"Every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot."

If you look up above this text on the screen, you'll see that here on this awesome website, we are devoted to Captain Jack Sparrow, but we are also devoted to his "totally awesome crew".  So, here we are, a post totally about Jack Sparrow's Crew, at least in the context of the people who man the Black Pearl under Jack's command during the movie series.  We all know, that of course, the original crew mutinied him and served under Barbossa and some still serve under Jack, but that's not the point.  We will be discussing the crew that he picked up from Tortuga with Will and Gibbs in Curse of the Black Pearl.   

 So there is Cotton, who Jack addresses first, standing on the dock of.  Jack: "You sailor!  Do you have the courage and fortitude to follow orders and stay true in the face of danger and almost certain death.  MR. COTTON!  Answer man!"  Of course, being mute and not having a tongue makes it rather difficult for him to answer.  Probably not a good start for Cotton, but he does prove himself as he stays on the crew for the rest of the series, always loyal to Jack. 

And then he meets Anamaria next, who of course slaps him.  Will: "I suppose you didn't deserve that one either."  Jack: "No, that one I deserved."  She then rants on about how he stole her ship and how she needs it back.  Jack then promises her another ship.  She must have eventually gotten that ship because we don't see her on the crew past the first movie.  Jack's crew also includes some other interesting characters like Joshamee Gibbs; his extremely loyal first mate.  
Gibbs sticks with Jack through out all the of his crazy escapades and leads the crew with a calm and steady hand. Plus his mutton chops rock! Also included in Jack's crew is Will Turner. 
Will only teamed up with Jack to rescue his damsel in distress Elizabeth Swann but he quickly became a vital part of the crew.  When the crew had been gathered and introduced Jack, they all look ok to Jack i guess! Gibbs has high expectations of them :"Feast your eyes, Captain. All of them, faithful hands before the mast. Every man worth his salt. And crazy to boot." Well lets hope they pack their courage and fortitude, Cause they're gonna need it to last a voyage with Jack...During this voyage after surviving storms and their pirating duties of looting ship and who knows what else (to Jack's great pleasure) they catch up to Jack's rightful ship currently captained by Hector Barbossa The Black Pearl.  Jack and Will head in to Isla de Muerta leaving Gibbs in commanded with one order: "Keep to the Code"  When Will returned from his little jaunt on the island with Jack accompanied not by Jack but by Elizabeth Swann; Gibbs was forced to follow Jack orders but pirate fans that is a story for another time....

"Why Thank Ye Jack"

It seems as though most of our posts in one way or the other involve Jack the Monkey.  Well this one is no exception.  But this time we are going to talk about the "actor" who plays him, actually more like actress because the monkey is a girl, acting as a guy.  I don't know if you've ever really thought about it much, but that monkey dose A LOT of things throughout the series.  I beleive he is played by different monkeys throughout the series, but this post will be mainly pertaining to Curse of the Black Pearl.  Jack was played by actually two capuchin monkeys, according to IMBD, one was a female named Tara and the other a male named Levi.  When you think about it, Jack is actually quite the villian, carrying out all of Barbossa's taks and keeping an eye out for any threats to his master's saftey. Ursula Brauner was the animal trainer for the movie.  

Geoffrey Rush (Barbossa):  "The monkey is actually the smartest person in the film I think because he never looses sight of the gold.  Everyone else has human frailty, trial, and jealousy, but the monkey knows we have to get each and every last medallion back into that case."  That's rather true, because the monkey is always pointing out helpful stuff that Barbossa or his crew are too dumb to notice.   Apparently, monkeys always want to feel safe, which I supppose is dificult sitting on the sholder of a man who is always sreaming or sword fighting.   

That's the reason for Jack's constant head motions, he's looking around for any sign of danger.  So they had to make it every clear to the monkeys that Rush wasn't out to get hikm or boss him around.  Rush insisted that the monkey stand on his left sholder (right to the audience) because he beleived that the audience always looks at the screen from left ot right, kinda like a book.  
Rush wanted to make sure the cute yet evil little monkey did not steal his spotlight, especially when he was in scenes with Keira Knightley (Elizabeth) otherwise he thought he would go completely unoticed!  Poor guy.  Haha, it's like the monkey is his costar, because he kinda is.  Johnny Depp: "I like his work very much.  It's, ah, you know he's kinda a runegate."  Now, kinda like a child, the monkey can't sit still very long.  The trainer said that when they have the monkey run around and grab stuff for them, it's actually easier, but making him sit on Barbossa's sholder for a few mnutes as he rambles on is difficult, because they don't want a spazzing monkey to distract from Barbossa's usually creepy or cruel words.  Somehow spraying a bit of water on his miniature vest would keep him occupied for the time being.  The monkies were rather smart.  For example, when we first find out that the monkey's name is Jack (after Captain Jack Sparrow of course), Barbossa thanks the monkey, who coincidentally smiles, as if he understand.  How cute yet evil and vicious.

