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Knife

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Pirates 3-4
"Now are you going to bet the pretty blackamoor's life on whether I can't pull this trigger, and if it doesn't fire, grab this knife out of my sleeve and slit her throat from ear to ear before you can get all the way across this room? I wouldn't chance it, Jacques."
―Christophe-Julien de Rapièr to Jack Sparrow[src]

A knife (or knives) was a tool or weapon with a cutting edge or blade, usually attached to a handle or hilt. One of the earliest tools used by humanity, blade patterns and styles vary by maker and country of origin. Originally made of wood, bone, and stone (such as flint and obsidian), over the centuries, in step with improvements in both metallurgy and manufacturing, knife blades have been made from copper, bronze, iron, steel, and ceramic. Knives can serve various purposes, such as hunting, preparing foods, weapons like daggers, or for religious ceremony or display.

History

Crabs, knives, coins
"My knife, my box, my stash of coins... it's all gone."
―Jack Sparrow to Arabella Smith[src]

The Santa Catalina crewman Turi claimed that the notoriously cruel pirate Sharkheart Sam once cut off a sailor's ear and forced him to eat it with a knife and fork and a dash of pepper.[1]

Armando Salazar once owned a knife, which he used as a child to kill his own father.[2][3] Many years later, when Salazar almost brought piracy in the Caribbean to the brink of extinction as a pirate hunter and capitán of the Spanish Navy vessel, the Silent Mary, the young pirate boy Jack the Sparrow mocked Salazar's power by rising the black pirate flag aboard his ship, the Wicked Wench. Salazar decided to run his knife along Sparrow's neck and finally end the pirate's life, only for the young pirate to outwit the Spaniard, sending the Spanish ship and crew to be trapped in the Devil's Triangle.[4] Jack himself owned a sailor's knife which he occasionally used during his service in the East India Trading Company.[5]

Edward "Blackbeard" Teach was a grotesque spectacle in battle, with his chest literally covered with pistols and knives. He braided his beard in pigtails, tying the ends with colorful ribbons. At the moment of boarding a prize, this lumbering arsenal would stick slow-burning matches in his beard and clamber over the side shouting curses and brandishing his cutlass. The sight of the ugly monster was enough to make the bravest man cower.[6]

Hector's knife

When Captain Hector Barbossa's cursed crew kidnapped Elizabeth Swann and brought her to Isla de Muerta to return the last coin that she wore around her neck, they also aim to cut her with a flint knife,[7][8] due to the pirates thinking that Elizabeth was the child of William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner and that her blood would lift the Aztec curse. In reality, it was the young blacksmith Will Turner's blood they needed, and although Barbossa attempted to use the knife to kill Will by slicing his throat, the blacksmith used the knife on himself by cutting his hand to lift the pirates' curse prior to Barbossa's own death by Jack Sparrow.[9][10]

Lord Cutler Beckett's henchman Ian Mercer used a knife to murder Captain Hawkins before he could sail away from Port Royal and deliver Governor Weatherby Swann's letter to King George II.[11][12]

The cursed Bootstrap Bill Turner gave Will Turner a black knife, a gift from father to son, while the latter escaped Davy Jones' ghost ship, the Flying Dutchman.[13] Will would hold this knife throughout his attempt to free his father from Jones' servitude. After Jones' heart was stabbed by Will, Bootstrap Bill used the knife to cut his son's heart out to place it in the Dead Man's Chest.[14]

Singapore's harbor was a dark and shadowy place, full of secrets, unkempt pirates, and flashing knives.[15] When Hector Barbossa and Elizabeth Swann encountered Tai Huang on the streets of Singapore, Huang asked Barbossa if he was the one protecting Elizabeth, to which she responded by putting a knife to Huang's throat and asking him what made him think she needed protection.[14] During the battle of Singapore the EITC spy Steng slashed at the pirate Pintel with his knife.[16]

Scrummodestventure

As the quest for the Fountain of Youth began, Jack Sparrow first met Scrum by coming up from behind and held a knife, with the tip of the blade pressed against Scrum's throat, while inquiring about a crew being recruited at the Captain's Daughter tavern in London, England. Days later, following Jack Sparrow's mutiny aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, the zombie quartermaster pinned Sparrow in Blackbeard's cabin by stabbing one knife to his shirt against the bulkhead, before Sparrow freed himself and stabbed the knife on the table in front of Blackbeard, who then used the knife against Sparrow using a voodoo doll to carve a pitchfork scar on his chest. At the Jungle Pools, seeing that the young missionary Philip Swift and the mermaid Syrena had feelings for each other, Blackbeard held a knife against the missionary and threatened to kill Philip if Syrena didn't cry a mermaid's tear.[17] About a year later, when Jack Sparrow and his crew tricked Carina Smyth into thinking they were keelhauling Henry Turner aboard the Dying Gull, Joshamee Gibbs said Turner would be lucky if he drowned before the barnacles slice him to bits, after which Sparrow stated the barnacles were "Like a thousand knives across your back".[4][18]

