Dr. McPhee in Night at the Museum
President of the Museum of Natural History
Dr. Leslie McPhee is the president of the Museum of Natural History and is portrayed by Ricky Gervais. He is the overarching protagonist of the film series, serving as the overarching protagonist of Night at the Museum and Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb, one of the three overarching protagonists of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (the other two being Theodore Roosevelt and Ahkmenrah), and one of the two overarching protagonists of Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again (the other being Larry Daley).
Description
Dr. McPhee operates the Museum of Natural History in New York. McPhee is someone who does not appreciate rule breaking. He is a small man with brown hair and is constantly seen wearing a type of suit.
Appearances
Night at the Museum
McPhee first appears in Night at the Museum, his first line being "Please don't touch the exhibits" telling us that he is the museum's president. He is unaware that the exhibits come to life at night. In the film he hires Larry Daley as the new museum night guard and after his first shift.
After Larry's first night, Dr. McPhee asks Larry why Octavius's minifigure is in the stockades of the Old West Diorama. Larry just states that the minifigures of the Old West Diorama were not happy that he trespassed and locked him up.
When the Neanderthals accidentally start a fire, McPhee gets angry at Larry for the mess that had been created that night as Larry barely kept his job. Larry manages to let McPhee give him one more night.
When all the exhibits had returned to the museum after running rampant in New York the next day when watching the news involving dinosaur tracks in the snow and Neanderthals on the roof of the museum, McPhee has no choice but to fire Larry once again until he sees that the museum is filled with people and decides that he once again should keep his job.
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
McPhee again appears in second film where he appears as one of the three overarching protagonists of Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian (the other two being Theodore Roosevelt and Ahkmenrah), due to having two brief cameo appearances, one at the beginning of the movie and another in the final scene.
We see that he is trying to bring the museum into the 21st Century by removing the old displays and replacing them with new technologies. He ships the old exhibits to the Federal Archives at Smithsonian Institution, in Washington DC.
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Dr. McPhee relied on Larry to handle "special effects" for the grand opening of the Museum's planetarium, and after a huge disaster, McPhee lost his job, and starts to show signs of hysteria. But the British Museum didn't know that, and McPhee authorized the transportation of some of the museum's exhibits to London. Three years later it is revealed that Larry secured McPhee's job back and McPhee finally got to witness the exhibits coming to life.
Night at the Museum: Kahmunrah Rises Again
We first see Dr. McPhee when Larry calls him on the phone, to which the scene cuts to McPhee taking a bath at his house and trying to reach for his phone. As he answers his phone and responds to Larry, he calls him his 'mother', seeing as he never looked at how was calling him, and states how he can't find his boats due to the bath being too 'sudsy'. As Larry states that it's him, McPhee tries to cover up that him calling Larry 'Mother' was just because that's a nickname for his 'supermodel girlfriend'. It's clear that Larry doesn't believe him, instead switching the conversation to how the night guard he just hired quit, leading McPhee to speak sarcastically about finding a new night guard in New York for the museum. Dr McPhee states that this isn't even his problem due to Larry going to the Tokyo Museum, which Larry states that he cares for the place but McPhee doesn't seem to care, instead saying how he's doing his pores before hanging up.
When Nick comes in to work, Dr McPhee is standing there, waiting for him and stating how he's the new night watchman. He says how Nick is 'right on time', being three minutes late, which Nick apologizes for. This then leads McPhee to state that he only gave Nick this position due to the fact that his 'late father' assured him that he would be a responsible replacement. Nick says how his father is still alive, leading Dr McPhee to state that he meant late timing wise, like how Nick is late to work. McPhee then says how he doesn't believe that Nick will be a good replacement due to the fact that he distrusts and dislikes teenagers.
Then, as Rexy comes to life, Nick tries to get McPhee out of the museum, accidentally being pushed against the director which leads hims to call Nick a weird boy and how he makes him uncomfortable. McPhee then starts to warn Nick, stating how if anything happens to the exhibits, it's coming out of Nick's paychecks before asking to not do anything fireable tonight. With that, Dr McPhee leaves.
The next time we see McPhee is near the end of the movie, where Nick's shift had recently ended and McPhee walks in, catching him on the phone with his dad. McPhee points out Nick being on his phone, speaking rather sarcastically as Nick tries to come up with an excuse as to why he's on the phone. Dr McPhee interrupts him though, stating how he's not interested and quickly looks around to see no damage had been done and tells Nick he can go home.
As Nick starts to leave, McPhee tells him to wait and asks about the cat statue before calling it cute. Nick says how he found it in storage when locking up the loading dock, to which McPhee sounds happy, calling it a good find and leaving it on the desk in the lobby. This is where he excuses himself so that he can order some outfits for the cat, and walks off.
Trivia
- A lot of promo pictures to Secret of the Tomb advertise McPhee to be coming with Larry, Teddy, Ahkmenrah, and all of their friends to the British Museum. When the film is released however, McPhee has a minor role in the movie, remaining in New York after being fired from his job.
- Dr. McPhee is surprisingly in a lot of the blooper scenes that are on the DVDs for the Night at the Museum franchise.
- In the Junior Novelization of 3rd book, which is based off the third movie, the ending is different. Here, Dr. McPhee is ‘seen’ wondering back to what Larry said before going to where Ahkmenrah has returned to, pushing movers out as he takes the tablet. After he fixes it and puts it on the wall, it glows, showing he knows the secret now. This is different to when Tilly showed him the magic of the Tablet.
- In Kahmunrah Rises Again, it is suspected/implied that Dr McPhee doesn't know the magic of the tablet, even though he did in Secret of the Tomb at the end.