"You have to be lost to find a place that can't be found"

I don't know about you all, but I am so tried of winter! Snow is gross and being cold is even worse! So I thought it would be fun to do a post about one of my favorite scenes from the movie Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's end. While Jack is chilling on his ship in Davy Jones' locker his crew captained by Hector Barbossa are out in the middle of the ocean half frozen to death trying to find him, Sailing on the ship they borrowed from Sao Feng. The crew apparently had no idea what they were getting into, But Barbossa did:"For certain, you have to be lost to find a place as can’t be found. Elseways, everyone would know where it was." Unfortunatly for the crew being lost isn't the most enjoyable experience. Ha just wait for what comes at the end of there little journey!
Tia Dalma who was also along for the ride, tried to explain to he crew that Jack had been taken to a place no one would want to go:"Jack Sparrow is taken, body and soul, to a place not of death, but punishment. The worst fate a person can bring upon himself...stretching on forever. That's what awaits at Davy Jones' Locker." Sounds like a real fun place eh? You can always trust Davy Jones to show a guy a good time! Getting to the locker is simple enough, just fly down a 57830837620 (just a guess! :) ) waterfall and you're there. Getting out is the hard part! 

 While Will poors over the charts he bartered from Sao Feng another story for another post) Barbossa and Gibbs try to explain the rather odd myth to Pintel (my personal favorite half of the silly pirates) Pintel: "Ever gazed upon the green flash, Master Gibbs?"Gibbs: "I reckon I seen my fair share. Happens on rare occasion. The last glimpse of sunset, a green flash shoots up into the sky. Some go their whole lives without ever seeing it. Some claim to have seen it who ain't. And some say—"Barbossa:"It signals when a soul comes back to this world from the dead."   Well it sounds like a great Instagram photo opportunity to me! The crew still doesn't know where exactly they're heading yet,but '
 Elizabeth is grumpy as usual anyways. She and Will share a less then touching moment which causes poor Will to believe she is in love with Jack, which honestly isn't his fault she did kiss him!  Soon after the couples little tiff the boat starts really rolling and the crew begins to realize whats about to happen, and Elizabeth's bossy side comes out.  

 She orders the crew to turn the ship around, but they are wayyyy  to close to the drop to turn around now, and the ship plummets over the waterfall. Hopefully it was the right waterfall.....

"This is Jack Sparrow's doing!"

Guys, I was feeling very ambitious and motivated and felt that I needed to write another post today.  We returning to the first (and at least in my case, favorite) movie: The Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.  I thought we should focus on the couple that never actually happened: Elizabeth Swanna and James Norrington.  Norrington finds and saves Elizabeth from a desserted island that Barbossa left her on.  Elizabeth: "But we've got to save Will!"  Governor: "No.  You're safe now.  We will return to Port Royal immediately, not gallivanting after pirates."  Elizabeth: "Then we condemn him to death."  Governor: "The boy's fate is regrettable, but so is his decision to engage in piracy."  Elizabeth: "To rescue me!  To prevent anything from happening ot me!"  Jack: "If I may be so bold as to interject my professional opinion.  The Pearl was listing after the battle.  It's unlikely she'll be able make good time.  Think about it.  The Black Pearl, the last real pirate threat in the Caribbean, mate.  How can you pass that up, eh?"
Ohhh, appealing to his sense of pride and hatred towards the pirates who captured his dear Elizabeth to begin with.  James: "By remembering that I serve others, not only myself."  Well, Elizabeth seems to be begging you to take him, so I guess he would be serving her to take her to the Pearl.  Elizabeth: "Commondore, I beg you, please do this.  For me.  As a wedding gift."  That was a plot twist. She's marrying one man who she doesn't like to get him to save another man who she does like.  She is abusing James' love to her and using it for her own selfish wants.  This shocks even Weatherby Swann: "Elizabeth?  Are you accepting the commodore's proposal?"  Elizabeth then tries to make herself look all innocent and in love, when we all know it's a lie.  Elizabeth: "I am."  Jack: "A wedding.  I love weddings!  Drinks all around!"  As you can imagine, everyone gives him an annoyed look, while we are all laughing.  Jack gets the message and holds up his bound hands.  Jack: "I know.  'Clap him in irons' right?"  James: "Mr. Sparrow, (captain!) you will accompany these fine men to the helm and provide us with a bearing to Isla de Muerta.  You will then spend the rest of the voyage contemplating all meanings of the phrse 'silent as the grave'.  Do I amke myself clear?"  Oh James, always so kind and chariming.  Jack: "Inescapably clear."  Murtog and Mulroy then grab him sharply and shove him along immediately.   

