Headscratchers / Night at the Museum

As a Headscratchers page, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

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• Why would Larry bother tracking his son's phone when the tracker app apparently only has a range of about half a museum wide? If Nick actually went anywhere Larry didn't know about, he wouldn't have been able to find him anyway.
  • Maybe all the magic in the museum affected the range.
  • Or perhaps the signal strength wasn't very good inside the museum.

• Attila speaks whatever Mongolian language the Huns spoke, and the Christopher Columbus statue that asks Larry for directions doesn't seem to speak English either. Some exhibits seem to only recognize the language they were "programmed" to know, so shouldn't Octavius and everyone in miniature Rome speak Latin?
  • Maybe they learned it too? If Pharaoh Ahkmenrah could do it...

• If anything that was given new life by the tablet would turn to dust were they not in the domain of the tablet when it deactivated, wouldn't the old night guards (who specifically stated that the tablet literally gave them new life to explain the rejuvenation) turn to dust after the tablet was taken back?
  • Well, they hadn't actually died yet, had they? They were just old. When he said it gave them new life, he was just speaking figuratively, as in it made them more lively.
  • It did stop their aging whenever the magic was active. However, as we can see from Secret of the Tomb, their age is very quickly beginning to catch up to them now that they aren't regularly exposed to the tablet anymore.

• During the winter, the sun sets fairly early in New York, sometimes around 4:30 pm, which is about an hour before closing time. Even if both movies are set in the summer, the tablet was still in the Natural History museum for long enough for the previous guards to notice its effects, so why didn't anyone notice when all the exhibits came to life while guests were still in the museum?
  • The exhibits probably were smart enough to play statue while there were still people in the museum, and even is someone actually saw one or two of them moving, wouldn't believe it at first, coming up with something of the sorts of animated dummies.
    • The animals and the cavemen definitely wouldn't be smart enough. And some, like Attila the Hun, are too aggressive to do so.
    • Sunset may not literally be the activation point for the tablet, but instead simply a bit of poetic license to indicate the general timeframe in which it will usually start working. It's just easier to judge by sunset than say "When the third star of the fifth constellation is at thirty degrees from the horizon of the sea."
    • Actually, as of the third movie, it's not the sun going out that's important, it's the Moon rising, because it's the Moon that powers the tablet.
    • That doesn't make sense, either - the moon rising isn't specifically tied to nightfall. It can be in the sky in the middle of the day. Unless the exhibits are only given life when it does happen to rise at night, in which case, there would have to be some nights where they would simply stay inactive.
    • It's because of the Egyptian moon god, Khonsu. Ra (Egyptian sun god and king of the gods) would hate Khonsu due to the latter letting Nut give birth by adding 5 more days to the year. The "some nights" bit still stands.

• Why didn't the to-do list tell Larry to carry out tasks like "lock up the lions" before sunset? It's not like he'd have gotten fired if he'd shown up for his shift a few minutes early.
  • Remember the guards were not actually trying to do Larry any favors.
    • Maybe, but from the look of it, they used the to-do list before they got fired. It's not just something they made for Larry.
  • Remember, Larry spent a fairly long time just mucking about before anything came to life. Before the old guards left, they told him to "do the instructions in order and do them quickly". Larry pretty much instantly failed at that and he lost the instructions later that night. Presumably, if he'd followed the guards' advice and started following the instructions immediately instead of messing with the speaker-phone thing, he'd have been fine.
  • The other guards probably didn't want Larry's activities to be noticed if their mutual boss happened to leave his office a little later than usual.

• Where were the characters with firing weapons (the Civil War mannequins, the Roman miniatures) getting more ammunition? Or the western miniature figures getting more dynamite?
  • They may have been making it. No way a war regiment or a western town wouldn't have at least one ammo maker or dynamite maker.
  • Or it's just part of the magic. Since guns that don't fire or bows without arrows and whatnot would be pretty lame for magically animated beings, the magic may supply them with the equivalent of Bottomless Magazines.
    • But Jed's gun doesn't work.

• Dexter is a magically-animated stuffed capuchin monkey. How does he urinate on Larry?
  • The same way the Civil War soldiers' guns fire despite the museum staff knowing better than to actually load them.

• In the hall of African mammals, lions and leopards are shown coexisting with their natural prey. Why don’t they hunt and eat the prey?
  • Presumably for the same reason why the Civil War soldiers can't actually kill each other despite firing bullets, or why the cavemen didn't die despite one of them literally being on fire. The implication is that it's only being outside the reach of the tablet when the sun rises that ultimately kills any of the exhibits.
  • No stomachs, ergo no appetite.

