Plot

A newly recruited night security guard at the Museum of Natural History discovers that an ancient curse causes the animals and exhibits on display to come to life and wreak havoc.

Larry Daley just can't keep hold of a steady job, but he begins to think there may be hope at last as he is hired as a night security guard at the Museum of Natural History. Everything goes well on the first night for him. That is until the exhibits start to come to life after the sun sets. He now has a choice to make. He can either continue on finding another job or manage the exhibits.—FilmFanUK

Larry Daley, a struggling and divorced father, desperately tries to find a job. He soon discovers hope after he gets a job as a night guard at The American Museum of Natural History. Still, during his time in the empty museum at closing time, he soon discovers that the exhibits on display come to life.—Affan Jamsari

Following a painful divorce, financially unstable father Larry Daley takes a job as a night security guard at the Museum of Natural History. However, as he meets his cryptic three predecessors, he is in for a big surprise as strange things start to happen from day one. Now animated by an unfathomable mystical force, the entire museum comes to life at sunset, and no one can stop the vigorous exhibits from wreaking havoc. But who, or better yet, what is behind the uncanny incident? Can Larry survive his first night at the museum?—Nick Riganas

A divorced father is given a job at the Museum of Natural History. Little does he know that the museum has a secret. He discovers that all the exhibits come to life at night. He and the exhibits team up to keep the secret before anyone else finds out.—RECB3

Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a divorced father living in Brooklyn, NY in need of immediate employment after many failed business ventures. He resents that his son Nick (Jake Cherry) wants to be a bond trader like his stepfather Don (Paul Rudd) and has given up his dream of being a professional hockey player. Larry's ex-wife Erica (Kim Raver) feels that Larry is a bad influence on their son. After reviewing Larry's unpromising resume, Debbie, an employment counselor (played by Stiller's real-life mother Anne Meara), sends him to the American Museum of Natural History where there is an opening for a nighttime security guard position. Larry learns from the head security guard Cecil Fredericks (Dick Van Dyke) that because of recent financial troubles, the museum plans to replace Cecil and two veteran guards Gus (Mickey Rooney) and Reginald (Bill Cobbs) with a single guard.

Once Larry accepts the position, he discovers that the museum exhibits come to life at dusk, including a Tyrannosaurus skeleton who behaves like a dog and fetches one of his ribs, Neanderthals trying to make fire, and a gum-loving Easter Island Moai (Brad Garrett). After being chased through the museum by the Huns and their leader Attila, Larry encounters Dexter (Crystal), a fun-loving but mischievous Capuchin monkey who steals Larry's museum keys and tears up his instruction manual. When Dexter bites Larry and urinates on him Larry finally snaps and decides not to return the following night.

After he attempts to break up a fight between the Ancient Roman and Wild West dioramas, led by Octavius (Steve Coogan) and Jedidiah (Owen Wilson) respectively, Larry is informed by Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) that since an Egyptian artifact-the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Akhmenrah-came to the museum in 1952, all of the exhibits come to life each night. Roosevelt also explains that if any exhibits are outside of the museum at sunrise they turn to dust and promises to help Larry by restoring order. After promising Nick a tour of the museum, Larry decides to stay on as the new night guard. However, he has trouble explaining to museum director Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) why some of the miniature figurines have been misplaced.

On Cecil's advice, Larry studies history to prepare himself better. He also learns from a museum docent, Rebecca Hutman (Carla Gugino), who is writing a dissertation on Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck) but does not feel she knows enough about her subject.

The next night, Larry uses what he has learned to better control the exhibits (helping solve the Neanderthals' quest for fire by tossing them a cigarette lighter; giving the Easter Island head a wad of chewing gum (which causes him to blow a big bubble that pops); tricking Dexter with a set of toy keys; and making a truce between the dioramas). However, things go awry when his attempt at winning over Atilla with cheap magic tricks fails, the dioramas continue fighting despite their agreement with Larry, and Dexter is able to steal Larry's keys again and let out all of the animal exhibits. The Neanderthals then set fire to a display, and one turns to dust when he leaves the museum at dawn (his ashes are promptly swept up by a street sweeper). The incident with the Neanderthal display causes Dr. McPhee to tell Larry not to return, but Larry begs for one more chance. Nick in the meanwhile overhears this conversation along with his friends. The same day Larry offers Rebecca a meeting with Sacagawea, but she believes that he is mocking her and the museum and leaves him.

Larry brings Nick to the museum to show him the exhibits, but none are alive. They investigate and catch Cecil, Gus, and Reginald in the act of stealing the tablet and other valuable objects. Like the exhibits, the guards receive enhanced vitality from the artifact; wishing to retain their health and fund their retirements, the three plan to frame Larry for the thefts, and disabled the tablet to stop the exhibits from interfering. Nick reactivates the tablet, but Cecil locks him and his father in the Egyptian room and flees with the tablet.

Larry releases the Akhmenrah's (Rami Malek) 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 all over the lobby, and Larry convinces them to work together. Although some of the exhibits capture Gus and Reginald without difficulty, Cecil escapes by stagecoach with Larry, Nick, Akmenrah, Jedediah, Octavius, and Attila the Hun in pursuit in Central Park, where they stop him and regain the tablet. While in a taxicab, Rebecca sees the exhibits return to the museum before sunrise and realizes that Larry was telling the truth; so she enters the museum, and he introduces her to Sacagawea.

Dr. McPhee fires Larry due to the chaos during the night but rehires him when 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-raise attendance. Larry, Nick, and the exhibits celebrate, while Cecil, Gus, and Reginald are forced to become museum janitors to evade being sent to jail for their crimes. As an epilogue Larry uses his invention the snapper to shut off his flashlight.