Kraken (Pirates of the Caribbean)

This is for the fictionalized version of the sea monster in the Pirates of the Caribbean films, if you are looking for its basis, see "Kraken", and "Kraken in popular culture" for its other appearances in other films.

Template:Pirates of the Caribbean character The Kraken is a fictional sea monster in the Pirates of the Caribbean film trilogy. The monster made its first appearance in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest as an antagonist portrayed through Computer-generated imagery. Although a creation of Industrial Light & Magic for Dead Man's Chest and designed by the film's producers, the Kraken is heavily based on the legendary creature featured in nautical lore by same name. Walt Disney Pictures also became the first studio to produce this legendary creature using CGI. The Kraken makes a final small, though symbolical, appearance in the final film in the trilogy, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

In film, the Kraken is a sea creature of monstrous proportions commanded under the control of supernatural pirate Davy Jones, ruler of the oceans' realms. Armed with deadly tentacles and destructive power, the Kraken is used often by Jones to destroy ships of an annoyance, or simply of a threat, to him.

Film production

On set, there were many different pronounciation of the name, "Kraken". Character Pintel calls it what sounds like, "Krai-ken". It was Kevin McNally (who plays Mr. Gibbs) that was the first to pronounce it as, "Kra-ken", and so the pronounciation was adopted on set.

During the filming of the attacks, Keira Knightley (Elizabeth Swann) divulged that "the Kraken, at the moment, is just Gore, the director, running around, going, 'I'm a tentacle. I'm a tentacle. Be afraid'." Gore Verbinski, who is learned in Computer animation, worked with Industrial Light & Magic to create the scenes for the film involving the Kraken; the way he wanted the scene to be using the same frames. When filming the attack on the Edinburg Trader, they used the ship as a set in shallow waters. Many more sailors were digitally added onboard the ship, and others were digitally replaced for complex shots. When the time came to film the Edinburg Trader being broken in half, two massive pipes were filled with 30,000 pounds of cement for a total of 60,000 pounds crushed down onto the set. To prepare for this event, most metal and the masts were removed; the metal would prevent the ship from satisfyingly breaking in half while the masts would prevent better camara close-ups. Furthermore, the interior middle of the ship was lined with cables of exposives to blast the wood apart in the air. After the shot, other men were filmed on another blue tilting set and digitally added on deck. John Knoll, Visual Effects Supervisor, confessed that it was extremely complex to add the Kraken's tentacles in between all the environmental effects of water and wood debris.

When the time came to film character Jack Sparrow in front of the Kraken's gaping maw, Johnny Depp's stand-in, Scott Sener, was used to experiment with what seemed to work best with the slime at their disposal (which would represent the phlegm of the Kraken). The slime was spattered about him with jets of air. For the actual filming though, Depp was spattered with the slime and acted his part without any representation for the Kraken. It was afterwards digitally added in along with sound, tentacles, and other visual effects.

Background

Nothing is given in the films about the Kraken's origins. What is known from the films is that after Davy Jones tore out his heart and became the feared and mutated sea ruler, he presumingly found the Kraken and came to command it. Since then, the Kraken was used by Jones' to destroy ships that stood in his way or those as well which carried potential crew members for his supernatural ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Appearances

Dead Man's Chest

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

The Kraken makes its first appearance in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, brought to life using the most advanced Computer-generated imagery from Industrial Light & Magic. Davy Jones, who is after Jack Sparrow's soul (both made an agreement that Jones could have Sparrow's soul if Jones resurfaced the Black Pearl from Davy Jones' Locker and allowed Sparrow to captain it for 13 years), sends Bootstrap Bill Turner to give Sparrow the Black Spot, announcing to him that Jones' "terrible leviathan" is after him. After a sailor on board a Turkish fishing boat brings Sparrow's hat on board and wears it (Sparrow had previously lost it at sea), he attracts the Kraken. It is here when the monster is first seen in film as a mere green mass moving quickly towards the ship. Soon after hearing rumbling from the ocean depths, the Kraken violently pulls the ship under the sea, emitting a massive jet of water, and compressing the ship with a loud crunch. The whole attack takes just a few seconds. The Kraken then afterwards attacks another ship. Will Turner boards it after Jack Sparrow tricks him into thinking it is the actual Flying Dutchman; the crew members remaining alive are seen psychologically damaged after the attack - there is even blood splattered about.

