Plot
In 1720, while sailing to Port Royal, Jamaica, aboard HMS Dauntless, Governor Weatherby Swann's crew encounters a shipwreck and recovers a boy, Will Turner. Swann's daughter, Elizabeth, discovers a golden pirate medallion around Will's neck, and takes it. Eight years later, Captain James Norrington is promoted to commodore and proposes to Elizabeth. Her corset makes her faint and fall into the sea, causing the medallion to emit a pulse. Captain Jack Sparrow, having just arrived in Port Royal to commandeer a ship, rescues Elizabeth. Norrington identifies Jack as a pirate, and a chase ensues. Jack encounters Will, now a blacksmith. They duel, and Jack is imprisoned.
That night, the crew of the Black Pearl attacks Port Royal, searching for the medallion. The pirates capture Elizabeth, taking her to meet Captain Barbossa. Elizabeth claims her last name is Turner, to conceal her identity as the governor's daughter. Barbossa explains that the medallion is the last of 882 gold pieces his crew took from a lost treasure of Hernán Cortés on Isla de Muerta. Cortés had accepted the treasure as payment to prevent the Fall of Tenochtitlan, but did not fulfill his part of the bargain. The Aztec gods cursed the treasure; Barbossa and any members of his crew who took the coins were cursed and became undead who can only feel endless hunger and pain whose true, skeletal forms are revealed in moonlight. To lift the curse, they must return the treasure, each coin stained with either its taker's blood or the blood of the taker's direct relative. Assuming Elizabeth is the daughter of Bill Turner (whom Barbossa tried to drown after discovering he sent the medallion to his child),[a] Barbossa decides to use her blood on the medallion.
To save Elizabeth, whom he loves, Will frees Jack, who was the previous captain of the Black Pearl before Barbossa staged a mutiny. The two commandeer HMS Interceptor, a small sloop-of-war, and head for Tortuga. There, Jack enlists his friend Joshamee Gibbs to help them assemble a crew. Chasing the Pearl to the Isla de Muerta, Will and Jack witness Barbossa cut Elizabeth's hand, stain the coin, and return it to the chest. As she is not Bill Turner's relative, the curse does not lift. Will rescues Elizabeth and brings her to the Interceptor, while Jack is captured by Barbossa and locked in the brig of the Pearl. The Pearl pursues the Interceptor, destroying it and taking Jack's crew hostage. Realizing that it is him Barbossa wants, Will makes a deal with Barbossa to release Elizabeth in exchange for his blood. Barbossa agrees, but maroons Jack and Elizabeth on an island. Elizabeth makes a smoke signal, and Norrington brings the Dauntless to rescue Elizabeth and arrest Jack. Elizabeth promises to marry Norrington if he will pursue the Pearl and save Will.freeing Will and dueling Barbossa, while Elizabeth and Will fight off Barbossa's crewmen. When Barbossa stabs Jack, it is revealed that Jack took a piece of gold from the chest and is likewise cursed and unable to die. Jack shoots Barbossa, and Will returns both coins to the chest with his and Jack's blood on them. The curse is lifted; Barbossa dies from Jack's gunshot, and the rest of Barbossa's crew, no longer immortal, are arrested.
At Port Royal, Jack is to be hanged for piracy. Elizabeth diverts Norrington's attention while Will attempts a rescue, but Jack and Will are surrounded. Elizabeth intercedes and declares her love for Will. Governor Swann pardons Will and gives his blessing for Elizabeth to marry him. Jack dives into the sea and escapes aboard the nearby Pearl, reclaiming the ship and his new crew. Norrington permits Jack and the Pearl "one day's head start" before initiating pursuit.
That night, the Dauntless arrives at Isla de Muerta. Jack tells Norrington he will lure the pirates out to be ambushed by the crew of the Dauntless, but instead persuades Barbossa's crew to attack the Dauntless before they lift the curse and lose their immortality. Elizabeth escapes the Dauntless and frees Jack's crew from the brig of the Pearl. They refuse to rescue Jack and Will, so Elizabeth sets out on her own. Jack again switches
