Jack Sparrow

Captain Jack Sparrow is a fictional pirate portrayed by Johnny Depp in Disney’s *Pirates of the Caribbean* films. He first appears in *The Curse of the Black Pearl* (2003), arriving at Port Royal in a sinking boat while trying to reclaim his ship, the Black Pearl. His former first mate, Hector Barbossa, had led a mutiny, taken the Pearl, and left Jack marooned with a pistol containing a single shot.

Barbossa and his crew have since stolen Aztec gold that curses them to live as undead men. To lift the curse, they need to return every coin and repay a blood debt. Jack pursues the Pearl alongside Will Turner, whose blood is needed because his father was part of Barbossa’s crew. In the final confrontation, Will helps lift the curse, and Jack uses his long-saved shot to kill Barbossa. Jack is arrested afterward, but Will helps him escape.

In *Dead Man’s Chest* (2006), Jack faces another debt: he once bargained with Davy Jones to raise the Pearl from the depths. Jones now wants Jack’s soul. Jack searches for the chest holding Jones’s heart, believing it offers a way out. He also carries a compass that points toward what its holder wants most, rather than north. The film ends when a kraken drags Jack and the Pearl into Davy Jones’s Locker.

His crew rescues him in *At World’s End* (2007). Later, Jack casts the deciding vote to make Elizabeth Swann Pirate King at a meeting of the Brethren Court. During the battle with Jones, Jack gives up his chance to stab Jones’s heart himself. Instead, he guides the mortally wounded Will’s hand to the heart, making Will the new captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Jack returns in *On Stranger Tides* (2011), pursuing the Fountain of Youth while caught between Blackbeard and Blackbeard’s daughter, Angelica. The Fountain’s ritual transfers years of life from one drinker to another. Jack switches the prepared chalices so Angelica survives at Blackbeard’s expense.

In *Dead Men Tell No Tales* (2017), Jack is pursued by the ghostly Captain Salazar, an enemy from Jack’s youth. Jack joins Henry Turner and Carina Smyth in a search for the Trident of Poseidon, whose destruction breaks curses at sea. Barbossa sacrifices himself during their escape, and Jack ultimately sails away aboard the Black Pearl. Across the films, Jack repeatedly loses and regains that ship; his schemes and alliances often serve that particular ambition.