National Film Vault

FILM NOTES

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl arrived in the summer of 2003 from Walt Disney Pictures and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, adapting a theme park attraction into a full-scale adventure film. It became a defining blockbuster of its decade, launching a franchise and earning Johnny Depp an Academy Award nomination for his lead performance.

This cell, titled Captain Jack Sparrow, captures Johnny Depp's iconic character mid-action against a dark, atmospheric backdrop with fire or flame visible in the lower portion of the frame. Photographed across three near-identical frames from the same action beat, the sequence preserves a single dramatic moment, with one frame partially obscured by a film reel during capture, adding a layer of archival character to the presentation.