50 Fun Facts About National Treasure

Which actor plays treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure?

He won a Best Actor Oscar for Leaving Las Vegas nine years earlier.

In the first film, a treasure map is said to be hidden on the back of which document?

The treasure is a vast hoard passed from the Knights Templar to the Founding Fathers and Freemasons.

Which studio released National Treasure in 2004?

It was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Jon Turteltaub.

Who directed both National Treasure and its sequel?

Jerry Bruckheimer produced both.

What is the name of Ben's wisecracking computer-expert sidekick?

He is played by Justin Bartha in every film and the TV series.

What is the profession of Abigail Chase, played by Diane Kruger?

Ben has to obtain her fingerprints to reach the Declaration.

The wealthy Englishman who first finances Ben's expedition, then turns villain, is named what?

He is played by Sean Bean.

The first clue leads the team to the Charlotte, which turns out to be what?

Its engravings point to the map on the Declaration.

To read the invisible map on the Declaration, Ben needs a pair of special spectacles hidden where?

The multi-lens glasses are recovered from the bell tower.

A key clue in the first film comes from which set of writings by Benjamin Franklin?

Ben's father Patrick had donated the originals to the Franklin Institute.

The treasure map trail finally leads to an underground chamber beneath which New York landmark?

The passage first appears to end at a dead end lit by a single lantern.

At the end of the first film, Ben turns down what, to Riley's annoyance?

Ben and Abigail begin a relationship instead.

About how much did National Treasure gross worldwide?

It got mixed reviews but did well enough to spawn a sequel.

The DVD of the first film hid a special feature called what for viewers to solve?

Watching the special features unlocked codes and puzzles.

In what year was the National Treasure sequel released?

It grossed $459 million, more than the original.

Book of Secrets opens with a plot to clear a Gates ancestor accused of helping to kill which president?

John Wilkes Booth had sought out cryptographer Thomas Gates to decode a message.

The coded message in Booth's diary uses which type of encryption?

Thomas Gates recognises it and tears the pages out to burn them.

In Book of Secrets, the map points to which legendary lost city of gold?

It turns out to be hidden beneath Mount Rushmore.

Clues in Book of Secrets are hidden in twin pieces of furniture known as what?

One is in Buckingham Palace and one in the Oval Office.

To obtain the secret Presidential book, Ben does what at a birthday party at Mount Vernon?

The President later warns Ben the act will be seen as attempted kidnapping.

According to the sequel, which president had Mount Rushmore carved partly to hide a legendary site?

He is said to have commissioned Gutzon Borglum, the monument's real sculptor.

Which Oscar-winning actress plays Ben's mother, Emily Appleton, in the sequel?

Jon Voight returns as Ben's father Patrick.

The black-market villain of Book of Secrets, played by Ed Harris, is named what?

He produces a lost diary page implicating the Gates ancestor.

On which streaming service did the 2022 National Treasure spinoff series premiere?

It is titled Edge of History.

The lead of Edge of History is Jess Valenzuela, a young woman living in which city?

She learns her late father was part of a secret network of treasure protectors.

Which two-time Oscar nominee plays the apparent antagonist in Edge of History?

Justin Bartha returns as Riley Poole and Harvey Keitel reprises his film role at the start.

In the first film, Ben ultimately decides to protect the Declaration by doing what?

He takes it from the Archives during a gala event.

In National Treasure, the treasure passed from ancient times to the Founding Fathers via which order?

The Freemasons are said to have inherited and hidden it.

As a boy in 1974, Ben first hears the treasure legend from whom?

His father Patrick is skeptical of the family obsession for much of the first film.

The actor who plays Ben Gates was born into which famous filmmaking family?

Francis Ford Coppola is his uncle; he changed his surname to avoid accusations of nepotism.

The cryptic clue that starts the whole hunt, spoken by a dying Charles Carroll in 1832, was what?

Carroll gave it to the Gates ancestor Thomas.

In Book of Secrets, Ben uses what technique to reveal traces of the cipher on the diary page?

The page had been half-burned by the Gates ancestor.

In the sequel, Ben and Abigail sneak into which royal residence to reach a hidden clue?

The London desk holds a series of puzzles.

The President tells Ben the Book of Secrets is hidden in which building?

Only the sitting president is supposed to be able to read it.

Abigail's new boyfriend in Book of Secrets, Connor, works as what?

Ben and Abigail persuade him to let them see the Oval Office desk.

The film says the assassin's diary pages were torn out because the treasure map led to what?

Booth and O'Laughlen were said to be members of the Confederacy-supporting KGC.

Ben Gates's actor won his Best Actor Oscar for which 1995 film?

He was later Oscar-nominated for playing twins in Adaptation.

The sequel held its December 2007 premiere in which U.S. metropolis?

It opened in North America a week later, on 21 December.

Edge of History primarily filmed in Santa Fe and which other city?

It premiered on Disney+ in December 2022.

Inside the Charlotte, the team finds an object that carries the next clue. What is it?

Its engravings send them to the Declaration.

Early in Book of Secrets, Riley's book signing ends when the IRS confiscates what?

Riley is signing copies of his book about the Templar treasure. The scene was shot at a street-level Borders bookstore in the old Garfinckel's building.

Fleeing the Archives gala, Ben has to pay for the stolen Declaration where?

A cashier mistakes the real document for a souvenir copy, so Ben buys it. He later leaves a real souvenir copy behind to fool the villains.

John Adams Gates, who tells young Ben the family legend in 1974, is played by which actor?

Plummer, the Sound of Music star, appears only in the prologue. Hunter Gomez plays the boy listening to the tale.

In Book of Secrets, Ben and Riley go to Paris to inspect a small copy of which monument?

The diary page references Edouard Rene de Laboulaye, the Frenchman who proposed the statue, and the Paris replica's engraving sends them on to London.

Ben and his father send Ian on a wild goose chase to which Boston landmark?

Patrick claims a lone lantern in the underground passage points to Paul Revere's ride, and Ian is arrested breaking into the church.

Which Canadian actor plays the unnamed President of the United States in Book of Secrets?

The President quietly helps Ben in the end, claiming Ben rescued him from an accidentally closed tunnel at Mount Vernon.

In Book of Secrets, what answer to 'the debt that all men pay' unlocks the diary cipher?

Thomas Gates whispered the riddle to his son as he died in 1865, and Ben uses its answer as the cipher keyword more than a century later.

Which country singer has a cameo performing at the Mount Vernon party in Book of Secrets?

The party is the cover for Ben luring the President into a secret tunnel, a scene shot on location at Washington's real estate.

Part of the Independence Hall scene was shot at a replica in which California theme park?

Most of the film shot on real locations in D.C., Philadelphia and New York, but the Arctic scenes were staged in Utah.

Which TV and radio commentator plays the president shot in Book of Secrets' 1865 prologue?

Lincoln appears only briefly in the 1865 prologue, where Booth leaves Thomas Gates to head for Ford's Theatre.