X Marks the Story Beat: Mapping the Script Behind The Curse of the Black Pearl

Pirates of the Caribbean was already a fun, swashbuckling ride at Disneyland — but to turn it into the adventure film it became (and ~$4.5 billion box office franchise, not even including merchandise) was a masterful feat. With Johnny Depp’s iconic Captain Jack Sparrow, hot-off-Lord-of-the-Rings Orlando Bloom, and break-out star Keira Knightley, the cast of characters is unforgettable, but more than that, the story is both fun and meaningful, complete with a likeable antagonist in Geoffrey Rush’s Captain Barbossa. Really, The Black Pearl has it all. 

So let’s break down how they did it. 

OPENING IMAGE

The film starts in a flashback via young Elizabeth Swann’s dream of the day she met Jack Turner stranded at sea. The superstitious crew weave in plenty of pirate yore — bad luck to have women on board “even a mini’ture one,” rumors of cursed pirates, even the catchy Disneyland song. 

The crew pulls Turner aboard and he is placed into the care of Elizabeth, who quickly finds a pirate medallion around his neck and takes it to hide from the adults. 

We get great character development via clever dialogue, from Elizabeth’s excitement at the prospect of a pirate adventure to Norrington’s naval shorthand (“a short drop and a sudden stop” as a cutesy phrase for hanging a man). Notice also how the writers add color via action lines: “Elizabeth doesn’t know what ‘a short drop and a sudden stop’ means. Gibbs helpfully mimes: a man being hung.”

Among the wreckage where young Will is found appears more: a burning ship and “out over the dea, moving through the fog, silent as a ghost, is a large sailing ship, a schooner – it has BLACK SAILS.”

The scene does a match cut to young Elizabeth slamming her eyes shut in fear and opening them eight years later, startled open from sleep. 

SET UP

Present day with a twenty year-old Elizabeth preparing for soon-to-be Commodore Norrington’s promotion ceremony. Her dream reminds her of the old pirate medallion and she pulls it from a hiding place and wears it to the ceremony.

The screenplay brilliantly sets up moments that will be called back later; here, Elizabeth wears a new gown from her father featuring a cinched corset that restricts her breathing. As they ready to leave, Will Turner arrives (“Handsome, with a watchful demeanor that gives him a weight beyond his years…dressed in rough clothing, stands in the foyer, looking very out of place, and knowing it”) to present Governor Swann with a custom blade for the Commodore. 

He slights Elizabeth by referring to her formally as “Miss Swann” but as she leaves it’s clear he is besotten with her. 

Next up, we get perhaps one of the greatest character introductions of all time when Jack Sparrow arrives to Klaus Badelt’s sweeping score sailing…a leaking fishing dory. 

While Jack plots to commandeer a British vessel, Norrington becomes a Commodore and then proposes to Elizabeth; the shock from the proposal and the constriction of the corset cause her to faint and fall off a tower, crashing into the ocean below — and with her, the cursed pirate medallion, causing an otherworldly change in the wind. 

INCITING INCIDENT

Jack, the only witness close enough to save Elizabeth, dives in to rescue her. He removes the heavy velvet dress that was causing her to sink and, at the dock, cuts away her corset, allowing her to finally breathe. This is the moment Norrington, Governor Swann, and other fine men of the British Navy come upon them. Recognizing Jack’s pirate brand, Norrington makes to arrest Jack, who uses Elizabeth as a hostage in order to flee into hiding.

We’ve got great details in the action sequence here. Jack is clever and cocky — but he backs it up with his escape. Still, Norrington is no dummy; he holds his shot and aims true, only seconds behind Jack. And though this dialogue was cut from the final film edit, we see more evidence that Elizabeth is no mere damsel in distress. 

Jack hides in the Blacksmith’s Forge, encountering Will, who has discretely taken over the forge, both creating swords and practicing with them. After an exciting duel, Jack bests Will by fighting dirty before he is struck from behind by the drunk blacksmith, allowing for Jack’s arrest.

More great writing here — note the parenthetical after Will accuses Jack of cheating (“smiles; what did you expect?) — as well as a subtle mystery. Jack’s one pistol shot is “not meant” for Will. Then whom?

We will have to wait and see, as Jack is taken to a cell block to be hung the next day for piracy. A clever moment here with “a mutt of a dog, holding a ring of keys in his mouth” — just like in the ride. 

And then, the quiet night is disrupted by cannon fire. Pirates attack Port Royal, heading straight for Elizabeth and her gold medallion (“it calls to us.”) As Norrington, Will, and the citizens of Port Royal fight off the invaders, Elizabeth cleverly calls for parlay and is taken to their captain, where she tells Barbossa and his crew that she is Elizabeth Turner, a maid in the governor’s household. 

Meanwhile, Jack encounters some of the crew of the Black Pearl…and here we see for the first time that the crew really are cursed, for “where they enter the moonlight, [their] wrists and hands are skeletal."

FUN AND GAMES

Will springs Jack out of prison in order to rescue Elizabeth. Jack agrees after hearing Will’s last name is Turner. They trick naval sailors into readying a ship for them and manage to steal it, pursuing the Pearl. For those familiar with the film, you’ll see that the screenplay holds quite a bit that was cut — such as when Jack confirms that a Sentry can swim before tossing him overboard. It was more character development for Jack — a pirate, but a good man — but ultimately not necessary for the film. 

