Pirates of the Caribbean – the Curse of the Black Pearl
Norrington’s men swarm across.
NORRINGTON Search every cabin, every hold, down to the bilges!
PULL BACK, away from the Dauntless, and past the railing of the Interceptor, where a single SENTRY stands watch-and we find a soaked Jack and Will as they climb up over the side of the smaller ship, unseen.
Jack tackles the Sentry from behind, covers his mouth.
JACK Can you swim? (the man struggles) Can. You. Swim?
Jack removes his hand.
SENTRY Of course, sir. Like a fish. I grew up summers living in Dover, with my uncle- JACK Good.
Jack lifts the man up, throws him overbroad. Quickly unties the ropes to the grappling hooks. Will cranks the capstan bars, raising the foresail- EXT. H.M.S. DAUNTLESS – DAY
Norrington emerges from a gangway-and sees his other ship moving away.
NORRINGTON Sailors! Back to the Interceptor!
But the distance is already too great. One brave sailor tries to swing across on a rope, Errol-Flyn style, but falls short with a splash.
Jack waves, and shouts across the distance-
JACK Thank you, Commodore, for getting our ship ready to make way! We’d’ve had a hard time of it by ourselves!
Norrington seethes, but his order to Gillette is measured:
NORRINGTON Raise the sails.
GILLETTE The wind is quarter from astern … by the time we’re underway, we’ll never catch them.
NORRINGTON We need only to come about, to put them in range of the long nines.
Gillette looks surprised at the order-but relays it.
GILLETTE Hands! Come about! Jackets off the cannons! (to Norrington) We are to fire on our own ship?
NORRINGTON Better to see it at the bottom of the sea than in the hands of a pirate.
The STEERSMAN turns the wheel. The Dauntless’ course does not change one whit.
STEERSMAN Captain, there’s a problem.
The Steersman spins the wheel. It goes round and round, with no signs of slowing.
STEERSMAN (CONT’D) He’s disabled the rudder chain, sir.
NORRINGTON So it would seem.
The Interceptor dwindles with distance. Gillette watches it go, with some degree of admiration.
GILLETTE He’s got to be the best pirate I’ve ever seen.
Norrington reaches out, stops the spinning ship’s wheel.
NORRINGTON So it would seem.
The Interceptor makes for the horizon line. A SLOW DISSOLVE and with the time passage, the ship is gone; the sky turns a deep twilight blue- EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA – EVENING -with the fat white moon riding just above the horizon. Suddenly, the edge of a black sail cuts into the foreground, accompanied by the ROAR of the wind and the SNAP of canvas- INT. BLACK PEARL – CAPTAIN’S CABIN – EVENING
Elizabeth stalks the cabin. Pintel enters, carrying a black silk dress.
PINTEL You’ll be dining with the Captain, and he requests you wear this.
ELIZABETH Tell the captain that I am disinclined to acquiesce to his request.
PINTEL (happy) He said you say that! He also said if that be the case, you’ll be dining with the crew, and you’ll be naked.
Angry, Elizabeth holds out her hand. Pintel’s grin fades.
PINTEL (CONT’D) (hands it over) Fine.
He exits, pouting. Elizabeth examines the dress- INT. BLACK PEARL – CAPTAIN’S CABIN – NIGHT
Barbossa enters, followed by PIRATES carrying trays of food, wine, table setting, etc. Elizabeth stands at the small table in the dress-lovely.
BARBOSSA Maid or not, it fits you.
ELIZABETH Dare I ask the fate of it previous owner?
BARBOSSA Now, none of that. Please dig in.
The table is set. Elizabeth sits, cuts a tiny piece of meat, eats it daintily.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) No need to stand on ceremony, and no call to impress anyone. You must be hungry.
Elizabeth drops the pretense: she’s starving, and begins to eat like it. Barbossa watches her intently.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) Try the whine.
Elizabeth does, a huge swig; she tears off a hunk of bread, devours it.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) And the apples-one of those next.
She starts to bite into the apple-stops. She is suddenly aware of Barbossa’s gaze-and that he is not eating.
ELIZABETH It’s poisoned!
She shoves her plate away-and takes the opportunity to palm her knife. Barbossa LAUGHS.
BARBOSSA Oh, there would be no sense in killing you, Miss Turner.
ELIZABETH Then why aren’t you eating?
BARBOSSA Would that I could.
He produces the medallion, lets it dangle from his fingers.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) Do you not know what this is, then?
ELIZABETH It’s a pirate medallion.
BARBOSSA It’s a piece of the treasure of Isla de Muerta.
Elizabeth gives an infinitesimal shrug, intrigued despite herself.
BARBOSSA Ah, so you don’t know as much as you pretend. Back when Cortes was cutting a great bloody swath through the New World, a high priest gave him all the gold they had, with one condition: that he spare the people’s lives. Of course, Cortes being Cortes, he didn’t. (nods) He’d’ve made a great pirate, that one.
