‘Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again’ Ending Explained: Why Does Nick Take the Job at the Museum?
Welcome to the Ending Explained for Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again, a sequel to the Night at the Museum series of movies starring Ben Stiller. The series of live-action movies have been halted for some time, but that doesn’t mean Disney cannot take the chance to do something new with its IP. The result is a short animated film that continues the adventures of the characters we met in the movies, but also takes the story in a new direction thanks to a new lead.
The film is very much the definition of a straight-to-streaming movie and feels like a step back for the franchise. Nevertheless, the story is charming, and with a runtime of just around 80 minutes, Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again feels like a small commitment and something that fans of the series will be able to enjoy. The plot is very predictable, and there are very few surprises, so if you are an avid viewer of Disney content or adventure movies of this kind, then you have already seen this movie before.
The following paragraphs contain spoilers for Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again. Read at your own risk.
Why Does Nick Take The Job At The Museum?
The movie begins with a reintroduction of the premise behind the franchise. For those who don’t know what Night at the Museum is all about, the movie takes place at the American Museum of Natural History. A building that, from the outside, looks like any other museum in the city, in the country, or in the world. However, there is something special and quite strange about this museum in particular. This museum has magic, and that magic brings the displays in the exhibitions to life.
Because of it, we have historical figures like Joan of Arc, cavemen, ancient Roman centurions, and more roaming the halls of the museum at night. The figures can go out of the museum, but they need to come back before sunrise, or they will turn into dust. So, as you can expect, the job of night custodian is one that has seen many turnovers over the years. So people cannot believe what they are seeing, and others try to ignore it, but it is very much impossible. Every once in a while, the museum gets a night guard who gets it and becomes part of the night shift at the museum.
The last night guard to enjoy his time at the museum was Larry Daley, but he has now moved on to a position at the Museum of Tokyo, Japan. So, the new aspirants to night guard after him have been failing enormously. Larry has a son named Nick, and Nick is having trouble deciding what to do with his life now that he is eighteen. His mother wants him to be a leader and a successful businessman, but Larry believes a summer job at the museum will help him become a better man.
Nick is unsure about the whole thing. You see, Nick is a musician, and that is what really inspires his soul. However, he doesn’t have the confidence in himself to apply to the local jazz band where he wants to play.
How Well Does Nick Do In His Job At The Museum?
Nick goes into the job with an advantage. He already knows that the exhibitions come back to life, and he already knows the characters in the museum thanks to his dad taking him there when he was younger. So, he isn’t shocked to see all these historical figures come back to life. However, he doesn’t feel like it might be too much for him. Enter, Kahmunrah, an ancient pharaoh who tried to take over the world but failed, thanks to Larry. He has come back and has managed to escape his imprisonment.
Nick fails to lock the door in the basement, and Kahmunrah escapes, recruiting the help of the god of chaos and a table that will help him move between dimensions. Nick and the rest of the team, which includes Teddy, Jedediah, Joan, Octavius, Sacajawea, and Attila, decide to follow Kahmunrah outside the museum, stop him, and be back before sunrise. They do it and follow Kahmunrah back to the dimension where the Egyptian gods reside. There Kahmunrah meets Horus, and he raises his army of the dead, with which he will conquer the world.
Nick and the team arrive and fight Kahmunrah. In the end, Nick gathers the confidence he needs, and he uses his music to stop the magic table from resonating. When the magic stops, Kahmunrah and his army are sucked through the portal the army came from, and thus Nick helps to save the world. Everybody is proud of Nick for having stepped up at the end, even when he was really scared. When Larry asks how Nick’s first night on the job was, Nick and Teddy pass it off as if it were just a normal night.
Nick gathers the confidence to go into the audition for the jazz band he wants to be in, and he meets a nice girl and starts dating her. It seems Larry was right when he thought a summer job at the museum would help his son improve his life.