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Immortality

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The struggle for eternal life was symbolized on a map by a tug of war between a skeleton and an angel, aligned with the symbol of the Fountain of Youth: the Chalices of Cartagena.

The struggle for eternal life was symbolized on a map by a tug of war between a skeleton and an angel, aligned with the symbol of the Fountain of Youth: the Chalices of Cartagena.

"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[src]

Immortality, otherwise known as eternal life or eternal youth, was the concept of permanent resistance to death or the ability to live forever without ever dying. It may also refer to a state of living in physical or spiritual form for an infinite length of time, halting age altogether, which allowed for exemption from disease, injury, and natural aging.

In religious contexts, immortality traditionally referred to continued life after death, usually to either the belief in physical immortality or a more spiritual afterlife. Eternal life was often stated to be among the promises of God (or other deities like Heathen Gods) to human beings who perform virtue, goodness, or follow divine law. Moreover, only God was regarded as truly immortal, hence it was only through God's resources for resurrection and salvation that human beings may transcend death and live eternally.

History[]

Literal[]

"No, mate. I'm free forever. Free to sail the seas beyond the edges of the map. Free from death itself."
"You have to do the job though, Jack. You have to ferry souls to the next world. Or end up just like Jones."
"I don't have the face for tentacles. But immortal has to count for something, eh?"
―Jack Sparrow and Will Turner[src]

During the time of Ancient Greece, the boy Melikertes had to escape the wrath of Hera, the queen of the gods. He and his mother jumped off a cliff into the sea for protection, becoming powerful as gods themselves. Through his newfound powers, Malikertes learned how to drain people of their souls so he could keep himself young for all eternity. Over the next centuries, he became known as Palaimon.[1]

The history of the ancestral navigational charts known as the Mao Kun Map, a map that led to spiritual realms and legends of the land beyond death,[2] dated back to a time called the Dark Dynasty when the Emperor of an Asian land sent out four navigators to explore the world outside his kingdom and create a comprehensive map. The navigators left and returned 100 years later having not aged a month.[3] The Fountain of Youth was a legendary spring that restored the youth or grant immortality to anyone who drank from its waters, thereby being one way to live forever,[4] though at a cost of another's death through the Profane Ritual.[5] While the arcs of the Mao Kun Map showed the pathway to the Fountain, the struggle for eternal youth was depicted on the map, symbolized by a tug of war between a skeleton and an angel, aligned with the symbol of the Fountain—the Chalices.[6] This map was presented to the esteemed and great navigator Wu Ling for his journeys to the mysterious gates of the afterlife,[2] and eventually fell into the hands of Sao Feng, Hector Barbossa, and Jack Sparrow, among others.[4][5]

Davy Jones was the immortal captain of the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Davy Jones was the immortal captain of the ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.

Once a great sailor and a mortal pirate,[7] Davy Jones became the supernatural ruler of the ocean depths and the cursed captain of the Flying Dutchman, near immortal after carving out his still-beating heart, the source of his immortality,[8] and also condemned sailors both dead and dying to join the immortal captain's crew as cursed immortal beings.[9][4] Henry Morgan, once the fiercest pirate in the Caribbean during the mid-1600s and Pirate Lord of the Second Brethren Court, studied alchemy and devised a way to live forever as the Shadow Lord through the use of the Shadow Gold, thereby being alive by the 1710s,[10] years after his supposed death.[11] By the quest for the Shadow Gold, the Pirate Lord Ammand the Corsair heard tales from the Arabian Nights by his grandmother, and when he laughed about the Shadow Lord's Shadow Army, Ammand asked the Spanish princess Carolina if there was a genie in a lamp, a talking nightingale, or herbs of immortality.[12] The treasure of Cortés rendered those who stole from it as cursed immortal skeletons until all the Aztec gold coins were returned and a blood debt repaid, most notably Hector Barbossa's crew of the Black Pearl.[13][14] During the Fourth Brethren Court, as the newly instated Captain Elizabeth Swann proposed to make Lord Cutler Beckett the main target of the Pirate Lords' forthcoming battle with the East India Trading Company,[4] the French Pirate Lord Capitaine Chevalle disagreed because Beckett was a cog that could be replaced, and he believed that the Company was immortal like Davy Jones.[15]

