Pirates of the Caribbean Facts

On Stranger Tides (Cont.)

~ When making C.o.t.B.P., the scriptwriters revealed that they placed the story in a thirty-year environment set loosely between 1720 and 1750. They also said that they did not intend the films to be entirely historically accurate. However, it was revealed that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides takes place in 1750.

~ This was the first film to be released in the 4DX format in Mexico and in the Western Hemisphere, which is only available at select Cinépolis theaters. 4DX features strobe lights, tilting seats, blowing wind and fog and odor effects. (Odor effects... fishy mermaids, humans who had not washed in who knows how long...)

~ As Jack enters the Santiago, the camera flashes to a skeletal Ponce de Leon laying on a bed, surrounded by treasure. This is a reference to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disneyland where guests see a skeletal pirate captain laying in bed, surrounded by treasure.

~ The name of 'Syrena' means mermaid in Spanish. The origin of 'Syrena' is Greek, from Homer's epic Odyssey. The songs of 'syrenas' used to lure sailors to their island where they were killed.

~ As of May 20, 2011, this installment has the shortest run-time of the "Pirates" series, which is 136 minutes.

~ The only "Pirates of the Caribbean" film to not receive any Oscar nominations. (How sad, although I enjoyed this film, the characters and plot seem a little bit "iffy".)

~ Blackbeard says that his quartermaster sees things before they happen. This is an oblique reference to the character of Fedallah in the novel Moby Dick, the source of various prophecies about the death of his captain.

~ The snake in the jungle scene is a king snake, and references the rhyme about coral snakes. Red on yellow kill a fellow, red on black friend of Jack. (Unless a certain Jack doesn't like snakes.)

~ Oren Aviv said Disney had chosen to scale this movie down from the former in the series; "It's important to get the story right and it's important to me to scale it down, because we can't get bigger. The movies have subsequently gotten bigger and bigger and very complicated and they were satisfying on so many levels obviously, but I want to kind of reboot the whole thing and bring it down to its core, its essence, just characters." He agreed that there is a lot of Captain Jack Sparrow's back story that we haven't seen yet without confirming or denying that we might see some of that in the fourth movie. (Still, I could rant about this part of the series for hours on end. I think that it is about time the directors have thought about a prequel, who's in with me?)

~ This is the only "Pirates" film to not be directed by Gore Verbinski. (I am not going to complain anymore.)