Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Question: At the very beginning of the film, young Henry boards the Flying Dutchman to speak to Will. When Will looks behind him, he sees the shadows of several crew member starting to make their way towards him and he suddenly gets frightened that the crew will see Henry. Why would he react this way? Since he's captain of the Flying Dutchman, if his men saw Henry, Will could order them to leave Henry alone.

Answer: He's probably worried that either the crew will attack or at very least frighten Henry. Or he just doesn't want Henry to see how horribly the curse can affect people.

But because Will is ferrying souls to the after life, like Davy Jones should have done for the full time, he was captain of the Dutchman. There is no curse that would make the men look like sea monsters. They only started to look like that because Jones denied his duties after 10 years of service, when Calipso didn't show up. So the crew would look like normal men, so Will being worried that Henry will be frightened by them, can't be the reason he started to panic.

Question: Why was Henry excited when he saw Carina's ankles?

Answer: It would have been considered "risque" to see a woman's ankles. Well-bred, modest ladies always wore clothing that covered most of their bodies.

raywest

Question: What happens to Will's heart after the curse is broken? Last we saw it, at the end of "At World's End," Elizabeth had possession of it and promised to keep it safe. Did it just spontaneously return to Will at some point?

Answer: There was never any explanation other than Elizabeth kept it in the chest. As both the Elizabeth and Will characters are rumored to return in POTC 6, the question may be answered in that installment.

raywest

Question: I just watched the movie and now I just have one question; wasn't it Tia Dalma who gave Jack the compass? In Dead Man's Chest she asks him if the compass he bought from her can't lead him to Davy Jones' chest. But in the newest movie a captain gives the compass to Jack.

Answer: Jack could've been sent by his former captain to obtain it from Tia Dalma.

Answer: Jack was quite young when he first come into possession of the compass. In the following years he could have lost it, bartered it, had it stolen or whatever before it came back into his possession by way of Tia Dalma.

raywest

Question: What does the skeleton bar joke Jack's uncle says mean? Was it just supposed to be nonsense and not make sense?

Answer: The joke in its entirety is "Skeleton goes into a bar. Orders a beer, and a mop." What the joke means is, since the skeleton is just bones and has no body, the beer would just pass through the skeleton's body and then spill all over the floor when it tried to drink. The skeleton would then have to use the mop to clean up the spilled beer.

Casual Person

Question: Why did Will tell young Henry not to ask for Jack's help in breaking the curse that was on him? Jack was a pirate but he was also shown as willing to help people, especially Will and Elizabeth.

Answer: Jack, as a pirate, by his very own nature can't be trusted. By trusting Jack Henry could end up in a worse predicament. A good example is in Dean Man's Chest when Jack tricks Will into going over to the Dutchman to settle his debt with Davey Jones.

Ssiscool

Answer: Will knows that Jack often acts in his own best interest, and therefore, can never fully be trusted. Will also likely does not want his son exposed to Jack's pirate world.

raywest

Question: The breaking of the Trident cures all curses. So why is Davy Jones still cursed in the end credits?

Answer: It's unknown why he is still cursed, though that will likely be answered in the next film.

raywest

Answer: My take on it is that the Trident only breaks curses if you want the curse broken. In the case of Davy Jones, he didn't want the curse broken as he enjoyed being a "monster." William however didn't get a choice as it was either he becomes Captain or he dies.

Question: In the post-credits scene what was it under the bed?

Answer: In the post credits scene, a silhouette of Davy Jones is seen entering the bedroom and Will awakens, assuming it was a dream. What is under the bed is a small puddle of water and some barnacles that presumably fell off Davy Jones' body. The scene is trying to imply that Davy Jones is back.

Casual Person

Question: Why was Will starting to become a "fish person"? Davy Jones and his crew only turned into "fishes" because he neglected his duties. If Will is still undertaking his duties then he shouldn't start having growths such as the algae and the starfish (seen when Henry summons the Dutchman at the start of the film).

Answer: There was never an explanation and it was just glossed over. The first Pirates film was meant as a stand-alone movie. Due to its phenomenal success, the story line was reversed-engineered into a trilogy, with many implausible and/or inconsistent plot elements added. When the fourth and fifth films were made, there were even more inconsistencies, including that Will, who once broke the Dutchman curse, is now inexplicably cursed, along with the Flying Dutchman ship and crew. One explanation is that the curse was reactivated after Davy Jones was somehow resurrected. Then it was supposed to be that the only way to break all sea curses was by destroying Poseidon's trident. It was all badly muddled.

raywest

Question: Why doesn't Barbossa use Blackbeard's sword to control his and Salazar's ship in battle? It isn't broken because he brings back the Pearl.

