47 Fun Facts About Night at the Museum

Who plays night guard Larry Daley in the Night at the Museum films?

Ben Stiller shares the first film with his own mother: Anne Meara plays Debbie, the job agent who sends Larry to the museum.

Who directed the three live-action Night at the Museum films?

Shawn Levy also slips in front of the camera: he plays the dad in Larry's television infomercial at the start of the second film.

Which real New York institution is the setting of Night at the Museum?

The American Museum of Natural History lent the film its look and its exterior, but the halls Larry patrols were built on a soundstage.

Which real gadget does Larry Daley say stole the thunder of his own failed invention?

The Clapper turns lights on at a clap; Larry's Snapper did it at a snap of the fingers, and he tells the job agent the rival 'stole a bit of our thunder'.

In Night at the Museum, what does Larry name the Tyrannosaurus skeleton after taming it with a bone?

Rexy behaves more like a puppy than a predator once Larry throws the bone, and his footprints in Central Park help turn the museum into front-page news.

Dexter, the mischievous monkey who keeps stealing Larry's keys, is what kind of monkey?

A capuchin, Dexter causes even more trouble in the sequel, where he steals the tablet itself and so brings the whole Smithsonian to life.

In Night at the Museum, what does the Easter Island head call Larry?

Dum-Dum is all the giant head will call him, even after Larry protests that his name is Larry; what the head wants in return is 'gum-gum'.

Who plays the wax Theodore Roosevelt who mentors Larry in Night at the Museum?

Robin Williams's Roosevelt gallops to Larry's rescue on horseback on the very first night, and Williams returned to the part in both sequels.

In Night at the Museum, Teddy Roosevelt is secretly in love with which exhibit?

Sacagawea leaves Teddy too shy to speak, until he is cut in half pushing her out of a stagecoach's path and she repairs his wax body.

In Night at the Museum, which conqueror and his men chase Larry through the halls on his first nights as a guard?

Attila the Hun starts out as Larry's most frightening pursuer and ends up a friend: by the third film he is one of the exhibits who stow away to London to help him.

Which actor plays the miniature cowboy Jedediah, going uncredited in the first Night at the Museum film?

Owen Wilson took no billing for the first film, even though his cowboy is one of its biggest parts; from the sequel on, his name is on the cast list.

Which actor plays the veteran night guard who hires and trains Larry in Night at the Museum?

Dick Van Dyke's old guard is in effect hiring his own successor: the museum is losing money, so its three veterans are being swapped for one new man.

Which comedian plays Dr. McPhee, the museum director and Larry's boss, in the Night at the Museum films?

Ricky Gervais's McPhee stays in the dark for almost the whole series: in the third film he loses his job over the planetarium chaos and still thinks the living exhibits are special effects.

Night at the Museum was the film debut of which future Academy Award winner, playing the pharaoh Ahkmenrah?

Rami Malek's pharaoh is a mummy who steps out of his sarcophagus late in the film and helps Larry restore order; twelve years later Malek won Best Actor as Freddie Mercury.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, Dexter meets Able, a fellow monkey who earned a place in a museum by doing what?

Flying into space in May 1959 made the real Able famous, and the monkey is on display to this day at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington.

In Night at the Museum, who plays Rebecca Hutman, the docent writing a dissertation on the Shoshone guide?

Carla Gugino's Rebecca takes Larry's talk of living exhibits for mockery, until she watches them troop back into the museum at dawn and meets the subject of her dissertation in person.

In Night at the Museum, which actor plays Don, the fiancé of Larry's ex-wife Erica?

Paul Rudd's Don works in finance and is the one invited to Career Day at Nick's school, which is what stings Larry into holding down a steady job.

Who composed the score for the films?

He replaced John Ottman on the first film and returned for the whole trilogy.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, why are the exhibits shipped off to Washington?

They are being replaced with holograms as the museum goes high-tech, and because the tablet is staying behind in New York, the crated exhibits expect never to wake again.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, Larry escapes a group of soldiers by jumping into a famous photograph of which event?

V-J Day in Times Square, the 1945 photo of a sailor kissing a woman in white, becomes a black-and-white world that Larry can walk around in, complete with a young sailor called Joey Motorola.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, which actor plays Kahmunrah and also voices The Thinker and the Lincoln Memorial statue?

Hank Azaria plays the villain as a vain pharaoh who bristles when a henchman asks why he is wearing a dress: 'This is not a dress. This is a tunic.'

Which famous figure, played by Amy Adams, becomes Larry's love interest in Battle of the Smithsonian?

Amelia Earhart knows all along that she is only a wax figure, so after taking the New York exhibits home she kisses Larry goodbye and heads back to Washington.

Which three historical villains does Kahmunrah recruit as henchmen in Battle of the Smithsonian?

Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone are sent to get the tablet back; Capone comes from a photograph, so he stays in black and white, and Larry ends up turning the three against each other.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, what do the Einstein bobbleheads say the tablet's combination is?

The value of pi has to be found fast: the villain has sealed Larry's friend Jedediah inside an hourglass and given Larry one hour before the sand runs out.

