National Treasure: Book of Secrets

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National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jon Turteltaub
Produced by	Jon Turteltaub Jerry Bruckheimer
Written by	Screenplay Marianne Wibberley Cormac Wibberley Story Gregory Poirier Marianne Wibberley Cormac Wibberley Terry Rossio Ted Elliott
Starring	Nicolas Cage Justin Bartha Diane Kruger Jon Voight Helen Mirren Ed Harris
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	John Schwartzman Amir Mokri
Editing by	William Goldenberg David Rennie
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	December 21, 2007
Running time	125 min.
Country	United States
Language	English French
Budget	$130,000,000[1]
Gross revenue	$457,364,600[2]
Preceded by	National Treasure
Followed by	National Treasure 3

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (titled National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets on the DVD/Blu-ray release) is a 2007 adventure film and is the sequel to the 2004 film National Treasure. It was directed by Jon Turteltaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.

It was stated in the first film's commentary that there were no plans for a sequel, but due to the first film's impressive box-office performance, earning $347.5 million worldwide, a sequel was given the go-ahead in 2005. It took just 38 days of release for the sequel to out-gross the original.

The film premiered in New York City on December 13, 2007 and was released in the Middle East on 20 December 2007, , Korea, and Taiwan on December 19, 2007. It was released in Australia on December 20, 2007. The film opened in the United States, Canada, Japan, Spain, and Italy on December 21, 2007. It was released in Germany and The Netherlands on January 24, 2008. It was released in the United Kingdom and Denmark on February 8, 2008.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Reception 4 Novelizations 5 DVD release 6 Sequel 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] Plot

Five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Michael O'Laughlen, both members of the Knights of the Golden Circle (KGC), enter a tavern and approach Thomas Gates (Ben Gates' great-great-grandfather), a well-known puzzle solver, to decode a message written in Booth's diary. Thomas recognizes the message as using the Playfair cipher and begins to translate it. While he does so, Booth leaves for Ford's Theatre to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Thomas solves the puzzle, a clue to a treasure map, and realizes the men are still loyal to the Confederate cause and have a sinister motive for finding the treasure. A fight breaks out, and Thomas rips several pages from the diary and throws them in the fireplace. Thomas is shot, and the gunman attempts to retrieve the pages, but only obtains a page fragment. As Thomas dies, Thomas tells his distraught son, Charles Gates, "The debt that all men pay…"

Over 140 years later, Ben Gates (Nicholas Cage) is telling his great-great-grandfather's story at a Civilian Heroes conference. Black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris) shows one of the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary, with Thomas Gates' name on it, convincing everyone that Thomas was not only a conspirator, but the grand architect of the Lincoln assassination. Ben sets out to prove the innocence of his great-great-grandfather. Using spectral imaging, Ben discovers a cipher pointing to Édouard Laboulaye hidden on the back of the diary page. He travels to Paris, where he finds a clue engraved on the torch of the scale model of the Statue of Liberty on the Île des Cygnes, referring to the two Resolute desks

Ben then heads to London to look at the desk at Buckingham Palace with the help of his friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and estranged girlfriend, Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger). From the Queen's desk, he obtains an ancient wooden plank.

Meanwhile, Wilkinson broke into Patrick Gates' (Jon Voight) house and cloned Patrick's cell phone in order to track Ben's whereabouts. Wilkinson eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not before Ben manages to photograph the symbols carved into the plank. At Ben's insistence, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife and Ben's mother, Dr. Emily Appleton (Helen Mirren), a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park, for help in translating the symbols. She does so, but points out that some of the glyphs are partial, leading Ben to conclude another plank must be hidden in the other Resolute desk located in the Oval Office. Ben and Abigail coax Abigail's new love interest, Connor (Ty Burrell), a curator for the White House, into letting them into the office to see the desk. Ben discovers that the second plank is missing, but he does find a stamp bearing the seal of the Book of Secrets. Riley tells Ben that the Book of Secrets contains documents collected by Presidents for Presidents' eyes only, covering such controversial subjects as the JFK assassination, Watergate, and Area 51.

Ben crashes the President's birthday party at Mount Vernon, where he meets the President. Ben convinces the President (Bruce Greenwood) to follow him into a secret tunnel under the House where he confronts him about the book; the President sympathetically warns Ben that his actions will be interpreted as an attempt to kidnap the President, confirming a conclusion Ben and his companions have already reached; Ben is now wanted for committing a federal offense. Ben convinces the President to reveal the location of the book, which is at the Library of Congress. The President also tells Ben to read page 47 along with the information he needs.

