(enigmatic music)
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
(dramatic suspenseful music)
(workers heave)
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
- [Evelyn] Carter!
Poor Winlock is practically consumed with envy.
- I don't know why.
We haven't found anything yet.
There could be nothing down there at all.
- Don't worry, I wasn't going to jinx it.
It's just he was digging here for 10 years
and he never even found the steps.
- Well,
there were workmen's huts
left over from the tomb of Ramesses.
The dig crews have been storing tools in them.
They've been there for thousands of years.
The steps were underneath.
- You believed they were there.
Oh god, this waiting.
- Yes, I know.
- You could offer me a drink.
- Evelyn.
- Carter?
- What happened between us.
- Me kissing you, you mean.
- Yes, it,
it,
it wasn't appropriate.
- No, it wasn't.
- No.
- Offer me a drink, Carter.
(workers shout)
- Would you like a drink?
(gentle music)
This is complicated.
You're the daughter of an earl.
- I was aware.
- And
society.
Don't look at me, for gods' sake.
I haven't really ever been to--
- Carter, I don't care.
I don't care where you haven't really been.
I know exactly what I care about.
- You should probably go.
To dinner, whatever it is you people do out there.
- Well, then, you should be a gentleman.
Walk me home.
(Evelyn laughs)
(tense music)
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
- Maya!
Water, here!
(Carter speaks in a foreign language)
- You're welcome.
- Oh, what on earth are you doing?
- Lending a hand.
- Evelyn,
you can't carry water.
- Well, it seems I can, though.
I have been all morning.
And entertaining the troops into the bargain.
- Oh, for god,
no, it's just you,
you, you really shouldn't--
- Look, Carter,
I can't just sit around waiting.
I need something to do.
So, I'm doing this.
All right?
Papa's going to Cairo.
I'm to convey the message that, if I'm in the way,
you're to send me back.
- In the way.
- Mm-hm.
- Right, well, um,
take a load of water to the men, will you?
Yes, and then fill up the troughs for the mules, hm.
- [Merton] Mr. Carter.
- [Carter] Yes?
- Uh, my name's Merton.
(stutters) I don't believe we've met,
I'm the Times correspondent in Cairo.
How do you do?
- Yes, um,
this site is closed to visitors.
- Oh, I see.
Well, (stutters) I didn't mean to intrude, but
you must of course be aware you are the object
of quite some interest right now.
An undiscovered tomb entrance,
blocked tunnel, the promise of treasures within.
- Yes, I'm afraid there really is nothing to discuss
at this point, so if you don't mind, I'm.
- Of course, I understand, but
should there become something to discuss in due course,
if your endeavors bear fruit of any kind,
may I just say that the Times would consider it
a privilege to be allowed to cover the story.
I mean, I would consider it a privilege.
- You came all the way from Cairo to say that?
- Mr. Carter, I'd go almost to the ends of Earth right now
to find a story that doesn't involve Arabs rioting,
or British soldiers shooting people, or civil unrest.
From Cairo to the Valley of the Kings
was no distance at all.
- Well, Mr., um?
- [Merton] Merton.
- Mr. Merton,
it seems we're both hoping for good news.
If and when I have some,
I'll be sure to let you know.
- Thank you, sir.
That's, that's very kind of you.
(worker shouts)
- [Winlock] Not coming for dinner?
- Sometimes it's just as pleasant to dine alone.
- Ah, indeed.
Take a bottle of the Margaux, instead, Carter prefers it.
(Evelyn laughs)
(creature vocalizes)
(something clatters)
- Who's there?
- Tomb robbers.
But
I brought food.
- Ah.
(people chatter) (people laugh)
- Well, gentlemen, you must excuse me.
I will say good night to you all.
- Good night, sir.
- Good night. - Good night, sir.
- Oh, but, um, have you seen Evelyn?
- Oh, I believe she retired a little while ago, sir.
- Ah.
Ah.