• What happened to Brundon?
  • Good question. A wish he'd had a larger role in the movie. Given all the time that was spent talking about his name, he deserved it.
    • For that matter, why are there no guards at the Smithsonian at all after Larry breaks in? Heck, there were armed groups wandering around fighting within sight of the capitol building (including the Lincoln Memorial walking around and starting fights) and no security of any kind notices.
    • This is Washington DC, where the Secret Service can't find cars. It's not that hard to suspend disbelief.
    • Maybe they noticed the stuff coming to life, decided Screw This, I'm Out of Here!, and ran off because I Need a Freaking Drink.

• How did the mess back at the Smithsonian get cleaned up/explained away?
  • One's assuming there are janitors...though when they did it sure is a mystery.
  • Two words: Government Conspiracy.

• What is the range of the tablet? Lincoln was activated when the tablet was brought under the monument roof, and NY Teddy was activated when the tablet was brought back to that museum, but Earhart was able to fly back to D.C. once the tablet was in NYC, and the Smithsonian exhibits presumably didn't turn to dust, even though they weren't in the same building as the tablet at sunrise.
  • It's assumed once the tablet had woken up an exhibit, it would stay that way until sunrise. So someone activated on Night A would continue to do its thing until Night B, even if the tablet was moved away.
    • Are we sure Earhart made it back? Think of the line "I think it's going to be a beautiful sunrise." With the tablet in New York, she was flying back to oblivion either way.

• What happened to Larry's love interest from the first movie?
  • Maybe she moved on to write her book on Sacagawea. In fairness their romance was more sparks than anything concrete. The real mystery is why Larry was so slow to show interest in Amelia - even given her, uh, condition she's still very attractive and is certainly interested in him.
    • As shown in the first film, wax statues don't turn flesh, but are still made of wax. Cold dolls having no smell (an so, not pheromones) are even less interesting when you have to run for your life.
    • If the things don't come to actual life but merely appear to, why was it such a big deal that Owen Wilson was being buried in sand?
    • Because he wasn't sure if it was enough to kill him or not.
    • Exactly. Would you really want to push your luck and hope that being buried alive under all that heavy sand (well, heavy for a five-inch figure) wouldn't kill you? While they don't become completely alive, there are a few changes that occur that suggest they become more alive-ish at night. Teddy is less pale at night, Ahkmenrah isn't a dried-up corpse, the miniatures are more detailed than during the day when they are plastic models. Al Capone is probably the image from the cardboard cutout (hence why he was black and white). They don't become completely flesh and blood, but they end up being a lot closer at night. They know for certain that being outside after sunrise is a death sentence, but very few individuals are probably willing to test out the limits of their semi-alive state and figure out what could kill them. Teddy didn't die by getting cut in half in the first movie, but he still shoved Sacagawea out of the way of the coach so she wouldn't get squished. She even said that Teddy saved her. It is quite possible that he didn't know for certain how much punishment a wax figure could take before they essentially "died." And they probably didn't know if being buried would kill Jed. At best, being buried like that would be extremely uncomfortable. At worst, it might have been fatal for the magically-animated cowboy. They didn't know for sure and it was best to save him just in case.

  • Or the two simply had a falling-out between movies. Happens all the time.

• So in Battle Of The Smithsonian, the NY museum gets a talking hologram of Teddy Roosevelt played by someone who looks and sounds just like the wax figure when it comes to life. How in the heck?
  • Really convincing computer graphics. It's a bit beyond current technology, but so are decent-looking holograms, so it's supposed the movie is set a couple years ahead of when it was made.
  • Graphics, sure. But who the hell voiced it?
  • Maybe some museum worker saw the figure and thought "Hey, he looks just like Robin Williams" and hired him to dress up like the figure for the hologram. As for the voice...Don't know. Guess that all of this could be explained by MST3K Mantra.
    • By the way, not an answer, but interesting trivia: if you listen to the commentary on the DVD, Shawn Levy explains that Robin Williams actually did the voice himself. Accelerated talking and all. Even the editing crew was impressed by that.
  • We have both photographs and audio recordings of the real Theodore Roosevelt, so the museum would have been able to hire able someone who looks and sounds very similar for the hologram. Assuming Robin Williams' portrayal of Wax!Teddy is supposed to look and sound like the real Roosevelt In-Universe, it's only natural that the statue and hologram would end up being very similar.

• What happened to Ed? You know, the guy Larry was supposed to meet with until he jetted off.
  • He showed up at Larry's home, found out Larry effectively stood him up, and angrily went back home, vowing to never do business with Larry ever. Which is fine by Larry, since Larry killed his business career.
  • The junior novelization, "A Capitol Adventure", answers this: Larry sold his company off, Ed bought it, and has a very fun job running things.

