# Question about "National Treasure II" with spoilers **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 11, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760 "2009-01-11T03:56:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/1 "2009-01-11T03:56:59Z")
Just finished watching “National Treasure II” and I’m a little confused about the ending. I’l try not to reveal the ending, but if you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to have it spoiled, just move on to another thread because spoiler protection probably won’t work here. Basically: How did the movie’s resolution prove what it was supposed to prove? I followed the trail of clues from beginning to end, but I can’t connect the ending to the beginning. Does that make sense? Anybody? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/2 "2009-01-11T04:32:05Z")
I think you ought to have put the spoilers in the OP because the thread is inevitably going to be full of details anyway. What’s confusing about it? It was a clue trail that led to a treasure, the lost city of gold, and they found it. Seem straightforward to me. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/3 "2009-01-11T04:59:50Z")
Yes, but how did the discovery of the city of gold exonerate Nicholas Cage’s ancestor? Ed Harris said he made the false accusation to get Cage involved in the search for the city of gold, but Harris died in the underground flood, so how did Cage’s ancestor get cleared of being an assassination conspirator? ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/4 "2009-01-11T05:08:44Z")
Cage’s story was that his great (?) grandfather had been asked to decipher something that was to lead to the city of gold, and that he had died to protect the secret. Finding the city of gold proved that aspect of the story, that the city existed. (Had they not found the city, Harris’s claim was just as valid). ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/5 "2009-01-11T05:12:27Z")
Yeah, that was the real motivation, wasn’t it? That finding the city would exonerate him, not that it would cause Ed Harris to publicly admit the lie. ---
**Author:** ![Sunrazor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sunrazor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunrazor)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/6 "2009-01-11T05:20:19Z")
So Cage’s grandfather’s name wasn’t really on the “list,” but it was written down to guide the consiprators to the man who could decipher the code? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the movie, but these things leave so many questions. Who placed all the clues in the first place? Why hide clues, why not just reveal the existence of the lost city and claim the fame? And why does cage get such inane dialogue: “Help me turn this wheel!” ---
**Author:** ![Declan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecae2f/32.png) [@Declan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Declan)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2009, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-national-treasure-ii-with-spoilers/480760/7 "2009-01-11T20:18:25Z")
> [@Sunrazor](#): > > Yes, but how did the discovery of the city of gold exonerate Nicholas Cage’s ancestor? The FBI was already starting to question why Harris had brought the valuable document out then, the actual discovery of the city was not to exonerate his ancestor, but rather him for how he managed to read the book of secrets. > [@](#): > > Ed Harris said he made the false accusation to get Cage involved in the search for the city of gold, but Harris died in the underground flood, so how did Cage’s ancestor get cleared of being an assassination conspirator? Harris also had a number of minions that stayed behind when the cage and company go about following the clues, I would assume that they came clean and did the actual exoneration. Now for what was on the page the president talked about , we gotta wait about two years for NT3 to see whats up with that. Declan