Part of the blame for pic’s failures lies with director Jon Turteltaub, whose serviceable work lacks the intense, visceral stylization that distinguishes the technique of other helmers in the Bruckheimer stable (Michael Bay, Tony Scott). Moreover, similarly underwhelming set pieces follow with the action more sedentary than hair-raising. It’s arguably less complex than the machinations undertaken by Thomas Crown to steal a painting. The actual lift, however, looks like it could have been done by any idiot with a screwdriver and a laptop computer. Setting auds up for a spectacular heist sequence, pic details the difficulties of removing the Declaration of Independence from its fortress-like encasement. So, Ben decides to take the Declaration of Independence himself, to protect it from sinister Ian. When Ben refuses, Ian vows to obtain the hallowed document himself.Īlarmed, Ben and his techie sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha), try to alert the proper authorities - among them, conveniently gorgeous National Archives conservator Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) - to the intended heist, but they are nearly laughed out of Washington, D.C. But the ship only contains a cryptic clue suggesting a treasure map is concealed on the reverse side of the Declaration of Independence.īen decides to abandon his family’s quest, but his wealthy benefactor Ian Howe (Sean Bean)wants Ben to steal the Declaration of Independence and continue the hunt. All except Ben’s father, Patrick (Jon Voight), who long ago decided that the treasure was an elaborate hoax.Ĭut to 30 years later, north of the Arctic Circle: An adult Ben (Nicolas Cage) stumbles on a snow-covered shipwreck he believes may house the treasure. In 1974, young Benjamin Franklin Gates (Hunter Gomez) is told about the treasure by his eccentric grandfather John Adams Gates (Christopher Plummer), who reveals his own great-great-grandfather was entrusted by a member of the Continental Congress with an important clue concerning the treasure’s whereabouts.Įver since, all Gates family men have devoted their lives to decoding the clue and finding the Knights Templar spoils. (The same legend also partly inspired Dan Brown’s runaway bestseller “The Da Vinci Code,” which was published while “National Treasure” was already in development.)
As nearly all of America’s founding fathers were Freemasons, many of the clues that propel the protag toward the Knights Templar loot in the film are Masonic symbols, like the unfinished pyramid and the all-seeing eye that appear on the back of a dollar bill. As legend has it, the vast fortune - the storied Knights Templar treasure - was then moved about Europe for the better part of five centuries, before possibly landing in colonial-era America. Treasure of the title supposedly was excavated from the temple of King Solomon by a secret monastic order.
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