Night at the Museum: meet the blockbuster stars of the American Museum of Natural History

Ok, let’s get one thing straight from the start. You’re very highly unlikely to run into any of the movie’s human stars here, unless of course Ben Stiller, Carla Gugino, Owen Wilson or Ricky Gervais happen, like you, to be on a sightseeing tour of NYC at the very moment of your visit. As we said: unlikely. Very, very unlikely. But what you can do is ogle several of the museum’s real movie-star residents. We went to the museum to get the scoop on where to find them, and what else to see while you’re there.

Wait, what? Whaddya mean you’ve never seen Night at the Museum? Ok, stop what you’re doing right now, go watch it, then come back and read the rest of this article. It’ll make much more sense to you then. Anyway, where were we? Oh yes…

Unlike his fearsome real-life Cretaceous cousins, Night at the Museum’s Rexy is just a great big playful puppy of a dinosaur. Sure, he has a penchant for chasing humans and playing fetch with his own ribs for kicks, but at least he doesn’t think you’re lunch.

You’ll find the inspiration for Rexy — one of the best and most complete examples of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil on the planet — in the Hall of Saurischian Dinosaurs. This epic space is also home to an Allosaurus feeding on its prey, a set of 107-million-year-old dinosaur footprints, and the grinning skull of a velociraptor. Pure nightmare fuel.

The third floor is home to another two of Night at the Museum’s most beloved icons. No, we don’t mean Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney! Quit monkeying around and get yourself over to the Hall of Primates where, in the American Monkeys section, you’ll find the cute little capuchin who inspired Dexter, troublemaking taxidermied bane of Larry’s life. Fun fact: Dexter was played by a cheeky monkey named Crystal, who underwent several weeks of training to perfect her relentless slapping and biting of Ben Stiller in the movie.

Next: mosey on over to the Margaret Mead Hall of Pacific Peoples to eyeball fan favorite Dum-Dum, aka the museum’s inscrutable life-size cast of an Easter Island moai statue. Just don’t give him any gum-gum, dum-dum.

You’ll find many of the AMNH’s heavyweight exhibits — both literally and metaphorically — down on Floor 1. First up is the 94-foot-long monster that forms the centerpiece of the museum’s ocean exhibits. This majestic foam-and-fiberglass blue whale hangs suspended over the Hall of Ocean Life, surrounded by masterful marine dioramas, and makes a brief but memorable appearance in the movie, knocking Dick Van Dyke’s dastardly Cecil off his feet with a big blue belch.

Playing a somewhat more pivotal role in Night at the Museum’s plotline, a gang of Neanderthals break out of their diorama in the Hall of Human Origins, causing general chaos before escaping the museum, leading to Larry’s brief firing.

And finally, the bronze equestrian statue on which Robin Williams’ Theodore Roosevelt is based is no longer on display here. But you can still explore several dioramas depicting the 26th president’s life and career in the Theodore Roosevelt Memorial Hall.

And that wraps up your self-guided tour of the AMNH exhibits that inspired Night at the Museum!

Ah, but that’s where you’re wrong. Sure, all of these characters appeared in the movie. But that, my friends, is what Hollywood execs call artistic license. You won’t find a single one of them (or their pals) at the American Museum of Natural History. Let’s take a closer look…