Captain Jack Sparrow first became interested in immortality during his early adulthood when he learned about the pirate captain named James, who, according to the Spanish Pirate Lord Don Rafael, did not look a day older since the last time they saw each other many years ago.[16] At the end of the quest for the Shadow Gold, when he realized his opponent, the Shadow Lord, really was immortal, he had to admit it would be tempting to live forever, unafraid of death.[17] At the end of that adventure, when Diego de Leon revealed one of his ancestors searched for the Fountain of Youth, Jack seemed to be interested in finding it.[18] However, it wouldn't be until years later that Jack Sparrow himself would undertake a voyage to the Fountain, also sought by The Spaniard for the Spanish King Ferdinand of Spain, Hector Barbossa for King George II of Great Britain, as well as the infamous Edward "Blackbeard" Teach and his daughter Angelica, though The Spaniard believed only God could grant eternal life.[5]

Metaphorical[]

"And who's to say I won't live forever, eh? Discoverer of the Fountain of Youth."
―Jack Sparrow[src]

In another sense, immortality can also mean being unable to be forgotten by history. For example, although the Spanish conquistador and explorer Juan Ponce de León notably died searching for the fabled Fountain of Youth, the notorious and infamous pirate Captain Jack Sparrow actually discovered the Fountain himself. Sparrow himself claimed that he would be remembered throughout time and thus, in a way, never die.[5]

See also[]

Behind the scenes[]

"I’ve been dead, and I dont want to go back. To live forever, and see everything there is to see - - maybe twice - - who wouldn’t want that?"
―Jack Sparrow to Will Turner[src] (original screenplay)

Immortality first appeared through Captain Hector Barbossa and his crew under the Aztec curse in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for the 2003 filmPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.[13][14] While the term "immortal" was first used in Trimble's junior novelization,[13] "immortality" was first identified in the movie storybook for the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[8]

In Dead Man's Chest, when Jack Sparrow tells Elizabeth Swann about the Dead Man's Chest, Pintel reveals the chest contains the still-beating heart of Davy Jones.[9] Instead, in the movie storybook, an unnamed sailor says "What contains the still beating heart of Davy Jones, the source of his immortality."[8]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, during the fourth meeting of the Brethren Court, after Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann proposed to fight and make Lord Cutler Beckett of the East India Trading Company the target of this fight, Capitaine Chevalle disagreed as Beckett was a cog that could be killed, but another would take his place. "Like Jones, the East India Trading Company is immortal. It has no body to kick nor soul to damn."[19] Although this line of dialogue did not appear in the final cut of the film,[4] it was retained in the junior novelization.[15]

Immortality was meant to appear in the graphic novel Pirates of the Caribbean: Six Sea Shanties, which was scheduled to be released in 2011.[1] But, since that book was cancelled, it is unknown if its appearance in the book is canon or not.

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

External links[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Six Sea Shanties: Strangers Bearing Gifts
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: "Map of the Land of the Dead"
  3. ↑ DisneyPirates.com - Archived
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  6. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide, pp. 26-27: "Mao Kun Map"
  7. ↑ The Secret Files of the East India Trading Company
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest: The Movie Storybook
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  10. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow, Chapter Fifteen
  11. ↑ The Legends of the Brethren Court series takes place thirteen years before the Fourth Brethren Court in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which takes place in 1729 as per the timeline established in Dead Men Tell No Tales. In real-world history, Henry Morgan died in 1688, though it is uncertain that is the case in-universe.
  12. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow, Chapter Nine
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 156
  16. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Two: Lady Esmeralda
  17. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow, Chapter Seventeen
  18. ↑ Legends of the Brethren Court: Day of the Shadow, Epilogue
  19. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
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