Pirates of the Caribbean – the Curse of the Black Pearl
JACK It’s pure evil to make a Captain walk the plank of his own ship, twice in one lifetime. No good can come of it.
BARBOSSA Now, Jack. That reef is less than a league distant. It’s a square deal all around, and you can’t hope for better.
JACK Someone needs to cut these bonds, then. Barbossa smiles, shows a pistol. Points it at Jack.
BARBOSSA You’d best take a swim, Jack.
JACK The last time you did this, you left me a pistol, with one shot. The pirates mutter agreement.
PINTEL That’s proper, sir, according to the code.
BARBOSSA By the Powers, you’re right! Where’s Jack’s pistol? Who’s got it? Bring it forward!
JACK A gentleman might give us two pistols, seeing as there are two of us, this time. A pirate hands Jack’s pistol to Barbossa.
BARBOSSA Tell you what. I’ll give you one pistol, and let you be the gentleman, an’ shoot the lady, and starve to death yourself! That is, presuming you’re not both drownded. The pirates laugh. Barbossa tosses Jack the pistol-but over his head, and down into the water with a splash.
BARBOSSA (CONTID) So how did you get off that island, anyway?
JACK You can go to your grave not knowing.
BARBOSSA That’s fair. Jack glares at Barbossa. Then he’s prodded with a cutlass, takes a step out. Reaches the end of the plank-steps off. Jack plunges down into the water. Appears on the surface, floundering, struggles to stay afloat. Will and Elizabeth exchange helpless looks; there is nothing they can do.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) The lady’s next. But first, I’ll be wanting that dress back, if you please. Elizabeth hesitates … then strips it off, leaving her in a silk slip. She throws it at him.
ELIZABETH Here-it will go well with your black heart ! Barbossa indicates the plank.
ELIZABETH (CONT’ D) I will not walk into the ocean. You’ll have to throw me in! Barbossa raises an eyebrow, grins, nods.
BARBOSSA Have at her, lads! The pirates rush to comply. Lift her up, toss her over the rail-with a scream she falls-EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA – UNDERWATER – DAY We follow Elizabeth amid foam and bubbles as she PLUNGES down through the water. Blue and clear, with streaks of sunlight cutting down; bright coral and tropical fish, and a lovely young woman in a silk dress. .. if it weren’t for the mortal danger, the scene could be described as gorgeous. Elizabeth spots Jack, below her now, sinking, struggling. She swims down … unties his bonds. Elizabeth starts for the surface. Inexplicably, Jack swims the other way, further down into the depths.
EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA – DAY
Elizabeth breaks the surface, looks around. And then, finally Jack appears, sucking in air. He shows what he went after: his pistol. He tucks it into his shirt.
ELIZABETH You went back for that? We need to head for the reef! She starts swimming. Jack hesitates. The Black Pearl is already underway; he stares at it.
JACK That’s the second time I’ve had to watch that man sail away with my ship. He turns away, and swims after Elizabeth.
EXT. ISLET – BEACH – DAY
CLOSE ON: The surf line. Elizabeth’s feet leave prints in
the sand … and then meet up with matching footprints she made earlier, going in the same direction. She has walked all the way around the island.
JACK (O.S.) Not all that big, is it? Jack lays on the beach. He has dismantled his pistol; the parts, ball and powder dry on his scarf.
ELIZABETH Has it changed since the last time you were here?
JACK The trees are taller. Jack checks to see if the pistol parts are dry; they are. He sets about re-assembling and loading his pistol.
ELIZABETH I hope you have no intention of using that. Jack has finished putting his pistol back together. He shoves it in his belt, walks off.
JACK Not yet. Ask me again in a few weeks. Elizabeth can’t believe it.
ELIZABETH Captain Sparrow! We have to get off this island-immediately!
JACK Don’t be thinking I’m not already working on it. He climbs up toward a clump of palm trees. Digs for something beneath the sand. He finds it: a large iron ring.
