A strip club scene was cut from 'National Treasure' and other insights from Philly's celebration of the film

I’ve watched National Treasure more times than I can count and if I could count how many times I’ve seen it, I wouldn’t admit it to you.

It’s a confluence of things that keep me coming back — the scenes filmed in Philly, Nic Cage taking an absurd plot line very seriously, and the fact that this movie always seems to be on TV. Plus, there’s a quick cameo of my favorite stand in Reading Terminal Market, which closed in 2016, that always makes me nostalgic (RIP Salumeria).

On Friday, I got to geek out with other fans of the film and its sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, during a ticketed talk with the director of the franchise, Jon Turteltaub, at the Independence Visitor Center. Turteltaub’s other films include Cool Runnings, While You Were Sleeping, and The Meg, which tracks.

In the audience were a self-proclaimed “real-life treasure hunter,” several Freemasons, and Philly tour guide Stephen Pierce of Havertown, who came dressed in his finest colonial garb and told me the movie, which came out when he was 9, was “definitely a huge inspiration for me growing up.”

But there were no bigger fans in attendance than our co-hosts and moderators for the evening, Aubrey Paris and Emily Black, creators of the National Treasure Hunt podcast, who helped curate Philly’s first National Treasure weekend of events in conjunction with the Philadelphia Visitor Center.

Their palpable joy while interviewing Turteltaub live for their podcast was only exceeded by the shock and excitement that washed over their faces when the director gave them the scoop that National Treasure 3 is “finally real.”

That wasn’t the only gem Turteltaub dropped during their talk though. Here are five other nuggets and behind-the-scenes stories the director shared about one of the best and most ridiculous films ever partially filmed in Philly.

Turteltaub said he was surprised that the National Park Service let the cast and crew climb up Independence Hall’s bell tower to film.

“That was special. Being next to the Centennial Bell — amazing. More interesting was being behind the clock, coming up those stairs and seeing how that works was like ‘Wow, this is why I want to be in the movie business,’” he said. “It’s not art. You just get treated better than other people.”

But the NPS didn’t allow filming at the doors or in the interior of the building because it would have impeded visitors’ experience, Turteltaub said. And it was at this point in the conversation I learned there’s a replica of Independence Hall at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, Calif., which is where the interior scenes were shot.

So I either need to make a movie or go to California to live out my dream of climbing the bell tower. Duly noted.

During the chase scene that winds through Reading Terminal Market, Abigail (played by Diane Kruger) ducks into a butcher stand while clutching the Declaration of Independence. The woman running the counter initially says in the most unenthusiastic, Philly way possible: “If you’re not a steak, you don’t belong here.”

But when Abigail tells the woman she’s running from her “ex-husband” (who’s actually a bad guy), the woman says: “Honey, stay as long as you like.”

Paris said that the butcher has become “a favorite non-named character.” Some have even called her “the real national treasure.”

“It’s a huge cult thing,” Paris said.

Mark another win for Philly’s notoriously kind-but-not-nice attitude.

Turteltaub revealed that the first version of the original film was four hours long, so many scenes had to be left on the cutting room floor, including the ending.

“The original ending scene, they were back at the National Archives looking at the Declaration back where it belonged. We thought the world needed to know that,” Turteltaub said. “Everyone’s feeling good and then they get started talking about a different treasure and they go off like, ‘Oh no, I’m not doing that!’ It’s like the end of a Gilligan’s Island episode.”

Another scene that was stripped from the film took place when Abigail and Riley (played by Justin Bartha) are chased through Center City.

“As Riley’s being chased, he cuts into a strip club and he runs through the strip club to get away,” Turteltaub said. “So my idea was he runs in and no one’s in there and it’s just some guy vacuuming and [Riley] says, ‘Well, that was disappointing,’ and keeps going.”

I’m disappointed the cleanest scene ever filmed in a strip club didn’t make the cut.

Turteltaub and Cage attended Beverly Hills High School together and the director said the two were friends.

“He’s kind of a great, nonconforming, march-to-his-own drum guy, which in high school is not easy,” Turteltaub said. “I was desperate to fit in and be liked by every single person ever. He didn’t care.”

The director said he sold the actor on taking the part of Benjamin Franklin Gates in National Treasure when he described the character to Cage with one word: audacity.

“Nic is audacious and that was that connection. Nic never has a superficial connection to a character. He goes and finds the person,” Turteltaub said. “Sometimes that’s insane stuff and craziness and awesomeness and unpredictability and sometimes it just makes somebody very, very real.”

During audience questions at the end of the talk, a child of no more than 6 asked Turteltaub: “What’s on page 47?” to thunderous applause from the crowd.

The question referred to the end of the sequel film, when the President of the United States asks Gates what he thinks of what’s on page 47 of the book of secrets handed down from president to president. Gates calls what’s contained on the page “life-altering,” but its contents are never revealed to the audience.

It may not be a secret for much longer though.

“The worst thing, to make it interesting, was we added the line at the last second — ‘life-changing, life-altering’ so now we have to come up with something that’s ‘life-altering,’” Turteltaub said. “If I said ‘I don’t know,’ everyone will hate me. If I said ‘I do know,’ you’ll hate me for not telling you, but I don’t think we can make the third movie without at least helping people out.”