Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Directed by	Gore Verbinski
Written by	Ted Elliott Terry Rossio
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Starring	Johnny Depp Orlando Bloom Keira Knightley Bill Nighy Stellan Skarsgård Jack Davenport Jonathan Pryce Tom Hollander
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Edited by	Stephen E. Rivkin Craig Wood
Music by	Hans Zimmer
Distributed by	Buena Vista
Release dates	July 6, 2006
Running time	151 Minutes
Language	English
Budget	$225 million

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest is a 2006 pirate adventure film that follows the 2003 summer blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. The sequel is directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, both of whom were involved in the making of the first film. Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley reprise their roles as Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann, respectively. Stellan Skarsgård plays the role of Will Turner's father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner. The film was released in Australia and the United Kingdom on July 6 2006, and in the USA and Canada on July 7, 2006. The movie set several records in its first three days in theaters over its opening weekend, becoming the most successful movie opening in Hollywood history.

The title is both a play on the pirates' song from Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and a literal reference to a chest in the film.

Rating

In the United States of America it has been rated PG-13 for "Intense Sequences Of Adventure Violence, Including Frightening Images." In the United Kingdom it is a 12A: "Contains moderate horror and action-adventure violence." In Australia, it earned a rating of M, for "Mild violence and supernatural themes." In Canada it is rated PG for "Violence, Frightening Scenes, and Gory Scenes."

Plot

Template:Spoiler The film begins in Port Royal, Jamaica on what is meant to be the wedding day of Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom). However, their misadventures at the end of the previous film, rescuing Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), come back to haunt them with the arrival of Lord Cutler Beckett (Tom Hollander) of the East India Trading Company bearing arrest warrants for the couple. But Lord Beckett offers Will a reprieve if he can get Captain Jack's "broken" compass (which, in reality, points towards one's true desire) for the Company, and so Will finds himself once again thrown into the world of supernatural piracy.

Meanwhile Will's father, "Bootstrap Bill" Turner (Stellan Skarsgård), appears to Captain Jack to give him the Black Spot and warn him that it is time to repay an old debt to the legendary Davy Jones (Bill Nighy) — ruler of the ocean depths and captain of the Flying Dutchman, a ghostly ship crewed by all manner of lost sailors, whose bodies gradually mix with those of various aquatic fauna and eventually assimilate into the ship itself. The debt was for reviving the Black Pearl and making Jack Sparrow captain for thirteen years. To chase up the debt, Davy Jones has released the gigantic ferocious Kraken, forcing Jack to flee the seas while being pursued by an unimaginable terror. Jack decides to head for land. Any land.

With time running out, Jack must find a way out of his debt or else be doomed to serve on Davy Jones crew for a century. Meanwhile, Will is seeking Jack's compass, Davy Jones is trying to protect his heart (which has been removed and buried on a secret island), Elizabeth is looking to rescue the man she loves, Bootstrap wants to save his son from the fate he suffered, ex-Commodore Norrington (Jack Davenport) wants to regain his honor, Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) will do anything to protect his daughter, and the crew of the Black Pearl are mutinous about the lack of gold.

After a fruitless search for Jack, Will finally gets word that the Black Pearl is abandoned on a remote island. Travelling there, he finds a superstitious native tribe who have crowned Jack as their king. Jack orders him to be taken away — but not before whispering "Save me" to Will. This is explained by the crew of the Black Pearl (with whom Will ends up trapped) — the local cannibals believe Jack is a god and must be killed in order to be free from his "fleshy prison".

As the crew tries to escape captivity, Jack gets a temporary reprieve and manages to escape as well. They meet up back at the Pearl, picking up Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook) and Pintel (Lee Arenberg) on the way.

There, Jack and Will begin negotiating: Jack says he will give Will the compass as long as Will gets him the key to a chest where Davy Jones keeps his heart. In a visit "up river" to Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris) they swap Barbossa's undead monkey (also named Jack) for information on Davy Jones, the location of the Flying Dutchman, and a jar of dirt. Tia tells Will the legend of Davy Jones, telling him that he had cut out his own heart because of love. She also explains that Davy Jones cannot set foot on land for another decade, so the dirt is land that will protect Jack Sparrow. They set sail for the Flying Dutchman.

