Why Jonathan From The Mummy Looks So Familiar
The super-fun blockbuster "The Mummy" is currently trending in the public consciousness, thanks to a combination of its availability on HBO Max, the trailer for the upcoming "Jungle Cruise" movie reminding people of it and making them nostalgic, and people's enduring affection for Brendan Fraser. When it came out in 1999, the adventure-horror film was a throwback to beloved adventure and horror stories most closely associated with the 1930s (it was a remake of 1932's "The Mummy") and as well as more contemporary takes on the genre like the Indiana Jones movies. In 2021, it's still a throwback to those types of movies, as well as a different, pre-Marvel era of blockbuster franchise filmmaking.
"The Mummy" tells the story of a British librarian and aspiring Egyptologist named Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz) who discovers a map to Hamunaptra, the lost city of the dead, and recruits an American adventurer named Rick O'Connell (Fraser) – who has already been -– to guide her and her brother there. Evelyn accidentally awakens Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo), a high priest who was cursed and mummified alive thousands of years ago for having an affair with the pharaoh's mistress. Imhotep is bent on getting revenge on Egypt and bringing his lover back to life by sacrificing Evelyn in exchange for her. So Rick and the rest of Evelyn's allies have to fight to save her –- and all of Egypt.
One of the movie's most prominent supporting characters is Jonathan Carnahan, Evelyn's charming ne'er-do-well older brother. He's the one who gave Evelyn the map in the first place after he nicked it from Rick. He tags along on the expedition to try to find hidden treasure and provide comic relief. He's played by John Hannah, a Scottish actor who you may recognize from a number of other projects.
John Hannah made us cry in Four Weddings and a Funeral
Hannah rose to prominence with "Four Weddings and a Funeral," the 1994 romantic comedy that sent Hugh Grant and screenwriter Richard Curtis to stardom. The movie became the highest-grossing British film ever at the time, according to the Irish Times, and John Hannah benefited from the film's success, with the talent he displayed in the film helping lead to his casting in "The Mummy" and its two sequels.
In "Four Weddings and a Funeral," Hannah plays Matthew, the lover of Gareth (Simon Callow), who is the subject of the titular funeral. Matthew has the most emotionally resonant scene in the movie, eulogizing Gareth and reciting W.H. Auden's poem "Funeral Blues." It's the scene that elevates "Four Weddings and a Funeral" from a very good romantic comedy to a true classic, and Hannah's performance can make you cry even if you've never seen the movie and you're watching the scene as a YouTube clip.
John Hannah romanced the Goop in Sliding Doors
The closest thing John Hannah ever had to a lead role in a hit movie was as Gwyneth Paltrow's witty and charming love interest in the 1998 film "Sliding Doors."
"Sliding Doors" is now better known for its concept of a single, small event changing the course of a person's life than for the movie itself, but Hannah has a major role in it. He plays James, a man who Helen Quilley (Paltrow) has a chance encounter with in an elevator and then runs into again when she boards a train in the London Underground, which eventually leads to a romance after she arrives home and catches her boyfriend (John Lynch) cheating on her, which wouldn't have happened if she hadn't caught that train. James is a funny, Monty Python-loving man who makes Helen happy. He is harboring a big secret of his own, though, which could make Helen wish she never met him.
John Hannah waxed poetic again on Agents of SHIELD
In recent years, Hannah's most prominent role was as emotionally complex antagonist Holden Radcliffe on Seasons 3 and 4 of the Marvel TV series "Agents of SHIELD." On the show, Radcliffe is a scientist who is tortured by failures and regrets who wants to help people live happily, but he goes about it the wrong way. He develops a Matrix-like virtual reality called the Framework where people's consciousness can live in a fantasy version of their life where nothing bad ever happens while their physical bodies are atrophying away. Eventually, his AI android creation AIDA (Mallory Jansen) kills him and forcibly puts his consciousness into the Framework. Eventually, he helps people who are trapped in the Framework escape and accepts that he and his creation are about to be deleted.
Hannah's final scene as Holden Radcliffe, in the Season 4 finale "World's End," echoes Hannah's famous "Four Weddings and a Funeral" scene. As he's preparing to die, Radcliffe recites a line from T.S. Eliot's poem "The Hollow Men," "This is the way the world ends, not with a bang, but a whimper," with the last word getting cut off as Radcliffe blinks out of existence.