Nicolas Cage is a national treasure. At this point there’s no debating it for me.

But did we need a movie with the title National Treasure (2004) to prove that already established fact? (For that matter, did we need two of them?) Probably not.  

My expectations were perhaps too high for this movie which I remember watching and enjoying in the early aughts. It turns out, the movie is very Disney (literally it’s a Disney movie) and now seems a bit too tame for my heightened Nicolas Cage sensibilities. 

I want eccentric. I want spastic. I want angry. I want unpredictable and unCaged Cage in all his glory. 

But that’s not what we get here. It’s just not that kind of movie. And so here’s my tepid review.

History trivia, U.S. propaganda, and conspiracy theories

National Treasure is the story of Benjamin Franklin Gates (Cage), a sixth-seventh-eighth (?) generation U.S. treasure hunter who has taken up the “family business” of seeking out the hidden treasure of the Knights Templar / Freemasons by unlocking centuries old clues and cyphers left behind by the founding fathers themselves. The movie begins with childhood Ben exploring the attic of his grandfather John Adam Gates (played by Christopher Plummer) who discovers the boy’s curiosity and then tells him the long history of the Knight’s Templar treasure that was discovered during the Crusades and traveled to the new world in secrecy by the secret society of the Freemasons.

The Gates family learned of this hidden treasure in 1832 when one of the Gates ancestors was provided a clue to its location by Charles Carroll, the last signer of the Declaration of Independence. The cryptic message given, “the key lies with Charlotte. While John stokes the fire of Ben’s curiosity, Ben’s father Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) shows up to rain on the parade by suggesting that the Gates family has wasted their time and energy seeking out a treasure that likely doesn’t even exist #notabeliever.

Fast forward to “present day” 2004 and Ben, the now adult treasure hunter, is working with his brainy sidekick, Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and a shady investor, Ian Hawe (Sean Bean) and Ian’s entourage of thugs, to unearth or discover the secret of Charlotte. They find “Charlotte”, a nineteenth century ship that was lost and buried in the snow / ice of the Arctic Circle, and then the clue she holds inside of her: a Meerschaum pipe with another cypher riddle inscribed into it (which Ben covers in his own blood in order to roll and print the message on a piece of paper.) 

After some unbelievable riddle solving mental gymnastics, Ben determines that the map to the hidden treasure is actually hidden in invisible ink, on the back of one the most important documents in U.S. history, the Declaration of Independence (DoI). Frustrated that he’s not rich yet, Ian decides he wants to then steal the DoI and thinks he can do it as a person with “unlimited means” and very flexible ethics, but Ben, a true patriot and U.S. history buff, can’t stand for that. The two agree to disagree (when Ian tries to kill Ben and Riley) and the chase is on to see who can get at the map first (without getting arrested) and solve the riddle on the back.

The rest of the film is really just the two men (parties) playing cat-and-mouse, achieve-an-impossible-heist, and solve the riddle first, with a BIG dose of U.S. history trivia and FBI manhunt mixed in for good measure. Ben unintentionally pulls in Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger), who works at the National Archives and is responsible for the DoI, into his pursuit of the treasure and also entangles his jaded father, Patrick, who doesn’t really want to believe the treasure is real, but ultimately has to accept and help Ben find it.

Riley makes the jokes. Ian glares and gets frustrated as he is always one or two steps behind Ben in getting the map and figuring out what it holds. The only other role of import in the film is oddly the FBI manhunter Agent Sandusky (played by Harvey Keitel) who gets involved after Ben successfully steals the map and evades capture. 

The history and propaganda

I think that’s enough of a summary (for my taste). The movie felt a little bit like it was specifically designed to show at the end of the school year to a fifth grade history class who had behaved well and deserved a pizza party. There were a lot of little factoids thrown in about Benjamin Franklin (and his pseudonym Silence Doogood) George Washington, Paul Revere, the Liberty Bell, and of course, the Declaration of Independence to hit on the “educational” category, but not enough to make you think too deeply about any of them. This is all well and good; who doesn’t love a little history peppered into one’s treasure-seeking action film? But it kind of felt like it was a movie that was made “to do that specifically,” i.e. be a bit pedagogical and persuasive about how great our country is, rather than a movie with a strong story and characters that uses history to serve those things. Maybe I’m nit-picking here, but Ben’s ability and propensity to quote lines from the Declaration of Independence or other historical texts just seemed a bit too on the nose. Even Abigail seems subliminally to get this vibes when she tells Ben, “Nobody talks like that.” 

Near the end of the film, Sandusky (who SPOILER: is wearing a Freemason ring and seems to be in the know on this hidden treasure Ben has uncovered) puts words to the feeling of propaganda when he talks about how the “treasure was never meant to be in the hands of a few men” and Ben immediately likens this to the representative lead democracy that America was founded upon. They decide to split the treasure up (how democratic) to various museums and institutions and Ben and his crew take only a small portion of the unlimited riches of their discovery.

But ironically, Sandusky touches on another American value, when he tells Ben about the need for justice to be meted out for the theft of the DoI, “Somebody’s got to go to prison.” Ben serves up Ian as the fall guy since (it’s a Disney movie) he’s the obvious villain.

The conspiracy theories

Remember when conspiracy theories were really considered out there? Too crazy? Too outlandish? Not anymore. The Gates family, in this movie, had a bad reputation and were essentially canceled and shunned for their beliefs about this treasure and those who have protected it for centuries. The movie came out in 2004, not so long ago, but thinking about the decades we’ve been living in since with the likes of QAnon, Covid-denial, government reports on UFOs, flat earthers, etc. the belief in a secretary society among the founding fathers not only seems tame, it’s seems entirely likely. Who would laugh at this idea now? Even the idea of an invisible map seems highly plausible (when famous paintings are found via x-rays beneath existing works) in our current time period.

