Goofs for
Night at the Museum (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: When Larry sets Jed and Octavius down on the bench, they are closer together in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larry notices the caveman's footprints leading to the open window and goes to investigate, the footprints are gone in the next shot.
  
  
• Continuity: Cecil shuts the bottom half of the security office door when Larry enters. When Larry leaves the office, the door is open.
  
  

• Continuity: When his ex-wife raises her glass of water to drink in an early scene, in the next shot her glass is back down.
  
  
• Continuity: The epaulets on Larry's normal jacket disappear and reappear between shots
  
  
• Continuity: The amount of fire extinguisher foam on Larry's face changes frequently.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: When Larry and Rebecca were talking outside, you can clearly see a mike drop down in the shot, bob up and down and then taken out of the shot. At the end with career day at school the mike appears again.
  
  
• Continuity: The cut on Larry's lip changes places in one scene near the end of the movie.
  
  
• Factual errors: Dexter the monkey is referred to as a Capuchin, but is on display in the Hall of African Mammals. Capuchin monkeys are from South America.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: When Larry is trying to convince Rebecca that the museum comes to life at night, a crew member is visible behind her.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larry is trying to convince Rebecca that the exhibits at the museum come to life at night, they stop to talk directly in front of the Neanderthal exhibit, but when Rebecca walks away, they are next to Teddy Roosevelt.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where Larry is telling Rebecca that the museum comes to life, she has no coat on. But right as she is leaving she has a coat on. She is still wearing it when she gets outside.
  
  
• Continuity: The speed of the big globe in the museum changes speeds frequently during the film.
  
  
• Continuity: When Dexter tries to steal the keys for the second time and ends up with plastic toy keys, Larry puts the real keys in his shirt pocket. In the very next shot they are back hanging on his pants.
  
  
• Continuity: They spell the name 'Sakagawea' on the info card in the museum, but 'Sacagawea' in the credits. (The true spelling is debatable.)
  
  
• Continuity: In the miniature people scene, after Larry breaks free from his upper body restraints, the roping around his ankles is still in place. In the shot just before the Romans attack him with fire balls, the ropes are shown around his ankles, still in place. However, after the Romans begin to attack him, Larry is able to get up and run away with ease- there is no shown attempt to break the restraints around his ankles.
  
  
• Continuity: The Roman diorama troops shoot fiery arrows at Larry, but his clothes show no burn marks.
  
  
• Continuity: Larry drops his flashlight when he sees the T-Rex at the drinking fountain, but has it later even after quickly fleeing the charging dinosaur.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larry gets to his car at the beginning of movie there is a paper bag over the meter, in the next shot when he is on the other side of his car the bag is gone. Time 3:17
  
  
• Plot holes: When Attila the Hun speaks to Larry, Akhmenrah interprets so Larry understands, but when Larry speaks to Attila, Attila understands Larry without interpretation.
  
  
• Crew or equipment visible: In the scene with Octavius and Jed coming back to the museum after they were presumed dead, you can see the reflection of the green screen in Octavius' helmet.
  
  
• Continuity: When Larry is 'tied' to the railway tracks, the tracks to his left appear complete and incomplete between shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: The tablet was supposed to be made out of 24k gold (100%). But the weight of pure gold is 19.3 kg/liter, and Larry's son wouldn't be able to carry the tablet as easy as he does.
  
  
• Continuity: When the night guards meet Larry while clocking out for the last time, Larry isn't wearing a necktie, but when he turns around to greet Cecil, it suddenly appears.
  
  
• Factual errors: Sacagawea wasn't a tracker, she was only a guide and translator. Her husband, Charbonneau, was the tracker on the Lewis and Clark expedition.
  
  
• Factual errors: Near the end when the director is flipping through the news reports on TV, it shows a local Fox station broadcast. However the logo is that of the Fox station in Washington D.C., not New York City.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Attila the Hun sticks his head between the elevator doors, the mechanism of the elevator would force the doors to open, rather than continue to close.
  
