National Treasure (film)

This article is about the film. For the general concept, see National treasure.

National Treasure
Directed by	Jon Turteltaub
Written by	Story by Jim Kouf Marianne & Cormac Wibberley Screenplay by Jim Kouf Oren Aviv Charles Segars
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer John Turteltaub
Starring	Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer, Yves Michel-Beneche, Jason Earles
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Edited by	William Goldenberg
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Distributed by	Buena Vista International
Release date	November 19 2004
Running time	131 min approx.
Language	English
Budget	US$100,000,000
Box office	US$347,451,894 (worldwide)

National Treasure is a 2004 movie from Walt Disney Pictures written by Jim Kouf, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, and directed by Jon Turteltaub. It stars Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel and Christopher Plummer. It is an adventure movie set in the USA about a search for lost treasure, involving stealing the Declaration of Independence, which leads to a trail intertwined with the Knights Templar, the Masons, and has many similar plot elements to The Da Vinci Code.

Plot summary

The story centers around a young man named Benjamin "Ben" Franklin Gates, whose family believes in the legend of a fantastic treasure trove of artifacts and gold, hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States. Accumulated through centuries of plundering and conquering, the treasure eventually becomes too massive, and is deemed too dangerous for any one man (or king) to possess. Therefore through time it has been relocated and hidden.

In the present, Ben with his friend Riley Poole enlists the aid of a treasure-hunter Ian and his comrades to find the clues that lead to this treasure. Both Ben and Riley are enthusiastic "treasure protectors," but Ben is especially a history fanatic. Their talents come in handy on their adventure: Ben has degrees in American history and mechanical engineering (the former from Georgetown University, the latter from MIT) and is an expert diver. He is a cryptologist, while Riley is a computer specialist.

The first clue, given to Ben by his grandfather, and passed down from Charles Carroll of Carrollton - one of the last of the sworn protectors - stated that "The secret lies with Charlotte".

By use of charting water currents and the freezing tendencies of the northern waters of the Arctic Circle, the group finds the wreckage of an old Colonial-era ship, the Charlotte. Inside, Ben finds an ancient pipe and a piece of blank paper. Ben uses his blood to uncover a riddle carved into the pipe. After examining the riddle, Ben deduces that the next clue is on the back of the Declaration of Independence. However, Ian (Ben's erstwhile partner) and Ben fight over the true purpose of the quest, with Ian wanting to steal the Declaration and Ben not wanting to do anything of the sort. A standoff ensues which results in Ian and his men escaping and the Charlotte exploding from the gunpowder strewn about its remains. Ben and Riley crawl out of the remnants of the ship while Ian and his team race away to procure the Declaration, believing the other two to be dead.

When Ben and Riley reach the United States, they attempt to warn the authorities about Ian's planned theft of the Declaration. They try to inform the DHS, FBI and finally Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), who works at the National Archives, but all assure them that the document is so heavily guarded there's no way someone could steal it anyway. Ben thinks otherwise, however, and decides that in order to protect the document he is going to have to steal it.

Ben and Riley use a series of tricks to get inside the preservation room, where the Declaration is being kept during an anniversary-gala. Ben takes the Declaration but runs into Ian, barely escaping. As Ben is exiting the building, however, Abigail catches them in the crime and refuses to let the document be taken. Ian shows up again and kidnaps Abigail, who is holding the Declaration from Ben, and a high-speed car chase ensues across Washington D.C. Ben successfully rescues her, at the same time managing to trick Ian into thinking a souvenir copy is the true Declaration. Since Abigail won't leave without the document, Ben and Riley are forced to kidnap her. Also, a credit card slip from Ben gives the FBI Ben's identity, preventing Ben from returning to his apartment to examine the document.

Ben and Riley agree that the only safe place to go would be to Ben's father's house. Upon arriving, Ben's father chastises him for the quest, believing the treasure to be nothing more than a hoax, invented to keep the British occupied during the Revolutionary War, and the War of 1812. Despite this, Ben manages to reveal a series of codes on the back of the Declaration. Ben deduces that they refer to the Silence Dogood letters.

Ben, Abigail and Riley head to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where the letters are being shown. The decoded message from the letters ("The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow") leads them to the Liberty Bell. That in turn leads them to the "house" of the Bell, Independence Hall, where they find special bifocals invented by Benjamin Franklin. Ben examines the back of the Declaration wearing the glasses, to find the next clue. But Ian and his comrades, right behind them the whole time, find them and demand to have the Declaration and the special glasses, leading to a chase around town, ending in Ian getting the Declaration. However, Abigail & Riley escape.