• Some people on IMBD were suggesting that the director's anger being about the fact THAT the museum was messy rather than asking Larry HOW it got that way meant that he knew what was—— going on. Others don't buy it, but it's to make sure to see what everybody here thought of it.
  • As a boss, one won't care how it got messed up. Just assume that given no real evidence of a break in, that the only living person in a locked building did it. What other option is there? Either the lone person did it or someone broke in. It's not like the exhibits came to life.
  • It's a headcanon that the boss did know. His behaviour is inexplicable otherwise—if one would find the museum trashed to such a degree, They would neither care how it happened or give the watchman a chance to explain. He would be fired on the spot, and, what's more, we'd probably prosecute for damages due to negligence on the job. In other words, the museum was a disaster. Instead, Dr. Murphy just expresses anger at Larry's performance. That, and his general disfluency on expressing exactly what the problem is, convinces that the Directors of the Museum are well aware of the tablet but try to maintain Plausible Deniability.
    • Based on the third movie, McPhee was completely oblivious to the magic of the tablet and everything.
    • It could be argued that he was vaguely aware of the magic, but covered it up with denial. Otherwise he wouldn't have trusted Larry with taking the tablet to London in the first place.

• Where the heck did Pi come from in the second movie. PI was invented several Millenia later by the Greeks. Even if mistaking the time period of the Pharaohs, pi has nothing to do with pyramids. Pi only is useful for round objects.
  • Rameses II ruled around 1200 BC. According to the other wiki, Egypt had a ratio within 1% for seven hundred years by that time. Let it bug you no longer! By the by, Egyptians didn't build all pyramids...
    • To recall the riddle had to do with pyramids which if you are correct in the time period is a big anachronism.
    • Part of the "Pyramid Power" set of New Age superstitions is that a number of significant numbers, including Pi, are built into the dimensions of the Giza pyramids. If the sides were measured off with any kind of wheel, which the various how-to paintings they left behind suggest, it would be built in whether they knew about it or not.
  • But what the hell with the decimal system ??
    • Didn't the tablet only have 9 keys?

• In the first movie, one of the the plot devices is that if all the tablet's pieces weren't all in place, the magic didn't work. Why, when Larry was being chased (or, indeed, at any point in the film when he was given pretty much free reign over the tablet) didn't he just turn one of the pieces around, and get rid of the bad guys while they're inanimate objects?
  • Well, when being chased by FREAKING AL CAPONE, it's kind of hard for someone to think rationally.
    • He had a long period where, at the villain's own insistence, he had nothing to do but think about how the tablet worked.
  • The only thing to recall was that when the pieces were misaligned the magic wouldn't kick in at sundown, but would at any point during the night. Maybe once it was turned on the magic would work until sunrise even if the alignment was changed, so it's not quite as simple as an on/off switch. It would have been nice to at least explain that.
  • Near the end of the second movie, when Amelia is trying to put the tablet into the door, there's a moment where several pieces of the tablet are off, so it doesn't fit in the door at first. It could be assumed that meant that, after the magic was activated by an intact tablet, it stayed in effect until sunrise.
  • There are quite a few indications that the tablet is only required for the transformation itself, at sundown, and that once that happens the effects endure, with or without the tablet, until sunrise. This explains not only hown the pieces can be removed with no ill effects to Amelia (above) and how she can fly in between New York and Washington DC (way above) regardless of where or what condition the tablet is in.
    • Taking that the tablet being out of position only stops the initial transformation as a valid excuse, there is a brief period where he has the tablet before sundown. It's short, but he'd had plenty of time before that to think about what his plan was, and you'd think "Turn the tablet" would have come up at some point.
    • He gets the tablet in his hands literally seconds before it activates. It probably happened so fast he didn't think of it or had thought of it but before he could even try...

• Larry loses his phone while in the photograph portrait "V-J Day in Times Square" and it's picked up by some guy. At the end of the movie, he's shown to be tinkering with it, and his mother calls him "Joey Motorola," implying that Larry dropping the phone caused the first cell phone to be made. But...he dropped it in a PHOTO. And since it's just a photograph, how on Earth is time supposed to pass anyways? Aren't they just supposed to be stuck in that one particular moment? So if anything, the phone small-mini-subplot made absolutely no sense. And what about the mooks that were trapped in there when he turned the portrait around?
  • It's just a silly joke. Motorola already existed in 1945, and it wasn't named after the founders (though it didn't assume its current name until 1947).

