Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

is a 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Buena Vista Pictures via the Walt Disney Pictures label, the film is based on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney theme parks and is the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley, it follows pirate Jack Sparrow (Depp) and blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom), as they attempt to rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Knightley). The trio encounters Captain Hector Barbossa (Rush) and the Black Pearl crew who are afflicted by a supernatural curse.

Executives at Walt Disney Studios drafted a rough treatment for the film in 2000. A script was developed by Jay Wolpert in 2001, and was rewritten by Stuart Beattie in early 2002. Around that time, the producer Jerry Bruckheimer became involved in the project. He brought in screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who had drafted a premise for the film in the 1990s. Elliott and Rossio added the curse to the script to align the film's story with the theme park ride. Verbinski eventually signed on as the director. Filming took place from October 2002 to March 2003 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and on sets in Los Angeles, California.

Pirates of the Caribbean had its world premiere at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, on June 28, 2003. It was theatrically released in the United States on July 9. Despite low expectations, the film was a massive box-office success: it grossed $654.3 million worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003. It received generally positive reviews from critics, and Depp won a Screen Actors Guild Award. He was also nominated for his performance at the Academy Awards, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes. Pirates of the Caribbean was also nominated for additional Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The film was followed by four sequels: Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

Plot

In the early 18th century, Governor Weatherby Swann and his daughter, Elizabeth, sail aboard HMS Dauntless, which is captained by Lieutenant Norrington. They encounter a shipwreck and rescue a boy named Will Turner. Elizabeth notices a gold medallion around Will's neck and takes it while he is unconscious, before seeing a ghostly ship sailing away. Eight years later in Port Royal, Jamaica, Captain Norrington is being promoted to commodore while Will works as a blacksmith. Jack Sparrow, a pirate captain, arrives in Port Royal seeking a ship.

Norrington proposes to Elizabeth atop a cliff, but she faints and falls into the ocean due to her tight-fitting corset, causing the medallion she is carrying to emit a pulse. Jack rescues Elizabeth and discovers the medallion. Governor Swann orders Jack's execution after he is identified as a pirate, but Jack flees into Will's smithy, where he is caught after Will duels him to a stalemate.

That night, Port Royal is attacked by the pirate crew of the Black Pearl, who are in search of the medallion. They take Elizabeth hostage to meet Captain Barbossa after she identifies herself as "Elizabeth Turner". Barbossa explains that the medallion is one of 882 cursed gold pieces used to bribe Hernán Cortés to stop his slaughter of the Aztecs. After finding and stealing the cursed gold at Isla de Muerta, the crew became cursed undead skeletons who cannot feel pleasure or pain. To lift the curse, the crew has returned all the gold with an offering of blood from each member, but one medallion belonging to "Bootstrap" Bill Turner, a crew member thrown overboard after the theft, is missing. Believing Elizabeth to be Bootstrap's daughter, Barbossa intends to use her blood for the ritual.

Intent on rescuing Elizabeth, Will frees Jack, and together they steal the Interceptor. They escape to Tortuga to recruit a crew from Joshamee Gibbs, who reveals Jack as the previous captain of the Black Pearl, whom Barbossa mutinied against and marooned on a deserted island. On Isla de Muerta, they sneak into the treasure grotto where Barbossa fails to lift the curse using Elizabeth's blood. Will and Elizabeth escape with her medallion, but Jack is captured and imprisoned on the Pearl. A battle erupts between the ships, crippling the Interceptor. When Will learns that Bootstrap was his father, he surrenders, but threatens to kill himself unless Elizabeth and the crew are left unharmed. Barbossa imprisons the crew and maroons Jack and Elizabeth on the same island that Jack was previously exiled to. Jack reveals that the island was used as a rum smuggling cache for rum runners, who rescued him after only three days. Elizabeth signals for help using a bonfire fueled by the rum, leading the Royal Navy to rescue them. She agrees to marry Norrington if he saves Will from Barbossa.

