National Treasure movie corrections

Quotes

Riley Poole: Asuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model's accurate, we should be getting very close. But don't go by me, I broke a shoelace this morning. It's a bad omen.

Ian How: Should we turn around and go home?

Ben Gates: Or we could just pull over and throw him out here.

Riley Poole: Ha, ha, ha, okay.

Ben Gates: Well Riley, you're not missing that small, windowless cubicle we found you in are you?

Riley Poole: No, no. Absolutely not.

As Ben is grabbing Abigail from Ian's vehicle, we see Shaw shoot at Ben and Riley's red van. He hits the top right corner of the sliding side door. When we see the side, sliding door again, there are no bullet holes, scratches, etc. See more...

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. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

National Treasure (2004) - 69 corrections

starring Christopher Plummer, Diane Kruger, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Nicolas Cage, Sean Bean (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Corrections

After Ben takes the Declaration of Independence in its case into the elevator, we see him start to remove screws again. When we see the back, there are two screws out in the two compartments next to the one Ben is taking a third screw out. There's no way he had time to take out 2 plus screws from the time he started while in the elevator and the time we see the back with the screws out. [Ben was planning to take out all the screws in the preservation room so he could roll up the declaration and leave. He had unscrewed two when Riley lost his feeding, so he ran to the elevator, and continued unscrewing inside.]

When describing the Ottendorf cipher, Ben says the groups of three numbers on the back of the Declaration represent words and mentions that the numbers stand for page-line-word, yet the child ends up reading individual letters from the Silence Dogood letters. [Actually, the Ottendorf cipher refers to individual letters, not words.]

After Ben mixes the solution, it shows him moving his fingers towards the beaker, in between his fingers is the pin he plans to give to Abagail. A second later it shows only his fingers going into the solution, and the pin has disappeared. [Untrue. We only see Ben's knuckles and the top of his hand as he moves towards the solution the first time (wide & full screen). Then we see him dip the pin into the solution after his smiley face blacklight check.]

Having recently visited the National Archives, I find it amazing that Ben and Riley entered the Archives as much as they did. Entry to the National Archives requires waiting in a very long line which takes hours and getting into the rotunda where the Charters of Freedom are requires waiting in line as well. I don't think that Ben and Riley had that much time on their hands. [I too have been to the National Archives and there was never a line for me. It depends on what time of year you go. You must have gone during vacation season.]

Corrected by Phixius

In the scene on the ship "Charlotte," the main characters find a pipe with a clue etched on the handle. The clue mentions the number 55 which Ben figures out to be the number of men that signed the Declaration of Independence. There are actually 56 signatures on it. [The fifty-sixth signature was not added to the document until 1781, by Thomas McKean of Delaware. The clue was written before this time; therefore, it is correct in stating that fifty-five men signed the Declaration of Independence.]

Time

While Ben has a well constructed plan to get the Declaration moved from the Display Case into the vault, including faking the thermal sensor reading so that the Declaration would be moved into the Preservation Room where he can access it with little or no resistance, Ian and his crew have no such plan. How does Ian expect to gain access to the document when to the best of his knowledge it still sits in the Display Case? Was he planning on breaking into the empty vault and then crawling up the vault shaft to the Display area? And BTW, the limited amount of C4 explosive that they did show would not be enough to breach the 4 foot thick, steel plate vault, which still doesn't matter because the document isn't in there anyway. [A movie does not have to explain every single detail of what its characters are thinking and doing. Suffice to say Ian did have some kind of plan, it is jut never explained on screen. For instance, it is, as you yourself say, entirely possible that Ian did plan to climb up the vault shaft and break out the Declaration of Independence from below. And just because the amount of C4 shown would be insufficient for this, it does not mean that Ian's gang didn't bring any more with them. For that matter, we don't even know that the C4 would be used on the case, as this is purely an assumption. There could be other uses for the C4, all depending on what Ian's plan really was.]

Corrected by Twotall

When they are searching the Arctic for the Charlotte, there are high mountains visible in the background. There are mountains in Antarctica, but not the Arctic, which is a frozen ocean. [The movie states that they are north of the Arctic Circle, but never specifies exactly where they are. While it is implied that the are on a frozen ocean, those mountains in the background could be on the coast of any of the landmasses north of the Arctic Circle, such as Canada, Alaska, Russia, Scandinavia or Greenland.]

Corrected by Blibbetyblip

When Ben is crossing the street to enter National Archives building for the Gala, the street is wet but the pavement, steps, etc. around the building are completely dry. [There is no indication that it has been raining except that the streets are wet. Washington DC's Department of Public Works has street cleaners that operate on heavily traveled areas routinely or as requested by the public. It would not be unusual for the National Archives people to request a street cleaning before this big gala. The street cleaners operate by spraying a thin film of water on the street before sweeping the dirt, etc. into a hopper on the machine. It makes perfect sense as to why the streets could be wet. Also, they only suspend operations during the winter and this take place outside of that time.]