• Is Kahmunrah a wax figure or a mummy? He could be a wax figure because he doesn't look mummified before nighttime (when the tablet activates). He could be a mummy because he said that he "came back to life", and if to recall he looked like he was in bandage when he was sent into the Land of the Dead.
  • He's a mummy; he picked up English from years spent in a British museum, which presumably took him straight from the Valley of the Kings.
  • Definitely mummy. You wouldn't craft a wax figure just to wrap him in bandages. And even if you did, you wouldn't stick him in a sarcophagus where nobody will ever see it. In order for it to make any sense, he'd have to be a real mummy that becomes flesh and decomposes every night and day.
    • If he is a mummy, how could he not look like a decomposed body during the first time Larry saw him?
    • Because the tablet was made specifically to bring Egyptian mummies back to life. Wouldn't do him, or Ahkmenrah, much good if they came back as decomposed bodies.
    • Though it wears off every morning, so the question still stands
    • It's also mentioned in the third movie that newborn exhibits are stronger than those who have been alive for some time. Maybe because Kahmunrah was only on his second night, the tablet turned him into a more "alive" looking form rather than back into a dead corpse.
  • Umm, mummies were created specifically to avoid decomposition. However they couldn't come back to life at all and remain mummies because Egyptians only left the heart in the body- and they tended to throw the brain away as useless.
    • Actually, they couldn't really come back to life because they're dead bodies. We're talking about magic here, remember?
  • One could guess plothole and Rule of Cool explaining why he's really neither. Most likely, they thought it would look cool for him to be pointing angrily at the crate when Larry arrived without much thought as to the fact that he ought to be a dried up body like his brother is during the day. Remember that Ak coughs up mummy dust when he's first met despite spending nights on nights screaming and fighting to escape his sarcophagus, so he probably reverts back to being all dried up in the daytime. It's pretty likely Kahmunrah should be a dried husk, and he's not a figure because he lacks the waxy, Uncanny Valley look that, say, Amelia or Attila have. Since he can't be a mummy because he should have gone back to his natural state and he doesn't look fake like Jed or Octavius.
  • Is it possible like Lancelot he's a fake that doesn't realize he is a fake? Given that his parents make zero mention of him in the third, and he didn't know the tablet's password (he claims it was changed but without Ahk there how do we know that's the truth?)
    • Kahmunrah Rises Again has Merenkahre talk to him and acknowledge him as his son.

• If a kid left a toy in the museum, one would presume it would come to life after sunset like everything else inside, correct? So if a toy of something that doesn't exist in the real world was left in there (like a dragon or maybe even a Pokémon), theoretically for however many nights that toy is left there, that thing would would, in fact, exist. That would be so awesome. (Too bad it probably wouldn't happen if there's a third movie because they might get accused of plagiarism).
  • Vader was brought to life, and the Force clearly didn't work.
    • Yeah, but he still was walking around and breathing. If a toy dragon was brought to life and could walk and breath (and maybe talk), it would still be an actual existing dragon during that time, even if it couldn't spit fire.
    • It would still be a hunk of plastic, just a moving one. Recall Teddy getting chopped in half in the first movie: He was still a wax figure.
    • YEAH, BUT IT WOULD STILL BE AWESOME, RIGHT? Dude, what do you have against a dragon anyway? :P
  • There is at least one dragon already on Smithsonian property. It's on the Merry-go-Round. You may also be able to count Viking figureheads. Why must you cheapen this by wanting a tiny, toy dragon wandering around as well?
    • The Viking figureheads might not come to life if they're replicas because we don't know how many layers of representation the tablet looks through.
  • To go with that, how about some Fridge Horror? What if they had a WWII exhibit and a cutout or statue of Adolf Hitler?
    • Then you'd have a short guy shouting German running around. Hitler was evil, sure, but he didn't have any special powers.
    • That we know of...
    • Besides, if he left the museum and the sun came up, he'd turn to dust anyway.
  • Well, we know toys become real. The toy car in the first movie has a real working engine and steering wheel, because Octavius and Jed drive it. So imagine a small Squirtle figurine would be able to use at the very least Scratch and Rapid Spin no problem. Probably can't use Water Gun, though.