James reminds me of a poor little girl who gets used by some jerkish older guy, who is Elizabeth.  He gives her want he wants just so that she loves him, even though he knows this love is fake.  Pretty darn sad.  Come on James, grow a back bone!  Stand up for yourself!  I'm not saying that he should have just left Will to die in the hands of Barbossa at the Isla de Muerta, but he shouldn't have gotten his hopes up with Elizabeth, becuase in the end she just let him down.  But he does anyway. The sail to the Isla de Muerta and make it just in the nick of time, because like Jack said, the Bearl was still recovering from its battle against the HMS Interceptor.  Norrington, Jack, and his men sail out for a better look at the place in the long boats.  Norrington: "I don't care for the situation.  Any attempt to storm the caves could turn into an ambush."  
Jack: "Not if you're the one doing the ambusing.  I go in and convince Barbossa to send his men out with their little boats, you and your mates return to the Dauntless and blast them with your little cannons.  What do you have to lose?"  James: "Nothing I'd lament being rid of."  Meaning, he'd gladly sacrafice Jack in tricking the pirates to come out.  Jack: "To be quite honest with you, there's still a risk to those aboard the Dauntless, which include the future Mrs. Commodore."  This makes James think, and in the end agrees to it.  Two soldiers push and pull Elizabeth to the Captain's cabin to keep her safe.  Groves: "Sorry, but it's for your own safety."  Elizabeth: "The commore, there's something I have to tell him!  The pirates, they're cursed!  They can't be killed!"  It's funny because it's true, and Jack probably made it a point not to revealt his.  Groves shoves her in anyway.  Groves: "Don't worry, miss.  He's informed of that.  A mermaid flopped up on deck and told him the whole story."  It's funny becaue Groves eventually does witness mermaids, with Barbossa.  Elizabeth figures it out.  Elizabeth: "THIS IS JACK SPARROW'S DOING!"  Jack's just that good, what can you say?

"I'll be hideous"

Now I know at one point we discussed Princess Amenirdis and her long perilous journey from her kingdon, Kerma, to the old Kerma, just south of the third cataract.  As periously stated, when she and her group arrived there, they foun abolutely nothing.  It was completely in ruins.  Things only get worse from there for her.  You see, this was during the time when the slave trade was at its peak, and a pretty young girl usually sold for a lot, not to mention the pretty young girl was travelling with others who could be taken.  Kerma, isolated and hidden away on an island, was completely secluded from the rest of the gorwing world, so they were a bit behind in technology, and missing some useful things: such as guns.  So when they are surrounded by men who can shoot them instantly from a distance, they have no choice but to hide as best they can to buy them time.  The princess hides in the rocks with her body guard, Tarek, and the high priest, Piye.  They have to finds a way to make her less noticable around the slave hunters.  Being a princess, Amenirdis has very magical powers, especially when it comes to weaving.  Piye helps her weave together an illusion, making her an ugly old hag.  Tarek: "Give her a squint.  Thin, lank graying hair.  Protruding, snagggled teeth.  Some strategically placed warts . . . hairy ones. Wrinkled, blotchy skin.  A bit of a hunch to her back, so she can't stand straight.  Make her shorter, so everyone will look down on her.  Make her thin up top, and fat beloow."  
Wow, it's like he had it all planned out, as if he were waiting for the moment to turn her into a hidious old woman.  My favorite part of that was the 'strategically placed warts'.  Ha, who had ever heard of such a thing.  They cast this spell on her shawl, so that when she wears it, she becomes this awful image that Tarek invisioned, but without it she can still be her beautiful self.  This takes a lot of her energy out of her so she just passes out for the rest of the day, but when she awakens, she is seized by the slave hunters.  Nice timing.  To go with this new look, she took on a new name, to keep away any recognition that she was an African princess.  They are marched back from Egypt to Calabar, a port on the West Coast of the continent, many died along the way.  Unfortunately, the ones who remained were sent on the infamous mid-Atlantic passage, cross the Atlantic to the New World where they would be sold onto plantaitons.  Conviniently, Ayisha, Piye, and Tarek were the only slaves of that group not to fall in either of those categories. Tarek and Aysiha were sold to the Dalton's plantation outside Calabar.  She worked inside weaving cloth, her specialty, as Tarek (a big strong man) worked in the fields.