  
• Factual errors: In the museum the Neanderthal display has Neanderthals in front of a bunch of wood. Also, Larry refers to the Neanderthals being on a quest for fire. This is wrong. The ability to build a fire was mastered before the Neanderthals, by one of the most early human species, Homo Erectus.
  
  
• Continuity: In the scene where the Mayans attack Larry by shooting poison darts at him, the darts leave two very large welts on his face that also appears to have caused him to loose feeling there as well. But as the camera scene cuts to him trying to defend himself from a second, larger attack the welts are gone from his face and he takes about a dozen darts in his hand, this time with no apparent affect.
  
  
• Continuity: In closeup, Teddy and Sacajawea are on horseback at the dance; however, in the wide shots, they are dancing in the foreground.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Larry breaks the case that Sacajawea is in, you can clearly see the ball bounce off of the glass.
  
  
• Continuity: After Cecil scares Larry with the voodoo attire, Cecil removes the headpiece and his hair is messy. A second later without a break in conversation, Cecil's hair is neatly groomed.
  
  
• Factual errors: The sound effects used for Dexter, a Capuchin monkey, are actually those of a chimpanzee.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cecil hands Larry his "torch" on his first night, he hands it to him lens side down, when Larry takes it it is lens side up (flipped).
  
  
• Continuity: When Larry and Nick are in Central Park at the beginning of the movie, the building with two towers is visible behind Larry. When they turn to leave the park, the building is still behind Larry. However, in the immediate scene following, the same building is now in front of Nick and Larry.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When Larry breaks the glass for the Sakagawea case, you can see that the glass shatters before the ball hits it.
  
  
• Plot holes: The sign at the museum says "Museum of Natural History" yet the exhibits are of modern historical figures and events.
  
  
• Continuity: After being put together, Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) pronounces Sacagawea as "sac-a-ga-waya", but moments later, Teddy corrects Larry (Ben Stiller), with Teddy pronouncing it "sac-a-ga-wee-a."
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: If Roosevelt is aware that he is a wax figure and doesn't have the experience of the real TR, then Sakajawea would likewise not have the memory to help Rebecca with her dissertation. However, it's quite possible that TR either overheard someone say that he was made of wax from a factory in Poughkeepsie, or that TR, Sakajawea and the others have memories of both the people they represent as well as knowledge that they are really wax figures. We don't know but either way this is not necessarily an error.
  
  
• Factual errors: Attila the Hun is depicted as being average height. In reality, he was a dwarf.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Theodore Roosevelt was known to have a high-pitched, squeaky voice due to being a severe asthmatic.
  
  
• Factual errors: In reality, Attila the Hun was very short.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The day after Larry's first night, Rebecca tells a children's tour that the lion is the "king of the jungle". The lion lives in plains and open grassland, and is unsuited for either hunting or concealing itself in jungle or forest. It's true appellation is "king of beasts".
  
  
• Factual errors: The portrayal of Jedediah Smith as a cowboy is wrong. He was a fur trader, hunter and explorer, not a cowboy.
  
  
• Plot holes: The tablet of Ahkmenrah seems to only give new life to things in their present condition, e.g. animates the skeleton of the dinosaur, gives the old men more energy. If this is the case, Ahkmenrah should be animated as a decaying corpse still mummified, not as a living, breathing, speaking human. Otherwise, the dinosaur should have flesh and the old men should become young again.
  
  
• Factual errors: Toy R/C vehicles don't come with miniature driving compartments with working steering wheels, rear view mirrors, seats, seat belts, gas pedals, etc - like the interior of the toy truck Jedediah and Octavius commandeer. The inside of a toy R/C truck is filled with electronics, servo motors, batteries and all of the other control devices needed to operate it remotely.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: In the closing sequence when the museum characters are dancing and playing soccer, the cavemen are still marveling at fire, making noises, you can obviously see one of them has a filling - something neither a wax figure or a genuine caveman would have.
  
  

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