• How could the cherubs fly if Vader couldn't use the Force? NY Roosevelt was made of wax even when he was alivened, so the cherubs must have still been made of stone. However, if Vader couldn't use the Force, the cherubs shouldn't have been able to use whatever magic flying power they used to fly as normal gods with tiny wings. It shouldn't be that it was a statue of David Prowse in a Vader costume, since Prowse wouldn't have thought he had Force Choke abilities, and probably wouldn't have wanted to be a villain and help take over the Smithsonian.
  • Pretty sure they're at least somewhat real when the tablet animates them. There was a scene in the sequel that brings special attention to Roosevelt's skin as it slowly morphs back to wax at sunrise. Also, the Civil War guys as well as the cowboys can fire bullets in the first one despite the fact that it's highly unlikely the museum would put working gunpowder in the replicas. Also, the statues are able to talk, despite lacking lungs and a voicebox. And let's not forget the mummies, which the tablet is able to transform from decayed corpse to living person every day and night.
    • The point isn't that they could fly, it's that they they could fly using their mystical Eros powers but Vader couldn't use the Force. Somebody is breaking precedent.
  • Maybe their magic only works on themselves, but not others. The cherubs fly because they're only affecting themselves. Vader can't use The Force, because he was trying to use it on somebody else.
  • It could also be that it was because he was trying to strangle someone who was being kept alive by a supernatural power, which was stronger than his control over the force. The giant squid, which cannot live outside water, was doing just fine without it.
  • It's probably because, in this universe, there is no Force to use. If Vader had come to life in a Galaxy Far, Far Away, he could have utilized that mystical energy field, but he came to life on Earth where it doesn't exist. Or maybe they just forgot to put midichlorians into his wax figure; the point is, the cherubs rely on magic intrinsic to them, so it comes into existence when they do, but Vader relies on an outside Force that has to exist independently of him to work.
  • Droids in Star Wars are never seen to use the Force, and can't even detect it. The Force is derived from the collective energies of life, not mechanisms. The animated exhibits (that aren't taxidermy, dino skeletons (which aren't 100% real bones when in exhibits), or mummies) in may temporarily seem to be alive, but they're constructs, same as droids are, so the pseudo-Vader is out of luck there.
  • Possibly a mix of no Force in the real world, no midi-chlorians in the figure, and the figures not really being alive.

• How were Larry and Amelia able to fly the replica Wright biplane with such distance and fluidity, pulling at least one U-turn if perception was correct?
  • MST3K Mantra, son.
  • Maybe the biplane "came alive" too and gained greater mobility in the process?
  • Or it animated with the same degree of mobility as contemporary museum patrons tend to assume planes have by default.

• First movie... she wanted to know more about Sacagawea, but she can't use any of the information she finds without scientific proof. Any interview would do nothing for her.
  • And Teddy confirmed they don't actually have the person's memories, just what people expect of them.
    • Citation Needed. Teddy only says he isn't the real Roosevelt, never that he doesn't have the memories of the real one.
  • She'd already extensively, extensively, extensively researched Sacagawea. She probably wasn't looking for new information per se, but more an emotional viewpoint... who Sacagawea was, not the things that she did. While the animate wax Sacagawea might not have all of the real thing's memories, she's probably fairly accurate as far as personality and viewpoint go. Alternatively, even if all the recreations do is respond to what other people expect of them, a researcher having an independent representation of their own research to bounce ideas and thoughts off of would still be pretty invaluable for considering anything you might have missed or left out. But ultimately, the thing to remember is: the paper about Sacagawea was pretty much complete. What the character in question really was having a problem with was considering it as such and moving on past working intensively on a subject she loved so much... actually getting to have a conversation with a representation of Sacagawea probably represented a form of closure for her.

• How did they manage to get away with it with all the security cameras around?
  • Maybe they didn't have them. They have a night guard and there might not be any monitors in the security guards' office.
• It's the deal with the center piece of the tablet. In the first movie, the exhibits don't come to life because the center piece of the tablet was turned. Larry could have avoided the whole issue in the second movie by simply turning the middle piece before the tablet was activated, right?
  • Yes, it could be felt the same way. There are so many problems with this movie, it's insane. (Some people even wondered how the security guards wouldn't have noticed what was going on in the museum! That explains things right there.) But the thing that always puts any viewer in facepalm mode is the moment after Kahmunrah is defeated and someone says, "Let's clean up!" or something like that. Right, they're gonna repair all those broken glass cases, fix the airplane and fly it back, replace the stained glass window, fix the 1940s paintings that don't have 1940s people in it, and repair all the damage that octopus (squid, or whatever he was) did to the pillars... All in a few hours!!! [[biggrin]] Let's hope the Smithsonian has enough insurance to cover for all this.

• If it's the museum of 'natural' history then why do most of the exhibits have nothing to do with natural history? For example, the T-Rex is natural but the pyramids, along with the civil war and Lewis and Clark are definitely NOT natural.
  • Natural history museums (at least American ones) generally have a department of anthropology and archeology and anything Egyptian would fall under that. Furthermore, Egyptian exhibits are popular enough that the museum would want to put them on even if they don't have a terribly large collection. The civil war and Lewis and Clark is probably just a combination of Rule of Cool and the museum being a mishmash of the Smithsonian museums.
  • While the film-makers put together the Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan in the movie, the Museum of Natural History does have exhibits on the differing cultures around the world. They've even put up a web-page listing what they do and don't have based on the movie.
  • The museum's founders intended to give the U.S. an equivalent to the British Museum, which included both scientific and cultural exhibits within its collection. Nature got top billing in its title because the originator of the idea was a naturalist.

