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"Do you fear death?"
Davy Jones

Dead Man's Chest (2006) is the second movie in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

The movie begins with the arrival of Lord Cutler Beckett, the head of the East India Trading Company, who blackmails Will Turner into hunting Captain Jack Sparrow and his magic compass to spare Elizabeth Swann's life for treason (since they helped Jack escape). Beckett's ultimate target is the chest containing the heart of Davy Jones, captain of the Flying Dutchman and immortal lord of the oceans, who controls the dreaded monstrous Kraken. Holding the heart will allow Beckett to control Davy Jones, and hence all the seas of the world.

Jack has history with Davy Jones himself—thirteen years ago he made a deal to raise the sunken Black Pearl in exchange for his service aboard the Flying Dutchman after a period of time. Now his debt is coming due, and Jack is desperately searching for the heart of Davy Jones to use as leverage to renegotiate the terms of his deal.

The film's plot directly leads into the sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.


Dead Man's Chest provides examples of:

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    Tropes A to M 
  • 0% Approval Rating: As the film begins, the entire Black Pearl crew, Mr. Gibbs and Mr. Cotton's parrot included, are growing increasingly discontented with Jack's leadership method.
  • Actor Allusion: Keira Knightley previously went on the run disguised as a boy in Princess of Thieves.
  • Actually Pretty Funny: When Hadras and the rest of the Dutchman crew confront Norrington with the chest and he just tosses it to Hadras (causing the latter to drop his severed head), they all laugh heartily as he runs away. Even Hadras lets out a chuckle as his head lies on the ground.
  • All Men Are Perverts: The captain of the Edinburg Trader motivates his crew to find Elizabeth, who had to abandon her wedding dress amongst the ship rigging to disguise herself as a crew mate, by pointing out that she would be naked. Justified by the sailors likely having not seen a woman in months.
  • Antagonist in Mourning: After witnessing Jack's demise, Davy Jones seems notably somber, as if the whole situation's outcome ultimately brought him little real happiness. Then it gets subverted, and in a quite bad way, when Jones thinks to check the chest and realizes Jack outsmarted him before dying.
  • Armor-Piercing Question: Played with. While Jack's giving Will to Davy Jones as good-faith payment, Jones asks if Jack is truly okay with it. Jack has a hesitant look on his face before saying blithely that yes, he's okay with it. After Jones has left, however, Jack tells Gibbs that he feels "sullied and unusual" (his hand is slimy from Jones' touch, but he may have used it as a cover).
    Davy Jones: I keep the boy. Ninety-nine souls. But I wonder Sparrow: can you live with this? Can you condemn an innocent man, a friend, to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?
    Jack: [looks hesitantly aside for a second before changing his mood] Yep. I'm good with it.
  • Arrow Cam: As the kraken is attacking the Black Pearl, Will devises a means of driving it off, temporarily at least, by detonating a mass of powder (and rum) hoisted into the rigging where the tentacles are converging. When Jack fires the shot to detonate it, the camera follows the ball to the powder barrels.
  • Artificial Limbs: Davy Jones has two legs as a human, but his mutated form turns one of them into a lobster/crab leg that evokes the image of the stereotypical pirate peg leg. While we're at it, his lobster claw hand evokes the image of the stereotypical pirate hook hand.
  • As the Good Book Says...: When Pintel and Ragetti are in a rowboat:
    Ragetti: Since we're not immortal no more, we got to take care of our immortal souls.
    Pintel: You know you can't read.
    Ragetti: It's the Bible; you get credit for trying.
    Pintel: Pretending to read the Bible's a lie. That's a mark against... [points upward repeatedly]
  • Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: Having escaped from the Pelegostos, the crew is ready to leave, but Will exhorts them to go back for Jack — until he sees the Captain himself running down the beach with the whole tribe at his heels.
    Will: I won't leave without him! [sees Jack being chased by natives] Time to go!
  • Attack of the Monster Appendage: The Kraken is the "whole body seen later" example, as you don't see its giant maw until the end.
  • Bad Boss: Davy Jones is not implied to be a benevolent captain to his crew.
    Maccus: You'll trust us to act in your stead?
    Jones: I trust you to know what awaits you should you fail!
  • The Bad Guy Wins: The movie ends with Jack dead and Beckett in possession of Davy Jones's heart.
  • Bathroom Stall of Overheard Insults: Well, it's a boat, and there's a kiss, but the gist of it is, Will sees Elizabeth kiss Jack and proceeds to act like a jealous child afterwards.
  • Batman Gambit: Bootstrap Bill gets a subtle one in joining the game of Liar's Dice between Jones and Will. He refuses to back out since the die is cast, places his bid, and then directs the next bid to Jones. In this, he sets the turn order — him, then Jones, and then Will. Doing so puts him in a position to protect Will if he's caught in a lie, which is exactly what happens:
    Will: Eight fives.
    Jones: [laughs] Welcome to the crew...
    Bill: Twelve fives. Call me a liar, or up the bid.
    Jones: And be called a liar myself for my trouble!
  • Big "NO!": Bootstrap yells this before the Kraken is summoned to destroy the ship on which Will has escaped.
  • Black Spot: Takes the form of a ugly patch of blackened skin on Jack's palm, marking him for death via Kraken. Bootstrap Bill delivers it at the beginning of the film, warning him that the hunt begins immediately. It is removed later by Davy Jones when Jack agrees to fetch him 100 souls in exchange for Jack's. It grows back suddenly on its own when the 3 days Jones gave him runs out.
