- "And what of you? The mighty Blackbeard. Beheaded, they say. Still, your body swam three times around your ship, then climbed back onboard."
- ―Jack Sparrow to Blackbeard
Decapitation, also known as beheading, was a mode of executing capital punishment by which the head was severed from the body.
History[]
- "I believe I was making a point. If you could just be patient."
"No! My head's about to be lopped off, hence the urgency!" - ―Carina Smyth and Jack Sparrow
Beheadings were a common form of torture among the pirates led by Mistress Ching, the Pirate Lord of the Pacific Ocean.[1][2] It was believed that the infamous pirate Blackbeard was killed in battle with the British Royal Navy in 1718. According to legends, Blackbeard was beheaded, and his headless body swam three times around his ship before climbing back onboard. However, that particular story was just a myth, because Blackbeard was still alive many years later.[3] During the Battle of Calypso's maelstrom Hector Barbossa fought and beheaded Morey.[4] At some point during the golden age of piracy, the French invented the guillotine, a machine for swift decapitation. By 1751, beheading became one of the common forms of capital punishment in the British colony of Saint Martin.[5]
Behind the scenes[]
- "You think a display of power is in order? A beheading?"
- ―Queen Inez to Marquis Ramon
- The severed heads in the guillotine basket in Dead Men Tell No Tales were props modeled after the heads of the film's directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg.
- In Jeff Nathanson's 2013 early draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script, during the escape from Port Royal Jack Sparrow took one of the severed heads and fired it from a cannon, destroying the nearby gallows and saving Carina Smyth's life.[6]
- In Terry Rossio's 2012 draft of the Dead Men Tell No Tales script, when Admiral John Benbow offers the assembled pirates a pardon for their past crimes, the pirate McCallister asks if such crimes include fraudulent identification of a person with the intent they should die in one's stead by beheading.[7]
Appearances[]
- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (First appearance)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (Mentioned only)
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization (Mentioned only)
External links[]
Notes and references[]
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End "Inside the Brethren Court" featurette
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: Pirate Lords Map
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
- ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013
- ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES Screenplay by Terry Rossio