Jack and Norrington concoct a plan to ambush the pirates at Isla de Muerta, but Jack reveals himself to the pirates and convinces Barbossa to delay lifting the curse until after killing Norrington's men. After Barbossa's crew leaves, Jack frees Will and attacks Barbossa, having surreptitiously pocketed a medallion to give himself immortality. Elizabeth frees Jack's crew on the Pearl, but they refuse to help and sail away without her. Jack shoots Barbossa just as Will returns his and Jack's medallions to the chest with their blood, breaking the curse and killing Barbossa. The remaining pirates are immediately defeated by the Navy.

At Port Royal, where Jack is to be imminently hanged for his crimes, Will declares his love for Elizabeth before rescuing Jack. Jack and Will are surrounded by Norrington's soldiers, but Elizabeth stands with Will, forcing Governor Swann to order the soldiers to stand down. Jack falls into the sea and is picked up by the Black Pearl. Norrington accepts that Elizabeth loves Will, and decides to give Jack a head start before pursuing him. Governor Swann gives his blessing to Will and Elizabeth, while Jack becomes captain of the Pearl once again.

In a post-credits scene, Jack, Barbossa's pet monkey, climbs onto the chest of gold in the cave on Isla de Muerta and takes a coin from it, becoming undead once more.

Cast

Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow: A notorious pirate characterized by his slightly drunken swagger, slurred speech and flailing hand gestures. He is determined to reacquire the Black Pearl.
Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa: The captain of the Black Pearl. He was Jack's first mate before he led a mutiny. Barbossa and his crew stole cursed Aztec gold and became immortal zombies.
Orlando Bloom as Will Turner: A blacksmith's apprentice working in Port Royal who is in love with Elizabeth Swann. Will struggles with the fact that his father was a pirate.
Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann: The daughter of Governor Weatherby Swann. She has been fascinated with pirates since childhood and is in love with Will.
Lucinda Dryzek as young Elizabeth Swann
Jack Davenport as Norrington: An officer in the Royal Navy who seeks to marry Elizabeth.
Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs: Jack's loyal first mate who once served in the Royal Navy.
Zoe Saldaña as Anamaria: A pirate who wants to confront Jack for stealing her ship. One of the film's screenwriters, Terry Rossio, stated that the name "AnaMaria" was chosen because it is the middle name of his daughter.
Jonathan Pryce as Governor Weatherby Swann: The father of Elizabeth and the governor of Port Royal.
Treva Etienne as Koehler: A lieutenant in Barbossa's cursed crew who is killed by Norrington.
David Bailie as Cotton: A member of Jack's crew. His parrot talks for him because his tongue was cut out.
Lee Arenberg as Pintel: A dimwitted member of the cursed crew.
Mackenzie Crook as Ragetti: A member of the cursed crew who has a wooden eye.
Isaac C. Singleton Jr. as Bo'sun, Barbossa's first mate
Martin Klebba as Marty, a dwarf pirate who joins Sparrow's crew on the Interceptor
Damian O'Hare as Lieutenant Gillette, Norrington's Second-in-Command
Vince Lozano as Jacoby, a member of the cursed crew with a knack for explosives

Supporting characters include the cursed pirates Grapple (Trevor Goddard), Mallott (Brye Cooper), and Twigg (Michael Berry Jr.), and British Officer (Greg Ellis). The soldiers Murtogg and Mullroy are portrayed by Giles New and Angus Barnett, respectively.

Production

Development

In 2001, Jay Wolpert wrote a script based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was based on a story created by the Walt Disney Studios executives Brigham Taylor, Michael Haynes and Josh Harmon. This story featured Will Turner as a prison guard who releases Jack Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth Swann, who is being held for ransom by Captain Blackheart.

Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio notably thought about a pirate film based on the ride during the early 1990s, having pitched the idea after completing work on the 1992 film Aladdin as a premise to studio executives who were not interested at the time. Undeterred, the writing team refused to give up the dream, waiting for a studio to pick up their take on a pirate tale. Having worked with Disney on Aladdin and the 2002 film Treasure Planet, among other successful films, Elliott and Rossio were also brought in for Pirates of the Caribbean to give it a "more supernatural spin". Later in March 2002, Bruckheimer brought Elliott and Rossio,

Disney was unsure whether to release the film in theaters or direct-to-video. The studio was interested in Matthew McConaughey as Sparrow because of his resemblance to Burt Lancaster, who had inspired that script's interpretation of the character. If they chose to release it direct-to-video, Christopher Walken or Cary Elwes would have been their first choice.

