Pirates of the Caribbean (or Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, as it’s technically titled) is among the finest action-adventure movies of all time, much as Jack Sparrow is by far the greatest pirate on the Seven Seas. It offers something for every lover of the genre, with risk, thrill, and romance, as well as standout performances by a superb ensemble of compelling characters.
When it was released in the early 2000s, Disney had no idea if a pirate film (much less one based on one of their theme park attractions) would be a hit, yet it managed to snag enough treasures to create an entire series. However, there are a number of aspects of the picture that don’t make logic, many of which are listed here.
#1 Will Broke The Curse, So He Shouldn’t Have Sea Life Growing On Him
Source: u/chucker173
The reason the crew of the Flying Dutchman were all gross looking is because Davy Jones stopped doing his duty as captain. When Will became captain, all the crew reverted back to looking human and not crusty because he broke that curse.
But at the beginning of DMTNT, we see that he’s covered in barnacles and other sea life. Did he start neglecting his duty [although he directly says in it that he’s still helping lost souls], or did the new writers not keep this detail in mind while making this scene?
#2 What Is The True Origin Of The Compass?
Source: u/CJTheSong
In Dead Men Tell No Tales depicts the fact that Jack came across the magical compass from his predecessor, captain of the ship as he gave the compass to Jack and told him “not to betray it. But in Dead Man’s Chest, it clearly states that Tia Dalma had bartered with Jack in exchange for this same compass.
Not to mention, there are numerous times where Jack has betrayed the compass by giving it to various members of the crew in exchange for his own safety and ‘leverage’. Most of all, I’m confused to why the one time Jack gives away the compass to barter for a bottle of rum that Captain Salazar and his crew are able to escape the Devil’s Triangle.
Like, why? What? How? Why is the compass bound to Salazar and his crew’s fate? What is the significance?
#3 Salazar Wouldn’t Have Known Jack’s Name
Source: u/tannermanner271
Salazar never actually hears Jack’s name, but still refers to him as Jack the Sparrow because they say they saw him in a crows nest looking like a sparrow, but they had no way of ever knowing his first name was Jack.
#4 Captain Salazar Is Released When Jack Gives Up The Compass, But He Had Already Given It To Others Way Before Then
Source: u/n00d0l
Captain Salazar is a great character and I love how, because of Jack, he and his crew were trapped in the triangle. My issue is how they were freed from it.
Jack Sparrow has given away the compass…. WE ARE FREE”
My question is, in the other 4 movies there were MANY MANY other instances where Jack had lost or given up possession of the compass.
Dead Mans Chest, he offered to trade the compass to Will if he helped find the key, he also gave it to Elizabeth when he didn’t know what he wanted and there’s probably more.
At Worlds End, he was tossing it back and forth with Becket, he also gave it to Will – “what am I supposed to do with this?” “Think like me, it’ll come to you” and again there are probably more examples.
On Stranger Tides he lost it to Angelica, and he gave it to Gibbs to find Queen Anne’s Revenge and the bottles of ships and again, there’s probably more examples.
WHY ON EARTH DID NONE OF THESE EVENTS TRIGGER SALAZAR’S RELEASE!!!
#5 It Doesn’t Really Make Sense That Elizabeth Can’t Just Stay With Will On His Boat
Source: u/DontAskAgainDog
Maybe I’m missing something, but why can’t Elizabeth just live on Will’s boat at the end? Someone suggested it was because she cannot go into Davy Jones’ Locker, but she has been there and got out before, so why not again? Also, Will’s father isn’t dead but he can travel with Will, so why couldn’t Elizabeth just join his crew?
#6 Wouldn’t Will Turner Die When The Dutchman’s Curse Was Lifted?
Source: u/CJTheSong
This trident of Poseidon, God of the sea, whatever. It seems that this magical trident has the power to break any curse in the world. Alright, I can buy that another magical item is the main objective of the plot.
But… if the trident broke every curse known to exist, and let’s take the curse of the Flying Dutchman as a start, then that means the ship itself cannot venture back and forth to the locker or sail underwater, due to its sails becoming white (hinting the curse is lifted), and her captain, which might I add has no heart because it’s in the chest still, is still alive after the curse is lifted?!
I mean it’s all nice and swell that Will Turner is freed from the Dutchman’s oath to sail as her captain forever, but shouldn’t he be dead? I mean even if the curse is lifted, his heart is still technically in the chest and not inside… him, so… what?
#7 Will Never Actually Needed To Cut His Heart Out
Source: u/SyrenaSwift
Why did Will have to cut out his heart to become the captain of the Dutchman? Davy Jones didn’t have to, he only did it because he couldn’t bear the heartache over Calypso anymore.
He sailed at least a decade with his heart still inside him, putting it in a chest was his decision that happened later on, not a requirement. So I don’t get why Will had to cut it out? Yes, the Dutchman needs a living heart, but the heart can be inside him, like it was the case with Jones for years.
I also don’t get why it would have been done to save him – if your heart gets pierced by a sword, how does it save you to cut it out completely? It would get even more damaged, if anything, but certainly not healed. Taking it out doesn’t repair any previous damage, right?
The transferal from captain to captain of the Dutchman happens by piercing the current captain’s heart, no matter where it is. Will did that, so that should have been it.
#8 Why Did The Curse Seem To Affect The Crew Gradually, But Affected Jack Right Away?
Source: u/jaromadair
So the pirates found the cursed treasure–how did they manage to spend most of it before they noticed they were sense-deprived immortals by day, and animated zombie corpses by night?
Barbossa did say they “came to realize” they had changed, but the real question is how did they not freak out on day 1 when they couldn’t feel the wind, taste food, or bleed? And then not freak out all over again when the moon came out that night?