ELIZABETH What is that? Is there a boat under there? Jack heaves the trap door up and over, revealing a pit. Inside are barrels and bottles of rum … all covered with dust and cobwebs, long abandoned. Jack’s face falls.
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) What? What’s wrong? How will this help us get off the island?
JACK It won’t. It won’t, and so we won’t. He jumps down into the pit, cracks open a bottle of rum,. takes a swig.
ELIZABETH But … you did it before! Last time – JACK Last time, I was here a grand total of three days. Last time, the rumrunners who used this island as a cache came by, and I bartered passage off.
JACK (CONT’D) But from the looks of this, they’ve long been’out of business, and so that won’t be happening again. We probably have your friend Norrington to thank for that.
ELIZABETH So that’s it? That’s the secret grand adventure of the infamous Jack Sparrow? You spent three days on the beach drinking rum?
JACK Welcome to the Caribbean, love. He gathers up a few bottles, heads for the beach.
JACK (CONT’D) You should look at our contretemps this way: we’ve got shade trees, thank the Lord. We’ve got some food on the trees, thank the Lord again. And we’ve got rum, praise the Lord. We can stay alive a month, maybe more. Keep a weather eye open for passing ships, and our chances are fair.
ELIZABETH A month? Will doesn’t have a month! We’ve got to do something to help him!
JACK You’re right. Here’s luck to you, Will Turner. He drinks-and defiantly returns Elizabeth’s angry gaze. But then turns away, sits down.
JACK (CONT’D) Don’t be thinking I’m happy about this, Elizabeth. But I see no use in wailing and gnashing my teeth over that which I can do nothing about.
ELIZABETH Not when you can drink instead, at least. Jack tosses her a bottle.
JACK Try it. It goes down rough, but it goes down – – and the second swig goes down easier. Elizabeth considers. Comes to a decision. She unseals the bottle, takes a swig. They sit in silence for a bit.
ELIZABETH And you will call me Miss Swann. Jack toasts her: you got it. Elizabeth studies her bottle… gives Jack a sidelong glance. Back to her bottle …
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) Drink up me hearties, yo ho…
JACK What? What was that? Something funny, Miss Swann? share. Please,
ELIZABETH Nothing … it’s nothing. Just … I’m reminded of a song I learned as a child. A song about pirates.
JACK I know a lot of songs about pirates, but none I’d teach a child. Let’s hear it.
ELIZABETH Oh, no … it’s silly. Back in England we didn’t know a thing about pirates, really. They seemed so romantic and daring – Jack likes the way that sounds.
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) That was before I met one, of course.
JACK Now I must hear this song. An authentic pirate song. Have at it.
ELIZABETH Well, perhaps … with a bit more to drink, I might …
JACK More to drink! He gathers two more bottles, tosses one to her. She drops her half-finished bottle to catch it. Opens it, takes a sip.
JACK (CONT’D) Well? Elizabeth clears her throat, begins to sing selfconsciously, becoming stronger as she goes on.
ELIZABETH We pillage, we plunder, we rifle, we loot, Drink up me hearties, yo ho. She gestures for him to drink. He does.
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) We kidnap and ravage and we don’t give a hoot, Drink up me hearties, yo ho – EXT. ISLET – BEACH – LATER – NIGHT The middle of the night. A fire BLAZES. Jack and Elizabeth are roaring drunk, arm in arm, singing the song all the way up to the stars-JACK/ELIZABETH Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me! Yo ho, yo ho, it’s a pirates life for me!
JACK I LOVE this song! Yo ho, yo ho, a pirate’s life for me! We’re beggars and blighters, ne’er do well cads, Drink up me hearties, yo ho! (gives it a touch of Irish ballad) Aye but we’re loved by our mums and our dads. Drink up me hearties, yo ho! They hoist their bottles, but only Jack drinks. He drains the bottle, then tosses it away.
JACK (CONT’D) When I get the Black Pearl back, I’m going to teach it to the whole crew, and we’ll sing it all the time!
