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1. Who plays Captain Jack Sparrow?
Johnny Depp
Depp modeled the swaying walk and slurred delivery on Keith Richards, who later turned up as Jack's father in At World's End. Disney executives hated the early footage, and the performance went on to earn Depp his first Oscar nomination.
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2. In which port does the main story get under way?
Port Royal
After the prologue at sea, the story picks up in Port Royal, Jamaica, on the day Norrington is promoted to commodore. Jack arrives stepping onto the dock from a boat that sinks beneath him; Tortuga is the pirate haven he visits later to recruit a crew.
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3. Who plays Elizabeth Swann?
Keira Knightley
Knightley was seventeen when she shot the film, fresh from Bend It Like Beckham, and it made her a star. Elizabeth's faint from the fort wall in a too-tight corset is what puts the medallion in the water and calls the Black Pearl to Port Royal.
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4. Who directed the film?
Gore Verbinski
Verbinski came to it from The Ring and stayed for the next two films, then directed Depp again in Rango. Ted Elliott is one of the screenwriters, with Terry Rossio, and Rob Marshall is the man who took over for the fourth film, On Stranger Tides.
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5. What is Will Turner's trade?
Blacksmith
Will works in the Port Royal smithy for Mr. Brown, a drunk who takes credit for his work, and he forged the sword presented to Norrington. He practices with a blade three hours a day, which is why he can hold his own when Jack ducks into the shop.
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6. Which faster Navy ship do Jack and Will steal after using the Dauntless as a decoy?
HMS Interceptor
They take the Dauntless first, knowing the Navy will give chase in the faster Interceptor, then swing across and leave their pursuers with a disabled rudder chain. The Endeavour and the Flying Dutchman both belong to the sequels.
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7. Who commands the Black Pearl when the story begins?
Barbossa
Barbossa was Jack's first mate until he led a mutiny and left his captain marooned with a pistol holding a single shot, which Jack has been saving ever since. Davy Jones and Blackbeard belong to later films, and Norrington is on the other side entirely.
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8. Who plays Barbossa?
Geoffrey Rush
Rush already had an Oscar for Shine and gives Barbossa a theatrical relish that nearly steals the film, right down to the apple he longs to taste again. His monkey is named Jack out of spite, and Bill Nighy plays Davy Jones in the sequels.
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9. What reveals the cursed pirates as skeletons?
Moonlight
The curse shows itself only in moonlight, which is why Elizabeth sees nothing wrong at dinner until she flees onto the deck. Industrial Light and Magic built the skeletal crew digitally over the actors' own performances, so every gesture is still theirs.
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10. Where did the cursed gold originally come from?
An Aztec treasure chest
Barbossa tells the story at dinner: the chest held eight hundred and eighty-two pieces paid to Cortes as blood money, and the heathen gods cursed anyone who took one. Lifting it means returning every coin along with the blood of each thief.
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11. What is the name of Jack's usual first mate and drinking companion?
Joshamee Gibbs
Kevin McNally plays him, and he turns up first as a sailor on the Swanns' crossing from England, warning that it is bad luck to have a woman aboard. Jack finds him again years later asleep among the pigs in Tortuga and wakes him with a bucket of water.
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12. Which agreement does Elizabeth invoke to speak to the pirate captain?
Parley
Under the Code of the Brethren, set down by the pirates Morgan and Bartholomew, anyone who calls for parley must be taken to the captain unharmed. Elizabeth learns its limits when told the code is 'more what you'd call guidelines than actual rules'.
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13. What is Will's father's pirate nickname?
Bootstrap Bill
Bootstrap was the one crewman who spoke up against the mutiny, so he sent a piece of the gold to his son, and Barbossa strapped him to a cannon and dropped him overboard. The blood the curse still demands is his, and Will is the only living source of it.
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14. What does Jack's compass notably fail to do?
Point north
Norrington mocks it on the dock in Port Royal, and Gibbs later explains that it points to the Isla de Muerta, an island that cannot be found except by those who already know where it is. The sequels widen that to whatever its holder wants most.
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15. What Disney attraction inspired the film?
A theme-park boat ride
The ride opened at Disneyland in 1967, a few months after Walt Disney's death, and the film tips its hat to it more than once, most obviously with the jail dog holding the cell keys in its mouth. Disney later added Jack and Barbossa figures to the ride itself.