  • Blame the Paramour: Jack gets Norrington to turn against Will by pointing out that Will took Elizabeth for himself after freeing Jack, thus ruining Norrington's life. This despite the fact that Elizabeth had a childhood crush on Will and was only set to marry Norrington on her father's request, or the fact that Norrington himself let her go.
  • Brick Joke:
    • Jack becoming the Pelegostos Chief is one for the Noodle Incident he was telling to Murtogg and Mullroy in the first film (right before Elizabeth hit the water).
    • While talking to the Pelegostos, Jack looks at Will's groin and declares him "eunuch-y", followed by scissoring motions.
    • When Jack tells Davy Jones about Will, he mentions he's a "terrific soprano".
  • Bring the Anchor Along: Jack's flight from the Pelegostos' roasting fire, with the long pole they'd trussed him to as a cooking-spit bound to his back.
  • Call-Back:
    • When the Kraken grabs the Black Pearl, Gibbs assumes they've run aground on a reef. Will knows better, having been aboard a ship the Kraken was holding afloat earlier in the film and having made the same assumption.
    • When Will shows up at Isle Cruces, he claims he got there via "sea turtles".
    • At the end, when Barbossa is revealed alive, he is eating an apple, as was his wish in Curse of the Black Pearl.
    • During the fight on Isla Cruces when Norrington turns on Will, Jack calls out "Still rooting for you, mate," referencing his comment that he was "always rooting for [Norrington]" at the end of the previous movie.
    • Upon realizing that he and Ragetti are armed while Elizabeth isn't when she chases them for the Dead Man's Chest, Pintel once again gives her a threatening "Hello, poppet!"
  • Camera Abuse: A subtle example. As Jack is sailing away from the Island of the Pelegostos and is giving his standard farewell speech, the wave that smacks Jack in the face and cuts his sentence also manages to hit the camera as well.
    Jack: Alas, my children, this is the day you shall always remember as the day that you almost— [SPLOOSH!] ...Cap'n Jack Sparrow.
  • Charge-into-Combat Cut: When Jack Sparrow charges the Kraken with sabre in hand.
  • Chased by Angry Natives: Jack's famous scene where he runs from hundreds of angry Pelegostos cannibals.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Elisabeth's wedding dress. Will notices on the ship he's picked up by.
  • Chess with Death: Will's game of Liar's Dice against Davy Jones, pitting his soul against the key to the Dead Man's Chest. In the spirit of the game itself, the trope is subverted—all Will really wants is the key's location, so he can steal it later. Interestingly enough, he technically loses, but just as Jones is starting to gloat—"Welcome to the crew, lad..."—Will's father ups the bet so as to save Will.
  • Conflict Ball: Jack and Will grab this when they find the Dead Man's Chest. Will wants to kill Davy Jones and free his father from the Flying Dutchman, and Jack wants the chest to use Jones' heart as leverage to make him call off the kraken. No one points out that these are not mutually exclusive options: they could use the heart to free Bootstrap and settle Jack's debt, and if Will still wanted to kill him they could just double-cross him afterward.
  • Cooking the Live Meal: The cannibalistic natives of Pelegosto attempt to roast Jack Sparrow by tying him to a wooden pole and placing him over a fire, alive and fully clothed (even including his hat). However they are distracted by their other captives escaping just as the firewood is being kindled, making the Pelegostos chase after the escapees and giving Jack opportunity to free himself by bouncing the pole until it jumps out of its mounts.
  • Cranium Chase: One of Davy Jones' henchmen loses his head. The body then stumbles about trying to find the head, while the head tries in vain to give it directions.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The crew of the Edinburgh Trader (the ship Elizabeth stowed away on) apparently have been drilling for a kraken attack and have a specific procedure for such an occurrence; granted its effectiveness is somewhat lacking but the fact that they have a plan for such an occurrence screams this trope. Given that they're extremely paranoid and superstitious, it's fully plausible they really were afraid of a sea monster attack at some point and made a plan to fight it off.
  • Creepy Crows: Jack is introduced at a large, foreboding prison, with crows picking at rotting corpses in cages and one of them landing on a coffin that's been thrown to sea, then getting blown away by Jack, who'd been hiding inside.
  • Cruel to Be Kind: Davy Jones orders Will Turner to be flogged, when his father, Bootstrap Bill, intervenes. At first, Bill is hesitant to flog Will, but after Jones threatens to have the boatswain do it if Bill won't, Bill reluctantly agrees to flog his son, sparing Will from the greater pain that would result if the boatswain were to do it.
  • Deal with the Devil: How Jack originally raised the Black Pearl (née Wicked Wench) from a watery grave. Thirteen years later, he reneges on his end of the bargain, then Rules Lawyers his way out of Davy Jones' clutches.
  • Delegation Relay: Done when the crew are visiting Tia Dalma and Jack brings Gibbs in with him.
    Gibbs: Mind the boat.
    Will: Mind the boat.
    Ragetti: Mind the boat.
    Pintel: Mind the boat.
    Marty: Mind the boat.
    Cotton's parrot: Awk! Mind the boat.
    [Cotton is left by himself to mind the boat]
  • Didn't Think This Through: Jack's story to Elizabeth in Tortuga about Will being taken by Davy Jones. As Norrington points out to Elizabeth later, she didn't stop to think about and ask how exactly Will ended up on the Flying Dutchman. Elizabeth realizes he's right, but doesn't want to believe Jack would do that to Will until he confirms it upon being reunited.
  • Doomed Appointment: Governor Swann's friend, with whom Swann had agreed to meet so they could smuggle Elizabeth out, is killed by Mercer just as they arrive.