In May 2002, Gore Verbinski signed on to direct Pirates of the Caribbean.

Although Cook had been a strong proponent of adapting Disney's rides into films, the box-office failure of The Country Bears (2002) made Michael Eisner attempt to shut down production of Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Verbinski told his concept artists to keep working on the picture, and when Eisner came to visit, Eisner was astonished by what had been created.

As recalled in the book DisneyWar, Eisner asked "Why does it have to cost so much?". Bruckheimer replied, "Your competition is spending $150 million," referring to franchises like The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. Eisner concurred, but with the stigma attached to theme-park adaptations, Eisner requested Verbinski and Bruckheimer remove some of the more overt references to the ride in the Pirates of the Caribbean script, such as a scene where Sparrow and Turner enter a cave via a waterfall. Another change made, was adding The Curse of the Black Pearl as a subtitle, should the film be a hit and lend itself to sequels like Raiders of the Lost Ark. Verbinski protested the change, as it is the Aztec gold that is cursed, not the Black Pearl ship. Eisner refused to back down and The Curse of the Black Pearl remained as the subtitle, although on most posters and trailers the words were so small as to be barely visible following a request from Verbinski. Ron Gilbert, the creator of the Monkey Island series, has jokingly expressed a bitterness towards Pirates of the Caribbean films, specifically the second film, for its similarities to his game.

Gilbert has stated that Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which was adapted into the fourth Pirates film, was the principal source of inspiration for his video games. Pirates screenwriter Terry Rossio mentioned how Disney was hit with at least six plagiarism lawsuits for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film for supposedly stealing elements of the Monkey Island video game and the On Stranger Tides novel, despite there being a ride at Disneyland and also a first draft screenplay by other writers.

Casting

Stuart Beattie, who drafted early versions of the film's script, said he created the character Jack Sparrow with Hugh Jackman in mind to play the part. However, since Jackman was not well known outside of his native Australia, the Johnny Depp was cast instead. Depp found the script quirky: rather than seeking treasure, the crew of the Black Pearl were trying to return it; also, the traditional mutiny had already taken place. Initially Sparrow was, according to Bruckheimer, "a young Burt Lancaster, just the cocky pirate." Jim Carrey was considered for the part, but the production schedule for Pirates of the Caribbean conflicted with Bruce Almighty. Other actors considered for the role include Michael Keaton and Christopher Walken. Eventually, Depp was cast, as Bruckheimer felt he could give the character the edge.

left|thumb|upright|Johnny Depp in 2009

At the first read-through, Depp surprised the rest of the cast and crew by portraying the character in an off-kilter manner. After researching 18th-century pirates, Depp compared them to modern rock stars and decided to base his performance on Keith Richards. Although Verbinski and Bruckheimer had confidence in Depp, partly because it would be Bloom who was playing the traditional Errol Flynn type, Even Bruckheimer was slightly uncomfortable with Depp's decision to cap his teeth with gold. Depp later recalled, "I said, 'Look, these are the choices I made. You know my work. So either trust me or give me the boot.' And luckily, they didn't." Originally, Rush was the second choice for the role behind Robert De Niro, who turned it down because he expected the film to flop in a similar manner to previous pirate films. Barbossa was conceptualized as a villain, a "dark trickster", and an evil counterpart to Sparrow. Depp created the name "Hector Barbossa" on set, but the name was never revealed onscreen. Orlando Bloom read the script at the suggestion of Rush, and was eventually selected for the part. Tom Wilkinson was considered for the role of Governor Swann, The role of the governor ultimately went to Jonathan Pryce, whom Depp idolized. Depp carried a genuine pistol, which was made in London in 1760.

The crew spent five months creating the cavern in which Barbossa and the Black Pearl crew attempt to reverse their curse, filling it with five feet of water, 882 gold coins, and applying gold paint to the styrofoam rocks for more impressions of treasure.

