Rick O'Connell

Richard "Rick" O’Connell is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the second incarnation of The Mummy franchise. He is portrayed by Brendan Fraser. Fraser reprised the role of O'Connell in The Mummy Returns released in 2001, and in The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor from 2008. Fraser's portrayal of O'Connell has been well-received, and the character has been compared to the likes of Indiana Jones. Characterization The Mummy Rick O'Connell served as a captain in the French Foreign Legion in 1923 before becoming an adventurer after the massacre of the men he served with at Hamunaptra, with the exception of Beni, a former friend and soldier who left him to die. In 1926, Evelyn and her brother Jonathan discover him in a Cairo prison, awaiting to be executed. Before being taken away to be hanged, he kisses her and demands to be released, in return to help them find Hamunaptra, as he is one of the few men who returned alive. Evelyn succeeds in negotiating his release at the last second and they board a ship to begin their journey on the Nile, with the two beginning to show mutual attraction to one another. Rick runs into Beni and throws him out overboad as payback for leaving him to die. After the ship is attacked and destroyed by warriors known as the Medjai, who wish to prevent the resurrection of the "creature", O'Connell leads them by camel across the desert to Hamunaptra where they unearth the rotting corpse of Imhotep, the creature that the Medjai fear. Later that evening after fending off another attack by the Medjai, he watches as Evelyn accidentally awakens Imhotep through reading from the Book of the Dead. After a small scuffle with the plagues that come with unleashing Imhotep and running into the Mummy himself, he flees with the remaining survivors back to Cairo. Beni is left behind and encounters Imhotep, becoming his henchmen to spare his life. Unfortunately, the Mummy follows them to Cairo and enslaves the population of Cairo to be his zombie-like army, ordering them find and to kill them, with the exception of Evelyn. After being cornered, he is forced to give up Evelyn and flee with Jonathan and a Medjai named Ardeth. He enlists the help of Winston, a retired airforce pilot, to charter himself, Jonathan and Ardeth back to Hamunaptra. After Winston dies getting them there, he battles Imhotep and saves Evelyn but struggles to defeat him due to being invincible.