  • Double Take: On Isla Cruces, Elizabeth is raging over Will, Jack and Norrington fighting over the Dead Man's Chest, and sits on the sand in a huff. Then Pintel and Ragetti absconds with the chest behind her, and she turns her head once, then twice toward them.
  • Downer Ending: Possibly the only one in existence for a Disney movie: Elizabeth forces Jack to stay with the Pearl and be taken down with it by the Kraken, Will doubts his relationship with Elizabeth after seeing her kiss Jack before that, Jones continues his reign of terror over the seas and Norrington's betrayal of the others is sealed as he gets away with Jones's heart and in hopes of restoring his good name, brings it to Beckett. That all said, Tia Dalma has resurrected Barbossa who agrees to captain the survivors to go rescue Jack from the Locker, setting the stages for the next film.
  • Dramatic Drop: As Jack is looking for rum in the Black Pearl, he drops an empty rum bottle from shock when Bootstrap Bill tells him that "Time's runnin' out, Jack..."
  • Elite Mook: Agents of the East India Co. We only see one of them (Mercer) but Jack "vanished from under the eyes of seven agents of the East India Company" and this is listed as an impressive feat.
  • Enemy Mine: Pintel and Ragetti go from threatening Elizabeth (who tries to fight them over the Dead Man's Chest, only to remember too late that Will previously grabbed her sword to fight Jack and Norrington) to tossing their swords to her and running with the chest once the crew of the Flying Dutchman attacks. They later end up juggling the two swords between the three of them to fend off the crewmen.
  • Enemy Rising Behind: As the handcuffed Jack struggles to get free, the Kraken emerges from the sea in all its glory for the first time. He only realizes something's up when its massive teeth are level with him.
  • Exact Words: Jack protests that he only got to be a pirate captain for two years, when it should have been thirteen. Davey Jones retorts that this makes him a poor captain, and by the way, his Catchphrase is his Insistent Terminology that he's Captain Jack Sparrow.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: In the climax after the Kraken drags the Pearl to the Locker, Maacus remarks to Davy Jones that not even Jack Sparrow can best the devil. Far from being relieved by his First Mate's words, however, Jones instantly starts worrying. He knows Jack is exactly the kind of person who'd find a way to have the last laugh before going down. Jones frantically opens the Chest, confirming his worst fears that the Heart's gone. The irony, of course, is that it's actually Norrington who got the last laugh on Jones and Jack.
  • Eyeball-Plucking Birds: The film opens up in a Turkish prison where prisoners in cages are shown having their eyes pecked out by hungry crows.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Played with. Jack spends the entire movie trying to escape serving Davy Jones and getting killed by the Kraken for it, and even at the end, he only stayed behind because Elizabeth handcuffed him to the mast. However when he finally comes face-to-face with the beast, with nowhere left to run, he draws his sword and jumps down its throat willingly.
  • Fake Faint: Elizabeth pretends to faint to try and keep the others from fighting over the chest with Davy Jones' heart inside it. It doesn't work; they're all too caught up in the fight to even notice.
  • Fear-Induced Idiocy: After being separated into two hanging cages by the Cannibal Tribe, the crew of the Black Pearl begin an escape attempt by swinging their cages to the opposite cliff face and ascending the vines to freedom. Unfortunately, the Pearl only needs six people to make it off the island, turning the whole thing into a race to not get left behind. While ascending, the ringleader of the second cage accidentally grabs a snake instead of a vine and screams, prompting his fellow pirates to panic as well... and let go of their vines, sending them plummeting to their deaths. Worse still, the commotion alerts a passing tribesman, leaving Will and the remaining crew fleeing for their lives with the cannibals in hot pursuit.
  • Flaming Sword: Will sets his sword on fire with some oil from a lantern in an attempt to ward off the Dutchman's crew.
  • Foil: In a more tragic example, Davy Jones and Calypso whilst in Tia Dalma's body. Davy Jones is a Humanoid Abomination, abandons all emotions and develops a convincing range of reactions, both facial and verbal; and takes delight in putting the lost souls he captures through torment and pain. Tia Dalma, however, has retained all her emotions, will not hesitate to help those in need, and does not require a steep price in return.
  • Fold-Spindle Mutilation: During the attack by the Kraken, one unlucky sailor is dragged through a gun port that is about half his size. We only see his legs, but the sound of his body slowly snapping is very clear.
  • Forbidden Zone: The island of the Pelegostos. They make the most delicious long pork. Their ride dumps Will overboard to get there.
  • Foreshadowing:
    • The first time we see Jack Sparrow in this film, he's sitting in a coffin.
    • During Will's farewell visit to the imprisoned Elizbaeth, Governor Swann notices that the Prison Dog with the keys is absent. We later find out Pintel and Ragetti have escaped Port Royal and took the dog with them.
    • When Boostrap visits Jack to serve notice, he explicitly warns Jack that he can't talk his way out of this one. Sure enough, when Jack tries Loophole Abuse and Exact Words with Davy Jones, they get shot down pretty quickly.
    • The attempted Armor-Piercing Question that Davy Jones gives to Sparrow. "I wonder, Sparrow. Can you do that? Condemn a man to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?" Jack tries to do this, but he can't bring himself to. However, Norrington enslaves Jones to Cutler Beckett to regain his naval commission, and in the next film, Sparrow "enslaves" Turner to the ship to save his life.