Davy Jones and part of his crew

Finding a wreck, Will volunteers to go across and find the key. Sadly it's a trap — the wrecked ship is not the Dutchman but its prey. Will is caught by Davy Jones and his crew while looking for the key on the wreck. Through his spyglass, Jack Sparrow sees the face of Davy Jones as he looks over his captives and when he pulls the glass away from his eye, is suddenly confronted by him. By playing on the stories of why Davy Jones had removed his heart, he tells him that Will is a man in love and was to be married. This seems to strike a chord with the merciless captain of the Dutchman, and Sparrow manages to talk him into taking Will aboard as a temporary part of his undead crew in exchange for three days in which Sparrow will find one hundred souls to exchange for his own (Will being the first). Davy Jones agrees and presses Will into his crew without telling him of the deal that was just made. Winning a temporary reprieve in buying more time, Jack sets sail for Tortuga.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth Swann has had a bungled escape attempt organized by her father. She manages to escape with a letter of marque — letters making someone a privateer, not a pirate. She has wound up in Tortuga as well, and ends up enlisted for the Black Pearl along with the now-disgraced ex-Commodore Norrington, who is looking to regain his position and honour. Jack convinces her that the only way she can regain Will is by finding Davy Jones' heart, and she uses his compass to navigate them there.

On the Flying Dutchman, Will meets his father, and they both play Davy Jones at Liar's dice in an attempt to win the key. They lose, but Will later steals it and rows to a ship. Davy Jones realises this means that Jack is after his heart. He catches the ship Will is on and summons the Kraken. The Kraken destroys the ship and kills all aboard, (save for Will, who escapes), while Davy Jones sets sail for the island the heart is buried on.

Both crews arrive at the island at much the same time, although Davy Jones sends his sailors to retrieve the chest as he cannot set foot on land for another decade. Jack, Norrington and Elizabeth use the compass to find the chest. Will appears and is reunited with Elizabeth. They embrace and Will kisses her. There is a shot where Jack and Norrington look on, and they are obviously vexed. The chest precipitates a three-way duel between Jack, Will and Norrington for possession of it. As they are occupied, Davy Jones's crew arrives and attack Ragetti and Pintel who have taken the chest while Jack, Will, and Norrington fight each other. Elizabeth chases both Ragetti and Pintel, eventually fleeing and fighting with them as Davy Jones' crew catches up with the chest they were carrying. They manage to fight them as Jack manages to get away from Will and Norrington. He opens the dropped chest, taking Davy Jones' heart and closing it again. He puts it in the jar of dirt he brought with him when he runs and makes it back to the longboat. Eventually, while Jack is distracted, Norrington sees both the chest and the jar of dirt in the longboat. He makes the "brave" gesture of taking the chest and running with it to draw Davy Jones' crew away from the others to help them make their escape not telling them that he has already taken the heart from the jar. Jack, still thinking that he has the heart, agrees and the others flee. Norrington is cornered by Davy Jones' crew, but plays the coward and drops the chest to run away while they laugh.

Escaping the island, the Pearl is finally caught by the Kraken. After a vicious struggle, the jar holding the dirt is broken and emptied revealing that the heart is no longer in it. Jack frantically searches what is left (frantically exclaiming, "Where's the thump-thump?!") as the crew prepares to defend the ship from the Kraken. During the battle, Elizabeth catches sight of Jack rowing away from the boat, calling him a coward. Later on, as Jack is rowing away from the embattled ship, he is shown looking at his compass before deciding whether or not to go back and help. Will and the rest of the crew have managed to put together a trap to help defend the ship and it is during that final battle against the Kraken that Elizabeth runs into Jack who has returned. He fires a shot into the trap of gunpowder that drives the Kraken away for the moment, but it is enough to buy the crew time to escape. He gives the painful order to abandon ship.

