All his life, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage), third generation treasure hunter, has been searching for a treasure no one believed existed: amassed through the ages, moved across continents, to become the greatest treasure the world has ever known. Hidden by the United States of America's Founding Fathers, they left clues to the treasure's location right before our eyes... from America's birthplace, to the nation's capitol, to clues buried within the symbols on the U.S. dollar bill. Gates' lifelong journey leads him to the last place anyone thought to look: a map hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence. But what he thought was the final clue is only the beginning. Gates realizes in order to protect the world's greatest treasure, he must now do the unthinkable: steal the most revered, best guarded document in American history before it falls into the wrong hands. In a race against time, Gates must elude the authorities, stay one step ahead of his ruthless adversary (Sean Bean), decipher the remaining clues and unlock the 2000-year-old mystery behind America's greatest national treasure.