Where Piye was sold, Ayisha didn't know yet, so she quickly learned English as best she could to pick up any conversations in search of his whereabouts.  As I said, she has quite the skill when it comes to weaving and making cloth, which she became well knwon for in Calabar.  Women around would ask her to make things for them.  While Mrs. Dalton got most of the money, Ayisha was able to collect coins for her services.  She kept completely secret the fact that she was learning English becuase it was her means to escaping slavery.  She planned to keep enough of her money together and then one day finally run away on a ship with Piye and Tarek using her money and English to get them away.  However, little did she know that a certain pirate was about to do it for free.  I wonder who that could be?

"Perhaps his usefulness has run its course."

I thought it would be nice to stick with the theme of short, evil, British merchants, which means this will be another post about Cutler Beckett.  This time, he is a Lord, seeking more power and wealth in the company, like we previously described in our last post.  So he has the heart of Davy Jones, which to him means taht he controls the seas.  Now, considering the oceans make up like 3/4 of the earth, I guess you could say he almost has control of the whole world.  Except, Davy Jones' hasn't quite gotten used to taking orders yet.  Beckett finds this out when he comes upon a ship, completely destroyed and set on fire.

  Beckett: "Bloody hell.  There's nothing left."  Mercer: "Jones is a loose cannon, sir."  Beckett: "Fetch the chest."  Beckett has such a cold voice, it feels like everything he says is a cool death threat.  Mercer: "And the governor?"  Mercer is concerned about Elizabeth's father, Governor Weatherby Swann.  Not concerned like worried about him, but concerned as him he may ask too many questions and ruin the plan.  Mercer: 'He's been asking questions about the heart."  Beckett: "Does he know?"  Know that you plan to use it to end piracy once and for all?  It's rather funny that the pirate Beckett hates the most (Christophe) was killed by Jack Sparrow, who he also hates.  I wonder if Jack and Beckett know that they even have this mutual enemy.  Probably could have saved some conflict.  Mercer gives him some look that doesn't really communicate anything to me, but I guess Beckett got the message.  Beckett: 'Then perhaps his usefulness has run its course."  Key dramatic and menacing organ music.  Next thing you see is Governor Swann in a long boat next to Mercer (with his black gloves) and a bunch of other men.  There is debris on fire all around them, a little gift from Jones.  
The Governor has cloth above his mouth to stop from breathing in the smoke.  It makes me very sad to think about what they are going to do to him.  Then we find that its actually Davy Jones demonstrating hims musical abilities, as he is playing the organ with is tentacles, which is both gross and cool.  There is also music coming from the little heart music box that he and Calypso both have.  He holds it up and stares into it sadly, clearly yearning for the romance he and the sea goddess used to have.  The music stops and he actually sheds a tear!  He captures this with his tentacle and stares at it.  Suddenly he is reminded that his heart broken, lonely, and rejected, which of course makes him really mad at the woman who did it to him: Calypso.  He just shakes violently in anger, kinda creepy.  His little pity session is interrupted.  Beckett has ordered all his men onto the Flying Dutchman, including the always loved, James Norrington and the two idiots Murttog and Mullroy.  Norrington: "Steady men."  Davy Jones doesn't really like such a distraction on his ship.  Some men then bring out the chest with the heart in it.  Jones: "Go.  All of you.  And take that infernal thing with you.  I will not have it on my ship!" 

