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. (This is ONLY visible on the video version.)
Visible crew/equipment: Before being marooned on the 'spit of land,' Elizabeth stands on the Pearl's gangplank. In her close-ups, with the island in the distance, the long 'metal pipe' guardrails are visible behind her in three shots where she is still wearing the dress. The pipes are also visible behind Johnny Depp (Jack) in three shots, including when Barbossa says, "That be the same little island we made you governor of..." In all other shots of the gangplank there are NO guardrails surrounding the actual gangplank while it's extended over the water. (This is only visible on VHS, but can also be seen on DVD 2 and DVD 3 - 'The Lost Disc'.)
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.)
Revealing mistake: When the Black Pearl swings alongside the Interceptor for the battle, Elizabeth shouts, "Fire all!" The next shot is from behind the lit cannon which is aimed at the Pearl and the following shot faces the Interceptor's cannon, as it goes off. In the shot facing the Interceptor, the raw wood scaffolding type beams are perfectly visible at the entire lower part of the screen, where the painted planks (below the gun ports, above the bilges) of the hull should be. (This is only visible on the video version.)
Visible crew/equipment: When the Interceptor is totally blasted by the explosion of the gun powder deck and after Pintel says, "Any of you so much as thinks the word 'parley', I'll have your guts for garters," just when Elizabeth goes under the rope, one can see a man with headphones on his head and a megaphone in his hand in the lower left corner of the screen - it looks like Gore Verbinski, the director (this is only visible on the video fullscreen version).
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)
Revealing mistake: When Elizabeth first sees the skeletal pirates she stumbles backward, and when she lands on the tarp in the close-up, the flesh-covered thumb and part of a hand is visible behind her, at the top right, though the pirates are in skeletal form. (00:59:05)
Revealing mistake: On the way to Isla de Muerta aboard Interceptor, during the storm there is a close-up of Jack's hand holding the compass. There are many other close-ups of Jack's hand in the movie, but in this particular close-up, it is not Johnny Depp's hand holding the compass. Depp's fingers are slim and normal looking, but in this close-up Jack's thumb is stout and has a severely enlarged/deformed metacarpal at the base of the thumb joint (likely arthritis). (01:03:35)
Continuity mistake: When Elizabeth's maids lace up her corset, obviously both the back and front laces were pulled very tight, as this is the reason for her discomfort and eventual lack of air. After Jack rescues her, as she is on his shoulder we see the two sides on the back of her corset are far apart and the laces in between extremely loose. Yet, when she is lying on the dock, Jack slices the front laces on her supposedly constricting corset so she can breathe again... (00:16:25)
Continuity mistake: When Jack sails toward Port Royal, he passes the skeletal remains of hanged pirates, to whom he pays a respectful bow. First, there are two wideshots of the skeletons, then in the close-up they are actually wearing more clothing, particularly the strapping middle guy, whose head position differs, and his straw hat is larger as well. (00:09:15)
Visible crew/equipment: Jack is in one of the boats with Norrington and his men, at Isla de Muerta. Norrington looks through the telescope, saying that he doesn't care for the situation and in the wide shot, when Jack says, "Not if you're the one doing the ambushing," in the water, to the right of the boat, a crew member's green flipper can be seen coming up out of the water. The divers kept the boats steady while filming. (01:43:05)
Continuity mistake: When Jack first confronts Will at the blacksmith shop, seen behind Jack, hanging on the stone wall near the fireplace are iron masks and other paraphernalia. Later, when Jack sprays the soot at Will, the iron masks and paraphernalia are arranged differently on the wall. (00:23:00 - 00:26:15)
Continuity mistake: Jack removes Anamaria's hat, in the front shot her hair falls down, and in the next back shot, her hair falls again. Also, the striped scarf around her forehead changes in the arrangement of the stripes in different shots. In the front shots the yellow stripe is on top, but in the side shots the grey stripe is on top. (01:02:05)
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: When the dock master tells Jack, "Hold up there you. It's a shilling...," seen in the background on the left of the screen is a thatched roof enclosure. An orange aluminum ladder is sitting under the thatch. Many of the crew's orange aluminum ladders of various heights can be seen on DVD 2. (00:10:10)
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. (00:23:25)
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)
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)
Visible crew/equipment: After Will admits to Elizabeth that he loves her, she looks over and sees Cotton's parrot sitting on the flag post. Mullroy is also watching as a black-haired crew member, wearing a short-sleeve, white tee-shirt, can be seen holding the post and shaking it with his bare arm to get the parrot to fly off. (02:06:00)
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)
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