(someone knocks)
Evelyn?
(Lord Carnarvon knocks)
(tense music)
(gentle music)
(people chatter)
I went to find you last night and
you weren't in your room.
- Oh.
I had trouble sleeping so I went for a walk.
- I don't want you going off the premises.
Not now.
There've been two more killings in Luxor, both British.
We're being targeted.
- I didn't know.
- Your mother wants you to go home.
So if you want to stay,
I need to know where you are, hm?
(workers shout and chatter)
If her mother could see her now,
slaving like a navvy, she'd have my guts for garters.
And yours, too, I would imagine.
- Who knew archeology had such risks, ey?
- Indeed.
She's very strong willed, always has been
since she was a child.
I sometimes worry it would get her into trouble one day.
Carter, have you,
have you considered the possibility
there might be nothing at all down there?
I know it's coy to talk about money, but, um,
I've sunk everything into this.
I've always loved a good game.
But now I find I've staked everything I have
on a turn of the cards.
(weighty pensive music)
(suspenseful music)
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
- Sir!
(suspenseful music)
- [Carter] Mind your step.
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
- [Lord Carnarvon] What do you have?
- Look.
It's still sealed.
Do you know what this says?
Amun
tut
ankh.
It's him.
This is, it's really him.
This is the tomb.
(suspenseful music)
Thank you all very much for all your hard work, but, uh,
that will be all for today.
(men chatter in a foreign language)
- Thank you!
Well, what now?
- Now we wait.
- [Lord Carnarvon] We wait?
- For an official of the Antiquities Service.
- Oh god, of all men,
to come all the way from Cairo, I suppose?
- Well, it's required, I'm afraid.
Otherwise, we lay ourselves open to charges of tomb robbing.
They'll take our license and they'll,
they'll revoke everything.
- What if there's nothing there?
What if it's all gone?
(soft tense music)
- Right.
(rock clatters)
(breath blows)
The spike, Evelyn, the mallet.
(tense hopeful music)
(mallet pounds)
(rocks clatter)
(tense hopeful music)
It's too dark.
I can't see a damn thing.
(tense hopeful music)
Use a stick.
You tie it, yes.
Nice and tight.
(tense hopeful music)
- Can you see anything?
Carter, can you see anything?
- Yes,
wonderful things.
(Evelyn laughs)
(tense hopeful music)
(workers chatter in a foreign language)
(gate squeaks)
(tense music)
(chain clatters)
(lock clatters)
(car rumbles)
We'll keep it locked
until the Antiquities Service gets here.
We mustn't give him the slightest cause for concern
- Quite right.
- What's down there, what we saw,
well, under the terms of the concessions, half of it will
go to Cairo, but the other half will go to your father.
He'll never have to concern himself with money again.
(gentle music)
Excuse me.
I have something for you.
- [Winlock] Hah.
(tense music)
- [Carter] Can't sleep either?
- Hmm, no, no.
You would think, having waited 10 years, that we could
wait a few more days, wouldn't you?
- Yes, you'd think.
The block work in the lower left-hand corner was damaged.
The plaster had come off,
the stones were exposed.
- Ah-ha.
- In fact, now I think about it,
there were no seals in that part of the door whatsoever.
- Really?
- Really.
(footsteps clatter)
- Just do it before you go mad.
(tense music)
(lock clatters)
(tense music)
(rocks clatter)
(men grunt)
(rocks clatter)
(gentle enigmatic music)
- [Carter] It's intact.
It's intact!
(suspenseful enigmatic music)
- [Lord Carnarvon] Good lord.
Look at all this.
(gentle music)
- [Carter] You're the first person to have touched that
in 3,000 years.
- You knew he was here.
You knew you could find him.
- [Lord Carnarvon] Carter.
Where is the coffin?
- It must be here
somewhere.
(tense enigmatic music)
My god.
There's more.
This, this, this, this is just the antechamber.
This, this, this is the burial chamber.
