National Treasure: Book of Secrets (film) When a missing page from the diary of assassin John Wilkes Booth surfaces, treasure hunter Ben Gates discovers that his great-great grandfather, Thomas Gates, is implicated as a key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln’s death. Determined to prove his ancestor’s innocence, Ben uses portions of a cipher on the page fragment to follow an international chain of clues, searching for the true story. The search for truth turns into a race to discover the whereabouts of a mythological treasure, taking Ben on a chase from Paris to London to Washington to South Dakota’s Black Hills. Doggedly pursuing Ben is Mitch Wilkinson, a descendent of Confederate General Albert Pike, who seems to have a fiendish and less noble desire to uncover his own family history and find the treasure for himself. Along the way, and while keeping the FBI at bay, Ben enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend, his technology-whiz partner, his long-separated university professor parents, and even the President of the United States, who is purported to have a highly-guarded, enigmatic book of secrets, kept by presidents and known only to them, which holds the final clue. Released on December 21, 2007. From Walt Disney Pictures/Jerry Bruckheimer Films/Sparkler Entertainment. Directed by Jon Turteltaub. Stars Nicolas Cage (Ben Gates), Jon Voight (Patrick Gates), Helen Mirren (Emily Appleton), Ed Harris (Mitch Wilkinson), Diane Kruger (Abigail Chase), Justin Bartha (Riley Poole), Harvey Keitel (Sadusky), Bruce Greenwood (President). 125 min. Filmed in Super 35. For scenes in the Library of Congress, the filmmakers were allowed to build a special set, the President’s Library, on the balcony above the Main Reading Room in the historic Jefferson Building. Special permission was also given to film for two full nights a birthday party sequence just off the front portico of Mt. Vernon in nearby Virginia. In London, the interior of Lancaster House doubled for Buckingham Palace.