Behind the scenes

"You do have a way of landing on your feet."
"We flee... and we will be hunted down. Fight... and I will put a knife in Beckett myself, if I get the chance!"
―Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann[src] (original screenplay)

Knives were originally used in concept artwork for Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction, which opened in 1967, with the artwork and identification by name in the souvenir book.[6] Although the first in-universe appearance of knives was in Irene Trimble's junior novelization for the 2003 film Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,[9][10] they were first identified by name in the 2006-2007 reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide and Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide by Richard Platt and Glenn Dakin,[7][8] as well as in the book Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm by Rob Kidd.[19]

In a deleted scene in The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow falls under the Aztec curse cuts his hand with a knife after the battle at Isla de Muerta to lift the curse again from himself.[20] The scene was retained in Trimble's junior novelization.[21]

During the battle between the Black Pearl and the Flying Dutchman in the 2007 film Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Davy Jones killed Mercer with his beard of octopus tentacles.[14] For unknown reasons, the 2010 version of the official Pirates website, a detailed description of At World's End incorrectly states that Jones killed Mercer with a knife to the back.[22] It is very likely the information was taken from Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's original screenplay draft of At World's End where Jones stabbed Mercer while he was down,[23] an idea which was eventually discarded by a late production draft.[24] Storyboard art by James Ward Byrkit also featured Davy Jones having a knife or dagger during the swordfight with Jack Sparrow before Sparrow sliced at Jones' tentacles,[25] though the idea not featured in either screenplays nor the final cut of the film.[14]

Sao Feng was shown to own a knife in two books, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: The Movie Storybook[26] and the junior novelization,[27] where he used it to threaten and fight Will Turner. However, he used a fid and his sword in the film.[14]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's screenplay for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, Jack Sparrow does not stab the Quartermaster's knife onto Blackbeard's table. As they talk about Angelica, Blackbeard takes the knife from Jack and saws off one of Sparrow's dreadlocks in his construction of a voodoo doll. Later, when Philip Swift tried to stop Blackbeard from torturing Syrena, the pirate captain puts a knife at Philip's throat.[28]

In the 2017 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, during the battle between the Black Pearl and the Silent Mary, Henry Turner uses a sword to cut Jack Sparrow's bonds.[4] In the comic book adaptation, Turner uses a knife.[29]

In Jeff Nathanson's early 2013 screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales, the main villain was the ghost of Captain John Brand, an insane British Royal Navy officer who suffered a defeat at the hands of Jack Sparrow and committed suicide by cutting his throat with his own knife. Many years later, in Port Royal, the witch Melia used a knife to cut Sparrow's finger to collect his blood, the price of her services. During the battle of Poseidon's Tomb Melia was stabbed in the back with a knife by Henry Maddox. She attempted to kill him with her dagger but failed.[30]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Climb Aboard If You Dare!: Stories From The Pirates of the Caribbean, p. 12
  2. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Novelization, p. 155
  3. ↑ Pirates des Caraïbes : La Vengeance de Salazar, p. 112
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  5. ↑ The Price of Freedom, Chapter Fifteen: Kerma
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: The Story of the Robust Adventure in Disneyland and Walt Disney World, p. 13
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, pp. 40-41: "Isla de Muerta"
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization), p. 114
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
  11. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  12. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (junior novelization), pp. 34-35
  13. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
  15. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 15
  16. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 40
  17. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  18. ↑ The Brightest Star in the North: The Adventures of Carina Smyth, p. 174
  19. ↑ Jack Sparrow: The Coming Storm
  20. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl: Deleted Scene "The Immortal Captain Jack"
  21. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003 junior novelization), p. 115
  22. ↑ DisneyPirates.com - Archived
  23. ↑ PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio, original draft
  24. ↑ Wordplayer.com: WORDPLAY/Archives/Screenplay - PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  25. ↑ The Art of Pirates of the Caribbean
  26. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End: The Movie Storybook, p. 12
  27. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (junior novelization), p. 41
  28. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: ON STRANGER TIDES by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  29. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel
  30. ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013