Isla de Muerta

"Have you not heard the stories? Captain Barbossa and his crew of miscreants sail from the dreaded Isla de Muerta. It's an island that cannot be found except by those who already know where it is."

- Jack Sparrow to Will Turner

Isla de Muerta was a mysterious island of the dead. While this phantom isle was located within the Caribbean, the island itself could not be found, except for those who knew where it was. According to legends and lore, Isla de Muerta was the location of the cursed Treasure of Cortés, a prize among all treasures that even Jack Sparrow was interested in finding. Hector Barbossa and his crew of the Black Pearl would find the island and, after being cursed by the treasure, hoarded their loot within the island's caverns. Sometime after the crew's curse was lifted, Isla de Muerta would be swallowed into the sea.

Legend
"I hardly believe in ghost stories anymore, Captain Barbossa." "Aye. That's exactly what I thought when we were first told the tale. Buried on an island of dead what cannot be found, except for those who know where it is."

- Elizabeth Swann and Hector Barbossa

According to pirate lore, Isla de Muerta was an island of death that was marked on no map, and could only be found by those who already knew where it was. The island itself was surrounded by a thick fog and a graveyard of wrecked ships, an area that was shark-infested. Isla de Muerta remained largely unexplored, save for the caverns most notably used by Captain Hector Barbossa and his crew to store their plundered loot.

Treasure of Cortés
"Within a day of leaving port for Spain, the treasure ship carrying the gold...something went wrong. The ship run aground, every man aboard dead, save one. He survived long enough to hide the gold ashore. Over time, the dark magic of the curse seeped into the place, making it a cursed island. An island of death. Isla de Muerta."

- Hector Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann

The Isla de Muerta was most associated with the legend of the cursed treasure of Cortés. The Aztec Empire delivered a stone chest with 882 pieces of Aztec gold to Cortés in an attempt to stop the slaughter of their people, but in his greed, Cortés refused to halt his conquest. In response, the heathen gods placed a curse upon the gold, so that any mortal who removed a single coin from the chest would be punished for eternity. Ultimately, the treasure of Cortés would end up in the caves of Isla de Muerta. According to legend, after a ship carrying the treasure ran aground on the island, killing all but one of its crew, the lone survivor hid the treasure ashore before dying himself. Ever since then, the dark magic of the treasure cursed the island itself over time.

Quest for the Aztec Gold
"See, three days into the venture, the first mate comes up to him and says everything's an equal share. That should mean the location of the treasure too. So, Jack gives up the bearings. That night, there was a mutiny."

- Joshamee Gibbs to Will Turner concerning Jack Sparrow

After recruiting a crew at Tortuga, Captain Jack Sparrow had the Black Pearl sail in the quest to find the treasure of the Isla de Muerta, with the use of his compass as a guide to the island. Three days out into the voyage, Jack's first mate, Hector Barbossa, coerced Jack into giving up the exact location of the island, saying that if the crew was going to have a share of the treasure, they should know where they're going. And so, Jack gave Barbossa the bearings to Isla de Muerta, making Barbossa somebody who could find the island because he already knew where it was. In response, Barbossa gathered the crew and led a mutiny against Jack, marooning him on a deserted island and left him for dead. Barbossa then led Jack's former crew as the new captain of the Pearl.

First journey to the island
"Find it, we did. There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all."

- Hector Barbossa to Elizabeth Swann



Using the bearings acquired from Jack, Barbossa and his crew were able to find Isla de Muerta. There, they found the stone chest and summarily stole all 882 pieces of the Aztec gold, an act which the crew would later regret. Captain Barbossa and his crew would then spent all 882 pieces of the Aztec gold on drink, food, and pleasurable company. Soon afterwards, the crew realized that they fell under the Aztec curse, in which they can't feel, die, and when they step into the moonlight, they become living, rotting skeletons. After figuring out that it was the Aztec gold pieces that placed the curse upon them, Barbossa's crew returned to Isla de Muerta to find a way to lift the curse and end their punishment. There, they found out that the curse could be reversed only when every last piece of the Aztec gold was returned to the chest.

It wasn't until Bootstrap Bill Turner was sent to the depths did the crew learned that all who stole from the chest had to pay the heathen gods in blood, which now seemed impossible with Bootstrap lost to them. But a chance of hope lied on Turner's child, who had both his coin and Turner blood in his veins. Thus, Barbossa's crew set about, attempting to reclaim all 882 pieces of the treasure, using Isla de Muerta as a base. The crew also used the treasure caverns as a place to store their plundered loot during their search for the Aztec gold pieces.

