Director ? Jon Turteltaub
Screenplay ? Jim Kouf, Oren Aviv, Charles Segars, Cormac Wibberley and Marianne Wibberley.
Benjamin Gates (Nicholas Cage) has been fascinated since childhood about a hidden treasure that his grandfather, John Gates (An unrecognizable Christopher Plummer) has told him about.
The treasure is a huge booty which has been hidden by the founding fathers of the American Revolution. He is also on almost a cold war due to difference of opinion with his father, Patrick Gates (Jon Voight) due to this.
During years of searching Benjamin along with his colleagues Riley(Justin Bartha) and Ian(Sean Bean) come across a ship called, Charlotte in which they find a pipe which leads them to another clue. The big clue is that the map is encrypted behind ?THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE?. Ian Decides to steal the map for his own means and Benjamin has to stop him. The only way he can stop him is to convince the chief of National Archieves, Abigail Chase(Diane Kruger) to let him have a look at the back.
When he finds that this is not possible, the only option he has left, is to steal the historical document which is heavily guarded by Top Security officials and devices. Benjamin is also been chased by FBI chiefSausky(Harvey Keitel). Thus starts a constant cat and mouse chase between Ian and Benjamin. Good Starcast and Good acting by everyone although anyone who has seen tons of English Heist Movies will be miles ahead of the script. Movie Largely reminds you of the not so old movie, Ocean?s 11.
Psst ?
1) For those who do not know anything about American History and for those who are a bit interested, The Declaration Of Independence is a historical document which was drafted by early US president Thomas Jefferson between June 11, 1776 and June 28, 1776. The Document was signed on 4th July 1776 (Now Celebrated as Independence Day) by representatives of the 13 colonies in North America announcing their separation from Great Britain and making them into United States Of America.
2) Although the exteriors of The Independence Hall were shot on location, the internal shooting was done in a replica studio in California.
3) The Only thing written at the back of the Declaration of Independence, in reality, is ?Declaration of Independence dated 4th July 1776.? and it appears on the bottom of the document, upside down. No one knows who wrote it, but it is most likely that it was used only as a label and nothing more.
4) Ben, Patrick, and John Gates were all named after founding fathers (Benjamin Franklin, Patrick Henry, and John Adams). Abigail Chase is named for Abigail Adams.
Quotes ?
1) ’’Dad, We have a problem; Is she pregnant ??
2) ?We’re more like treasure protectors.?
3) ?How did they build all this? The same way the built the pyramids and the great wall of China; Right, the aliens helped them.?
4) ?Oh, look, Stairs.?
5) ?This car smells weird.?
6) ?Hold on one second let me just take in this moment. This is cool. Is this how you feel all the time? Well, except now.?
7) ?The status quo has changed.?
8) ?Door number one, you go to prison for a very long time. Door number two, we get the Declaration back and you go to prison for a very long time but you will feel better; Is there another door that doesn’t involve me going to prison? Someone has to go to prison, Ben.?
Oops ?
1) 56 men had signed the Declaration of Independence and not 55 as mentioned in the movie.
2) The etching of Independence Hall on the back of the $100 bill actually shows the clock as reading 4:10, not 2:22.
PS - I Like to thank the staff at https://imdb.com for providing some bits about the trivia, quotes and the oops section.