Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Continuity mistake: When Captain Jack Sparrow steps from the sinking ship to Port Royal's dock, he lifts his right leg for the step-off. Yet, when the shot cuts to his feet hitting the dock, Captain Jack steps off on his left foot. (00:10:05)

Continuity mistake: Jack walks past the dock master, behind Jack the desk is on a wagon and the handle is leaning on the left side of the desk. Also the feather quill on the desk is leaning towards the back of the desk. When Jack walks away and takes the sack of money, the handle of the wagon isn't leaning on the desk and the feather quill on the desk is leaning forward towards the front of the desk. (00:10:10)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: In Port Royal, as Jack passes the dock master, he says "Hold up there you. It's a shilling to tie up your boat at the dock." In the wide shot, a man carrying bananas on his left shoulder, (the one with white pants, white shirt, vest and hat) is passing behind Jack. Then, there's a close-up of Jack and a shot of the Jolly Mon. When the dock master says "And I shall need to know your name," in Jack's close-up, that same man starts to pass behind Jack, but by that time, he should be at the gangplank already, and the bananas are now on his right shoulder. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:10:10)

Super Grover

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

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Jack walks down to the dock where Interceptor's moored, Murtogg is sitting on a sack that lies on a crate, his feet are up on a small barrel and behind him to his left are two large barrels, one on top of another. Once Jack's confronted, now the two large barrels are closer to the beam, and the small barrel is up right against the crate. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:11:40)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: On the dock at Port Royal, Jack is speaking with Murtogg and Mullroy, who are guarding the dock from civilians. Seen behind the Marines to their left is the vacant dock edge. Yet when Jack holds Elizabeth hostage, the same dock edge is seen, but in this shot the edge is now filled with barrels and sacks. No one was on the dock between these two scenes. (00:11:45 - 00:18:40)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: When Jack walks down the dock to the Interceptor, Murtogg and Mullroy are sitting with sacks, crates and barrels in a deep shadow, but the sun is seen afar. A few shots later, after they intercepted him, those same sacks, crates and barrel are brightly lit by the sun. The shots were probably filmed at different times of the day. (00:11:45)

Sereenie

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

Continuity mistake: When Elizabeth faints and is falling into the water after Norrington's proposal, there's a shot of her from on the rock. You can see her hat and scarf falling right after. But when the shot moves to Jack and the two guards on the ship, Elizabeth is falling and there is nothing above her - where are the hat and the scarf? There is plenty of time to see the hat and scarf fall too, if they were actually included in the shot, but they simply weren't. (00:15:00)

