Night #2 - Night at the Museum 1

Released in 2006 and based on the 1993 Milan Trenc children's book of the same name, the original Night at the Museum introduced us to a concept: every exhibit in a given museum coming alive every night. In the children's book, it was just the dinosaur skeletons. In the movie, every exhibit in the museum comes alive to drag poor, hapless night guard Larry Daley along for the ride until he gets used to them and they get used to him. The movie, in another divergence from the children's book, provides an explanation for the night lives of the exhibits in the form of the mystical, 24-carat gold Tablet of Ahkmenrah. The tablet holds a place of honor in a makeshift "slot" on a stele behind the young pharaoh's sarcophagus (young is a relative term, since he's a three-thousand-year-old mummy), where Ahkmenrah spends his nights screaming for his release and his days being dead. When he is released, he spends his time following Larry around, speaking about eight lines, riding behind Nick on Rexy, and not much else.

Though the camera does not show Ahkmenrah very much and his actual personality even less, a few conclusions can be made. While the exhibits are in the throes of trying to kill each other, he seems like one of the most level heads in the room and even mediates between Larry and Attila while they do nothing but spout incomprehensible gibberish and Attila struggles to express...something. This allows Larry to pull a Dr. Phil on Attila and then return to the problem at hand. The scene strongly suggests a diplomatic nature and one prone to peace and logic versus violence, especially when surrounded by individuals of the opposite persuasion.

The second most striking item that gets screen time, and is related to the first, is that he seems reserved and/or awkward about his emotions. Even when he should be panicking ("They've got my tablet") he sounds like he's explaining the circumstances of the situation from the perspective of a third party. When he makes the tablet compel the exhibits to return to the museum, he doesn't quite seem how to express his joy. This says two things: one, that he is not used to expressing emotion period, not just negative emotion, and two, that he was somewhat unsure he knew what he was doing and/or feared he would screw up.

However, Ahkmenrah also exhibits, at times, a sense of blunt honesty ("You would not believe how stuffy it is in there.") and is fairly open when he doesn't quite understand something. He is either too polite or too aware of the time crunch to ask Larry what he's talking about when it comes to his custody arrangement with his divorced wife. However, he will willingly ask Larry what he means when he says he doesn't have the tablet (the more pertinent matter at the time and also suggesting of a sense of discretion instilled in him by a lifetime in a royal court) and lends out his guys for the war effort, so to speak.

Ahkmenrah gets a marginal amount of screen time, approximately eight lines (maybe more, maybe less), and is generally treated as a minor character by the movie itself. However, what we are shown is a well-raised prince. He is diplomatic in a room full of bloodthirsty lunatics, emotionally reserved (perhaps out of fear of showing weakness to potential opponents), but still a boy at heart. He has no idea what he's doing sometimes and will show his quirky sense of humor when the occasion allows for it. And he still throws himself into the party at the end, dancing and either playing soccer with the Huns and Christopher Columbus or being chased around by exotic fowl. It's relatively ambiguous as to which. Either way, he's having a good time and letting the world know it. He presents an interesting dichotomy of boyhood and perfect sophistication, the direct results of his young age and noble birth.

Next time on For the Love of Night at the Museum: Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian. More on Ahkmenrah (for he does appear, the myths are true) and analysis on his brother Kahmunrah. Also, we will drift into tablet territory as we see the life-giving slab of gold open the gate to the Underworld and raise an army of the damned!