''National Treasure: Book of Secrets'' is a 2007 American

action-adventure film Action film is a film genre in which the protagonist is thrust into a series of events that typically involve violence and physical feats. The genre tends to feature a mostly resourceful hero struggling against incredible odds, which include life ...

directed by

Jon Turteltaub Jonathan Charles Turteltaub (born August 8, 1963) is an American film director and producer. Life and career Turteltaub was born on August 8, 1963 in New York City, one of two children born to comedy writer Saul Turteltaub (best known for his ...

and produced by

Jerry Bruckheimer Jerome Leon Bruckheimer (born September 21, 1943) is an American film and television Film producer, producer. He has been active in the genres of Action film, action, Drama film, drama, Fantasy film, fantasy, and Science fiction film, science fi ...

. It is a sequel to the 2004 film ''

National Treasure The idea of national treasure, like national epics and national anthems, is part of the language of romantic nationalism, which arose in the late 18th century and 19th centuries. Nationalism is an ideology that supports the nation as the fundame ...

'' and is the second film of the ''National Treasure'' franchise. The film stars

Nicolas Cage Nicolas Kim Coppola (born January 7, 1964), known professionally as Nicolas Cage, is an American actor and film producer. Born into the Coppola family, he is the recipient of various accolades, including an Academy Award, a Screen Actors Gu ...

in the lead role,

Jon Voight Jonathan Vincent Voight (; born December 29, 1938) is an American actor. He came to prominence in the late 1960s with his Academy Award–nominated performance as Joe Buck, a would-be gigolo, in ''Midnight Cowboy'' (1969). During the 1970s, he ...

Harvey Keitel Harvey Keitel ( ; born May 13, 1939) is an American actor. He is known for his portrayal of morally ambiguous and "tough guy" characters. He first rose to prominence during the New Hollywood movement, and has held a long-running association with ...

Ed Harris Edward Allen Harris (born November 28, 1950) is an American actor and filmmaker. His performances in ''Apollo 13'' (1995), ''The Truman Show'' (1998), ''Pollock'' (2000), and '' The Hours'' (2002) earned him critical acclaim and Academy Award n ...

Diane Kruger Diane Kruger ( Heidkrüger; ; born 15 July 1976) is a German and American actress. Early in her career, Kruger gained worldwide recognition and received the Trophée Chopard from the Cannes Film Festival. Kruger became known for her roles in f ...

Justin Bartha Justin Lee Bartha (born July 21, 1978) is an American actor, known for his roles as Riley Poole in the ''National Treasure'' film series, Doug Billings in ''The Hangover'' trilogy, and David Sawyer in the NBC comedy series '' The New Normal''. ...

Bruce Greenwood Stuart Bruce Greenwood (born August 12, 1956) is a Canadian actor and producer. He is known for his role as the American president John F. Kennedy in '' Thirteen Days,'' for which he won the Satellite Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion ...

and

Helen Mirren Dame Helen Mirren (born Helen Lydia Mironoff; born 26 July 1945) is an English actor. The recipient of numerous accolades, she is the only performer to have achieved the Triple Crown of Acting in both the United States and the United Kingdom. ...

. The film premiered in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

on December 13, 2007, and

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, formerly known as Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. until 2007, is an American film distribution studio within the Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution division of The Walt Disney Company. It ha ...

released it in North America on December 21, 2007. Critics surveyed by

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

called it too similar to its predecessor. It grossed $459 million worldwide.

Plot

Five days after the end of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

John Wilkes Booth John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth th ...

and

Michael O'Laughlen Michael O'Laughlen, Jr. (pronounced ''Oh-Lock-Lun''; June 3, 1840 – September 23, 1867) was an American Confederate soldier and conspirator in John Wilkes Booth's plot to kidnap U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, and later in the latter's assassi ...

, both members of the KGC, approach Thomas Gates to decode a message copied into Booth's diary. Thomas recognizes the message as a

Playfair cipher The Playfair cipher or Playfair square or Wheatstone–Playfair cipher is a manual symmetric encryption technique and was the first literal digram substitution cipher. The scheme was invented in 1854 by Charles Wheatstone, but bears the name of ...