  That's weird because the infernal thing is your heart, which used to be in your chest, but now you don't even want it on your boat.  Quite strange.  Beckett then makes his appearance.  Beckett: 'Oh, I"m sorry to hear that . . . because I will.  Because it seems to be the only way to ensure that this ship do as directed by the company.  We need prisoners to interrogate, which tends to work best when they're alive."  Governor Swann comes out next.  Jones: "The Dutchman sails as its captain commands." Beckett:  "And its captain is to sail as commanded.  I would have thought you'd learned that when I ordered you to kill your pet.  This is no longer your world, Jones.  The immaterial has become . . . immaterial,"  Please oh please oh please tell me that one of you my many readers know what this means!  

 Because I honestly can't figure it out.  This and the "Currency is the currency of the realm" makes no sense!  Oi.  So they set up the heart in Jones' organ room surrounded by armed soldiers.  Beckett just thought he'd rub it in, typical Beckett.  He's some what of a bully.  I wonder if he knows that Jones also helped convict Christophe of rouge piracy.  It's a small word, eh?

"I am exterminating pirates"

If you're anything like me, you'll have a burning hatred towards Cutler Beckett's hatred towards pirates.  Now, its easy for us to judge him, because we can't possible imagine how any one could hate Captain Jack Sparrow.  Now, I still stay true to my initial feelings towards Beckett, but in the Price of Freedom we kinda start to see where his hatred towads pirates comes from.  In one of our latest posts, we listed Christophe-Julien de Rapier as our least favorite character.  So clearly we can't blame Beckett for sharing in this hate.  Now, Beckett leaves his house of snobs to work for the East India Trading Company at around eighteen.  

He worked at the office in London until he was assigned a tour of duty on board the Lindesfarne.  Things seemed to be working out just swimmingly for him until the ship was captured off the caost of Spain by none other than Captain de Rapier and his crew of rogue pirates.  The pirates took everything valuable on the ship, inlcuindg the people to be helpd for ransonm or sold into slavery.  Beckett gives the captain a bit of sass but Christophe got the last laugh.  

He gave the boy to the crew, who beat him and hit him with the flat of their swords.  They also stripped him and hung him upside-down laughing.  Why would anyone want to scare themselves in that way? They were about to start cutting off his limbs when Beckett went completely numb and din't react, which killed all the fun so they stopped.  Once all this humiliation was over, he reveals his background: a wealthy family who could pay ransom and that he worked for the EITC.  So they pirates sent a ransom notice to his family while he cleaned the bilges.  All the other people held for ransom were eventually released but since Beckett and the other Becketts never got along, his father never sent money for his ransom.  Not going to lie, how pitiful and cruel to leave your own son to be tortured by pirates.  So the EITC chips in.  

Viscount Lord Penwallow (who we address in other posts), sends money for his ransom and Christophe decides that Beckett wouldn't be worth much as a slave anyway and lets him go.  So such a miserable experience I suppose could drive out the goodness in some men.  Beckett clearly was not strong enough to recover from such an ordeal.  He never spoke of it to any one.  Instead of drinking or other immoral practices to block out the memory, Beckett sought wealth to return to power and excape the humiliation.  That's where Beckett's vain and greed comes from.  He worked incredibly hard in the EITC to pay back Lord Penwallow for the money.  He continued to move up in the compayny becoming Director of West African Affairs and even earns the title of "Lord" by the second movie!  If Beckett weren't such an evil twisted person, I guess you could see his rise to power as admirable.  he started out with humble begninnings, rejected by his family, to becoming a Lord!  However, Beckett completely abuses his power and there really is just no excuse.  

"Do I look like a man in charge?"

The crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge was very diverse, as you can see in the Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.  At the very top of the leadership pyramid of the ship is the captain, who of course is Blackbeard.  Although we don't see him on deck giving orders for a while, he is clearly in charge when he wants to be.  His infamous Sword of Triton which pretty much countrols anything on the ship is pretty handy in getting everyone to listen to him because when the crew tries to act out (like committing mutiny), he can use the ropes to hold them down.  Not to mention the deadly greek fire cannons he has on his ship that allows him to fire at his enemies and his crew.  Blackbeard: "If I don't kill a man every now and then, they forget who I am."  

