Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

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)

Super Grover

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)

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.

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)

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

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: 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)

Super Grover

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

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

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)

Super Grover

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

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

Continuity mistake: Either the first shot has a gratuitous view of the fort or the composite people neglected to add the fort in the second shot. Norrington says, "...this is the day that Capt. Jack Sparrow almost escaped. Take him away." The night shot that follows, shows the bridge archway, and beyond it the pier, Interceptor, the fort and its parapet. After Will breaks Jack out of prison, they approach the same archway and beyond it is the pier and Interceptor, but in this shot we don't see the fort and its parapet, nor the line that Jack slid down the day before. The camera angle is exactly the same. (00:27:15 - 00:44:30)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Video

Jack Sparrow: Who makes all these?
Will Turner: I do. And I practice with them... Three hours a day.
Jack Sparrow: You need to get yourself a girl, mate. Or perhaps the reason you practice three hours a day is that you've already found one and are otherwise incapable of wooing said strumpet. You're not a eunuch, are you?

More quotes from Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Trivia: Be sure to stay through the credits, at the end there is an interesting scene.

More trivia for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

Question: Why did Jack cut himself before throwing the coin to Will? I thought the curse only needed Will's blood?

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

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

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