The seals are still intact.
He, he's, he's in here.
(tense suspenseful music)
(energetic tense music)
(Carter cries out)
(Carter and Evelyn cry out)
- [Lord Carnarvon] Oh my!
(energetic tense music)
(lock clatters)
- We've locked the tomb
until the Antiquities Service gets here.
So what we need is a proper system,
so that artifacts can be first dealt with in situ
and then be brought out for cataloging, recording.
We need secure workspaces for treatment and preservation.
But, most of all, we need people, people who understand
what they're doing, we need--
- You've seen inside,
haven't you?
How else would you know who you need and how many of them?
You already know what the job is.
Well don't worry.
All your little secrets are safe with me.
So, tell me what you have on your hands and I will
wave my wand over your endeavors.
- A royal tomb.
Still intact.
Now, on your honor now, not a word, do you hear me?
(Winlock exhales forcefully)
Yes.
- And poor Davis said the valley was all dug out.
(Winlock grunts)
Well,
you may count me and what remains of my honor
at your disposal.
But all the Met has out here at the moment
is a scratch crew.
Callender and Mace can join you straightaway,
but, for the rest, uh,
I'll have to cable home for the cavalry!
(tense suspenseful music)
(Winlock Knocks)
I need to send a cable to the director
of the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
- Yes sir.
- Request all assistance possible
Howard Carter's dig Valley of the Kings, stop.
Significant expertise required
all fields, stop.
Royal tomb, stop.
Winlock.
- Yes sir.
- Thank you.
(tense suspenseful music)
(morse key clatters)
(people chatter)
- Monsieur Lacau, good morning to you, sir.
We could not be more delighted that you are here
with your colleagues from the Antiquities Service.
Come along, have a drink.
I'd very much like you to meet,
of course, first of all, my esteemed colleague, Mr. Carter.
Monsieur Lacau.
- Mr. Carter.
- Mr. Lacau.
- Shall we?
- Uh, well, well, um, after you.
- Nothing has been tampered with?
- See for yourself.
(tense music)
- This is all in order.
Please, Mr. Carter, you may proceed.
(tense music)
(mallet pounds)
(flash fires)
- Quite brilliant, I'd say.
But, to be completely honest,
I can't take all the credit, it was Maspero
that recommended Carter to me.
- My predecessor's zest was a
great love for scholarship.
Such a man of letters.
- [Lord Carnarvon] Indeed.
- Even if his colonial sympathies
sometimes led him to imprudence.
A royal tomb.
Gentlemen.
- [All] A royal tomb.
- We begin at first light.
Uh, the Metropolitan has been unstintingly generous,
so not only do we have, well,
I don't want to embarrass anyone by saying its best men,
so I will simply say its available men.
And we also have tools and materials being brought over
from dig site four, and they will be brought over tonight.
(engine rumbles)
(tense music)
Nothing is to be touched
nor moved until its initial position has been recorded.
Harry will take a plate of the chamber
exactly as it currently stands.
Now, the most urgent steps are preservation and treatment.
Every item will be assigned a catalog number.
We are commandeering King's Valley 15
as primary laboratory and storage.
Harry will take a final reference plate at that point
and we'll set up a darkroom next door for processing.
Items will be examined, prepared for storage,
packed and crated and held there
before being sent on to the Cairo Museum.
Now, every worker will be searched
coming in and going out,
and that includes us, gentlemen, no exceptions.
Needless to say, what we are uncovering here
is unprecedented.
We simply cannot be too careful.
(unruly crowd shouts)
Get some posts and rope and move them back!
You here me, move them all back!
- [Soldier] Yes, Mr. Carter.
Move, move! (unruly crowd shouts)
- Don't go out there, it's bloody bedlam!
- Hah, what, what did expect?
- [Carter] What have you got?
- Look at these.
I've never seen anything like them.
(sand crumbles) (Carter gasps)
Been doing that a bit.