    • When Tia Dalma tells the tale of how Davy Jones fell in love with a woman, Gibbs says that he heard a different version of the tale in which Jones fell in love with the sea. Tia Dalma says that they are two versions of the same story and both are true. Also while Jack is shown shop-lifting from her hut, there's a music box amongst her trinkets, that's matching the one Davy Jones has. Turns out that she's the sea goddess Jones fell in love with.
    • In the same scene, the camera focuses a couple of times on a locket identical to Davy Jones's music box in Tia Dalma's table, hinting at a connection.
    • Also from the same scene, Tia Dalma gestures to herself when explaining that "that which vexes all men" is a woman. On its own it appears that she's using herself as an example of a woman (being the only one present), but as it turns out, she is the very woman he fell in love with.
    • The Pelegostos are convinced Jack is a god bound in human form, and want to release him. As it turns out, their idea isn't that far-fetched...
    • When Will is looking for Jack, the last man he speaks to talks about an island where he's seen a marooned ship with black sails, at which he trades for 'long pork'. 'Long pork' being a euphemism for human flesh (although it's left up in the air whether Will would know that.)
    • When Jack is wandering around in Tia Dalma's hut, he examines Barbossa's hat. After he hands over the undead monkey, it immediately runs into the back room and stops near a booted foot that also turns out to belong to Barbossa.
    • Jack tells Elizabeth that his status as captain gives him authority to officiate a marriage on the Black Pearl. In the next movie, Will and Elizabeth are indeed married on the Pearl, albeit by Barbossa, the ship's other captain.
    • Jack briefly escaping the Mêlée à Trois, only to fall headlong into an open grave.
      Jack: ...Oh.
    • The deleted Liar's Dice cut provides quite a bit for the next film as well.
      • Throughout the scene, Jones probes Turner about the source of his desperation, before arriving at it being a woman. Will fires back that it's not desperation if it's the right woman, which sours Jones quite a bit, because he remains furious at Calypso.
      • Davy Jones tells Turner that his fate is to be married to the ship. He becomes the new captain in the next film.
      • Jones tells Will that he can't best the Devil twice. Will doesn't, but Jack does, with his escape from the Locker and then by defeating Jones and Beckett in the next film.
  • Genre Shift: After the Low Fantasy of the first film, the introduction of Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman begins shifting Pirates towards High Fantasy (though it won't fully embrace the genre until the next film).
  • Give Me a Sword: Done repeatedly in one scene with three heroes and two swords between them.
  • God Guise: The cannibal islanders at the beginning of the movie believe Jack Sparrow to be a god. They intend to release him from his fleshy prison—by eating it.
  • "Get Out of Jail Free" Card:
    • Deconstructed with Will. Yes, Governor Swann granted Will clemency in the first film for freeing Jack (twice) — but Swann's authority ultimately is only over Port Royal. There's nothing to stop authorities (or in this case influential parties like Beckett) higher up the British political and legal food chain from overriding a Colonial Governor and reissuing an arrest warrant.
    • Played straight, if not literally, with Beckett's Letters of Marque, which he dangles as de facto full pardons for Will and Jack in exchange for Will's cooperation and Jack's Compass (and through it, the location of the Dead Man's Chest). However, Elizabeth later discovers that while the King signed them, Beckett hasn't. Without his signature and seal, they're legally worthless and he never intended to honor his promises (until Elizabeth forces him to sign them at gunpoint). Ultimately, it's Norrington who claims the Card thanks to successfully stealing the Heart of Davy Jones.
  • Grievous Bottley Harm: Elizabeth knocks out Norrington during the Bar Brawl in Tortuga by breaking a bottle over his head.
  • Gutted Like a Fish: Will slashes open the stomach of one of the Dutchman's crewmen, and fish and seawater spill out.
  • Handshake of Doom: Davy Jones agrees to remove the Black Spot from Jack on the condition that he repay his debt to him with ninety-nine souls, and the two shake on a deal. Quite apart from the fact that the slimy, tentacled handshake leaves him feeling "sullied and unusual," Jack is left with a time limit of three days to either fulfil the contract or find some leverage against Jones; if he can't manage either, he's doomed.
  • Hard Truth Aesop: Various characters have the book thrown at them for helping Jack in the first movie because, again, a good man can be at odds with the law.
  • Heel–Faith Turn: Discussed and Played for Laughs. In their first scene in the movie, Ragetti talks about repenting, "Since we're not immortal no more, we gotta take care of our immortal souls" and become "good men" while holding The Bible (upside down). Pintel reminds him he is illiterate ("It's the Bible! You get credit for trying!") They revert to their piratical ways pretty soon.
  • Hellhole Prison: The Turkish Prison in the opening scene is the video example of this trope for a reason. It's on screen for less than a minute and is so bad that in that time it demonstrates a level of horror that manages to completely upstage the official Big Bad, who is no slouch in the evil department. We never find out anything more about it.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted in the climax. Elizabeth strands Jack on the Black Pearl, sacrificing him to give the survivors a chance to escape the Kraken (and not unjustifiably, as the Kraken is after Jack specifically). However, she then lies to Will and the others and makes them think Jack invoked this trope to give them all a chance. They won't find out the truth until the next film.
