Night at the Museum is a 2006 fantasy comedy film directed by Shawn Levy and written by Robert Ben Garant and Thomas Lennon.

The film had an ensemble cast of Ben Stiller in the lead role, Carla Gugino, Dick Van Dyke, Mickey Rooney, Bill Cobbs, and Robin Williams.

On his first night, Larry discovers that the museum's exhibits come to life after sunset, including: "Rexy", a Tyrannosaurus skeleton that behaves like a playful dog; Dexter, a mischievous stuffed capuchin monkey who destroys Larry's manual, along with other taxidermied animals, and later takes his keys; rival miniature civilizations depicting the American Frontier, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Maya; a chewing gum-loving Easter Island Moai who calls Larry "Dum-Dum"; American Civil War soldier mannequins; and wax models of Attila the Hun and some of his men, pyromaniacal Neanderthals, and Sacagawea, who is encased in glass and cannot hear anything.

A horse-mounted Theodore Roosevelt rescues Larry from feuding miniature leaders Jedediah and Octavius, and explains that ever since an ancient Egyptian artifact—the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Ahkmenrah—arrived in 1952, the exhibits come to life each night, but will turn to dust if left outside the museum at sunrise.

Cecil, Reginald, and Gus check on Larry, who has decided to quit, but Nick and Don stop by to congratulate him on his new job.

This allows a Neanderthal to jump out the window and escape onto the street, upon seeing a group of homeless people using a fire pit.

Larry again decides to quit in frustration, and is unable to save the escaped Neanderthal from disintegrating from the rising sun, while his remains are swept up by a street sweeper.

Like the exhibits, the elderly guards receive enhanced vitality from the tablet, and have plotted to steal it along with other valuable artifacts to fund their retirement and frame Larry for their thievery.

Larry laments that he was not able to save everyone, believing that Jedediah and Octavius were both killed after the latter crashed his radio-controlled car, and is surprised when they return alive and well.

The building featured in the film, which was constructed on a sound stage in Burnaby, British Columbia, is based on the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, external shots of which were used in the movie.

[5] Trainers spent several weeks training Crystal, who plays the troublemaking monkey Dexter, to slap and bite Stiller in the film.

[11] Night at the Museum is the second highest-grossing film of 2006 in the United States and Canada, behind Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.

The site's critical consensus read, "Parents might call this either a spectacle-filled adventure or a shallow and vapid CG-fest, depending on whether they choose to embrace this on the same level as their kids.

[16] According to CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend, cinema audiences gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

[17] Justin Chang of Variety magazine wrote: "This rambunctious, "Jumanji"-style extravaganza is a gallery of special effects in search of a story; rarely has so much production value yielded so little in terms of audience engagement.

"[19] One positive review by William Arnold of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, gave it a B−, and stated that the film was "Out to impress and delight a family audience with the pageantry of human and natural history, and that's a surprisingly worthy ambition for a Hollywood comedy.