National Treasure (film)

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National Treasure
Directed by	Jon Turteltaub
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer John Turteltaub
Written by	Story by Jim Kouf Marianne & Cormac Wibberley Screenplay by Jim Kouf Oren Aviv Charles Segars
Starring	Nicolas Cage, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Sean Bean, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Christopher Plummer
Music by	Trevor Rabin
Cinematography	Caleb Deschanel
Editing by	William Goldenberg
Distributed by	Buena Vista International
Release date(s)	November 19, 2004
Running time	131 min approx.
Language	English
IMDb profile

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.

Tagline 

The greatest adventure history has ever revealed, to find the treasure that the freemasons buried for someone to find.

According to Box Office Mojo.com, with a production budget of $100 million and release in 3,243 theaters, National Treasure went on to have an opening weekend domestic gross of $35,142,554. Overall, National Treasure earned a domestic total gross of $173,008,894 (with a worldwide gross of $347,451,894). [2]

Contents 1 Cast 2 Summary 3 Inspiration and influences 4 List of all clues and their meaning 5 Trivia 6 Inconsistencies 7 Sequel 8 References 9 External links

[edit] 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

[edit] Summary

The story centers around a young man called Benjamin Franklin Gates (most likely named after Benjamin Franklin), whose family believes in the legend of a fantastic treasure trove of artifacts, hidden by the Founding Fathers of the USA. 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 latter from MIT) and is an expert diver, while Riley is a computer specialist.

The first clue, given to Ben by his grandfather, stated that "The secret lies with Charlotte".

In the Arctic Circle, aboard the derelict ship Charlotte, the men find an ancient pipe and a piece of blank paper. Ben uses his blood to uncover a riddle carved into the pipe. While trying to understand what the riddle means, Ian and Ben fight over the true purpose of the quest, and the ship is destroyed when Ian accidentally sets fire to the ship's store of gunpowder.

It is discovered, through the riddle found aboard the Charlotte, that a map or guide to the treasure was written on the reverse side of America's Declaration of Independence. Ian and his comrades plan to steal it, while Ben and Riley try to warn the government. However, no one believes him, and Ben resolves to steal the Declaration for its own protection.

They use a series of tricks to get inside the preservation room, where the Declaration is being kept during a party. They successfully take the Declaration, managing to trick Ian into thinking a souvenir is the true Declaration. But Abigail Chase, a lover of history who works at the National Archives, catches them in the crime and refuses to let the document be taken. Ben and Riley are forced to kidnap her. Also, a credit card slip from Ben gives the police a good clue of where to find them.

The team manages to see the map on the back of the document just before the police arrive. They realize that it's not really a map, but a series of codes. Ben, an expert in codes and history, finds out that they refer to the Silence Dogood letters, each code containing the number of the letter, number of the line, and number of the letter on that line.

Ben, Abigail and Riley head to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, where the letters are being shown. Since they are now wanted by the police, they pay a young boy to decode the message for them. That leads them to the Pass and Stow Liberty Bell, where they find special glasses 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.

Ben is eventually found by the Federal Investigators, and they try to make him pull an agreement with Ian, to get the Declaration back. He agrees, and gets the Declaration but then runs away. He talks to Abigail and Riley, who are safe and waiting for him in the location that the next clue indicated. On his way to find them, Ian confronts Ben, showing him that they have captured his father, Abigail, and Riley.

Ben and his friends are forced to help Ian find the treasure. The clues lead them first to a church and then underground, into a network of dungeon-like cellars, quite old and decaying. There, one of Ian's men dies and the others' lives are put at risk many times before coming to a seemingly dead end. Ian is angry and demands another clue from Ben. Ben's father quickly makes one up, telling him to go to the Old North Church in Boston. Ian goes with his men, leaving Abigail, Riley, Ben and his father to die.

When Ian has gone, Ben and his comrades find a hidden passageway that leads into the vast treasury chamber. To their disappointment, they find it empty, and assume somebody else beat them here a long time ago. Ben's father consoles him by telling him that at least they found evidence the treasure existed, even if the treasure is now gone. Ben examines a wall only to find a hole in it, with a shape resembling that of the ancient pipe found on the Charlotte. Ben whispers to himself that 'the secret lies with Charlotte', puts the pipe in the hole and turns it. The wall opens into the true treasure chamber. Among the riches are artifacts from Egypt, Rome, Britain, with both intrinsic and historical value.

