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National Treasure

Play trailer 2:22 Poster for National Treasure PG Released Nov 19, 2004 2h 10m Adventure Action Play Trailer Watchlist
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46% Tomatometer 176 Reviews 76% Popcornmeter 250,000+ Ratings
Historian and code-breaker Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) has been searching his whole life for a rumored treasure dating back to the creation of the United States. Joining an expedition led by fellow treasure hunter Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds an ice-locked Colonial ship in the Arctic Circle that contains a clue linking the treasure to the Declaration of Independence. But when Howe betrays him, Gates has to race to get to the document ahead of his so-called colleague.
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Critics Consensus

National Treasure is no treasure, but it's a fun ride for those who can forgive its highly improbable plot.

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Critics Reviews

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Matthew Rozsa Salon.com It is a definitely guilty pleasure, and 90 percent of the reason why can be summed up in two words: Nicolas Cage. Rated: 3/4 Jul 4, 2019 Full Review Namrata Joshi Outlook There might be too many inaccuracies in the plot, the mix of the past and the present is naive and at times downright silly but makes for fun viewing if you don't put your thinking caps on. The film has enough to keep you involved. Rated: 2/4 Jan 8, 2019 Full Review Nell Minow Common Sense Media Historical adventure is a fun romp for tweens and up. Rated: 2/5 Dec 26, 2010 Full Review Jason Delgado Film Threat Fire up the grill and enjoy a little Cage madness mashed together with some over-the-top Jerry Bruckheimer action! Rated: 7/10 Jul 4, 2022 Full Review Micheal Compton Bowling Green Daily News Directed by Jon Turteltaub, National Treasure is nothing but a series of silly stunts and chases that just rush by. Rated: D Nov 18, 2019 Full Review Debbie Lynn Elias Behind The Lens While not the greatest film of the year, it is definitely one with a considerable amount of intrigue and action, not to mention some actual history lessons... Nov 13, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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That ADHD M I don’t know what the heck movie the critics watched because National Treasure is a great movie. My kids and I watch it every New Years Day! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/23/24 Full Review Brody F So imagine injecting so much dopamine into your body that you actually die and transcend into a higher dimension to meet Jesus. That’s basically the experience you get when watching this film. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 11/22/24 Full Review Brady S Everyone needs to see this one movie where Nicholas Cage actually does good acting as he solves the puzzle to find Ben Franklin’s Treasure hoard. He teams up with his version of Benji Dunn and with his version of Ilsa Faust. And most exciting part of all Sean Bean doesn’t die at the end. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 11/13/24 Full Review Ed R Great movie with a fictional twist mixed with true history! Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/06/24 Full Review Colby P Absolutely terrible. Such a waste of time. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 10/31/24 Full Review John C Once upon a time, back when Nicolas Cage could actually 'sell' a big budget movie, some clever producer at Disney came up with a script for 'Indiana Jones' mixed with 'Ocean's Eleven.' Then someone else added a dash of 'True Lies' and then wrapped it up in 'The Da Vinci Code,' before the man in charge of the money mentioned that whatever this Frankenstein's monster of a film had to be fit for all the family... and promptly gave it a PG rating. What once might have been a good idea with a major star somehow became something that was less than the multitude of all its inspirations. And that's a shame, because I think - once upon a time - there was a good film in here trying to get out. It opens with a young boy (later we discover is Nicolas Cage) being told by his grandfather about an artefact in US history that has been long forgotten and only accessible via certain clues left by their forefathers. And tell the boy he does. This opening scene goes on for about ten minutes (it felt like more) and is basically one long exposition dump setting up what the characters will later be looking for. When it finally ends, we join Cage and his team in the arctic (or a studio in California that has a freezer in it). They all find something and spend the next ten minutes adding more exposition as to how they will eventually use this new information to track it down. I get the feeling that at this stage the producers realised that what they were making was a little 'talk heavy' and figured they better blow something up in order to wake the audience up (hopefully not literally). Cue an action scene and a reminder to all American adventurers never to include a Brit among your party as Sean Bean decides it's time to pull off an early double-cross and - guess what - the film's villain is revealed to us all. National Treasure' is not a short film. It's close to two hours of more of the same. The characters are never really given any time to develop. Diane Kruger is the (tragically so) generic 'love interest' for Cage. There's a younger guy who I never got his on screen name and can't be bothered to look up the actor's name - he's the comic relief. As I mentioned, Sean Bean is the villain because... er, he's British. That appears to be his only real motivation for wanting to get ancient relics before Cage (or Indiana Jones, I guess). Expect more generic action, more generic characters and a hell of a lot more generic exposition. Cage does his best with the script that he's given and, although he's never afforded the luxury of going 'the full Cage' (fans of his will know what that means), he does his best with what he's given. But he's not given much. There's no real chemistry between him and anyone else. And that's not their fault either. No matter how good any of the actors are, they just look bored - Sean Bean especially! I know a film doesn't have to be completely be original to be good. In fact, pretty much everything's been done now in terms of story-telling, so we're used to things being repackaged and churned out, just in a slightly different way that now makes them - at least appear - watchable. However, 'National Treasure's' biggest problem is that it just doesn't know what it wants to be. The obvious genre would be 'adventure' (ala 'Indiana Jones'), but then it veers off to some sort of comic spy movie like 'True Lies,' before quickly trying to pull off a heist like 'Ocean's Eleven.' I know many good films that have combined genres and worked; in fact... most do! However, this is an example of a film exceeding its reach and trying to be too many things at once and not having a - true - target audience in mind and ending up appealing to very few. I wonder how well it did in America, compared to the rest of the world. To quote (the far superior) 'Team America: World Police' it is pretty 'America! F*%k yeah!' all the way through. Perhaps this is a 'national treasure' to the good citizens of the US of A, whereas out here in that small part of the world known as 'everywhere else,' it all feels a little overblown and self-indulgent to be the classic it could have been. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 10/17/24 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis Historian and code-breaker Ben Gates (Nicolas Cage) has been searching his whole life for a rumored treasure dating back to the creation of the United States. Joining an expedition led by fellow treasure hunter Ian Howe (Sean Bean), Gates finds an ice-locked Colonial ship in the Arctic Circle that contains a clue linking the treasure to the Declaration of Independence. But when Howe betrays him, Gates has to race to get to the document ahead of his so-called colleague.
Director
Jon Turteltaub
Producer
Oren Aviv, Jerry Bruckheimer
Screenwriter
Ted Elliott, E. Max Frye, Jim Kouf, Marianne Wibberley, Cormac Wibberley
Distributor
Buena Vista Pictures
Production Co
Declaration Productions Inc., Touchstone Pictures, Jerry Bruckheimer Films, Junction
Rating
PG (Some Scary Images|Action/Violence)
Genre
Adventure, Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Nov 19, 2004, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 30, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA)
$173.0M
Runtime
2h 10m
Sound Mix
Surround, Dolby SRD, DTS, SDDS
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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