Introduction:

A warlord (Li) in Ancient China, conquers his enemies and becomes The First Emperor Of China, known as The Dragon Emperor or The Han Emperor. As his first act as Emperor, he orders the construction of The Great Wall Of China, burying his former enemies beneath it and cursing them to hold it up for all eternity. The Emperor orders a witch, Zi Yuan (Yeoh), to search for the secret to immortality with the aid of The Emperor’s second in command, General Ming Guo (Russell Wong). Zi Yuan and Ming fall in love, angering The Emperor who desired Zi Yuan for himself. After Zi Yuan supposedly casts the immortality spell on The Emperor in Sanskrit, he has Ming drawn and quartered and wounds Zi Yuan. She then reveals that she had forseen this and has in fact cursed The Emperor and his army who are encased in terracotta, becoming the Terracotta Army, permitting Zi Yuan to escape.

In 1946, 13 years after the events of The Mummy Returns, Alex O’Connell (Ford), son to Rick (Fraser) and Evelyn (Bello), locates The Han Emperor’s Tomb with the financial backing of Roger Wilson (Calder), an archaeology professor. Alex is attacked by an unknown woman, but succeeds in bringing The Emperor’s coffin to Shanghai. Meanwhile, the British government entrusts the O’Connells to take The Eye Of Shangri-La back to China as a good faith gesture to the Chinese. It is revealed that Wilson is in league with a Communist paramilitary group led by General Yang (Chau-Sang) and his second-in-command, Choi (Meng), who see The Emperor as the only one who can bring order and greatness back to China. The mysterious woman from the tomb attacks The Emperor in his coffin, which turns out to be a decoy. Yang and Choi use The Eye to resurrect The Emperor although he remains trapped in his terracotta form. Han accepts the service of Choi and Yang but kills Wilson. The woman from the excavation site tries to kill The Emperor with a dagger cursed by Zi Yuan, but is unsuccessful and The Emperor takes the dagger.