File:Pirates04 Pirates2-kb365-23.jpg

The Kraken destroys the Edinburgh Trader

Davy Jones later on calls upon the Kraken after wanting it to destroy the Edinburgh Trader. Will Turner in this point in the film has stolen Jones' key to the Dead Man's Chest, a fictional chest in which Jones placed his heart after being hurt by Calypso, his lover; Will wants to stab the heart to free his father. The monster shortly arrives to destroy the ship. After a feeble attempt to get rid of the Kraken, it smashes the ship in half with its massive tentacles and drags it to its doom, all whilst swallowing men with its gargantuan mouth. While Will is momentarily submerged underwater as well, he gets a brief and obscured glimpse of the Kraken's underwater form.

Finally, after Flying Dutchman falls behind the Black Pearl during a small chase later on in film, Jones calls upon the Kraken to finish off the ship once and for all. At this point in the film, Jones' confronts Sparrow after the events at Isla Cruses where Jones' Dead Man's Chest was buried, and attempts to sink the Black Pearl with the Dutchman's cannons. After the ship is shaken by the arrival of the Kraken underwater, it prepares to fire as the Kraken slides its tentacles up the sides of the Pearl. The ship fires at it, mutilating some tentacles. The Kraken retreats, though returns with great fury. All the while the ship is attacked, Will Turner makes a plan to gather the kegs gun powder, rum, and other combustibles on board the Pearl in one cargo net to be slowly lifted aloft. After Elizabeth Swann fails to shoot it (due to the tentacles intervene), it is Jack Sparrow (who had abandoned the ship out of fear and had now returned in the knick of time) who picks up her fallen gun and shoots the net. It blasts the Kraken's outreaching tentacles apart in the resulting explosion: The Kraken retreats heavily injured.

After the retreat, Jack orders the crew to abandon ship. In the meanwhile, Elizabeth kisses Jack, and after both move slowly towards the mast, Elizabeth chains Sparrow behind his back. She had figured that the Kraken wanted only him and that if he joined them, they would be doomed as well. When she leaves him on the deserted Pearl, Jack attempts to remove the shackles until finally succeeding: all in the meanwhile, the Kraken began to slither its tentacles back up and onto the ship, grasping the masts and sides. When Sparrow turns around, he finds the Kraken's gargantuan, closed mouth in front of him. It opens its mouth with a rumblimg roar, revealing its maw and spitting out greenish-yellowing phlegm all over Sparrow: it also spits out his hat. He picks it up, draws out his sword, and responds, "Hello Beastie." He plunges into the mouth with his sword as the mouth encloses around him, all while finally dragging the Black Pearl down to Davy Jones' Locker.

At World's End

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

The Kraken returns in the film, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, though only in a small scene. In this film, Davy Jones is now being manipulated by Lord Cutler Beckett through extortion after acquiring his heart. As a first order, Lord Beckett commanded Jones to kill the Kraken. Beckett assumed that Jones, being loose cannoned, could command the Kraken to unexpectedly attack the East India Trading Company armada, using the Kraken against Beckett. Jones, being threatened to have his heart killed, did as commanded. The action had a profound affect on him as seen in his facial expressions after Beckett reminds him of the killing, and then adding, "The immaterial has become...Immaterial" (referencing strongly to Jones and his "pet"). The sad stricken Jones even plays a sad tune on his pipe organ, also playing for the loss of his love, Calypso.

After Jack Sparrow is rescued from Davy Jones' Locker, he proclaims that it would be nice to be "Captain Jack Sparow, the last pirate." It is when Jack and Hector Barbossa sail ashore for water that the Kraken is shown, its dead carcass lying on the beach coast. When spotted, Pintel pokes it with a long stick, and he and Ragetti jump on the Kraken calling themselves "kraken slayers." Both Jack and Barbossa approach; Barbossa observes Jack's reaction as he surveys the dead Kraken. Barbossa replies to Jack that the problem with being the last of anything is that afterwards there will be none left. When Jack adds that some things do come back (both of them being proof of such), Barbossa states that there is no guarantee of that. Then both ponder about how the world used to be a bigger place; there is no place big enough for the Kraken in the New World. Both walk away as Jack realizes just how serious Lord Beckett's threat is. The Kraken is shown being washed away by the waves and pecked away by seagulls.

Use and symbolism in the trilogy

The Kraken was originally symbolism of Davy Jones' grasp and influence in the seas. Jones is the "devil of the seas" (the reason behind his horned hat) and the Kraken's tentacles were the grasp of the devil. At the end of Dead Man's Chest, it is the Kraken which leads character Jack Sparrow to Davy Jones Locker, thus leading to the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End; note that Davy Jones never even attempted to kill Sparrow with his own hands, which he could have done as he is seemingly a skilled swordsman in At World's End. By the third film, the Kraken's death is symbolism to piracy being purged and there not being a place big enough for it in Beckett's world (industrialization and imperialism). The Kraken was the last of its kind, doomed to have no purpose except the bidding of Davy Jones, making the point that there is little nobility or purpose in Jack being the last of his kind [pirate] either (he wanted to be the "last pirate"). The black of the sand further adds to the symbolism of how the Brethren will all be washed upon death and "extinction" should they not make a stand against Cutler Beckett's threat.

