So a friend of mine asked me what seems like a simple questions after the movie. But I wasn’t able to answer her and the more I think about it, the more it’s bugging me. I mean, without something like nanomeds or photon milk to explain stuff, I can get lost…
So to lift the curse, the Black Pearl’s pirates have to return all 882 medallions. Cool. They also need to dribble some blood in there from someone who stole them. Also cool. But why did they need blood specifically from Bootstrap Bill Turner’s bloodline to meet the requirement for the curse? Since he was party to the theft as well, why didn’t Geoffrey Rush just cut his own hand?
Bootstrap was the one who protested to leaving Jack Sparrow behind, making him a non-mutineer and thus a good hearted person in a way. They needed his blood because he was a good guy, I suppose.
Here’s my question…how did Jack Sparrow not know he was cursed? When he was trapped in the jail and the pirate stuck his arm through, revealing in the moonlight that he was a skeleton, Jack seemed surprised and decidedly not a skeleton. And throughout the movie he seems pretty affected by the world around him, such as getting drunk on the rum when he was deserted on that island for a second time. But then in the climactic battle we find that he was cursed as well. I just don’t understand what the heck is going on there. I don’t claim to be a pirate curse expert, but this one’s a real head scratcher.
he stole the piece of gold right before the fight. You remember when he’s striking the deal with Barbosa and he’s throwing coins in the chest? He slight of hand pockets one of them, thus cursing him.
Yup. He’s not cursed until right before the fight. That’s why right after he “changes” you see him do the nifty “coin rollover” thing through his skeletal fingers.
Fun popcorn movie, btw. I really had a good time, even if it is a bit overlong.
My fiance had a good theory about needing Bootstrap Bill’s blood - or at least blood from his line. She figured that to break the curse they needed the blood from EVERY pirate involved and all of the coins. Everyone but Bootstrap had done so since he was in the bottom of the ocean by the time they realized what they had to do.
That’s why they needed his kid, the dreamy Orlando Bloom.
My take on it was that all of the other pirates had already put their coins back into the chest and dribbled blood on it. Thus at the end when there were 2 coins missing, Bootstraps (which was now Will’s coin and him being the son his blood needed) and the one Jack Sparrow had just stolen both of them had to put their blood on it and put them back into the chest. Only when all the coins had been put back in and all of them christened so to say with the thief’s blood would the curse end. It made sense to me except you would have thought all of the other coins would have had dried blood on them which they didn’t.
I remember Sparrow cutting his hand right before he threw his coin to Will.
So do the rest of you think poor bootstrap was still alive at the bottom of the ocean somewhere until the end when the curse lifted and then he finally could drown?
Here is another question how could Bootstrap, Sparrow, or any of the other pirates bleed if they were all undead? Does anyone remember any of the pirates ever bleeding in the rest of the movie?
Ah, yes. Good point, Rich. Sparrow did cut his hand. It clearly shows the coin in his palm being folded around his blade and then sliced along its length. I guess everything makes sense if you assume all the cursed pirates have to drip a bit of blood on the medallions to lift the curse. The rest of them just did it offscreen, before the movie started.
I was just wondering if I missed some bit of exposition where maybe it explained that Bootstrap Bill was the one who removed the medallions from the stone chest. Hence it was his blood they needed to lift the curse.
And of course Bootstrap was alive at the bottom of the ocean util the curse was lifted. All the more grisly for him!
When Barbossa was explaining his situation over dinner he was stabbed by Miss Swann. There was blood on the knife when it was pulled out. So at a guess, when they’re not in the moonlight they can bleed.
Here’s my plot question: In the beginning, when Sparrow uses his shackles to slide down the rope and escape the guards, how exactly did he get his shackles over the rope? And, if he did find some way to get them on the rope, how did he disengage from the rope once he reached the bottom?