, and translates it while Booth departs for

Ford's Theatre Ford's Theatre is a theater located in Washington, D.C., which opened in August 1863. The theater is infamous for being the site of the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. On the night of April 14, 1865, John Wilkes Booth entered the theater box ...

to assassinate President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

. Thomas solves the puzzle, realizes Booth and O'Laughlen are trying to help

the Confederacy The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an List of historical unrecognized states and dependencies, unrecognized Secession in the United States, breakaway republic in the ...

, and rips the cipher's pages from the diary to burn them. O'Laughlen shoots Thomas and flees with the one surviving page fragment, and a dying Thomas tells his son Charles the keyword for the cipher. More than 140 years later, famed treasure-hunter Ben Gates tells Thomas' story at a Civilian Heroes conference.

Black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the se ...

dealer Mitch Wilkinson produces the page fragment, with Thomas Gates' name next to those of

Mary Surratt Mary Elizabeth Jenkins SurrattCashin, p. 287.Steers, 2010, p. 516. (1820 or May 1823 – July 7, 1865) was an American boarding house owner in Washington, D.C., who was convicted of taking part in the conspiracy which led to the assassi ...

and Dr.

Samuel Mudd Samuel Alexander Mudd Sr. (December 20, 1833 – January 10, 1883) was an American physician who was imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth concerning the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Mudd worked as a doctor and tobacco fa ...

. The public believes Thomas helped kill Lincoln, and Ben and his father Patrick set out to disprove it. Using

spectral imaging Spectral imaging is imaging that uses multiple bands across the electromagnetic spectrum. While an ordinary camera captures light across three wavelength bands in the visible spectrum, red, green, and blue (RGB), spectral imaging encompasses ...

, Ben discovers traces of the cipher on the diary page; when solved using the keyword, it points to the smaller Statue of Liberty in Paris. Traveling there, Ben and his friend Riley Poole discover an engraving referencing the

Resolute desk The ''Resolute'' desk, also known as the Hayes desk, is a nineteenth-century partners desk used by several presidents of the United States in the White House as the Oval Office desk, including the five most recent presidents. The desk was a gi ...

s. They head to London, reluctantly recruiting Ben's estranged girlfriend, Dr. Abigail Chase, along the way. Ben and Abigail sneak a peek at the Buckingham Palace desk, and obtain a

Pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, th ...

carved plank from a secret drawer. Mitch, who had secretly

cloned Cloning is the process of producing individual organisms with identical or virtually identical DNA, either by natural or artificial means. In nature, some organisms produce clones through asexual reproduction. In the field of biotechnology, c ...

Patrick's cell phone in order to track Ben's whereabouts, pursues the trio, and eventually obtains the wooden plank, but not after Ben manages to photograph it. Back in America, Patrick reluctantly asks his ex-wife, archaeo- lexicologist Dr. Emily Appleton, for help. She claims the carvings reference the "center of the earth", but points out that some of the glyphs are partial. Ben and Abigail convince Abigail's new boyfriend Connor, a

White House Curator The White House Office of the Curator is charged with the conservation and study of the collection of fine art, furniture and decorative objects used to furnish both the public and private rooms of the White House as an official residence and a ...

, to let them see the Resolute Desk in the

Oval Office The Oval Office is the formal working space of the President of the United States. Part of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, it is located in the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, D.C. The oval-shaped room ...

. Ben discovers that the second plank has been replaced by a stamp of an altered Presidential seal, which Riley identifies as the symbol for a secret shared diary, written by

Presidents President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

and containing controversial topics such as

Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon from 1972 to 1974 that led to Nixon's resignation. The scandal stemmed from the Nixon administration's continual ...

Area 51 Area 51 is the common name of a highly classified United States Air Force (USAF) facility within the Nevada Test and Training Range. A remote detachment administered by Edwards Air Force Base, the facility is officially called Homey Airport ...

, and the

JFK assassination John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

. Ben crashes the President's birthday party at

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is an American landmark and former plantation of Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States George Washington and his wife, Martha. The estate is on ...

to convince the President to explore a secret tunnel with him. There, Ben activates a secret sliding door, separates the President from his guards, and asks him about the book, while safely leading the President to freedom at the other end of the tunnel. The President sympathetically warns Ben that his actions, while innocently meant, will be interpreted as attempted kidnapping. He then reveals the book is hidden in a safe at the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. Pursued by the FBI, Ben, Abigail, and Riley manage a brief look at the book. They find a photograph of the missing plank, and an entry by

Calvin Coolidge Calvin Coolidge (born John Calvin Coolidge Jr.; ; July 4, 1872January 5, 1933) was the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929. Born in Vermont, Coolidge was a History of the Republican Party (United States), Republican lawyer ...