This ultimately proves the Kraken as a major character in the series, the monster is as well symbolism of being "At World's End" (the ends of the world, figuratively). This is something in which all characters find themselves at, hence the symbolic name of the film; this is all tied up in the small yet symbolic scene with the Kraken.

Attributes

Physical Characteristics

File:Jack VS.. The Kraken -2.JPG

The Kraken confronts Jack Sparrow on the Black Pearl.

The Kraken was designed by the producers of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, and then was brought to life by technicians at Industrial Light & Magic. Its body resembles a massive, deformed cephalopod of rough, sea green-colored skin. In the book, Pirates of the Caribbean: A Visual Guide, a profile view of the Kraken is seen, with a ship for scale. The second edition, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, states the Kraken to be as long as ten of that ship. The book also depicts the Kraken as a cephalopod-like beast, with a ring of tentacles at the base of its head and a long, sharp tail similar to a squid (this could be used to keep it at level with the ship underwater). The fictional monster has also large round eyes with orange irises and black pupils. Interestingly, the eyes seem to show pain, most likely from when Jones had to kill it, although it could also be the Kraken's default expression. The Kraken in this shot does not look as big as the given photo from the visual guide.

Its tentacles are massive and are said by Mr. Gibbs to "suction your face clean off." The suction disks have strength powerful enough to pull a ship from its underside and have even pulled a human's face to the point of leaving it with skin folds, layer-over-layer in Dead Man's Chest. The Kraken also uses these powerful suckers to silently pull itself along the rocks lying on the oceans' bottom. After the Kraken's tentacles were severely damaged by cannon fire and an explosion during the assaults on Black Pearl, it resurfaced with its wounds appearing healed. It is unclear if the Kraken has the ability to instantly regenerate itself or if it was using different tentacles. It's also notable that the Kraken has two tentacles which are significantly larger than the others. The beast employs these to crush ships as a finishing move. The weight of the two tentacles can split a ship along its width; its force being so great.

When it revealed its mouth to character Jack Sparrow, it resembled similar to a Sarlacc; the interior is lined with about six sets of spiked, razor-sharp teeth and its breath gives of a reeking odor of "a thousand rotting corpses." Will Turner looks a bit sickened by this information.

Its calling and attacks

Calling upon the Kraken

Davy Jones, ruler of the seas, summons the Kraken to destroy vessels. On-board his ghostly ship, the Flying Dutchman is a massive hammer-like wheel with a carved Kraken on the top, the so-called Kraken's Hammer. To call the Kraken, the crew rotate the hammer clockwise, lifting it to its highest point. One crew member is whipping the pushers, making sure that they pull their weight. It then slams down, blasting shockwaves through the ocean, thus calling the Kraken. It usually does not take more than one shockwave to do the job unless the kraken is sleeping in a farther sea.

The Kraken is as well called towards anyone marked with the Black Spot, stalking them until able to attack them. The Black Spot may be only given by to its victims by crew members of the Flying Dutchman and can only be removed by its captain, Davy Jones. According to the writers' commentary on the Dead Man's Chest DVD, those marked with the Black Spot are taken by the Kraken to Davy Jones' Locker, where they must experience their worst fear for eternity.

Methods of attack

The Kraken attacks by stealthily approaching a ship, slithering its tentacles up the sides of the hull, and gripping tightly, yanking it underwater. If the crew can fight back, the Kraken smashes the hull and masts with its tentacles, probes the decks, and holds with its sensitive suckers. Using the extreme sensitivity of its suckers, it knows almost precisely where people are, giving the effect that each of the tentacles is like a giant snake seeking out its prey. It uses its two powerful forearms to rip a ship apart, being so powerful it can easily tear the ship in half in mere seconds. Davy Jones uses some, but not all, of these attacks to acquire new crewmen for the Flying Dutchman. As he surveys the survivors of one wrecked ship, he offers them an opportunity to delay their final judgment by joining his crew for a century. He terrifies at least one soul into service. Those who refuse are killed and dumped over-board.

Kraken attacks often leave the survivors, if any, psychologically damaged: traumatized and deranged.

See also

• Kraken (legendary creature)
• Kraken in popular culture

External links

• Kraken at the Pirates of the Caribbean wiki