  • Hidden Depths: Pintel and Ragetti have an argument on the pronunciation of "kraken", with Ragetti pointing out its Scandinavian origins, where it is pronounced "krah-ken". When Tia Dalma mentions something vexed Davy Jones to the point of abandoning land for a life at sea, Ragetti asks if it was "the dichotomy of good and evil", much to the confusion of Pintel and Gibbs. Not bad for someone who is apparently illiterate.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Jack's Insistent Terminology during the first film on being called Captain Jack Sparrow (despite not having a ship) comes back to bite him in the ass here. Jack tries Loophole Abuse to get out of the deal with Jones, arguing that he was only Captain for two years before Barbossa's mutiny. Jones counters by pointing out Jack was a Captain (albeit a poor one) and kept referring to himself as such during the lost decade — ergo the specific terms of their deal were being honored and so he ain't getting any kind of extension or "store credit".
  • Hope Spot: The Black Pearl is faster than the Flying Dutchman when against the wind. However, as Will notes, the Dutchman isn't falling back just because of that...
  • Horny Sailors: Exploited by the captain. After Elizabeth Swann sneaks on board a ship, the captain finds her discarded dress after she disguises herself as a male sailor. The captain motivates his crew to look for the stowaway by telling them that she's likely naked, making the crew suddenly surge into action.
  • I'm a Humanitarian:
    • The Pelegostos. According to Gibbs, they believe Jack is a god and that eating his body will allow him to Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence.
    • The trader that points Will to the island as well, judging by his "delicious long pork" comment.
  • I Am the Noun: Davy Jones' response when a crew member tells him that Will Turner was probably swallowed up by the sea.
    Jones: I am the sea.
  • Idiot Ball: Jack Sparrow's attempt to douse some burning sparks by blowing into them turns out to be, as expected, counter-productive.
  • Ironic Echo: Jack telling Elizabeth "Pirate" when she tricks him during the climax.
  • Jar of the Bizarre: Tia Dalma's shack is teeming with strange objects including a jar full of eyeballs that stare back at Ragetti when he looks at them.
  • Kick the Dog: Davy Jones ordering his crew to execute the few survivors of the Edinburgh Trader.
  • Jerkass Has a Point: While his reasons are selfish, Jack is right about one thing. The Kraken is still a threat and if Jones dies then the beast will hunt and slaughter anything that gets in its way.
  • Kiss of Distraction: Elizabeth does this to Jack in order to shackle him to the deck of the Pearl.
  • Kraken and Leviathan: When Jones's heart is taken by Norrington, Jones unleashes the Kraken on the Pearl which takes it down to Davy Jones's locker after the survivors abandon ship.
  • Last Stand: "Hello, beastie!" Jack's futile, but irrefutably courageous, charge towards the Kraken. It wasn't all in vain though.
  • Left the Background Music On: After it's been established that Davy Jones enjoys playing his own leitmotif on his Ominous Pipe Organ with his beard of tentacles, Will challenges him to a game for his soul, and the quiet organ music, almost unnoticed in the background, abruptly cuts off before Jones stomps up on deck to accept the challenge.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: In his first scene in this movie, Norrington gets asked by Gibbs (who isn't recognizing him) what's his story. He responds "The same as yours, just one chapter behind" (i.e. the "chapter behind" was the previous movie).
  • Leitmotif: Davy Jones plays his theme himself on his Ominous Pipe Organ, taking his inspiration from a music box, in all minor keys.
  • Let's You and Him Fight: When Norrington has Jack at swordpoint during the three-way swordfight with them and Will, with Will letting Norrington finish him off, Norrington accuses Jack of ruining his life. Jack reminds Norrington that it wasn't him (Jack) that stole his bride-to-be and released Jack himself from the gallows. Seemingly subverted when Norrington swings at Jack anyway, knocking him off the building... then double subverted when he agrees that Jack is right and rounds on Will while Jack walks away.
  • Life Isn't Fair: Davy Jones' philosophy, due to having lost the love of his life.
    Davy Jones: Life is cruel! Why should the afterlife be any different?
  • Locked Out of the Loop: When Will links up with the Black Pearl, Jack doesn't tell him about Bootstrap Bill Turner's presence aboard the Flying Dutchman. Will doesn't find out his father's still alive (after a fashion) until Jack hands him over as collateral to Davy Jones (nor does Will ever realize that Jack knew and intentionally withheld the knowledge from him).
  • Loophole Abuse:
    • This is Jack's "Plan A" to honor his deal with Jones, having bargained one hundred souls for his own.
      Gibbs: And how do you intend to harvest these ninety-nine souls in three days?
      Jack Sparrow: Fortunately, he was mum as to the condition in which these souls need be.
      Gibbs: Ah. Tortuga?
      Jack: [wipes slime on Gibbs] Tortuga.
    • He tries it on Jones earlier in the film, but Jones isn't having any:
      Jones: You have a debt to pay. You've been captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement.
      Jack: Technically, I was only captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon.
      Jones: Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless! Have you not introduced yourself all these years as Captain Jack Sparrow?
  • Losing Your Head: Happens to Jones's conch-headed crewman, Hadras.
  • Loss of Identity: The ultimate fate of anyone on-board the Flying Dutchman, eventually ending with them becoming a literal part of the ship.
  • MacGuffin: No less than four MacGuffins play a role in the film and end up getting shuffled around throughout the story:
    • Jack is after the Key to the Dead Man's Chest so he can acquire Davy Jones's Heart and clear his debt.
    • Beckett is after Jack's Compass so it can lead him to the Dead Man's Chest so he might have control over Davy Jones and all the oceans.
    • There's the Letters of Marque, a full pardon for Will and/or Jack of all their crimes should they cooperate with him. Elizabeth steals the signed letters to save Will, but it's ultimately Norrington who wins them.
    • Finally, there's the Dead Man's Chest, and with it Davy Jones' Heart, which several characters desire for their own reasons (Jack to clear his debt, Will to free his father, Beckett for control over the seas, and Jones so nobody gets his Heart).
