What Is the Treasure of Foggy Mountain? Is It Real?

Directed by Paul Briganti, Peacock’s ‘Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain’ is a comedy film that chronicles the life of three best friends whose frustration with their mundane life leads them to embark on an adventure to find the treasure buried somewhere on the Foggy Mountain. The film features members of the comedy group Please Don’t Destroy as fictionalized versions of themselves as they search for this lost and mysterious treasure in their hometown. Given the movie’s focus on the treasure, its importance, historical connections, and life-changing powers, viewers must be wondering whether it exists in real life. SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Mysterious Treasure of Foggy Mountain

In ‘Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain,’ the titular treasure plays an important role in the narrative as John, Ben, and Martin search for it while growing as friends and individuals. However, unlike most treasure-hunting movies, the actual treasure is revealed during the opening narration itself. According to the narration, the treasure believed to have been lost somewhere on Foggy Mountain is a golden bust of the last queen of France before the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette, laden with valuable jewels and gemstones.

The bust was stolen by Jean Pierre La Roche, who escaped with it to America and hid it somewhere on the Foggy Mountain. La Roche also created a compass acting as a map and key to unlocking the treasure. As children, John, Ben, and Martin discover the compass but only embark on a mission to find the lost treasure after getting bored with their stagnating lives as adults in a small town. Ultimately, the quest to find the lost treasure of Foggy Mountain brings the three friends closer while helping them live their dream lives.

The Treasure is Not Real

Despite being the focal point of the film’s narrative, the Treasure of Foggy Mountain is almost certainly not real. The treasure is hidden atop a fictional mountain, which partly confirms that the bust of Marie Antoinette is not some actual lost historical artifact. However, the hidden treasure does seem to have some ties with reality as it is connected to a popular and influential real-life figure from the French monarchy.

In reality, the jewels of Marie Antoinette were hidden for nearly two hundred years during the political turmoil of the French Revolution. These jewels were unveiled at an auction in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2018 after being away from the public eye for almost 200 years. While these real-life heirlooms did not have an actual bust of Marie Antoinette, they create some semblance of reality around the fictional treasure in the movie.

Furthermore, the comedy trio known as Please Don’t Destroy, who play the lead roles in the movie, has cited several films as an inspiration behind the treasure-hunting plot. In an interview, Ben Marshall stated that popular films such as ‘The Goonies’ directed by Richard Donner, and the ‘Indiana Jones‘ films directed by Steven Spielberg were the primary inspiration behind the movie, which revolves around treasure hunting. Hence, based on the facts and words from the creators behind the project, it is easy to deduce that the Treasure of Foggy Mountain is a fictional treasure despite its life-changing influence over John, Ben, and Martin.