Next in line of power comes his first mate and daughter, Angelica, and Jack Sparrow, who is just as important to the quest as he has valuable information.  Angelica gives most of the orders on deck when Blackbeard is passed out drunk in his cabin.  However, when Blackbeard once something done, Angelica has to agree to it.  Jack also has power since he can manipulate Blackbeard into certain agreements (like the exchange for the chalices), so Jack is definately higher up than any normal crew member.  

Another character who does have some power on deck and isn't treated like part of the crew is Philip Swift.  He was captured in a previous raid but since he's a cleric, Angelica insisted on sparing him.  For a while they just tie him to the mast, instad of making him work in the crew, but then they kinda just let him walk around wherever he wants and fall in love with mermaids.  Now, Angelica is first mate and gives most of the orders, but as she is a woman, she needs some help to impletment her demands.  That's where the zombiefied by the Greek fire so that they could be tougher and more authoritative, and uglier.  

They are rude to all the crew, including Jack (I know, how disrespectful).  Scrum: "He's been zombie-fied; Blackbeard's doing. All the officers are that way, keeps them compliant."  Jack: "And perpetually ill-tempered."  One of the quartermasters could even fortell the future.  Sounds cool, except that zombies their minds are set to carry out Blackbeard's commands.  Finally, at the bottom in command is the Motely Crew, who virtually have no say in anything.  For a while, they didn't even know who their captain was.  Unlike Jack, most of them were not knocked out and forced on board. 
Scrum: "Many a man's woken up at sea, no idea what, when, wherefore or why.  No memory of the night afore whence he signed up and drank away all his bonus money."   So I suppose they all just got drunk and joined the crew without realizing it.  Jak convinces them into thinking that they are not actually on the Queen Anne's Revenge, but if that were the case, how would there be zombie quartermasters?  I don't know.  Some of the members of the motely crew include Gunner, Krum, Salaman, Ezekiel, Garheng, Cook, and of course, Scrum.  Now, porbably at the lowest of the low are their prisoners, which they hardly ever take except for Syrena, the mermiad.  They only keep her alive because they n eed her tear, but once they've got it, Blackbeard leaves her to die, like the super kind-hearted person he is.  The crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge is a bit different than the crew of other ships like the Black Pearl, but we still enjoyed watching them!

"We're devils and black sheep, we're really bad eggs"

Though I love the Pirates of the Caribbean there are some people who I really don't like. You can probably guess a few people on this list right now but there are also a few here that you might be surprised about. Here are a few of my least favorite people.

Weatherby Swann
This guy is one of the first people we ever get to see. He is sailing to the Caribbean from England in order to become the Governor of Port Royal. This is a pretty big deal because Port Royal is the Largest British settlement in the Caribbean. His daughter, Elizabeth, also comes to Port Royal. There she attracts the attention of Captain James Norrington. Weatherby seems to really want Elizabeth and James to get married because the day James proposes and Lizzy doesn't answer immediately he talks to the captain and convinces him she will wants to marry him. Of course as they are talking they are attacked by the Black Pearl, which ends their conversation. Later in the movie Elizabeth accepts the proposal in order to save Will who is at the Isla de Muerta. Once they reach the island Jack convinces them to lock Elizabeth in a cabin so she will stay safe. While there Governor Swann talks to her through the door. He declares a confusing statement that bores even Elizabeth, who climbs out of the Dauntless. At the very end of the movie when Elizabeth and Will proclaim they're love for each other and are having a romantic moment he asks them if that was their decision. No, they just went through all that because they don't want to be together. I mean James, who was in love with her in the first place and had been promised her heart, is okay with it but the Governor is not isn't. Some people, you know!

Sao Feng
Yes, yes I know he's a pirate lord and everything but I just find him unnecessarily intimidating. I mean let's take a look at when we first go into his bathhouse. He convinces Elizabeth to take of her clothes. (That's Jack's thing!!) Let's see, after that he pulls out Will from a well where he'd been drowning him. Not cool. The only reason he decided to fight the East India Trading company is because Will promised to give him JACK'S SHIP. When Feng gets control of the Pearl what does he do??? He punches Jack in the nose. Umm, hello you're the one who is stealing the ship that Jack died for (literally). Of course the EITC comes in and helps convince Feng to fight for the EITC. The EITC helped because they were going to take "Sao Feng's ship".
Ian Mercer

