Rachel Weisz and Patricia Velasquez trained for five months for their fight scene. They did the fight without any stunt performers.

Although the characters of Rick and Evelyn had grown and matured in the second film, director Stephen Sommers wanted it to be clear that Jonathan had learned absolutely nothing from his first adventure.

The much-criticized digital effects of The Scorpion King were rushed and were only completed eight days before the film's release.

Brendan Fraser tore a spinal disk, cracked a rib, and injured his knees during production. Dwayne Johnson suffered from food poisoning and sunstroke. He lost over 10 pounds and said it was "the worst I have ever felt in my life."

In order to keep his smooth hairless look, Arnold Vosloo had his entire body shaved twice a day. Originally, he tried waxing but couldn't stand the pain.

Continuity

In The Mummy (1999), the first scene of Rick O'Connell and the French foreign legion fighting the Bedouins is tagged as 1923. The next scene at the museum is "3 years later", presumably 1926. The Mummy Returns (2001) tags the first scene with the O'Connells searching for the Bracelet of Anubis as 1933. And Alex screams at his uncle when they are outside the museum he is "only 8 years old!" For him to be 8, his parents would have had to have him in 1925, possibly conceived in 1924, and Evy and Rick hadn't even met at that point. They could have also had him in 1924.

In The Mummy (1999), O'Connell had a tattoo on the back of each hand near his lower thumb joint. These tattoos do not appear in The Mummy Returns (2001).

The dirigible gets drenched by a wall of water twice, but both times everyone on board stays completely dry.

In The Mummy (1999), Imhotep calls Evelyn Anck-Su-Namun. But in The Mummy Returns (2001), we learn that Evelyn is Nefertiti reincarnated. The first movie was a retelling of the story from Boris Karloff's The Mummy (1932), in which the resurrected priest Imhotep believes the girlfriend of the hero is the reincarnation of his lost princess. Apparently, the makers of The Mummy (1999) didn't anticipate its tremendous success and had to plan a sequel quickly, and the writers overlooked that aspect of the plot when preparing The Mummy Returns (2001) (note that the name of the villain in Karloff's version is spelled "Ardath Bey", and the hero in Fraser's version is spelled "Ardeth Bay" to help separate the two).

When Imhotep is reborn, he breaks the shell he is in, but as he walks away, it can be seen as intact over his shoulder.



Factual errors

At the start of the film, after the battle sequence, the narrator says that the Scorpion King appealed to "the dark god, Anubis". According to Egyptian mythology, Anubis was the god of the dead, protector of tombs; the Scorpion King, therefore, would not have appealed to him, but to Seth (Set), brother of Osiris, god of chaos, disorder and violence etc.

Contrary to their portrayal as a fast moving and aggressively carnivorous peril, both in this movie and its predecessor, the scarab beetles worshiped in ancient Egypt are in reality a type of dung beetle. The Scarabaeus Sacer, or Sacred Scarab, is neither fast nor carnivorous, and while its bites can be painful, it is not powerful enough to pierce human skin.

The peregrine falcon used by Ardeth Bay would not have been lowered to the status of a "messenger pigeon," but would have been trained, honored, and revered as hunting partners and companions in the ancient sport of Falconry. Also, being Egyptian, it's unlikely that the Medjai would be falconers. There is evidence that the nearby Assyrians were keen falconers. The Egyptians, perhaps because of their devotion to their god Horus, never took up falconry, despite their close contact with the Assyrians.

When Rick is running to the temple, with his son, the light appears to be chasing them from behind. The light should be moving down the temple and then back towards the mountain the sun is rising over.

When Imhotep returns to Egypt, he rides in a train with armed guards in uniform, on the roof. In 1933 Egypt was under British control. The British army at that time would never have allowed a private army to travel uncontested for fear of rebellion and possibly losing the Suez Canal.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Seti I, Nefertari, Imhotep, and Anck Sun Amun (spelling varies) were the names of real people, but are given to fictional characters for this movie.

The scene of Imhotep's original treachery is played a bit differently than in The Mummy (1999). This is to show different perspectives of the scene, as eyewitnesses often differ in their memories in real life.

