"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Consequences"
"PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: Consequences"
Has anyone noticed something odd about the main characters in the 2007 movie, "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END"? Most or all of them either ended up with a less than happy ending or with their fates up in the air.
If one must be brutally honest, the franchise's main characters had committed some kind of questionable act or one dangerous to others. Jack Sparrow was a pirate, who had no qualms about using others for his own personal gain. And that included bartering the former blacksmith apprentice Will Turner to Davy Jones in 2006's "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST" in order to avoid paying his debt to Jones . . . and lying to Will's fiancee, Elizabeth Swann, about it. Captain Hector Barbossa, as well all know, was a murderous pirate who led a mutiny against Jack, threatened the lives of many and also double-crossed sorceress Tia Dalma by tossing her into the Black Pearl's brig in "AT WORLD'S END". And then there is the straight arrow Will, who turned out to be not so straight in terms of morality. He had left Jack to the mercies of Barbossa and the latter's crew in 2003's "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL" and double-crossed the Pearl's crew to pirate Captain Sao Feng and the East India Trading Company in order to get his hands on the ship in the 2007 movie. Will's beloved and future Pirate King - Elizabeth committed one of the worst acts by leaving Jack shackled to the Black Pearl in order for the latter to be killed by Davy Jones' pet, the Kracken, near the end of "DEAD MAN'S CHEST". And in that same movie, former Royal Navy commodore James Norrington betrayed his new crew members from the Black Pearl, by stealing Davy Jones' heart and handing it over to the villainous Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company in order to regain his military position in society.
Not exactly a sweet bunch, are they? Many societies, religious and what-have-you, seemed to believe in the old adage of what goes around, comes around. Or paying the consequences of one's actions. My favorite happens to be - "Payback's a bitch". And judging from the fates of the major characters in the franchise, all of them - in one form or the other - seemed to have paid the consequences of their actions.
For Norrington, payback came in the form of death at the hands of Will's poor deluded pirate father "Bootstrap" Bill Turner, when he helped Elizabeth and Sao Feng's crew escape from the Flying Dutchman's brig. After marrying Will during a battle against Jones and his crew, Elizabeth found herself nearly a widow and facing twenty years of marriage . . . without her husband. And where was Will? During that battle, Jones stabbed him with the sword he had made for Norrington. And when Jack helped him stab Jones' heart before he could die, Will became the new captain of the Flying Dutchman, ferrying souls lost at sea to "the other side" . . . and apart from Elizabeth for every ten years. Barbossa seemed to have had it made in the end. He managed to get back the Black Pearl from Jack. Unfortunately, he found himself facing a possible mutiny due to Jack's theft of Sao Feng's chart that could lead them all to a new treasure. Later, he lost both the Black Pearl and his leg to the even more notorious pirate, Blackbeard in the 2011 film, "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES", and went through a great deal of trouble to get revenge and a new ship. And yet . . . fate caught up with Barbossa again when he and Jack faced Captain Armando Salazar. And what about dear old Jack? Well . . . he found himself left behind at Tortuga, after Barbossa took the Black Pearl from him again. It took him quite a while to get the Black Pearl back, but not without being hunted by British justice and shanghaied by Blackbeard, who needed Jack to find the Fountain of Youth. It took Jack even longer to return the Black Pearl to its original size.
Mind you some of the characters like Norrington and Will suffered a more severe consequence than the other characters. But not one of them had the glowingly "happily ever after" that was seen in the conclusion of "AT WORLD'S END". Will and Elizabeth's "happily ever after" in the 2007 movie's post-credits was only temporary. The couple had to wait at least two decades before they were finally reunited permanently in near the end of "PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES". A part of me found myself wondering they had encountered any problems in their reunion. After all, Will and Elizabeth had to adjust being together as husband and wife. And Will had to learn to be a father . . . something of which Elizabeth had at least twenty years of experience.