Continuity mistake: Pintel and Ragetti walk into the stateroom, Pintel carries the folded dress for Elizabeth in his arms. She walks over to them. In the next shot, the folded dress is now folded differently in Pintel's arms. Also, when they tell her she'll be dining with the Captain, Ragetti's collar is under the strap on his shoulder. After she answers them, in their next close-up, his collar is straight and over the strap. (00:54:15)
Continuity mistake: At the Fort, the two columns of soldiers separate and Norrington walks into view. It's shouted, "Right about face," and the soldier behind Norrington on his left has his black bag to his side. When "present arms" is shouted, the soldier's black bag is in front. Also, Governor Swann, in the front wide shot, is standing on the second step from the bottom. In the next close-up, he's standing on a step further up - the soldier to his left in the previous shot was standing on the same step as him. (00:11:15)
Continuity mistake: After Elizabeth whacks Jacoby and tells him to try wearing a corset, she helps Will to his feet. In the close-up of Will smiling and looking at her, his hair is noticeably wet and very stringy. However when Elizabeth asks, "Whose side is Jack on?" Will's hair is no longer wet. (01:59:50)
Continuity mistake: When the Interceptor drops its anchor on the right side to surprise the Black Pearl, Barbossa turns to the crew and yells, "Hard to port. Rack the starboard oars." When he says this line, his teeth are either normal, or not nearly as gross as they are in the rest of the movie. (01:24:40)
Continuity mistake: At Jack's hanging, Will draws his sword and shouts, "Move!" The next shot is of the crowd in front of him parting and there is a clear view of the hanging scaffolding. Then in Will's next shot, we see the same crowd from the front, parting again as Will throws the sword into the falling trap door. (02:06:15)
Revealing mistake: Will walks down the stairs, after the coach leaves and the cottage to the left of the Governor's mansion isn't seen at all. In this close-up, the Governor's mansion behind Will is only a facade built at Marineland. They only built the facade for the main house, not the two servants' cottages on both sides of the mansion. In the next wide shot, both cottages and the mansion seen, are miniatures used in a CG composite on the hill. Given the proximity of the (miniature) cottages at both sides of the house in the wide shot, the left cottage should've been seen in the close-up, but obviously couldn't because the cottages weren't built. Fuller view of the wide shot in deleted scenes. (00:08:45)
Revealing mistake: 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.) (01:36:15)
Continuity mistake: On the docks, when Norrington exposes Jack's scar and tattoo on his right arm, he says, "Well, well, Jack Sparrow, isn't it?" and in the wide shot Murtogg holds the middle part of his gun. In the close-up when Murtogg says, "He said he'd come to commandeer one," he holds it near the bayonet, yet in the next wide shot he holds it in the middle again. (00:17:40)
Continuity mistake: When Jack and Will are dueling in the blacksmith shop on the cart, Jack falls onto the ground. Then we get a close up of him shaking his face, watch the bone in his hair, it's bent. Then he stands up again and the bone is straight. (00:25:40)
Revealing mistake: 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.) (01:57:15)
Factual error: Sir Charles Wheatstone, an English physicist (b.1802 - d.1875), invented the 'concertina' around the mid 1800's. The 'concertina' is a small musical instrument like an accordion, with bellows and keys. During the Moonlight Serenade scene, when Elizabeth walks out onto the deck, she sees the skeletal pirates for the first time, and Jacoby is seen playing the 'concertina', but it was not invented yet. (00:58:45)
Continuity mistake: When Will first sees the hammer it's lying on top of the anvil almost parallel with it. Right before Jack says, "You know what you're doing, I'll give you that," as Will sticks his sword towards Jack's legs, the hammer's seen to Jack's right, perpendicular to the anvil. In the next shot, when Jack actually says those words, the hammer's lying parallel to the anvil again. Jack says, "If I step here," and the hammer's perpendicular to the anvil again. Then in the next few shots, once again the hammer's parallel to the anvil. Even in the 'parallel' shots, the hammer's lying a bit differently. (00:22:25)
Continuity mistake: At Jack's hanging, when Elizabeth "faints" her hat's wide white ribbon hangs down both sides - joined at the back of her neck. When she lifts her head, to witness Jack's rescue in progress, the ribbon is now gone from the right side of her hat and hangs loose at her left shoulder. However, when she looks over at her father, the ribbon is intact once again. (02:06:15)
Continuity mistake: In Port Royal, as Jack passes the dock master, he says "Hold up there you. It's a shilling to tie up your boat at the dock." In the wide shot, a man carrying bananas on his left shoulder, (the one with white pants, white shirt, vest and hat) is passing behind Jack. Then, there's a close-up of Jack and a shot of the Jolly Mon. When the dock master says "And I shall need to know your name," in Jack's close-up, that same man starts to pass behind Jack, but by that time, he should be at the gangplank already, and the bananas are now on his right shoulder. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:10:10)
Continuity mistake: On the dock, after the rescue, Jack sees the medallion on Elizabeth's neck. In the next shot as Norrington and his men come, we see that Jack's coat, hat, and other effects are lying scattered around on the ground. Yet later, when Mullroy bends down, he quickly picks up Jack's things to show to Norrington, and the gun, compass and sword are neatly placed on Jack's hat. (00:16:50)
Continuity mistake: 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.] (01:19:40)
Continuity mistake: During Jack's escape, as he's swinging about, in the background of this shot, the Dauntless is not seen moored, as it was in all the previous shots of Jack's opening scene, including being seen past Interceptor, from the angle of the running British Royal Navy. (00:19:55)
Visible crew/equipment: After Barbossa is shot by Jack, Barbossa pulls apart his jacket to reveal the wound. In this close-up, behind Barbossa to his left, the blue cloth/mat is visible at the bottom of the screen lying on the treasure pile. It was obviously not there in the previous shots. (Though this is visible on the DVD, a better view is on the video.) (02:01:20)
Continuity mistake: When Jack holds the chain to Elizabeth's neck, when he flees, while he is flying through the air, when he throws the chain over the rope, as he slides down and then runs away, the shackles go from being over the sleeves to being on his bare wrists with his sleeves pulled up, then back over the sleeves again repeatedly. Then when Jack approaches drunk Mr. Brown, the shackle is on his bare wrist as seen from the front of Jack, but in the shot from his side, the shackle is over the sleeve. This continues throughout this entire scene; Jack's left sleeve goes from under the shackle to rolled up to his elbow then back under the shackle. (00:21:15 - 00:24:35)
Continuity mistake: When the sinking Jolly Mon 'sails' towards the dock, the straw basket which sits on the dock changes positions in the following shots, as does the rope lying on the side of the dock. When the dock master says, "It's a shilling to tie...dock," they look at what's left of the boat. The flag is hanging straight down, not blowing, but after Jack says, "And we forget the name," the flag is now wrapped around the mast. The following is only visible on VHS: there is one large barrel directly in front of Jack, but when the shot faces the Jolly Mon, there are two - a small one appears, which has a paint splattered top. (00:10:00)
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