Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) and his sidekick Riley Poole (Justin Bartha) continue their adventures from National Treasure (2004) in search for treasure.
SPOILER WARNING: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Riley Poole might be Benjamin Gates’ sidekick but he has written a book and is having a book launching in a bookstore. While the public only remembers Ben Gates, Riley feels belittled and has got his red Ferrari towed for not able to pay the taxes.
Benjamin Gates and Abigail inside the Oval Ofice
Ben Gates is presenting information about the Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth and the 18 pages missing from Booth’s diary when one man stands up and presents a missing page of John Wilkes Booth’s diary. It is Mitch Wilkinson (Ed Harris), a man who just wants to make a name in history. The page mentions Thomas Gates, Ben’s great-grandfather who could have been a person involved with Abraham Lincoln’s assasination. In order to prove the innocence of his great-grandfather, Ben Gates is determined to solve the puzzle with the faintest clues that he has. With the help of his dad, Patrick Gates (Jon Voight), mom, Emily Appleton Gates (Helen Mirren), together with his estranged girlfriend Abigail (Diane Kruger) and his loyal sidekick, Riley Poole, Ben manages to find clues from going to Paris’s Statue of Liberty to a chunk of wood from one of the Resolute Desks in Buckingham Palace. Later on, Gates’ dad reluctantly asks his ex-wife for help in translating the text found from the plank of wood which she points out that there is another piece missing. Ben concludes the other half is hidden in the other resolute desk in the Oval Office, in White House. And so happens, Ben’s former lover, Abigail is dating a guy from White House (so coincident, eh?) and during an Easter Party organized by the White House, Ben dares Connor (Ty Burrell) to bring Abigail into the Oval Office. And in order to prove Abigail he has got the power, Connor brings her into the Oval Office with Ben following along. Ben discovers that the plank is gone, instead finding a stamp bearing the seal of the Book of Secrets. According to Agent Sandusky (Harvey Keitel), the Book of Secrets contains documents collected by presidents for presidents’ eyes only, covering controversial topics as the JFK assassination and Area 51.
Diane Kruger and Nicolas Cage in National Treasure: Book of Secrets
In order to locate the Book of Secrets, Ben kidnaps the President (Bruce Greenwood) during his birthday celebration at Mount Vernon. The President eventually tells Ben that he has the Book of Secret hidden in the Library of Congress. While telling Ben the codes to access to the book, The President enigmatically tells Ben to check out page 47 while he’s on it. In the meantime, FBI agent Sandusky is hot on Ben’s trail for Ben’s kidnapping of the President. Ben sends the photographs he has taken to his father, asking him to get his mom to translate it. Having earlier cloned the cell phone belonging to Ben’s father, Mitch obtains the photograph of the second half of the plank and co-erces Ben’s mother to translate it for him. Eventually, the trail leads all of them to a small rock island behind Mount Rushmore, and a subterranean cavern housing the legendary long-lost Native American City of Gold Cibola. Inside the cavern, Ben’s parents and the rest are separated (by the intention of the director, I guess) where both Ben parents are united as well as Ben and his girlfriend. Though they manage to find the Ancient City of Gold Cibola hidden beneath the cavern, they realize they are trapped as water keeps flowing into the tunnel. As they manage to find a secret exit passage through the flow of the water, Mitch forces Ben to stay on to keep the door opens but as fate is not his side, Ben is somehow pushed by the current to the exit door and Mitch sacrifices himself in order to get his name credited for the discovery to let Ben and the others escape the flooded cavern.
Ben and the rest are then caught by the FBI and handed over to the President. The President tells his bodyguard that Ben saves his live and then he credits all of them for the discovery. While at it, Ben also mentions Mitch Wilkinson. The President replies, “Is that so?”.
In the ending scene, Riley gets his Ferrari back and in an envelope slipped on the windscreen is a letter from White House saying the car is tax-free!
Overall, the movie is good despite the plots seem like sequentially arranged in order for the next action to happen. While the puzzle-solving part is not as complicated as Da Vinci Code, the movie shows quite a bunchful of flaw with most part of the movie can easily be predicted. While at it, I am sure there is a sequel to this movie, thanks to page 47.
My ratings: 6.5 out of 10. Blatant actings, predictable plots and kidnapping of the US President? LoL!
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