Corrected entry: It is doubtful that the Declaration of Independence says "Original Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776" on the back as Abigail states, because in fact no where on the front of the document will you find the phrase "Declaration of Independence." The founders of the USA referred to this document as "The Unanimous Declaration"
Corrected entry: When Ben and Riley are trying to figure out Abagail's password to enter the room with the Declaration, Riley reads the result "Valley Frog", seen onscreen. Ben says it's "Valley Forge" and that she pressed the E and L twice. This suggests that Riley's password cracking program does not account for the fact that the letters can be used twice. If this is true, then "Valley Frog" should not have been a result in Riley's program because it has two L's.
Correction: This is not a mistake. The program Riley is using displays, "VALEY FROG, " not, "VALLEY FROG." Ben realizes it's Valley Forge because Riley said, "Valley frog, " but didn't spell it over their radio and Ben didn't actually see how it was misspelled. "She pressed the E and the L twice, " is what Ben says as he's figuring it out because of the fact that he knows Riley is reading a misspelled version of Valley because of Frog.
Correction: But Valey is not a word so the program shouldn't have even listed it as a result.
Valey is a last name of about 1000 people in the United States so could be included in a password cracking dictionary. I found it in my password cracking dictionary.
Corrected entry: When Ben is escaping from the National Archives with the Declaration of Independence, he has to pay for it at the gift shop. As seen later in the film, the gift shop does use bar codes. Why would the cashier not have scanned the real document for a bar code?
Correction: It is entirely possible to ring up a purchase without scanning a barcode. Especially if the item does not have one. There are plenty of explanations for why the cashier didn't scan a barcode for the real document: It's simple to assume that after noticing the sleeve didn't have a barcode, the cashier could have just entered the transaction manually... Some gift shops keep barcodes for commonly purchased items affixed to the counter or somewhere else easily accessible, in order to save time, instead of looking for one on the item, they just scan the code on the counter... Ben ended up buying an actual souvenir copy off screen. The cashier could have scanned the souvenir copy twice.
Yep, this is correct. I worked in retail, and when we would have duplicates that didn't have a barcode on it (happened a lot), we simply scanned the item that had the barcode twice.
Correction: I work at a retail store, and all the items have bar codes on them, however, we never scan. Everything is entered manually.
Corrected entry: Near the beginning of the movie, while inside the Charlotte, Ben says "on the back of a resolution". How does he know the secret coding is on the back of a document?
Correction: The last line of the riddle on the pipe's stem reads, "Mr. Matlack can't offend." As Ben says at the beginning of the aforementioned sentence, "And to make sure he [Mr. Matlack] could not offend the map..." This means that, had the map been on the same side that Timothy Matlack had written on, the map would have been ruined (offended). So it was drawn on the back.
Corrected entry: After Ben takes the Declaration of Independence in its case into the elevator, we see him start to remove screws again. When we see the back, there are two screws out in the two compartments next to the one Ben is taking a third screw out. There's no way he had time to take out 2 plus screws from the time he started while in the elevator and the time we see the back with the screws out.
Correction: Ben was planning to take out all the screws in the preservation room so he could roll up the declaration and leave. He had unscrewed two when Riley lost his feeding, so he ran to the elevator, and continued unscrewing inside.
Corrected entry: When Ben Gates toasts the Founding Fathers with Abigail at the scene in the National Archives, the glasses are filled with Champagne. When Gates actually guzzles the drink, look closely - its water.
Correction: No it's not. It's still bubbly and has a slight color to it. It's either champagne or a substitute.
Corrected entry: In the shot where Ben is telling Riley the passcode is "Valley Forge", he says "It's Valley Forge. You press the in L twice." What he should've said was, "You press the L in twice."
Correction: He actually says "It's 'Valley Forge.' She pressed 'E' and 'L' twice." Gates was referring to the keys that Abigail would have pressed when she entered her password earlier.
Corrected entry: In the Charlotte, Ian has one of his goons point a gun at Ben. When Ben starts pleading for his life, he addresses Ian (Sean Bean) as "Sean."
Correction: Ban Gates addresses not Ian as Sean but the other guy pointing the gun as Shaw. If you read the subtitles this can be confirmed.
Corrected entry: After Ben mixes the solution, it shows him moving his fingers towards the beaker, in between his fingers is the pin he plans to give to Abagail. A second later it shows only his fingers going into the solution, and the pin has disappeared.
Correction: Untrue. We only see Ben's knuckles and the top of his hand as he moves towards the solution the first time (wide & full screen). Then we see him dip the pin into the solution after his smiley face blacklight check.
Corrected entry: When Ben is crossing the street to enter National Archives building for the Gala, the street is wet but the pavement, steps, etc. around the building are completely dry.
Correction: There is no indication that it has been raining except that the streets are wet. Washington DC's Department of Public Works has street cleaners that operate on heavily traveled areas routinely or as requested by the public. It would not be unusual for the National Archives people to request a street cleaning before this big gala. The street cleaners operate by spraying a thin film of water on the street before sweeping the dirt, etc. into a hopper on the machine. It makes perfect sense as to why the streets could be wet. Also, they only suspend operations during the winter and this take place outside of that time.
Corrected entry: The case that holds the Declaration of Independence changes throughout the movie. This might be explained away except for the fact that the last change, to the black case, would have meant that Ian would have taken it out of the gray/white case that he picked up in the street after Abigail falls and loses it and puts it in a nice, new black case that he just happens to have. The case was originally red with the gray/white case as an inner case or liner for the red case. Ian's character hasn't cared if the Declaration gets shredded to confetti, so why would he care that it gets a nice, new black case instead of the gray/white one he picked up in the street?