  • MacGuffin Melee: A long extended sequence in the middle of the movie involves almost all of the regulars competing for control of the chest containing Davy Jones' Heart.
  • Marked By The Supernatural: The Black Spot, an ugly boil on the left palm, is the sign that a person owes his soul to Davy Jones and will be pursued to the ends of the Earth by the Kraken.
  • Match Cut: Tia Dalma throws several crab claws onto a table to divine the location of the Flying Dutchman, which cuts to a cluster of rocks in the sea with the same formation as where the claws landed.
  • Mauve Shirt: The crew of the Edinburgh Trader. They have enough characterization to not be redshirts, but not enough to be main characters, providing some humor and a couple of significant scenes. This does give the sinking of the Trader and the horrific deaths of the crew at the tentacles of the Kraken some emotional depth to it, as well as Jones callously executing the handful of survivors.
  • Meat Moss: The interior of the Flying Dutchman is a sea-themed variant of this. Crewmen of the Dutchman are fated to meld into the walls after spending enough time on the ship.
  • MegaCorp: The East India Trading Co.
  • Mêlée à Trois: The standoff at Isla Cruces over the Dead Man's Chest. To recap: Will wants to set his father free, Jack wants to save his own hide, and Norrington wants his life back, and all three of them need the Chest and promptly come to blows. And to further complicate the issue, Pintel and Ragetti want the chest for themselves to get rich (and remove the temptation from the others), Elizabeth chases after them to get it back because she was told to watch it, and Davy Jones's crew shows up to make sure it doesn't fall into anyone else's hands.
  • Mercy Kill: Mister Gibbs tries to hold on to a pirate seized by the Kraken, but fails. As he's pulled overboard, the man shrieks "Shoot me!" Cut to Gibbs firing his pistol off-screen.
  • Mexican Standoff: After arriving on Isla Cruces, Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Norrington have a three-way sword duel over who will open the Dead Man's Chest where Davy Jones's heart is kept: Jack wants to use it as leverage to call off the Kraken, Will wants to stab it to free his father Bootstrap Bill from servitude to Davy Jones, and Norrington wants to deliver it to Beckett to be reinstated as a naval officer; Norrington eventually succeeds.
  • Mocking Sing-Song: Jack tries to exploit Davy Jones's prohibition from setting foot on land. Jack is also hinting to Jones that there's something other than dirt, namely Jones' heart, in the jar. Unknown to Jack, Norrington had stolen the heart out of the jar.
    Jack: [singsong] I got a jar of dirt! I got a jar of dirt! And guess what's inside it!
  • Mood Whiplash: The end of the film, particularly Elizabeth kissing Jack.
  • Mortality Phobia: This trope is what enables Davy Jones a way of getting new recruits on The Flying Dutchman. He saves people from the brink of death and simply asks them: "Do you fear death?" If the answer is "yes", the rescuee will be saved but must in return work as a servant on the ship, eventually even becoming one with it.

    Tropes N to Z 
  • Noodle Incident:
    • It's clear from Beckett and Governor Swann's interaction in the opening scene that they've had interactions before (back while Swann was still stationed in England). While it's clear neither man likes the other, what exactly went down between them is left unrevealed beyond a throwaway line.
    • The Black Pearl had a run-in with a hurricane off Tripoli, which destroyed the former Commodore Norrington's ship. When Norrington mentions it, a horrified Gibbs asks whether he'd actually tried going through it.
  • Not Named in Opening Credits: When the cast is listed at the end of the movie, the return of Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa was left uncredited to keep his return a surprise from the rest of the crew.
  • Offering Another in Your Stead: Jack Sparrow finds himself being hunted down by the Kraken to repay his debt to Davey Jones: a hundred years of servitude on The Flying Dutchman — though as the Dutchman already has a captain, the sentence will be commuted to eternity in Davy Jones' Locker. After managing to arrange a meeting with his creditor, Jack is able to talk Jones into accepting a repayment of a hundred souls in his stead — to be gathered within the next three days. For good measure, Will Turner is offered and accepted as a down payment, allowing Jack to go free while Will is left to toil aboard the Dutchman for the next hundred years.
  • Oh, Crap!: Several times.
    • Jack's understated reaction to finding himself face-to-face with a horde of Pelogostos while trying to escape them (and winding up re-imprisoned).
    • Gibbs, when Jack mentions a "need" to go up-river.
      Gibbs: By "need", do ya mean a trifling need? Fleeting? As in, say, a passing fancy?
      Jack: No, a resolute and unyielding need.
    • Jack again, when Davy Jones has had enough of his antics, and unleashes the cannons, with one pointed right at Jack's head.
    • Marty and Cotton exchange this just before the Kraken launches its second (and far more effective) attack on the Black Pearl.
      Marty: Not good!
    • Will insists that he won't leave the island of the Pelogostos without Jack. This is immediately followed by Jack running out onto the beach with the entire tribe chasing after him and Will's self-preservation instinct kicking in.
  • Ominous Music Box Tune: Davy Jones keeps a music box with a tune that is clearly emotionally important to him — because it's a match to the one that Tia Dalma holds. He plays the song on his Ominous Pipe Organ when he wants it to be louder.