File:Jacksparrowreturns.JPG

Captain Jack Sparrow defends the Black Pearl against the Kraken

However, Elizabeth realises the Kraken is specifically after Jack. She kisses him passionately, and as she does, Will (who is climbing down the ship to the wooden "lifeboat") witnesses the kiss but says nothing, although he is clearly hurt. Elizabeth uses the opportunity to chain Jack to the mast as the rest of the crew escape from the ship. This references an earlier scene in which both Elizabeth and Jack told the other that one day their curiosity would get the better of them, and that they would change their ways, if only for a short period. Jack has seemingly decided to show his good side by returning to help at the risk of his own life, while Elizabeth for once throws her own sense of honour and decency to the wind, both by kissing Jack, and by chaining him to the mast to save herself. In the end though, she truly seems sad at the idea despite her telling Jack that it's the only way to save them, and that she's not sorry. There are also two specific scenes where the voodoo compass wavers towards Jack while under the influence of Elizabeth, insinuating some ulterior feelings on her part. She tells everybody in the lifeboat they escape in that Jack has decided to remain aboard and go down with his ship and they sail away from the Black Pearl. Jack manages to slip out of his shackles just as the Kraken appears on all sides of the ship, trapping him. Jack grabs a sword and the last we see of him he is smiling and saying, "Hello, beastie," and attacking the Kraken as the monster destroys the Black Pearl and drags her underwater to her grave. Davy Jones sees this and proclaims Jack's debt fulfilled. However, he then realises that something is not right and asks to see the "chest" (which used to contain his heart). After realizing his heart has been stolen, he looks up into the sky and shouts, "Jack Sparrow!"

Norrington then reappears in Port Royal and reports to Beckett. To Beckett's surprise, Norrington does not deliver Sparrow's magical compass, but another, more powerful item, the heart of Davy Jones.

The Pearl's survivors revisit Tia Dalma, where they drink a toast to Jack (during which time Will is still distrustful of Elizabeth following the kiss he witnessed) and then are told that they can still bring him and the Black Pearl back; they all agree. Tia says if they are to manage this, they will need to go to the world's end and will need a strong captain who knows where to go and be able to steer a ship like the devil himself. After they agree, Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush), who was shot by Jack Sparrow after the curse was lifted in the first film, enters. He asks about his ship, then starts laughing and bites into a shiny green apple (his one desire from the first film) as the film ends. His undead pet monkey accompanies him out.

The film focuses much more than the first on Jack's self-serving nature, as evidenced by his refusal to help Elizabeth (in response to Will's claims of her being hung for helping Jack, Jack replies that "there comes a time when one must take responsibility for one's actions") and his betrayal of Will, who, along with Gibbs, could be considered his closest true friend aside, not once, but twice. Jack continually asserts that he is not a good person, despite Elizabeth's insistance, and is genuinely surprised when his compass (which points to one's inermost desire) reveals that he actually wishes to return to the Pearl and aid in battling the Kraken. His final moments can be seen as his coming to terms with all aspects of his personality, and accepting his fate as a happy man.

After the credits there is a brief sequence showing the cannibals have now adopted the stowaway key-taunting dog from the first movie as their new chief.

Cast

File:Pirates2poster.jpg

Dead Man's Chest teaser poster

Actor	Role
Johnny Depp	Captain Jack Sparrow
Orlando Bloom	Will Turner
Keira Knightley	Elizabeth Swann
Stellan Skarsgård	"Bootstrap Bill" Turner
Bill Nighy	Davy Jones
Jack Davenport	James Norrington
Kevin McNally	Joshamee Gibbs
Jonathan Pryce	Governor Weatherby Swann
Tom Hollander	Lord Cutler Beckett
Mackenzie Crook	Ragetti
Lee Arenberg	Pintel
Martin Klebba	Marty
Naomie Harris	Tia Dalma
Alex Norton	Captain Bellamy
Alex Cong	Cannibal Bridge Guard
Geoffrey Rush	Captain Barbossa

Background

Information about the two sequels to Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was revealed at a Disney Investor Conference Studio Presentation in 2005. The title for the first sequel Dead Man's Chest was revealed, and a second sequel, with no confirmed name, was promised for a May 2007 theatrical release.