Correction: Because it's his bargaining tool. Without it in pristine shape, he can't get Ben to cooperate. There's plenty of time between him picking up the white case and meeting up with Ben for him to pick up a new case for it, or he had it from when he'd planned to steal the document.
Corrected entry: When Ben leaps into the water and meets the SCUBA diver, sounds indicate that he immediately takes a deep breath from the respirator. If he had actually done this, he would have breathed in the sea water the respirator would have been flooded with. This, as you well know, would not have been very fun at all. (01:31:00)
Correction: The diver was there waiting for Ben and would be aware of his immediate need for air. Purging a regulator second stage is as simple as pushing the purge button and holding it in a mouthpiece-down position. Some Hudson River water would likely be in it, but a deep breath would be possible without first needing to exhale to purge the regulator.
Corrected entry: When Ben enters the big gala as a janitor, he has to go through a metal detector after putting his supplies on the tray. The problem is when he goes through the metal detector, he doesn't set it off. Later, in the bathroom, he takes off his janitor's clothes and is seen wearing a tuxedo underneath, and an expensive looking watch. The watch should have set off the alarm, but he didn't take it off when he entered.
Correction: We don't see Ben's every move after he enters the gala. He could have very easily had the watch in the toolbelt and just slipped it on after he got inside. Or it just might not have set off the metal detector. My watch cost me several hundred dollars, but I never take it off when I go through metal detectors because it doesn't trigger them.
Corrected entry: When Ben reveals to Abigail that there is a map on the back of the Declaration, she says she has seen it and there is nothing on the back but a notation that reads "Original Declaration of Independence July 4, 1776". Yet, later on at Ben's dad's house, when they turn it over to find the there is nothing written on the back.
Correction: Yes there is, if you look at the bottom of the document on the back, it says that, just like the real one.
Corrected entry: Dr. Chase gets the invisible ink on her hands from the campaign button Gates sent her. Several hours later, she attends a gala and leaves her nice and clear fingerprints in the invisible ink on her glass, where Gates retrieves them. Time has passed, and she has dressed up and gotten ready for a gala event - and she has not washed her hands even once?
Correction: The invisible ink was not meant for him to take her fingerprints at all, but to figure out what is her password to access the preservation room. He doesn't need any sort of ink to take her fingerprints - just the superheated Crazy Glue and the Ziploc bag which he uses in the restroom. The fact that she showered has no bearing on that, because she went down to the vault and entered her password much earlier in the day, soon after getting the button from Gates.
Corrected entry: Throughout, the Declaration is fairly easy to read. However, in reality, the document is extremely faded, and you can't read most parts of it.
Correction: When showing the original Declaration in the movie, many times it is severely faded just like in real life, you can barely read signatures or much of the document.
Corrected entry: When Ian turns against Ben at the beginning of the movie in the ruins of Charlotte, he takes the pipe with the message engraved in it. This is still evident when Ben first talks to Abigail and she says "Did Bigfoot take it?" But when Ben finds the treasure room and the key to open the door is the pipe, Ben pulls it right out of his pocket. Nowhere in the movie does Ian ever give Ben back the pipe. (01:53:30)
Correction: Ben gets it back after he escapes from the FBI, on the aircraft carrier, when he meets Ian, he gives it back to him then. He gets back both the pipe and the Declaration of Independence. Ian also states on the phone that he will "even throw in the pipe from the Charlotte."
Actually Ben gets the Declaration and pipe back in front of Trinity church at Wall St. and Broadway. Ian puts them on top of the car and then Ben takes them both then, not on the Intrepid.
Corrected entry: When the treasure hunters have gone into the basement of the church they smash open a tomb and a bare skeleton comes flying out. Not even in an excessively dry area like Egypt could this happen, let alone a damp one like around New England, especially after a period of only 200 or so years. Even if the dead guy WAS in a stone tomb. I'd expect to see mummified remains.
Correction: To be naturally mummified, a corpse has to be kept in a very dry area. New England is a damp region, and the stone church would have exarcebated that dampness, thus accelerating the rotting of the soft tissue, leaving only a skeleton.
Corrected entry: When Ben is running through the graveyard from Ian's men in Philadelphia, he shuts a gate behind him to hamper his pursuer. The man tries to open the gate, but it is locked. However, the gate obviously bares a keyhole for an old skeleton key. In order for Ben to have locked the gate, he would've had to have the key with him. But we see no action of him locking the gate at all. In reality, it should have remained unlocked.
Correction: It can easily become locked when the door is shut. There are many doors that have "one way locks" (no matter how old or modern the door is), you can lock them by closing the door without turning a key. However you need a key to reopen it.
Corrected entry: Ben had digital scans of the Silence Dogood letters before ever having gotten the clue about "The key in Silence undetected". Obviously, he'd need the originals that his father had to get scans, and Ben seems surprised when his dad tells him that he donated the letters. Ben didn't meet his father between going to the Charlotte and the National Archives (as evidenced by Patrick's shock at the fact that Charlotte was a ship), so why did Ben have the scans of the Silence Dogood letters when as far as he knew, he didn't need them?
Correction: Ben is a history major and a collector. While he didn't know for sure what clues he'd need, I imagine he probably made sure to collect anything that came from the founding fathers hands as they were involved with this treasure and could be holding clues anywhere. It would also make sense to make scans that way he doesn't have to keep going back to his father who does not support his hunt for the treasure. He may have previously looked over the letters to see if there was any clue in those letters as to who "charlotte" was.
Correction: Well, considering that the true Declaration of Independence DOES have this written on the back you are wrong. No one says that this label was written in 1776. It might have been added later.
shortdanzr ★