ELIZABETH You’ll be positively the most fearsome pirates to sail the Spanish Main. Elizabeth salutes the idea with her bottle. Jack doesn’t have a bottle to salute back. She hands him hers. He drinks, then settles shakily to the ground. Elizabeth sits beside him.
JACK Not just the Spanish Main. The whole ocean. .. the whole world. Wherever we want to go, we go. That’s what a ship is, you know. Not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails. That’s what a ship need_ … but what a ship is-what the Black Pearl really-is … is freedom. Elizabeth lays her head on his shoulder.
ELIZABETH Jack, it must be so terrible for you, to be trapped here on this island, all over again.
JACK Ah, well… the company is better than last time. And the scenery has definitely improved.
ELIZABETH Mr. Sparrow! I’m not sure I’ve had enough rum to allow that kind of talk.
JACK We’ve got a few bottles left … and we’ve yet to tap the kegs. Elizabeth shrugs with a sleight-but promising-smile. She picks up the empty bottle from the ground, holds it up.
ELIZABETH To freedom.
JACK To the Black Pearl. They tap the bottles together. Elizabeth feigns a drink as he chugs. He taps his bottle against her again. She laughs, feigns another drink – EXT. ISLET – BEACH – MORNING
CLOSE ON-JACK’S FACE, dead asleep, lying in the
sunlight. His nose twitches. A bit of SMOKE drifts by. His nose twitches again. His eyes open. Jack GROANS and sits up. He rubs his head, looks over –all of the foliage in the middle of the island is ON FIRE. Smoke rises high up into the clear blue sky. Jack leaps to his feet. He sees Elizabeth, as she pours out the last of the rum, dowsing a scrub brush at the base of a palm tree. It goes up in FLAMES. She rolls the barrel forward-it starts to BURN merrily. Jack can’t believe his eyes.
JACK What are you doing? You’ve burned our food, the shade-the rum!
ELIZABETH Yes, the rum is gone. She wipes her hands together. One of the rum barrels in the fire EXPLODES.
JACK Why?
ELIZABETH One, because it is a vile drink that turns even the most respectable men into scoundrels. Two – She points to the sky.
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) That signal is over a thousand feet high, which means it can be seen for two hundred leagues in every direction. The entire Royal Navy is out to sea looking for me-do you think there is even a chance they could mass it?
JACK You-you burned up the island, for a one-time chance at being spotted?
ELIZABETH Exactly. Elizabeth turns toward the sea.
ELIZABETH (CONT’D) Just you wait, Captain. In an hour, maybe two, keep a ‘weather eye open’ and you’ll be seeing white sails on that horizon! She sits down, determined. Shields her eyes, scans the water, waiting, searching. Jack is speechless. He throws up his hands, stalks up the sand dune, just to get away from her.
EXT. ISLET – LEEWARD SHORE – DAY
At the crest of the dune, Jack stops-and stares, incredulous. We come around to see what he is looking at – Past Jack, anchored the other side of the island, white sails glorious against the turquoise waters, is the H.M.S. Dauntless. A longboat is already being rowed toward them. Jack shakes his head.
JACK They’ll be no living with her after this.
EXT. H.M.S. DAUNTLESS – MAIN DECK – DAY
Norrington gives Elizabeth a hand disembarking from the raised long boat.
NORRINGTON Elizabeth, I’m” relieved you’re safe. Clap him in irons. And behind his back this time.
ELIZABETII Commodore, you can’t do that!
NORRINGTON You’re speaking up for him again?
ELIZABETH He can locate Isla de Muerta-but I doubt he’ll be willing to help us from the brig.
JACK We had time to get to know each other.
NORRINGTON We are bound for Port Royal, not Isla de Muerta.
ELIZABETH No. The pirates have taken Will – NORRINGTON Your father is frantic with worry. Our mission was to rescue you and return home. That is what we shall do. Mr. Turner’s fate is regrettable. But so was his decision to engage in piracy.
ELIZABETH Commodore, please!
JACK Norrington, think about it … the Black Pearl, its captain and crew… the last pirate threat in the Caribbean. How can you pass that up?