Second journey to the island
"How can we sail to an island that nobody can find with a compass that doesn't work?" "Aye, the compass doesn't point North, but we're not trying to find North, are we?"

- Will Turner and Joshamee Gibbs

Years later, following an attack on Port Royal, Barbossa's crew obtained the final Aztec gold medallion from Elizabeth Swann, whom they believed to be a descendant of Bootstrap Bill Turner. And so the Black Pearl set course for Isla de Muerta. Jack Sparrow soon followed aboard the Interceptor, with the assistance of blacksmith Will Turner, who wanted to save Elizabeth. With the use of his compass, Jack was able to find the island. By the time the Interceptor arrived to the island, the Black Pearl was already anchored offshore.

Barbossa's crew entered through the island, with a bounded Elizabeth, until they reached the large cavern that was crammed with treasure, including the cursed treasure of Cortés. Jack Sparrow and Will Turner entered the dark caves of Isla de Muerta via longboat, until they found Barbossa's crew beginning their business with Elizabeth at the treasure cavern. Jack and Will witnessed Barbossa's crew reminiscing of their search for the 882 pieces of the Aztec gold. As Barbossa performed the blood ritual to lift the curse, Will knocked Jack out with an oar, believing that he would betray him, and tried to find a way to sneak around Barbossa's men to save Elizabeth. Upon realizing that Elizabeth was not the child of Bootstrap Bill, Barbossa knocked her out as the crew began to argue amongst themselves on their unsuccessful attempt to lift the curse.

As Barbossa's crew continued to argue, to a point where Barbossa was blamed for their predicament, Will was able to sneak Elizabeth out of the caves. The crew realized shortly afterwards that Elizabeth escaped with the medallion. While searching for the oars to their longboats, which were taken by Will and Elizabeth in their escape, Barbossa's crew was reunited with their old captain of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow. Invoking the right of parley, Jack would be brought before Barbossa, shocked by Jack's survival, who ordered him killed. However, as Jack had knowledge on whose blood the crew needed, Barbossa had no choice but to bring his former captain along with his crew aboard the Black Pearl to find the medallion.

Return to the island
"With haste we returned to Isla de Muerta: our goal to rescue the ungrateful Will Turner from the villainous pirate Barbossa and his wretched crew."

- Jack Sparrow

After a battle with the HMS Interceptor, which ended with Barbossa's crew reclaimed the medallion and destroyed the Interceptor. At the time the Black Pearl returned to Isla de Muerta, Barbossa's crew had Will Turner, the true descendant of Bootstrap Bill Turner, as their prisoner. Entering the caves, Barbossa once again aimed to lift their curse, this time with the intention of killing Will and using his blood in the ritual.

Inside the treasure cavern, Barbossa and his crew prepared to perform the blood ritual once again. But before they could get Will's blood, Barbossa's crew were in shock upon seeing Captain Jack Sparrow himself entering the cavern. Though Barbossa initially wanted to resume in lifting the curse by killing Will, Jack warned Barbossa that the HMS Dauntless, captained by Commodore James Norrington, was offshore waiting for his crew. Upon this revelation, Barbossa listened to Jack's proposal and agreed to it. And so Barbossa sent his crewmen for attack, save for three of his men. But to Jack's dismay, having planned on Barbossa's men using the longboats to fight Norrington's men aboard the Dauntless, Barbossa ordered the crew to go walk underwater, and ambush the Dauntless from below.

Fight in the caves
"So what now, Jack Sparrow? Are we to be two immortals locked in an epic battle until judgment day and trumpets sound? Hmm?" "Or you could surrender."

- Hector Barbossa and Jack Sparrow



While the majority of the crew commenced their attack on the Dauntless, Barbossa, Will and Jack waited in the caves for the slaughter to end. Jack was examining the various treasure as Will was being held hostage by Jacoby, Monk, and Clubba. Barbossa and Jack briefly talked about Jack's honesty until Jack stole one of Monk's swords and tossed it to Will. With the tides turned, Will freed himself and fought Barbossa's men, while Jack pulled out his own sword and dueled with Barbossa.

Jack and Barbossa fought a fierce battle around the treasure cave until Jack stabbed Barbossa, who then pulled the sword out and stabbed Jack with it. However, once Jack stepped into the moonlight, he turned into a skeleton, revealing that he was cursed; having secretly stolen a piece of the Aztec gold. Though they were both immortal, Jack and Barbossa continued their fight through the caves.

