Question: Why did Jack cut himself before throwing the coin to Will? I thought the curse only needed Will's blood?
Tailkinker
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?
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.
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?
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.
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.
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.
Question: Why does Elizabeth take the medallion with her after Will rescues her? Surely she must have known the pirates would come after her if she took it.
Answer: They're going to come after her anyway - she's really the only lead they have to finding Bootstrap Bill's real child (at least until Jack appears on the scene, but she doesn't know that). If she has the medallion, then she has leverage - the pirates need it, so it could potentially be used as a bargaining chip. If she leaves it behind, she loses that potential advantage.
Question: When Jack saves Elizabeth from drowning, why is the Governor's first reaction to have Jack shot before he even discovers he's a pirate? He didn't know Jack was a pirate because he's shocked a moment later when Norrington reveals Jack is a pirate.
Answer: Jack's just stripped Elizabeth down to her underdress and, while Swann may not know that he's a pirate, it's pretty easy to tell that Jack's not exactly the sort of person who should be stripping governor's daughters. Swann's over-protectiveness and sense of social outrage might be a bit extreme, but given that he's just seen his daughter fall from a high cliff, nearly drown, then be dragged from the sea by a ruffian, a degree of over-reaction isn't entirely unreasonable.
Question: In the scene in the forge where Will and Jack are fighting, Jack asks "Do you think this wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?" Then Will says "You threatened Miss Swann" I never got this, Jack says something after this, I have watched that three second bit over and over and I still don't know what he says, can anyone straighten this out for me?
Answer: He says "Only a little".
Question: What is the "3rd" or "Lost" disc that I've seen mentioned? I have the 2-disc edition. How do you get the 3rd disc?
Answer: It was released as part of a three-disc edition. As far as I know, there's no way to get it without simply buying the three-disc version, which is probably not worth doing if you already own the two-disc edition.
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: When the pirates have Will in the cave and are just about to lift the curse, why does Jack stop them and make them go out and fight when they can't die? Isn't he on the 'good' team?
Answer: Jack sends them out into combat so that, when Will lifts the curse, they'll be unprepared for it and almost totally at the mercy of Norrington's men. Had he let them continue lifting the curse on their terms, they'd be aware of their new mortality and would be more prepared for a possible battle on leaving the caves. Plus, of course, Will would be dead, which Jack would prefer to avoid.
Question: There's something I don't understand: To lift the curse, the pirates need the blood of every person who took the gold. In the end they had the blood of every pirate and of Jack. But what about Will who had to make the blood sacrifice instead of his father? He never cut himself.
Answer: Yes he did - the cut is visible on the palm of his hand as he drops the last medallions into the chest.
Question: In the cave when Barbossa is about to kill Will and Jack stops it, Will says: "You've been planning this from the beginning" Has he? Or is this all an elaborate ruse to double cross the pirates? Are they working together both in the scheme or not?
Answer: It seems reasonably clear from the look that Jack gives Will as he says "Wait to lift the curse... until the opportune moment" that he's planning the double-cross at that point, with the aim of getting the majority of the pirates out of the cave and into a place where they'll be left at a massive disadvantage once the curse lifts. Will's not really in on the plan, but he seems to get what Jack's up to and plays along, hence the "you've been planning this from the beginning" stuff.
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: Does anyone know where I can get the plans for the Black Pearl? If not, maybe the HMS Dauntless? And what is the status of those ships? (i.e. blown up, put away, etc.).
Answer: Neither ship existed - they were both shells, built over large barges. The only real ship was the Interceptor, in reality named the Lady Washington, and even that was modified for the film. The Black Pearl was modelled on a real ship that stands in a museum in Stockholm.
Answer: According to the Gore Verbinski / Johnny Depp commentary on the DVD, his first name is Hector.
He is named in the 3rd movie, as well.
Question: Jack Sparrow was never cursed by the "aztec gold medallion" until near the end of the movie, he grabbed one gold medallion. At that time, he and Will started to fight the cursed pirates and it has been shown to all the watchers that he, Jack cannot be killed, after Barbossa stabbed him. Knowing that the cursed pirates were looking for William Turner's blood (he wasn't cursed, nor was Elizabeth Swan) to disenchant the curse, how come Jack Sparrow cut his hand too? If Jack is cursed, how can he bleed?
Answer: It's shown on at least one other occasion (when Elizabeth stabs Barbossa) that those under the effects of the curse do bleed when stabbed. They have to in order to lift the curse, which requires a sacrifice of blood from each person affected by it, or, in Bootstrap Bill Turner's case, a close blood relative (namely his son).
Question: I want to know: after the curse has been lifted, we see Barbossa's crew surrendering to Norrington's crew. Some of them collapse. My friend tells me this is because these pirates have been 'killed' or stabbed many times before, and once they are human, they therefore die. My question is: Is this true; and if so, why does this not happen to Jack, who was stabbed with Barbossa's sword when he became cursed?
Answer: No, it's not true. There's a vague suggestion in the film that the change from human to skeletal form (or vice versa) causes wounds to be healed. Barbossa, for example, dies of Jack's gunshot, despite the curse being in effect when he's actually shot - he doesn't change during that timeframe, therefore the wound is still in place. Jack, on the other hand, has shifted form multiple times since being run through, so his wound has been dealt with. Likewise Pintel, who was shot through the heart by Barbossa earlier in the film, is seen to survive, as he has shifted several times since then. Only a few of the pirates actually seem to die on the Dauntless - any wounds sustained during the battle should have been healed by their final shift back to human form (when the curse lifts). Any subsequent deaths can be put down to the pirate in question continuing to fight for a brief moment after the lifting of the curse and being run through or shot, unaware that they're no longer invulnerable to harm.
Answer: The first time that it's clear that Will knows the details is on the Black Pearl after the destruction of the Interceptor, when he threatens to shoot himself. There are two possibilities - either Jack told him en route to the island, or Elizabeth told him after her rescue. Bearing in mind that Jack was hoping to use him as leverage, it seems unlikely that Jack would have told Will the full details of the curse, in case Will did something stupid and mucked up the deal, so the most likely possibility seems to be that Elizabeth told him about it.
Answer: Will may not have known the exact details of the curse, but, he did see them when they were preparing to have Elizabeth return the coin, as they talk about being freed from the curse, saying they needed her blood, and dropping the coin. Once he realised she had the coin, and that the coin was sent from his father, he was able to at least deduce that they needed his blood for something. It is, however, possible that Elizabeth informed him, although I find this unlikely.
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.
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Answer: The curse needs the blood of everybody who took a coin from the chest. All the other pirates have already contributed so, as the movie opens, the only blood needed is Will's, substituting for his father. During the finale of the movie, Jack takes a coin from the chest, adding himself to the curse, so his blood is now required as well as Will's.
Tailkinker ★
But I didn't see any blood on the coins, and none of the pirates cut themselves, even before Will became part of the mix.
Yes, the other pirates did cut themselves before Will came into it, off-screen. The lack of blood on the coins can simply be explained as most of it dripping to the bottom of the chest, it being washed away by storms blown into the cave, or by the fact that they didn't drop that much blood on it in the first place.
When they had Elizabeth they believed she was Bill Turner's daughter, but they all thought the curse had failed, none of them had cut themselves so it makes zero sense.
They had been collecting back the coins for years. During that time they repaid their own blood. All they needed was the last coin and the blood of Bill Turner to break the spell.
lionhead