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

Continuity mistake: After Elizabeth falls off the ramparts, the first shot is of an unconscious Elizabeth under water, and her right shoe is not on, at the heel. In the next two shots, the shoe is perfectly on. (00:15:15)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: After falling off the parapet, Elizabeth is under water, and we see a close-up of the medallion floating freely, causing a tremor in the water. When Jack gets her back on shore and rips open her corset, the medallion is now firmly tucked inside her dress - no way it could have just slipped in there given how insanely tight it was. (00:15:40)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: While underwater, as Jack removes Elizabeth's water-logged dress, his left hand and arm are visibly clean, as well as when he has her on his shoulder at the dock. Then while kneeling over her on the dock, Jack's left hand and arm are extremely grimy and dirty. Yet when Norrington grabs Jack to bring him to Gillette, and while Jack holds Elizabeth hostage, his left hand and arm are clean once again. (00:16:10 - 00:18:40)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: When Elizabeth's maids lace up her corset, obviously both the back and front laces were pulled very tight, as this is the reason for her discomfort and eventual lack of air. After Jack rescues her, as she is on his shoulder we see the two sides on the back of her corset are far apart and the laces in between extremely loose. Yet, when she is lying on the dock, Jack slices the front laces on her supposedly constricting corset so she can breathe again... (00:16:25)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Murtogg and Mullroy rush over to help lift Elizabeth onto the pier. Murtogg drops his gun behind the two posts and Mullroy drops his gun in front of the two right corner posts. In the wide shot, Jack's holding the medallion and Norrington rushes in. Mullroy's gun isn't behind him, at the posts, and Murtogg's gun isn't positioned the same way he dropped it. When Norrington grabs Jack, Mullroy's gun is lying in front of the posts again. Also, the ropes' position changes in these shots too. (00:16:30)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: Jack cuts the ties of Elizabeth's corset and drops the knife down vertically, with the blade pointing up, right beside her head. In the wide shot, just as Norrington runs up, the knife is now horizontal. No one touched the knife. When he removes the corset, in Jack's shot, he hands it to Murtogg to hold and puts his hand down. In the next shot of Murtogg, Jack's hand is still on the corset. (00:16:35)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: After Jack rescues Elizabeth, he slices the front ties of the corset she is wearing, and gives the corset to Murtogg. As he hands Murtogg the corset in the first shot, the corset is right side up, because we see the waist flaps at the bottom. In the next shot, as Jack's hand lets go of the corset Murtogg is seen holding the corset upside down with the shoulder straps at the bottom. In the next shot, a close-up of Jack, in the background Murtogg is holding the corset right side up, and the waist flap is seen. (00:16:35)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: After cutting the corset, Jack picks up the medallion in a close-up shot of Elizabeth and her hand is next to her head. In the next wide shot, as Norrington rushes over, her arm is stretched out, up past her head. In this wide shot, the neckline of her slip is different than the two close-ups, before and after. In her next close-up, her hand is back near her head again. (00:16:45)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: On the dock, after the rescue, Jack sees the medallion on Elizabeth's neck. In the next shot as Norrington and his men come, we see that Jack's coat, hat, and other effects are lying scattered around on the ground. Yet later, when Mullroy bends down, he quickly picks up Jack's things to show to Norrington, and the gun, compass and sword are neatly placed on Jack's hat. (00:16:50)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Near the beginning of the film, after Jack rescues Elizabeth and her father gives her a jacket, she stuffs the medallion down her shirt, Jack then takes her hostage, where the Medallion is visible around her neck. (00:17:00 - 00:19:00)

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

Continuity mistake: On the docks, when Norrington exposes Jack's scar and tattoo on his right arm, he says, "Well, well, Jack Sparrow, isn't it?" and in the wide shot Murtogg holds the middle part of his gun. In the close-up when Murtogg says, "He said he'd come to commandeer one," he holds it near the bayonet, yet in the next wide shot he holds it in the middle again. (00:17:40)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: When Gillette puts the iron shackles on Jack, as Elizabeth offers her protest, in the shots facing them, there is a barrel with a green sack on top of it and two wicker rods against the stone wall. However, when Norrington says, "Indeed," then when Jack says, "Finally," and also when Jack says, "I saved your life. You save mine. We're square," the barrel, sack and rods are not there. (00:18:25)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Jack holds the chain to Elizabeth's neck, and subsequently swings about, there are about ten links between the wrist shackles. When he tosses the links over the rope, before he slides down, there are at least fifteen attached links. Then at the blacksmith shop, when Jack sits at the anvil, there are eight links, and after he breaks it there are three links dangling from the right shackle and seven dangling from the left, totaling ten. (00:19:50)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
More quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
More trivia for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Question: There are numerous mentions of the fact that Depp based his performance as Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards. But I'm sure I saw an interview/making-of programme where he said that Jack Sparrow was a combination of two real-life 'characters'; one was Keith Richards, and try as I might, I can't remember the other one. Did anyone else see this? Who was the other inspiration for Jack Sparrow? (It may have been another actor e.g. Orlando Bloom talking *about* Johnny Depp's influences etc.).

Answer: On Disc 3, Johnny explains, "Take something as solid as Keith Richards and combine it with Pepé Le Pew... I felt... he would resemble a modern day Rastafarian..." Pepé Le Pew is a Looney Tunes cartoon character, based on Charles Boyer's romantic character, Pepé Le Moko. Pepé Le Pew, however, is a romantic amorous cartoon skunk and he has a huge flaw - his 'odor', which he emits in a grand way.

Super Grover

More questions & answers from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.