National Treasure (film)
National Treasure is a 2004 American action-adventure film released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was written by Jim Kouf and the Wibberleys, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Jon Turteltaub. It is the first film in the National Treasure film series and stars Nicolas Cage, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Justin Bartha and Christopher Plummer.
Cage plays Benjamin Franklin Gates, a historian and amateur cryptologist searching for a lost treasure of precious metals, jewelry, artwork and other artifacts that was accumulated into a huge stockpile and eventually hidden by American Freemasons during the American Revolutionary War. A coded map on the back of the Declaration of Independence points to the location of the "national treasure," but Gates is not alone in his quest. Whoever can steal the Declaration and decode it first will find the greatest treasure in history. National Treasure was released worldwide on November 19, 2004. The film grossed $347 million worldwide. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it fun but criticizes the plot. A sequel, titled , was released in December 2007.
Plot
In 1974, John Adams Gates tells his grandson, Benjamin Franklin Gates, a story in which Charles Carroll of Carrollton passed on a secret to their ancestor, Thomas Gates, in 1832 of a fabled treasure taken from ancient empires throughout history that was discovered by the Knights Templar and later protected by the Freemasons. The treasure would eventually be hidden in America by the Founding Fathers. The clue leading to the treasure is the phrase "The secret lies with Charlotte." While Ben is convinced by the story, his skeptical father, Patrick, dismisses it as nonsense.Thirty years later, Ben has grown to become a historian, cryptologist, and treasure hunter, and leads an expedition with Ian Howe and with Ben’s colleague, Riley Poole, a computer expert, to find the Charlotte, a ship lost in the Arctic, which holds the first clue to finding the treasure. Inside the ship they find a meerschaum pipe, which has a clue in the form of a riddle, implying that the next clue is on the Declaration of Independence. When Ian suggests they steal it, Ben opposes, causing a fight to ensue, resulting in a massive fire fueled by gunpowder, and the group splits in two. Ian and his men escape the ship while Ben and Riley take cover just before the ship explodes.
Ben and Riley return to Washington, DC, and report the potential theft of the Declaration to Homeland Security, the FBI, and Dr. Abigail Chase of the National Archives, but all dismiss their claim. Ben decides to steal the document himself from the Archives' preservation room during a gala event. Obtaining Abigail's fingerprints, Ben successfully steals the Declaration but is spotted by Ian's group just as they break in to steal it. Ben briefly hides in the gift shop but has to pay for the Declaration when the clerk mistakes it for a souvenir copy; with not enough cash, Ben pays with a credit card. Abigail, suspecting something is amiss, pursues Ben and takes back the document. Ian kidnaps her, but Ben and Riley rescue Abigail, tricking Ian by leaving behind a souvenir copy of the Declaration. FBI Agent Sadusky begins tracking Ben down, using Ben's credit card information.
Unable to return to Ben’s lab, the trio go to Patrick's house to lie low. Patrick tries to convince Ben that the treasure is a myth, which Ben dismisses. The trio then studies the Declaration and discovers an Ottendorf cipher written in invisible ink. With the help of lemon juice and some heat from a hair dryer, they find out that the hidden cypher refers to the Silence Dogood letters written by Benjamin Franklin, which Patrick formerly owned but has since donated to the Franklin Institute.
Arriving in Philadelphia, and bribing a schoolboy to acquire the letters' key words, Ben, Riley, and Abigail interpret a clue pointing to the bell tower of Independence Hall, where the Liberty Bell once resided. Ian and his men intercept and question the schoolboy and decipher the clue. Ben uses the time on the clock depicted on the back of the $100 bill and locates the point on the exterior of the bell house cast by the steeple’s shadow, where he finds a hidden cache containing a pair of glasses with multiple colored lenses invented by Benjamin Franklin. He and Abigail use the glasses to inspect the back of the Declaration, revealing a clue referencing the location of Trinity Church, which is in New York City.
The group is chased by Ian's associates. Ben is arrested by the FBI, and Abigail and Riley lose the Declaration to Ian. However, Abigail convinces Ian to help them rescue Ben in exchange for the next clue. Ian agrees, arranging a meeting on the flightdeck of the USS Intrepid, where they help Ben escape the FBI’s custody.
Ian returns the Declaration and asks for the next clue, but when Ben remains coy, Ian reveals he has kidnapped Patrick as a hostage. They go inside Trinity Church, where they sit and study the back of the Declaration of Independence by using the different lenses, whose next clue leads the party to an underground passage behind and beneath a tomb in the basement. The passage appears to lead to a dead end, lit by a lone lantern. Patrick claims it is a reference to the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, pointing Ian to the Old North Church in Boston. Ian and his team leave Ben, Patrick, Abigail, and Riley trapped to die under the church, and head for Boston.
Patrick reveals that his clue was a fake and the group discovers a small, hidden treasure room, but it appears looted. After a heart-to-heart between Ben and Patrick, they find notches that the meerschaum pipe and stem fit into, and they open a large chamber containing the treasure and a secondary exit tunnel. Ben meets with Sadusky and figures him to be a modern Freemason by the signet on his ring, surrendering the Declaration and the treasure's location in exchange for the clemency and credit for discovery for him and his team. Ian and his men are later arrested in Boston when Ben tips off the FBI.
Later, Ben and Abigail have started a relationship. Riley is upset that Ben turned down the 10% finder's fee for the treasure to accept a much smaller amount of only 1%, which still has netted them all significant wealth. In his Ferrari, Riley drives away from Ben and Abigail's newly bought house and Abigail gives Ben a treasure map. When Ben asks her where the map leads, Abigail suggestively replies, "You'll figure it out."
