Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Question: When the Black Pearl arrives at Port Royal, and the two pirates, Ragetti and Pintel go after Elizabeth, she runs to her bedroom and throws fire on Ragetti's head. These pirates are cursed, and therefore cannot feel anything. Why then, does he yell as if he could feel the fire? Isn't that a mistake?

linita

Answer: Ragetti (amongst others) is indicating that the undead pirates do feel pain. In example Ragetti talks about his wooden eye and how it "splinters terribly". He also screams that the coal is hot and that it burns him. Another pirate screams in agony when being stabbed. As Barbossa states; they can't feel pleasure in any form but mentions nothing about pain. The curse is meant to punish the greedy who stole/steals the gold. What better punishment than let them suffer by not feeling what wealth can bring in form of pleasure by flesh and food but only take away that part and leave the "bad" feelings like pain?

Fairly logical - just one slight chink: At the end, when Jack and Barbossa fight, Jack stabs Barbossa right through the middle - if the curse is punishing them in this way, Barbossa should be feeling quite a lot of pain. Yet he just sighs, pulls the sword out, and stabs Jack with it.

When Barbossa is explaining the curse to Elizabeth he says, verbatim, "I feel nothing." Therefore, Ragetti can't feel that the coals are hot.

Chosen answer: No, this is not a mistake. Ragetti is just reacting to it in panic, believing that he really can feel pain, even though he cannot.

raywest

Answer: I think it is a deliberate mistake so the curse isn't revealed too early. If he did not react to the coal, the moviegoers would mark that as a mistake that he didn't feel pain from hot coals.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl mistake picture Video

Visible crew/equipment: Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea. (02:12:35)

Super Grover

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Barbossa: You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!

More quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Trivia: Johnny Depp uses the phrase "Interesting..." as his trademark in many of the movies he stars in, including Sleepy Hollow. He uses it in PotC when Koehler's skeletal hand tries to grab him in prison.

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Question: After Elizabeth is brought to the Pearl, she threatens to drop the medallion overboard. Barbossa feigns disinterest but when Elizabeth pretends to drop it, the pirates gasp in panic. Why? So she drops it, big deal. They can't drown, the gold "calls to them" so what does it matter if she were to drop it?

Jacordx

Chosen answer: Because they'd have to find it. The gold may "call to them", but it obviously doesn't function as a millimetre perfect homing beacon or they'd never have missed the medallion years earlier when they attacked the ship carrying the young Will. Elizabeth drops it into the sea and they're going to have to spend what could be months trying to locate it - currents could take it well away from the dropping point. They've found the final missing piece; they're potentially just hours away from finally being cured. The last thing they want is to see it thrown into the sea.

Tailkinker

Well, if the crew was anxious to get the medallion then why did they act like they weren't interested in it before Elizabeth pretended to drop it?

Reverse psychology.

Ssiscool

What do you mean by reverse psychology?

By showing they are not interested in the medallion they are hoping Elizabeth will just drop it on the floor or chuck it to them as it's of no real value. However when she releases a bit of chain and the medallion drops, and the pirates lurch forward revealing that they really want the medallion and as such Elizabeth now has the upper hand in negotiations.

Ssiscool

I'm guessing Elizabeth wasn't fooled when the pirates showed disinterest in the medallion.

That's not called reverse psychology, which is used to encourage someone to change his or her mind. Doesn't work with a threat. They are feigning indifference to hide the importance of the object.

lionhead

They didn't want to give her an advantage over them. Pretending to not care about the coin would make Elizabeth think that the coin is worthless and cannot use it to barter a deal.

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