It’s hard to find a performer in Hollywood who enjoys more retrospective examination than Nicolas Cage. The career of this mercurial talent keeps fans engaged through great films and terrible ones. As an immortal meme, every Nic Cage vehicle doubles as a historical event. TheNational Treasurefilms have somehow lived in the back of the public consciousness for almost two decades.
BothNational Treasuremoviesintroduce a fair amount of real-world history into a classic Disney adventure film format. On top of sharing the same concept, the films shared similar fates. Both the 2004 original and its 2007 sequel made a tidy profit at the box office despite terrible critical reception.
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Jerry Bruckheimer might be one of the most influential people ever to work in Hollywood. He’s a producer who changed both film and TV forever with his work. In the 80s, he producedTop Gunand engineered the first deal between a blockbusterfilm and the US military. In the early 2000s, he produced shows likeCSI, modernizing the police procedural on TV. He’s largely responsible for both the glorification of cops on TV and the army on the big screen. Aside from those dubious accomplishments, he also has his name on thePirates of the Caribbeanfranchise,Armageddon, Remember the Titans, and a ton of other memorable classics. So, in 1999, Bruckheimer approached Disney subsidiary Touchstone Pictures with mildly successful director Jon Turteltaub. Their pitch was strange, based on an idea from 1997 and a script fromRush Hourco-writer Jim Kouf. Nine new writers were brought in over the film’s development. Nic Cage and Turteltaub were high school classmates, butCage didn’t join the projectuntil 2003. Released just before Thanksgiving 2004,National Treasureraked in $11 million on its first day.
Nicolas Cage stars asBenjamin Franklin Gates. He’s essentially Indiana Jones by way of Robert Langdon. He’s obsessed with American history, but he’s also on the hunt for buried treasure. Cage plays the character with a charming level of excitability. He’s an encyclopedia of information who is always thrilled to learn anything new. Gates is dragged through one impossible escape after another, leaping through action setpieces with the agility of a super soldier, but his real passion is solving puzzles.Imagine anUnchartedgamein which Nathan Drake is always stone-faced through shootouts and giddy through the puzzles to get a pretty good idea of Ben Gates. He’s closer to Captain Nemo than Alan Quartermain, heroes from an earlier age that Cage feels right at home with.
The writing of theNational Treasurefilms is not great. The twists are either extremely easy to predict or completely nonsensical. There is no in-between. The plot moves at a decent pace, but it does expect its audience to simply let clues pass without inquiry. None of the information that seems to lead Gates and his team to their destination ever makes much sense. Gates simply has the right impossible knowledge to follow clues set by historical figures with extremely high expectations. It’s like a trivia competition in which all the questions seem to perfectly fit his unique expertise. There is a fair amount of real history in each film, often covering events and concepts that a lot of Americans have never heard of. That’s either a credit to the script or a condemnation of the United States education system. Of course, it changes a lot of details, so don’texpect a National Geographic documentary. It occupies a weird space of historical fiction, using a lot of obscure facts and outright falsehoods that leave the audience completely unclear on where the truth ends and the plot begins.
These films fail in several substantial ways, but Nic Cage’s performance keeps the story afloat. He’s the primary reason anyone cares about the duology enough to demand the third part. The rest of the cast is solid as well. Harvey Keitel is perhaps theperfect counter to Cage. His cynicism matches Cage’s enthusiasm, balancing out both performances. Jon Voight provides some great exposition as Gates’s dad. Sean Bean is a fun villain in the first film while Ed Harris fills the role in the second. Diane Kruger brings some earnest sincerity to her role as Cage’s love interest and partner in crime, and she’s a joy to watch. The cast is excellent across the board, and every player is boldly carrying their piece of these challenging films across the finishing line.
After 15 years of silence,National Treasurefinally made its way onto Disney Plus with the seriesEdge of History. Though they didn’t get the entire cast back for this long-awaited return, it’s a welcome new take on the 2000s adventure franchise. Athird entry may finally be in the worksif the excitement for the new series stays high. TheNational Treasuremovies are almost paradoxical. They’re smart and silly, they’re action-packed and slow, and they’re chaotic and meticulously planned out. There’s a lot of fun to be had with these Nic Cage classics, and there may yet be more in Ben Gates’s future.
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