When the night-guards seized back the amulet they did not turn it off. Why not? Movie would have been over, everything would have become lifeless again and they would have gotten away with everything if there wasn't any proof. Idiots.
shareThey wanted their own liveliness that night. They thought the come-to-life's would just be a problem to him and get in his way. They didn't know that Larry would be able to martial the creatures to stop their (the thieves) escape.
Then Cecil thought he could escape Larry and company with the stagecoach. Without that it would have been Larry vs him, without his liveliness; he'd lose. So He gambled on the switched-on tablet. He didn't know Larry knew how to stop the stagecoach horses.
So the tablet on would have been good for them except that Larry organized the come-to-life's and knew the horse-stopper word.
It works well enough plot wise.
Cecil had a van until the miniture people from the display flattened the tires.
shareBut he didn't expect that the come-to-life's would be helping Larry. So Cecil didn't expect the van problem and then it was too late.
If Cecil switched off the mummy's tablet, he would lose his own strength and vitality, and then have a heart attack or Larry would catch him. He took a gamble on pitting his own enlivened self against Larry, but Larry won.
Why would he need to worry about losing his vitality if Larry and son were locked up in the Egyptian exhibit? Cecil and friends did turn off the tablet to begin with so you think they had a plan going until Larry showed up. Having neutralized Larry they could have switched it off....considering it would have prevented him from using the large statues from busting him out.
shareI think they didn't turn it off because they didn't know how to. I think only the Egyptian guy was either the only one who knew how to or the only one who had the ability to turn it off.
sharewell Cecil somehow turned it off to begin with and Larry's son seemed to know how to turn it back on and it was his first time holding it. I mean it was just a peg that needed to be flipped even with the rest. The Egyptian guy was needed to use the tablet to summon everything back in the museum.
shareHUGE goof in this post...
You guys keep talking about the character Gus when you really mean Cecil. Gus was the short, angry one.
Boo-ya!
When the night-guards seized back the amulet they did not turn it off. Why not? Movie would have been over, everything would have become lifeless again and they would have gotten away with everything if there wasn't any proof. Idiots.
First, it's a tablet, not an amulet.
Second, the old guards DID turn it off. That's why Rexy didn't come to life on schedule, and Larry knew something was wrong. If they had just let everything come to life as usual, Larry perhaps would have been none the wiser until the next night. Once everyone was alive, they were not aware anything was amiss. The only two reanimated characters who seemed to care about the goings-on in the museum were Teddy Roosevelt and Christopher Columbus.
It seems from the movies that once the tablet is activated, it gives life to the inanimate until sunrise, which is why it doesn't matter how much distance comes between the reanimated and the tablet, as long as the characters are back at ground zero before morning. This might not have been the express purpose of the tablet, not the only way it could have been used. Both pharaohs believed the tablet would help them once again assume rule over the land. The way we see the tablet used would not do this. This "life only at nighttime" may have been only a contingency function, designed specifically to allow the creation of more soldiers for night-time conquering, or extra bodies to serve and safeguard the pharaoh's domain at night.
Cecil, Gus, and Reginald must have been very decent men when they were younger. They must have had a great amount of empathy for the inhabitants of the museum, and a great respect for life to have not turned a tile in the display when they were first hired a long time ago, (Cecil did say it took a few years for them to realize the beneficial effects on themselves) and make a much quieter job for themselves all these years.
I'm made of wax, Larry. What are you made of?
- Teddy Roosevelt (Robin Williams) Night at the Museum
The reason the tablet was off originally was to make sure that no creature in the museum gave them away.
Once they were discovered and the tablet turned on, they kept it on because they needed the energy it provided. They already had Larry on their tail and they needed the youthfulness to fight him. Once Larry was shut up and they thought they won, the museum was alive anyway so they needed liveliness to escape from those creatures should they fight. Then once Larry escaped again, the tablet needed to be on because he was going to attack Cecil and try to get the tablet back whether Cecil was old and decrepit or not (so he might as well keep the tablet on and have a fighting chance).
--
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
--Oscar Wilde
You missed the real plotholes. What happened to the old watchmen? Presumably, they weren't arrested by the police, because Larry was being fired at the end of the movie. If Larry had had the three arrested, it would've explained the mess and broken glass in the movie. Plothole 2- the three old men planted evidence at Larry's place! Certainly a curator who would notice a miniature roman in stockades would notice missing artifacts from the museum.
shareWhat happened to the old watchmen?
Well, during the credits, there is a short scene that shows them cleaning up the foam from the fire extinguisher. One of them says that it was nice of Larry not to tell, but another one (Gus, I think) says that they are night watchmen, not janitors. Therefore, I guess that, beacuse the museum became successful they decided to rehire them, but as janitors, not night watchmen.
R~O
TEAM EDWARD!!!
"You were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off" - St. Trinian's (2007)
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I guess that's one glaring plothole, but remember it's aimed at kidsSource:Movie Reviews - Night at the Museumhttp://moviereviews.noskram.com/2009/09/movie-reviews-for-night-at-the -museum
shareI think there was a bigger problem with the movie than a plot hole. Ben Stiller is trying to gain the affection of his son, but he is only a "security guard". So it seems that Ben's character is not good enough to be a looked up to by his son. But once the museum is magical and Ben's character is running that place as a security guard, now he is good enough to be looked up to by his son....... Wow, what a message. Basically they said a great big F U to every hard working security guard in the world,, lol.. Well unless the place you guard is magical. Or maybe the Playboy mansion...
shareIt is a movie but how about:
1) How did they figure out the tablet was the source of everything? Teddy Roosevelt mentions it all changed when the pharaoh showed up but how did they know it was the tablet? How did the older night guards figure out it was the tablet? How would Teddy, a display, figure it out when he wasn't 'alive' until showed up.
2) How do they know in the rules the lions will eat you? Was there an incident in the past?
3) How did they figure out everything on the "Night Guard to do" list for that matter?
4) There was never a benefit at night or someone part of the regular staff that never stayed at night?
You could go on and on but it is what it is. Doesn't bother me. If I wanted a thinker that was tight I would watch The Usual Suspects.