It started with a scream. Not a scream of terror from an audience member, but a literal, high-pitched vocal track that accidentally made its way into an official upload. You probably remember the infamous "no-audio" version of The Mummy 2017 trailer. It was a total mess. Instead of the polished, IMAX-ready soundscape of explosions and crashing planes, we got Tom Cruise grunting in a vacuum and Annabelle Wallis shrieking without any background music. It went viral for all the wrong reasons. But honestly, looking back, that botched trailer was the perfect omen for the "Dark Universe" that crashed before it even really took off.
The movie was supposed to be the start of something massive. Universal Pictures was looking at the Marvel Cinematic Universe and thinking, "Hey, we have Dracula and Frankenstein, let’s do that." They even took a photo. You know the one—Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Tom Cruise, Sofia Boutella, and Russell Crowe all standing together like a goth version of the Avengers. It looked cool on paper. Then the actual trailer dropped, and things got... weird.
The Plane Crash That Redefined Tom Cruise Stunts
The centerpiece of The Mummy 2017 trailer was undoubtedly the zero-gravity plane crash sequence. If you know anything about Tom Cruise, you know he doesn't do green screens if he can avoid them. For this specific scene, the production actually used a "Vomit Comet"—a plane that flies in parabolic arcs to create weightlessness. They did 64 takes of that. Sixty-four! Most of the crew was reportedly throwing up, but Cruise and Wallis just kept going.
When you watch the trailer, that sequence is genuinely harrowing. It’s got that tactile, "this is really happening" energy that defines modern Cruise movies like Mission: Impossible. The problem was the tonal whiplash. The trailer oscillates between a gritty survival horror and a superhero origin story. One minute you’re watching a terrifying ancient princess played by Sofia Boutella crawl out of a sarcophagus, and the next, Russell Crowe is doing a Dr. Jekyll voice that feels like it belongs in a different decade.
Why the "Dark Universe" Logic Failed
Universal was trying to play catch-up. They wanted a shared universe immediately. In the The Mummy 2017 trailer, we see the Prodigium logo—a secret society dedicated to hunting monsters. This was meant to be the "S.H.I.E.L.D." of the monster world. But as many critics pointed out later, you can't build a house starting with the roof.
Marvel spent years building individual characters before the big crossover. Universal tried to cram the entire mythology of the Dark Universe into a two-minute teaser and a single film. By the time the trailer ends, you don't really know if you're supposed to be scared of the Mummy or if you're supposed to be rooting for Tom Cruise to get his weird "chosen one" powers. It was confusing. Fans of the 1999 Brendan Fraser classic wanted adventure and heart. Fans of the original 1932 Boris Karloff film wanted atmosphere and dread. The 2017 trailer offered... Tom Cruise running. A lot.
The Sound of Silence: The Viral Marketing Fail
We have to talk about the IMAX trailer leak. It’s a legendary piece of internet history. Someone at Universal uploaded a version of the The Mummy 2017 trailer to YouTube that was missing most of its audio stems. Only the actors' "on-set" microphones were audible.
It was hilarious.
It also stripped away the artifice of Hollywood. Without the booming bass and the orchestral swells, the movie looked thin. It highlighted a major issue in modern blockbuster marketing: the reliance on sound design to create stakes. When the sound was gone, the trailer looked like a bunch of people in a room pretending to be hit by wind machines. It was a rare, naked look at the "sausage making" of a $125 million movie, and it definitely didn't help the film's reputation before it even hit theaters.
Sofia Boutella Deserved Better
One thing the trailer got right was Ahmanet. Sofia Boutella is a physical powerhouse. Coming off Kingsman and Star Trek Beyond, she had this incredible presence. The shots of her with four pupils—a visual cue for her being possessed or ancient—were genuinely striking.
- She spent hours in makeup.
- The designs were based on actual Egyptian research mixed with modern street art.
- Her movement was inspired by contemporary dance.
But the trailer focuses so much on Nick Morton (Cruise) that the titular Mummy becomes a secondary character in her own movie. It’s a classic case of a studio being afraid to let the villain drive the marketing. They leaned on the biggest star in the world, which is a safe business move, but it robbed the film of its unique "Monster Movie" identity.
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A Legacy of "What If?"
If you go back and watch The Mummy 2017 trailer today, it feels like a time capsule of a specific era in Hollywood. The era of the "Instant Franchise." It was a time when every studio was trying to turn their library of IP into a "Verse."
The failure of the movie (and the lukewarm reception to the trailer) essentially killed the Dark Universe. Bride of Frankenstein was put on hold. Johnny Depp’s Invisible Man vanished. Eventually, Blumhouse came in and did The Invisible Man (2020) for a fraction of the budget, focusing on horror instead of action, and it was a massive hit. It proved that people still love these monsters; they just don't want them to be superheroes.
The 2017 attempt was too big, too fast, and too loud. It tried to be Indiana Jones, James Bond, and The Avengers all at once. When you try to be everything, you usually end up being nothing to anyone.
How to Revisit the Classics Properly
If the 2017 trailer left a bad taste in your mouth, or if you're just curious about how we got here, there are better ways to spend your weekend than re-watching the Cruise version.
- Watch the 1932 Original: It’s only 73 minutes long. It’s pure atmosphere. Boris Karloff does more with a look than most actors do with a ten-minute monologue.
- The 1999 Version is Still King: If you want "Action Mummy," Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz have more chemistry in one scene than the entire 2017 cast does in two hours. It balances the tone perfectly.
- Check out the "No-Audio" Trailer Leak: Just for a laugh. It’s still floating around on various archive sites and Twitter threads. It’s a masterclass in how important Foley artists are to the film industry.
- Analyze the 2020 Invisible Man: See how a monster movie can be modernized without the need for a $200 million budget and a plane crash. It uses silence and negative space to create more tension than any explosion ever could.
The lesson here is simple. You can't force a "universe" into existence with a flashy trailer and a big star. It has to happen naturally. Audiences can smell a corporate mandate from a mile away, and no amount of Tom Cruise running can change that.
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Next Steps for Film Buffs
If you are tracking the history of failed cinematic universes, look into the production of Dracula Untold. It was originally supposed to be the start of this same universe before it was retroactively disconnected. Comparing the trailers for Dracula Untold and The Mummy 2017 shows a fascinating, albeit messy, evolution of Universal's branding strategy. You should also look at the recent "Monsterverse" (Godzilla/Kong) to see how a studio actually succeeded where the Dark Universe failed by focusing on the monsters first and the "universe" second.