Watch National Treasure 3

[Cecile Lilien]

Thefirst National Treasure movie hit the theatres in 2004 and it introduced audiences to Benjamin Gates, played by Nicolas Cage, a witty historian that took us on a journey to find a treasure dating back to the creation of the United States. The movies were so popular and had such a fan base over the years that this new series, National Treasure: Edge of History was created.

The series is ten episodes long with the opportunity to continue for more seasons, based on the storyline. We really hope they continue this series because it was so fun to watch. The episodes take you on a ride in the pursuit of treasure, in a scavenger hunt. It has an Indiana Jones feel to it, and the storyline is clever.

With such a strong fan-base since the first movie hit theatres in 2004, why did Disney decide to create a series instead? From what I have researched, the short answer is the inception of Disney+ . And very honestly, binge-watching is such a way of life now, that many people are looking for a short series to get into instead of a singular 90-minute movie. I personally would rush to the theater now to see the third National Treasure movie, and maybe with the popularity of the series, we will see these actors along side the OG actors of the franchise in a movie, who knows!

While most actors in this series are new to the franchise, it was such a pleasure to see Harvey Keitel reprise his role as Agent Sadusky in the pilot episode. Justin Bartha also comes into the series with his role as Riley Poole.

It had been a few years since we had watched the movies with our sons, but we all had some memories of the characters and the storyline. There were a few times we paused the show to remember who was who and what connections were being made. That said, if you can watch the movies first, I think you will enjoy the series even more.

The family that served pick-up duty for my elementary school carpool had one of those vans with the backseat DVD-screen player, so every Monday to Friday afternoon, September to June, from the ages of eight to eleven, in 17-minute increments, I watched National Treasure.

For those of you unfamiliar, the 2004 film National Treasure is a historical fiction action-adventure bonanza starring Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Gates, the descendent of a long line of treasure hunters tipped off by one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence to a grand treasure carted into the North American British colonies by the Knights Templar, the Founding Fathers, and the Freemasons (none of whom are real). Gates dedicates his life to learning everything he can about American and European history so that he can solve the clues left behind to track down the treasure.

We open in a beautiful lecture hall, where Ben-Nic-Gates-Cage lectures about how his great-great-grandad Thomas Gates managed to stop a subsect of the Confederates from locating a hidden treasure that would have funded their Civil War efforts.

Clearly National Treasure 2: Chamber of Treasure invested the entire budget into their expensive talent and not any other aspect of filmmaking or fact-checking or even disinterested Googling, because this is where things go off the rails. Nic Cage sneaks into the Oval Office to try to steal a second slab of wood from the Resolute Desk. It is not there. He determines that to find what was in it, he must obtain the eponymous Book of Secrets, a literal book of secrets passed down from one president to the next, and to steal the book, he decides:

And yet, for the sake of the upcoming Disney+ direct-to-streaming television series, Nic-Ben-Gates-Cage was once again cleared of his federal crimes, this time kidnapping the President, skirting the law in the name of anti-historical revelations and endless cash-grabbing sequels.

Here\u2019s the basic chain of events: Ben Gates has a clue handed down through the generations that reads \u201CThe Secret lies with Charlotte.\u201D Charlotte, it turns out, is a boat buried in ice in the North Pole, and the secret is a pipe carved with another riddle. The riddle\u2019s key is, logically, hidden in invisible ink on the back of the Declaration of Independence, housed in the National Archives in Washington, DC. Ben-Gates-Nic-Cage\u2019s partner/treasure-hunting-bankroller Ian\u2014played by Ned Stark himself, Sean Bean\u2014declares in the lowest deck of this ice-moored ship that to acquire this map, they will steal the Declaration of Independence. Ben-Cage-Nic-Gates refuses, there\u2019s a kerfuffle with a gun and a flare and some gunpowder, a getaway! an explosion! and then we smash cut to Washington DC, where we meet Diane Kruger as the head of the National Archives, who (reasonably) scoffs at Nic-Gates-Ben-Cage and his sidekick about the imminent threat to the Declaration of Independence (famous last words, Dr. Chase-Kruger)! Finally, we head to the National Archives itself, where, within earshot of armed guards and dozens of roving schoolchildren, Ben-Nic-Cage-Gates determines there is only path to protect it (and the invisible map) from his now former bankroller-turned-rival Ian-Ned-Stark and declares in a low, dramatic voice, with the conviction of a man who has already won his Oscar, \u201CI\u2019m going to steal the Declaration of Independence.\u201D