(at around 1h 45 mins) Rick finally accepts that he is "some kind of sacred Medjai" after he sees multiple pictures on a stone wall of: a man with tattoo on left arm turning the "gold stick thing" into a spear and using it to kill the Scorpion King. While Rick's tattoo is on his right arm (not his left), the point is that he has the tattoo at all, especially considering what he was already told by Ardeth Bay.

The dirigible is hit by a wall of water in the canyon, from behind. This implies that they were flying directly away from the kidnapped boy they are trying to follow. At 1:17:07 into the movie, Imhotep looks up to see the dirigible flying overhead and away from Imhotep's party. The dirigible continues following the river as it flies away, having passed over the party they were looking for. This being the case, Rick and Evelyn and Co. would be hit by a wall of water from behind as their dirigible is now in front of their son and Imhotep.

When Rick, Evy, Ardeth Bay, Jonathan, and Alex are fighting the soldier mummies on the double decker bus, they begin by fighting four mummies but only eliminate three. The fourth was dealt with in a deleted scene.



Revealing mistakes

When Rick is running with Alex to get to the temple before the sun reaches it, the sunlight is chasing them toward the temple. At sunrise the light would hit the top of the temple first, not creep up from the ground.

During the ancient cat-fight scene, Nefirtiri gets knocked to the ground and the fight temporarily stops. Nefirtiri then takes off her mask with her right hand. On her right ring finger around the 3rd phalanx, you can see a band-aid wrapped around it.

As Ardeth Bey watches the second wave of Anubis's army, the tattoos on his forehead are being sweated off.

In the flashback when Imhotep embraces Anck-Su-Namun, two vaccination scars are visible on his upper arm.

In the museum, when Evy is firing the pistol that Rick handed her, the slide locks back after a shot, indicating that the gun is empty, yet she's still shooting, her arm is still recoiling, and the gun is still flashing.



Miscellaneous

When Evie is revealed to be Nefertiti reincarnated, viewers point out that Imhotep mistook her for Anck-su-Namun in the original movie, so why the mistake? It turns out Imhotep took the eyes of Mr. Burns, who was virtually blind without his glasses, thus he inherited Burns' blindness. However, the scene was deleted when director Stephen Sommers realized Imhotep would have to go through the entire movie as nearly blind. Instead, he let the plot revolve around him mistaking Evie for his true love.

4 Guards on top of the train car start shooting at Alex as he runs from the train at Karnak, When Imhotep uses his powers only two guards are on top, When he throws them there are now 6 guards on top the train car.

At the beginning of the film, Rick is exploring inside a temple. He turns and is startled to find Alex standing there. Alex, who himself is startled, jumps and falls backwards. Alex is seen to be eye-height to Rick. However, when Rick helps Alex to his feet, Alex only comes up to Rick's chest.



Anachronisms

When the bus crosses Tower Bridge, the bridge is seen in its red, white and blue livery. The bridge wasn't painted this way until the Queen's Silver Jubilee in 1977, and was a plain brown in 1933.

The cascade of falling columns would not be possible. Columns next to the wall of such buildings were attached to the wall along their backs to provide extra stability.

Rick's car has a modern Road Fund License disc in the front window.

Evelyn appears to be wearing modern, seamless, nylon pantyhose.

The heroes visit the temple of Philae while following Alex to the oasis, which is shown in its present state. In the 1930s, the temple was partially flooded by the old Aswan dam and was only moved to its present (dry) state by UNESCO in the 1960s.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Ardeth Bay is riding in front of the Medjai waiting for the Army of Anubis, the sound of the horse's hoof-beats are clearly heard, as if the horse was on a hard surface, such as dry land. A horse's hoof-beats would not make such a sound galloping across soft sand.

When Jonathan brings the bus to a stop on Tower Bridge and switches off the engine, the sound effect heard is clearly that of a propeller plane being switched off.

At Magic Carpet Airways, the pilot runs away and locks the door. Clunk, clunk, clunk. However, Rick manages to open the door by shooting just ONE lock away.

