So last week, I’m wandering around the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, trying to scope out all of the cool Disney-related stuff that’s on display at the American International Toy Fair (Take — for example — these truly beautiful “Pirates of the Caribbean” sculptures that National Entertainment Collectibles Association will begin selling later this Spring) …
Copyright 2007 NECA
… When he-who-can-not-be-named (Out of concern that Disney’s lawyers will then find him & smite him) lurches up to me and says “Oh my God! It’s huge!”
To which I reply: “Yes, I know. That’s why Dr. Siroty is putting me a diet next week. No more cheesecake. No more pizza. It’s all very depressing … “
He-who-can-not-be-named interrupts, saying “No. Not you, dumb-ass. ‘Pirates 3’ ! Disney’s pulled out the stops on this one. They’ve gone completely over-the-top with ‘At World’s End.’ People are going to freak when they see this film. There’s epic sea battles, killer special effects … “
Now it’s my turn to interrupt: “What about the story? Do they bring the trilogy to a satisfying conclusion?”
He-who-can-not-be-named then smiles and says “It’s a really great story. Do you want to hear it?” And right there in the middle of Aisle 3700 on the lower level of the Javits center, my pal spills what he knows about “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End.”
And he’s right. It really is a fitting conclusion to Disney’s “Pirates” trilogy. And if you want to go to your local multiplex in little more than three months time and see “At World’s End” unspoiled … Now is the time to bail out of this particular JHM article. For I’m about to reveal the bulk of the plot for this new Gore Verbinksi film.
Copyright 2007 NECA
I’m not kidding, folks. If you continue reading this article, you won’t be surprised by much of what you see when “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” opens at a theater near you on May 25th.
Okay. You can’t say that I didn’t warn you:
In the third installment of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, Will, Elizabeth and Capt’n Jack Sparrow are once again thrown together for a showdown between the fiercely independent Pirate Lords from around the world and the all powerful East India Trading Company led by the mysterious & cunning Lord Cutler Beckett. With possession of Davey Jones’s chest, Beckett is now able to use Jones and his ship the Flying Dutchman to further his plans of ridding the open seas of all Pirates. In response to this growing threat, the Pirate Lords call for a secret meeting at Shipwreck Cove.
Newly returned from the other side, Capt’n Barbossa agrees to help Will and Elizabeth rescue Jack who is now trapped in a very strange afterworld known as Davey Jones’s Locker. This unlikely trio makes their way to the exotic Far East where they meet Captain Sao Feng, the Pirate Lord of Singapore, and retrieve a special map that will then show them the way to Davey Jones’s Locker.
Copyright 2007 NECA
Their course ultimately leads them to the edge of the world where their ship sails over a giant waterfall and comes crashing down through the darkness and literally into another dimension. There, Will, Elizabeth and Barbossa meet a somewhat bewildered Jack Sparrow still on board his beloved ship the Black Pearl, which is now stranded in the middle of a vast desert. Using reverse logic, Jack figures out a way to sail the Black Pearl back to the world of the living, where they are immediately set upon by Beckett and Davey Jones.
After a series of plot twists and turns, Jack, Barbossa, Will and Elizabeth ultimately end up at Shipwreck Cove for the meeting of the Pirate Lords. During this meeting, the Pirate Lords agree to fight together against the approaching armada of ships led by Beckett and Davey Jones. The story’s thrilling conclusion unfolds in a huge sea battle between the massive fleet of the East India Trading Company and the Pirate Lords led by Jack, Will and Elizabeth, who while outnumbered and outgunned, possess a secret weapon so powerful yet so unpredictable that both sides may be lost in this final confrontation for ultimate control of the open seas.
Mind you, this is just the bare bones version of “At World’s End” ‘s plot, folks. As always, Ted Elliot & Terry Rossio have served up some truly memorable dialogue (EX: There’s one high speed exchange between Capt’n Jack and two floozies on the waterfont that really has to be seen to be believed). Plus stunts that try & top everything that you’ve already seen in “The Curse of the Black Pearl” & “Dead Man’s Chest” (I.E. Sparrow actually uses a cannon to blast himself from one ship to the next. Saying to his cohort as he lights the fuse, “It’s a good thing that I’m mad. Because otherwise this plan would never work”).
Plus epic swordfights high up in the rigging as full-sized ships spin around the edge of this impossible huge whirlpool … As he-who-can-not-be-named put it:
“You can’t say that Disney & Jerry Bruckheimer stinted on this one. They wanted ‘At World’s End’ to be the blockbuster that tops all of the other blockbusters this summer and that’s what they got. A movie that you have to see at least twice in order to take in all of the special effects and the great performances.”
Copyright 2007 Disney Enterprises, Inc.
That description makes ‘At World’s End’ sound like a hell of a film, don’t you think? And NECA’s sculpts of the characters from this final installment of the “Pirates” trilogy are pretty cool too.
So now that you know the basic shape of the plot of this Walt Disney Pictures release, are you less likely or more likely to go see “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” ? Your thoughts?