• Just a quick question... should Kahmenrah's army of the underworld have hawk heads... isn't that Horus, the Egyptian god of knowledge. Wouldn't a jackal or something similar been appropriate?
  • Green skin would be most likely as Osiris was the god and king of the Underworld in Egyptian mythology; Anubis was the god of mummification, so while he did have connections to the Underworld (as a lot of Egyptian deities did because of its importance in their culture) he wouldn't be the most important deity. Hollywood just likes the association of jackals with death and the Underworld.
  • Thoth (or as the Egyptians named him, Djehuty) was the god of knowledge. Horus, the hawk-headed god, was associated with kingship and the Pharaohs were his earthly embodiment. Horus was the son of Osiris, so it actually makes sense that he would provide an army of hawk-headed warriors.
  • They could also be connected to Sokar (also spelled Seker), a less famous Egyptian god of the underworld, patron of those who make ritual objects and substances used in mummification and patron of goldsmiths. He has a falcon head as well and has the title "He of Restau" which means "mouth of the passages." If you don't like the idea of Horus-like soldiers coming out of the underworld since he didn't actual dwell there, then at least Sokar offers an alternative possibility.

• It's a surprise that no one is complaining how Custer is on the good side, when he is known for attempting to kill numerous Native Americans.
  • Attila the Hun's on the good side, too, and he killed a lot more people in the course of his career. Plus, Custer is one of American history's biggest Butt Monkeys, so perhaps it's mostly Rule of Funny. Plus, movie Custer's a certifiable idiot.
  • Values Dissonance. When Custer was killing Native Americans he wasn't considered a villain for doing so, and almost certainly didn't consider himself a villain... He was a military man doing what he saw as his duty to protect people. Compare him to an authentic murderous madman like, say, Hitler, or simply a further removed historical figure like Genghis Khan. If you resurrected Hitler, he'd probably want to make Germany strong again and go back to killing Jews. If you resurrected Genghis Khan, he'd probably want to start conquering Asia again. If you resurrected Custer, he'd probably... report for duty at a military base. "Should I go kill some Indians, Mr. President?" "Um. No. We don't do that anymore. So, don't do that. Ever." "Yessuh. And may I say, sir, you have quite the healthy tan to your skin, sir."
  • One could highly dislike Custer's appearance in the movie not because of who he was, but how the movie treats him like some sort of comedy piece. Especially the whole "that's not my name" bit with Sacagawea; no, he wasn't seen as a villain by contemporary society during his time, but to play him off as a joke and harmless (and using Sacagawea as part of the humour) just smacks of inconsideration, if not a complete lack of empathy and understanding about who the real Custer was.
  • In addition to all the above, he is not the real Custer, he is a(n inaccurate) wax figure of Custer brought to life by magic. There's a very important nuance there.

• Why is Jedediah being buried in sand such a big deal? It's kind of obvious breathing isn't needed for the museum pieces, since Ahkmenrah was wrapped up in bandages and in a coffin for a really long time so he probably didn't get much air, but he was totally fine.
  • The weight of the sand on him would be pretty extreme and he's just a wax figure. It would probably crush him to death slowly.
  • Pretty sure tiny diorama-figures like him are usually made of cast metal, not wax. Which would explain why the squirrel didn't decapitate Octavius when it chewed on his head.

• With everything else in the various exhibits coming to "life", why didn't all the model planets in the aerospace museum start rotating? That would have been cool, and kept up the pattern of how paintings in the art gallery kept moving in the background.
  • Most of the stuff that comes to life are things that either were or represent living beings. As far as to recall, the gates don't start moving on their own, the furniture doesn't start scampering through the hallways, and the trash cans don't start calling "Feed me!", so it doesn't just imbue everything with life and motion. As planets aren't alive in the same sense a Pharaoh or a Tyrannosaurus Rex or Teddy Roosevelt were alive, they don't get animated.
  • We see portraits animated even when there's nobody in them. In Battle of the Smithsonian, you can see water moving in a portrait of a waterfall that has nobody in it.
  • Maybe they are animated... but they're moving at a speed that matches the scale they're at, which means you can't really see it just by watching for less than a minute.

