Three years after the events of the previous film, Larry Daley is now the CEO of Daley Devices, a direct response television company that sells inventions based on his night security guard job. His rich new job has prevented him from seeing his museum friends for a while, but when he returns he finds the museum closed for repairs. Most of the museum's exhibits are being replaced by holograms with the exhibits themselves being moved to the Federal Archives of the Smithsonian Institution. The tablet which brings the exhibits to life also remains in the museum initially, but Larry later receives a call that the tablet was stolen and also taken to the Smithsonian. Larry and his son Nick go to Washington D.C. where the tablet brings his old friends to life along with the rest of the museum's exhibits, including a model of an ancient Egyptian Pharaoh who plans to take over the museum using the tablet's power.