. He found the plank in 1924, translated it, had it destroyed, and commissioned

Gutzon Borglum John Gutzon de la Mothe Borglum (March 25, 1867 – March 6, 1941) was an American sculptor best known for his work on Mount Rushmore. He is also associated with various other public works of art across the U.S., including Stone Mountain in Georg ...

to carve

Mount Rushmore Mount Rushmore National Memorial is a national memorial centered on a colossal sculpture carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore (Lakota: ''Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe'', or Six Grandfathers) in the Black Hills near Keystone, South Dakota ...

, to hide evidence of a hidden treasure nearby. After consulting Emily about the glyphs, Ben, Riley, Abigail, and Patrick head to Mount Rushmore. They meet Mitch and Emily there, as Mitch kidnapped her after Ben left. Mitch already has acquired, memorized, and destroyed the final clue, so he can claim the treasure. He helps the group find the entrance of a cave full of booby traps. After briefly getting separated, the group finds a pit containing Cíbola, a Native American city of gold. An ancient dam fails, and it becomes clear one of the group must sacrifice themselves in the quickly flooding cave to hold open the door for the others. Mitch does so, but begs Ben to give him posthumous credit for finding the treasure so he can be in the history books, too. Ben and the rest return to the surface, where the President prevents Ben from being arrested by claiming Ben saved him from the tunnel's accidental closing. Ben ensures that Mitch receives joint credit for the discovery, rekindles his relationship with Abigail, and clears Thomas Gates' name by proving that Booth had consulted him about the treasure, not the assassination.

Cast

as Benjamin Franklin "Ben" Gates, treasure hunter, historian and cryptologist *

as Dr. Abigail Chase, Director of Document Conservation at the National Archives, Ben's ex-girlfriend *

as Riley Poole, computer expert and author, Ben's best friend *

as Patrick Henry Gates, Ben's father who is divorced from his wife Emily *

as Dr. Emily Appleton-Gates, professor of Native American Studies, Ben's mother who is divorced from her husband, Patrick *

as Mitchell "Mitch" Wilkinson, a black market dealer *

as FBI Special Agent Peter Sadusky *

Armando Riesco Armando Riesco (born December 5, 1977) is a Puerto Rican actor. Early life Riesco was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, to Cuban immigrants who resettled there. He was raised in San Juan where he attended Colegio San Ignacio de Loyola. He then ...

as FBI Special Agent Hendricks *

Alicia Coppola Alicia Coppola is an American actress. She became known for playing Lorna Devon in the soap opera '' Another World'' from 1991 to 1994. Afterwards, she made regular and guest star appearances in various television series, notably ''Jericho'' an ...

as FBI Special Agent Spellman *

Albert Hall The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall on the northern edge of South Kensington, London. One of the UK's most treasured and distinctive buildings, it is held in trust for the nation and managed by a registered charity which receives no governm ...

as Dr. Nichols *

as President of the United States *

Ty Burrell Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor and comedian. Burrell is best known for his role as Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom ''Modern Family'', for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

as Connor, White House curator, Abigail's new boyfriend.

Randy Travis Randy Bruce Traywick (born May 4, 1959), known professionally as Randy Travis, is an American country music and gospel music singer, songwriter, guitarist, and actor. Active from 1978 until being incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, he has recor ...

makes a cameo appearance, playing himself. Small supporting parts are played by

Joel Gretsch Joel James Gretsch (born December 20, 1963) is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on ''The 4400'', '' Taken'' and '' V''. Early life Gretsch was born in St. Cloud, Minnesota, and grew up in Albany, Minnesota, the son of Russ an ...

and

Billy Unger William Brent Unger (born October 15, 1995) is an American actor. He is known for playing Chase on the Disney XD series ''Lab Rats'' and '' Lab Rats: Elite Force''. Credited as Billy Unger before 2016, starting with ''Lab Rats: Elite Force'', h ...

as Gates's ancestors Thomas Gates and Charles Carroll Gates;

Christian Camargo Christian Camargo ( né Minnick; born July 7, 1971) is an American actor, producer, writer, and director. He is perhaps best known for his roles as Brian Moser in the Showtime drama '' Dexter'', Michael Corrigan in the Netflix drama ''House of ...