• So, Larry quit his job as night guard between the two movies... and they didn't replace him? At the beginning of the sequel, he spends the night in the museum, and he is the only person there. He's been gone for two years, shouldn't there be someone else doing his old job?
  • Wasn't the museum closed for renovation? If there was a new guard, maybe he had those days off.
  • Remember that under Larry's tenure, the exhibits learned to behave themselves when they came to life at night. The new guy probably just sat in his office and trusted the more responsible animated exhibits to handle any trouble that came up, which is why they were probably displeased by Larry's decision to leave... that's exactly the kind of behavior they (specifically Teddy) disapproved of in a night guard.
  • Also, the reason for the renovations, and even before that, when Larry was originally hired, it was explicitly stated that the Museum was going through financial trouble. They hired one guard to replace three, who's to say they didn't go further down the same path and replace Larry with a simple alarm system?

• Why does the museum have a hologram of Teddy if he's one of the attractions staying there?
  • Because wax figures can't talk.

• In regards to the third movie, what is going on with the lion statues? Yes, they came to life when the tablet was near, but there's a major difference between them and everything else that was brought to life: they were outdoors. Every other time the magic gave life to something, they were in a building. Even the giant Lincoln from the second film didn't wake up until Larry and Amelia stepped inside the monument. Since the tablet always brings to life everything inside a building and you have to be back inside that building by sunrise to avoid turning to dust, what is going on with the lion statues? Does the tablet switch to "only stuff within a certain range" when outdoors? And if so, what is the range? Everything within a few feet of the tablet, everything in London, or something in between? Or maybe the lion statues came to life, even though they weren't in a building, because the tablet was malfunctioning already and it ended up as a random side-effect of the problem. What happens at sunrise to the lion statues since they don't have a building to return to? Do they turn to dust?
  • Maybe for the purposes of the magic tablet, Trafalgar Square counts as a "building".

• When Jedediah and Octavius are on the Pompeii model in the third movie, how did they get cornered by the lava when earlier, when the two were trying to figure out what the label said, they were standing at the edge of the model?
  • Probably fled in the wrong direction in their panic. Jedediah and Octavius are not exactly the smartest miniature people around.

• At the end of the third movie, why did all of the American museum exhibits show up at the British Museum for the dance party? It's a bit confusing as to how and why everyone is there 3 years later.
  • It's the other way around. Just a few of the British exhibits were on tour and came to New York.

• There are a load of discrepancies involving the Roman exhibit. For one, the Colosseum that is present in the Roman diorama is out of place in regards to Octavius' historical time period. Gaius Octavius (character) was based off of the historical Gaius Octavius (also known as the epically awesome Augustus). Octavius historically lived between 27 BC and 14 AD. The Colosseum was built around 70 AD. Also, Octavius wears his sword on the wrong side- Roman officers wore their swords on the opposite side of their men, thus showing rank. Not to mention, where in that tiny little exhibit does he store all those legionaries and artillery equipment....? Also, fireballs?

• The Roman strategy used to fight the cowboys was unorganized and messy. Of course, it is a kids' movie, but a look at Roman formations would have been pretty epic and educational. The way Octavius had his men surround Larry in the first film shows that he knows these formations- which he must, considering the fact he is, after all, a general. The cowboys, especially with their lack of firepower, would have been easy fodder for the Roman swords in close formation. But of course, that wouldn't be in a children's movie. It would be neat to imagine, though.

• Armor...the legionary armor is pretty well made, especially in the third movie. Octavius' armor, not so much. It was decorational, which most generals would have- but, he would also have a pair of more battle-ready armor if he so needed it. The armor he wears throughout the films would have been worn on special ocassions or during victory marches. Perhaps he just got tired of changing all the time. His cape, too, is not worn right. It would have been partially worn across the front, and would be removed for battle purposes. Cape snagging is no joke, haha. The historical Octavius was also, surprisingly, sandy blonde and had blue eyes. Hard to picture after the movies.

• The Pompeii scene was hilarious, but there is no way Octavius should have known about Pompeii. It makes somewhat logical sense that he would have recognized it as a Roman city- not so much from the tug of history (how does that work?) but from the fact that Roman cities were built upon grid patterns and easily,recognizable to a Roman. Octavius historically would have died in 14 AD. Vesuvius did not erupt until 79 AD. He probably would have known about the city (Pompeii was known for its decadence and wealth), but not about the eruption. Unless, of course, he saw it somewhere online.

• During the Pompeii scene, Jedediah and Octavius interact with a Roman bust across from them. It was hilarious, to say the least, but the creators missed a huge comedic moment. The bust they were speaking to was a bust of Augustus- the historical person Octavius was based on. Essentially, him from the future. That would have been a hilarious moment if he recognized himself.

