- Revealing mistakes: In the 'white desert' scene with Captain Jack Sparrow, it is supposed to be completely wind still. However, Johnny Depp's hair is visibly moving from a slight breeze.
- Continuity: In the scene where Captain Jack Sparrow is on the Black Pearl in Davy Jones Locker, his right hand has several large scratches. But a few minutes later when Barbosa leads the crew to Jacks rescue, those scratches are gone.
- Revealing mistakes: During the maelstrom battle scene, when Will Turner swings on a rope from the Black Pearl to the Flying Dutchman, it's obvious that a stunt double actually swings from the rope then falls to the deck several feet behind Orlando Bloom who then rises into frame. The stunt double lands on the deck and the camera cuts to a close up of Orlando standing up. It is not one single take, but two.
- Anachronisms: Early on in the movie, Lord Beckett's curls are held in place by white hair pins of a modern manufacture.
- Revealing mistakes: In some close up shots, you can see the contacts that Barbossa is wearing to make his eyes appear bloodshot.
- Continuity: During the scene where Elizabeth is giving the rousing speech to the pirates on the gunwales of the ship, all the close up frontal shots of her show her hair partly tied up. Rear shots show her hair completely loose but damp and limp. As she jumps down from the gunwales, her hair is loose, dry and bouncy. Will Turner's hair in the same scenes sometimes appear neatly tied back, at other times flying in the wind in his face.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Some viewers have reported seeing braces on the teeth of the young boy singing in the opening scene. In fact, the boy has metal caps on some of his teeth, much like Jack. The only difference is, his are blackened and clearly not made of gold.
- Revealing mistakes: When Captain Sao Feng holds the coin to his ear when he first meets the others, you can clearly see half of his real nail under the fake "disgusting" nails he has on.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Davy Jones is playing the organ, the music is a scale going down, but his tentacles move up and down on the keyboard, not matching the pitches of the music.
- Continuity: When the British break into the Singapore hideout and the battle starts, one soldier stumbles over on a fallen table. The next shot, which is facing the soldiers, shows him falling over again from another angle. He also falls in the exact same manner, meaning they had two cameras filming the scene.
- Continuity: When Will and Elizabeth are on the beach at the end, from the wide view you can see the camera tracks appear and disappear in the sand, and the footsteps change to the other side of the rock.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: It's often believed that the founding and naming of Singapore postdate the period in which the films are set. In fact, the name "Singapura" -- "city of the lions" -- was first given in the fourteenth century.
- Errors in geography: Singapore Harbour as depicted in the film is apparently surrounded by mountains. In reality, Singapore is a small, flat island whose highest point is Bukit Timah, standing at a mere 164 meters above sea level.
- Continuity: Just after the Black Pearl has just been dragged into the sea from the sand there is a mooring line attached to the bow of the ship. It disappears and reappears in several scenes after that.
- Anachronisms: In the beginning, you see many people being hanged for piracy. The style of the trap door was not put into use until the 1800s.
- Anachronisms: When Beckett sets the Dutchman to give no quarter in the maelstrom battle, he orders his officer to make semaphore signals to the other ship. This is done by an officer holding two flags in different positions, the modern way. However, the British Navy in the XVIII century did this by hoisting sets of special flags on the masts of the ships, not by setting an officer on deck.
- Revealing mistakes: In "Bootstrap" Turner's first appearance, his bare skin is visible just below the nape of his neck where the makeup ends.
- Continuity: When Calypso is in the brig talking with Davy Jones, her right eye mascara runs from her tears. In the next shot, her makeup is perfect again.
- Anachronisms: The tattoo on Jack Sparrow's back is of the poem entitled "Desiderata" which was not written until the late 1920s; copyrighted in 1927 by American poet Max Ehrmann.
- Revealing mistakes: In the scene where Jack and Elizabeth leave the Dutchman by way of the makeshift parachute, one can clearly see Elizabeth's hair is dry even though heavy rain, wild sea and spray are all about.
- Continuity: In the scene that three representatives of each side of the war step on a lanky piece of land in the middle of the sea to negotiate, there is a black piece of cloth tied to Jack Sparrow's right hand palm which disappears once during their negotiations and then appears again and remains there until the end of the scene. More precisely, when he is saying the line: "That debt was paid mate, with some help from ... (moving his hand toward Elizabeth)" the cloth is gone and right after it when saying the next line after Davy Jones' :"technically..." the cloth is back and remains till the end of the scene.
- Continuity: When Jack is about to use the cannon to launch himself over to the Pearl, Beckett states he is mad for doing so. When Jack agrees and lights the cannon, Beckett ducks for cover twice.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the main characters meet on a small island of sand and King Elizabeth trades Jack for Will, Davy Jones needs to stand in a barrel of water because it hasn't been 10 years since his last day on land. You can clearly see at least two buckets of water leading up to the barrel Jones is standing in, in one of the wide angle shots in the scene. So he simply walked from one barrel to the next
- Continuity: Right after the battle aboard the Dutchman, we see Jack and Elizabeth leaving with a made-up "parasail" and they land straight to the sea. In the next scene, we see them boarding the Pearl, and they should be soaking wet since they are just coming out of water, yet no water is visibly dripping off of them. Elizabeth is a little wet from the rain but Jack is remarkably dry.
- Continuity: In the scene between Barbosa and Jack when they come to the island after returning to the real world, as they stand beside the Kraken talking, when the camera is pointed towards the water you see rocks, the angle changes and when it returns, you can see the tentacles floating in the water behind them
- Plot holes: In the scene on board the Enterprise where Jack barters with Lord Beckett, Beckett is shown to be in possession of Jack's magical compass which points to what the holder most desires. It is never explained how the compass came into his possession as he is without it at the end of the second movie, and Jack is shown to have it earlier in the film inside Davy Jones' Locker.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Continuity: SPOILER: Near the end, the birthmark beside Elizabeth's right eye appears and disappears while being on the beach with Will, and, second time, when waiting for Will 10 years later (after the credits).
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Sao Feng is killed, Elizabeth's "hat" flies off. Her hair changes positions, from a lot of hair - almost all of it down - to a few small locks of it down. It continues to change in the next few scenes where the crew claims her captain and she is talking to Norrington.
- Continuity: SPOILER: In the scene aboard the Black Pearl in Davy Jones' Locker, while the crew is attempting to capsize the Pearl, it is clearly seen that the charts are on a table on deck. Nowhere is it seen that Barbossa, who was standing next to them, or anyone else grabs the charts. So, when the ship capsizes, the charts would sink in the ocean along with other loose object on the ship, but we clearly see them throughout the rest of the movie.
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