National Treasure: A Blockbuster Co-starring the Declaration of Independence

In the 2004 film National Treasure, fictional historian and cryptographer Benjamin Franklin Gates leads a search for lost treasure guided by a secret map on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Historian Denver Brunsman, a scholar of the American Revolution, separates fact from Hollywood fiction as he shares the true stories behind the Declaration, Freemasons, and the film’s other historical references.