The Jester of TortugaTurning our bring-em-closer toward the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann, Hector Barbossa, Davy Jones, and the rest of the rowdy gangs aboard the Black Pearl, the Flying Dutchman, and other ships of the Caribbean.
Updated July 2, 2021 2.7K votes 624 voters 108.8K views
Over 600 Ranker voters have come together to rank this list of Things You Didn't Know About The Making Of 'Pirates of the Caribbean'
Voting Rules
Vote up the coolest BTS stories.
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl is one of the most ambitious films ever made. Based on the famous Disney ride, the film was injected with a $140 million budget, and steered by a motley crew. The movie seemed destined to bomb but thankfully, it proved the cynics wrong. In this instance, high ambition was not penalized by moviegoers; they appreciated the earnestness to the tune of $4.5 billion if you include the sequels.
To learn the precise details of Pirates' singular ambitiousness, read our list of things you didn't know about the making of this film.
When Barbossa informs Jack that he named his monkey after him, the monkey cracks a smile. The smile was perfectly timed yet completely coincidental. It flashed its pearly whites without prompting, making it seem like it understood the humor of the scene and wanted to add to the punchline.
487 votes
2
354 VOTES
Jack Sparrow's Pistol Was Authentic, Having Been Crafted In London In 1760
Director Gore Verbinski insisted that Jack use a real era-appropriate pistol, so the prop master purchased multiples of such a pistol from a dealer in Connecticut. The 18th century flintlock pistols were crafted by a gunsmith named Perry.
354 votes
3
355 VOTES
Johnny Depp Wore Contact Lenses That Protected His Eyes From The Sun
Johnny Depp based Jack's look and attitude off the Rolling Stones' guitarist Keith Richards. He decided on this influence after reading about 18th century pirates and coming to the conclusion that they were like rock stars. Fittingly, Richards played Jack Sparrow's father in three of the films.
348 votes
5
233 VOTES
The Cast And Crew Consisted Of Roughly 400 Foreigners And 700 Vincentians
Over 100 people worked on the set, which was built on a soundstage in Hollywood. They made the structural components out of styrofoam, wood, and plaster, and filled the "cave" with four feet of water and hundreds of thousands of fake gold coins.