And so he does. Bunch of fun chemistry and Photoshop. A shoot out over the bullet-proof glass shielding the Declaration. A car chase. The invisible map on the back of the Declaration reveals a cypher that links to a bunch of letters by Silence Dogood, a penname for Benjamin Franklin, gifted from Ben Gates\u2019s dad (not really) to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Those letters reveal where an \u201Cocular device\u201D (it\u2019s a pair of glasses, Nic) are hidden inside a brick next to the original Liberty Bell Tower. The glasses reveal a SECOND MAP on the back of the Declaration of Independence, leading us to Wall Street in NEW YORK, NEW YORK, BABY! And then the treasure is buried hundreds of feet below the subway in Manhattan Schist.

With all that in mind, the most unrealistic part of this film is the depth of the tunnel and treasure room dug into the ground underneath Trinity Church (yes, the one on Wall Street). I cannot emphasize enough how hard Manhattan Schist is. That rock is, really, no pun intended, hardcore. The rest of that stuff with splitting up the clues and hiding all those tchotchkes in the Northwest Hemisphere (but mostly along the Amtrak Northeast Regional line)\u2014I can dig it. That hole? Less so.

What else is there to say? Hijinks ensue. History is poorly told, if it\u2019s told at all. Nic Cage and Diane Kruger flirt. Documents are handled time and again with white cotton gloves, which is not proper handling procedure. Gloves interfere with your dexterity and risk more damage!

Not to mention the fact that the Declaration is written on parchment, which, while resilient, probably wouldn\u2019t respond well to being rapidly rolled up like those wrapping paper rods we bash our siblings over the head with? The Declaration is held in very stable conditions with a whole regulated humidity setting, I\u2019m sure, but I\u2019m still 67% positive it would crack, especially if it was given zero time to acclimate as Nic-Ben-Cage-Gates hurriedly stuffed it into his tuxedo pocket inside of an elevator. As I write this, I\u2019m staring blankly ahead trying to remember all of the parchment I have ever worked with and\u2026I really don\u2019t think rolling it up is the move.1 I know there are medievalists & book historians who read this newsletter, so please advise.

(Update 1/30/22: Bookish Book Club watched National Treasure for a movie night last night and let me tell ya! Totally different experience watching this movie with a bunch of book history and rare book practitioners. Anyways, I posed this question to the group and was advised that the parchment cracking would depend on 1) the environment it is kept in and 2) the thickness of the parchment. So, open call to the National Archives for those two details, please! It\u2019s for //research//.)

My bigger beef with the movie, besides the impenetrable rock and the gloves and the rolled-up parchment, is the absolute groveling that Ben-Gates-Nic-Cage lavishes upon the Founding Fathers throughout the film. A lot of, \u201CThey were the cleverest, most judicious, forward-looking people in the world!\u201D This undue praise recalls to me my 10th-grade US History teacher who said every single day for an entire school year (180 mandated days in New Jersey) that \u201Cnever again will a group of people as smart as the Founding Fathers gather in a room all at once.\u201D I remember looking around at my classmates the first time he said that and thinking to myself, \u201CThere are smarter people in this room right now, and none of us can legally vote, drink, or drive.\u201D4

As a slight detour, the Founding Fathers were very good at protecting their money, their land, and their necks, all of which required the exploitation of enslaved humans and dispossessed land. That sick brand of savvy is one we would be better off without. If, however, we take National Treasure at its word (which we shouldn\u2019t, but we are), it\u2019s no wonder the Founding Fathers made utterly vile choices while plotting the United States. They were too busy trying to dig up Manhattan Schist.5

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