National Treasure: Book of Secrets is a 2007 American action-adventure film directed by Jon Turteltaub and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. It is a sequel to the 2004 film National Treasure and is the second film of the National Treasure franchise. The film stars Nicolas Cage in the lead role, Jon Voight, Harvey Keitel, Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha, Bruce Greenwood and Helen Mirren. The film premiered in New York City on December 13, 2007, and Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures released it in North America on December 21, 2007. Like its predecessor, it received mixed reviews from critics who compared it unfavorably with the original, and was a commercial success, grossing $459 million worldwide.
Plot[]
Five days after the end of the Civil War, John Wilkes Booth and Michael O'Laughlen, both members of the KGC, approach Thomas Gates to decode a message copied into Booth's diary. Thomas recognizes the message as a Playfair cipher, and translates it while Booth departs for Ford's Theatre to assassinate President Abraham Lincoln. Thomas solves the puzzle, but realizes Booth and O'Laughlen are trying to help the Confederacy, and rips the cipher's pages from the diary to burn them. O'Laughlen shoots Thomas and flees with the one surviving page fragment, and a dying Thomas tells his son Charles the keyword for the cipher.
More than 140 years later, famed treasure hunter Ben Gates tells Thomas' story at a Civilian Heroes conference. Black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson produces the page fragment, with Thomas Gates' name next to those of Mary Surratt and Dr. Samuel Mudd. The public believes Thomas helped kill Lincoln, and Ben and his father Patrick set out to disprove it. Using spectral imaging, Ben discovers traces of the cipher on the diary page, that, when solved using the keyword, points to the smaller Statue of Liberty in Paris. Traveling there, Ben and his friend Riley Poole discover an engraving referencing the Resolute desks. They head to London, reluctantly recruiting Ben's estranged girlfriend, Dr. Abigail Chase, along the way. Ben and Abigail sneak a peek at the Buckingham Palace desk, and obtain a Pre-Columbian carved plank from a secret drawer. Mitch, who had secretly cloned Patrick's cell phone in order to track Ben's whereabouts, pursues the trio, and eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not before Ben manages to photograph it.
Back in America, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife, archaeo-lexicologist Dr. Emily Appleton, for help. She claims the carvings reference the "center of the Earth", but points out that some of the glyphs are partial. Ben and Abigail convince Abigail's new boyfriend, Connor, a White House Curator, to let them see the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. Ben discovers that the second plank has been replaced by a stamp of an altered Presidential seal, which Riley identifies as the symbol for a secret shared diary, written by Presidents and containing controversial topics such as Watergate, Area 51, and the JFK assassination. Ben's FBI friend Agent Peter Sadusky confirms the book's existence but warns that no one can read its contents without consent from the sitting President.
Ben manipulates the President's birthday party to be hosted at Mount Vernon to convince the President to explore a secret tunnel with him. There, Ben activates a secret sliding door, separates the President from the U.S. Secret Service, and asks him about the book, while safely leading the President to freedom at the other end of the tunnel. The President sympathetically warns Ben that his actions, while innocently meant, will be interpreted as attempted kidnapping, and, unless he achieves his goal of finding the treasure, he will be arrested for his actions. He then reveals the book is hidden in a safe at the Library of Congress. Pursued by the FBI, Ben, Abigail, and Riley manage a brief look at the book. They find a photograph of the missing plank and an entry by Calvin Coolidge. He found the plank in 1924, translated it, had it destroyed, and commissioned Gutzon Borglum to carve Mount Rushmore, to hide evidence of a hidden treasure nearby.
After consulting Emily about the glyphs, Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore. They meet Mitch and Emily there, as Mitch kidnapped her. Mitch already has acquired, memorized, and destroyed the final clue, forcing the group to bring him along. He helps the group find the entrance of a cave full of booby traps. After briefly getting separated, the group finds a pit containing Cíbola, a Native American city of gold. An ancient dam fails, and it becomes clear one of the group must sacrifice themselves in the quickly flooding cave to hold open the door for the others. Ben initially does so, but Mitch takes over when Ben is knocked away, and he begs Ben to give him posthumous credit for finding the treasure.
Ben and the rest return to the surface, where the President prevents Ben from being arrested by claiming Ben saved him from the tunnel's accidental closing. Ben ensures that Mitch receives joint credit for the discovery, and clears Thomas Gates' name by proving that Booth had consulted him about the treasure, not the assassination. Emily and Patrick lead an expedition of Cíbola while Ben rekindles his relationship with Abigail.
Cast[]
- Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin "Ben" Gates, treasure hunter, historian and cryptologist
- Justin Bartha as Riley Poole, computer expert and author, Ben's best friend
- Diane Kruger as Dr. Abigail Chase, Director of Document Conservation at the National Archives, Ben's ex-girlfriend
- Jon Voight as Patrick Henry Gates, Ben's father who is divorced from his wife Emily
- Helen Mirren as Dr. Emily Appleton-Gates, professor of Native American Studies, Ben's mother who is divorced from her husband, Patrick
- Ed Harris as Mitchell "Mitch" Wilkinson, a black market dealer
- Harvey Keitel as FBI Special Agent Peter Sadusky
- Armando Riesco as FBI Special Agent Hendricks
- Alicia Coppola as FBI Special Agent Spellman
- Albert Hall as Dr. Nichols
- Bruce Greenwood as President of the United States
- Ty Burrell as Connor, White House curator, Abigail's new boyfriend.