Trivia / National Treasure

• Actor-Shared Background: Like her actor Diane Kruger, Abigail Chase is said to be a German-American from Saxony (though it's possible Abigail is intended to have been born to US parents based in Germany, rather than German by birth). However, Diane Kruger is from Lower Saxony, which is a different state than Saxony. Saxony is also rather (in)famous for its dialect, while Lower Saxony is mildly famous for its lack of dialect.
• All-Star Cast: Of all the names listed in the descriptions, only the most ignorant of movie-goers wouldn't recognize most of them.
• Completely Different Title: in Latin America is named La Leyenda del Tesoro Perdido (The Legend of the Lost Treasure and in Spain is named La Búsqueda (The Quest).
• Deleted Role: Ronald McAdams as Andrew Jackson.
• Deleted Scenes: A few, found in the DVD extras.
  • An extended prologue, during the story of Charles Carroll, where we actually see him pass on, and Thomas Gates speaking to Andrew Jackson thereafter, who dismisses the story.
  • The alternate ending, where two kids in the museum inspecting the now-restored Declaration muse about "an invisible map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence" with one of them declaring it to be fake, in front of a bemused Ben Gates, which leads to the unintended Sequel Hook.
• Fake American:
  • Helen Mirren as Emily Appleton.
  • Canadian Bruce Greenwood plays the President of the United States. To be fair, though, he's had practice.
• Focus Group Ending: The ending was changed due to test audiences, but not because they didn't like it: it was originally an And the Adventure Continues ending, and audiences mistook it for a Sequel Hook.
• Life Imitates Art: The scene in Book of Secrets where Ben and Co. are implied to have created fake news of a racially insensitive nature to get the White House staff in charge of the president's birthday celebration to change the location from their first choice to Mt. Vernon can be seen as this. The specific details of events, the veracity of news stories and their sources, doesn't matter once the press scents blood in the water, and even the appearance of impropriety can be enough to create a scandal.
  Staffer 1: Sir, we have to move the party. Some historian claims the Spencer Landmark Hotel was used for Klan meetings in the late 1800s.
  Chief: Anyone know if this is true?
  Staffer 2: I've got the Washington Gazette. They want a quote on, "Is the president being insensitive to minority issues?"
  Staffer 1: Doesn't matter if it's true.
  Chief: Get me a list of the approved alternates. Now.
• Multiple Languages, Same Voice Actor: Diane Kruger read her lines in English during filming and later re-recorded them for the German release.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • There's a quick moment in the first film where one character is seen grabbing a knife. It was never put to use later; the production team was planning on it, but cut that element out (partly for ratings reasons).
  • The sequel has a scene in which the bad guy stabs Ben's father. It was cut because it crossed the Moral Event Horizon and undermined his Death Equals Redemption moment later. However, there is still a shot in the film in which the actor is acting like he's injured because they didn't re-shoot that scene.
• Playing Against Type: Sean Bean's character doesn't die, but he does get arrested and, given the charges, probably put in prison for the rest of his life.
  • Nicolas Cage also isn't as much of a Large Ham as he is in most of his other roles, with the only notable moment being the scene in the sequel where he pretends to get in a drunken argument with his ex-girlfriend to get the attention of security.

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