- It's reacting to the fresh air coming in.
- Hmm.
- Or breath.
Its humidity.
(Carter gasps)
- Good god.
- The threads perished.
- We could get the laboratory chaps down here.
- No, there isn't enough room.
- They're too far gone.
If we touch them, we might--
- Wax.
Paraffin wax.
It's neutral,
stable.
We melt it down,
paint it on, drip it on, let it solidify,
and then we lift them out.
- I'll get some wax.
(gentle music)
- And Nut was lifted up into the sky
to put on a canopy over the Earth.
The darkness gained the Sun, moon, and stars,
and it was out of this union that the gods Seth,
Nephthys,
Osiris, and Isis were born.
- That's rather a beautiful story.
- It is, isn't it?
And then, of course, Seth becomes jealous of his brother
and murders Osiris.
- (laughs) It's Cain and Abel all over again.
- Yes, it is.
It's funny how the same stories go round and round.
(gentle music)
What are we gonna tell your father?
- About what?
- About us.
- Nothing.
- Evelyn, he's my patron.
- I know.
This is just
you and me.
- [Carter] Hmm.
- Remarkable results.
(crowd chatters)
- [Crowd Participant] I explain here, that's right.
- What are they looking at?
It's packing tools.
They're photographing packing tools.
They're bloody idiots,
there are better objects here than that.
- Mr. Carter. - Yes?
- Is it true that Lord Carnarvon is flying treasures
from the tomb back to England at night?
- What?
- We've heard that three cargo planes have been filled
and taken off in secret from the Valley of the Kings.
Are you transporting Tutankhamun's treasures
back to England?
- Of course not!
Utter nonsense.
- They want a story.
You have the best story in the world right now.
Do you see that?
Everyone's had their fill of war and awfulness.
You have a boy king, a lost tomb, and the wonders
of a forgotten age, of course they want to talk to you.
- Well, they'll have to remain disappointed.
- Carter, if they don't get the story that they want,
they'll look for another story, any other story.
They might look so hard that they find one
we don't want them to find, do you understand?
- I see,
yes.
- Talk to them.
- Yes, all right!
- They're just people.
- I'll try.
- Mr. Carter.
- Mr. Lacau.
We weren't expecting the Service today.
- I merely wish to observe your
methods firsthand.
- Ah.
- There have been one or two, um, shall we say
unsettling rumors.
- Hm, yes.
Well, you can rest easy.
Everything is here.
Everything is properly accounted for.
- And yet not everything has made its way
to the Cairo Museum.
- Well, you see, we are sending items along
as soon as they have been properly packed
for transportation.
Some of the items are particularly delicate,
we are having to develop methods of preservation
as we go along.
But I was actually going to ask you, Mr. Lacau,
of the items that we have sent along to the museum,
we've yet to hear anything back on decisions
of distribution of the finds.
- Uh, I don't understand, Mr. Carter.
- What we find, what finds we make
are to be divided equally.
The museum, of course, gets first pick.
We, we've yet to hear anything back.
- Um, Mr. Carter, um, I'm afraid you are very much mistaken.
- No, no mistake.
- What you describe applies to
incidental finds in the valley,
pottery or suchlike,
not to a royal tomb.
A royal tomb is the heritage of Egypt.
It is the property of Egypt in its entirety.
- No, you see, Mr. Lacau, that's not the case.
The terms of the concession, the law is that
whatever is found is to be divided half and half between,
it's always been that way.
- Uh, I'm sorry, Mr. Carter, but you are incorrect.
The law has changed.
It may have always been that way before, but not any longer.
- Sorry, what do mean the law has changed?
When?
- Six weeks ago.
I'm afraid the situation is entirely legal
and entirely clear.
The contents of any royal tomb,
everything here, in other words,
is the property of the Antiquities Service
and will remain in Egypt.
Lady Evelyn, Mr. Carter.
