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Plot
The story centers on Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage), a historian and amateur cryptologist with a mechanical engineering degree from MIT and an American history degree from Georgetown who comes from a long line of treasure hunters that believe in the legend of a fantastic treasure trove of artifacts and gold, hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States, and forgotten to all but a few. The first clue was given to Ben's great great grandfather Thomas Gates (Jason Earles) in 1832 by Charles Carroll, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, saying, "The secret lies with Charlotte." Ben is given this clue in 1974 by his grandfather,
Thirty years later, using computerized arctic weather models, Ben, with his friend Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) and financier Ian Howe (Sean Bean), finds the wreckage of a Colonial ship, the Charlotte, containing a meerschaum pipe engraved with a riddle. After examining the riddle, Ben deduces that the next clue is on the back of the Declaration of Independence. While Ben sees gaining access to such a highly guarded artifact as an obstacle, Ian finds no problem in stealing it (he says he only wants to "borrow" it). This results in a standoff, during which the ship's gunpowder is accidentally ignited. Ian and his assistant Shaw escape and the Charlotte explodes with Ben and Riley hiding inside a smuggler's hold. After Ian rides off in their snowcats, Ben and Riley escape the Arctic as they walk to an Inuit village not far and take a flight back home.
Ben and Riley attempt to warn the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger) at the National Archives in Washington, D.C., but no one takes them seriously, believing the Declaration of Independence to be too heavily guarded to be under any threat. Ben thinks otherwise, and decides to steal it to keep it from Ian. Ben and Riley manage to steal the Declaration during a 70th anniversary gala, just before Ian arrives. Dr. Chase sees Ben with the Declaration and is tricked by him to take a replica that he just bought, but she is kidnapped by Ian, who thinks she has the real declaration, and Ben and Riley have to engage in a car chase to rescue her. Ian gets the Declaration, but then discovers that he took the replica. As Dr. Chase will not leave without the Declaration, and Ben will not let her leave with it, she is forced to go along with them.
Having used his credit card to buy the replica, Ben realizes the FBI is likely already at his home. He and Riley agree that the only place to go would be his father's house, since he has Silence Dogood letters, written by Benjamin Franklin. Despite Patrick's disbelief in the treasure (he wasted 20 years looking for it and never found it), Ben manages to reveal an Ottendorf cipher on the back of the Declaration, with Abigail performing the test herself, since she is trained to handle antique documents. The ciphers refer to characters in the letters, which Ben's father donated to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Patrick is curious too, although very cynical about the clue and shocked when he discovers what they're running tests on.
The coded message in the letters leads them to Independence Hall in Philadelphia. They look at the clock tower on the back of a $100 bill for the time, but believe they are too late for the tower's shadow alignment (at 2:22) with the correct place to find the next clue. Riley points out that daylight saving time wasn't invented until after the image on the back of the bill was made (although he takes a while to do it, because he wants to take in the moment of knowing something that Ben and Abigail didn't). There they find special bifocals invented by Benjamin Franklin inside a hollow brick from the building. Ben examines the back of the Declaration with the glasses to find another clue. After a short chase, Ian gets the Declaration from Riley and Abigail, and the FBI arrests Ben, who has the glasses.
When the FBI attempts to use Ben as bait to get the Declaration back, Ian arranges to have him escape by jumping from the deck of the USS Intrepid, into the Hudson River, a feat not too difficult for Ben, a graduate of the Navy Diving and Salvage Training Center. Using Patrick, Riley, and Abigail as leverage, Ian forces Ben to interpret the clue on the back of the declaration, a reference to a secret chamber under Trinity Church in New York City. As the group explores the chamber, a structural collapse causes Shaw to fall to his death. After a few more collapses of the stairway they arrive at a seemingly dead end. Ian runs back to the elevator they took to get down and threatens to shoot Riley. To keep Ian going Patrick makes up another riddle, telling him a lantern is the clue to the treasure in the Old North Church in Boston, referencing Paul Revere's ride. Ian, believing the clue is true, goes to Boston with his men, leaving everyone else in the caverns to die.
After Ian leaves, Ben reveals there must be another exit through the treasure room. They find a secret passage into another chamber. To their disappointment, they find it empty, and assume that the treasure was already moved. While Ben is discouraged, the others all vow to keep looking, including his father, whose faith in the treasure was restored by the discovery. Ben then realises another exit must have been created in case of cave-ins. Ben examines the walls of the room, to find a hole the shape of the pipe from the Charlotte. This lock opens a door into the true treasure room, containing artifacts from many periods of history.
When they leave through the second exit and the FBI arrives after Ben calls them, Ben discovers that the chief investigator, Special agent Peter Sadusky (Harvey Keitel), is wearing a Freemason's ring. Ben returns the Declaration to the FBI as promised and proposes to give the treasure to various museums around the world, with credit being given to the entire Gates family and Riley, and with Dr. Chase not being penalized for the theft of the Declaration. Sadusky agrees to these terms, but says that someone still has to go to prison for the theft of the Declaration. Knowing that he can help Sadusky with that, Ben gets the FBI to fly to Boston, where Ian and his men are attempting to break into the Old North Church. At that time, Sadusky and his agents emerge from hiding and arrest Ian and his men under charges of "kidnapping, attempted murder, and trespassing on government property." Ian realizes he was tricked, especially when he sees a grinning Ben nearby.
The film ends with Riley, Abigail, and Ben discussing another museum opening where they've been invited, in Cairo. Riley mentions that Ben was offered ten percent of the treasure's worth, but Ben says that would have been too much. He only accepted 1% of it and splits it with Riley. As Ben and Abigail managed to buy the mansion once owned by Charles Carroll (where Thomas Gates worked for him) while Riley uses his half to buy a new red Ferrari 360 Spider. Abigail gives Ben a map; he asks where it leads, and she gives him a suggestive smile and they run towards the house.
Cast
* Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates
* Justin Bartha as Riley Poole
* Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase
* Sean Bean as Ian Howe
* Jon Voight as Patrick Henry Gates
* Harvey Keitel as FBI Special Agent Peter Sadusky
* Christopher Plummer as
* Yves Michel-Beneche as Museum Boy
* Jason Earles as Thomas Gates
* David Dayan Fisher as Shaw
* Stewart Finlay-McLennan as Powell
* Oleg Taktarov as Victor
* Stephen A. Pope as Phil
* Matthew Li as Henry
* Hunter Gomez as Young Ben Gates
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