Ben is eventually caught by the FBI, and they try to make him pull an agreement with Ian, to get the Declaration back. He agrees, but Ian has arranged a way to get Ben away from the police — by having him jump from the intended meeting spot, the deck of the USS Intrepid, into the Hudson River.

Ben is forced to help Ian find the treasure, as Ian has captured and brought along Ben's father, Abigail and Riley. The clues lead them to Trinity Church on Wall Street in New York City and then underground, into a network of dungeon-like cellars, centuries old and decaying. There, they arrive at a seemingly dead end. Ian is angry and demands another clue from Ben. Ben's father quickly makes one up, telling him the lanterns are the clue and to go to the Old North Church in Boston. Ian goes with his men, leaving everyone else to die.

When Ian has gone, Ben then explains that another exit would have been built in case of cave-ins, most likely located in the treasure room. Ben and his comrades find a hidden passageway that leads into a treasury chamber. To their disappointment, they find it empty, and assume that the treasure was moved yet again for its protection. Ben's father consoles him by telling him that at least they found evidence the treasure exists. Riley then reminds them that they have yet to find the second exit, so they continue to examine the walls. Ben manages to find a hole, with a shape resembling that of the ancient pipe found on The Charlotte. Ben puts the pipe in the imprint and turns it with the stem of the pipe and the wall opens into the true treasure chamber. When Ben initially sees the treasure, he seems disappointed that it wasn't as extravagant as he had hoped. But he soon uses a torch to light a flammable powder that runs throughout the room, revealing how vast the room really is, and also revealing much more treasure. Among the riches are artifacts from Egypt, Rome and Britain, with both "intrinsic and historic" value.

Via the second exit from the treasure room, Ben and his friends find their way out of the tunnels and back to the church. Ben discovers that the chief investigator, Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel), is a Freemason. However, he does not attempt to suppress the discovery of the treasure, and Ben proposes to give it to various museums around the world. Ben assures Sadusky that Abigail had nothing to do with the theft of the Declaration and asks that credit for the finding of the treasure be given to the Gates family with Riley as an associate. Sadusky thanks Ben for all this, but still insists that "someone has got to go to prison" for this. Ben replies, "Well, if you've got a helicopter, I think I can help you with that." He helps him plan a stakeout at the Old North Church, Boston, where Ian and his team are apprehended. As Ian is thrown to his car, he looks up and there's Ben, standing in the doorway of a house. Ian looks at him. Ben just shrugs.

The U.S. government offers Ben and his friends 10% of the treasure, but Ben takes only 1% of it, splitting that with Riley. The final scene sees Ben and Abigail together, living in a historic mansion they have just bought. Riley is last seen driving off in his brand new red Ferrari 360 Spider, scoffing at his "unbelievable" 0.5% of the treasure (which would presumably still be more than 50 million dollars - based on Ben's offer of bribe to Sadusky. "How about a bribe, say, uh, 10 billion dollars?").

List of all clues and their meaning

• "The Secret Lies With Charlotte" — refers to a ship that ended up in the Arctic Circle through the quick freezing and melting of the northern ice, resulting in a semi-solid landmass. The pipe, found in a cask containing gun powder guarded by a skeletal captain, acts as a key and fits into an imprint in the ante-room of the treasure room, allowing access to the real treasure room.
• "The legend writ, the stain affected. The key in Silence undetected. Fifty-five in iron pen, Mr. Matlack can't offend" — Written on the stem of a meerschaum pipe. The stem needed to be dipped in ink or a similar substance (in the film, blood is used) and then rolled across paper to read the clue, in the manner of a cylinder seal. The clue refers to the Declaration of Independence as well as the Silence Dogood Letters.
• Ottendorf cipher on back of Declaration of Independence — Cipher where the key is the Silence Dogood letters. This piece of information is withheld from Ian at the beginning of the movie.
• Ottendorf cipher solution — "The vision to see the treasured past, comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow" — refers to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell.

