National Treasure 2

22nd December, i went for movie with hooi thing, pei xian, and a di... as mentioned.. we watched National Treasure 2: Book of Secret. This movie is directed by Jon Turteltaub (the same guy who directed NT 1), written by Gregory Poirier. This movie too reunites the cast in NT1, and added Ed Harris as well as Helen Mirren.

• Nicolas Cage as Benjamin Franklin Gates
• Justin Bartha as Riley Poole
• Diane Kruger as Abigail Chase
• Jon Voight as Patrick Henry Gates
• Harvey Keitel as FBI Agent Peter Sadusky
• Helen Mirren as Emily Appleton Gates
• Ed Harris as Mitch Wilkinson
• Bruce Greenwood as US President

The whole search's of this treasure was to clear Ben's ancestor's name. When a missing page from the diary of John Wikes Booth surfaces, Ben's great-great grandfather is implicated as the key conspirator in Abraham Lincoln's death.

There are a few things which i hope i had knew before i watched this movie.. coz i really felt like an idiot when they were discussing about the History of America.. Hence, i would like to discuss on the ppl and things you should knoe before heading off for this movie..

1. Abraham Lincoln

• the 16th President of USA
• serving period: March 4, 1861 - April 15, 1865 (assassinated)
• During his term, he helped preserve the US by leading the defeat of the secessionist Confederate States of America in the American Civil War. He introduced measures that resulted in the abolition of slavery, issuing his Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and promoting the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution in 1865.
• His assassination in 1865 was the first presidential assassination in U.S. history and made him a martyr for the ideal of national unity.

2. John Wikes Booth

• American Stage Actor and Confederate sympathizer who assassinated Abraham Lincoln.
• Booth began devising a plan to kidnap Lincoln in exchanged for the release of around 10,000 Southern soldiers held captive in Northern prisons. recruited his old friends Samuel Arnold and Michael O'Laughlin as accomplices.
  
• He later abandon the kidnap plan and began plotting for an assassination, which he succeeded by shooting him in the back of the head with a .44 caliber Derringer.
  

3. Édouard René Lefèvre de Laboulaye

• was a French Jurist
• careful observer of the politics of the United States, and an admirer of its constitution
• the intellectual creator of the Statue of Liberty.

4. Statue of Liberty

• Hundreds of smaller replicas of the Statue of Liberty have been erecter worldwide.
• The one shown in this movie is near the Grenelle Bridge on the Ile des Cygnes, an island in the river Seine
• it looks towards the Atlantic Ocean and hence towards its "larger sister" in New York Harbor

5. Resolute Desk

• It was a present from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1879.
• Every President since Hayes, except Lyndon B. Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford, has used the desk.
  
• President George H.W. Bush had the desk moved to the Treaty Room in the Executive Residence, but President Bill Clinton returned the Resolute to the Oval Office.

6. American Civil War (1861-1865)

• between the USA (the "Union") and the Southern slave states of newly-formed Confederate States of America under Jefferson Davis.
  

7. JFK (John F. Kennedy)

• 35th President of the USA
• famous for saying, "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
• He was assassinated

8. Cibola

• myth that originated around the year 1150 when the Moors conquered Merida, Spain.
• The legend says that these cities grew very rich, mainly from gold and precious stones. This idea fueled many expeditions in search of the mythical cities during the following centuries.

And so... after reading these 8 things/ppl.. i hope that you'll get wat those actors were conversing about... unlike me.. i really catch no ball :P

And about the book of secret.. i really wonder if it exists.. and wat's on page 47... Curious to noe... If the Book of Secret really does exist, then a lot of conspiracy and mystery will be solved.. But then again... it's human's nature to uncover the truth yet it's human's nature to choose to leave certain things unknown.. hmm.. human is just so contradicting~~

Btw, all the info i obtained were summarized from Wikipedia...

So.. lastly... enjoy the movie~~