Will skillfully defended himself from the cursed pirates, until he lost his sword and was about to be killed by Jacoby. But Elizabeth appeared, having rowed in from one of the longboats of the Dauntless, and saved Will by smacking Jacoby with a long golden rod she found within the treasure cave. Will and Elizabeth then teamed up to kill the pirates using one of Jacoby's grenades that were planted inside of him before he reverted to his human form.

Witnessing this, Jack then cut his hand, thereby putting his blood on his piece of the gold and threw it to Will. Barbossa pulled out his pistol and aimed it at Elizabeth, but was unable to kill her as he was immediately shot by Jack. Believing he was invincible, Barbossa gloated at Jack, saying that he wasted his shot. However, Will corrected him as he dropped the last two pieces of gold, with his blood on his piece, onto the chest, thereby lifting the Aztec curse. Barbossa, seeing that his chest was bleeding, looked at Jack and stated that he felt cold before falling to the cave floor, dead.

After the battle
Back on the Dauntless, Barbossa's crew reverted to normal and surrendered to Norrington's men, who survived the battle in victory. Jack once again examined the treasure in the cave the cave as Will and Elizabeth decided to return aboard the Dauntless. Jack shared a ride with Will and Elizabeth with the intention to go aboard the Black Pearl. However, as they exited the island, Jack realized that his crew had taken the Pearl. Though he was deceived, Jack was glad that his crew kept to the Pirate's Code.

Meanwhile, Barbossa's body would remain at Isla de Muerta for a certain time, until he would be taken to shack of Tia Dalma, where he would be resurrected. At some point during this time, Barbossa's pet monkey Jack would appear in the cave, where he would take a piece of the Aztec gold and became cursed once again.

Although the surviving members of Barbossa's crew were captured by the British Royal Navy, some would later escape and returned to Isla de Muerta, where they became cursed once more, vowing revenge against Jack Sparrow.

Disappearance
"What with the Isla de Muerta going all pear-shaped, to be reclaimed by the sea and the treasure with it."

- Joshamee Gibbs to Jack Sparrow

Some time later, the entire island was swallowed into the sea, taking all the treasure along with it, effectively vanishing from the face of the earth. At some point after becoming captain of the Black Pearl once again, Jack Sparrow's crew visited the island to see if they could get the treasure. But as the island was taken by the sea, there was no such luck. Only Barbossa's monkey Jack survived this ordeal and found itself aboard the Pearl.

Shipwreck Cay
"Dead men tell no tales." "Puts a chill in the bones how many honest sailors have been claimed by this passage."

- Cotton's parrot and Joshamee Gibbs

Off the coast of Isla de Muerta lies a graveyard of shipwrecks, in which many sailors have died upon sailing through this passage. Sharks have been known to inhabit this area, most likely to claim those poor souls who died in the Cay.

Behind the scenes

 * For filming The Curse of the Black Pearl, scenes on Isla de Muerta were filmed in the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California, in Stage #2 on the Disney lot. It was the same space that was redesigned in 1997 to accommodate an enormous asteroid set for another Jerry Bruckheimer film, Armageddon.
 * Production designer Brian Morris was given total freedom to create the perfect pirate hideout, where a lavishly adorned cavern would be built complete with winding waterways, a moat, little grottos and treacherous rocky terrain. It took 100 craftsmen five months to build the cave set, where it would be filled with 300,000 gallons of water, a process that took three to four days, and dressed over a period of three weeks.
 * The caves in Isla de Muerta were based on "Dead Man's Cove" from the original Disneyland ride. A scene with a waterfall was originally going to be in The Curse fo the Black Pearl (in which Jack Sparrow and Will Turner go down a flume into the caves), but was cut due to budget. The idea was later put into At World's End.
 * "Isla de Muerta" translates as "Island of Death", although "muerta" in Spanish is the 'female' equivalent to the word "dead", therefore meaning "dead" in the female form.
 * The location is specified as "an island of death" in the film's first screenplay draft, in which its history is expanded: a ship carrying Cortés' treasure ran aground on the island, all but one of its crew dead. The survivor hid the treasure ashore before dying. Over time, the dark magic of the treasure cursed the island itself.
 * The treasure cave is used as the background for the bonus features menu in the At World's End video game. It is also used as the setting for the boss battle with Barbossa in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * "Isla Muerta" is one of the islands known as "The Five Deaths" ('Las Cinco Muertes') in the Jurassic Park franchise.
 * La isla de la muerte is the name of the 1967 american SF/Horror movie.

Appearances

 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow
 * The Accidental Pirate!
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
 * Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (video game)
 * Kingdom Hearts II