The filmmakers chose St. Vincent as their primary shooting location, as it contained the quietest beach they could find. They built three piers and a backlot for Port Royal and Tortuga. Dauntless and Black Pearl were built on barges, with computer-generated imagery finishing the structures. Black Pearl was also built on the Spruce Goose stage, to control fog and lighting. A miniature was built for the storm sequence. The script often changed with Elliott and Rossio on set, with additions such as Gibbs (Kevin McNally) telling Will how Sparrow allegedly escaped from an island—strapping two turtles together with rope made of his back hair—and Pryce was written into the climactic battle to keep some empathy for the audience.

Music

The musical score was composed by Klaus Badelt, conducted by Blake Neely and performed by the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Hans Zimmer served as the music producer. Seven other composers, including Geoff Zanelli and Ramin Djawadi, received credit for "additional music". Verbinski oversaw the score with Badelt and Zimmer, who headed 15 composers to finish it quickly. Verbinski and Bruckheimer decided to go with Zimmer's team instead, who were frequent collaborators on their productions. Zimmer declined to do the bulk of the composing, as he was busy scoring The Last Samurai. As a result, he referred Verbinski to Klaus Badelt, a relatively new composer who had been a part of Remote Control Productions, known as Media Ventures at the time, for three years. At that point, Badelt had only composed a few films, including The Time Machine, The Recruit, K-19: The Widowmaker and Basic. As for Zimmer, he ended up collaborating with Badelt to write most of the score's primary themes. Zimmer said he wrote most of the music in the space of one night, and then recorded it in an all-synthesized demo credited to him. This demo presents three of the score's themes and motifs, concluding with an early version of "He's A Pirate" which differs from the final cue and includes a development of a melody Zimmer wrote for the score to Drop Zone.

Marketing

On August 22, 2002, IGN's FilmForce previewed the film's story after corresponding with an anonymous source prior the start of to shooting in October. with 11 million copies sold in the first week, a record for live action video. It earned $235 million from DVD sales as of January 2004. This THX certified DVD release featured two discs, featuring three commentary tracks (Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski; Jerry Bruckheimer, Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport; and the screenwriter team), various deleted scenes and documentaries, and a 1968 Disneyland episode about the theme park ride.

A PSP release of the film followed on April 19, 2005. The high-definition Blu-ray Disc version of the film was released in May 2007. This movie was among the first to be sold at the iTunes music store. The Curse of the Black Pearl had its UK television premiere on Christmas Eve 2007 on BBC One at 20:30 and was watched by an estimated 7 million viewers.

In January 2022, The Curse of the Black Pearl was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray. However, the film's remaster was criticized by various online reviewers for being upscaled from 2K resolution, excessive application of digital noise reduction and various other shortcomings. A review by Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com compared the release unfavorably to the previous 2007 Blu-ray release, stating: "The picture's grain has been reduced to a meshy, artificial appearance, looking frozen and flat and certainly less than genuine and flattering. Edge enhancement is in evidence. Textures have been scrubbed down and sharpened back up. Details appear waxy and lacking complexity [...] This is just a real clunker of a UHD image and one of the least impressive the format has seen."

2023 re-release

As part of Disney's 100th anniversary, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was re-released in theaters from July 7 to 20, 2023, on the film's own 20th anniversary.

Reception

Box office

Before its release, many journalists expected Pirates of the Caribbean would be a box-office bomb. The pirate genre had not been successful for many years, with Cutthroat Island (1995) being a notable failure. Depp was known mostly for starring in cult films, but Pirates of the Caribbean has been cited as launching his career as a leading man.

On its opening day, Pirates of the Caribbean collected $13.5 million. The film opened at number one ahead of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, grossing $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and $70,625,971 since its Wednesday launch. It went on to surpass Armageddon to have the highest July opening weekend for a Disney film. That record would be held until the debut of The Village a year later. The film also achieved the biggest opening weekend for Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp's careers, replacing The Mexican and Sleepy Hollow respectively. The film would also outgross another pirate-themed film, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, while staying ahead of the summer's top earner, Disney's own Finding Nemo. It was overtaken by Bad Boys II during its second weekend, but still made $34 million. Pirates of the Caribbean eventually made its way to $654,264,015 worldwide ($305,413,918 domestically and $348,850,097 overseas), becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003,

