National Treasure Page #8

Synopsis: Benjamin Franklin Gates descends from a family of treasure-seekers who've all hunted for the same thing: a war chest hidden by the Founding Fathers after the Revolutionary War. Ben's close to discovering its whereabouts, as is his competition, but the FBI is also hip to the hunt.
Director(s): Jon Turteltaub
Production: Buena Vista
  1 win & 9 nominations.
 
IMDB:
6.9
Metacritic:
39
Rotten Tomatoes:
44%
PG
Year:
2004
131 min
$172,975,674
Website
9,982 Views


- (Patrick) Just another clue.

Dad. No, you're right. Parkington Lane

has to be here somewhere.

A street inside the church?

Not inside. Beneath.

Beneath the church.

- I'm so sorry, Ben.

- None of this is your fault.

- I co...

- Come on.

Look.

Cooperation only lasts as long

as the status quo is unchanged.

As soon as this guy gets to wherever this

thing ends, he won't need you anymore.

Or... or any of us.

So we find a way to make sure

the status quo changes in our favor.

- How?

- I'm still working on it.

Well, I guess I better

work on it too, then.

Hey! Par... Hey, I found it!

- Him!

- Ben!

It's a name.

Parkington Lane.

He was a third-degree master mason

of the Blue Lo...

Hey! Stop!

Easy.

- Whoa!

- Oh!

Careful no one steps in him.

All right, put it down.

OK. Who wants to go down

the creepy tunnel inside the tomb first?

Right. McGregor, Viktor, you stay here.

And if anyone should come out without me,

well... use your imagination.

Shall we?

You got a light?

(Ben) Careful.

Watch your step.

Come here.

Why does that never happen to me?

What's this?

It's a chandelier.

Here.

- (Riley) Wow.

- (Ben) Look at the elevators.

(Patrick) A dumbwaiter system.

How do a bunch of guys with hand tools

build all this?

Same way they built the pyramids

and the Great Wall of China.

Yeah. The aliens helped them.

Right, let's go. What are we waiting for?

I'm not going out on that thing.

Dad, do what he says.

(Patrick) Watch your step.

We're right under the Trinity graveyard.

That's probably why

no one ever found this.

(rumbling)

What is that?

(rumbling fades)

Subway.

Shaw! Oh, God, Shaw!

(yells)

(Abigail) Oh, my God.

Hold on! Hold on!

OK, get on the elevator. Jump!

(Abigail) Ben! Grab my hand.

- Come on.

- Ian!

Abigail! Get on!

Jump!

Here.

(screaming)

Ben!

Get down there.

Get down there!

The Declaration.

- Do you trust me?

- Yes.

Oh, no! Ben!

Oh!

Hang on!

Son!

I'm sorry. I'm sorry I dropped you.

I had to save the Declaration.

No, don't be. I would have done

exactly the same thing to you.

Really?

I would have dropped you both.

Freaks.

Get on.

Ian...

it's not worth it.

Do you imagine any one of your lives

is more valuable to me than Shaw's?

We go on.

The status quo.

Keep the status quo.

- (Riley) Now what?

- (Patrick) This is...

This is where it all leads.

OK, let's go.

What is this?

So where's the treasure?

Well?

This is it?

We came all this way

for a dead end?

Yes.

(laughs)

- There's gotta be something more.

- Riley, there's nothing more.

- Another clue, or...

- No, there are no more clues!

That's it, OK? It's over!

End of the road. The treasure's gone.

Moved. Taken somewhere else.

You're not playing games with me,

are you, Ben? Hm?

You know where it is.

No.

OK, go.

Hey, wait a minute.

- (Riley) Hey! Ian, wait!

- (Patrick) Wait, wait, wait!

- (Abigail) Ian...

- (Riley) We'll be trapped.

- (Ben) Don't do this.

- You can't just leave us here.

Yes, I can.

Unless Ben tells me the next clue.

There isn't another clue.

Ian, why don't you come back down here

and we can talk through this together?

- Don't speak again.