Filming began on February 28, 2005, with locations once again in the Costa Alegre, in Jalisco (Mexico) and Barrouallie, St. Vincent. The sequel also includes location shooting in Dominica as well as The Bahamas. The filmmakers are largely shooting the two sequels back-to-back, à la The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Fellowship of the Ring , although throughout 2005 Dead Man's Chest was the main focus of attention, with a collection of scenes for the third movie being shot. Because of the back-to-back setup, filming Dead Man's Chest did not finish until February 7 2006. Although they were filmed back to back they are being released in the same fashion as The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, one year apart, and filming for the third movie continues into 2006.

Dead Man's Chest premiered at Disneyland in Anaheim, California on June 24, 2006, two days prior to the re-opening day of the refurbished Pirates of the Caribbean attraction on which the movie series is based. The refurbished attraction includes an adjusted storyline and Audio-Animatronics based on the movies and opened June 26, 2006.

Film controversy

Walt Disney Pictures has been questioned by the National Garifuna Council, a representative body of the Garifuna people, for what they feel is a racist portrayal of the Calinago, or Caribs, as cannibals in Dead Man's Chest. The Council called for what they considered to be a fair and accurate representation, and Disney responded that the script could not be altered. No known changes were made to the film.

Reactions

Early reviews for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest were initially positive, but the days following the film's theatrical release revealed a virtual down-the-middle split between critics who thought it was a good piece of entertainment and those who believed otherwise.

Michael Medved gave the film two stars (out of four), calling the plot "sloppy,...convoluted and insipid."

Critics who liked the film have compared it to The Empire Strikes Back (from the Star Wars saga) while many others think The Matrix Reloaded would be a more apt comparison.

Johnny Depp's return performance as Captain Jack Sparrow was warmly welcomed by most, and the action and CG sequences were said to be well done. Critics noted that the plot was patchy, with the film relying on an overabundance of special effects and action sequences.

The film had a 53% rating on Rotten Tomatoes on the film's US opening weekend, the only consensus being that the film is overly long (2 hours, 31 minutes) and the plot sometimes incoherent.

Box office

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest grossed $55.8 million on its opening day, setting the record for the largest opening day, the largest single day gross, and the largest Friday gross of all time. The previous record was held by Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith with $50,013,859.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest opening weekend gross stands at $135,634,554 which beats the previous all time opening weekend set by Spider-Man of $114,844,116 as well as the fastest movie to gross $100 million, doing so in just 2 days. Even taking into account the fact that ticket prices were higher for this movie than they were when Spider-Man debuted, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest still sold about 200,000 more tickets than Spider-Man did.