1. That’s not my mummy. Rami Malek makes his movie debut as the Mummy of Ahkmenrah in Night of the Museum. Alas, this friendly Egyptian pharaoh is an entirely made-up character. You won’t find any mummies at all at the AMNH, but you can see plenty at the Brooklyn Museum, and in the fabulous Metropolitan Museum of Art right across the park.
2. Not a native of the AMNH. Played by Mizuo Peck, Sacagawea is of course a real historical figure; a celebrated explorer from the Lemhi Shoshone tribe who assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition in the early 1800s. But you won’t find her here. For a deep-dive into Native American history, try the National Museum of the American Indian in Lower Manhattan, or its sister site in D.C.
3. The trouble with terracotta. In the movie, a terracotta soldier is seen wandering the corridors, peering at a bubblegum-blowing Dum-Dum and generally hanging out. In reality, there’s not a single terracotta warrior anywhere in the museum’s collection of more than 33 million specimens and artifacts. You’d have to go all the way to the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses in China if you wanted to ogle one of these for real. 
4. Not right now, Hun. Another real historical figure, Attila the Hun was the fearsome leader of the Hunnic Empire in the middle of the Fifth Century and is played in the movie by veteran actor Patrick Gallagher. But will you find Attila or anything relating to his Hun kingdom in the museum? No, dear reader, you will not. 
5. There’s no place like Rome. Miniature Roman soldiers are a major feature of this major feature, with Steve Coogan starring as the diminutive general Octavius. But you won’t find anything that even hints at Roman antiquity anywhere in the AMNH. Your best bet for that kind of thing is, well, Rome itself. 
6. Statue of imitations. The fantastically named Pierfrancesco Favino stars as a bronze statue of Christopher Columbus in Night at the Museum. Yet the AMNH is just about the only place in NYC you won’t find Columbus. Instead, seek out his likeness at the monument on Columbus Circle, a short hop from the museum at the southwest corner of Central Park. Or in the many works depicting the 15th-century explorer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Unsurprisingly, Brooklyn’s Columbus Park is also a good bet.
7. Not very civil. The movie’s creepy Civil War mannequins come close to cutting Larry’s brief security career short. But you won’t find any trace of them in the museum proper. Try the American Civil War Museum in Virginia instead.
8. This ain’t your rodeo. The miniature cowboys who escape their dioramas to chase our hero through the museum’s corridors? Entirely made up, we’re afraid. Besides, NYC is way too far east for all that cowboy nonsense. Try Texas, or the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City instead.
9. Norse nonsense. Vikings, you say? In the American Museum of Natural History? No. Just no. Try The Viking Museum in Stockholm instead.

Now you’re getting it. But that’s not all. Prepare to have your mind blown… Night at the Museum wasn’t even filmed at the American Museum of Natural History. That’s right: other than a few external shots of the museum building, the whole thing was made 3,000 miles away in a Canadian studio. Wild, huh?

So ok, it’s fair to say you need to suspend your disbelief somewhat while watching Night at the Museum. But, to make up for the mild disappointment of missing out on those completely imaginary cowboy and Viking-based dioramas, the museum has plenty more blockbuster attractions that don’t feature in the film, each nevertheless worthy of its own Oscar. Here are just a few of our picks…

You’ve already met Rexy, aka the museum’s marvelous Tyrannosaurus rex fossil. Now get to know his equally impressive pals up on the fourth floor, among them a Triceratops, a 122-foot juvenile Titanosaur, and the fearsome jaws of a mighty Megalodon, which may just have inspired a Hollywood blockbuster or two of its own! Also don’t miss the Barosaurus and Allosaurus locked together in eternal combat in the Theodore Roosevelt Rotunda on Floor 2.

Size matters on the museum’s first floor where, as well as prodding the world’s heaviest meteorite (yes, you really can touch it), you can also check out a pair of giant purple geodes and — at the other end of the spectrum — peer at nano diamonds from a meteorite that pre-dates our own solar system; in other words, you’re looking at literal stardust. Don’t miss the Star of India: this mesmerizing two-million-year-old sapphire is the largest known gem of its kind and was the target of a heist in 1964.

Besides the gems, the first floor is also where you’ll find our old friend the blue whale, plus the massive stump of a 1,300-year-old giant sequoia, felled by loggers in 1891.

The AMNH’s eye-popping dioramas are the envy of museums around the world. We loved the Alaska brown bears lunching on salmon against an epic Alaskan backdrop. You’ll find them on the first floor in the Hall of North American Mammals. The king penguins closely guarding their cute lil fluffball kids in the second-floor Hall of Birds of the World are also pretty special, and a guaranteed hit with kids.

Dip into the Hall of Ocean Life, where a giant squid does battle with a sperm whale, and there’s a giant clam that, again, you can actually touch.

Pro-tip: some of the low-lit dioramas have critters playing hide and seek in the foliage, so take a torch with you to shine inside for fun little surprises.

And that really does now conclude our night at the museum. We hope you enjoyed the feature presentation.

The End.