Barbossa stands, moves to a shelf. Puts a key to a medium-sized polished wooden box-the Captain’s chest. Opens it.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) So the priest, with his dying breath, called on the power of the blood of his people, and put on the gold a curse. If anyone took so much as a single piece, as he was compelled by greed, by greed he would be consumed.
Inside the chest are charts, some gold, a sextant-and a few pages of a Mayan CODEX, pieces of tree bark inscribed with Mayan glyphs. Barbossa removes them carefully, sets them on the table. Pours over them.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) Within a day of leaving port for Spain, the treasure ship carrying the gold … something went wrong. The ship run aground, every man aboard dead, save one. He survived long enough to hide the gold ashore. (beat) Over time, the dark magic of the curse seeped into the place, making it a cursed island. An island of death. Isla de Muerta.
He looks up. Elizabeth has been rapt, involved in the story-but feigns a dismissive attitude.
ELIZABETH That’s all very interesting, but I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore.
Barbossa is angry. He stands, sweeps the food off the table.
BARBOSSA You idiot girl! It’s no make- believe! My crew and I, we found the gold, and we did more than take one piece, we took it all. Rich men we were and we spent it and traded it and gave it away in exchange for drink and food and pleasant company. But we found out: the drink could not sate us, and the food turned to ashes in our mouths, and no amount of pleasant company could ease our torment. (regains his composure) We are cursed men, Miss Turner, condemned, to be forever consumed by our own greed. Gold calls to US, always, and we are driven, always, to find more, and add it to the treasure.
Barbossa picks up the priceless Codex. Crushes them in his fist.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) There is but one way to remove the curse. All of the scattered pieces of the treasure must be restored in full, and the blood repaid. (he throws the pages aside) We’ve recovered every piece-save for this. (holds up the medallion) And as for the blood repaid … that’s what we have for you. (pleasant, finally getting to his point) And that’s why there’s no sense killing you. Yet.
Elizabeth stares at him, horrified. Using the toe of his boot, Barbossa flips an apple up off the floor, catches it, extends it to Elizabeth.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) Apple?
Elizabeth slowly reaches for the apple-and then comes up out of her chair, trying to run around Barbossa. They struggle briefly, and then suddenly he shoves her away- Elizabeth’s stolen KNIFE is buried in Barbossa’s chest, to the hilt- Barbossa is completely unaffected. He opens his shirt to get a better look at the knife, pulls it out with little effort. There is BLOOD on the blade, but none anywhere else.
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) I’m curious-after killing me, what is it you were planning to do next?
Elizabeth backs away, whirls and barrels out the door- EXT. BLACK PEARL – MAIN DECK – NIGHT -Elizabeth comes to a dead stop. She stares, her jaw working, trying to scream but unable to- The pirate crew works at their stations, coiling lines, navigating the ship, swabbing decks-but where the moonlight falls across their bodies, they are naught but SKELETONS.
Elizabeth turns away from the sight- Barbossa stands just inside the doorway, out of the moonlight. He grabs her roughly by the shoulders and jerks her back around-Elizabeth shuts her eyes-
BARBOSSA Look! (shakes her) LOOK! The moonlight shows us for what we really are! We are not among the living and so we cannot die- He spins her back around to face him-he leans forward, putting his face in the moonlight, turning it into a gleaming SKULL with gold and silver teeth- BARBOSSA (CONT’D) -but neither are we dead! We have all the desires of the living, but cannot satisfy them! Ten years I have parched of thirst, and able to quench it! Ten years, I have been starving to death-and haven’t died! (raises his hand) And I have not felt anything for ten years … Not the wind on my face, nor the spray of the sea … (reaches toward
Elizabeth) … nor the flesh of a woman …
Elizabeth flicnhes away from the skeletal hand. It drops away -he takes a bottle of wine from the opened case beside the cabin door, uncorks it with his teeth, raises it-
BARBOSSA (CONT’D) You’d best start believing in ghost stories, Miss Turner. Because now you’re in one.
He tilts the bottle and drinks-it runs over his jaw, through his rib cage, drenching his clothes.
Elizabeth darts around him, back into the cabin, and shuts the door. Barbossa hurls the bottle away.
INT. BLACK PEARL – CAPTAIN’S CABIN – NIGHT
Elizabeth huddles in the far corner of the cabin, terrified.
EXT. CARIBBEAN SEA – DAY
The Interceptor cuts across the waves. Jack at the wheel; Will tightens a line, moves back astern.
EXT. INTERCEPTOR – MAIN DECK – DAY
Will sharpens his sword with a whetstone: shhhk-shhhk …
JACK For a man whose made an industry of avoiding boats, you’re a quick study.
WILL I worked passage from England as a cabin boy. (an attempt at guile) After my mother passed, I came out here … looking for my father.
JACK Is that so?
