Kahmunrah is the main antagonist of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian and Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again. He is portrayed by Hank Azaria.
He is Ahkmenrah's older brother, who comes back to life and tries to use Ahkmenrah's magic Golden Tablet to take over the world. He is also the archenemy of Larry Daley, who thwarted his plans.
Personality[]
Kahmunrah is egotistical person who believes himself to be better than everyone else. While he can be cunning and wicked, he is also somewhat close-minded and at times appears clueless. However, he is self-aware and occasionally acknowledges the odd predicaments he gets himself into. This does not prevent him from wanting to achieve his goals of which he is determined to acquire.
Being the first son, Kahmunrah intensely resents being denied the throne in favor of Ahkmenrah, calling him "baby brother the favorite". He kept trying to steal the powerful Golden Tablet and use its power to open the Gates of the Underworld and bring forth the Horus Soldiers army, with which he could take over the world, but never to avail. (Ahkmenrah jokingly states that he wanted to impress their mother.)
Kahmunrah is haughty, self-centered, entitled and prideful, loves lording over others, and resents when things do not work the way he wants to.
Although he is regal and courteous, with a witty sense of humor, he is quite theatrical, has a grandiose demeanor, and tends to raise his voice in an exaggerated fashion during arguments and to comically overreact to perceived slights.
While he does develop a grudging respect for him, he is greatly irked by Larry's absolute lack of deference. Though mostly a comedic character, he remains a ruthless and power-hungry conqueror, able to take over the entire Smithsonian Museum, and a very strong and skilled swordsman.
Appearance[]
Kahmunrah is a man of Egyptian descent who wears a tall yellow and blue Neme and an Egyptian false beard. Additionally, he has on a neck and shoulder guard, manacles, a tunic skirt, and sandals. Basically, the traditional wear of an Egyptian pharaoh.
He rules the Earth and the Smithsonian museum with an iron fist, and then joins forces with other historical leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte, Ivan the Terrible, and Al Capone. Later, modern screen villains, which include Oscar the Grouch (from Sesame Street) and Darth Vader (from the Star Wars films), also want to be on Kahmunrah's team, but the Egyptian king does not let them (Oscar the Grouch is not evil at all and Darth Vader does not speak but tries to use the Force, which naturally does not work and Kahmunrah does not understand the hand motion).
Kahmunrah discovers the combination on the tablet has been changed, and coerces Larry Daley into finding out the new combination by trapping his cowboy friend Jedediah in an hourglass. He later learns the combination after Al Caponeinterrogates a bobble-headed Albert Einstein (it's pi), and uses it to open to the gate to Duat, unleashing an army of falcon-headed warriors. These are sent back to the underworld by the Abraham Lincoln Statue. Kahmunrah is later banished to Duat by Larry Daley and he is never seen or heard from again.
History[]
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian[]
The story begins when Larry, now a wealthy inventor, learns that most of the exhibits of the American Museum of Natural History whom he befriended in the first film are being sent to the Smithsonian Institution to be replaced by holograms. He goes there to say goodbye to them and learns from Ahkmenrah that the Golden Tablet which makes the exhibits come to life is to stay with him in the Museum.
Alas, Dexter the monkey stole the tablet and brought it with him at Washington, causing all the exhibits there to come to life, including Kahmunrah's wax statue, who spends the night trying to take the Tablet from its crate not to avail.
The tiny cowboy figure Jedediah manages to phone Larry to warn him, and Larry rushes there to get back the Tablet, guided on the phone by his son Nick.
Larry sneaks into the Smithsonian and tricks the night guard into calling sick, taking his keys and flashlight. He gets the Tablet from Dexter, but stumbles upon Kahmunrah, who has him surrounded by statues of his soldiers, demanding the Golden Tablet. Having seen too much during his time as a night guard, Larry is much less impressed as Kahmunrah would like to and talks back.