Answer: The sword only controls Blackbeard's ship. Not the Pearl or Salazar's ship.

In On Stranger Tides Barbossa said that the Pearl turned against them, the rigging had come to life because of Blackbeard.

Question: Why would Henry become a sailor in the British Royal Navy knowing he would be abused and mistreated by the Navy?

Answer: It was a common occupation for many men, who knew it was a hard life. Sailors were generally treated fairly and were well fed and housed as long they obeyed orders and followed the rules. Punishments for any wrong-doing could be moderate to severe depending on the circumstances. Henry knew this when he enlisted. He was not being abused. He was punished for having done something wrong.

raywest

Question: They mention Poseidon's Tomb and his trident is outside it. I get that his trident was stolen from the mermaids but what happened to Poseidon? Where is he? Is he in the tomb and if so how did he die? Why isn't he trying to get his trident back?

Answer: It is unknown what happened to Poseidon, and whether or not he is in the tomb or if he is alive or dead. These appear to be clues that are most likely leading to the next sequel in the POTC series.

raywest

Chosen answer: After Jack, Henry and Carina are captured at Hangman's Bay, she is given a dress so she can be the bridesmaid in the wedding of Jack to Pig Kelly's sister.

Question: Can 12 horses really pull a huge building like that? Cause I know they put wheels on the thing in real life, so wouldn't that mean that the horses couldn't actually pull the building and so it was very fake?

Answer: No, they could not. Even if the building was light enough for the horses to pull, it would have to be one so flimsy as to be unstable and it would almost immediately disintegrate.

raywest

Answer: Depending on the weight of the building and if you were using Draft horses, they would be able to at least make it move a little bit. They certainly wouldn't be able to canter (or trot for that matter) as depicted in the film however! 12 Draft horses weighing the average of 2200 pounds each can between them pull just shy of 2 tonnes of dead weight (something without wheels for instance) with ease. They can pull heavier loads (up to around 5 tonnes) but it would be extremely detrimental to the horses' health.

Question: Why were Henry's coat sleeves ripped off after he demanded that the ship go in another direction?

Answer: They're marking him as treasonous. He's countermanding the lawful orders of his commanders, which can be seen as the start of mutiny. And when he's confronted in the hospital (0:25:44), Scarfield says "Your sleeves have been ripped. The mark of treason."

Garlonuss

Question: Jack's past was left very vague and inconsistent, in the film. Like who was the "last" pirate Captain who died and gave the compass to Jack, and why did he give it to Jack, he wasn't anybody special at the time? Salazar said he killed all the pirates, and Jack's ship was the last, how would that leave the world to be as it is, in the future, with all the pirate lords, and amounts of pirates still existing?

Answer: Jack was with the Captain as he lay dying, plus he figured Jack showed promise as a pirate. Dead Men Tell No Tales takes place almost 15 to 20 years after the events of World's End. Elizabeth became pregnant at the end of the movie. The end credit scene showed her and 10 year old Henry walking to the coast to see Will arrive The last movie had Henry in his late teens.

Question: Why did the bank people open the safe in the beginning of the movie? I get that they were trying to demonstrate the safety of the vault, but how does opening it do that? Feels like something written just to help the story move on.

Answer: You answered your own question. It was written that way to serve the plot line, even if it was illogical.

raywest

Question: What was Jack's original plan for robbing the bank in the beginning of the movie? Cause when the safe gets stuck and the building starts moving he says "this was not part of the plan."

Answer: It was never specified what his plan was, nor was it important to the overall story, but whatever it was, he never expected the building to start moving. The entire scene is merely a plot device for Jack's entrance into the story in a typically flamboyant manner.

raywest

Question: Wasn't the crew of the Black Pearl trapped in the bottle? I'm just wondering how Marty got out or why he made no appearance in "On Stranger Tides"?

Answer: There's no definitive answer to this because it was not explained what had happened to the rest of the crew or whether or not they were aboard the Black Pearl when it was shrunk. Only the monkey was shown to be on it.

raywest

Question: If Barbossa claimed he left Carina at an orphanage for her to have a better life, why would he let her be arrested and sent to death for alleged witchcraft?

Answer: After he left Carina at the orphanage, anything that happened to her as she got older, he wasn't made aware of. So he had no knowledge of her being arrested and sentenced to death for witchcraft. If he had, he probably would have gone to rescue Carina.

Factual error: Jack Sparrow says he loves the French because "they invented mayonnaise." The film is set in the 1750s. The egg-based sauce known as mayonnaise was developed in the early 1800s. The Oxford English Dictionary says the word dates from 1815.

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Trivia: The Latin inscription on the diary reads "Verum omna simul astra", which means "All the stars speak the truth always."

More trivia for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

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