NT

The Canon

The Films

Two films. Two heists. One library card with significant overdue fines. We focus on the original Bruckheimer / Turteltaub canon.

2004

National Treasure

The greatest adventure history has ever revealed.

Benjamin Franklin Gates, the latest in a long line of treasure hunters chasing a Templar hoard whispered into the family by a dying carriage driver named Thomas Gates, follows a chain of clues from the wreck of a colonial freighter buried in Arctic ice to the back of the Declaration of Independence itself. With FBI agents, a duplicitous benefactor, and a skeptical archivist named Dr. Abigail Chase all closing in, Ben does the only sensible thing a Gates ever does: he steals the Declaration to protect it. What follows is a chase through Philadelphia, New York, and the bones beneath Trinity Church — and a quiet argument about whether the country itself is the treasure.

Key Artifacts

  • The Charlotte (a colonial freighter found in the Arctic)
  • The meerschaum pipe stem with engraved cipher
  • The Silence Dogood letters
  • The Declaration of Independence
  • The Ottendorf cipher
  • The Templar treasure beneath Trinity Church
  • Charles Carroll's signet (Parkington Lane)

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence.”

    — Ben Gates

  • “Someone's gotta go in there and steal it.”

    — Ben Gates

  • “Of course, why not?! I'll just borrow it. It's a vacation gift.”

    — Riley Poole

  • “The secret lies with Charlotte.”

    — The first clue

  • “Of all the words written here about freedom, there's a line here that's at the heart of all the others.”

    — Ben Gates

  • “Knights Templar... Freemasons... clue!”

    — Ben Gates

  • “Albuquerque! See, I can do it too. Snorkel!”

    — Riley Poole

  • “I find it more inspirational than the actual treasure.”

    — Ben Gates, on the Declaration

2007

National Treasure: Book of Secrets

History's greatest secret. America's greatest legend.

When a missing page from the diary of John Wilkes Booth surfaces in the hands of one Mitch Wilkinson, Thomas Gates is named as a co-conspirator in the Lincoln assassination. To clear his great-great-grandfather's name, Ben follows a trail of presidents and their twin desks from the Library of Congress to Buckingham Palace, from Mount Vernon to a chamber inside Mount Rushmore. The trail ends at Cibola, the lost Olmec city of gold, which is also (per Ben Gates' standard operating procedure) about to flood. Along the way, he kidnaps the President.

Key Artifacts

  • John Wilkes Booth's missing diary page
  • The twin Resolute desks (London and Washington)
  • The President's Book of Secrets
  • The Eagle of Cibola plank from Mount Vernon
  • The carved noisemaker / wooden plank treasure map
  • Mount Rushmore as the seal over Cibola
  • Page 47

Notable Quotes

  • “I'm gonna kidnap... the President of the United States.”

    — Ben Gates

  • “You're gonna kidnap the President of the United States?”

    — Riley Poole

  • “There's something on Page 47 I need to ask you about.”

    — Ben Gates

  • “I'm a man with a Ferrari and no friends.”

    — Riley Poole

  • “Look, you don't have to tell me what's on Page 47.”

    — Ben Gates