We get some exposition from Barbossa who tells Elizabeth of the cursed treasure: Cortes went back on his word after a high priest from the New World gave him gold in exchange for sparing the people’s lives, so the priest cursed the gold and anyone who took even a single piece of it. Barbossa’s crew found the gold and took it before becoming cursed men themselves. The only way to remove the curse is to return every last piece of gold and pay with their own blood. 

And Elizabeth holds the final piece.

“The moonlight reveals us for what we truly are. We are not among the living and so we cannot die but neither are we dead! We have all the desires of the living, but cannot satisfy them!” 

MIDPOINT

Jack and Will have a little exposition to uncover of their own. Turns out that Will’s father, “Bootstrap” Bill Turner, was a pirate “and still a good man.” Will begrudgingly agrees to work with Jack to hire a crew in Tortuga in order to save Elizabeth. They set sail with Jack’s mysterious compass that doesn’t point north — and they’re catching up.

Gibbs — a member of their new crew and the superstitious sailor from the opening scene — tells Will about how Barbossa struck up a mutiny against Jack, taking over the Pearl and marooning Jack on an island with one shot meant to kill himself with.

But Jack managed to get off the island, though he’s secretive about how, and retained the single shot, which he has saved for his mutinous first mate, Barbossa.

BAD TO WORSE

The pirates reach the Isla de Muerta and their horde of treasure. They drag Elizabeth to the chest of cursed gold, cut her hand, and return the piece — but it fails to work. They are still cursed. Barbossa quickly realizes that Elizabeth lied and he strikes her, knocking her out and sending her flying down his mound of gold coins. 

Here’s another deviation from the film. In the movie, Will, distrusting Jack, knocks him out and rescues Elizabeth, leaving Jack to face the pirates alone. In the screenplay, after they both rescue Elizabeth, Jack realizes they won’t be able to escape in time and he turns back to confront the pirates. 

Either way, Jack is left alone with the pirates — and he invokes parlay. Barbossa is inclined to kill him until Jack informs him that he knows whose blood they need to lift their curse — Will’s… the son of Bootstrap Bill Turner, who had been cursed along with Barbossa’s crew before he was sunk at sea after protesting the mutiny against Jack.

Jack and Elizabeth return to their pirated ship, but it’s no match for the Black Pearl, who pursues and begins to fire. 

Recognizing defeat, the crew surrender to Barbossa — but Will resists, threatening to kill himself (and, with his death, any hope for the crew to be freed from the curse). He states his terms: Elizabeth, Jack, and the crew are to go free and unharmed in return for Will going with them to undo the curse. 

Of course, Barbossa twists Will’s words and sets Jack and Elizabeth free…to be marooned on the same island where they’d left Jack before. 

Marooned, Jack finally comes clean: he got lucky before. He’d been on the island for three days when rum runners happened by and rescued him. But, judging by the dusty state of the rum cache, it doesn’t look like they’ll be back any time soon “you have your pal Norrington to thank for that” so they decide to get rip-roaring drunk instead. 

Or do they? 

The next morning, a hungover Jack wakes to the sound of all the rum burning. Elizabeth has lit it and some palm trees on fire to create a smoke signal. Jack, speechless, stalks away (in the film, he also considers shooting her for this) but then discovers that it has worked: the HMS Dauntless has spotted them and a longboat is already being rowed toward them. 

ALL IS LOST

Elizabeth convinces Norrington to go back to rescue Will — by accepting his wedding proposal. In the film this is good enough. In the screenplay, Norrington realizes that Elizabeth only agreed to marry him because of her feelings for Will. He rescinds his proposal but agrees to go rescue Will anyway. 

Neither Elizabeth nor Jack tell Norrington about Barbossa’s unkillable crew.

But Jack has a plan: he will go in and trick the pirates into coming out, allowing Norrington to ambush them. 

BREAK INTO THREE

Unfortunately, Barbossa has learned some new tactics in his years as a cursed man. Instead of sailing out to meet Norrington, he tells his skeletal crew to “take a walk” along the ocean floor, allowing them to ambush the good guys. 

A battle breaks out — Barbossa’s crew versus the British navy at sea with Jack, Will, and Barbossa skirmishing in the caves. Jack takes a fatal sword to the chest — or it would have been fatal, had he not snuck a piece of the cursed treasure for himself. 

He manages to outwit Barbossa, toss his stolen coin — with his blood — to Will, who drops his own final and bloodied medallion into the chest, breaking the curse once and for all. 

FINALE

Outside, Barbossa’s cursed crew realize they are no longer immortal and quickly surrender.

There’s an unfortunate scene here on the beach with a quick reunion and cringey kiss between Will and Elizabeth — thankfully it was changed for the final film. As was the final scene. 

Written, Jack is meant to be hanged but just as Governor Swann proposes to pardon him, one of Norrington’s men announces that Jack has escaped to the Black Pearl. Norrington decides to give Jack a day’s head start. (Just goes to show that every great film starts as a screenplay, and screenplays go through many revisions before they get to the final shooting script — and even on set changes are made to improve the story.)

Jack, once more the captain of the Black Pearl, runs a hand lovingly along the rail and takes the wheel, setting for the horizon while humming “yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me…”