Cast
- Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates:
- * Hunter Gomez as young Benjamin Gates
- Sean Bean as Ian Howe:
- Diane Kruger as Dr. Abigail Chase:
- Justin Bartha as Riley Poole:
- Jon Voight as Patrick Henry Gates:
- Harvey Keitel as Agent Peter Sadusky:
- Christopher Plummer as John Adams Gates:
Additionally, Jack Koenig portrays a young version of Founding Father Charles Carroll; David Dayan Fisher appears as Shaw, Stewart Finlay-McLennan as Powell, Oleg Taktarov as Victor Shippen, and Stephen Pope as Phil McGregor ; Annie Parisse, Mark Pellegrino, Armando Riesco, and Erik King play agents Johnson, Dawes, Hendricks, and Colfax, respectively. Jason Earles portrays Thomas Gates.
Production
Development
By early 1999, it was revealed that Jon Turteltaub was developing National Treasure based upon an idea developed by Oren Aviv and Charles Segars in 1997, with the script penned by Jim Kouf. By 2001, the project was relocated to Touchstone Pictures.In May 2003, Nicolas Cage was cast as lead in the film. New drafts were written by nine scribers, including Cormac and Marianne Wibberley, E. Max Frye and Jon Turteltaub. By October, Sean Bean was cast.
Filming locations
National Treasure was filmed primarily in Washington, New York, Philadelphia and Utah. Most scenes were filmed on location, with the exceptions of the Independence Hall scene, which was filmed at the replica of Independence Hall at Knott's Berry Farm, and the Arctic scene, which was filmed in Utah.Soundtrack
Reception
Box office
National Treasure earned $11 million on its opening day in the United States, ahead of Paramount & Nickelodeon's The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. It grossed a combined total of $35,142,554 during its opening weekend, on 4,300 screens at 3,243 theaters, averaging $11,648 per venue, again ahead of The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. The film had the best opening weekend for a Disney film released in November, until it was surpassed by Chicken Little in 2005. It held on to the No. 1 spot for three weekends. In Japan National Treasure bested out the double-billing MegaMan NT Warrior: Program of Light and Dark and Duel Masters: Curse of the Deathphoenix by grossing $11,666,763 in its first week. The film closed on June 2, 2005 with its domestic gross being $173,008,894 while earning $174,503,424 internationally. Worldwide, National Treasure grossed over $347,512,318, against a budget of $100 million.Critical reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 46% based on 177 reviews and an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's consensus reads, "National Treasure is no treasure, but it's a fun ride for those who can forgive its highly improbable plot." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 39 out of 100, based on 35 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews." Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.Roger Ebert gave the film 2/4 stars, calling it "so silly that the Monty Python version could use the same screenplay, line for line." Academic David Bordwell has expressed a liking for the film, placing it in the tradition of 1950s Disney children's adventure movies, and using it as the basis for an essay on scene transitions in classical Hollywood cinema.
Awards
| Year | Award | Category | Notes | Result |
| 2005 | BMI Film & TV Awards | BMI Film Music Award | BMI Film Music Award for Trevor Rabin | |
| 2005 | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA | Saturn Award for Best Action/Adventure/Thriller Film | ||
| 2005 | Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA | Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actress | Diane Kruger | |
| 2005 | Teen Choice Awards | Movie: Action/Adventure | ||
| 2005 | Visual Effects Society Awards | Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Motion Picture | Matthew Gratzner, Forest Fischer, Scott Beverly, and Leigh-Alexandra Jacob, for the treasure room | |
| 2005 | World Stunt Awards | Taurus Award for Best Overall Stunt by a Stunt Woman | Lisa Hoyle | |
| 2005 | Young Artist Awards | Best Family Feature Film: Drama | ||
| 2005 | Young Artist Awards | Best Performance in a Feature Film, Supporting Young Actor | Hunter Gomez |
Home media
National Treasure was released on Disney DVD in May 2005. In keeping with the theme of the movie, the DVD contains a "Bonus Treasure Hunt": viewers who watch the Special Features on the disc are rewarded with puzzles and codes that unlock more features.Collector's Edition DVD
To help promote Book of Secrets, a special collector's edition, two-disc DVD set of the movie was released on December 18, 2007. The set features a bonus disc containing additional deleted scenes and documentries.Blu-ray Disc
released Blu-ray Disc versions of National Treasure and its sequel, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets, on May 20, 2008.Sequels
Although the DVD commentary stated that there were no plans for a sequel, the film's box office gross of an unexpected $347.5 million worldwide warranted a second film, which was given the green light in 2005. was released on December 21, 2007.In 2008, director Jon Turteltaub said that the filmmaking team would take its time on another National Treasure sequel. In October 2013, Turteltaub confirmed that the studio, himself, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the actors all want to do the third film, saying: "We want to do the movie, Disney wants to do the movie. We're just having the damnedest time writing it. I'll bet that within two years, we'll be shooting that movie. I'd say we're about half-way there." In May 2016, Nicolas Cage confirmed the film was still in the writing process, and in July 2018, Turtletaub reiterated that a script for a possible third film was "close," but Disney still was not completely sold by the idea. In January 2020, it was announced that Chris Bremner, the writer of Bad Boys for Life, would write a new script for it. In May 2020, Jerry Bruckheimer had confirmed that, not only was there a third film in development with the original cast returning, but also that a Disney+ series was in the works with the series having the same premise as the original, but focusing on a much younger cast.