National Treasure Trivia
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This National Treasure trivia quiz has 50 free questions with answers and covers the Disney treasure-hunt franchise: the 2004 original, the 2007 sequel Book of Secrets and the 2022 Disney+ series Edge of History. It takes in Benjamin Franklin Gates and the cast that plays around him, the map on the back of the Declaration of Independence, the Silence Dogood letters and Trinity Church, the Resolute desks and the President's Book of Secrets, the lost city of Cibola and Mount Rushmore, and the running jokes about Riley never getting his finder's fee. Early questions are for anyone who has seen the first film once. Later ones reward fans who can quote the ciphers and the clues. Use it for a family movie night, a history-class treat or a trivia round. Every answer has been checked against a documented source shown under the explanation.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which actor plays treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure?
Nicolas Cage
Nicolas Cage. He took his stage name partly from the Marvel hero Luke Cage, and he came back as Ben Gates for the sequel, Book of Secrets.
Q 02What liquid do Ben, Riley and Abigail use to reveal the invisible ink on the Declaration?
Lemon juice
Lemon juice. The back of the real Declaration holds only a filing label, and the historian who confirmed it asked fans never to try lemon juice on an original document.
Q 03In National Treasure, Ben reads a clue's time off the clock tower engraved on the back of which banknote?
The $100 bill
The $100 bill. Ben reads 2:22 on its engraved clock tower, then races to be in place when a shadow marks the next hiding spot.
Q 04Which Pirates of the Caribbean producer made both National Treasure films?
Jerry Bruckheimer
Jerry Bruckheimer. Jon Turteltaub directed both, but a third film stalled for years: its star said the scripts were hard to write because the history had to survive fact-checking.
Q 05Which actor, The Hangover's missing groom Doug, plays Ben's computer-expert sidekick Riley Poole?
Justin Bartha
Justin Bartha. His Riley turns author in the sequel, signing copies of his own book about the hunt, and he returned to the part in the 2022 series Edge of History.
Q 06What is the profession of Abigail Chase, played by Diane Kruger?
National Archives archivist
National Archives archivist. Ben takes her glass during a toast at the gala, then lifts her fingerprints from it to reach the Declaration.
Q 07Which actor plays Ian Howe, the financier who turns on Ben in National Treasure?
Sean Bean
Sean Bean. For once the actor famous for dying on screen survives: his Ian ends the film in handcuffs, arrested while chasing a false clue.
Q 08In National Treasure, the clue 'the secret lies with Charlotte' turns out to point to what?
A ship found in the Arctic
A ship found in the Arctic. The colonial wreck lies locked in the ice, though the Arctic on screen was really a frozen reservoir in Utah.
Q 09In National Treasure, where are the spectacles that reveal the Declaration's hidden map?
In a brick at Independence Hall
In a brick at Independence Hall. Ben cuts out a brick marked with a Masonic symbol and finds the spectacles inside, their coloured lenses each showing a different layer of the map.
Q 10A key clue in National Treasure comes from which set of writings by Benjamin Franklin?
The Silence Dogood letters
The Silence Dogood letters. The teenage Franklin wrote them posing as a Mrs Silence Dogood, to get into print in the Boston newspaper his own brother published.
Q 11The treasure map trail finally leads to an underground chamber beneath which New York landmark?
Trinity Church
Trinity Church. The real church stands at the head of Wall Street, but the torch-lit chambers the film puts beneath it were a purpose-built set.
Q 12At the end of National Treasure, Ben turns down what, to Riley's annoyance?
A 10% finder's fee
A 10% finder's fee. Ben accepts just 1%, which still makes all three of them rich, though Riley goes on grumbling about it.
Q 13In National Treasure, a riddle names 'Pass and Stow', the two men whose names are on which American icon?
The Liberty Bell
Q 21According to Book of Secrets, which president had Mount Rushmore carved partly to hide a legendary site?
Calvin Coolidge
Calvin Coolidge. In the film he finds the clue plank in 1924, has it photographed and destroyed, then hires Gutzon Borglum to carve away the landmarks; the real Coolidge handed Borglum his drill bits in 1927.