- OK.

The clue. Where's the treasure?

Ben?

- The lantern.

- Dad...

The status quo has changed, son.

Don't.

It's part of freemason teachings.

In King Solomon's temple

there was a winding staircase.

It signified the journey that had to be made

to find the light of truth.

- The lantern is the clue.

- And what does it mean?

Boston. It's Boston.

The Old North Church in Boston,

where Thomas Newton

hung a lantern in the steeple,

to signal Paul Revere that the British

were coming. One if by land, two if by sea.

One lantern. Under the winding staircase

of the steeple, that's where we have to look.

- Thank you.

- Hey, you have to take us with you.

Why? So you can escape in Boston?

Besides, with you out of the picture

there's less baggage to carry.

What if we lied?

Did you?

What if there's another clue?

Then I'll know right where to find you.

See you, Ben.

- No!

- (Riley) There's no other way out!

- (Abigail) Come back!

- You're gonna need us, Ian!

We're all gonna die.

It's gonna be OK, Riley.

I'm sorry I yelled at you.

It's OK, kiddo.

OK, boys, what's going on? The British

came by sea. It was two lanterns, not one.

Ian needed another clue,

so we gave it to him.

It was a fake.

It was a fake clue.

The all-seeing eye.

"Through the all-seeing eye."

That means... by the time Ian

figures it out and comes back here,

we'll still be trapped,

and he'll shoot us then.

Either way, we're gonna die.

Nobody's gonna die.

There's another way out.

Where?

Through the treasure room.

Here.

Riley.

Looks like someone got here first.

I'm sorry, Ben.

It's gone.

- Listen, Ben...

- It may have even been gone

before Charles Carroll

told the story to Thomas Gates.

It doesn't matter.

I know. 'Cause you were right.

No, I wasn't right.

This room is real, Ben.

And that means the treasure is real.

We're in the company of

some of the most brilliant minds in history,

because you found

what they left behind for us to find

and understood the meaning of it.

You did it, Ben. For all of us.

Your grandfather, and all of us.

And I've never been so happy

to be proven wrong.

I just...

really thought

I was gonna find the treasure.

OK.

Then we just keep looking for it.

I'm in.

OK.

Not to be Johnny Rain Cloud here,

but that's not gonna happen.

Because as far as I can see,

we're still trapped down here.

(Abigail) Yeah.

(Riley) Now, Ben,

where is this other way out?

Well, that's it.

It doesn't make any sense,

because the first thing the builders

would have done after getting down here

was cut a secondary shaft back out for air...

- Right.

...and in case of cave-ins.

Could it really be that simple?

"The secret lies with Charlotte."

(gasps)

Scrolls from the library at Alexandria.

Could this be possible?

(gasps)

It's a big... bluish-green man,

with a strange-looking goatee.

I'm guessing that's significant.

Yes!

Riley, are you crying?

Look.

Stairs.

(thud)

(coughs)

Hi.

Do you have a cell phone I could borrow?

- Just like that?

- Just like that.

You do know you just handed me

your biggest bargaining chip?

The Declaration of Independence

is not a bargaining chip.

Not to me.

Have a seat.

- So what's your offer?

- Oh...

How about a bribe? Say, uh...

ten billion dollars?

I take it you found the treasure?

It's about five stories

beneath your shoes.

Hm.

You know, the Templars

and the Freemasons believed

that the treasure was too great

for any one man to have, not even a king.

That's why they went to such lengths

to keep it hidden.

That's right.

The Founding Fathers believed

the same thing about government.

I figure their solution

will work for the treasure too.

Give it to the people.

Divide it amongst the Smithsonian,

the Louvre, the Cairo museum...

There's thousands of years

Rate this script:4.6 / 7 votes

Jim Kouf

Jim Kouf (born July 24, 1951) is an American screenwriter, director, and producer. He received the 1988 Edgar Award for Best Motion Picture Screenplay for his work on Stakeout (1987). more…

All Jim Kouf scripts | Jim Kouf Scripts

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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