This alone is a powerful image of civil rights, yet the scene evolves into one of the chief antagonist of the film trying to intercept the secret codes from the child. These codes are critical to unlocking the anagram on the back of the Declaration and while the antagonists succeed in learning from the boy what he is doing, Ben Gates' team misses being captured. This tension in the film continues with the conflict centering on knowledge of the treasure, and all along the real treasure is freedom. The many explosive scenes that Director Jerry Bruckheimer is famous for also underscore the liberalism within this film. Starting with the first explosive scene where the Charlotte, an ancient whaling ship that contains a critical piece of evidence that will be used for solving another clue leading to the location of the map of the Templar's fortune. The center of conflict in this scene leads to the destruction of invaluable historical artifacts as Gates' character battles for the knowledge to find the treasure and with it, the freedom of his family being absolved of generations of ridicule. The conflict centers on greed vs. The greater good, and in the case of the explosion and nearly fatal conflicts at the Charlotte, freedom again escapes yet barely. The pursuit of the Templar's treasure for the gain to mankind in the end escapes multiple conflict-filled scenes, each leading closer to the liberation of the fortune for the benefit of mankind and use in understanding previous civilizations.

The conflict within Gates himself is also fascinating. After having decided that the best strategy is to steal the Declaration of Independence before the antagonists...

That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration. Had they lost more they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered and oh, oh, my personal favorite, had their entrails cut out and burned! So, here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right. What they knew was right."
As a very educated man, Gates has degrees from Georgetown in American History, a graduate degree from MIT in Mechanical Engineering, and impressive diving credentials from the U.S. navy. He is the 21st century equivalent of the Minute Man, and is torn terribly in his own mind regarding this urge to steal America's most precious document yet knowing that if he does nothing, he is committing an act of treason. This conflict gets played out on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial prior to the scene where Gates provides the speech above, and yet his persona is racked with guilt over the thought of not taking action and this in the end defeats his need to conform. Perhaps this is the most critical aspect of conflicts and underscoring of liberalism. The message is that the citizen must be a patriot and support liberalism, and if it comes to challenging the status quo, so be it. The passion for freedom, and not for greed or material gain really anchors this film on the side of liberalism, with the key focus being on what an individual and citizen must do first for their country, and seeking nothing from their nation in return.