National Treasure

Continuity mistake: When Riley is sitting in the car waiting for Ben, the window is gone and shards of glass can be seen in the window frame, but there has been no shooting yet. Later, the window is back and then it gets hit by a bullet and shatters.

Continuity mistake: The school boy is counting letters on the Dogood letters and runs out to give them to Riley. As he crosses the street, he passes a cab and a Taurus station wagon. On his second trip out, he passes the same two cars again.

Continuity mistake: When Ben is trying to grab Abigail from Ian's vehicle, we see a bus coming. There is a car on the right side of the bus (Riley's left side) in that shot. We then see Viktor stepping on the brake and Riley start pulling to the left of the bus; when Riley swing around to that side to miss the bus, the car has disappeared.

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: When Riley is first looking at the special glasses the lengths of the stems of the glasses change from shot to shot. Sometimes they are halfway extended and sometimes they are fully extended.

ACertainShadeofGreen

Continuity mistake: When they blow the back of the Declaration with the hairdryer, Ben writes down the numbers. When he explains to Reilly how an Ottendorf cipher works we see that there are 2 columns with 17 lines each. This leaves us with a possible 34 letters. However the riddle that they decipher from the Dogood letters have 89 letters in it. After Ben writes down the last letters Abigail switches off the dryer and we can also see that it was the end of the page so there is no way that there was more space to get more letters.

Continuity mistake: At the Charlotte down in the cargo hold when Ben has just figured out that the riddle refers to the Declaration of Independence, Ian's stocking hat keeps changing between scenes. He's got a two-toned hat with a jagged edge between the two colors. Sometimes, the edge is turned up so far you can't even see this design. At other times, the edge is barely turned up and crooked and the jagged edge between the colors is very prominent.

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: When Ben is in the Men's restroom taking off the overalls to reveal his tuxedo, he is in front of the third or back sink. He turns, throws tool belt away, turns back toward mirror and grabs his drill and starts to leave with the red NO SMOKING sign on the mirror up to his left. Then he stops to look in the mirror again as Riley says "How do you look?" He is looking into the mirror straightening his tie and the red NO SMOKING sign is on his right. The next frames he is back in front of the third sink smoothing his hair back and the NO SMOKING sign on his left.

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: The Declaration of Independence in the clear plastic cover keeps changing colors from brown to white and back. When Ben puts it in the very first time while in the elevator, it is brown. When Ian gets the case out of the street after Abigail loses it, it is white. It is back to brown in the church.

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: When Sadusky has Ben handcuffed across the desk from him, there is nothing on the desk directly between Sadusky and Ben except Sadusky's coffee mug, a gray thing that is about mid-way between Ben and Sadusky, and a white spiral notebook to the right of the coffee mug. Then Ben says, "Ian still ended up with the Declaration of Independence," and as the shot switches from Ben to Sadusky saying, "Because of you," we see the glasses Ben found at Independence Hall appear on the desk in front of Sadusky between the gray thing and himself. Then as Sadusky says, "Someone's got to go to prison, Ben," and Ben says, "Yeah," two short stacks of papers appear on the desk in front of Sadusky and the glasses changes position as well.

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: This concerns National Treasure 1 and 2. In the first film, when Ben's grandfather tells Ben the story about the clue given to Thomas Gates, he says he was the grandfather's grandfather's, grandfather - Ben's Great, great, great, great grandfather. In the film, in 1832, he appears very young, maybe early 20s. But in the second film Thomas Gates, Ben's Great, great grandfather, appears to be 40-50 in 1865. A young man in 1832 can't have a middle aged grandson in 1865.

Continuity mistake: When Ben is trying to pay cash for the 'replica' of the Declaration of Independence in the Gift Shop, he lays his wallet down on the counter and starts counting out bills and change right next to his wallet on the counter. A few scenes later, when the FBI is reviewing surveillance tapes, one of the monitors shows Ben reaching in his pocket, pulling out his wallet and grabbing the money that is out on the counter. This happens when the over voice says, "Charge. Benjamin Gates."

Sheri Hartman

Continuity mistake: When Riley is in the subway to get the video footage, he starts to record the preservation room that shows the declaration on the desk, but how can It be there if Riley hasn't used the laser to get it moved there yet?

Continuity mistake: When Ben and Ian get into an argument over stealing the Declaration of Independence, Ian says "all you're going to be is a hinderance." Shaw then points a flashlight and a gun at Ben. When the camera angle is on Ben, there is no flashlight beam visible on him. Then Ian says, "I'll shoot your friend", Shaw points the flashlight and gun at Riley, the light beam visible on his face. Ben lights a flare. Shaw points the flashlight and gun back on Ben, and again, no flashlight beam is visible on him.

Continuity mistake: After everyone gets off the elevator down under the church, Ben has the declaration of independence then Riley has it without Ben giving it to him.

Bowling255

Continuity mistake: In the scene where the group are revealing the cipher on the back of the Declaration of Independence, in a wide shot, we can see glass on the corners of the Declaration to keep it in place. When Abigail rubs the Q tip on the right corner, the glass is gone.

Brad

Continuity mistake: When Ian looks down to the shadow cast by the "House of Pass and Stow", the shadow isn't anywhere near to where it was when Ben looked down, although not very much time could have elapsed.

Factual error: When Ben and the rest of the group start to climb under the church, Ben moves some spider webs out of the way with his torch. The dust on the spider webs would have burst into flames when he did this, but instead they just fall to the side.

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.

More quotes from National Treasure

Trivia: When Ben is talking to Riley in front of the Lincoln Memorial, you see a long pool behind them. This pool is filled with computer generated water, because the pool was drained at the time of shooting.

More trivia for National Treasure

Question: What was the secret passed on to the carriage boy?

Answer: "The Secret Lies With Charlotte" ~ Charles Carrol of "Charleston".

More questions & answers from National Treasure

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