Larry hands over the Tablet and tricks Kahmunrah into opening a crate containing a giant Cephalopod, stating that it contains a magic cube that obliterates anything standing in one's way. As Kahmunrah and his soldiers are being beat up, Larry takes back the Tablet and flees, pursued by his foe's guards.
During the ensuing chase, Larry befriends the wax statues of General Custer and Amelia Earhart, who help him get rid of Kahmunrah’s soldiers. Meanwhile, the evil pharaoh ransacks all the treasures of the museum, which he intends to turn into his new palace, before recruiting the wax statues of Al Capone and his gangsters, Ivan the Terrible and his soldiers, and Napoleon Bonaparte and his imperial guard.
Oscar the Grouch and Darth Vader himself offer their services as well, but the evil pharaoh (wearing a bathing robe) dismisses the former for not being evil, and the latter for not having the force powers of the original (and missing the reference), making his hand gestures sillier than threatening.
After an epic chase through the entire museum and inside the paintings of the nearby National Gallery of Art, Larry and Amelia are captured and brought before Kahmunrah. The evil pharaoh uses the Tablet as a keypad to open the Gates of the Underworld, but luckily the combination was changed. Kahmunrah captures Jedediah, who tried to sneak on him, and locks him into a filling hourglass, ordering Larry to find the new combination for him before sunrise, lest Jedediah dies smothered in sand.
Later, Kahmunrah sees Larry run of with the Tablet to get help from a window, and sends his men after him. Larry, who got the combination from Einstein bobbleheads, eventually returns and starts arguing with Kahmunrah about who will give what the other wants first, with Kahmunrah comically flipping out whenever Larry reaches out for the hourglass. Unfortunately, Al Capone barges in with an Einstein bobblehead captive, revealing the combination he extorted from it.
The Horus Soldiers of the Underworld
Kahmunrah then summons a battalion of Horus Warriors from the Underworld, but the animated giant statue of Abraham Lincoln's memorial (whom Larry befriended earlier) appears, guided by the tiny centurion figure Octavius. Lincoln easily defeats the Horus Soldiers and frightens them back into the Underworld.
Enraged by his failure, Kahmunrah attacks Larry with a khopesh (an Egyptian sickle-shaped sword), but Larry holds his own wielding his flashlight and manages to best his foe.
Kahmunrah vs. Larry
Kahmunrah asks Larry "What are you?" to which he answers "I'm the night guard"; before pushing him into the Gates of the Underworld, which Amelia re-opened during the battle, never to be seen again.
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again[]
Kahmunrah breaks free from the basement room at the museum when Nick is on duty. He steals the tablet that brings the exhibitions to life because he has a master plan to rule the world. He goes on the run, with Nick after him.
He goes to the Museum of Natural Art. Kahmunrah brings to life the God of Chaos, Seth, who helps him fend the others off. They find the painting that leads to Ancient Egypt and go through it.
Nick and a group of others follow Kahmunrah. At the temple, a fight breaks out. Nick plays the notes in reverse which makes the tablet suck away the jackals, Seth and Kahmunrah. He is defeated.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In an early version of the script for Battle of the Smithsonian, a conversation between Kahmunrah and Larry reveals that he murdered his younger brother Ahkmenrah. This conversation was scrapped.
- One interesting thing to note is that while the coffins of Ahkmenrah and his parents were found on the Nile Expedition, the coffin of Kahmunrah wasn't present. This would serve to confirm the strained relationship that Kahmunrah had with his parents, as evidenced in the second movie that his parents "may have slightly changed the combination on [him]," since he wasn't buried in the same tomb as the rest of his family. Perhaps, he was never buried at all, and his body was lost in the desert the whole time, which would explain why Ahkmenrah becomes a mummy when the Tablet's power wanes, whereas Kahmunrah becomes a mannequin; Kahmunrah's spirit is still present, but the body which houses his spirit in the 21st Century isn't his own.
- Kahmunrah was initially played by Hank Azaria in the live-action film trilogy.
- Marc Graue also voiced Kahmunrah in the video game adaptation of Battle of the Smithsonian.
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