Corrected by Zwn Annwn

The film shares a few interesting similarities with Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Besides the fact that the main characters are both treasure hunters, Jon Voight plays the father of the main character in both films. Flashbacks featuring the main characters as children are also present in both films. [Just because this movie is similar to another movie, does not make it trivia.]

Corrected by wizard_of_gore

When Ben Gates toasts the Founding Fathers with Abigail at the scene in the National Archives, the glasses are filled with Champagne. When Gates actually guzzles the drink, look closely - its water. [No it's not. It's still bubbly and has a slight color to it. It's either champagne or a substitute.]

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. [Galvanized nails have been in use for hundreds of years. The earliest galvanized nails were made in the Roman Empire, and have been found in ships and archaelogical excavations dating back to 500 AD. America has had galvanized nail factories since 1819.]

When Ben is running through the graveyard from Ian's men in Philadelphia, he shuts a gate behind him to hamper his pursuer. The man tries to open the gate, but it is locked. However, the gate obviously bares a keyhole for an old skeleton key. In order for Ben to have locked the gate, he would've had to have the key with him. But we see no action of him locking the gate at all. In reality, it should have remained unlocked. [It can easily become locked when the door is shut. There are many doors that have "one way locks" (no matter how old or modern the door is), you can lock them by closing the door without turning a key. However you need a key to reopen it.]

The case that holds the Declaration of Independence changes throughout the movie. This might be explained away except for the fact that the last change, to the black case, would have meant that Ian would have taken it out of the gray/white case that he picked up in the street after Abigail falls and loses it and puts it in a nice, new black case that he just happens to have. The case was originally red with the gray/white case as an inner case or liner for the red case. Ian's character hasn't cared if the Declaration gets shredded to confetti, so why would he care that it gets a nice, new black case instead of the gray/white one he picked up in the street? [Because it's his bargaining tool. Without it in pristine shape, he can't get Ben to cooperate. There's plenty of time between him picking up the white case and meeting up with Ben for him to pick up a new case for it, or he had it from when he'd planned to steal the document.]

When Ben leaps into the water and meets the SCUBA diver, sounds indicate that he immediately takes a deep breath from the respirator. If he had actually done this, he would have breathed in the sea water the respirator would have been flooded with. This, as you well know, would not have been very fun at all. [The diver was there waiting for Ben and would be aware of his immediate need for air. Purging a regulator second stage is as simple as pushing the purge button and holding it in a mouthpiece-down position. Some Hudson River water would likely be in it, but a deep breath would be possible without first needing to exhale to purge the regulator.]

Corrected by Greg B Time

Near the beginning of the movie, while inside the Charlotte, Ben says "on the back of a resolution". How does he know the secret coding is on the back of a document? [He is deciphering the code written on the pipe. If someone put the code on the front, it might be seen or ruined more easily.]

Corrected by shortdanzr

In the shot where Ben is telling Riley the passcode is "Valley Forge", he says "It's Valley Forge. You press the in L twice." What he should've said was, "You press the L in twice." [He actually says "You press the E and L twice."]

Corrected by shortdanzr

When Ben enters the big gala as a janitor, he has to go through a metal detector after putting his supplies on the tray. The problem is when he goes through the metal detector, he doesn't set it off. Later, in the bathroom, he takes off his janitor's clothes and is seen wearing a tuxedo underneath, and an expensive looking watch. The watch should have set off the alarm, but he didn't take it off when he entered. [We don't see Ben's every move after he enters the gala. He could have very easily had the watch in the toolbelt and just slipped it on after he got inside. Or it just might not have set off the metal detector. My watch cost me several hundred dollars, but I never take it off when I go through metal detectors because it doesn't trigger them.]

Corrected by Nick Bylsma

When Ben is dipping his fingers into the glass before he tested the ink with the smiley face he made on the table, you can see between his fingers the coin he gave Abigail. [That's because he hasn't given it to her yet.]

Corrected by shortdanzr

When Ben reveals to Abigail that there is a map on the back of the Declaration, she says she has seen it and there is nothing on the back but a notation that reads "Original Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776". Yet, later on at Ben's dad's house, when they turn it over to find the there is nothing written on the back. [Yes there is, if you look at the bottom of the document on the back, it says that, just like the real one.]

When Ben's grandfather tells him about the treasure, notice how when it flashes back to Egypt, the grandfather's left eye stays a little bit longer over the unfinished pyramid. [Pointing out things that can be easily seen in the film is not valid trivia.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

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National Treasure (2004) - 69 corrections

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