The intrepid treasure hunters from National Treasure are back for a second adventure. But this time it's not just treasure that is at stake. This time, the Gates family must clear their family name just as they were starting to receive respect in the academic community.
The story begins on April 14, 1865. The Civil War has just ended. Two men walk into a saloon to meet a man who can help them solve a puzzle: a playfair cipher that provides a clue that leads to Cibola, the lost city of gold. The man is Thomas Gates, the great-great-grandfather of legendary treasure hunter Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage). Thomas Gates quickly discovers that the men who approached him were members of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society that wanted to continue the efforts of the South to secede from the Union. Gates quickly burns the pages that were given to him and ultimately is killed for it.
Fast forward to present day where Ben Gates and his father, Patrick (Jon Voight), are giving a lecture on the diary of John Wilkes Booth, President Lincoln's assassin. At the end of the lecture, Mitch Wilkerson (Ed Harris) comes forward with what he claims is a portion of one of the missing pages of the diary. The page, Wilkerson contends, lists Thomas Gates as one of Booth's co-conspirator's in the assassination.
In order to clear the Gates' family name, Ben and Patrick must solve the clues to prove that the story of the Knights of the Golden Circle seeking Cibola is true. The clues eventually lead them to the Book of Secrets, which is a book written by Presidents for Presidents that contains all of the nation's most closely guarded secrets. To get to the book, Ben Gates must get to the President. His grand plan is to kidnap the President and hope that he will be allowed to see the book.
Like the first installment in the series, National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets intersperses history into the story. The writers go to great lengths to incorporate numerous facts into the narrative which adds to the credibility of the story.
Article comments