Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) - 24 mistakes involving Johnny Depp

Visible crew/equipment: Just as Jack says, "On deck, you scabrous dogs," to the very left edge of the screen over Jack's shoulder is a grip crew member with a tan cowboy hat, white short sleeve tee shirt and sunglasses, just standing there looking out to sea.

Revealing: When Jack holds the chain to Elizabeth's neck, and subsequently swings about, there are about ten links between the wrist shackles. When he tosses the links over the rope, before he slides down, there are at least fifteen attached links. Then at the blacksmith shop, when Jack sits at the anvil, there are eight links, and after he breaks it there are three links dangling from the right shackle and seven dangling from the left, totaling ten.

Factual error: During Jack's sliding down the rope scene, it is very noticeable that each one of the English soldiers fire their weapons more than once, which is impossible for that time, knowing that repetition weapons weren't invented until the mid 1800's.

Visible crew/equipment: At the blacksmith shop, Jack and Will start to duel and Jack asks, "But how's your footwork?" In the next close-up shot of their feet, the imprint of a modern, flat bottom trainer/sneaker sole can be seen on the dirt floor at the bottom right of the screen. It is not the imprint of a heel and sole of the time period. As a point of interest, on the video version of this film there are multiple imprints visible.

Visible crew/equipment: When Jack and Barbossa duel in the cave, Barbossa hits Jack in the face. Barbossa yells, "Aaaah," and Jack takes off running with his arms waving wildly in the air. In this shot, as Jack waves his arms, at the bottom right corner of the screen, the wood scaffolding that was built for the cave set can be seen near the rocks in the water. The cave set scaffolding can be seen being built on Disc 2 of the DVD.

Continuity: When Barbossa takes the sword out of his own chest, he then stabs Jack with that sword, and he stabs Jack right under the strap and buckle. As Jack walks backwards, into the moonlight, the skeletal Jack appears and now he has the sword over the strap and buckle, in his chest. The length of the sword between the guard and his chest differs greatly, as does the amount of sword that protrudes from his back.

Visible crew/equipment: During Jack's escape, he swings about on the rope. As he does, in the shot immediately following Jack's first close-up, the film crew's blue flat-topped boat, as well as their speed boat with its trailing wake, are both visible at the bottom left of the screen. Really! (This is ONLY visible on the video version.)

Visible crew/equipment: As Will and Jack duel up top in Brown's shop, in two close-up shots a large plank is visible at their feet with two long black marks along each side detailing where the beams are supposed to be, so that Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp know where to land as they supposedly leap from beam to beam and feign keeping their balance. (This is ONLY visible on the video version.)

Visible crew/equipment: When Will and the hangman go at it, there is a close-up of Jack. In that shot, when Jack turns to his left it's very apparent that under his shirt at his shoulders and back, there's an apparatus holding the actor up, in order to help him swing back and forth, and so the false noose wouldn't harm him in any way.

Continuity: While underwater, as Jack removes Elizabeth's water-logged dress, his left hand and arm are visibly clean, as well as when he has her on his shoulder at the dock. Then while kneeling over her on the dock, Jack's left hand and arm are extremely grimy and dirty. Yet when Norrington grabs Jack to bring him to Gillette, and while Jack holds Elizabeth hostage, his left hand and arm are clean once again.

Factual error: Near the start, Jack steps from the yardarm of the sinking craft onto the dock. However, as it is a sailing craft, there is no way that it could have continued its forward movement once the sail was under water, even discounting the drag effect that the sail would have had in the water. Once the sail is submerged, it would act as a type of anchor.

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.)

Continuity: In the blacksmith shop, Will grabs a sword out of the fire and fights Jack with a red-hot blade. Jack flings the end of his handcuff chain around Will's sword which IS still glowing red, grabs the blade, and yanks it out of Will's hand. The blade is no longer glowing red as it flies out of Will's hand and through the air. The blade could NOT have cooled that quickly.

Continuity: Jack escapes the brig of the Black Pearl, goes up on deck and grabs the line from another and says, "Thanks very much." This shot's flipped. In the next wide shot of Jack (Tony Angelotti), he grabs the line again and swings across. The flipping was done in order to keep the Interceptor on the left of the screen and the Black Pearl on the right of the screen during the fight sequence.

Continuity: When Barbossa and Jack are chatting in the captain's cabin aboard the Black Pearl after Elizabeth's blood failed to lift the curse, Jack's eyes are lacking their trademark kohl lining. In the following continuous scene, however, as they rush on deck to see the Interceptor, the kohl is in place, although Jack didn't pause to apply it. [Apparantly, it was the first day of shooting, and after Depp's meeting with studio heads, Depp was forced into making Jack look cleaner and to remove Jack's kohl trademark, during those shots. As heard on the commentary.]

Revealing: Jack and Elizabeth are marooned on the island, and he goes down the stairs to the cache of rum. From below, he lifts his right arm up holding a bottle of rum and we see the pirate brand. It's a CG brand, and in this shot, the pirate brand is crooked and off to the side. It doesn't look the same as the close-up when Norrington lifts Jack's sleeve in Port Royal, and it's not because of camera angle. Jack's sun and sparrow tattoo isn't where it's supposed to be either. At this point in filming, this 'tattoo' on his arm is not a real tattoo, it is only applied for specific shots, and make-up didn't apply it for this shot. (This has nothing to do with Depp's real tattoo that he supposedly got later, after filming.)

Revealing: Jack says, "Or you could surrender." Soon after, Barbossa smacks Jack in the face and we can see Jack's wig and red forehead scarf coming off his head, as he's going down. You can clearly see Tony Angelotti's (Depp's stunt double) forehead, sideburns and hairline in the right hand corner of the screen. (The shot right after this one is Jack running with his arms waving.)

Visible crew/equipment: After Will puts the explosive inside skeletal Jacoby he exclaims, "No fair!" before he and the two other pirates blow up. In the very next shot of Barbossa, as he duels with Jack, the edge of the large wood plank that Geoffrey Rush and Johnny Depp stand on near the pile of treasure is plainly visible at the bottom of the screen. It can also be seen on DVD 2. (This is ONLY visible on the video version.)

Revealing: In the close-up of Jack as he swims to get his gun, etc, his left sleeve is pushed up and it's very obvious that he's wearing something with short sleeves under his white shirt. This isn't part of his white shirt. He has nothing on under his white shirt at any other time. (The underwater close-up of Depp was filmed in a tank at Long Beach along with the close-ups rescuing Elizabeth earlier.)

Continuity: Aboard Interceptor, Will points his sword at Jack, and Jack swings the boom that slams into Will. In the side wide shot as the boom comes toward Will, when we see Will's hands as he grasps the boom, he is not holding the sword, nor do we see it drop or see it on the deck; however, we do hear it hit the deck. In the next shot, Jack picks up Will's sword near the line and rail, where it didn't exist in the previous shot.