Factual error: As Ben is clinging to the staircase while it is falling apart, there is a close-up of a nail being pulled out of the wood. This nail is round-headed, rather than square as it would have been over 200 years ago. It's also shiny instead of rusty, which indicates that it's galvanized. Galvanization as an industrial, metal-preservation process was not patented until 1837, and was not used in building materials until well into the late-1800s. Since the film states the staircase was made by "the Founding Fathers, " and there was no galvanization of iron nails in any industrialized nation in 1780s-1830's, this is a huge anachronism.
National Treasure (2004)
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Directed by: Jon Turteltaub
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Christopher Plummer, Sean Bean, Harvey Keitel, Jon Voight, Diane Kruger, Justin Bartha
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More mistakes in National Treasure
Riley Poole: Asuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model's accurate, we should be getting very close. But don't go by me, I broke a shoelace this morning. It's a bad omen.
Ian How: Should we turn around and go home?
Ben Gates: Or we could just pull over and throw him out here.
Riley Poole: Ha, ha, ha, okay.
Ben Gates: Well Riley, you're not missing that small, windowless cubicle we found you in are you?
Riley Poole: No, no. Absolutely not.
Trivia: When Ben is talking to Riley in front of the Lincoln Memorial, you see a long pool behind them. This pool is filled with computer generated water, because the pool was drained at the time of shooting.
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Answer: "The Secret Lies With Charlotte" ~ Charles Carrol of "Charleston".