Ragetti is very protective of his wooden eye, despite the fact it's mentioned to not fit properly and keeps falling out. Come At World's End, we find out why.
More Fridge for Ragetti: it's his lover-like recitation of the ritual's words in Tia Dalma's ear that enables her to revert to Calypso. When Calypso ends her giant-sized rant by breaking up into thousands of scuttling crabs, one of the crustaceans winds up down Ragetti's pants ...
Hoist the Colours, the song played throughout At World's End, at first sounds like a generic pirate tune. But watch the film a second time and you suddenly realise why singing that song in particular heralds a meeting of the Brethren Court. It's about the sealing of Calypso.
Hell, the entire song is brilliant. It pretty much outlines the movie's plot and backstory.
The king and his mennote The First Brethren Court
Stole the queen from her bed
And bound her in her bonesnote Sealed Calypso into her human form, Tia Dalma
The seas be ours
And by the powers
Where we will, we'll roamnote (Human) pirates wanted full control of the seas, as later referenced by Barbossa.
Some have died
And some are alive
Others sail on the seanote Referring to pirates as a whole. The third line may refer to pirates who are neither dead nor fully alive - examples being the cursed crew in the first movie and Davy Jones's henchmen in the second and third... and perhaps foreshadowing (if unintentionally) Blackbeard's zombies in Movie 4. Alternately, it may refer to the nine Pirate Lords' inherited roles as bearers of the "keys" mentioned in the next line.
With the keys to the cagenote The nine Pieces of Eight are the "keys" needed to release Calypso from her human "cage"
And the Devil to paynote Davy Jones is referred to as "The Devil", and Jack, of course, owed him a debt of service. And as for several other characters, it could refer to the desire to pay Jones back (i.e. revenge) for the havoc his presence has created.
We lay to Fiddler's Greennote Refers to the mythical pirate paradise - think the exact opposite of Davy Jones' Locker. Shipwreck Cove is implied to be the world's last pirate haven - run by pirates, only for pirates.
The bell has been raised from its watery grave
Hear its sepuchral tonenote The Brethren Court is being called together for the first time in several decades.
A call to all, pay heed the squallnote The overall "squall" of the conflict between the Pirates and the EITC. Also serves as Foreshadowing to the final battle being fought in a maelstrom, which is a type of squall.
Turn your sails to homenote If you're not prepared to pick a side, it's best to keep clear of the situation
The mid-battle wedding's dialogue from At World's End is pretty funny the first time through, but when you view it again, knowing that Will is about to be killed and revived as the Dutchman's new captain, you realize that the parts they omitted from a traditional marriage ceremony were just as important as the wisecracks. Why? Because none of them — not Will, not Elizabeth, not Barbossa — had the chance to say till death do us part/as long as you both shall live, meaning that their married state persists even after Jones kills Will.
The moment where Barbossa is taking in the rain. At first it seems like a bit of a random thing to throw in until you realize why he’s taking in the rain. Back when he was cursed in the first movie, he felt nothing. No taste, no pain, no sensations. Now here’s the first time he’s felt the sensation of rain falling on his fingers and the true risk of death has truly dawned on him.
Aside from the fact that the Flying Dutchman under Will's command has sided with the Black Pearl, there's another good reason why the British East India Company armada simply turned tail: they were following the "rules of engagement." With the Endeavor gone sunk and Lord Beckett certainly blown up with the ship, the fleet had just lost their commander and flagship in one go, reducing it into a disorganized mess, leaving it easy pickings for the pirates.
When the pirates first see the massive armada, Cotton's parrot says "Abandon ship!" and flies away. He returns when the battle is won and says "Wind in the sails!" as the pirates are celebrating. Way back in Curse of the Black Pearl, Gibbs said that phrase is assumed to mean "Yes". The parrot was cheering!
The inspiration Jack has in At World's End to use a bench as "leverage" to lift the brig door off its hinges seems pretty arbitrary unless you watch the first movie right before it. It's how Will breaks Jack out of Port Royal Jail!
Not so much fridge as it is a subtle Call-Back, considering Jack is muttering "think like the whelp" over and over before discovering that the hinges on the Dutchman's brig are the same kind (half-barrel hinges) that Will busted him out of.
Why is Davy Jones so hell bent on getting Jack's soul, to the point where he wants 100 souls in exchange for it? It's not like he has any trouble find desperate sailors willing to crew his ship and it seems rather petty for someone as powerful as him. Then I realize there are two very good reasons why he might want Jack in particular trapped in the Locker
Jack is a Pirate Lord and holds one of the 9 Pieces of Eight. If Jack is trapped in the Locker along with the piece then there is no way to release Calpyso. Jones still loves Calypso but he also hates her for betraying him. This way Jones can keep Calypso trapped forever if he wants to and if at some point he chooses to release her it would be simple enough for him to take the piece from the Locker. Nobody (least of all Jones) expected Barbossa & Co would go to save Jack... or that they would succeed
It's implied several times in Dead Man's Chest and At Worlds End that Jack and Tia had a sexual relationship in the past and it didn't end very well. In At World's End it's revealed Tia is the goddess Calypso, true love of Davy Jones and the reason he tore out his heart. If Davy knew about Jack's affair with Tia then he would no doubt want revenge on Jack for sleeping with his woman!
