Trivia
Hank Azaria had previously worked with Ben Stiller in Mystery Men. Azaria also made cameo appearances in Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story and Along Came Polly, both of which also starred Stiller.
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Director Shawn Levy told a National Public Radio interviewer that once the Smithsonian Institution agreed to lend their name to the film, their curators were very helpful and willing to share information about the real-life characters represented in the movie, but Levy had more trouble with the intellectual property-holders for the fictional characters represented. For instance, for a scene in which Darth Vader interacts with the pharaoh played by Hank Azaria, there was a person on the set who came from LucasFilm and whose job it was to observe all scenes filmed that involved Darth Vader and to tell the filmmakers what Vader would or wouldn't do.
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It's the ninth film with Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson after The Cable Guy, Permanent Midnight, Meet the Parents, Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, Starsky & Hutch, Meet the Fockers and Night at the Museum.
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The motorcycle that Larry uses as a getaway vehicle is a rare 1942 Harley Davidson XA Military Side Valve 750cc Flat Twin with attached sidecar. This was Harley's copy of the German BMW/Zundapp military motorcycles.
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The following actors appear in both this movie and The Office and/or The Office: Ricky Gervais, Mindy Kaling, Amy Adams, Craig Robinson, and Ed Helms.
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Amelia says in the movie that she became a pilot, "for the fun of it!" This refers to the book Amelia Earhart wrote called 'The Fun of It' (1932). It is a memoir of her flying experiences and an essay on women in aviation.
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The Smithsonian does host a giant squid exhibit, but this was forgone for a giant octopus in the film. For some reason, however, the film's marketing in Japan (where the difference between a squid and an octopus is common knowledge) consistently referred to the octopus as a "squid," even though it is never directly identified as either animal in the film.
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Amy Adams hated having to wear the skin tight pants that her character wore because it showed off her behind.
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Hank Azaria filmed test scenes (some of which are on the DVD) of his character Kahmunrah with various accents including American Southerner (from Alabama) and English Cockney, before settling on an upper-class British accent marred by a humorous lisp.
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The dogfighting World War II era fighters are the Junkers Ju 87 Stuka and Supermarine Spitfire, two famous rival aircraft flown by the Germans and British, respectively.
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The fighter jet featured on display is a Lockheed F-104 Starfighter with USAF markings. The real fighter at the museum is a F-104A with NASA markings.
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Hank Azaria modeled his voice and the lisp after Boris Karloff from his performance in the original "The Mummy" (1932). Karloff had a small but noticeable lisp.
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Cameo
Clint Howard:
Ron Howard's brother appears as a flight commander in the Aeuronautic Center. He did the same role in Apollo 13, directed by his brother.
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Spoilers
Near the end of the movie, Larry and Jed notice that Amelia Earhart has flown off in the wrong direction. Later, when Larry meets the human lookalike, she asks for help getting to the miniature room because she gets lost. This is a reference to Earhart's last known flight where she disappeared, not having any idea where she and her navigator were at.
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