Factual error: As Ben is clinging to the staircase while it is falling apart, there is a close-up of a nail being pulled out of the wood. This nail is round-headed, rather than square as it would have been over 200 years ago. It's also shiny instead of rusty, which indicates that it's galvanized. Galvanization as an industrial, metal-preservation process was not patented until 1837, and was not used in building materials until well into the late-1800s. Since the film states the staircase was made by "the Founding Fathers, " and there was no galvanization of iron nails in any industrialized nation in 1780s-1830's, this is a huge anachronism.
National Treasure (2004)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Christopher Plummer, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha
A series of clues finally leads the group, now held hostage by Ian and his cohorts, to Trinity Church in New York City. Behind a crypt is a subterranean maze of stairwells. Deep below is a hidden room, but it’s empty. Ben’s father cons Ian into believing that a clue inside the room means that the treasure is hidden in Boston’s Old North Church. Ian strands Ben and the others underground, seemingly with no way out. Ben finds a secret opening leading to another room, which has another secret door, which leads to the room containing the massive treasure and an exit to the surface. Ian and his accomplices are arrested while breaking into the Old North Church. The treasure is divided among the museums of the world, and Ben and Riley each get a cut, making them fabulously wealthy. Ben and Abigail hook up.
Czolgolz
More mistakes in National Treasure
FBI: Here are your options. Door number one you go to prison for a very long time, door number two you help us get back the declaration from Ian, and you'll still go to prison for a very long time, but you'll feel good inside.
Ben Gates: Is there a door that doesn't lead to prision?
FBI: Someone's gotta go to prison, Ben.
Trivia: The interiors of the ship Charlotte were filmed inside the Union Ice Company in Los Angeles to give the scene a more realistic feel. Also, the crew from the Charlotte was dressed in costumes borrowed from The Pirates of the Caribbean; The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Question: Ben explains the code on the Declaration reading 'Heere to the Wall' refers to the corner of Broadway and Wall St. But inside the church he reads 'Beneath Parkington Lane' and assumes that must mean beneath the church. But why is there no explanation for what Parkington Lane is and why wouldn't Ben think it's just another clue?
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Answer: He doesn't simply assume "Beneath Parkington Lane" means beneath the church: Parkington Lane is the name etched on the tomb hiding the entrance to the tunnels. When he saw it, he naturally deduced what he had to do.
Sereenie