Benjamin Franklin Gates

"Here's to the men who did what was considered wrong in order to do what they knew was right. What they knew was right."

In 1832, Charles Carroll, the last living signer of the Declaration of Independence, desperately tried to speak to President Jackson before he died. Unfortunately, President Jackson wasn't there that night, so Charles Carroll settled for his stable boy, Thomas Gates, instead.

He told Thomas Gates about the existence of the Templar Treasure, hidden by the Freemasons to prevent the British from finding it. Charles did not know where it was hidden, but he had a single clue: 'The secret lies with Charlotte.'

For five generations, the Gates family tried and failed to find Charlotte. They were called crazy, yet Benjamin Gates refused to quit. He was the first to figure out that Charlotte was a ship, not a person. When he found the Charlotte, he learned that the next clue was located on the back of the Declaration of Independence. His ruthless partner, Ian Howe, decided to steal the Declaration of Independence. Fearing that Ian would destroy the Declaration, Ben decided to steal it first. Their race would uncover the Templar Treasure, proving the Gates family was right.

Years later, Thomas Gates was framed for masterminding the assassination of President Lincoln. The story that his great-grandfather Charles Gates told was that Thomas was killed to prevent the Confederates from finding Cíbola, the city of gold. To prove Thomas' innocence, Ben Gates went on another treasure hunt. This time, he had to kidnap the President of the United States.

---

Notes:

• Some feats are from the National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets – The Junior Novel, which goes in a different direction from the film National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets and are included for the sake of completeness.

---

Strength

• Pulls Abigail Chase into a van^RES

• Rips the Declaration out of Abigail's hands^RES

• Ambushes and knocks out Ian's henchman^RES

• Held onto a wooden elevator as it collapsed, briefly holding Abigail too^RES

• With the help of his father, slides open a large stone door^RES

• Breaks a stone covering in half with a few kicks^RES

• Climbs onto an unstable platform^RES

• Holds a door open that he and Mitch Wilkinson struggled to raise^RES

• Disables three guys in rapid succession, including kicking a gun out of Mitch's hands

• After being knocked to the ground, grabs Mitch's ankles and uses Mitch's momentum to throw Mitch off a cliff

---

Speed

• Blocks gunfire using the Declaration of Independence's bulletproof case^RES

• Ducks behind a van to avoid gunfire^RES

• Catches Abigail Chase before she can run away^RES

• Avoids gunfire in a graveyard^RES

• Outraces Ian's henchman^RES

• Dodges falling kegs while driving^RES

• Climbs off a roof and runs into a car as it speeds away^RES

• Runs along an unstable platform as a gold weight rolls towards him, jumping over it in the center^RES

• Dodges a capstan as it swings at him^RES

• Avoided bullets in a train station

• Dodges Mitch's strike, grabs his wrist, and slams it into a wall. Then catches Abigail before she can fall off a cliff

---

Durability

• Survives the Charlotte's explosion by hiding in a smuggling compartment^RES

• Walked 9 miles in the Arctic circle^RES

• Jumped off the USS Intrepid and into the Hudson River^RES

• Fine after being punched in the face by Mitch^RES

• Jumped to a ledge 15 feet below

---

Intelligence

Combat

• Prevents Ian from shooting him by holding a lit flare over a ton of spilled gunpowder^RES

• Tricks Ian and Abigail with a replica of the Declaration^RES

• Escapes Ian's henchman by tricking him with an empty container^RES

• Gets Mitch to crash by forcing a truck to stop suddenly^RES

• Evades the FBI by hiding under a walkway^RES

• Escapes Mitch by stopping a car chase in the middle of a tunnel and running into a train station

Problem Solving

• Figured out that Charlotte was a ship when Riley Poole talked about getting a yacht^RES

• With the help of Riley, located the Charlotte north of the Arctic Circle^RES

• Finds the hidden pipe after noticing the Charlotte's captain died protecting a specific barrel^RES

• Quickly locates the Charlotte's smuggling compartment^RES

• Created a plan to steal the Declaration of Independence^RES

• Figured out the right password after hearing a close one^RES

• Figured out the key phrase to a cipher^RES

• Uses a traffic camera to take a picture^RES

• Mitch forces Emily to give a fake clue^RES . Ben figures it out^RES

• A deleted scene has him realize that it was a reference to a Lakota myth^RES

• Convinces Mitch to join them alone and unarmed^RES

• Directs everyone on how to balance out a platform^RES , then directs them to raise one corner so Mitch can escape^RES , followed by everyone else^RES

• Uses an inflatable raft to free a guy trapped underwater beneath a steel beam

Miscellaneous

• Somewhat recognizes Abigail's accent^RES

• Set up a lab with suits and filtration systems^RES

• FBI Agent Sadusky was impressed by it^RES

• Has degrees in history, mechanical engineering, Navy ROTC, and naval diving and salvage^RES

• Uses a cutting torch to recover a strongbox from a sunken steamer

---

Luck

• His metal detector found the Charlotte instead of any of the other three guys, and he immediately found a bell with the ship's name on it^RES

• Started printing the Meerschaum pipe's riddle at the beginning instead of a random spot in the middle^RES

• The National Archive's big 70th anniversary gala occurred soon enough to plan a heist around^RES

• He had the exact button Abigail was missing^RES

• A bus drives between Ben and his pursuers, allowing Ben to get a running start^RES

• He avoids jailtime despite stealing the Declaration of Independence, escaping FBI custody, and preemptively giving away every bargaining chip for free^RES