  • Ominous Pipe Organ: Davy Jones has one in his cabin aboard the Flying Dutchman, which stays in working order on a ship that frequently submerges in defiance of all logic, mostly because the ship, like its crew, is part sea creature. Jones plays his leitmotif on the organ using his beard of tentacles.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Marty asks Gibbs if he thinks Jack is acting a bit strange(er) than usual, which Gibbs concurs with, and if Jack Sparrow is worried about something it must be very bad. Later when they flee from the kraken, Jack the monkey throws Jack's hat overboard and Jack tells them to leave it behind, and the crew all stop and stare in Stunned Silence, because there's no way Jack would leave his hat behind.
  • Percussive Prevention: Elizabeth to Norrington. Though she misses the boat on 'preventing him from doing something stupid' like starting a massive Bar Brawl, she manages to stop the others from killing him.
  • Pet Gets the Keys: Another group of prisoners are whistling and hooting to call someone over...but in this case, they're cat-calling Elizabeth, sitting in the next cell after being wrongfully imprisoned. Later, when Governor Swann comes to get her out, he looks around and remarks "Now, where's that dog with the keys?" In a Brick Joke, we later find out where the pup went: a post-credits scene reveals that he's somehow become the new king of the cannibal island that Jack was trapped on earlier in the film.
  • Pirate Song: The titular song is sung by Gibbs near the start of the film.
  • Prepare to Die: "I shall pry the chest away from your cold, dead hands." On hearing that, Norrington just gives the chest to the Dutchman crew — because he'd already removed the heart anyway.
  • Put on a Bus: After having supporting roles in the first film, Murtogg and Mullroy and Grove are all absent (and won't return until the next film). Justified, as Norrington's disgrace and resignation means the British Navy has lost its POV character for this film (with Beckett, Mercer, and the EITC filling in for them here). There's thus little to no narrative justification for their return and presence in this film. Norrington's return to grace at the end of this film will ultimately restore the British Navy's presence in the narrative, thus justifying the return of the supporting British Navy characters next time.
  • Pyrrhic Victory: After Norrington steals Davy Jones's heart, Jones unleashes the Kraken, which devours most of the Pearl's crew and wrecks all but one of the lifeboats. After Sparrow wounds the Kraken with a net full of gunpowder and rum, the survivors abandon ship, and the Kraken drags Sparrow and the Pearl down to Davy Jones' locker.
  • Redshirt Army: The Pearl is staffed by a whole bunch of them at the beginning. All are eaten or killed by the cannibals. Later on, after a visit to Tortuga, they're replaced by a new crew. The Kraken gets them all.
  • The Reveal: In the ending, Tia Dalma reveals to the living main characters that she has resurrected Captain Barbossa.
  • Saved by the Coffin: Captain Jack Sparrow hides with a dead man in a coffin to escape from prison at the beginning of the movie.
  • Saved to Enslave: Crosses with Join or Die — the crew of Davy Jones' ship are rescued sailors who were given the choice to sign on or be thrown back into the sea.
  • Say My Name: When Davy Jones discovers that his heart is missing from the Dead Man's Chest.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: Happens with the crew during their escape from The Pelegostos via Rolling their cage. They go rolling down a hill and off a cliff, which causes them to scream out of panic before they land again.
  • Second Chapter Cliffhanger: It ends with Captain Jack Sparrow killed by the Kraken and thus captured in Davy Jones' locker, leaving us with the promise of Will, Elizabeth, the crew, and Tia Dalma to get him back. Shock heightened by the return from the dead of Captain Barbossa.
  • Self-Abuse: Played for Laughs when Gibbs, Ragetti, and Pintel freak out at the sight of the Black Spot on Jack's hand. Jack responds with, "My eyesight's as good as ever," alluding to the belief that masturbation makes one blind.
  • Shout-Out: A crewman on the merchant ship before the Kraken's attack exclaims, "Mother Carey's chickens!" That was the title of a TV show mentioned in Disney's 1971 comedy The Barefoot Executive.note 
  • Skyward Scream: Davy Jones lets out a good one upon opening the chest to find it empty.
    Davy Jones: Damn you, Jack SPARROOOOOOOOWW!
  • Slashed Throat: When a religious sailor refuses Davy Jones, he gets his throat cut with a noticeable blood splatter.
  • Spanner in the Works: Barbossa is posthumously and retroactively revealed to be this to Jack's deal with Davy Jones. His mutiny and theft of the Pearl made Jack's deal worthless and cost him a decade of its duration trying to get the ship back.
  • So Much for Stealth: When Will and his men are racing the other sailors to be the first to the top of a cliff while trapped in a bone cage, they're each trying not to raise the attention of the natives. The second group of men give away their escape attempt just before falling to their death, so Will and his men decide to get themselves up the cliff as fast as possible.
  • The Stinger: The prison dog who was left behind on the island is made the chief of the cannibal tribe.
  • Sure, Let's Go with That: Pintel and Ragetti attempt to steal the Black Pearl while the crew is offshore looking for Jack. Gibbs applauds them for prepping the ship for launch upon "catching" them. They both just roll with it and rejoin the Black Pearl as crewmembers.
  • Suspiciously Specific Denial: After Jack tricks Will into volunteering to settle his debt to Davy Jones, he explains Will's whereabouts to Elizabeth thusly:
    Jack: Darling, I am truly unhappy to have to tell you this, but through an unfortunate and entirely unforeseeable series of circumstances that had nothing whatsoever to do with me, poor Will has been press-ganged into Davy Jones's crew.
  • Sympathetic Wince: The Flying Dutchman shows up to force Jack Sparrow to repay his debt to Davy Jones. Jack, being Jack, tries to convince Jones to clear off by presenting him with a jar of dirt which is supposed to defend him from Jones (and which he thinks has Jones' disembodied heart in it), but as he walks sideways to taunt Jones, he falls down a small staircase to the deck, making the entire crew wince and make pained expressions. Luckily, Jack reassures them that he's okay, and so is the jar. Unluckily, Jones decides to just open fire on the Black Pearl instead of negotiating.
