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* The Year 1876- The Code to both desks.
* The Year 1876- The Code to both desks.
* "Find the noble bird: let him take you by the hand and give you passage to the sacred temple..."- The message on the fragment retrieved from the Resolute Desk located in Buckingham Palace.
* "Find the noble bird: let him take you by the hand and give you passage to the sacred temple..."- The message on the fragment retrieved from the Resolute Desk located in Buckingham Palace.
* "...look for an island of stone."- The message on the fragment retrieved from the Resolute Desk located in the Oval Office; the desk's entry in the President's Book indicates that the landmark is near Mount Rushmore.
* Find the place where the moon hits the Earth and release the hummingbird, a code that Emily gave Patrick & Ben reffering to a Lakota myth that she used to tell Ben.
* "Find the place where the moon hits the Earth and release the hummingbird"- Emily's intentional mistranslation of the second fragment, given to Patrick after Mitch orders her to lie a code that Emily gave Patrick & Ben referring to a Lakota myth that she used to tell Ben.
* Cloudless Rain, referring to a sunny day and rain
* "The entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain"- The first part of the clue in a letter from Queen Victoria to General Pike, referring to a sunny day and rain; the island of stone changes color when both wet and under the sun, eventually revealing an image of an eagle, the noble bird.
* Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior
* "Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior"- The second clue in Queen Victoria's letter; the image of the eagle (a symbol for warrior) has a hand-sized opening in its chest, inside of which is the way to open the passage.


==Cast==
==Cast==

Revision as of 17:39, 3 May 2010

National Treasure: Book of Secrets
Theatrical release poster
Directed byJon Turteltaub
Jerry Bruckheimer (uncredited)
Written byScreenplay
Marianne Wibberley
Cormac Wibberley
Story
Gregory Poirier
Marianne Wibberley
Cormac Wibberley
Terry Rossio
Ted Elliott
Produced byJon Turteltaub
Jerry Bruckheimer
StarringNicolas Cage
Justin Bartha
Diane Kruger
Jon Voight
Helen Mirren
Ed Harris
CinematographyJohn Schwartzman
Amir Mokri
Edited byWilliam Goldenberg
David Rennie
Music byTrevor Rabin
Distributed byWalt Disney Pictures
Release date
December 21, 2007
Running time
125 minutes
CountriesUnited States
France
United Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Budget$130,000,000[1]
Box office$457,364,600[2]

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 and last 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 first released in Korea and Taiwan on December 19, 2007. It was then released in Australia and the Middle East 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 and in the United Kingdom and Denmark on February 8, 2008.

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 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 map to Cibola, the city of gold, and realizes the men are still loyal to the South 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 (Nicolas 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, which tarnishes the Gates family's reputation and Ben is disgraced. Ben sets out to prove the innocence of his great-great-grandfather. Ben discovers a cipher pointing to Édouard Laboulaye hidden on the back of the diary page. He travels to Paris France, 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 England 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 breaks into Patrick Gates' (Jon Voight) house and clones 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) 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), who works at 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 eighteen minutes erased from Watergate tapes, Area 51, and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

Ben crashes the president's birthday party at Mount Vernon, where he meets the president (Bruce Greenwood). Ben convinces the president 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.

Shooting of the film in London

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 Wilkinson, who has kidnapped Ben's mother. He helps them find the entrance of a cave containing the legendary native American city of gold, Cíbola. Once inside, they encounter several traps, and Ben, Abigail, Riley, and Wilkinson get separated from Ben's parents. Eventually, they find the city of gold behind Mount Rushmore. However, in order to leave the city of gold when it suddenly begins flooding, one person has to stay behind to hold open the stone door to the drainage tunnel beneath the city, an action which would result in certain death. Wilkinson demands to go first by threatening Abigail, so Ben agrees to stay behind. However the pounding of waves causes Wilkinson to be the one to stay behind, where he drowns in the cavern beneath the city.

Ben clears his family's name with the discovery and is cleared of all charges when the president tells everyone that Ben did not kidnap him, but actually saved his life. Everyone including Wilkinson is given credit for the discovery of the Lost City of Gold. 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."

Clues

  • The debt that all men pay is Death.
  • Laboulaye and Laboulayee Lady, referring to the Statue of Liberty in Paris.
  • These Twins stand Resolute to preserve what we are looking for, referring to the Resolute desk made From the HMS Resolute.
  • The Year 1876- The Code to both desks.
  • "Find the noble bird: let him take you by the hand and give you passage to the sacred temple..."- The message on the fragment retrieved from the Resolute Desk located in Buckingham Palace.
  • "...look for an island of stone."- The message on the fragment retrieved from the Resolute Desk located in the Oval Office; the desk's entry in the President's Book indicates that the landmark is near Mount Rushmore.
  • "Find the place where the moon hits the Earth and release the hummingbird"- Emily's intentional mistranslation of the second fragment, given to Patrick after Mitch orders her to lie a code that Emily gave Patrick & Ben referring to a Lakota myth that she used to tell Ben.
  • "The entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain"- The first part of the clue in a letter from Queen Victoria to General Pike, referring to a sunny day and rain; the island of stone changes color when both wet and under the sun, eventually revealing an image of an eagle, the noble bird.
  • "Surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior"- The second clue in Queen Victoria's letter; the image of the eagle (a symbol for warrior) has a hand-sized opening in its chest, inside of which is the way to open the passage.

Cast

Reception

Critics tended to rate the film as below average. 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]

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]

Home video

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] In the opening weekend, 3,178,631 DVD units were sold, bringing in $50,826,310 in revenue. As of August 2009, 5,873,640 DVD units have been sold, generating revenue of $93,132,076. This does not include blu-ray sales or DVD rentals.[15]

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.

Sequel

Director Jon Turteltaub said that the filmmaking team will take its time on a second National Treasure sequel,[16] but Disney has already registered the domains for NationalTreasure3DVD.com and NationalTreasure4DVD.com.[17] 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. The confirmed release year for the film is 2011, with the original cast consisting of Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Jon Voight, and Helen Mirren returning again.[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". alreadyseen.com. 2007. Retrieved 2008-04-18.
  2. ^ a b "National Treasure: Books of Secrets (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-01-11.
  3. ^ "National Treasure: Book of Secrets". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
  4. ^ "National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  5. ^ Guardian review, 8th February 2008
  6. ^ "National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2007-12-28.
  7. ^ a b c "National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007) Daily Breakdown". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2008-01-05.
  8. ^ "'National Treasure' Leads Christmas Rush". Box Office Mojo. 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2007-12-26.
  9. ^ "National Treasure (2004) Daily Breakdown". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2005-03-13.
  10. ^ "National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets The Junior Novel". Retrieved 2007-11-27.
  11. ^ "Changing Tides (National Treasure)". Retrieved 2007-11-28.
  12. ^ "Midnight Ride (Gates Family Mystery)". Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  13. ^ Lai, Marcus. "National Treasure Blu-ray orders spike at Amazon". Retrieved 2008-04-16.
  14. ^ "National Treasure 2 - Book Of Secrets". Retrieved 2008-07-15.
  15. ^ http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/2007/NATR2-DVD.php
  16. ^ Bruce Kirkland (2008-05-30). "'National Treasure 3' in works". Jam!.
  17. ^ Peter Sciretta (2008-02-01). "Disney Plans For National Treasure 3 & 4". SlashFilm.
  18. ^ "National Treasure 3: Page 47". HitsUSA.com. 2007-12-22.
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