What Will National Treasure 3 Be About?
Is stealing the Declaration of Independence a noble thing to do? Well according to Ben Gates in National Treasure it is when it means keeping an ancient treasure safe from the villainous Sean Bean. Nicholas Cage played Ben Gates, a treasure hunter for lack of a better term who spent his formative years training himself to be prepared to find the ancient treasure his family, the Gates family had been searching for, for generations dating back to 1832. The first film saw Nicholas Cage joined by supporting stars such as Jon Voight as his washed up treasure hunter father, Justin Bartha as his loyal and eccentric sidekick Riley Poole, and Diane Kruger as Dr. Abigail Chase, a woman who is just as passionate about preserving a piece of history as he is. The film is an action-packed adventure with Gates at odds with Sean Bean’s character in the hunt for the ages old historical artifacts. The film spawned a sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets in which Gates has to resort to kidnapping the President of the United States so he can find The Lost City of Gold in order to clear his family’s name after his ancestor is framed for the murder of Abraham Lincoln by Booth’s descendant played by the electric Ed Harris. The second National Treasure film was released back in 2007 and since then many fans of these films have wondered when a third installment would come to fruition. The truth is the sequel has been in development a long time but the main reason the film never got made was because Disney couldn’t find a viable way to get the National Treasure franchise to tie into their theme parks. Apparently that has changed though as last January the sequel’s development has been fast-tracked with a script being officially penned by Chris Bremner. COVID has surely slowed down the wheels of progress on this sequel but it is possible this film could get made and released as early as 2022 or 2023 approximately 15 years after the last National Treasure film. I think the third entry in the National Treasure franchise has a lot of potential and the territory it could explore in advancing the storyline could be a cinematic thrill.
National Treasure 3 is bound to have more of the action/adventure DNA of the first 2 films and will surely integrate the modern day Indiana Jones feel its predecessors did as well. The major action hook in the first installment was stealing the Declaration of Independence, followed by kidnapping the President of the United States in the sequel so it will certainly be interesting to see how they top themselves in this picture. The cast surrounding Nicholas Cage was dynamic and brought a witty repertoire between the characters which made the adventure all the more exciting during the action scenes and quieter moments in between. The MacGuffin of the first two installments were from a historical perspective and really informed the character of Ben Gates making him a modern day Benjamin Franklin with a deep intellectual curiosity and sensibility to him that attracted the lady doctor Chase to him. The adrenaline of their chemistry fueled a lot of the story and that most certainly will be a contributing factor in National Treasure 3.
At least 15 years will have passed since National Treasure: Book of Secrets by the time National Treasure 3 releases and in the storyline Gates and Chase were a romantic couple who had moved back in together after having spent the movie repairing their relationship after their breakup before the events of the film. The film could possibly go in the direction of having Gates and Chase having been split up for the better part of the last 15 years for one reason or another, maybe Gates got obsessed over another treasure that he hunts down in this movie and that brings them back together as they fall back in love potentially. However I think that plot beat may be a little repetitive and it may be better to keep the happy ending they had at the end of the second film and advance the storyline so that Gates and Chase are now at this point married and even have kids. This would be very reminiscent of the Nicholas Cage movie, The Family Man (2000), in which Cage played a Wall Street snob who got stuck in an alternate universe where he had opted for the life of a family man instead. In the National Treasure storyline Gates could have a family with Chase and there could be a real compelling conflict out of Gates having to balance his family life responsibilities with hunting down an important treasure. The story might even call for more than a 15 year gap in between the second and third film in order to make the kids teenagers in high school or college that potentially play a pivotal role in aiding Gates, Chase, and their loyal sidekick Mr. Riley Poole in tracking down the next big historical treasure. The writer Chris Bremner might be tempted not to go this route and to instead have Gates and Chase be separated and get back together in order to create romantic tension between the characters whether Gates and Chase ever started a family or not but I think Bremner and Jerry Bruckhemier could find a way to have the happily married couple really shine in terms of chemistry in relation to the conflict of the story in an organic manner.
All action-adventure movies need a great villain and National Treasure 3 is no exception. Sean Bean and Ed Harris were monumental forces in those first two films and the third film has to follow that up with someone of equal caliber. Ed Harris’s character was killed off in the last one but they could easily bring back Sean Bean and bring the story full circle for the completion of the trilogy. I think though that even if they bring back Sean Bean they should also bring in somebody new so that they aren’t just doing a repetitive storyline but rather do something new and give Sean Bean a villainous ally or something like that with an additional voice in the mix. Great actors that I think would do a good job include Jon Hamm, Billy Zane (the villain in Titanic), John Travolta, or even an offbeat choice like Jon Voight if you wanted Voight’s character to turn evil like he did in the first Mission Impossible movie. That would certainly be a dark storyline having Gates's dad go rogue but it could work if done right and be really interesting. Whoever the villain ends up being it should be somebody who challenges Gates ethically and intellectually and makes him think about the big picture.
In conclusion with National Treasure 3 looking to come out within the next couple years I think there are endless possibilities about where the story could go and what it could be about. The family-friendly action-adventure nature of the first two films would definitely still play well now today and Nicholas Cage is a great actor that doesn’t get too much time now in the spotlight today and deserves a vehicle like this to bring him back to prominence. It's not like he's too old to do action at 57, as Tom Cruise at the age of 58 is currently filming Mission Impossible 7 and getting ready to travel to Outer Space later this year for an action film so anything is possible no matter what age you are. National Treasure 3 is finally coming and it may very well end up being the ultimate conclusion to a fantastic trilogy.
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