Which SNL star plays General George Custer in Battle of the Smithsonian?

Bill Hader's Custer is all swagger until Larry talks him out of his dread of repeating the Little Bighorn, and only then does he rejoin the fight.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, Larry and his companion escape their pursuers in which historic aircraft?

The Wright Flyer, the first powered aeroplane, lifts the pair clear of their pursuers, and they promptly crash it straight back into the Smithsonian.

Which boxing champion appears as himself in Battle of the Smithsonian?

George Foreman, famous for selling his own grill on television, turns up beside Larry, who has quit the museum to sell his inventions the same way.

In Secret of the Tomb, which character turns out to have been at the 1938 Egyptian dig as a boy?

Cecil Fredericks was the son of the archaeologist who opened the tomb, and the locals' warning that 'the end will come' is what tells him, decades later, that the tablet's magic is dying.

In Secret of the Tomb, Larry travels to which London institution to save the tablet's magic?

The British Museum holds the mummies of Ahkmenrah's parents, and they are the only ones who know what is wrong with the tablet.

In Secret of the Tomb, what is the name of the new Neanderthal model who thinks Larry is his father?

Laaa was ordered by the museum as a model that looks like its night guard, which is why he greets Larry as 'Dada' and stows away on the trip to London.

Which Downton Abbey actor plays the wax Sir Lancelot in Secret of the Tomb?

Dan Stevens's Lancelot starts out as an ally and then makes off with the tablet, because he takes it for the Holy Grail.

In Secret of the Tomb, Lancelot crashes a West End performance of Camelot starring which real actor as himself?

Hugh Jackman is in mid-performance as King Arthur when the wax knight storms the stage, and watching the show is how the knight learns that Camelot was only ever a legend.

In Secret of the Tomb, who plays Tilly, the London night guard who locks Larry in the break room?

Rebel Wilson's Tilly gets the last word: three years on she brings a travelling exhibition to New York and hands over the tablet, waking the exhibits once more.

In Secret of the Tomb, what restores the tablet's fading power?

Moonlight works because the tablet draws its power from Khonsu, the Egyptian god of the moon, as Ahkmenrah's parents explain once Larry tracks them down.

Secret of the Tomb is dedicated to which two late cast members?

Robin Williams and Mickey Rooney both died in 2014, months before the film opened that December, so its closing credits carry a tribute to each of them.

Who plays Merenkahre, Ahkmenrah's father, in Secret of the Tomb?

Ben Kingsley's pharaoh is found lying in a London museum beside his queen, and it is he who finally explains what the ailing tablet needs.

The 2022 animated film Kahmunrah Rises Again was released on which streaming service?

Disney+ got the film because Disney had bought 20th Century Fox, the studio behind the three cinema releases, and in 2019 confirmed the animated sequel as a streaming exclusive.

Who takes over from Larry as the museum's night guard in the animated sequel Kahmunrah Rises Again?

His son Nick, now in high school and voiced by Joshua Bassett, fills in for the summer while Larry goes off to guard a museum in Japan.

Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon, who wrote the first two Night at the Museum films, also created which spoof police series?

Reno 911! is their own creation, and both men act in it; Lennon later came back to the Museum series in front of the microphone, as the voice of Teddy Roosevelt in the animated sequel.

Which actor plays the miniature Roman general Octavius in the Night at the Museum films?

Steve Coogan's Octavius turns the tide of the second film by fetching the giant statue of Abraham Lincoln, whose arrival scares the enemy's warriors back to the Underworld.

Which Everybody Loves Raymond actor voices the Easter Island head in Night at the Museum?

Brad Garrett, Raymond's towering brother Robert, supplies the booming voice of the stone head that pesters Larry for chewing gum, and he came back to do it again in the sequel.

Which actor from The Office appears as one of the Tuskegee Airmen in Battle of the Smithsonian?

Craig Robinson is not the only Office regular in the film: an uncredited Ed Helms plays Larry's assistant at his gadget company.

Which pop act plays the singing Cherubs in Battle of the Smithsonian?

The Jonas Brothers voice the three stone cherubs and also supply the song over the closing credits, 'Fly with Me', which they released as a single weeks later.

In Battle of the Smithsonian, which Sesame Street character offers to join Kahmunrah's villains but is sent away?

Oscar the Grouch is told he seems less evil than grouchy, and Darth Vader, who turns up beside him, is waved off as asthmatic and overdressed in his cape.

Which Superbad star has an uncredited cameo as a Smithsonian security guard in Battle of the Smithsonian?

Jonah Hill's guard wears a badge that reads Brandon, but he insists to Larry that the name is pronounced 'Brundon'.

In the animated sequel Kahmunrah Rises Again, which historical heroine is the museum's newest exhibit?

Joan of Arc joins the returning gang of exhibits and helps them stop the villain of the title; her voice is Alice Isaaz's.

Secret of the Tomb opened second at the US box office in December 2014, behind the last film of which series?

The Hobbit trilogy's finale, The Battle of the Five Armies, took the top spot, and the next Museum film, eight years later, was animated and went straight to streaming.