• He admits he gets lucky a lot^RES

• The President's birthday party was close enough to plan around^RES

• A librarian walked out of the exact section of the library they needed to sneak into^RES

• Despite intending to stay behind so everyone else could escape, a piece of debris knocks Ben away and forces Mitch to stay behind instead^RES

• The President decides to cover for him^RES

---

Heists

• Stealing the Declaration of Independence

• Their plan was to bypass the toughest security by moving the Declaration to the Preservation room and stealing it during a gala^RES

• Riley cut into the security camera's wiring to record and override them^RES

  • They hid Ben^RES until Ian hacked in too^RES

• Took a picture of a custodian's badge and used it to forge a new badge^RES

  • The fake badge allowed him to walk through security^RES

• Sent Abigail a gift coated with an ultraviolet dye^RES

  • After Abigail entered her password^RES , the dye left fingerprints on the letters she used^RES

• Forced the Archives to move the Declaration to the Preservation room by making them believe a sensor was malfunctioning^RES

• Lifted Abigail's thumbprint off a glass and used it to access the elevator^RES

• Evaded Abigail by slipping in the gift shop, though he did have to pay for the stolen Declaration^RES

• He got out of the Archives and to his van well before the alarms sounded^RES

• Buckingham Palace Resolute desk

• Riley set up in a bathroom to hack security^RES

• Started a public fight acting drunk to get thrown into a security cell, close to the desk^RES

• Riley hacked security to release them from the cell^RES

• Searched the Resolute desk^RES

• Riley disabled security cameras and set off the fire alarm to help them escape^RES

• White House Resolute desk

• Infiltrates during the Easter Egg hunt^RES

• Uses Connor to gain access to the Oval Office^RES

• Distracts Connor long enough to search the desk^RES

• Kidnapping the President

• Invents a story that the Spencer Landmark Hotel was used for KKK meetings, then books all the other alternative locations to force the President's birthday party to be held at Mt. Vernon^RES

• Dives and swims into the party, then uses a couple of wine glasses to get past the guard^RES

• Baits the President with a map of Mt. Vernon that shows an undiscovered escape route and traps him in said escape route^RES

• Once alone, he convinces the President to tell him about the President's secret book^RES

  • They searched the Library^RES and found a photo of the plank inside the book^RES

---

Treasure Hunts

Templar Treasure^RES

• The first clue was held by Charles Carroll. It read 'the secret lies with Charlotte'^RES

• The Charlotte was a ship that got trapped in the Arctic Circle^RES

• A Meerschaum pipe was hidden inside a gunpowder storage barrel^RES

• The pipe's handle had the second riddle engraved into it. It read 'The legend writ, the stain affected, the key in Silence undetected. Fifty-five in iron pen, Mr. Matlack can't offend.'^RES

• It referred to an invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence^RES

• Declaration of Independence

• An invisible Ottendorf cipher was on the back that could be revealed using reagents and heat^RES. It could be decoded with the Silence Dogood letters, and read 'The vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of Pass and Stow'^RES

  • The clue was referring to the shadow cast by Independence Hall in Philadelphia at 2:22 PM^RES . A pair of glasses were hidden in a brick marked by the shadow^RES

• Looking through the glasses would reveal the messages 'Heere at the wall'^RES and 'Beneath Parkington Lane'^RES

  • 'Heere at the wall' referred to the intersection of Broadway and Wall Street in New York City^RES and 'Beneath Parkington Lane' referred to a tunnel behind Parkington Lane's grave^RES

• At the bottom of a spiraling staircase, was an empty room.^RES Behind a switch, was a second empty room^RES . The treasure could be accessed from there using the Meerschaum pipe as a key^RES

• Riley got .5% of the value^RES, which came out to $5,000,000^RES

Cíbola^RES

• The first clue was a Playfair cipher sent by Queen Victoria. It decoded as 'LABOULAYE LADY WILL LEAD TO CIBOLA TEMPLES OF GOLD', referring to the Statue of Liberty on Île aux Cygnes in Paris^RES

• When a missing page from Booth's diary surfaced^RES , a portion of the cipher was found on it^RES, which decoded to just 'LABOUL--ELAD^RES

• On the Statue of Liberty was the message 'Across the sea, these twins stand resolute; to preserve what we are looking for. 1876' This referred to hidden planks in the Resolute desks^RES

• Inside the Buckingham palace desk^RES , the plank read 'find the noble bird, let him take you by the hand, and give you passage to the sacred temple'^RES

• The plank from the Oval Office desk^RES reads that they 'need to find an island of stone'^RES

  • A deleted scene suggests that the plank also referenced Cougar Peak in the Black Hills.^RES

• Queen Victoria sent a letter with two clues that would further guide a person to the entrance^RES

• Mitch claims 'it would be impossible to find Cíbola without the clues^RES

• The first clue was 'the entrance shall only be revealed under a cloudless rain.' The island's rock darkened when wet, and an eagle symbol was carved above a hole^RES

• The second clue was the message 'surrender your hand to the heart of the warrior.' A latch inside the eagle hole would open the passageway^RES

Page 47^RES

• Something was hidden on page 47 of the President's secret book^RES . Ben called it 'life-altering'^RES

• 15 years later he's still working on it^RES

---

Miscellaneous

• Can drive a plow^RES

• He is a very hammy actor^RES

• Evades Mitch and his henchmen while driving erratically through London^RES

• He can be a troll^RES

• Bribed a kid