From the treasury, the seekers find their way out of the tunnels and back to the the church. Outside, Ben discovers that the head investigator is descended from the Free Masons; keepers of the treasure. They agree that the treasure is too great for any one man and decide to give it to various museums around the world. Ben asks the head chief to keep Abigail's records clean and give the record for the finding of the treasure to the entire Gates family and Mr. Riley Poole. For himself, he asks not to go to jail. The head chief insists that someone has got to go to jail. Ben then helps him to find Ian and is let off the hook from jail.

They are offered 10% of the treasure, but Ben decided to only take 1% and split that with Riley. The final scene sees Ben and Abigail married and living in their new mansion. They receive a visit from Riley, who is last seen driving off in a brand new Ferrari.

[edit] Inspiration and influences

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 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

[edit] List of all clues and their meaning

• "The Secret Lies With Charlotte" — refers to a ship that somehow ended up in the Arctic Circle.
• The Pipe "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, stem needed to be dipped in ink or similar substance, then rolled across paper to read clue. Refers to the Declaration of Independence.
• 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.

• $100 bill — supplies the specific time (2:22 p.m.) to be at Independence Hall to find the next clue.
• Ocular Device — Found in fake brick carved with the Masonic square and compasses when the shadow from Independence Hall points to a specific wall, Ocular Device needed to see the map in its entirety.
• "Heere At The Wall" and the Trinity Church symbol — Found on the map when viewed through Ocular Device, refers to Trinity Church in New York City on the corners of Wall Street and Broadway.
• "Beneath Parkington Lane" — Found on the map when viewed through Ocular Device and the lenses are adjusted. Refers to a Master Mason entombed in the Trinity Church Mausoleum, his tomb concealed the entrance to the underground location where the treasure was hidden: a secret temple of the Masons.
• The Pipe — Final clue, the pipe was not only a clue to the Declaration of Independence, it was also the key to unlock the room where the treasure was hidden. Head of pipe needed to be placed inside the wall, to allow the stem of the pipe to turn it. Press the pipe head when turned, to unlock the treasure room.

[edit] Trivia

• Before the movie was rated PG by the MPAA, it was under the Touchstone Pictures banner (which is part of Disney), as the producers had anticipated that it would be rated PG-13. When the film received a PG rating, it was then placed under the more family-oriented Walt Disney Pictures banner. ^[1]
• National Archives security was actually tightened after the release of the movie, and the National Archives changed the way it kept such documents especially the Declaration of Independence when it isn't on public display, and even changed its public display location. The reason for this is the crew of National Treasure went to the Archives and asked "If someone was to steal a document out of this building, how would they do it?". This was explained by Turteltaub in the special features on the DVD.
• While filming for an exterior shot of Independence Hall, Nicolas Cage unwittingly caused an accident when several school girls looked up at him in the tower instead of the stairs they were climbing. Several fell, causing a domino effect. No serious injuries were reported.^{[citation needed]}
• Fox's American Dad parodied National Treasure in the episode "Black Mystery Month", when they solved the mystery of George Washington Carver and peanut butter.

[edit] Inconsistencies

• 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. However, their assumption could be explained with the fact that the hundred dollar bill was not in circulation until July 14, 1969. Therefore, the time shown on the clock of Independence Hall could have logically reflected consideration for Daylight Saving Time.
• Furthermore, Ben says that the time on the clocktower on the back of the $100 bill was 2:22, but according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the time is 4:10. ^[2] 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.
• 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.
• 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. ^[3]
• When Ian and his crew break into the National Archive to steal the Declaration of Independence they head straight to the preservation room and encounter Ben. However, it its unclear how they knew the Declaration would be down there and not on display seeing as it was Ben's plan to steal it from the preservation room. This also means that the Declaration would have been safe from Ian had Ben and Riley simply not interfered (unless, of course, Ian were to use the same plan to get the Declaration into the preservation room.)
• 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.^[4]

[edit] Sequel

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

Carlyn Davis Casting will be casting 2,500 extras for "National Treasure 2: The Book of Secrets" and shooting runs in Washington DC area from late March through mid April 2007.

[edit] References

1. ^ iMDb entry for National Treasure
2. ^ Bureau of Engraving and Printing Facts about $100 notes
3. ^ radardector.net forums
4. ^ [1]

[edit] External links

• Official site
• National Treasure at Rotten Tomatoes
• National Treasure at Box Office Mojo
• The National Archives "Our National Treasure" website
• National Treasure mistakes at Nitpickers.com
• National Treasure at the Internet Movie Database
• Nicolas Cage interview for National Treasure