Why didn't Nic Cage and Sean Bean just work together from the start?

And unless I forgot, Bean, despite his shady background, initially wanted to examine the Declaration legally

You did forget - Ian knew they would never be able to examine/test the Declaration legally. He said "in a different life" he arranged operations of "questionable" legality, so it's clear that Ian's plan was to steal the Declaration and presumably give it back when he was done with it.

..and didn't intend to keep all the treasure (that we know of)

I would assume Ian would have kept the initial deal he made with Ben. They never discussed the splits on camera but Ian did finance the expeditions and had several men on full time pay, so I think his cut would have been significant. Once Ian and Ben split up, it's clear that Ian was going to keep the entire treasure for himself.

Where the writing gets iffy is that it doesn't really make clear why Ben decided to steal the Declaration after the Feds ignored him. His justification as that he was going to steal it to prevent Ian from stealing it. If Ian stealing the Declaration was bad, what made Ben's theft any different?

Was Ben's theft more "noble" in cause than Ians?

The way they should have written it was to make it more clear that Ian would not have cared if people got hurt or killed acquiring the Declaration or that Ben's fear that Ian wouldn't take a "conservation" level of care with the document which would lead to unrepairable damage. That at least would explain better what led him to take matters into his own hands, and indeed maybe it's even implied a bit, but it's just not well described.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Absolutely right

reply share

add reply

formatting help