(tense music)
(man speaks in a foreign language)
(dramatic tense music)
- Having sunk the greater part of my fortune into this dig,
I expect this means I shall be ruined.
We should've seen this coming.
We all knew which way the wind's blowing,
and it's blowing the British out of Egypt.
Six weeks ago the law changed,
he must be so very, very pleased with himself!
- [Evelyn] Despicable little shit!
- Evelyn!
- 3,000 years and no one's found it!
No one even thought it was here!
He's buried in Amarna, he's in an unmarked grave,
and the valley is dug out,
there's nothing left.
The tomb would've been here for another 3,000 years
if you and Carter hadn't believed in it.
(door slams)
(wind gusts)
- Now you listen to me.
Your father was the only man to believe in me,
the only man to back me.
I owe him everything,
and so I will not see him brought down by this.
I will get his money back, do you understand me?
Somehow.
Evelyn, I promise you I will find a way.
- I know you will.
I know.
(gentle music)
(tense music)
- Mind out.
Coming through.
(unruly crowd chatters)
Let's go inside.
(unruly crowd chatters)
Well, you've heard the news,
and it's far from ideal.
But we keep going.
We all keep going.
- What about the money?
- Let me worry about that.
Right!
Back to work!
(tense music)
- Sir.
You want?
I should find a buyer.
Fadil quiet.
- No.
Absolutely not.
(somber music)
(unruly crowd chatters)
Mr. Merton!
- [Reporters] Mr. Carter.
- Do you have a moment?
- Yes.
- Perhaps we should go somewhere that's quiet, hm?
- [Reporter] We just want one line.
- Yes.
- Doesn't have to be a column. - Please.
- [Reporter] We just need one line.
- Tell me, Mr. Merton.
What exactly is it that you press people want to know?
- What do we want to know?
- Yes.
- Everything.
- Sir, (stutters) I'm not sure you realize
there is no information.
We're all just scrabbling over scraps.
What exactly are the finds that you're bringing out?
We've seen jars and containers.
What's in them, why are they there?
What does the Egyptian writing mean?
People are calling it the tomb of the bird, why is that?
And Tutankhamun, who was he?
Was he a great pharaoh, or just a boy who got lucky.
What have you found so far, what are you hoping to find?
Everything.
Half the day we're just gossiping amongst ourselves
and wondering what on earth that fantastic object
that your chaps are carrying past us on a stretcher.
- And you think there's an appetite for this story?
- Mr. Carter,
right now,
you are the talk of the world.
You could give me a laundry list
and I'll put it on the front page.
This is a fairy tale come to life.
Let us write it, just
give us access.
Let us see what you see.
- No, you see, I can't be dealing with press or cameras.
It's too much, it interferes with the dig.
The crowds are already out of control as it is.
- But then--
- What I'm suggesting here, Mr. Merton, is a specific
relationship.
You,
that is, the Times,
you get access.
I'll talk to you, I'll show you.
No one else.
And then you can distribute the story to other newspapers
as you see fit, but it's one reporter, it's not a hundred.
What do you think?
- An exclusive, you mean?
- [Carter] Yes.
- An exclusive with
rights to syndicate.
- On the tomb of Tutankhamun.
With photographs or whatever else you choose.
Would that be worth something?
To the Times, Mr. Merton?
- Worth something?
- Would it be worth enough to fund my dig?
To pay my men?
For a while, at least.
- Well, (stutters) I should have to cable my editor,
but, um,
yes.
I believe it would.
(tense suspenseful music)
- I like this house of yours.
There's something calm and silent about it.
- When I was growing up, home
always meant noise and,
and brothers and
babies underfoot, so when I came out here, I sort of
fell in love with the silence.
- Perhaps it's the valley.
Perhaps everyone falls in love.
Is that why you used to live in your tomb?
For the silence?
- No, that was more necessity
than preference.
No, it was convenient.
I certainly didn't have to pay rent.
- Well I thought it was rather romantic.