;

Brent Briscoe Brent Briscoe (May 21, 1961 – October 18, 2017) was an American character actor and screenwriter. Early life Briscoe was born in Moberly, Missouri. After completing his education at the University of Missouri, Briscoe launched his career as a ...

; and

Zachary Gordon Zachary Adam Gordon (born February 15, 1998) is an American actor. He rose to prominence by playing Greg Heffley in the first three films of the ''Diary of a Wimpy Kid'' film series. He then went on to play Tate Wilson in '' Good Trouble'' and Ja ...

as a boy who gets into a heated argument with Gates over a Lincoln conspiracy. In France,

Guillaume Gallienne Guillaume Gallienne (born 8 February 1972) is a French actor, screenwriter and film director. He has received two Molière Awards for his stagework and has won two César Awards, one for writing and the other for his performance in his autobiogra ...

and Scali Delpeyrat appear (uncredited) as the French policemen.

Production

North by Northwest and National Treasure II sign at Mount Rushmore

It was stated in the first film's commentary that there were no plans for a sequel, but due to the first film's impressive box-office performance (earning $347.5 million worldwide), a sequel was given the go-ahead in 2005. Many scenes of historic locations were filmed on location, including the scenes at

and

. Filming at Mount Rushmore took longer than initially scheduled, due to inclement weather and the decision to change the setting of additional scenes to the area around Mount Rushmore to take advantage of the

Black Hills The Black Hills ( lkt, Ȟe Sápa; chy, Moʼȯhta-voʼhonáaeva; hid, awaxaawi shiibisha) is an isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, United States. Black Elk P ...

backdrop. The scene at the beginning of the film in which Riley is signing copies of his book of the Templar Treasure until his

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello, Italy. Founded by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988) in 1939 from the Alfa Romeo racing division as ''Auto Avio Costruzioni'', the company built its first car in ...

is confiscated by the

IRS The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is the revenue service for the United States federal government, which is responsible for collecting U.S. federal taxes and administering the Internal Revenue Code, the main body of the federal statutory tax ...

took place at the street level

Borders Group Borders Group, Inc. (former NYSE ticker symbol BGP) was an American multinational book and music retailer based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. In its final year, the company employed about 19,500 people throughout the U.S., primarily in ...

bookstore of Garfinckel's Department Store.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack to ''National Treasure: Book of Secrets'' was released on December 18, 2007.

Reception

Box office

''National Treasure: Book of Secrets'' grossed $44.8 million in its opening week, placing at #1 at the box office. It remained in first at the box office for two more weeks, grossing $35.7 million and $20.1 million, respectively, until it was dethroned by ''

The Bucket List ''The Bucket List'' is a 2007 American buddy adventure comedy-drama film directed and produced by Rob Reiner, written by Justin Zackham, and starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The main plot follows two terminally ill men on their road t ...

'' ($19.4 million). The film grossed $220 million in North America and $237.4 million in other territories for a total gross of $457.4 million, against a budget of $130 million, making it the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2007, and the highest-grossing film in the series. It took 38 days to outgross the first film ($347.5 million).

Critical response

the film holds an approval rating of 36% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 4.80/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "A talented cast goes to waste in the improbable ''National Treasure: Book of Secrets'', which is eerily similar to the first film." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 48 out of 100, based on 26 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data. Background Ed Mintz founded Ci ...

gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

gave the film 2 out of 4 stars. British film critic

Peter Bradshaw Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''. Early life and education Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...

of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' disputed the implication of British support for the

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

side in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

Accolades

The film earned two

Razzie Award The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...

nominations including Worst Actor for

(also for ''

Ghost Rider Ghost Rider is the name of multiple antiheroes and superheroes appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Marvel had previously used the name for a Western character whose name was later changed to Phantom Rider. The first s ...

'' and ''

Next Next may refer to: Arts and entertainment Film * ''Next'' (1990 film), an animated short about William Shakespeare * ''Next'' (2007 film), a sci-fi film starring Nicolas Cage * '' Next: A Primer on Urban Painting'', a 2005 documentary film Lit ...

