Actor Nicolas Cage should be an honorary Templar. He’s been in several Knights Templar related movies. So let’s take a look at his medieval achievements!
National Treasure
In the National Treasure series of movies, directed by Jon Turteltaub, Nicolas Cage plays Benjamin Franklin “Ben” Gates, a historian embarking on a seemingly crazy quest to find the legendary treasure of the Templars – protected for centuries by the Freemasons. Ben has a striking ability to interpret the underlying occult messaging in riddles and puzzles that power the plot forward.
The first film, National Treasure, sees Ben and his team racing against evil mercenaries, led by actor Sean Bean, to find the fabled items. In what is a thrilling chase movie, he must stop the rival team stealing the Declaration of Independence, which was drafted by Freemasons – so brimming with clandestine codes. The sequel, National Treasure: Book of Secrets, continues the adventure, with Ben and his team searching for the City of Gold.
Season of the Witch
Europe has been ravaged by the Black Death. Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman play a couple of Teutonic Knights – Behmen and Felson – who have left their order after witnessing a massacre. So, strictly speaking, they are not Templars but Teutonic Knights – however, let’s not get bogged down in medieval details. They are as good as Templars!
Witchcraft is being blamed for the plague and the knights are tasked with taking a suspected witch, played by Clare Foy, to a remote abbey where the monks will perform an exorcism. Hopefully this will end the pestilence. But when they get to the abbey, the monks have all succumbed to the Black Death. A young monk who has accompanied the knights – Debelzaq – then tries to perform the exorcism himself using the ancient Book of Solomon.
Throughout the film, it’s been clear that the witch really has magical powers. But we now discover she is possessed by a demon, who leaves her body and begins fighting Cage and Perlman. I won’t spoil the ending but it’s pretty bloody and dramatic and does involve the dead monks littering the abbey coming back to life as zombies. Enjoy!
Outcast
In Outcast, Cage plays a Knight Templar called Gallain who, along with his former brother-in-arms (played by Hayden Christensen), decides to protect the children of an assassinated Chinese emperor from their wicked uncle. The movie is set during the Crusades and features Cage growing a beard, adopting a British accent, and calling himself The White Ghost. It’s an interesting east-meets-west historical take.
In 2019, Nicolas Cage was reported to have gone on his very own grail quest to find the treasure of the Knights Templar. So, big credit to this amazing actor, he’s prepared to live the Templar dream!
If you would like to know more about the Knights Templar, then get your hands on a copy of my book: The Knights Templar – History & Mystery. Published by Pen & Sword and available on Amazon, Waterstones, Barnes & Noble, and WHSmith. Don’t miss out on your copy!
Judging by their tunics they might be teutonic knights rather, but there were templars beside them, which were of course disbanded by then. Also there were some minor crusades in the 14th century, like the raids on some port cities unter the lead of the kingdom of Cyprus, but the dates and battles shown were totally random.