- Yes, poverty only looks romantic
when you look at it from your stately home.
- Well, if it comes to it,
if this, this little adventure ends up finishing us
and we have to sell the estate,
we get to try it firsthand.
- Sorry, I didn't, it won't come to that.
- We have war debt,
entailment,
we're laying off staff.
- Sorry.
- Don't be.
We found something wonderful.
- Yes, we did.
- No regrets, Carter.
- I do really think you should stop at calling me Carter.
- Do you think that I should call you Howard?
- Well, yes, yes, I do.
- Oh god, it's awful!
- My name is awful, you think my name is awful?
- Just a little bit awful.
(laughs) Sorry.
It's just you've always been Carter.
My Carter.
(gentle music)
(unruly crowd shouts)
(flash fires)
- [Harry] That's it, all done.
- [Carter] Excellent!
- [Mace] So now we can open the burial chamber.
- [Carter] Yes, first thing tomorrow.
- [Mace] I can't wait.
- [Winlock] Ah, I think we should be leaving.
(unruly crowd shouts)
- Jesus.
- Dear god, what's got into them?
- [Winlock] I don't know.
But I think discretion may be the better part of valor.
- Right, let's shut up shop.
- What the bloody hell's got everyone so stirred up?
(stone thuds) - Ow!
- [Winlock] Get down!
You ass!
Mace, here, quickly!
(gun fires) (crowd screams)
(guns fire) (crowd screams)
- What can have set them off?
- Do you really have no idea what's going on?
- No.
- Carter's blundering progress puts the future
of these priceless relics in jeopardy.
Treasures from the tomb
are even now being shipped in secret to Britain.
The curse of the tomb revealed,
ancient prophecies speak of dire retribution.
- It's all nonsense.
- What did you do?
- I didn't do anything.
- You struck a deal with Merton.
You granted the Times exclusive access to the dig.
- Yes, because they're willing to pay for it.
It'll give us another month of dig time,
six months, maybe!
- Did it never cross your mind that to favor one newspaper
to the exclusion of all the others
would turn every other journalist in the world against us?
That, if you deny them the story that you give the Times,
they will simply print their own!
Sources close to the dig report that Lord Carnarvon,
whose fortune funds the excavation,
intends Tutankhamun's mummy
to be transported back to Britain and to be put on display
at the British Museum!
This!
When the bloody Arabs are just itching for a fight!
Winlock, would you, would you kindly excuse us?
- Of course.
- Do you know what damage this causes us, causes me?
- Well, we issue a correction.
- Where?
In the Times?
No one else will print it!
And now we have a dig crew who are afraid to work,
we have mobs throwing rocks at our men,
and a telegram from the foreign office
asking what the hell I think I'm playing at.
This is exactly what Lacau wants.
- I never for a moment considered that my dig--
- Anyone with a modicum of common sense would've considered,
would've thought twice!
How in god's name could you be so incompetent?
- I found this tomb!
- Oh, you found the tomb.
And that gives you the right to run roughshod
over the press?
And to make deals behind my back?
- They were made in good faith, my intention--
- Don't think that gives you license to bed my daughter!
You!
How dare you.
- Evelyn and I--
- Lady Evelyn!
I've put up with you.
I've extended you every tolerance.
But you have become a liability to the excavation,
and you have betrayed my trust.
- That was not my intention.
My lord, Lady Evelyn and I--
- I will make this very clear, very clear indeed.
You will not see my daughter again.
You will not speak to her,
you will not write to her,
you will leave her alone!
Or find yourself another position.
- Would you allow me to speak?
Not for myself, for Evelyn.
- You, sir, are responsible, you.
Don't you dare put words into my daughter's mouth.
I've nothing more to say to you.
- You have nothing more to say.
- Nothing!
- Then you have my resignation.
(gentle sad music)
Good day, sir.
- [Lord Carnarvon] Good day.
(weighty music)
(energetic suspenseful music)
(gentle music)