  • Taking You with Me: Subverted. Davy Jones thinks that Jack swindled him one final time by taking his heart to Davy Jones' locker. Except that Norrington really has it.
  • A Taste of the Lash: Will is whipped by his own father, on Davey Jones' orders. It's either that, or the bosun does it— and he has a reputation for "cleaving flesh from bone with every swing."
  • Taught by Experience: Played for laughs when Jack reunites with Elizabeth at Tortuga. Given what happened on Rumrunner's Isle in the first film (i.e. Elizabeth burning all the stored rum to signal the British Navy), Jack, understandably, quietly and frantically orders Gibbs to hide the Pearl's supply of rum.
  • Tempting Fate:
    • "Actually, you wouldn't need everyone [to crew the Black Pearl]. About six would do. [Beat] Ohhh, dear..."
    • "The bright side is, you're back and made it off free and clear!" (Cue the Flying Dutchman bursting out of the sea literally right behind them.)
    • "What more can they do to me?" Well, Jones can send the Kraken on a detour to kill your son, Bill.
    • "Turns out not even Jack Sparrow can best the devil!" cries one of Davy Jones' crew. Jones immediately pauses in doubt, and demands the chest be opened, discovering his heart is gone. Cue Skyward Scream.
  • This Is Gonna Suck: Jack's reaction to being eaten by the Kraken, among other insalubrious things.
  • Time Skip: Dead Man's Chest picks up one year after the events of the previous film. The exact passage of time isn't explicitly spelled out, but can be discerned from the terms of Jack's deal with Davy Jones (as between the 2 years he was Captain of the Pearl before Barbossa's mutiny and the ensuing lost decade, there was still one year left before the debt was to be called in).
  • Too Broken to Break: As Bootstrap Bill helps his son Will escape from the Flying Dutchman, Will points out that the other crewmen will know he did so and will hold him accountable. Bootstrap, having already pledged to serve on the hellish ship for all eternity, merely laughs and says "What more can they do to me?" Jones calls Bill's bluff later upon realizing what's happened by summoning the Kraken to hunt down Will, all while Bill can only scream and stare in despair as it destroys the ship that picked Will up.
  • Too Dumb to Live: The pirate who accidentally picks up a snake while climbing the mountain to escape from the bone cage. Could have just dropped the snake or put it somewhere else rather than panicking and causing the other pirates to panic as well which causes them to plummet to their deaths and alert The Pelegostos.
  • Tribal Carry: Will Turner is brought into the village trussed to a pole like game, and Jack Sparrow spends a few minutes running away from the locals whilst tied to a rotisserie skewer.
  • A Truce While We Gawk: Happens twice. First Pintel and Ragetti stop their threatening advance towards Elizabeth momentarily to watch the strange sight of the mill wheel with three fighting men go by, then during the battle against the fishmen on the beach, everybody pauses to watch the wheel go by again (after it rolls over several of the fishmen).
  • The Unfought: Despite being the antagonists, Jones and Beckett end the film with minimal interactions with the heroes. This directly leads into the sequel where both parties have become such a problem that there's no choice but defeat them.
  • Underequipped Charge: Captain Jack Sparrow, after being handcuffed to the ship the crew was abandoning by Elizabeth Swann, decides that he won't be killed by the Kraken without a fight, and chooses to charge the behemoth with nothing but his cutlass. It doesn't end well for him.
  • Viewers Are Geniuses: The "Liar's Dice" game between Davy Jones, Will Turner, and Bootstrap Bill confuses most viewers. The movie leaves the rules of the game almost completely unexplained, so unless you happen to already be familiar with Liar's Dice, you are likely to be totally lost throughout the scene, apart from a basic understanding that this is some sort of wager-game. The screenwriters were well aware of this, and stated they would have liked to explain the game better, but editing constraints limited the time they could dedicate to this scene. As such, much of the significance of the moves the characters make, including even how they are seated, is completely lost on the average viewer.
  • Villainous Legacy: Barbossa. Despite his death at the end of the first film, the theft of the Black Pearl in the backstory of Curse ends up having significant posthumous repercussions in this film.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: The hungover Norrington does this several times after he is recruited to Jack's crew.
  • Wacky Wayside Tribe: The Pelegostos.
  • Walk, Don't Swim: Similar to the zombies in the first film walking from Isla de Muerta to the Dauntless, the Dutchman's crew walk from their submerged ship to Isla Cruces.
  • Weirder Than Usual: "The captain seems to be acting a bit strange [Beat] er."
  • Wham Shot: The final one as a very much alive Barbossa suddenly arrives to help the gang.
    Barbossa: So tell me, what's become of my ship?
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: The two Red Shirt fishermen who stumble upon Jack's hat, and, subsequently, become the Kraken's first victims. It sounds vaguely Russian, but it is too difficult to tell since it is spoken at such a fast pace. DVD subtitles imply that it's meant to be Turkish or Turk-Cypriot.
  • Wheel of Pain: The kraken-summoning machine.
  • Your Other Left: The conch-headed crewman's knocked-off head tries to guide his body's fumbling attempts to recover it with instructions like this.

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The Kraken

The monstrous pet of Davey Jones attacks the ship Will Turner is on.

How well does it match the trope?

5 (11 votes)

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Main / KrakenAndLeviathan

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