Q 22Which Oscar-winning actress plays Ben's mother, Emily Appleton, in Book of Secrets?
Helen Mirren
Helen Mirren. Her Emily has not spoken to Ben's father in 32 years when the film begins, yet the two end it reconciled and leading an expedition together.
Q 23Which actor, Oscar-nominated for Apollo 13, plays the black-market dealer Mitch Wilkinson in Book of Secrets?
Ed Harris
The Liberty Bell. John Pass and John Stow recast it in Philadelphia, and while Ian runs to the bell's modern pavilion, Ben heads for the tower where it hung when the riddle was written.
Q 14Which veteran actor plays FBI agent Peter Sadusky in the National Treasure films?
Harvey Keitel
Harvey Keitel. His Sadusky hunts Ben for the whole film, then turns out to be a Freemason himself, more interested in striking a deal than in locking Ben up.
Q 15Which Will Smith film did Book of Secrets dethrone?
I Am Legend
I Am Legend. It had set a December opening record a week earlier, in December 2007, then saw its takings fall by more than half as Book of Secrets took first place.
Q 16Book of Secrets opens with a plot to clear a Gates ancestor accused of helping to kill which president?
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln is the president; Thomas Gates is accused because John Wilkes Booth had asked him to decode a message on the night of the assassination.
Q 17In Book of Secrets, the coded message in the assassin's diary uses which type of encryption?
A Playfair cipher
A Playfair cipher. It swaps letters in pairs using a five-by-five key square, and Thomas Gates tears the coded pages out of the diary and burns them once he realises who his visitors are.
Q 18In Book of Secrets, the map points to which legendary city of gold, once sought by the conquistador Coronado?
Cibola
Cibola. Coronado reached it in 1540 and found Zuni pueblos with no gold at all, whereas the film hides a real golden city beneath Mount Rushmore.
Q 19Clues in Book of Secrets are hidden in twin desks known by what name?
The Resolute desks
The Resolute desks. One stands in the Oval Office and its twin overseas, where Ben works the drawers like the tumblers of a safe until a hidden compartment gives up a carved plank.
Q 20In Book of Secrets, what does Ben do at Mount Vernon to learn where the secret book is kept?
Kidnaps the President
Kidnaps the President. Ben lures him into a hidden tunnel under the house, and the President, more intrigued than angry, warns him how it will look and then says where the book is.
Ed Harris. His villain dies a hero of sorts, holding a door open as the city floods so the others can escape, and Ben sees that he gets the joint credit he asked for.
Q 24On which streaming service did the 2022 National Treasure spinoff series premiere?
Disney+
Edge of History premiered on Disney+ in December 2022 and was cancelled after a single season.
Q 25In National Treasure, Ben escapes the FBI by diving into the Hudson from the deck of which museum ship?
USS Intrepid
USS Intrepid. Ian sets up the handover on the aircraft carrier's flight deck, and Ben slips the FBI by jumping over the side, a dive his navy salvage training had prepared him for.
Q 26Which Oscar winner plays Billie Pearce, the apparent antagonist of Edge of History?
Catherine Zeta-Jones
Catherine Zeta-Jones. Her Billie is a black-market antiquities dealer who is already a billionaire, and the series ties her hunt to something other than money: the brother she lost.
Q 27At the end of National Treasure, what does Ben want done with the treasure?
Given to museums worldwide
Given to museums worldwide. Ben trades the hoard for dropped charges and credit to his family and Riley, but the FBI still needs someone in prison, so he helps them catch Ian.
Q 28In National Treasure, the treasure passed from ancient times to the Founding Fathers via which order?
The Knights Templar
The Knights Templar, the film says, carried the treasure from the Holy Land to Europe, and the Freemasons later hid it in America.
Q 29As a boy in 1974, Ben first hears the treasure legend from whom?
His grandfather
His grandfather, John Adams Gates, tells young Ben the legend in 1974, while Ben's father Patrick dismisses the family obsession.
Q 30The actor who plays Ben Gates was born into which famous filmmaking family?
The Coppolas
The Coppolas are his family: he was born a Coppola, nephew of director Francis Ford Coppola, and changed his surname to avoid accusations of nepotism.