Adorkable: Riley comes across as endearing thanks to his frazzled and fidgety personality. His shining moment is in the first movie when he manages to inform Ben and Abigail of a relevant historical fact that they aren't aware of, complete with a pause so he can revel in the moment and remarking Ben must always feel that way when surrounded by others.
Critical Dissonance: Both films have rather low scores from professional critics, generally for their absurd premise, but are beloved by audiences for being fun, educational adventure films.
Both Riley and Ian are way more popular in the fandom than Ben or Abigail.
The unnamed butcher in the first film who lets Abigail hide behind her counter when Abigail claims she's hiding from her ex-husband.
Fan-Preferred Couple: In canon, Ben ends the film with Abigail. However, while that does have its fans, more fans prefer to pair Ben with Riley. This is mainly due to the chemistry between the two and the large amount of Ho Yay between them. Most of the fanfiction for the films around the internet is Ben/Riley and it usually easily outranks Ben/Abigail.
First film: "Ian Howe" was once Ben Gates' benefactor before the two split due to different approaches to acquiring the Declaration of Independence for the purpose of finding clues. Intending to steal the Declaration, Ian and his gang infiltrates the National Archives and nearly gets their hands on it. Realizing that a riddle with Silence Dogood pointed to Ben Franklin's letters, Ian observes a boy taking notes for Ben's friend Riley, bribing the boy for his notes and tracing them to the Liberty Bell. Posting his men outside Independence Hall, Ian pursues Ben and his friends across Philadelphia before acquiring the Declaration again. When Ben is arrested by the FBI, Ian arranges for Ben's escape in exchange for the last clue, kidnapping Ben's father and his friends as leverage before leaving them all to die when everything appears to lead to a dead end. When sent on a Snipe Hunt for a fake clue which is used by the FBI to arrest him, Ian merely chuckles at his fate.
Book of Secrets: Mitch Wilkinson is a man seeking to bring glory to his family. Attending an exhibition about Ben Gates' ancestor Thomas, Mitch accuses Thomas of being in league with John Wilkes Booth to help the Confederacy find Cibola, the City of Gold, using a page presumably from Thomas' diary. Knowing that Ben would not rest until he found Cibola and cleared Thomas' name, Mitch attacks Ben's father Patrick, cloning his phone to keep tabs on Ben before pursuing Ben to London and back, acquiring clues along the way. Learning that Ben's mother is a professor who can translate the clues, Mitch kidnaps her and brings her to Mount Rushmore, forcing Ben and his allies to team up with him to locate Cibola. Evading a series of traps to reach Cibola, Mitch admits he faked the evidence and reveals his motive before sacrificing himself to allow Ben and his friends to escape when Cibola is flooded.
"I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence." Also the film's Signature Line.
"I'm gonna kidnap the President of the United States."
Anytime there's discussion of some strange writings or codes that no one can figure out, expect a photo of Nicolas Cage as Ben Gates, posted as a response.
A particularly interesting case seems to have developed in regards to The History Channel. Before the film, most of the channel's programming consisted of documentaries and educational series. However, following the film's success, it seemed to have validated many amateur history sleuths obsessions, while also giving network executives reason to believe their search might attract an audience. As such, the channel has since become flooded with shows that follow the same premise of "amateur historians attempt to extrapolate clues to reach a historical goal or treasure." Unfortunately, without Artistic License on their side, it turns out that these untrained, biased "archeologists" will have a hard time finding anything with minimal, if not downright nonexistent factual basis for their searches. This is why The Curse of Oak island is still running after 10 seasons, while other shows like Hunting Hitler were canceled without any more proof for their theories.
The son of Ben's ancestor who was killed during the Lincoln assassination is Chase Davenport.
The little boy who Ben argued with in the second film is Greg Heffley.
Special Effects Failure: Shaw's Disney Villain Death in the first film. He doesn't actually fall into the blackness below him, but rather he simply fades away out of existence.
Tear Jerker: The scene at the beginning of the second film where Thomas Gates is shot and killed by Confederate sympathizers in front of his son. The child's reaction is eerily reminiscent of another Disney movie.
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