50 free Night at the Museum trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Night at the Museum turned the American Museum of Natural History into a playground, and this quiz covers all three live-action films plus the animated spin-off. Forty-one questions take in Larry Daley's first disastrous shift, Rexy the T. rex, Dexter the capuchin, Jedediah and Octavius, Teddy Roosevelt and Sacagawea, the Easter Island head who wants gum-gum, and the Tablet of Ahkmenrah that makes it all happen. The sequels get their share: Kahmunrah, Amelia Earhart, Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone at the Smithsonian, then Sir Lancelot, Tilly and Laaa in London for Secret of the Tomb, and the Disney+ cartoon that hands the flashlight to Nick. Easy questions ask who plays Larry; harder ones want the children's book the films are based on, the film debut of a future Oscar winner, and the museum director who cannot remember Larry's name. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the films, and each question carries the sentence that supports it.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who plays night guard Larry Daley?
Ben Stiller
In the third film he also plays Laaa, a Neanderthal model made to look like him.
Q 02Who directed the three live-action Night at the Museum films?
Shawn Levy
The first two were written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon of Reno 911! fame.
Q 03The first film is based on a 1993 children's book by which author?
Milan Trenc
The book is a slim picture book; the films added almost everything else.
Q 04Which real New York institution is the setting of the first film?
The American Museum of Natural History
Exteriors were shot in New York, but the interior was a soundstage build in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Q 05What causes the exhibits to come to life each night?
The Golden Tablet of Ahkmenrah
Teddy Roosevelt explains it arrived in 1952 and anything still outside at sunrise turns to dust.
Q 06What does Larry name the Tyrannosaurus skeleton after taming it with a bone?
Rexy
Its dinosaur tracks in Central Park later make the news.
Q 07Dexter, the mischievous monkey who keeps stealing Larry's keys, is what kind of monkey?
A capuchin
In the second film he steals the tablet itself and sets the whole Smithsonian loose.
Q 08What does the Easter Island head call Larry?
Dum-Dum
What he wants from Larry is chewing gum.
Q 09Who plays the wax Theodore Roosevelt who mentors Larry?
Robin Williams
Secret of the Tomb marked his final screen performance and is dedicated to his memory.
Q 10Teddy Roosevelt is secretly in love with which exhibit?
Sacagawea
He is sliced in half protecting her from a stagecoach but survives, being made of wax.
Q 11Which two feuding miniature leaders become Larry's allies?
Jedediah and Octavius
One is a cowboy from the American Frontier diorama, the other a Roman general.
Q 12Which actor voices and plays the miniature cowboy Jedediah, uncredited in the first film?
Owen Wilson
Steve Coogan plays his Roman rival Octavius.
Q 13Which three veteran night guards turn out to be stealing the tablet to fund their retirement?
Cecil, Gus and Reginald
They are played by Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney and Bill Cobbs, and end up as janitors.
Q 21Who composed the score for the films?
Alan Silvestri
He replaced John Ottman on the first film and returned for the whole trilogy.
Q 22In Battle of the Smithsonian, why are the exhibits shipped off to Washington?
They are being replaced with holograms
Larry has left to sell his inventions on TV and only learns of the move on a visit.
Q 23Who is the villain of Battle of the Smithsonian?
Kahmunrah, Ahkmenrah's older brother
He wants to use the tablet to open the Gate of the Underworld and conquer the world.
Q 14Which actor plays the veteran guard who hires Larry and warns him to 'not let anything in... or out'?
Dick Van Dyke
Cecil warns Larry to 'not let anything in... or out'.
Q 15Which comedian plays Dr. McPhee, the museum director and Larry's boss?
Ricky Gervais
In the third film McPhee is fired after the planetarium disaster and thinks the magic is special effects.
Q 16The first film was the film debut of which future Oscar winner, playing the pharaoh Ahkmenrah?
Rami Malek
He went on to win Best Actor for Bohemian Rhapsody twelve years later.
Q 17Larry can never remember the name of which bronze statue, because it has no label?
Christopher Columbus
Pierfrancesco Favino plays the exasperated explorer.
Q 18Who plays Rebecca Hutman, the museum docent writing a dissertation on the Shoshone guide?
Carla Gugino
She thinks Larry is mocking her until she sees the exhibits returning at dawn.
Q 19Which actor plays Don, the fiancé of Larry's ex-wife Erica?
Paul Rudd
Don works in finance and gets the Career Day invitation that Larry so badly wants.
Q 20What did the first film gross worldwide, making it the fifth-biggest film of 2006?
$574.5 million
Reviews were mixed, with a 42% Rotten Tomatoes score, but audiences did not care.
Q 24Which actor plays Kahmunrah, and also voices The Thinker and the Lincoln Memorial statue?
Hank Azaria
Kahmunrah wears a tunic that Larry keeps calling a dress.
Q 25Which aviator, played by Amy Adams, becomes Larry's love interest in the second film?
Amelia Earhart
Adams also plays Tess, a look-alike visitor Larry meets at the end.
Q 26Which three historical villains does Kahmunrah recruit as henchmen?
Ivan the Terrible, Napoleon and Al Capone
Christopher Guest, Alain Chabat and Jon Bernthal play them; Capone is a black-and-white photo standee.
Q 27In the second film, what is the tablet's combination, per a group of Einstein bobbleheads?
The value of pi
Kahmunrah gives Larry an hour to work it out with Jedediah trapped in an hourglass.
Q 28Which SNL star plays General George Custer in Battle of the Smithsonian?
Bill Hader
Larry has to help him overcome his fear of repeating Little Big Horn.
Q 29Larry and Amelia escape from Kahmunrah's henchmen in which historic aircraft?
The Wright Flyer
They crash it straight back into the Smithsonian.
Q 30What did Battle of the Smithsonian gross against its $150M budget?
$413 million
Enough to green-light a third film five years later.