'') and Worst Supporting Actor for

(also for '' Bratz: The Movie'', ''

September Dawn ''September Dawn'' is a 2007 Canadian-American Western film directed by Christopher Cain, telling a fictional love story against a controversial historical interpretation of the 1857 Mountain Meadows massacre. Written by Cain and Carole Whang Sc ...

'', and ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms, suc ...

''), but lost both categories to

Eddie Murphy Edward Regan Murphy (born April 3, 1961) is an American actor, comedian, writer, producer, and singer. He rose to fame on the sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'', for which he was a regular cast member from 1980 to 1984. Murphy has als ...

for ''

Norbit In electronics, the NORBIT family of modules is a very early form (since 1960) of digital logic developed by Philips (and also provided through and Mullard) that uses modules containing discrete components to build logic function blocks in resis ...

''. The film was nominated for Best Movie at the 2008 MTV Movie Awards, but lost to ''

''.

Home media

''National Treasure: Book of Secrets'' was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

, UMD, and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

Disc on May 20, 2008 (June 2, 2008 in the UK). In the opening weekend, 3,178,631 DVD units were sold, bringing in $50,826,310 in revenue. As of August 2009, 5,873,640 DVD units have been sold, generating revenue of $93,132,076. This does not include Blu-ray Disc sales or DVD rentals. The film has been retitled ''National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets'' for all three releases. The film's official website has also been changed accordingly. A

special edition The terms special edition, limited edition, and variants such as deluxe edition, or collector's edition, are used as a marketing incentive for various kinds of products, originally published products related to the arts, such as books, prints, r ...

, called the "National Treasure Presidential Edition", contains ''National Treasure'' and ''National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets'' inside a letter book which is a replica of the Presidents' secret book from ''National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets''.

Novelizations

Disney Press published an official novelization of the screenplay titled ''National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets The Junior Novel'' on November 6, 2007. Parts of the story in the novel version differ slightly from what was actually filmed, owing to changes being made in the screenplay prior to and during production. For example, in the novel, Ben and Abigail photograph the wooden plank found hidden in the Queen's desk and leave it behind, with the car chase following. However, in the movie, they take the plank with them on the chase. Also published on the same day as the official novelization was a companion youth novel ''Changing Tides: A Gates Family Mystery'' by Catherine Hapka. Its story is set in England in the year 1612 and is the first in a series of planned historical novels about the Gates family. The epilogue from ''Changing Tides'' is included at the back of the ''National Treasure'' book. The second youth novel by Hapka, ''Midnight Ride: A Gates Family Mystery'', was published on March 8, 2008.

Accuracy

The group mentioned in the film as being behind the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and pursuing the city of gold, The Knights of the Golden Circle, had actually disbanded in 1863. It was based in Cincinnati, Ohio, where its founder George W. L. Bickley resided. Though a native of Virginia, Bickley had actually been known for being an adventurer and also bad with finances. His main focus was also not on preserving the Confederate States of America (CSA), but restoring slavery in southern neighboring countries which he wanted to make part of a proposed nation dubbed " Golden Circle." While some members of the group would join the Confederate Army, Bickley was more focused on colonizing parts of northern Mexico as slave states. He would not join the Confederate Army until after his expeditions in Mexico faltered in 1863. Soon afterwards, the organization was exposed and many members were arrested while attempting to steal numerous gold shipments from

San Francisco Bay San Francisco Bay is a large tidal estuary in the U.S. state of California, and gives its name to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is dominated by the big cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland. San Francisco Bay drains water from a ...

. Following the outbreak of the American Civil War numerous Golden Circle members were not focused on fighting Union states north of the Mason-Dixon Line like the film suggests, but were pre-occupied with making the Union territory of New Mexico a part of the proposed Golden Circle nation as well. Those who operated in the North mostly aligned with

Copperhead Copperhead may refer to: Snakes * ''Agkistrodon contortrix'', or copperhead, a venomous pit viper species found in parts of North America * '' Austrelaps'', or Australian copperhead, a genus of venomous elapids found in southern Australia and Ta ...

politicians who preferred a negotiated end to the war. Bickley, who served the Confederate Army for months as a surgeon to General

Braxton Bragg Braxton Bragg (March 22, 1817 – September 27, 1876) was an American army officer during the Second Seminole War and Mexican–American War and Confederate general in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, serving in the Weste ...

