Used as a guise to smuggle in historical facts and provoke the thirst for knowledge about the United States, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets captured the attention of audiences throughout the nation for less than two hours total.

It makes me wonder if it comes down to this: sneaking knowledge into the nation’s minds. This film left me wondering how much was false and what I could walk away from the theater believing as true. I appreciate that the film industry attempts to trick audiences into bettering their intelligence while they sit mindlessly nibbling on popcorn and making annoying slurping sounds with their drinks, but at times, it’s hard to divide fact from fiction.

Take for example, “the President’s Book” in the movie: whether it exists or not is questionable and whether or not it can be found in the Library of Congress also remains relatively unknown. For history buffs out there, the truth may be quite attainable. As for the rest of us, we’re content to watch a film with Nicholas Cage and accept it as the truth.

However, from more of a film-based point of view, the movie proved quite comical in accidental proportions. To have both Benjamin Gate and his wife to get back together at the end along with his parents who had been separated for more than two decades seemed unlikely to say the least. Of course, it gave the audience the warm, fuzzy feeling as they left the theater, knowing that two loves had made it through the thick and thin (more thin than thick in this movie), but in realistic consideration, it’s laughable that these couples would miraculously both make it back together.

Also, there appeared to have a “for the young and old” quality about the movie, not only in quality but in the course of action the characters took. While beneath the Black Hills in South Dakota, the elderly adventurers managed to become separated with the rest of the explorers (who were lucky enough to find the passageway to the treasure within about 30 seconds). Luckily enough, there were two adventure paths: the easier for the more elderly and the harder path for the keen adventurers we’ve grown to know and love. In the end, both parties made it to the treasure room without casualties and without respect to the fact that the senior Gateses probably wouldn’t have been about to pursue Adventure Path One in a realistic situation.

What caused me to smother giggles in the theater took the form of Benjamin Gates’ unsurpassed knowledge in virtually everything. It only takes a few cinematic moments for actor Nicholas Cage to stare up into the lens of the camera and utter some dramatic conclusion that seemingly took him about 15 seconds to think of. And there I am, in the back of the theater, busting a gut because it’s too unbelievable, even for a film which proposes impossible plans: such as stealing the Declaration of Independence (National Treasure) and this time, kidnapping the President of the United States.

Full of twists and turns (though unbelievable at that), National Treasure 2 had me rooting for Benjamin Gate along with his wife, Abigail, and best friend, Riley Poole to be thrown into jail. Though watching them get off without a hitch makes me warm and fuzzy inside, I know that I’d be even quainter if they had at least spent a few hours in jail for their misconduct and the various laws broken throughout both movies. If a third National Treasure should be made, I expect all the heroes and heroines to spend some time in jail so the audience takes away from the theater the fact that no one can get away with stealing national documents or kidnapping important political figures.



“It’s sort of a puzzle. And you’re good at puzzles, so I know you can figure it out.”

- Abigail to Benjamin Gates - National Treasure 2