Timing is excellent.
I watched National Treasure 2 the other day (As part of a Nicholas Cage marathon) and as the ending unravelled and the bad guy showed himself to have no allegiance to his southern racist great-grandfather I thought to myself that it all would have been much easier if instead of coming up with a huge lie about Cages forefathers and then kidnapping people and all the other malarkey and even burning a historical artifact along the way that it would have been better to just go straight to Cage and say "My great-grandfather was a racist asshole and our family name has been stained for many years by his actions that included the death of your great-great-grandfather. I would like to make amends by working together with you and seeking a treasure that will have great historical and monetary value"
And then I thought a little more on the first movie (the plot of which had already started blurring like a strange dream by that point) and remembered that money was the ultimate goal of Eddard Starks character. Then at the end we see that just 1% of that is enough to make Cage, his kidnap victim and "the tech guy" financially set for life.
Why the need for the subterfuge? Oh yeah there was a complicated thing about the Declaration of Independence but if the evidence on the boat hadn't been destroyed when Sharpe tried to kill Cage then the story would have had much more credibility and they could have pulled it all off legitimately.
I am gonna have to go back on Jones and Crofts series of treasure hunting adventures to see if they could have worked out to everyones benefit if only someone didn't try to screw the next guy over. (Yes, of course "...except for the Nazis")