• Looking at Octavius' historical inspiration, we can see that he, as an exhibit, was made to replicate Augustus' time as a general. This is oddly interesting, because it suggests that the exhibits were made in the image of their historical counterparts at a certain time in their lives. Teddy Roosevelt also shows us that the exhibits recall some of their past lives, since Roosevelt talks about being the 26th President, Rough Rider, ect. (Of course, Roosevelt reveals (obviously) that he never did the things Teddy Roosevelt did, since he is wax- but he still knew about his past.) Perhaps it came from Rebecca's talks about the exhibits from the first movie, or maybe the Tablet restores memories. Still, it's interesting because, if that is the case, does that mean the exhibits only know their historical memories up until the moment they were created to depict? Does Teddy remember running for a third term? Does Octavius ever know he's an emperor? What happened to Sacagawea's baby?

• Jedediah Smith as a character is awesome, but historically, sadly inaccurate. Unfortunately, the historical Jedediah Smith wasn't a cowboy. He did work on a railroad for a time, but this was a short gig. He is actually better known for being a mountain man- a hunter, trapper, and explorer. He led an exploration expedition into the west to search out easier routes for trade. He rediscovered the South Pass, put the salt lakes on the map, and followed the same path along the Missouri that Lewis and Clark had. Fun fact, he also got mauled by a bear and fought it off himself, and has a park named after him- Jedediah Smith National Park. He was also a brunette and had a beard for a time...which is hard to imagine but he had it. But, Jed from the movies is still the best- who better to play a cowboy than Owen Wilson?

• A lot of people don't know that there was a Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian game made shortly after the movie. The story follows Larry (who's voiced by Ben Stiller, the only actor from the film to reprise their role in the game) through the second movie, but with some changes to the plot. Khamunrah ends up breaking the Tablet into different pieces, called ingots. Each ingot has a certain power, which Larry can harness with his flashlight and keychain (one tames animals, one lifts things, one sends magical signals about hidden artifacts, one can fix mechanical things, and one can enchant paintings at will). The pieces are given to Capone, Ivan, and Napoleon. In the first few levels, Larry is joined by Octavius, who had escaped the crate alone to get help. There is a level where the player gets to play as Octavius as well. Khamunrah in the game is just as ruthless as in the movies, and instead of an hourglass, he traps Jed in a sarcophagus with a rat. But not after taking him on the intercom system and letting him say one last goodbye to his friends- which is pretty darn dark, if you think about it. At the very end of the game, Larry, Amelia, Octavius, and Jed (who gets rescued. It's actually quite funny- they find him in the sarcophagus and think he's dead, and Octavius gives a mini speech about avenging him, only to have him wake up a few seconds later. No sooner does he wake up, he and Ockie start bickering about the other taking up too much room in Larry's pocket.) fight Khamunrah after he opens a portal to the Underworld. But not in a sword fight- no, the unlucky player has to solve puzzles whole avoiding fireballs and debris. Overall, the game is quite funny, and the character personalities are really well matched. There are son headscratcher parts, though. There's a part where Larry has to convince Able to give him one of the ingots he got a hold of by bribing him with astronaut ice cream from a vending machine (which Octavius has to climb through to reach). There's also a part where Larry and Octavius meet and confront Cleopatra, who tells them the secret of the Tablet in return for being given the Hope Diamond (a cursed historical artifact that can be found in the game). She's really a bit of a B. word, and in the game, has no idea she's an exhibit- which is neat, considering the fact that is a theme of the third movie. Also, Octavius flirts with Cleopatra in the game...which is really weird, considering the historical history of both Octavius and Cleopatra...with Julius Caesar and Marcus Antonius and all that...overall, the game is quite fun, and one can be surprised so few people know about it.

• When does Larry sleep? He's never shown having just woken up or groggy or anything.
  • Well, the older guards in the first museum did say that the tablet gave them new vibrancy and energy. Maybe, since Larry's younger, it's just giving him health and energy to avoid the problems of sleep deprivation or whatever.

• Prior to Larry's arrival, the museum had a team of three night guards. After the first movie the exhibits can probably take care of the museum by themselves when Larry's not there, but McPhee and the trustees don't know that; do they think the building's standing empty and unguarded any night that Larry's not working? (Even if they think he works 7 nights a week and never takes sick leave or vacations, he quits between the first and second movie and doesn't work there for almost two years, but there's no mention of a replacement guard.)

• Gold is really really heavy, some 19 grams per cubic centimeter. Ahkmenrah's tablet appears to be about 12" wide, 18" long, and 2" deep, or nearly 7000 cubic centimeters. Assuming it's solid, that comes out to nearly 300 pounds or 136 kilos. And a 10-year-old kid is toting it around like a notebook?
  • Then again, gold isn't supposed to corrode like that. Perhaps it is a different metal make (perhaps copper-based) but plated in gold?
    • Alternatively, the magic made it lighter/easier to carry. It strengthened the old guards and gave them new vibrancy and energy, after all.

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