Film: 2009: May: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Ben Stiller is at the museum again in Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian

Release Date: May 22, 2009

Ben Stiller returns as heroic museum guard Larry Daley. Photo credit: Doane Gregory

Night has fallen upon the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.

The guides have gone home, the lights are out, the school kids are tucked in their beds . . . yet something incredible is stirring as former night guard Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) finds himself lured into his biggest, most imagination-boggling adventure yet in which history truly comes alive. In this second installment of the Night at the Museum saga, Larry faces a battle so epic it could only unfold in the corridors of the world's largest museum.

Now, Larry must try to save his formerly inanimate friends from what could be their last stand amid the wonders of the Smithsonian, all of which, from the famous paintings on the walls to the rocket ships in the halls, suddenly have a mind of their own.

The first film ever shot in the Smithsonian complex, the fun begins as Larry has left behind the low-paying world of guarding museums to become a sought-after inventor of Daley Devices infomercial products. He seems to have it all - but something is missing in his life, something that draws him back to his old haunt, the Museum of Natural History, where he once had the magical night of a lifetime. There, he makes an unsettling discovery. His favorite exhibits, indeed some of his truest friends, have been deemed out-of-date. Packed into crates, they await shipment to the vast archives of the Smithsonian.

Their fate is unknown - that is, until Larry receives a distress call from the miniature cowboy Jedediah (Owen Wilson), who informs him of an impending disaster. It seems the newcomers have awoken their new digs, including the Egyptian ruler, Kahmunrah (Hank Azaria), who's in a particularly nasty mood after 3,000 years of slumber. Now, he and a trio of history's most heinous henchmen - namely Ivan the Terrible (Christopher Guest), Napoleon Bonaparte (Alain Chabat) and Al Capone (Jon Bernthal) - are plotting to take over the museum (and then the globe), as they unleash the Army of the Underworld.

Speeding to the nation's capital, Larry is clearly in over his head. But he's got some impressive new friends - from the brilliant Albert Einstein to honest Abe Lincoln to the one exhibit who takes his breath way -the irrepressible Amelia Earhart (Amy Adams), who spurs Larry to rediscover his missing his sense of fun and adventure. Along with his old buddies, including Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams), Octavius (Steve Coogan), Sacajawea (Mizuo Peck), Attila The Hun (Patrick Gallagher) and the Neanderthals -- Larry will stop at nothing to regain his friends and restore order to the National Mall, from the Lincoln Memorial to the Air and Space Museum, before the stroke of dawn.

NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN marks the first action-adventure film ever shot at the nation's premiere museum complex, the Smithsonian Institution, the largest and most visited museum in the world.

See movies production notes from the first film of Night at the Museum.