Beyond that, the reason Jones is cursed on the Dutchman is because Calypso cheated on him (her betrayal). Dealing with someone she'd taken as a lover would have just been rubbing salt in a wound.
It's also theorized that Jones will accept 100 souls instead of Jack's because of the deal they made, and the events preceding it. Jack was a trader working for the EITC, but he was told to ship slaves, and instead freed them (hence the conversation he has with Beckett). In retaliation, he was branded a pirate and his ship, then the Wicked Wench, was set on fire. Jack made a deal with Jones to get the Wench back, but it came back still black from being burned, so he renamed it the Black Pearl. Jack freed 100 slaves, which is why Jones will accept 100 souls-he has a sick sense of irony.
At the end of At World's End, Will is bound to serve as the captain of the Flying Dutchman for ten years. Ten years later in real time, he makes his triumphant return to the franchise in Dead Men Tell No Tales. Coincidence? I think NOT!
Aside from the Anachronism Stew element involved, Jack using the sail from the Dutchman as a parasail makes sense when you consider that Jack's a sailor. Pirate or not, he's worked with sails enough to know how they move in the wind. While they may not have been invented or used for that purpose yet, it's likely that Jack would've known it would work, especially with the maelstrom causing all sorts of crosswinds to carry them away from the whirlpool.
While in Davy Jones' Locker, the crew of the Black Pearl had to flip their own ship upside down to escape. The picturesque scene of the inverted Pearl in the water is a cleverShout-Out to one of the explanations of the real life Flying Dutchman legend, which is a Fata Morgana superior mirage of a ship seen at sea. Fitting that the only way to escape from the purgatory controlled by the captain of the Flying Dutchman, the Black Pearl has to invert itself just like how the 'real' Dutchman would look like.
Later on in the movie, it's implied that Jones knows where Shipwreck Cove is, as the First Court summoned him to help bind Calypso. Why didn't he tell Beckett about that in the first place? Considering he is a loose cannon, it's very likely that he didn't, out of spite. In any case Beckett never knew that Jones had dealings with he Court before, until Will came along. It's possible after his last meeting with Calypso, Jones revealed the location of Shipwreck Island (or if he didn't, Beckett likely used the compass anyway).
On first viewing, many considered Beckett's Villainous Breakdown to be the biggest Ass Pull in the series' history to justify how two frigates (Black Pearl and Flying Dutchman) can beat a Ship of the line (Endeavor) even when the latter is outflanked, to the extent that it has become a meme. Upon rewatching, a few major details that got overlooked can justify why he didn't just order his crew to fire.
His career was already ruined. He declared that the EITC would control all trading routes by using the Flying Dutchman to destroy their rival ships, but now he's lost it. Even if he fought back, he can no longer fulfil his promise and will become an embarrassment, so he chose to die there rather than to face the shame back home. If he tries to raid the ship again to gain Will's heart instead now that the crew are no longer monsters, it will just leave his other side target practice for the Black Pearl's cannons.
He is too used to being the one in control. When he found out that the Flying Dutchman is no longer in his control, he froze. A person who always put their career in the highest priority has the tendency to freeze if their plans fail because they are more concerned about how this mess will affect their standing rather than trying to fix the overall situation.
The Flying Dutchman is an undead ship that will just keep coming back in any spot of the captain's choosing. He can put it down 100 times and it'll just keep coming back until there's nothing left of his fleet but blood and ashes.
The title card shows a piece of eight falling on the ground. This not only foreshadows the Nine Pieces of Eight, but it also is a continuation of the hanging scene - the coin fell out of the boy’s hand when they hanged him.
The pieces of Eight may seem like 9 pieces of random junk but they’re not as random as you’d think. Background lore reveals these are each items of personal value to each of the nine pirate lords.
Ammand the Corsair’s pewter goblet was given to him by outcast sisters that were banished because of him.
Chevalle places a queen of spades in the plate. Being a gambler, his preferred hands always held a queen.
Mistress Ching’s wore her glasses until she went blind.
Gentleman Jocard’s tobacco cutters were from the plantation where he was enslaved and used to cut his master’s tongue.
Sao Feng’s knot was made from silk and passed down from his father.
Sir Sumbahjee’s snuff box is a souvenir from his temple in India.
Eduardo Villanueva’s broken bottle neck is from what he used to win a bar fight once.
