| This article is about the soundtrack cue. You may be looking for the pirate song or the term. |
"Hoist the Colours" is a musical theme composed and conducted by Hans Zimmer for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. It appears as track one on both the film's original and complete soundtrack, at 1:31 in length.
Track description[]
The track begins with snare drums and a lonely chime, followed by a boy singing a pirate shanty. A rabble of pirates continue the song, and the track ends with snare drums and a chain rattle.
In the film[]
The song is sung in the film's opening scene by prisoners condemned to death by Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company, with a refrain sung shortly afterwards by Elizabeth Swann in Singapore. The cue returns in various forms—usually as an orchestral underscore—throughout the film, most notably as the Pirate Lords assemble and literally "hoist the colours".
Behind the scenes[]
- There is some controversy over the name of the term, in which "colours" and "colors" were used. In the At World's End soundtrack, "colours" is used, while the song and the term itself has "colors".