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Quotes

Larry Daley: I'm sorry. Last time I checked, I thought we lived in a free country. So...

Smithsonian Security Guard: No, we don't.

Larry Daley: No?

Smithsonian Security Guard: It's the United States of "Don't Touch That Thing Right in Front of You."

See more...

Mistakes

Larry and Amelia Earhart both fly the Wright Flyer using a stick control. It was actually controlled using a mechanism attached to the pilot's hips whereby he could turn the aircraft by shifting his body from side to side. See more...

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Five different actors from the U.S. and U.K. versions of The Office appear in the film: Amy Adams, Ed Helms, Mindy Kaling, Craig Robinson, and Ricky Gervais. See more...

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Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (2009) - 13 corrections

Directed by Shawn Levy, starring Amy Adams, Ben Stiller, Hank Azaria, Owen Wilson, Steve Coogan (add more)

Genres: Action, Comedy

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

Mistakes
Trivia
Quotes
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There is no way Amelia Earhart could have flown them back to NY by flying out of the National Mall and landing in the middle of NYC. Those two areas are two of the most controlled air spaces in the USA. Fighters would've been scrambled before they got 10 minutes into the air. [Most major radar stations rely on "Secondary Radar" which requires the aircraft to carry a Radio Transponder which transmits the aircraft data to the requesting station, the Lockheed Vega Amelia is seen flying was first built in 1927 a full 23 years before the Radio Transponder was introduced into commercial aviation, the aircraft would not have been picked up on "Primary Radar" either as the aircraft is mainly made of wood whereas "Primary Radar" only works effectively with aircraft made mostly of metal.]
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Towards the end Larry gets the octopus into the reflecting pool, when the octopus first jumps in (which is a problem by itself) it is completely submerged. But the reflecting pool is only about 18 inches deep. So there is NO WAY that this octopus would be able to do this. [Octopedes have no bones and are extremely flexible and squishy. There are videos all over the internet showing these creatures squeezing through unbelievably tight spaces. This octopus could effortlessly have submerged itself in a foot and a half of water.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
In the scene in the National Gallery of Art, Larry grabs a pitchfork from American Gothic. American Gothic is housed at the Chicago Art Institute, not the NGA. Similarly, The Thinker is in Paris at the Musée Rodin, not in Washington, DC. [In the scene in the National Gallery of Art, Larry grabs a pitchfork from American Gothic. Possible, because American Gothic was briefly loaned to the Smithsonian in recent years. Otherwise it is permanently housed at the Chicago Art Institute, not the NGA. However, The Thinker is in Paris at the Musée Rodin and would not have appeared in Washington, DC.]
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It is established in the first movie that even when they come to life that they are still made out of the materials in which they were fashioned. Therefore, they have no internal organs, and Jedediah doesn't even need to breathe while in the hourglass. Suffocation wouldn't have killed him. [Kahmunrah is an idiot so he wouldn't have known that. Jedidiah is just playing along with him.]
Edit Corrected by Fawkes the Phoenix
The quick cuts between scenes in the Air and Space museum, the White House, and the Lincoln memorial imply that they are adjacent. However the White House is 1 mile away and the Lincoln Memorial is over 1.6 miles away. [This isn't a mistake. The filmmakers simply chose not to show Larry and Amelia running in the dark between the locations. There really isn't any implied suggestion that these landmarks are adjacent.]
Edit Corrected by MovieFan612
During the credits a kid named Joey Motorola is scene reverse engineering a cell phone from Larry's phone. Although one of the founding brothers of Motorola was named Joseph, their last name was Galvin, Motorola was the product name. Also, the Galvins were from Chicago, not New York as the film implies. [When Joey Motorola is "seen" with the cellphone, it's a wink and a nod to the change in the technologies since WW II. It's not meant to be historically accurate. It's the filmmakers' prerogative.]
Edit Corrected by MovieFan612
We can see them flying around the museum with the right brothers plane. However that plane could only fly a few feet and not such a long way. [It's Wright brothers, not "right" brothers; and everything in the movie happens because of magic. Plastic figurines can ride squirrels like they were horses, and the Lincoln Memorial can walk around without shattering itself, but an airplane can't fly? Sorry, not a mistake.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
When Larry is walking away from Brandon, you can see Brandon in the distance and he is simply walking. When the camera cuts closer to him, he is playing around with the flashlight. When the camera cuts back to Larry with Brandon in the distance, Brandon is simply walking again. [Brandon is making very sharp and very very quick movement with his flashlight. The camera angle changed to show him doing this, and went back to Larry when he stopped.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
In the fight scene between Larry and Kahmunrah, Larry throws the tablet to Amelia Earhart. When the shot cuts to Amelia, you can see that two of the squares on the tablet are turned. In the first movie, the tablet didn't work when squares were turned, so none of the exhibits should be alive. [The squares were in place at sundown so the spell took affect. Moving the squares afterward will not effect the the current spell's affects.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
While at the Smithsonian, Larry notes it's about one hour until sunrise. A few minutes later, everyone going back to New York City piles into Amelia Earhart's airplane and she takes off. When they land, it's still dark in the sky above New York City. If it was an hour before sunrise, the sky would not be so dark and New York City is farther east than Washington, D.C., thus would get the sun a few minutes earlier. Also, modern airplanes barely can make the Washington to New York City trip in barely a hour. That isn't including travel time from the airport to the museum. Larry should have fallen out of the sky when everyone and everything around him turned to dust with the rising sun. [It's about 200 miles from DC to New York, a small plane with a good tailwind could do it in well under an hour (remember, Larry says it's "about" an hour... he could be off by several minutes or even exagerating a bit to get people moving faster). The plane lands at the museum, there is no travel time from the airport. As for the loss of time because they are flying east, New York is northeast of Washington DC, not due east. They are only going about 120 miles east of their origin. The circumference of the earth at Washington's latitude is just over 19,000 miles; if they flew 120 miles east they would only lose 9 minutes of darkness.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
When they shipped out the displays to the Smithsonian they needed to use an 18-wheeler tractor trailer. But on their return trip on Earhart's plane, the entire gang was able to fit onto the plane easily. Also, the sheer weight of all of them would've prevented the plane from rising off the ground. [It does not look like they all could have fit into the plane, but that is an opinion, not a movie mistake. It is also an opinion to say that the plane could not take off bearing the weight of everyone on board. First, you don't have the specs on the plane and second, you don't know how much the "people" weigh. Remember, Larry is the only real person on the plane, the rest are wax figures - maybe even hollow wax - and most likely weigh only a fraction of their human counterparts.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
After Amelia flies Larry and the others back to the museum from the Smithsonian, several characters exit the plane. A couple of scenes later, Sacajawea (who was one of those taken to the Smithsonian) is back at the museum, although she didn't exit the plane. [Just because they don't show everyone getting off the plane does not mean that they were not on it. ]
Edit
After Amelia flies the characters to the museum from the Smithsonian, she hops back in the plane and flies off. How? If she's not with the tablet wouldn't she turn back into a wax figure? [As seen in the first film a number of the exhibits left the museum and were wandering around Manhattan. It seems that the tablet's magic brings them back for an entire night until sunrise, regardless if they are near the tablet or not.]
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