As discussed above, Ragetti’s wooden eye is one of them and was actually given to Barbossa by Boris Palachnik, the pirate lord who came before him.
Jack’s coin that he keeps woven into his hair is one of the first two bits he ever pirated. He bought his favorite hat with the other.
As explained in this Tumblr post, during the parlay scene, Davy Jones gets around the "can't set foot on dry land" rule by standing in a bucket of seawater. But there's another layer to it: the bucket is on a sandbar - a sand deposit that is usually submerged underwater, and therefore technically doesn't qualify as dry land.
Is it only me that has noticed the inherent horror of rooting for the pirates in Worlds End? Yes, the English are being led by a dick, but most of them are innocent and honest sailors, and when you think about it, the pirates are basically all just thieving and murdering scum. I say this, of course, but I still can't stop myself rooting for the pirates at the end.
It helps that except for a single raid at the beginning of the first movie, (and when not fighting for their lives and freedom) they all seem to be The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything.
Beckett is also thieving and murdering scum. He's just higher-class scum. It's a grey-and-grey morality situation, and we root for the pirates because a. we spend more time with them and b. Beckett's trying to seize control of all the supernatural power of the sea for himself.
Think over it, who was really worse? Governments kept slaves, took high taxes (and probably took payment in various disgusting ways), executed people with other ideals, religions and opinions… Meanwhile the Brethren Court is a council of many races and religions (e.g Ammand, the Turkish Lord, being strongly implied to be Muslim and Sri Shumbajee, the Indian Lord, being clearly either Hindu or Sikh). In the fourth film, if you look carefully is one of Blackbeard's men wearing a turban, so, in that case shows that he's okay with other religions as long as they don't try to force it onto him, like the priests did. But then the Spaniards destroy anything related to other beliefs, and the English wasn't any better. I think the only good people at the time were farmers and fishermen whom kept the others alive while being treated like crap.
We aren't rooting for villanous pirates (except maybe Barbossa). We're rooting for the 3 leads, all of whom are only pirates because of their hearts. Jack was branded a pirate because he freed slaves, while Will and Elizabeth were only stated to be as such because they saved Jack. They also all have personal reasons to go after the bad guys, with Jack loving his freedom (not to mention that he was branded by Beckett, as well as his somewhat selfish wish to not be caught by Davy Jones that has caused so much trouble), Will wanting to save his dad, and Elizabeth having had her dad killed on Beckett's orders. None of these characters are the best, but they are way more sympathetic than Beckett, who is responsible for all of their problems, and is a Smug Snake to boot.
In the opening of At World's End, the hanging scene, where they're hanging everyone remotely associated with piracy, the fact that all Beckett has to do is say someone is a pirate and to hang them, no matter if they were. The real big bit of fridge horror was the kid who began the song; Hanging is potentially immediately fatal, as the sudden stop can (and usually does) snap necks. The kid, however, was on the small side, and probably didn't gain enough momentum in the drop to snap his neck. He strangled until he died.
Strictly speaking, the trapdoor methods used in all POTC hanging scenes indicate a form of long-drop hanging is in operation, though Norrington's early comments about a 'short drop and a sudden stop' suggest otherwise. The trapdoor hangings in the start of World's End seem to be instantaneous: they drop, feet shake, next row. And they put the boy on a barrel (or something similar) to get him up to the noose, increasing the distance his smaller frame has to drop when the barrel and the trapdoor drop out from under him so if anyone dies quickly in that scene: it would be him.
In the third movie, the whole group of heroes end up quarreling at one point and holding guns to each other's heads. When they pull the trigger, they realize the guns don't work because the powder got wet. Even so: would they really have killed each other?? Jack is the first to pull the trigger on Barbossa, which is somewhat understandable as they were mortal enemies in the first movie. But the next person to try pulling the trigger is Elizabeth, pointing it at Jack! It would have been pretty silly for her to kill Jack at the end of the second movie, feel all guilty about it and go through all the trouble of getting him back from the dead, only to kill him immediately after they returned to the real world (the only explanation that would somewhat excuse her is that she already knew the gun wouldn't work, and pulled the trigger only pretending she wanted to kill Jack, in a sort of pouty way.But it's still really risky!)
Probably a case where, as above, they knew the guns wouldn't work or the writers didn't do their homework, as anyone even minimally familiar with flintlock black-powder weapons knows a sufficiently humid day will render them inoperable, let alone having been drenched in the sea.
They probably all knew it wouldn't work, they were just too pissed at each other to realize until they pulled the trigger, also Jack's already questionable sanity had decided to take a leave of absence while he was in the Locker.
of a ship seen at sea. Fitting that the only way to escape from the purgatory controlled by the captain of the Flying Dutchman, the Black Pearl has to invert itself just like how the 'real' Dutchman would look like.