On April 20, Nicolas Cage was interviewed on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” to promote “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent,” in which he plays the character of “Nick Cage.” It was his first talk show appearance in over 14 years, so the two had a lot of material to cover — including a rumor Kimmel heard from Cage’s “National Treasure” co-star, Diane Kruger. In her appearance on Kimmel’s show weeks before Cage’s cameo, she claimed her former co-star had bought a bat cave (yes, a literal cave with bats — not of the “Batman” variety). Krugerclaimedthat while on-location near Mount Rushmore, he snatched up the cave without a second thought after someone casually mentioned it was for sale.
After Kimmel brought up the anecdote, Cage explained he had developed an interest in spelunking, aka the art of exploring cave systems. So after hearing the North Dakota cave was for sale, as Kruger had described, Cage paid a visit to the cave and was immediately impressed by its “stalactites” and “milky quartz-like crystalline walls.” He compared the milky white appearance to unfiltered sake, thinking, “‘I’d like to buy this and just go down in the bottom of the cave and get totally naked with my [then] wife and drink Nigori [sake].'” He concluded, “Needless to say, I didn’t buy the cave.”
Who knows? Maybe if Cage actually had purchased the cave, he could have found a real-life national treasure of his own.