Night at the Museum

Larry Daley is a divorced man who has been unable to keep a stable job and has failed at many business ventures. His former wife Erica believes that he is a bad example to their ten-year-old son Nick, and Larry fears that Nick respects his future stepfather, bond trader Don, more than him.

Cecil Fredricks, an elderly night security guard about to retire from the American Museum of Natural History, hires Larry despite his unpromising résumé. The museum, which is rapidly losing money, plans to replace Cecil and his two colleagues Gus and Reginald with one guard. Cecil gives Larry an instruction booklet on how to handle museum security, advises Larry to leave some of the lights on, and warns him not to let anything "in...or out".

Once night falls, Larry discovers that the exhibits come to life, including a playful Tyrannosaurus skeleton nicknamed "Rexy" who behaves like a dog, a mischievous capuchin monkey named Dexter, rival miniature civilizations led by Old West cowboy Jedediah and Roman general Octavius, abusive, limb-ripping Attila the Hun, an Easter Island Moai obsessed with "gum-gum", and a wax model of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt explains that since an Egyptian artifact—the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah—came to the museum in 1952, all of the exhibits come to life each night. If the exhibits are outside the museum during sunrise, they turn to dust. Roosevelt helps Larry by restoring order, but only for one night.

Larry quits the next morning, saying to the three guards he doesn't want a job that is life-threatening. However, he sees Nick coming to see him at work the next morning, where he offers Nick a tour of the museum. After seeing Nick's interest in his job, Larry decides to remain as a night guard. When Larry tells Cecil about how Dexter tore up his instructions, Cecil advises him to study history to prepare himself for his nightly duties. He also learns more from a museum docent Rebecca Hutman, who is writing a dissertation on Sacagawea, but does not feel she knows enough about her subject.

The next night, Larry uses what he has learned to better control the exhibits. However, things go wrong anyway and four Neanderthals set fire to a display and some other things. One of the Neanderthals turns into dust after escaping from the museum at dawn, leading to a street sweeper truck to clean up his remains. The next morning, museum director Dr. McPhee almost tries to fires Larry after what had happened to the Neanderthal exhibit. Larry offers Rebecca a meeting with Sacagawea, but she believes that he is mocking her and the museum.

Larry brings Nick to the museum to show him the exhibits, but strangely none of them are coming to life. They find Cecil, Gus, and Reginald stealing the tablet and other valuable objects. Like the exhibits, the guards receive enhanced vitality from the artifact; wishing to retain their youth, health and to fund their retirements, the three plan to frame Larry for the thefts. They have also disabled the tablet to stop the exhibits from interfering. With his father's encouragement, Nick reactivates the tablet, and runs away with the artifact in tow. After a chase ensues throughout the museum, Cecil locks up Nick and his father in the Egyptian room and steals back the tablet. Larry releases Ahkmenrah's mummy from his sarcophagus. The pharaoh speaks English from many years as an exhibit at Cambridge, and helps Larry and Nick escape. The three find the other exhibits fighting; Larry confronts Attila, realizing his behavior came from being hurt a long time ago when he was very young, resulting in Larry comforting a sobbing Attila while singing a lullaby to him and convinces the exhibits to work together.

The exhibits capture Gus and Reginald without difficulty, but Cecil escapes by stagecoach. In doing so, he almost runs Sacagawea over, but instead slices Teddy in half when he shoves her out of the way. Cecil continues to escape with Larry, Nick, Ahkmenrah, Jed, Octavius, Rexy, and Atilla the Hun in pursuit in Central Park, where they stop him and regain the tablet. Jed and Octavius are presumably killed when their remote-controlled Hummer crashes, but they somehow survive. Rebecca sees the exhibits return to the museum before sunrise and realizes that Larry was telling the truth; he introduces her to Sacagawea. Dr. McPhee fires Larry again after seeing news reports of the strange events around the museum – such as cave paintings in the museum's subway station, dinosaur footprints in Central Park, and cavemen sightings. However, upon seeing how much these events raised attendance, he thinks better of it and gives Larry his job back. Larry, Nick, and the exhibits celebrate the following night and throw a huge party for everyone.

During the credits, it was shown that Cecil, Gus and Reginald weren't handed over to the authorities and are now working as janitors at the museum, cleaning up after the party.

The building featured in the film, which was constructed on a sound stage in Burnaby, British Columbia, is based on the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, external shots of which were used in the movie.[4]

Trainers spent several weeks training Crystal, who plays the troublemaking monkey Dexter, to slap and bite Stiller in the film.

Director Shawn Levy credited Ben Stiller for the ensemble cast: "When actors hear that Ben Stiller is in a movie they want to work with him. It['s] a high-water mark and it absolutely draws actors in and I'm convinced that's a big part of why we got this cast."[5]

Night at the Museum had its premiere in New York City on December 17, 2006, on December 22, 2006 in the United States, December 26, 2006 in UK, January 12, 2007 in Brazil, on February 14, 2007 in China and on March 17, 2007 in Japan.[8]

Night at the Museum was followed by a sequel titled Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian,[25] which was released on May 22, 2009 in North America. A third film, Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, was released on December 19, 2014 in North America.[26]

In 2016, The Hollywood Reporter stated that the Alibaba Pictures Group intended to remake the film.[27] On August 7, 2019, Disney stated they were to remake Home Alone, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Night at the Museum for their Disney+ streaming service.[28]

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Night at the Museum

• Night at the Museum on IMDb
• Night at the Museum at the TCM Movie Database
• Night at the Museum at AllMovie
• Night at the Museum at Box Office Mojo
• Night at the Museum at Metacritic
• Night at the Museum at Rotten Tomatoes
• Night At The Museum Review on Variety.com
• Independentfilm.com video interview with Mizuo Peck who played Sacagawea