Since childhood, Benjamin Franklin Gates (Nicolas Cage) has known that he is decended from a long line of people whose job is to guard a treasure hidden by the Founding Fathers, who hid clues to its whereabouts in the country's currency and on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Now, he has learned of a plot to steal the Declaration, and has only one option: steal it himself. Even if he pulls off this monumental task, keeping the treasure safe is still going to be incredibly hard, especially since the FBI has also gotten wind of the scheme.