The Impossible Odds of Pirates of the Caribbean

I was working the other day and something made me think of the conversation that took place between Will Turner and Jack about Jack knowing Will’s father Bill Turner. Then my brain thought of the reason jack let will help him escape.. Thus the plot for the movie. I had thought, what if Jack never realized who Will was. Would he have still helped? Or what if Jack didn’t realized the curse was real? My brain tumbled and toiled for a few hours till I came to the conclusion that the entire setup for the plot is nearly an impossible set of odds, That all the stars and planets aligning may be more probable odds. Let me explain.

Just to set the plot up, you need three characters, Jack, Will, and Elizabeth. First you need all three of them in the same port at the same time. Alright, that isn’t too hard, since Will and Elizabeth both live in Port Royal we just need the random chance that Jack would happen to be by Port Royal.

Of course once we get them all there we need a Medallion that has sat in hiding for years in a dresser drawer to suddenly come out and brought so it touches the oceans water... Ohhhh boy! So not only do we need Elizabeth to take it out of hiding, but we need her to go and get it in the water to call in the Pirates, who need to also be somewhere nearby so they can get there before the dawn execution of one Jack Sparrow. What are the odds that they are within half a day travel of Port Royal on the Same day Jack arrives as well? That alone is fairly slim.

Ok, so, in the swirling chaos that ensues when the pirates arrive, they need to find the needle in the haystack. Find a single little medallion in all of Port Royal! Of course they find Elizabeth who has it and they don’t gut her instantly, and better yet she is a Pirate historian ta boot! Parley? They still don’t gut her, they have no idea who she is or even that she has the medallion! (if they did all the pirates would have been there to get her if not then at least not the two bumbling fools that arrived) But they bring her to the captain anyhow.. Odds? Then the only reason they keep her is because she fancies being called Turner cause of her love for Will, well, we will let the odds slide on that one. ;-)

Next up, Will needs to know that Jack can help him, and he doesn’t even find out when they fight. As far as Will is concerned jack is the last thing from his mind. How does will find out, well the two basic run of the mill soldiers just happen to be standing right there during a conversation (the same two that already met with jack briefly). One of them just happens to remember the conversation they had with Jack earlier in the day.

All of this just to setup Will and Jack staring the actual Plot of the movie. This doesn’t include the rest of the “what are the odds” of the movie. And I don’t mean like the impossible fights that are still awesome! What about just how the plot lines up, for instance, what are the odds that Will just happens to be a blacksmith and made the prison doors to get jack to escape… and practice with swords all the time. This is the point where I just stare at you and blink with a blank look on my face.

I hate to ruin this movie for anyone, It is one of my favorites, and even though this could ruin it for some.. I still had to share my moment of insight and sadness at how impossible setting up the plot really is. But I guess, what are the odds that anyone would notice or care? About the same I would wager. What are the odds that person had a blog that writes about stupid shit and plays a pirate and has a friend who impersonates Jack Sparrow? Even more impossible. What are the odds that anyone reads this blog? Well, we will see when you comment.