Night at the Museum
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a divorced father who is constantly unable to keep a stable job, the bulk of them being failed business ventures. He is desperate to win the support of his son Nick (Jake Cherry), whom he fears is beginning to look up to his more successful soon-to-be stepfather (Paul Rudd), a bond trader on Wall Street. After being fired from his last job, he applies for a job at the Museum of Natural History, and is assigned as a night guard.
The three older, and soon to be unemployed, night guards, Cecil (Dick Van Dyke), Gus (Mickey Rooney), and Reginald (Bill Cobbs), give him a quick tour, advise him to leave some of the lights on, and warn him not to let anything “in…or out” which Larry meets with humorous skepticism.
After the others leave, Larry amuses himself by playing with the phone for a while, and eventually falls asleep. Strange things start happening when he awakes, however. He discovers the T-Rex skeleton missing and then hears a noise from another room. He goes in, turns on his flash-light and finds the skeleton, very much alive, drinking from a water fountain. It notices Larry and chases him. The terrified Larry tries to escape the museum but can’t get the revolving door to open (Come on door, revolve! Revolve!). He dashes back to the front desk and dives under for cover while he frantically calls Cecil. Cecil, while at a retirement party, calmly tells Larry to read the instruction manual. Larry then reads the manual and finds the first instruction to be “Throw the bone”. At this point Larry sees the T-Rex drop one of its own rib bones. Larry throws the bone and tries to run away, only to get cut-off by the T-Rex who again drops the bone. He realizes the T-Rex wants to play fetch. Larry throws the bone again and runs further into the museum where he notices everything else coming to life. The Easter Island Head tells Larry to give him some “gum-gum” which results in him being chased by Attila the Hun. Checking the instructions again, Larry finds the next line says “Lock up the lions or they’ll eat you”. While in the Hall of American History, he evades the fight between the Civil War mannequins and goes to the African Mammals exhibit (which a woolly mammoth knocks him in there) to lock up the lions who then attack alongside an ostrich and a snake. While attempting to lock the bars he looks at the next instruction. It says “Double-check your belt. The monkey probably stole your keys.” Larry then realizes his keys have been stolen by Dexter, a Capuchin monkey who is also in the African Mammals exhibit. Larry eventually regains his keys but the instruction manual is torn to shreds by Dexter. He goes to the displays where he is stunned by the miniature Mayans caught between a battle with the miniature cowboy display led by Jedediah Smith, and the miniature Roman Gladiator display led by Gaius Octavius. Fortunately, Larry is rescued from all the fighting by a wax model of Theodore Roosevelt, who explains that ever since an Egyptian tablet was brought to the museum, everything comes to life as he is taken to Akmenrah’s exhibit. However, if the exhibits are outside of the museum by sunrise, they turn to dust. Roosevelt proceeds to help Larry by restoring order but insists that it will be the last time he shall ever do so.
Larry almost quits after that night. The museum’s director Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) asks Larry on why the miniature Octavius’ figure is in the stockades of the miniature cowboy display. On Cecil’s advice the next day, Larry begins to study the history of the events and people in the exhibits to prepare himself better since there’s no copy of the manual. He meets Rebecca (Carla Gugino), who is writing a dissertation of Sacagawea.
The next day he comes with a plan, which entails a visit to the library and reading dozens of books on world history and science. He uses a remote control car to play with the T-Rex skeleton, he gives fake keys to Dexter, lots of gum to the Easter Island Head, a lighter for the Neanderthals, performs tricks for Attila the Hun, Nick’s hockey glove to protect himself from the Mayan’s blow darts, and tries to settle things between Jedediah and Octavius telling them he will let them roam the museum if they promise to behave themselves, or else end up having their displays locked like the Mayans. It all backfires when Dexter steals his keys which unlocks the African room and unlocks a window, Attila sees a flaw in Larry’s acts, the Cowboys, Mayans, and Roman Gladiators fight, and the Neanderthals set fire to their display which Larry extinguishes with a nearby fire extinguisher. Larry corners Dexter and they end up in a slap fight which Theodore Roosevelt helps to get the keys back. A Neanderthal escapes out a window only for it to turn to dust when the sun rises, which Larry witnesses. Larry re-enters the museum, full of guilt, and sees Theodore Roosevelt, already turned to his statue form, clutching the keys in his hand.