Jack changed instantaneously when he removed a gold piece, so we can assume the other pirates did too. How could they possibly ignore those changes? [Or, why did the terms the curse change with Jack and not the others?]
#9 One Of The Pearl Crew Members Gets Burned, But Later We Find Out They Are Desensitized Due To The Curse So He Shouldn’t Have Felt Anything
Source: u/ChasingDarwin
At the beginning of the movie the cursed Pirates attack the port to take Elizabeth’s coin. When two of the Pirates are wrestling with Elizabeth in her bedroom she opens the bed heater full of hot coals and the Pirates proceed to be burned by them, allowing her to escape momentarily.
But later we learn the curse causes the Pirates to “feel nothing,’ so how would they have been burned by the coals if they feel nothing?
#10 Elizabeth Threatens The Crew Of The Black Pearl With Dropping The Medallion Into The Sea… But Couldn’t They Just Go Retrieve It Since They Can Breathe Underwater?
Source: u/ShiShoSha
When Barbossa and the other pirates of the Pearl first abduct Elizabeth (I guess you could say she went willingly under “parley”), she threatens to drop the piece of gold over the side of the ship, and when she almost does everybody jumps.
But later in the movie, it’s revealed that the cursed pirates can breathe underwater and are even seen walking along the ocean floor, [so why would they be nervous]?
#11 The Crew Of The Pearl Wouldn’t Just Give Up And Hand Themselves Over When The Curse Was Lifted
Source: u/DontAskAgainDog:
Why did the Black Pearl’s crew just give up when the curse was lifted? I get that it may have been a shock, but they had to know that getting convicted of piracy lead to hanging (so they’d die anyway). Not one of them realized this and tried to have a fighting chance? [This seems unlikely, based on past scenes].
#12 How Could The Cursed Members Of The Crew Each Pay Their Own Blood Debt If They Can’t Bleed?
Source: u/Yeet_the_egg
I have been re-watching the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise with my friends and noticed an issue in the first film regarding the blood debt ritual that the cursed crew of the Black Pearl must pay.
According to the movie, for the curse to be broken all 882 pieces of Aztec Gold must be returned to where it was taken and each crew member must pay a “blood debt”.
The Pirates fandom page states – “By the time the crew collected all but one of the gold pieces, Barbossa and his men already gave their blood to the gold. However, they needed the blood of their last crewmen (Bootstrap Bill Turner), who was lost to them, from their only child.”
The cursed crew doesn’t have the ability to bleed, however, and are therefore incapable to give their blood to the gold. This is demonstrated when a crew member is shot by Barbossa with the intention to reveal if the curse had been lifted after giving the blood of Elizabeth Swann, a young woman who had assumed the last name Turner.
Unfortunately for the cursed crew, the curse had not been lifted as indicated by the lack of blood and the fact that the crew member survived the gunshot wound.
At first I thought that the lack of blood might have been a stylistic choice and had no significance, but this was proven incorrect at the end of the film. When Jack and Barbossa are dueling blades, Will Turner pays the blood debt by spilling some of his own blood, the blood of his father Bootstrap Bill Turner.
Barbossa is shot in a similar spot where he shot his own crew member and begins bleeding profusely, indicating that he is once again living.
#13 Angelica Should’ve Died No Matter What
Source: u/mrbananas
At the end of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Captain Jack Sparrow uses the two chalices and the fountain of youth to kill Blackbeard and save Blackbeard’s daughter Angelica who were both dying at the time.
The way the two chalices seemed to be established to work was that one chalice would steal the remaining years of life from one person (killing them) and then gives those years to the person drinking the other one.
However both character were dying at that moment and Blackbeard was already established to be “destined” to die that day. (That was whole reason why he was even looking for the fountain of youth in the first place) Bottom line, Blackbeard didn’t have any years left.
The most Angelica could have gained was a couple of minutes and given that she was also dying too, that wouldn’t do her a whole lot of good.
#14 How Can The East India Trading Company Use The Heart Of Davy Jones As Leverage When Stabbing It Means They’d Have The Same Fate As Davy Jones?
Source: u/[deleted]
We learn that Cutler Beckett has taken control over Davy Jones and the Dutchman. We also learn that Beckett, along with Mercer, consistently uses Davy Jones’ heart as leverage to order him to do whatever they wanted. However, this does not make any logical sense. What were Mercer or Beckett going to do, stab the heart?
That would mean one of them would have to sail the seas for eternity. That was neither of their goals! In Dead Man’s Chest, he goes after Jack Sparrow, because he knows Jack might stab the heart in order to cancel his debt to Jones. But, there is no logical reason why any member of the East India Trading Company would stab it, so why was the heart used as their leverage?
#15 If Bootstrap Bill Took The Medallion, Then He Wouldn’t Be Able To Die (And Thus Wouldn’t Need To Sell His Soul) And The Curse Would Require His Blood, Not His Son’s.
Source: u/DontAskAgainDog
If Bootstrap Bill Turner took a coin from the chest, then how did he die? He should be cursed and therefore invulnerable. I know they later show that he is with Davy Jones, but that means that he is dead, or if he isn’t dead, wouldn’t the curse demand his blood, not his sons?
#16 Barbossa And Jack Both Have Critical Injuries That Don’t Hurt Them Because Of The Curse, But When It’s Lifted, Barbossa Dies Of Those Injuries And Jack Is Fine?
Source: u/THEgassner
Barbossa gets shot before the two coins are reunited with the rest of the treasure.
So, one could assume wounds carry over for a little bit, right? Well, Jack was also stabbed multiple times, shouldn’t he have died too?