Internationally, Pirates of the Caribbean dominated for seven consecutive weekends at the box office, tying the record of Men in Black II at the time. Only three movies after that broke the record; its sequel, Dead Man's Chest, (with nine consecutive No. 1 weekends and ten in total), Avatar (with 11 consecutive No. 1 weekends) and The Smurfs (with eight consecutive No. 1 weekends). As of February 2021, it is the 141st-highest-grossing film of all time.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 79% based on 216 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "May leave you exhausted like the theme park ride that inspired it; however, you'll have a good time when it's over." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 63 out of 100, based on reviews from 40 critics indicating generally favorable reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Alan Morrison of Empire thought Pirates of the Caribbean was the best blockbuster of the summer. He praised the film's humor, but was disappointed by its swashbuckling sequences. Duane Dudek of Milwaukee Journal Sentinel gave the film a three-out-of-four rating, describing it as "a fast-moving, wickedly funny and vividly mounted distraction that brings to mind adventure romps like The Mummy, The Princess Bride and The Mask of Zorro." Gregory Weinkauf of Dallas Observer said, "I love it, but much in the way I managed to love The Phantom Menace -- in spite of its bloat, swaggering self-importance and largely neutered characters."

The performance of Depp as Sparrow was particularly praised. Review site PopMatters applauded Depp's performance, saying "Ingenious and mesmerizing, Johnny Depp embodies the film's essential fantasy, that a pirate's life is exciting and unfettered." James Berardinelli of ReelViews also applauds Depp's performance by saying "Pirates of the Caribbean belongs to Johnny Depp...Take away Depp, and you're left with a derivative and dull motion picture."

Roger Ebert acclaimed the performances of Depp and Rush, and particularly that "It can be said that [Depp's] performance is original in its every atom. There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie... his behavior shows a lifetime of rehearsal." However, he felt the film went on for too long, a criticism shared by Kenneth Turan's negative review, feeling it "spends far too much time on its huge supporting cast of pirates (nowhere near as entertaining as everyone assumes) and on bloated adventure set pieces", despite having also enjoyed Depp's performance. Mark Kermode described the film as "a triumph of turgid theme-park hackery over the art of cinema".

In 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition of The New York Times list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 188.

Accolades

For his performance as Sparrow, Depp won several awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, and Best Actor at the 9th Empire Awards. Depp was also nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 61st Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, and Best Actor at the 76th Academy Awards, in which The Curse of the Black Pearl also received nominations for Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Awards won by Curse of the Black Pearl include Best Make-up/Hair at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, Saturn Award for Best Costumes, Golden Reel Award for Sound Editing, two VES Awards for Visual Effects, and the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture.

; American Film Institute Lists

AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
AFI's 10 Top 10 – Fantasy – Nominated

Sequels

Following the critical and commercial success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean became a multimedia franchise encompassing films, books, video games, and theme park attractions. While The Curse of the Black Pearl was conceived as a standalone film, its writers Elliott and Rossio turned it into the first of a trilogy, in which two back-to-back sequels were released: Dead Man's Chest in 2006 and At World's End in 2007. Depp, Bloom, Knightley, Rush, and McNally returned for both films. A short film created as a prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl, titled Tales of the Code: Wedlocked, was directed by James Ward Byrkit, who was a creative consultant for Gore Verbinski in the Pirates trilogy.

A fourth film, On Stranger Tides, was released in 2011. Following the release of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney approached author Tim Powers about optioning his novel On Stranger Tides for a Pirates film, a decision which was finalized near the end of filming the first two sequels. With the stories of both Will and Elizabeth resolved, and both Bloom and Knightley declining involvement in a fourth film, a stand-alone sequel was developed focusing on the further adventures of Sparrow. Depp, Rush, McNally, Greg Ellis, and Damian O'Hare reprised their roles from the previous films.

The fifth film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was also developed as a standalone sequel and was released in 2017. Rossio was contracted to write the screenplay in 2011, but his script was rejected by 2012. The screenwriter Jeff Nathanson was hired, along with the directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who were quoted as being inspired by The Curse of the Black Pearl. Depp, Rush, McNally, Martin Klebba, Giles New and Angus Barnett returned to their roles from previous films. Despite the studio and producer guideline that Knightley and Bloom would not return, An untitled sixth film is currently in development, with Jerry Bruckheimer returning as a producer.