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

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: As Will duels with the hangman he knocks Will's sword out of his hand. In that shot, Will is standing in front of Jack near the lever and the camera pans down as the sword hits the floor. Will doesn't move and in the next shot, Will is now standing to Jack's immediate left near the rope. This was either cut from a longer shot or set up in the second shot deliberately. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (02:06:50)

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: When Will opens the door to the blacksmith shop, behind him to his right is the sign for the silversmith across the courtyard. When the Royal Navy bursts in to capture Jack, behind the men is the same sign for the silversmith. The wall and silversmith sign in both of these background composites differ with each other in position, angle and dimension in relation to the door and the people standing in the doorway in both shots. This has nothing to do with the camera angle of the two shots. (00:21:55 - 00:26:50)

Super Grover

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

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)

Super Grover

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

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)

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

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: After Will rescues Jack from the noose, they soon run up steps with the rope in their hands. At the top of the steps they encounter the two soldiers and proceed to trap both soldiers around the stone column. Just as the rope goes around them, one soldier loses his hat, yet when the rope is pulled behind the column by Will and Jack, he has it on and then loses it again. (02:07:15)

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

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)

Super Grover

Revealing mistake: When Jack sees Will run toward the Aztec chest, he quickly slices his palm and parries with Barbossa. In the shot facing Barbossa, Jack strikes the sword out of Barbossa's hand, then as Barbossa spins around his right hand is empty, and we hear the sword falling in the distance. However, when Barbossa says, "Ten years you carry that pistol..." Barbossa is still miraculously holding his sword - the sword tip is moving at the bottom of the screen, as he speaks. (More of the sword is visible on VHS.) (02:00:45)

Super Grover

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

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)

Super Grover

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

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: Elizabeth's maid runs out the front door and the camera pans inside. Elizabeth is seen running past the set of three large windows on the landing, as she continues towards the last flight of stairs closer to the main floor. In the next close-up though, it shows Elizabeth followed by Pintel running down the stairs that are closer to the second floor which we see behind Pintel. Additional reference can also be seen when Elizabeth initially runs upstairs away from Pintel and Ragetti. (00:33:00)

Super Grover

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

Revealing mistake: 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.) (01:34:50)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: Interceptor is side by side with Dauntless, in order to capture Jack and Will. Norrington boards Dauntless with three other men following him and in that close-up ON deck, Norrington says, "Search every cabin, every hull, down to the bilges." Yet, in the next shot, Norrington and those three men are actually seen just climbing up the gangplank to Dauntless. (00:46:55)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: After Will rescues Elizabeth and brings her aboard the Interceptor, in the first shot from behind Elizabeth, Anamaria isn't holding her hat and the pirate behind Mr. Cotton is holding the tail of the parrot to keep it still. In the next couple of shots from the side, Anamaria is holding her hat because it's so windy. Just before Mr. Gibbs says, "Keep to the code," the close-up on Anamaria shows her hands down again, with no wind. In the next wide shot, Anamaria is holding her hat again due to the wind. (01:16:00)

Super Grover

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

Continuity mistake: When Jack and Will are walking under water carrying the boat over their heads, Will steps into a wooden trap with a buoy line attached. The trap is made of wood sticks and in each of these shots the style of the wood sticks is different. In the first shot, Will's foot goes through the top, and is at one side of the rectangle trap and the buoy line is at the other side of the trap. In the next shot, Will looks down into the water at the wooden trap, his foot is in the center of a square wooden trap and the buoy line isn't seen in this shot. In the next wide shot, he's dragging the trap as he's walking under water, and his foot is at the same side as the attached buoy line, which is seen in this shot, on a rectangle trap. The trap is then tied to Dauntless' rudder, and again this trap is styled differently than the trap in the previous shots. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:45:25)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: Aboard Dauntless, when Will says, "Here they come," behind him the deck can be seen. Then when the grapnels are being swung over Dauntless' rail by the Marines, very taught lines inches above the deck are seen going through the balusters of the rail leading to Interceptor. The taught lines were not placed by the Marines, only the grapnels, nor were they placed by Will and Jack. As Norrington says, "Set top sails and clear..." those lines going through the balusters aren't in this shot. These lines are the 'real' lines used by the crew's marine-unit for set up of the separation of the two ships. (00:46:50)

Super Grover

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.)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Will and Jack are in the cave, Will goes to hit Jack with an oar, but in the previous shot we can see Jack look at Will and slightly move his body, then in the following shot he is completely facing Will ready for the hit. (01:09:00)

The-Immortal

Barbossa: You best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. You're in one!

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

Trivia: Johnny Depp uses the phrase "Interesting..." as his trademark in many of the movies he stars in, including Sleepy Hollow. He uses it in PotC when Koehler's skeletal hand tries to grab him in prison.

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

Question: There are numerous mentions of the fact that Depp based his performance as Jack Sparrow on Keith Richards. But I'm sure I saw an interview/making-of programme where he said that Jack Sparrow was a combination of two real-life 'characters'; one was Keith Richards, and try as I might, I can't remember the other one. Did anyone else see this? Who was the other inspiration for Jack Sparrow? (It may have been another actor e.g. Orlando Bloom talking *about* Johnny Depp's influences etc.).

Answer: On Disc 3, Johnny explains, "Take something as solid as Keith Richards and combine it with Pepé Le Pew... I felt... he would resemble a modern day Rastafarian..." Pepé Le Pew is a Looney Tunes cartoon character, based on Charles Boyer's romantic character, Pepé Le Moko. Pepé Le Pew, however, is a romantic amorous cartoon skunk and he has a huge flaw - his 'odor', which he emits in a grand way.

Super Grover

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

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