The actor Nicolas Cage is very present on the internet through the numerous extracts from his films used to make fun of him. Today, he returns to one of the best known, which makes him “die of laughter” himself!
Nicolas Cage can’t stop laughing at this line from Benjamin Gates and the Treasure of the Templars, a very solemn sequence which he himself admits was very complicated to shoot with the right tone!
Nicolas Cage memes were used to fuel his next film with a crazy pitch!
This sequence involves Riley (Justin Bartha) and Benjamin Gates himself. Both are located in the Exhibition Hall of the National Archives in Washington, facing the United States Declaration of Independence. If you don’t remember, here is the scene in question, in its entirety, in French:
The offbeat moment comes above all from the contrast between the seriousness and respect with which Benjamin Franklin Gates evokes the Declaration of Independence and finally concludes with: “I’m going to steal it. (…) I’m going to steal the Declaration of Independence.”
This is what Nicolas Cage points out in this video from Vanity Fairin which he reacts to this sequence:
I can’t even say it without laughing. It’s been parodied so many times, I think even on Saturday Night Live. But it’s impossible not to laugh! I think what makes it work is the seriousness with which Justin and I talk about it.
It is this contrast which will be recovered in an innumerable number of internet memes, of which we can find a template here and an example here. These memes have also contributed to the popularity of Nicolas Cage’s demonstrative game.
Benjamin Gates 2 will feature a similar scene, in which Cage declare this time : “I’m going to kidnap him. I’m going to kidnap the President of the United States.”
SNL
The actor nevertheless told Vanity Fair that he did what he could to save the line: “How do you say something so ridiculous and try your hardest to be credible? I’m seeing this scene again for the first time in years and what I like is the positivity of the character. He believes in it. He worships [la Déclaration]. I find it charming.”
In this same sequence of Treasure of the TemplarsRiley doesn’t understand much of what is written in the Declaration, and Benjamin sums it up for him in broad strokes by saying: “It means that if something goes wrong, it is the responsibility of those who have the capacity to take action.”
Buena Vista / Touchstone
In the context of the film, released in 2004 in the middle of the United States’ war in Iraq, we can imagine that this sentence could take on another meaning, justifying American interference in the Middle East. But has a Benjamin Gates film really gone that far?