Notice the time is 2:22

• $100 bill — supplies the specific time (2:22 p.m.) to be at Independence Hall to find the next clue.
• Ocular Device — Found in a hollow brick carved with the Masonic square and compasses when the shadow from Independence Hall points to a specific wall, the Ocular Device is needed to see the map in its entirety.
• "Heere At The Wall" and the Trinity Church symbol — Found on the map when viewed through the Ocular Device, refers to Trinity Church in New York City on the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway.
• "Beneath Parkington Lane" — Found on the map when viewed through the Megaspectonanocular Device when the lenses are adjusted. This refers to a Master Mason entombed in the Trinity Church Mausoleum, his tomb concealing the entrance to the underground location where the treasure was hidden: a secret temple of the Masons.
• The Pipe — The final clue, the pipe was not only a clue to the Declaration of Independence, but it is also the key to unlock the treasure room. The bowl of the pipe needed to be placed inside an imprint in the wall, which then allowed the stem of the pipe to turn the "lock". The pipe bowl was then pushed to unlock the room.

Inspiration, influences and references

The idea of a large treasure which uses the Declaration of Independence as a clue to its discovery is similar to the story of the Beale ciphers, which supposedly were buried in Bedford County, Virginia circa 1820. However, to decode part of that cipher, one simply had to know the text of the Declaration; one did not need the original document itself.

The story was inspired by a secret, yet historic event at the National Archive. The Declaration of Independence glass case in which the document was stored since the 1940's was leaking helium. They had to build a new case or the document could have literally faded away. The document was secretly removed and placed into a new high tech case for display. One of the films producers (Segars) spoke to many who witnessed the event. He wanted to know how they knew it wasn't a forgery? What if the Declaration was stolen during the transfer? What government agency would have to recover it if it was? What was on the back? And why was a symbologist there? Along with co-creator (Aviv) and director (Turtletaub) the rest was movie history.

The film also draws upon several real-life pieces of history, including the use by revolutionary American forces of invisible inks to store hidden information in letters and other documents; dictionary codes as a form of cipher; and other intelligence tradecraft of the era.

The secret location of the treasure may have been inspired by stories of the mysterious "Money Pit" at Oak Island. The site is subject to various rumors surrounding the Knights Templar, the American Revolution, and pre-Columbian voyages to America.

The methods used in stealing the Declaration of Independence from the National Archives were based, according to Turteltaub in the DVD special features, on the crew asking the Archives, "If someone were to steal a document out of the building, how would they do it?" This led to the tightening of security at the Archives following the movie's release. Included in this tightening were changes in the storage and display of important documents.

As a peripheral reference, Riley's random interjections of "Albuquerque" and "snorkel" in the Charlotte scene are a reference to the "Weird Al" Yankovic song "Albuquerque", part of which features a "lucky lucky autographed glow-in-the-dark snorkel". Additionally, the use of the name Abigail Chase is possibly a reference to the comic book heroine and archaeologist/treasure hunter Abbey Chase from the comic book, Danger Girl, published between 1998 and 2001 or the fact that John Adams wife was also named Abigail.

National Treasure on Blu-Ray

Disney has announced that they will be releasing Blu-Ray Disc versions of certain films, including National Treasure in the summer of 2008. (The others include The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, Sleeping Beauty, and Finding Nemo.) It has been reported that additional features will be included on the platinum editions.