I did appreciate that the skeptical Abigail asks Ben whether or not Bigfoot gave them the Meerschaum pipe and later in the movie Riley attributes some explanation to the existence of aliens.

Funny things about this movie

• Jon Voigt play Ben’s father and Christopher Plummer plays his grandfather. The age difference between the two men is roughly eleven years. Christopher Plummer looks quite a bit older but Jon Voight does not look young by any stretch, even with a wig. 
• The impossible calculus that Ben uses to solve these word puzzles so quickly in this meandering stream of consciousness way made me laugh quite a few times. I could hardly keep up. “The key in silence undetected…ok, but not a literal key…so it must be a figurative key…and what’s another word for a figurative key, a piano key?…but no can’t be that. Must be something else…Silence Doogood was a key holder, metaphorically yes, that’s it. Benjamin Franklin’s alter ego, he had keys that he put on a kite, which means he was obviously talking about electricity, which means…of course the treasure is actually lying underground beneath a former electrical current generator used by Thomas Edison’s aka 42 degrees latitude 21 degrees longitude which in the early 1800s was right above the Trinity Cathedral. It’s just two blocks away from us. Voila! ‘Merica, Let’s go.” LOL. 

• The romantic interlude in the film in which Ben and Abigail need to buy new clothes (but not Riley?) so they’d “look less conspicuous” (because they, what, looked a lot like artifact thieves?) and they somehow are in a changing room…together but able to talk over the low doors? And having a romantic conversation about their love lives as they try on clothes that just look like street clothes? Who the fuck thought of this scene and how did it make the film? Hilarious.
• Patrick, Ben’s father, is unwilling at first to go down the nightmare stares / elevator system to the lower chambers that hide the treasure. He talks about how the wood probably had centuries worth of rot and termites, but the gunmen force him to go down them anyway. What happens? Everything around them collapses, a few men plummet to their death, and they barely escape with their lives. Patrick knew what he was talking about! Dude, listen to the old guy.

• Why is Harvey Keitel in this movie? I like Harvey Keitel, but this movie seems so off-brand for him, I can’t even imagine what kind of bet he lost or what blackmail material that were holding against him that would have convinced him to take on this role (even though it was kinda cool to be a Freemason FBI Agent manhunter.) This is especially apparent when you think about Jon Turteltaub, the director of this film. His hits prior to this movie were While You Were Sleeping, The Kid, and Cool Runnings. Disney through and through.
• I did like the gift shop scene where Ben is accused of stealing a poster of the Declaration of Independence and has to “pay for it” before he is allowed to leave (when he is holding the real article).

• The scene where Abigail is hiding from Ian’s henchmen and ducks behind a butcher’s counter. The interaction was pretty funny with the woman who is serving up the meats. Abigail tells her she is hiding from her ex-husband and the woman allows it after interacting with the rude henchmen. “I see why you left him.” 
• If this were a movie that came out after 2010, I think Riley would have been the unmasked traitor. Maybe that happens in the sequel? I can’t recall. But I 100% was expecting Riley to turn on Ben at some point. I just had a hunch he was not the friendly and guileless sidekick that he seemed to be. Too affable. Too likeable. Too chicken. I kept forgetting this was a Disney movie and not a M. Night Shyamalan film I guess. Was waiting for the unforeseen surprise twist. 

First for Nicolas Cage character as Ben Franklin Gates

• First as a treasure hunter
• Excavating an arctic ship
• Holding torches and discovering very large hidden treasure
• Stealing an American document Declaration of Independence
• Using his own blood for a printmaking project
• Trying to woo a women by (incorrectly) identifying her accent as Pennsylvania Dutch and gifting her with old coins.
• First mention of Bigfoot / aliens in a Nicolas Cage movie
• Eating a microwave TV dinner (lasagna)
• Telling a love interest to shush, shut-up and “she talks too much” without any recrimination
• Buying something from a gift shop (Declaration of Independence)
• Using fancy “modern”  tech like GPS tracking

Recurrences

• Lighting up and holding a flare (The Rock)
• Planning an elaborate heist (Gone in 60 Seconds)
• Dealing with a father who is disappointed in him (Birdy)
• Wearing weird eyewear to achieve a task (Firebirds)
• Jumping off a big, tall object (aircraft carrier) to escape captors (The Rock)
• Dodging gunmen and bullets behind tombstones (Face / Off)
• Second time playing a Ben (Leaving Las Vegas)
• Arrested (Multiple)

Notable Quotables

• “I found something.” 
• “We are one step closer to the treasure, gentlemen.” 
• “I’m not going to let you STEAL the Declaration of Independence.” 
• “Family name doesn’t get a lot of respect in the academic community.” 
• “I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence.” 
• “Yeah, it’s about the treasure.” (Telling his Dad)
• “I found this. Some kind of ocular device.’ “Spectacles!” 

National Treasure is not a terrible movie. Not by any means. It may actually be the most accessible movie that Nicolas Cage has made to a general audience.. And there’s a sequel coming down the pike that I’ll need to watch and review. But for me, it felt a bit too tame for the genius acting of Nicolas Cage. I think Indiana Jones would kick Ben Franklin Gates ass in both head-to-head battle and treasure hunting prowess, even with all of Ben’s word play calculus and riddle alchemy. That’s not to say Cage *couldn’t* have played Ben a little edgier. I’m thinking he probably wanted to, but it’s Disney, and maybe he wanted to just try something a little different (a little off-brand like Harvey Keitel).

I may not love it. But let the Cage do what the Cage wants!  After all, he is our national treasure.