Where the girls are fighting to entertain the court of the Pharoah, they switch to fighting with wooden poles with metal tips. When these poles are banged together, they sound like wooden poles. When they are allowed to scrape together, however, they make a metal sword sound.

After the sword battle in the O'Connels mansion, and Evy picks up the chest to get out of the house. Alex can be heard saying "Mom look out!" However, when this line is said the camera is pointed at Freddie (Alex) and his mouth is shut the entire time.



Crew or equipment visible

When Evelyn walks through the temple of Karnak to search for Alex, someone can be seen moving his or her head out from behind a stone pillar just as Evelyn walks behind it.

In the fight scene where Rick shoots the formaldehyde, the red-cloaked henchman on the left is wearing a fire protection suit, visible around his face.

When the bad guys are pulling up to the mansion and in front of the house, just before the car stops a camera can be seen on the right side of the screen barely missing the car.



Errors in geography

The sai, the weapon used by Nefertiri and Anck-Su-Namun, was never used by the Egyptians and never existed in that region. The weapon was developed in Okinawa and was adapted from a farm tool for use against occupying Japanese.

In London, Tower Bridge is eight bridges downstream from the Houses of Parliament, and St Paul's Cathedral is on the north side of the Thames between Blackfriars and Southwark bridges. The three famous landmarks are not close together.

The railway line in Egypt is on the opposite side of the Nile from the city of Thebes, not the same side, as the film shows.

After the Scorpion King is defeated, a puff of black smoke emerges from the top of the pyramid with his soul in it. Ardeth and the Medjai can see it up close from where they were fighting the army of Anubis. However, the pyramid was in the center of the oasis, and the oasis seemed to stretch for miles around it. Yet as far as one can see around the Medjai, it is desert.

In the movie it looks like the temple complex of Karnak is surrounded by nothing but the desert. Yet even in 1933 Karnak actually stood right in the middle of the city of Luxor (ancient Thebes) and there should've been town buildings and people in the vicinity.



Plot holes

If the twelve tribes of the Medjai number in the thousands, why weren't they able to stop the excavation of Hamunaptra in the first place?

In The Mummy, it is explained that in order for Imhotep to fully regenerate, he needs to assimilate bodily organs and fluids. The first thing he does is take Mr. Burns' eyes and tongue so that he can see and speak, and when he dissolves into the water at Hamunaptra after being killed by Rick, he reverts to his original form. But when he is resurrected this time, he is "reborn" with eyes, a tongue, and a decent amount of muscle and sinew.

It is mentioned in one scene that the three Americans (Burns, Henderson and Daniels, from ''The Mummy'') died of the curse of the chest nine years ago. ''The Mummy'' is located in Hamunaptra, 1923. Three years later in Cairo (1926), when, at that time, Evelyn was a librarian and single. In ''The Mummy Returns'', it is located in Egypt, 1933. Actually, the three Americans died seven years ago.

When Alex pulls the emergency brake on the train to try and escape, everyone on the train is surprised the train is stopping, including the "conductor" who alertly stops the train himself. However, Imhotep, then embraces it because they have arrived at Karnak. If Karnak was their original destination, then they should already have been ready to stop and should not have been surprised by the brakes.

Imhotep uses the bracelet on Alex's arm to reveal clues to the location of the Scorpion King's valley. Yet, when he and his minions enter the valley, they find the bodies of Roman legionnaires, Napoleon's French troops and numerous other would-be conquerors who seemed to have no trouble finding the valley without the bracelet.



Character error

When Rick and Evelyn are first back at their home in England, she brushes the top of the piano and then backs into the green potted plant behind her, visibly shaking the leaves.

Meela's outfit is a fabric copy of the "chastity" paint that pharaoh used on Zanuck-Sun-Amun. The scene in which they kill pharaoh is shown in both movies to show her willing to kill to get out of her relationship. Given her dislike of her relationship with pharaoh, as the reincarnation, she would not have chosen clothing resembling that paint.

At around 34 minutes in, Ardeth Bay says "Whomever can kill the Scorpion King can send his army back to the underworld...". He should have said "Whoever..."