In the book, Ben finds a picture of the missing plank from the desk and an entry by President Coolidge, who found the plank in 1924, had it destroyed, and commissioned Gutzon Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore to erase the map's landmarks in order to protect the treasure. Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore where they meet Mitch, who has kidnapped Ben's mother. Mitch helps them find the entrance of a cave containing the legendary native American city of gold, Cíbola. Once inside, they encounter several traps, and everyone gets separated. Eventually, they find the city of solid gold behind Mount Rushmore. However, in order to leave the city of gold, one person has to stay behind to hold open the escape path. Mitch sacrifices himself, asking Ben to give him the credit for finding the treasure.

Ben clears his family's name with the discovery and is cleared of all charges when the President tells everyone that Ben saved his life. Ben also ensures Mitch receives joint credit for the find. The President then asks Ben about what he read on page 47 of the Book of Secrets, to which Ben replies, "It's life altering, sir."

[edit] Cast

• Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates
• Jon Voight as Patrick Gates
• Justin Bartha as Riley Poole
• Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase
• Ed Harris as Mitch Wilkinson
• Harvey Keitel as FBI Special Agent Peter Sadusky
• Helen Mirren as Dr. Emily Appleton

[edit] Reception

Critics initially gave the film mixed reviews, just like the original. Rotten Tomatoes reported that 32% of critics gave the film positive reviews based on 101 reviews.^[3] Metacritic reported the film had an average score of 48 out of 100, based on 25 reviews^[4], while British film critics disputed the implication of British involvement on the Confederate side in the American Civil War.^[5] It opened at number one with $16,739,339 on its first day,^[6] and $44,783,772 its first weekend,^[7] the third largest Christmas opening.^[8] It reached the $100 million mark in eight days,^[7] half the time it took the first film.^[9] It stayed at number one for 17 days before dropping to number two,^[7] and grossed $457,364,600 worldwide, making it the ninth highest grossing film of 2007.^[2]

[edit] Novelizations

Disney Press published an official novelization of the screenplay titled National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets The Junior Novel on November 6, 2007.^[10] Parts of the story in the novel version differ slightly from what was actually filmed, owing to changes being made in the screenplay prior to and during production. For example, in the novel, Ben and Abigail photograph the wooden plank found hidden in the Queen's desk and leave it behind, with the car chase following. But in the movie, they take the plank with them on the chase.

Also published on the same day as the official novelization was a companion youth novel Changing Tides: A Gates Family Mystery by Catherine Hapka. Its story is set in England in the year 1612 and is the first in a series of planned historical novels about the Gates family. The epilogue from Changing Tides is included at the back of the National Treasure book.^[11] The second youth novel by Hapka, Midnight Ride: A Gates Family Mystery, was published on March 8, 2008.^[12]

[edit] DVD release

National Treasure: Book of Secrets was released on DVD, UMD, and Blu-ray Disc on May 20, 2008^[13] (June 2, 2008 in the UK).^[14] The film has been retitled National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets for all three releases. The film's official website has also been changed accordingly.

[edit] Sequel

Director Jon Turteltaub said that the filmmaking team will take its time on another National Treasure sequel,^[15] but Disney has already registered the domains for NationalTreasure3DVD.com and NationalTreasure4DVD.com.^[16] Though the second film ended with the question about page 47 of the President's book of secrets, Turteltaub responded in a press interview that the idea was not set in stone as the basis for National Treasure 3.^[17]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Abraham Lincoln assassination
• National Treasure
• Playfair cipher

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

• Official website
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets at the Internet Movie Database
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Rotten Tomatoes
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Metacritic
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Box Office Mojo
• National Treasure: Book of Secrets at Allmovie
• Official website for the DVD and Blu-Ray Site]
• Official UK Competition site

Preceded by I Am Legend	Box office number-one films of 2007 - 2008 (USA) December 23, 2007 - January 6, 2008	Succeeded by The Bucket List
Preceded by Cloverfield	Box office number-one films of 2008 (UK) February 10	Succeeded by Jumper

v • d • e National Treasure franchise National TreasureSoundtrack Book of SecretsBook • Soundtrack National Treasure 3 Cast Nicolas Cage · Justin Bartha · Diane Kruger · Jon Voight · Harvey Keitel Crews Jon Turteltaub · Jerry Bruckheimer · Cormac Wibberley · Marianne Wibberley · William Goldenberg · Trevor Rabin

v • d • e Films directed by Jon Turteltaub Think Big (1990) · Driving Me Crazy (1991) · 3 Ninjas (1992) · Cool Runnings (1993) · While You Were Sleeping (1995) · Phenomenon (1996) · Instinct (1999) · Disney's The Kid (2000) · National Treasure (2004) · National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) · The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)