Inconsistencies

• The sequel which comes out in 2007 is set to show us the character of Ben's mother; however, in National Treasure, Ben's father implies to the audience that he is a widower unless, of course, he is divorced.
• The invisible map is purported to be on the back of the Declaration of Independance, specifically the copy produced by Timothy Matlack. However, the copy at the National Archives is not the same copy, but rather one of the 25 surviving Dunlap copies. The original that was produced by Matlack unfortunately did not survive.
• During the car chase, both drivers swerve to avoid a bus. Although the correct "Metrobus" graphics are present, the bus has round headlights and a split windshield. The Washington Metrobus system has never operated any buses with round headlights and split windshields.
• The "Charlotte" clue is the very first clue given in the early 19th century. It takes until the present to actually decode the clue, yet Jon Voight's character talks about other clues he and his ancestors have followed for decades. However, this may be because no-one realized that the Charlotte was a ship.
• Ben, Riley and Abigail determine that at a particular time of day the shadow of Independence Hall's tower would lay across the wall section containing the brick in which the ocular device was hidden. However, even at the same time of day, the position of the shadow varies over the course of the year, so Ben would have had to be on or about the exact same day that the brick was hidden. This can be explained away with the fact that the shadow points to the wall where the brick is, and not the brick itself. Up to this point, Freemason symbols have been used to mark clues. When seeing the shadow, Ben would simply look for a Freemason symbol somewhere on the wall.
• Additionally, time zones did not take effect until the end of the nineteenth century, when the speed of railroad travel made calculating the exact time separately for each town in the United States based on the position of the sun impractical. In addition to accounting for daylight saving time, and having to be at Independence Hall on the same day that the glasses were hidden, the heroes of the film would have had to use the position of the sun in the sky to determine the actual time at Independence Hall itself, and not merely rely on modern-day Eastern Standard Time, as they did in the film.
• Furthermore, Ben says that the time on the clock tower on the back of the $100 bill was 2:22, but according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the time is 4:10. However, the hands of the clock on the bill are the same length, so it would be easy for one to mistake 2:22 for 4:10 and vice-versa.
• In the movie, Ben has to pay tax in addition to his purchase of the Declaration of Independence. However, Federal buildings do not charge tax.
• Though the movie states that 55 men signed the Declaration, there are actually 56 signatures on the document. However, the riddle may not count Thomas Jefferson, as he is implied to have written it.
• In the scene under Trinity Church, as the wooden staircase begins to break up, there are several close ups of nails being pulled out of planks of wood. The nails appear to be a product of modern manufacture techniques. Wire nails were introduced in 1830.
• The lot where real-life Trinity Church is located is sandwiched between two subway tunnels. On the west side of the property is the BMT Broadway Line, running along Trinity Place. One the east side is the Lexington Avenue Line running along Broadway. The church is also adjacent to two subway stations serving those tunnels, the Rector Street and Wall Street stations. It is questionable whether such a massive network of chambers under the church would remain unnoticed in the early 1900s during the extensive excavation and construction of these subway structures.
• Ian is shown jamming the FBI's communications with what bears striking resemblance to a Stalker police laser gun. In one camera angle the Stalker logo was clearly visible on the side, along with the operator buttons that are exactly like the original device. LIDAR operates by transmitting infrared light and would have no effect on radio communications.
• In the scene outside of the Franklin Institute, a SEPTA bus drives by the building bearing the route number 108. In reality, the 108 bus goes nowhere near the Institute at any point on its route. The closest it comes is 65th street which is roughly twenty-five blocks away from the Franklin Institute.
• When Ben and company go to the home of Ben's father, the graphics indicate that the house is located in "Philadelphia, PA." However, the following scene where they are driving to the Franklin Institute to obtain the Silence Dogood letters shows them driving West across the Ben Franklin Bridge (I-676) INTO Philadelphia. This would require that Ben's father lives in New Jersey, not Philadelphia.
• Gunpowder would not have been stored on the gun deck of a ship with the cannons as shown in the Charlotte scene, as it would be far too dangerous. Instead, it would have been stored below the ship's waterline in a powder magazine where accidental ignition would have been less likely.
• Dr. Chase's Secretary leaves the room 3 times when Ben and Riley first meet her.
• When Riley cuts the hole in the pipe to insert the cables to tap into the video of the National Archives, the shape of the hole changes from one scene to the next.
• When Ben is arrested by the FBI, Riley and Dr. Chase are shown coming around the corner more than once.
• When running from Ian's men, Riley and Abigail run from Independence Hall to City Hall, about ten blocks away, in a remarkably short amount of time.

Cast

• Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates
• Justin Bartha as Riley Poole
• Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase
• Sean Bean as Ian Howe
• Jon Voight as Patrick Gates
• Harvey Keitel as FBI Agent Peter Sadusky
• Christopher Plummer as John Adams Gates
• Yves Michel-Beneche as Museum Kid
• Jason Earles as Thomas Gates, ancestor of Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage)

Sequel

Main article: National Treasure: Book of Secrets

Although the audio commentary says that there were no plans for a sequel, the popularity of the first film ($347.5 million worldwide) warranted a sequel, which was given a go-ahead in 2005. National Treasure: Book of Secrets is expected to be coming to theaters December 21, 2007.

External links

• National Treasure at IMDb
• Download the trailer at Jurassic Punk
• National Treasure at Rotten Tomatoes
• National Treasure at Box Office Mojo
• The National Archives "Our National Treasure" website
• National Treasure mistakes at Nitpickers.com
• Nicolas Cage interview for National Treasure at Movie Hole

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