Question: What's with the East Indian Trading Company? Norrington and Elizabeth mention it. I'm also figuring that the scars and the "P" brand Jack showed Elizabeth have something to do with it?
Question: What was so bad about the bearing's to the Isla De Morta that there was a mutiny back when Jack was captain of the Black Pearl?
Answer: The island was almost impossible to get to and had a large treasure. Jack, as captain would have taken a greater share of the profits, so once the rest of the pirates knew the co-ordinates, they didn't need Jack anymore and got rid of him to increase their share. They were being greedy but hey - PIRATES!
Question: Jack mentions twice that eunochs have wonderful singing voices. Why would a eunoch have a wonderful singing voice? And is calling someone a eunoch a really bad insult of something? And how can all the French be eunochs?
Answer: Primarily in the Middle Ages, but both before and after as well, preadolescent boys had their testicles cut off to preserve their voices by preventing the sexual changes of puberty. They then maintained the high voices of their youth through adulthood, though they never physically matured. So to call someone a eunoch is to say they are a person with no balls, and all the connotation thereof. Hence the insult to the French.
Question: When Norrington and his crew successfully win back their ship from the pirates when the curse is lifted, the soldiers begin to chant something. What are they chanting and what does it mean?
Answer: They're shouting "huzzah", which was a traditional sailor's cheer. The modern-day cheers "hurrah" and "hooray" derived from this word.
Question: In the beginning of the movie when Elizabeth falls in the water with the medallion, it radiates some sort of enery...hence, this is how the pirates know the medallion is there. Right before the pirates Pintel and Ragetti find Elizabeth in the closet they say that "the gold calls to them". So my question is, how come they didn't find it 8 years ago when Will had it on his neck on the boat in the beginning of the movie...if the gold "calls" them? Wouldn't they know that the gold was now on the other boat? And why did the energy come out only when it hit the water?
Answer: They probably weren't looking for it until after it was safely locked in a secret drawer and inactive. Once in the water, the power of the gold was reactivated. It was about 10 years between the time Elizabeth found Will and the pirates refer to being cursed for 10 years and it taking them a while to figure out that being cursed wasn't all that great.
Question: I don't understand the term "Davey Jones' Locker", who exactly was Davey Jones?
Answer: The phrase "Davy Jones' Locker" refers to the bottom of the sea, the resting place of drowned seamen. Origins of the phrase are deeply buried and there are many possible sources, ranging from "Jones" being a corruption of the Biblical name Jonah, who was swallowed by a whale, to a reference to a 16th-century pub owner named David Jones who had an unsavory practice of drugging unwary sailors and storing them in a locker till they could be pressganged aboard a ship. Still another reference suggests that David Jones was a fearsome pirate who frequently forced his enemies to walk the plank, thus having them end up at the bottom of the sea. The first clear usage of the phrase comes from Tobias Smollett, who wrote in "The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle" in 1751 that "...this same Davy Jones, according to the mythology of sailors, is the fiend that presides over all the evil spirits of the deep...". In any case, the real Davy Jones (if there was one) is unknown. Most of these tales are believed to be folklore but the phrase has still passed into the pirate lexicon.
Question: Why exactly do the pirates need Bootstrap Bill's blood to lift the curse? What is so special about his lifeblood that renders it capable of lifting a mythical curse that quite obviously predates him?
Answer: He took one coin from the treasure, thus he got cursed along with the other pirates who did. For the curse to be lifted, *all* of those who took a coin need 1) to give back their coin and 2) to give some of their own blood. Since Bootstrap's somewhere in the ocean's depths, tied to a cannon, the only way for the pirates to lift the curse is to find his coin and put it back, then find his son (which they know about and who is of the same blood as he) to make the blood sacrifice.
Question: In the scene where Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, Jack is walking to a higher part of the island. He then imitates Elizabeth by saying something like "'It must have been terrible for you, Jack. Must have been terrible.' Well, it bloody is now." He then sees Norrington's ship approach the island and says, "There'll be no living with her after this." What does he mean when he says that?
Answer: That she was absolutely correct when she presumed that lighting a 1,000-foot signal fire with the remaining rum would bring the ship to them. And, as such, the knowledge that she was right would go to her head.
Question: How did Jack escape from the marooned island the first time? His explanation was something about rum and trade routes but I didn't understand it.
Chosen answer: Traders had been storing their goods on the island, hidden in the bunker. When he was first on the island he simply got a lift with them on their ship when they came to collect their goods. Now however the bunker is empty and he knows that the traders won't be back.
Question: What music is played in the scene of Norrington's promotion ceremony, where he receives the sword from governor Swann?
Answer: It's an instrumental version of the song Rule Britannia.
Question: Why was the original composer Alan Silvestri fired?
Answer: On 1/21/05 in "Battling Monsters with Alan Silvestri" an interview by Ron Goldwasser, Mr. Silvestri explains that he was hired by Gore Verbinski for the Jerry Bruckheimer film and in the end, "I think Jerry was much more comfortable working in a way that he had worked historically, with people he had worked with historically, and it seemed the best idea for us to part our ways." He further stated it was just not the right chemistry but the parting was not acrimonious. Full interview can be found at: http://www.soundtrack.net/features/article/?id=137.
Question: Does anyone know what the music is called that is used in the blooper reel on the second disc of the DVD?
Answer: The makers did not give it a name.
Question: What is the music in the trailer for the film called?
Answer: It was taken from various sources, most notably the films Backdraft and Drop Zone (music by Hans Zimmer) and Danny Elfman's score for Planet of the Apes. There's also a piece of music used called "Voices of War" by X-Ray Dog.
Question: Why is it Norringtons initial response to Jack saving Elizabeth to kill him?
Answer: Because Jack is a pirate and Norrington hates pirates.
Question: Does anybody know where I can get a script/transcript of the film?
Answer: There are several places that it's available. It's here - sfy.iv.ru/pdf/pirates_of_the_caribbean(2003).pdf - as an Acrobat file, which is the full script, containing directions and so forth. A transcript can be found here - http://www.hostultra.com/~vampfiles/piratesscript2.html - all the dialogue but much less detail on actions and so forth.
Question: Does anyone have even a ballpark clue on what year this movie took place? I'm thinking mid to late 1700s.
Answer: They didn't deliberately aim at any particular year, but, according to Jerry Bruckheimer, they aimed at the time period between 1720 and 1750 (although he also says that they didn't worry too much about precise historical accuracy due to it being a fantasy). If you want to narrow it a bit further - at Norrington's promotion ceremony they're playing "Rule Britannia", which was composed in 1740. Bearing these two points in mind, you could fairly say that the film occurs at some point in the 1740's.
Question: Is there a PotC sequel in the works? I assume the scene after the credits wasn't there for nothing...
Answer: The working title at present is: Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Treasures of the Lost Abyss, due out in 2005. So far the cast signed includes Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley. Gore Verbinski will direct and Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio are the writers again.
Answer: Basically, they were "THE" trading company in the 17th century. Most of the shipping of the world was either through them or one of their other holdings. For more information about the East Indian Trading Company, try this link: http://india_resource.tripod.com/eastindia.html. The story behind the "P" scar is that if a pirate was caught by a the EITC, they would put a "P" brand on their forehead, to let everyone know that they person was a pirate.
Bruce Minnick