Skip to main content

The context you need, when you need it

When news breaks, you need to understand what actually matters — and what to do about it. At Vox, our mission to help you make sense of the world has never been more vital. But we can’t do it on our own.

We rely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Will you support our work and become a Vox Member today?

Join now

Watch: something went wrong with IMAX’s Mummy trailer. It’s glorious.

WTF is happening?

Alex Abad-Santos
Alex Abad-Santos is a senior correspondent who explains what society obsesses over, from Marvel and movies to fitness and skin care. He came to Vox in 2014. Prior to that, he worked at The Atlantic.

Something is deeply wrong with IMAX’s trailer for The Mummy, the Tom Cruise–led 2017 reboot of the 1999 film and subsequent sequels starring Brendan Fraser. Like a perfect smile that’s lost some teeth, the trailer appears to be missing crucial chunks of its audio, leading to weird, cackle-inducing silences and moments where you have actors’ vocals but no other sounds.

(content removed)

The original video has been taken down from IMAX’s official YouTube page, but not before being saved and uploaded to Twitter and other social media.

The best part comes around the where Cruise and his crew are tossed around inside a tumbling airplane after the aircraft is attacked by a flock of birds. Birds fly through the plane’s windshield and impale the pilot, but you can’t hear a thing. The sound of wind isn’t present, though it’s whipping through the plane’s cavity. The crunch of bodies hitting the plane’s metal body doesn’t exist, though it’s happening. All that exists are the cast’s puny grunts, yelps, and imagined vocalization of what it would sound like to get sucked out of the plane midair.

It’s unclear what’s happened here, though the effect seems to be similar to the isolated vocal tracks that are used in music production. It seems the trailer’s booming background audio, music, and “vocal” tracks have been separated, and only the latter made it into this trailer. The result is hilarious, and reveals how off-putting and bizarre movies would be if they didn’t have all the flourishes of modern sound design.

See More:

More in Culture

Podcasts
Could you spot an AI-written book?Could you spot an AI-written book?
Podcast
Podcasts

An author set up an experiment to find out.

By Amina Al-Sadi and Noel King
Life
What is an aging face supposed to look like?What is an aging face supposed to look like?
Life

When bodies and appearances are malleable, what does that mean for the person underneath?

By Allie Volpe
Video
What would J.R.R. Tolkien think of Palantir?What would J.R.R. Tolkien think of Palantir?
Play
Video

How The Lord of the Rings lore helps explain the mysterious tech company.

By Benjamin Stephen
Climate
The climate crisis is coming for your groceriesThe climate crisis is coming for your groceries
Climate

Extreme heat is already wiping out soy, coffee, berries, and Christmas trees. Farm animals and humans are suffering too.

By Ayurella Horn-Muller
Future Perfect
The surprisingly strong case for feeling great about your coffee habitThe surprisingly strong case for feeling great about your coffee habit
Future Perfect

Your morning coffee is one of modern life’s underrated miracles.

By Bryan Walsh
Good Medicine
Do health influencers actually know what they’re talking about?Do health influencers actually know what they’re talking about?
Good Medicine

Most health influencers don’t have real credentials — but they are more influential than ever.

By Dylan Scott