 Ian Mercer was Cutler Beckett's right hand man from the very beginning, We first met him in my personal favorite book: The Price of Freedom. He and Cutler tried to trick Jack into finding the hidden city of Zerzura. Of course Jack being Jack caught on to their scheme and kept the island coordinates to himself. This of course made Beckett and Mercer quite angry and they burned Jack new ship the Wicked Wench fortunately for Jack he has a friend in high places or rather low places, Davy Jones.  Jones saved Jack's life and his ship, which later became the Black Pearl. Mercer continued to work with Beckett as he climbed the ladder at the EITC. Eventually after being a down right jerk to just about everyone he was killed by Jones in a rather disgusting way, but we really don't need to go into the details of that again. 

Christophe-Julien de Rapièr Christophe is a low down dirty rotten scoundrel with good fashion taste. In my opinion anyways. Jack and Christophe were great friends and fellow pirates, Christophe was the older richer and wiser half of the duo, but he didn't get the girl! Jack beat Christophe in the competition for the heart of Esmeralda the daughter of a pirate lord, and quite the catch if you ask me! When Jack and Esmerelda discovered the identity of the rouge pirate they never expected Christophe to be named as one of the accomplices, and Christophe did a good job of convincing Jack he was innocent, and Jack being the sweetheart that he is hatched a plan to free his friend. Unfortunately he was a rouge. And a mean one at that. He press ganged Jack into service on his ship. Christophe also followed Jack on his voyage to Zerzura and tried to steal the stone protecting the city. But Jack stopped him of course, and eventually beat him in a duel which cost Christophe his life. 
 

"We're going on a bone cage ride."

I thought we should return to the spectacular island of the Pelegostals, aka the canibals.  I know that we have addressed this team several times (which you should all read) but this post is even more!  We're discussing all the technicallities and special effects used during that scene, specifically the hanging bone cages that traps Will and the rest of the crew.  Now, obviously the directors did not actually hang them over a large cliff in a ball made of really human skeletons, because that would be dangerous and gross.  But the cast was hanging in a ball of bones made of styrofoam over a green screen.  Orlando Bloom (Will Turner) seemed pretty exited from inside to see how this whole experience would go.  "It's like a new ride at Disneyland" commented a member of the crew (technical crew, not Jack Sparrow's crew).   

How cool would that be if it actually were a ride???  Gore Verbinski, the director, even admitted, "We're not quite sure what's going to happen."  What encouraging information. He had to say this loudly so the people can hear them from ten feet above, hanging from a crane.  Verbinski actually never told the victims what would happen because he wanted to get the most realistic reactions of horror and shock from them.  Quite the interesting directing skills, but it seemed to work out because the movie was absolutely wonderful!  (As swere the other two Pirates films he directed).  They pulled the cage towards the crane and the actors get ready to swing.  Bloom was especially happy, "We're going on a bone cage ride!"  He said that quite creepily and excitedly.  And then they let the thing go and it falls very quickly.  Their screams in the movie probably weren't so far off because the swinging looks almost like a roller coaster.  

Kevin McNally (Gibbs) looked like he's about to puke but Orlando Bloom still seemed to enjoy it all.  This caused the director to call a reshoot, so they got to do the whole thing all over again!  Oh joy.  Martin Klebba (Marty) even puked during the swing.  So thne they had to do it atleast four more times to get all the shots and the right reactions.  The actors are terified the whole time but the crew just laughs in amusement.  Most of the scenery of all of that island was altered visual effects.  There were some shots that were all generated by the computer.  This really shocked me because while I knew that it couldn't all have been real, I didn't realize that so much of it was created.  They've got quite the tech crew, almost as good as Jack's crew!  There could be more that you didn't know from this scene.  For once thing, do you remember when Will was asking around to other people in the pirating community for news on Jack's location?  

Well one man tells him about the Island of the Pelegostals, where the "long pork" is apperently tasty.  Incase you didn't pick this up, "long pork" was a less disgusting way of saying "human flesh".  Ew.  This was so gross that this movie was actually banned in China for its descriptions of canibalism!  I wonder if the Chinese have seen some of Hollywood's latest horror movies.  If you are more interested in the filming of the Pirates of the Caribbean follow our blog for more to come!  You should also check out imbd.com and the bonus fealutres on your own copies of the films.  Feel free to share any information here!  We would love to hear it!