Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Deliberate mistake: The East India Trading Company in reality, branded pirates with a 'P' on their foreheads, never on their arms, the way Captain Jack has it. It was deliberately decided to be historically inaccurate, feeling it looked better on Depp's arm. (Confirmed on commentary.) (00:17:20)

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Deliberate mistake: During the pirates' attack on Port Royal, when they go about cutting and slicing, it is very obvious many times, especially in close-ups, that fists, weapons, etc., do not make contact, and the victims usually have a delayed reaction or react before actually being hit. This type of thing occurs numerous times aboard Interceptor, on Tortuga, and Isla de Muerta. (00:31:20)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Deliberate mistake: Not only is the angle of the moonlight that shines through Jack's prison cell window intentionally exaggerated to enhance the shots with Jack, doggy, Koehler and Twigg, but in relevant shots, the moonlight is not seen coming through the window or the broken wall. Nor is it reflected on the floor outside the cells or in the cell next to Jack, particularly in the shots from the dog's POV looking up the corridor towards Jack. (00:36:00)

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

Deliberate mistake: After Will and Jack swing aboard Interceptor, Will cuts four lines from the belaying pins on Interceptor, that lead up to Dauntless and each line snaps back. As Interceptor pulls away though, we see other lines that are still connected to Dauntless, but then the shot cuts away. Because of a mishap during filming, it was the only shot Director, Gore Verbinski had of Interceptor pulling away from Dauntless. (00:47:05)

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Deliberate mistake: After Barbossa takes the apple from Jack and throws it into the water, the sailing Interceptor is shown. Out on the edge of the bow are two men. One is dressed as Will, but it is neither Orlando nor his body double, Mark. The man behind Will is obviously not one of Jack's crew either. (01:21:15)

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Deliberate mistake: Jack wears one pair of boots throughout the movie; however, the heel has at least two discernible heights, including the ones worn in the underwater close-up. One kind is worn by Tony Angelotti (Johnny Depp's stunt double) and the others are worn by Depp. When Jack steps onto the dock from the Jolly Mon and when he's balancing himself on Will's sword at the attempted hanging, he's wearing the higher heel boots. As Jack crawls across the broken mast chasing the monkey, and when he dives off the Pearl's plank, the lower heel boots are obvious. (01:34:40 - 02:06:30)

Super Grover

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)

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

Deliberate mistake: As was admitted on the commentary, the angle of the moonlight in the stateroom, which has a deep overhang outside of the doors, was deliberately vastly exaggerated, to enhance the shots with Governor Swann battling with the disembodied skeletal arm. (01:56:25)

Super Grover

Deliberate mistake: When Jack Sparrow and Will Turner take a rowboat and put it over their heads upside-down and walk on the bottom of the harbor (about 20 feet deep by the looks of it), wouldn't the rowboat rise to the surface? The amount of air trapped in the boat appears to be around 3-5 cubic meters, even at three that would provide plenty of lift to lift a boat twice that size and both people to the surface. This isn't even taking into account that wood and people are both fairly buoyant in and of themselves, even without the air pocket to aid. This scene is a direct homage to an earlier pirate movie, The Crimson Pirate, in which three characters do the same thing, hence this is a deliberate mistake.

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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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: 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

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