Revealing mistake: When the pirates arrive on shore at Port Royal, Ragetti and Pintel are standing in front of the boats. Ragetti has his false wood eye in his hand, as he sharpens the 'iris' with his knife point. As he does so, the eye socket does not look empty in this shot, only covered. (00:30:45)
Continuity mistake: When Governor Swann is leaning on the desk next to the drawer with the severed hand, his right hand is behind his back. In the close-up shot when he opens the drawer, his right hand is on his stomach, but in the wide shot his right hand is behind him again. (02:02:10)
Continuity mistake: The position of Barbossa's white shirt collar varies within wide and close-up shots, during the first blood ritual with Elizabeth. (01:10:05 - 01:14:40)
Continuity mistake: Barbossa rips the chain and medallion off Elizabeth's neck, puts it into her palm, then cuts her hand. He takes her hand in his and he turns hers over so it's palm down. The chain can be seen in the close-up and wide shot, dangling down between her fingers and the chain is NOT clasped shut. In the next close-up of the chain and medallion falling into the chest, the chain IS clasped shut. (01:11:55)
Continuity mistake: Pintel yells out, "How do we tell?" and his jacket is covering a reasonable amount of the white shirt underneath. In the next shot of him when he's shot by Barbossa, more of the white shirt is visible, so the bullet hole can be seen. (01:12:50)
Continuity mistake: As Elizabeth says, "Lower the anchor on the right side," Mr. Gibbs' right white collar is under the leather strap buckled correctly and Will's neck scarf is crooked. In the next shot, when Elizabeth says, "On the starboard side," Mr. Gibbs' leather strap is not buckled properly, his right white collar is over the strap and Will's neck scarf is straight. When Mr. Gibbs says, "Daft like Jack," his white collar is under the strap again and one end of Mr. Gibbs' neck string is much longer than the other end. Also, Will's right white shirt collar is over his vest. Yet when Mr. Gibbs says, "Do it, you gobs..." the ends of Mr. Gibbs' neck string are even and Will's right white collar is under his vest. (01:24:00)
Deliberate mistake: When Will is staring at Jacoby, another pirate comes up from behind him and hits Will on the head with a solid silver candlestick. The sound it makes when hitting Will's head is a sharp clang, as if it hit another metal, not reverberation. Post production thought it sounded more dramatic and funnier than a thud. (00:35:25)
Continuity mistake: At the Fort, the two columns of soldiers separate and Norrington walks into view. It's shouted, "Right about face," and the soldier behind Norrington on his left has his black bag to his side. When "present arms" is shouted, the soldier's black bag is in front. Also, Governor Swann, in the front wide shot, is standing on the second step from the bottom. In the next close-up, he's standing on a step further up - the soldier to his left in the previous shot was standing on the same step as him. (00:11:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Governor's servant opens the door and is shot by Pintel, the position of the servant's body and also in relation to the door, varies while he's lying on the floor in the three shots of him. (00:32:10)
Continuity mistake: When the barrels are being tossed off the Interceptor there is a shot of a crewman in an orange jacket holding a cannonball in his hands and passing it to someone on his left. As the shot pans to the side, behind that crewman that passed the cannonball, we see part of the head of someone and also see Will's shoulder and arm - he just climbed out from below deck. Yet in the very next shot, Will is just coming up from below deck. (Perhaps better in slow motion.) (01:22:40)
Visible crew/equipment: Just after Will cuts the lines from the Interceptor to the Dauntless, the Interceptor is shown leaving. The next shot is of the back wood plank between the ships falling away. On the deck of the Interceptor, behind the railing, on the right of the screen, is a crew member ducking down, so as not to be seen by the camera. (00:47:10)
Continuity mistake: Elizabeth has a light tan and her hair has lighter streaks running through it, in the shots on the island with Jack. In the following scene, on the Dauntless, her tan is gone and her hair is normal again. Confirmed on commentary. (01:35:00 - 01:40:00)
Continuity mistake: When Barbossa takes the sword out of his own chest, he then stabs Jack with that sword, and he stabs Jack right under the strap and buckle. As Jack walks backwards, into the moonlight, the skeletal Jack appears and now he has the sword over the strap and buckle, in his chest. The length of the sword between the guard and his chest differs greatly, as does the amount of sword that protrudes from his back. (01:55:15)
Continuity mistake: Just before Elizabeth whacks Jacoby, she asks, "You like pain?" and in the first shot as she starts to swing her hair has some waves and curl to it. Mid swing it cuts to the second shot, and when she says, "Try wearing a corset!" her hair is totally flat with no waves or curls whatsoever. Then, in the very next shot it's actually full, wavy and curly. (01:59:45)
Visible crew/equipment: After Will admits to Elizabeth that he loves her, she looks over and sees Cotton's parrot sitting on the flag post. Mullroy is also watching as a black-haired crew member, wearing a short-sleeve, white tee-shirt, can be seen holding the post and shaking it with his bare arm to get the parrot to fly off. (02:06:00)
Continuity mistake: When young Elizabeth holds up the medallion, and she sees the Black Pearl, her fingers are positioned differently in the wide shot and in the close-up shot of the medallion. (00:04:40)
Continuity mistake: At the opening of the scene in the cave of treasures, Jack lifts up a well endowed golden statue, looks at it awhile and tosses it back into the pile, as he clues Will with talk of honesty and dishonesty. Later in the scene, Jack and Barbossa are fighting in front of that same pile and the golden statue that Jack had thrown earlier is now sitting upright behind the chandelier. (01:51:40 - 01:52:40)
Deliberate mistake: Throughout the entire film the metalic rasping 'ching' sound is unrealistically heard, even when drawing swords from something like leather holders. Some examples are, at the cave, Jack draws a sword hanging across the shoulder of one of the pirates, and throws it to Will, whose hands are bound. At Jack's hanging, just before Will throws his sword into the trap door to save Jack, Will draws his sword from the brown leather strap. This is obviously done for dramatic effect. (01:52:10 - 02:06:15)
Continuity mistake: Will has a small tear in his shirt at the right shoulder. Sometimes it's bigger, sometimes it's smaller, and the shape changes throughout the movie. (00:48:30 - 01:22:50)
Revealing mistake: When Barbossa cuts Elizabeth's hand her nails are short. When Will rescues an unconscious Elizabeth at the cave, she reaches for the medallion and her nails are longer. When Will ties the cloth around Elizabeth's hand and she gives him the medallion, her nails are short. However, when Jack says, "Ahh, where's dear William?" her nails are now manicured and much longer. Once she's marooned on the island her nails are short again. Most scenes were filmed out of sequence, hence the difference in nail length. Her nails should have been kept the same short length for the duration of filming. (01:18:35 - 01:29:10)
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