Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

Contents

Originally, Jack Sparrow’s mysterious backstory was shown in Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and it was the perfect origin for Johnny Depp’s character.

You Are Reading :[thien_display_title]

Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

A missing scene from the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, At World’s End, outlines Jack Sparrow’s original backstory, and the cut subplot is a perfect origin for the franchise’s beloved antihero. Not a lot is known about Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow, despite the character anchoring an entire billion-dollar franchise. Much of the Pirates of the Caribbean antihero’s appeal comes from the fact that he is an enigma, a campy, mischievous figure whose true intentions and allegiances remain a mystery throughout the series.

The Curse of the Black Pearl featured Depp’s Sparrow as a scene-stealing supporting star, but fans and critics soon demanded that the character’s role be expanded in the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels. Dead Man’s Chest put Sparrow front and center and the original trilogy’s closer At World’s End focused even more screen time on Depp, despite the complex, convoluted plots of both franchise outings. This makes it all the more surprising and unfortunate that At World’s End cut Sparrow’s backstory for time, despite the scene being a perfectly fitting origin for Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean antihero.

One brief scene from At World’s End links Jack to the original trilogy villain Cutler Beckett, explains his debt to Davy Jones, and gives viewers insight into Jack’s human side, but the sequence was cut for time in the finished film. The third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, At World’s End, featured many plot holes, a lot of which were explained in its many missing scenes. One of these scenes saw an imprisoned Jack face off against East India Trading Company head/series villain Cutler Beckett, and its inclusion would have given Jack a truly heroic side underneath all of his amoral double-dealings.

The Scene Deleted From At World’s End

Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

The brief sequence sees Jack brought to Beckett, who reminds the pirate that he was once employed by the East India Trading Company. It transpires that years before the action of the Pirates of the Caribbean series began, Jack was a captain for one of the corporation’s ships. However, he quit in spectacular fashion when his employer expected him to ferry slaves, proving that Jack Sparrow had a heart despite his many shady decisions thorough the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Jack freed 100 people, enraging Becket, and in the deleted scene he defiantly stands by his decision, telling the villain “people aren’t cargo, mate.”

See also  Avatar The Last Airbender – The Best Thing Every Villain Did Ranked

Why Jack’s Missing Backstory Matters

Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

Despite him becoming the center of the franchise more and more with each passing movie, Jack’s origins are never explored in the Pirates of the Caribbean series. Later movies feature some Easter eggs like the origin of his magic compass, but nothing that gives viewers such a clear view into Jack’s ethos and moral framework. Since Jack spends the rest of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise lying, deceiving, and outright stealing from friends and enemies alike, this scene’s confirmation that he does have a moral compass is an important clarification that is otherwise missing from the movies. It is a classic antihero moment for the conning, backstabbing Jack to draw the line at human trafficking and make a stand against his employer, as well as a scene that fleshes out Beckett’s villainy too.

In the finished version of At World’s End, Beckett is a far more passive villain, and the fact that actor Tom Hollander makes him appropriately slimy doesn’t make up for the character’s lack of any real threat. Beckett forces Davy Jones to kill his Kraken offscreen, but the Pirates of the Caribbean movies never show him being as ruthless as he is made out to be. Seeing the character defend the slave trade would have done the trick and given him a personal vendetta against Jack, meaning both characters would have been more compelling if the deleted scene was included in At World’s End. In terms of character, the scene could have rounded out Jack, who only became more cartoony as the series progressed, and salvaged At World’s End’s weakest villain. However, the sequence also filled in a pivotal plot hole in terms of its story.

See also  Sweet Valley High TV Show Adaptation In Development At The CW

Jack’s Debt To Davy Jones Explained

Jack Sparrow’s Missing POTC Origin Made Him Even Better (Why It Was Cut)

The deleted scene also sets up Jack’s debt to the Pirates of the Caribbean villain Davy Jones, which is never properly explained in the over-crowded story of the original trilogy’s sequels. Jack owes his life to Jones because Beckett, angry at his disobedient employee, sank Jack’s ship and tried to cost the pirate his life. Jack offered his soul to Jones in exchange for keeping his life but by the time the sequels took place, he had not yet paid his debt, which explains why the mythical monster hates him in Dead Man’s Chest and At World’s End. As a famously effective pirate, Jack could have been a helpful ally to Jones at numerous points throughout the action of the sequels. As such, explaining why Jones wouldn’t ally himself with Jack in detail would have helped At World’s End to make sense of its contrived narrative.

Why The Vital Scene Was Cut From POTC 3

The missing scene might be central to Jack’s character and the plot, but flashier scenes like Captain Teague’s At World’s End cameo felt more magical and more like fan-bait. As such, that sequence and other more attention-grabbing scenes received priority over the pivotal Beckett/Sparrow confrontation. While the reality of making At World’s End may have been more complicated than that, the reason that the scene was cut does effectively amount to the confrontation taking up too much screen time and not contributing enough to action to At World’s End’s chaotic story. Many reviewers felt that the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie compressed too much incident into too short a runtime, feeling overstuffed and hard to follow as a result. The missing confrontation that outlines Jack’s history with Beckett and Jones is a prime example of what this overly complex plotting cost the sequel since the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise could have grounded the character of its antihero and made its villains more effective had the series simply slowed down and decreased its drama. Instead, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise got bigger, louder, and even less popular with fans and critics alike.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/pirates-caribbean-jack-sparrow-missing-perfect-cut-deleted-original-backstory/

Movies -