Trivia

• This is the first time Johnny Depp has portrayed the same character in more than one movie.
• Stellan Skaarsgard and Jonathan Pryce also both star in the movie Ronin but do not share a scene.
• Johnny Depp has also said that he is willing to continue the role of Jack Sparrow beyond the current trilogy.
• Legendary rocker Keith Richards, Depp's personal friend and inspiration for his flamboyant pirate persona, had originally agreed to appear in a cameo role as Jack Sparrow's father, but had to pull out due to a commitment with the Rolling Stones concert tour. He has now signed on to appear in a short cameo role in the third movie.
• The movie is tied into Virtual Magic Kingdom with players being able to win items from the official site. Items include a Captain Jack costume, a poster, a Davy Jones Organ, a Skeleton Monkey, and a Dead Man's Chest. The Captain Jack costume code however is extremely difficult to get, with a code generated for it only once every so many codes.
• For the film's release, the Walt Disney Company had the Pirates of the Caribbean rides in Walt Disney World and Disneyland redesigned to feature captain Jack Sparrow, Barbossa, and an appearance by the films' supernatural character Davy Jones as part of the attraction and will be featured on the film's opening day.
• Tia Dalma's firefly-surrounded dwelling resembles a small shack seen at the beginning of the famous Disneyland ride.
• In the first visit to Tia Dalma's shack, there are clues that foreshadow Barbossa's resurrection. The undead monkey is seen interacting with someone offscreen save for his black, pirate-like boots. The monkey seems to recognize whoever this may be. A few scenes later, Jack is briefly shown handling a hat that looks like the one worn by Barbossa.
• The Tortuga scene was inspired by part of the Disney attraction, and stuck closely to it, with the wild pirate revelers looking almost exactly like the theme park ride, particularly in the way they appear to chase each other in small circles akin to the animatronic counterparts on the ride.
• The completely computer-generated Davy Jones is so realistic that many reviewers have mistakenly identified Nighy as wearing prosthetic makeup.
• Many of the Tortuga scenes were unused shots from the first film and were on the second DVD of the collector's edition of the first film of Pirates.
• So far both movies of the series prominently feature references to iconic pirate songs; in the first the song Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me) is sung by several characters, most prominently Elizabeth and Jack, and a variation of it is featured in several scores in the movie, while in the second the title (and, subsequently, the treasure) reference the song Dead Man's Chest.
• There are various references throughout the movie to scenes and lines that were in the first film. These include, but are not limited to:
  • Governor Swann pulls a candlestick off the prison wall, mirroring Will pulling one off of the Governor's wall in the first film.
  • Jack asks "Why is the rum always gone?", and advises people to keep the rum away from Elizabeth. In the first film, Elizabeth destroyed a large cache of rum when the two were marooned on an island. Later in the film, when Jack recognizes Elizabeth as one of the new crew signed on in Tortuga, he turns to a crewman and orders, "Hide the rum!"
  • Another reference to rum is during an attempt to repel the kraken; finding out there is no more gunpowder, Will gives the order to use the rum for the explosive device, which shocked all the pirates. After a brief moment of silence, Gibbs finally sobbed the order to place rum in it. Incidentally, the one that pulls the trigger on the gun to blow up this cache of rum is Jack, not Elizabeth.
  • Jack mentions being made a chief in the first film.
  • Jack refers to Will as being castrated (he asked Will if he was a eunuch in the first movie), and gestures this to the tribe of cannibals.
  • Barbossa's monkey, Jack, appears briefly as a skeleton, referencing an obscure scene following the credits in the first film.
  • Barbossa's desire to eat apples in the first film is finally completed as he takes a bite out of one before the end credits.
  • When Will asked a couple of women about Jack, only to end up being slapped in the face as Jack was three times before.
  • The prisoners calling something towards them through the prison bars, the dog with the keys in the first and Elizabeth in the second.
  • Jack tells Norrington that he's still rooting for him, alluding to the first film where he says he was rooting for him all along in his attempts to win Elizabeth's affection.
  • The dog with the keys had run off in the first and Governor Swann wants to know where it is now. It apparently has gone off with two of the pirates from the first movie and at a cameo at the end, we see that the natives have made it their chief.
  • Elizabeth pretends to faint when Norrington, Jack, and Will are in a sword fight to get their attention, whereas she fainted twice in the first movie. She faints for real at the start of the first movie and was consequently saved by Jack, and then pretended to faint later on, to distract the on-lookers (Norrington and the governor), allowing Will to help Jack escape from the gallows.
  • Will claims to have used two sea turtles strapped together in his escape from the Flying Dutchman, in the first film Gibbs claims Jack used this method to escape the small island he was marooned on.
  • The man who arrests Will and Elizabeth (Lord Cutler Beckett), played by Tom Hollander, refers to when he had an encounter with Jack before, while holding a branding iron. On it is the same symbol branded on Jack's right arm during the first movie when Norrington pulls up his sleeve.
  • Just before the crew makes their escape from the island where the Dead Man's Chest is buried, Jack hits Will over the head with an oar. Will did this same thing to Jack in the first film.
• This was the first movie featuring the new Disney production logo.
• The skull on the film's poster has a voodoo doll resembling Jack hanging from it. It also shares the red map Jack wears about his head.

Video games

• Dead Man's Chest has spawned a film-game tie in released on PSP, Nintendo's DS and Game Boy Advance.
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow

See also

• Dead man's chest
• Davy Jones' Locker
• The Flying Dutchman
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (video game)
• Pirates of the Caribbean 3
• Liar's Dice

External links

• Official site
• Pirates of the Carribbean: Dead Man's Chest Trailer at Funny Clips
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at MySpace (Official)
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at IMDb
• Template:Ymovies title
• Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest at Rotten Tomatoes
• Pirate's Dice (Official tie-in game)
• KeepToTheCode.com - The official fan site for the Pirates of the Caribbean films (currently in the process of relaunching)