Larry barely manages to keep his job after what happens to the Neanderthal exhibit. While locking up for the night, Larry tells Rebecca that everything in the museum comes to life at night, and to help with her dissertation he’d be willing to introduce her to Sacagewea. However, Rebecca thinks that Larry is mocking her, and leaves the museum visibly upset. To surprise his son, Larry had offered to take Nick to work that night, but nothing comes to life. Larry and Nick head towards the security office and find Cecil, Gus, and Reginald stealing the Egyptian tablet amongst other artifacts. Cecil reveals to Larry that like the museum exhibits, the tablet gives new life to himself and his cohorts at night. Now accustomed to this new-found vigor they are unwilling to give it up and were planning on stealing it and various artifacts to fund their retirement. Cecil and his companions had set Larry up by copying his apartment key and planting artifacts from the museum, thus when the tablet came up missing Larry would be blamed and no one would suspect the former night watchmen. Nick steals the tablet from Cecil and after prompting from Larry, turns an out-of-place panel that reactivates the tablet’s power and bringing the exhibits to life once more. Dexter lets the woolly mammoth, rhinoceros, leopard, and an Inuit on a dogsled out of the museum. Cecil grabs the tablet back and locks Nick and Larry in the Egyptian room.
Larry calls for Theodore Roosevelt for help—but receives a demand that he let himself and Nick out. Also, Roosevelt reminds Larry that he isn’t the real thing. The only thing left for Larry to do is release Akmenrah. After dodging the giant Anubis statues, Larry opens the sarcophagus releasing the mummy Ahkmenrah and asks him to stop the Anubis statues. Ahkmenrah does so then turns to Larry and begins unwrapping himself. Once freed of his wrappings Ahkmenrah’s appearance is of a normal person, not mummified at all. He also surprisingly speaks English, to which he replies (when Larry inquires) that he spent many years at Cambridge University (as an exhibit). He then asks Larry for his tablet back so he can “claim his kingdom”. Larry informs Ahkmenrah that the tablet has been stolen and Ahkmenrah orders the statues to break down the gate. Larry, Nick and Ahkmenrah set out to reclaim the tablet. Once in the museum lobby they find almost all of the exhibits involved in one big battle. With Ahkmenrah’s help, they befriend Attila the Hun. They try unsuccessfully to get the attention of the exhibits, until the Easter Island Head roars above the crowd telling them “Quiet! My dum-dum wants to speak.” This has the desired effect and all of the exhibits stop fighting and turn to Larry. Larry sends the Civil War guys to the planetarium and when he sees Christopher Columbus he says to take the Neanderthals through the invertebrae-through-reptiles section, and Jedediah and Octavius to take out the air from a tire in the thief’s van. The Civil War guys catch Gus, while Christopher Columbus and the Neanderthals catch Reginald, but Cecil escapes with the tablet and is sprayed by the Blue Whale in Oceanland before escaping to his van. Larry breaks Sacageawea out of her exhibit to track the van only to discover that Cecil returned and escapes on a horse-drawn carriage from the museum. Larry sets out with a posse of exhibits and pursues Cecil while Sacageawea heals Theodore Roosevelt (who was cut in half by saving Sacageawea from being trampled by the carriage). They succeed and the Huns drag Cecil back to the museum. The problem now is that a good number of the exhibits are outside (Roosevelt estimates nearly a full 50%) and the sun is close to rising. Larry turns to Ahkmenrah for help, who then performs a spell on the tablet that results in all the exhibits returning back to the museum.
Rebecca sees the exhibits crossing the road in front of her taxi, and realizes that Larry was telling the truth. Rebecca returns to the museum and meets Sacagawea, who agrees to answer Rebecca’s questions.
The next day, Dr. McPhee fires Larry despite his effort to clean up the museum, but he is rehired after the media coverage of the escaped exhibits the night before (believed to be a hoax or publicity stunt) increases admissions. Larry appears in Nick’s classroom during Career Day. Later that night, the exhibits, Larry, and Nick are partying, and not fighting.
It is revealed during the end credits that Larry did not send the former night guards to jail and merely made them pay back for all they’ve done to him by working as janitors.
