and let him weave his artistry around us. Jet and I understand each other — we are on the same beat and just doing the best we can,” Yeoh says.
Jet Li agrees and says, “When you find a good player to fight with you, it’s like having a good opponent at tennis. You have to be on the same level to play well. I very much enjoyed working with Michelle, and I hope to do so in the future.”
But other actors also had their fair share of the action.
“Maria’s character is a lot more refined,” explains Lambert. “She is more of an expert in martial arts. Alex on the other hand has more of a street-fighting style.”
Luke Ford prepared for almost three months before production began.
“I spent five days a week working on the fight training,” explains the actor. “I began with cardio, weights and stretching. Then I progressed into training for the fights; there were some martial arts, but also a lot of swashbuckling, punching and kicking. It was pretty intense.”
During the key Shanghai chase sequence in which the Emperor Mummy drives through Shanghai on his chariot of four horses (filmed at Shanghai Studios), the sarcophagus flies through the streets while Lin and Alex desperately hang on. All the time, it is closely followed by the rest of the O’Connells on a truck loaded with fireworks.
“It’s a bit like Stagecoach crossed with Ben-Hur,” laughs Armstrong. “We’ve got the two young leads in the movie fighting with Yang, who’s on the front of the chariot with the Emperor. It was a huge sequence and very complicated. We had a 500-person crowd every night for about two weeks.”
There was also a fair amount of horse riding needed for the film; this took place in Tian Mo. Much of the horse work was done by the actors themselves, and the necessary stunt work was accomplished by Chinese stunt riders. Michelle Yeoh rides with Russell Wong, who has action sequences with his group of 12 warriors, and Jet Li rides his horse into battle.
Once Armstrong and crew had completed work on key chases, they moved down to Hengdian World Studio to complete the final action sequences.
In hindsight, Armstrong says, “With every sequel, you have to raise the bar, and the ones that have gone before have been very good, so it was quite a challenge. It’s really interesting watching Rob work, with the speed of the shots he wants as much as the length of the shots.”
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