, would be captured in Indiana in July 1863 on charges of being a Confederate spy and remained in house arrest until October 1865. The month before his arrest, Bickley abandoned the Confederate Army after preferring to settle in Tennessee. Former members would also name its successor organization the Order of the Sons of Liberty in 1864, the year before Lincoln's assassination. This successor organization was exposed the same year it was founded and members were arrested and tried for treason. The film's suggestion that Britain wanted a strong alliance with the Confederate States of America was also highly unlikely. Efforts which were made by Confederate Secretary of State

Judah P. Benjamin Judah Philip Benjamin, QC (August 6, 1811 – May 6, 1884) was a United States senator from Louisiana, a Cabinet officer of the Confederate States and, after his escape to the United Kingdom at the end of the American Civil War, an English ba ...

to persuade Britain to simply recognize the Confederate States of America proved unsuccessful. The wooden plank map hidden within both Resolute Desks that leads to the location of Cíbola would have been of no use to the Confederacy, as the desks were constructed and delivered between the years 1879 and 1880; some 15 years after the American Civil War concluded and the disbandment of the Confederate states. Similarly, the clues left by

Édouard Laboulaye Édouard is both a French given name and a surname, equivalent to Edward in English. Notable people with the name include: * Édouard Balladur (born 1929), French politician * Édouard Boubat (1923–1999), French photographer * Édouard Colonne ( ...

would have been equally of no use, as the earliest models of the Statue of Liberty and all subsequent replicas, were all constructed no earlier than 1875; 10 years after the end of the Civil War.

Future

In May 2008

confirmed that there would be additional ''National Treasure'' movies, but acknowledge that the creative team would take their time on the second sequel. That same year,

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

registered the IP for the domain names for future films. In October 2013, Turteltaub stated that all individuals involved with the first two movies want to make a third film. He further stated that the delays have been due to working out the script, and that he expected the film to begin production in 2015. By 2014, producer Jerry Bruckheimer announced that a new team of writers were working on the script. In May 2016, Nicolas Cage confirmed that the script was still being sorted out. By September 2017, it was revealed that a script had been finished, but that the executives at Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures were not satisfied with the story. In July 2018, Turtletaub stated that the script was "close", but the studios still weren't going to

green-light To green-light is to give permission to proceed with a project. The term is a reference to the green traffic signal, indicating "go ahead". Film industry In the context of the film and television industries, to green-light something is to ...

production yet. In January 2020, after years of

development hell Development hell, development purgatory, and development limbo are media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in development for an especially long time, often moving between different crews, scripts, game engi ...

, it was announced that a third film was officially moving forward with a script from Chris Bremner. Jerry Bruckheimer will return as producer and the original cast is expected to return as well. In April 2022, Nicolas Cage was hosting an AMA (Ask Me Anything) thread on Reddit where he commented on the possibility of future installments: "No, the priority was to turn it into a TV show so I would say probably not." At the D23 Expo of September 2022 it was announced a sequel TV series will be released on the

Disney+ The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and interest of an audience or gives pleasure and deligh ...

streaming service. The title of the series was also confirmed respectively - '' National Treasure: Edge of History''. Lisette Alexis was confirmed to play the lead role of Jess, a 20-year old DREAMer who sets out on an adventure to uncover her families history. Cage confirmed he would not be reprising his role for the series. Jerry Bruckheimer was confirmed to serve as executive producer for the series. The series will have a two-episode premiere on December 14, 2022.

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* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:National Treasure: Book Of Secrets 2000s adventure films 2007 films American adventure films American sequel films Black Hills Cryptography in fiction Cultural depictions of Abraham Lincoln 2000s English-language films Fictional depictions of Abraham Lincoln in film Films about fictional presidents of the United States Films about secret societies Films directed by Jon Turteltaub Films produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Films scored by Trevor Rabin Films set in 1865 Films set in 2007 Films set in London Films set in Paris Films set in South Dakota Films set in the White House Films set in Virginia Films set in Washington, D.C. Films shot in Maryland Films shot in South Dakota Films with screenplays by Ted Elliott Films with screenplays by Terry Rossio Mount Rushmore Saturn Films films Treasure hunt films Walt Disney Pictures films National Treasure (film series) 2000s American films