Security guard Larry Daley infiltrates the Smithsonian Institution in order to rescue Jedediah and Octavius, who have been shipped to the museum by mistake.
Ben Stiller returns as night museum security guard Larry Daily, who gets back there just in time to find that he needs to get his friends out of trouble. This new installment takes us to the Smithsonian Institution, and introduces us to new characters such as Amelia Earhart, General Custer, and many more.
Larry, now a current business owner of a devices company, must save his friends after they're shipped out to the Smithsonian Institution by mistake, while at the same time, must stop an evil Egyptian pharaoh from using the tablet for world domination plans. Will he save his friends and stop that pharaoh from committing world domination?—Affan Jamsari
A few years after the eventful late-night shift at the Museum of Natural History in Night at the Museum (2006), former night security guard Larry Daley has become a successful businessman. However, when the mystical, life-giving Tablet of Ahkmenrah finds its way into the Smithsonian Institution, Larry must join forces with his old companions and a new fabulous ally to stop an army of historical troublemakers from wreaking havoc once more. But can he endure one more night at the museum?—Nick Riganas
A night guard of the Museum of Natural History must travel to the Smithsonian Museum in order to help the exhibits that have been sent there. With new allies, he must do it while a new enemy returns to gain power over all of them. He must do everything that he possibly can before time runs out.—RECB3
Two years after the events of the previous film, Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is now CEO of Daley Devices, a direct response television company that sells inventions inspired by his experiences as a night security guard at the American Museum of Natural History. While wealthy and successful, he has not had the time to see his museum exhibit friends in several months.
One day when Larry returns to the museum, he finds out that it is closed for renovations and upgrades. He asks his former boss Dr. McPhee about it; McPhee tells him that because not many people have come to the museum in a long time he has been asked by his advisers to replace 90% of the museum exhibits which are moving to the Federal Archives at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; and fill the museum with new but holographic exhibits that automatically answer questions on historical subjects. Later that night Larry goes into the museum to visit his friends one last time and he is told that while Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Rexy the Tyrannosaurus skeleton, the Easter Island Moai (Brad Garrett), and Akhmenrah will remain at the museum, Jedediah (Owen Wilson), Dexter the Capuchin Monkey, and others will no longer come to life since the Golden Tablet of Akhmenrah that animated the exhibits each night will also remain.
After the exhibits leave, Larry receives a call from Jedediah. Dexter stole Akhmenrah's tablet and brought it to the Federal Archives, and the evil Pharaoh Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), Akhmenrah's older brother, is attacking Jedediah and the other exhibits. Larry travels to Washington and visits the National Air and Space Museum, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian Institution Building, searching for the Federal Archives with the help of his son Nick (Jake Cherry).Larry locates the exhibits, frozen in their shipping container in the middle of a battle with Kahmunrah and his troops. As Larry obtains the tablet the sun sets and the exhibits, and others at the Smithsonian, come alive. Kahmunrah tells Larry that bringing exhibits to life is just one of the tablet's powers, and that he intends to use it to conquer the world by raising an army from the underworld.
Larry escapes from the Egyptian troops with the help of General George Armstrong Custer (Bill Hader) while releasing the other artifacts in storage including a gigantic octopus. He meets the beautiful and adventurous Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), who is attracted to Larry and accompanies him through the National Gallery. While moving through the paintings, Larry and Amelia end up in V-J Day in Times Square with a sailor named Joey Motorola (Jay Baruchel). In the ensuing fracas, Larry loses his cellphone. Larry and Amelia trap Kahmunrah's soldiers in the photograph, but Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat) captures them. Napoleon takes Larry to Kahmunrah who has also allied with historical leaders Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) and has rejected fellow villains Darth Vader and Oscar the Grouch. Jedediah is captured by Al Capone's men trying to rescue Larry but Octavius escapes.
Kahmunrah attempts to open the Gate of the Underworld by pressing the symbols on the tablet, which resembles numbers on a keypad, but the combination has changed. Kahmunrah forces Larry to obtain the new combination before sunrise by trapping Jedediah in a filling hourglass.
He and Amelia pass a bust of Teddy Roosevelt yelling for assistance. They find out his nose is itchy but since he has no arms, he can't scratch himself. After getting a "divine" scratch from Larry he reads the hieroglyphics on the tablet revealing that Larry can find the combination by figuring out the secret at the heart of Pharaohs tomb. Amelia takes Larry to a statue of The Thinker for help, but he gets distracted when he notices a statue of a beautiful women. Amelia says he's "no Einstein" making Larry remember that he saw Einstein bobble heads in the National Air and Space Museum.
When Larry and Amelia walk over to the Air and Space Museum Kahmunrah assumes he's trying to escape and tells his allies to go kill Larry and bring him the tablet. Octavius meanwhile goes to the White House to find help but can't make it across the lawn. He then is found by a squirrel who then drags him away. Larry and Amelia hide from Russian troops and visit the statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial. When it is safe, they go to the National Air and Space Museum. There they consult the bobble heads who tell them that the new combination is the value of pi. When they are found by Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone, Larry and Amelia escape in the Wright Flyer and return to the Smithsonian Institution Building. The two separate, with Amelia searching for help while Larry delays Kahmunrah.
Napoleon, Ivan, and Capone obtain the combination from one of the bobble-heads. Kahmunrah opens the Gate of the Underworld and summons an army of Horus warriors. Octavius returns on the squirrel and brings along The Lincoln statue, forcing the warriors to retreat to the underworld, and Amelia frees the New York exhibits from their container and recruits other Smithsonian exhibits. As the exhibits battle, Octavius frees Jedediah from the hourglass by hitting his helmet against the glass and Larry takes the tablet. Napoleon Bonaparte, Al Capone and Ivan the Terrible stop Larry, but he distracts them by asking them who is the boss, which Bonaparte and Capone fight over, enabling Larry to escape, but is stopped by Kahmunrah, who tries to kill Larry. Larry overpowers Kahmunrah and banishes him to the underworld.
While the gigantic octopus goes into the waters near the Washington Monument until the sun starts to come up, Amelia flies Larry and the New York exhibits back to the Natural History Museum.
Knowing that she will turn to dust at sunrise if she does not return to the Smithsonian. Larry sells his company and donates money to the museum to restore the exhibits. Roosevelt and Akhmenrah as tour guides, Attila as a storyteller, and other exhibits come to life in public as "animatronics" at the museum, which now stays open after sunset.Larry is rehired as the night guard, and meets a young woman named Tess who looks like Amelia. She asks for help going through the museum because she is "always getting lost."