My Life...begins with my Journey

Plot

As Governor Weatherby Swann (Jonathan Pryce) and his 12-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, sail to Port Royal, Jamaica, their vessel encounters a shipwreck with a sole survivor, the young Will Turner. Elizabeth hides a gold medallion that the unconscious Will is wearing, fearing it will identify him as a pirate. She glimpses a ghostly pirate ship, the Black Pearl.

Eight years later, Captain James Norrington (Jack Davenport) of the Royal Navy is promoted to Commodore. He proposes to Elizabeth (Keira Knightley). Before she can answer, her over-tightened corset causes her to faint and fall into the bay, where she sinks to the bottom. When the medallion she is wearing touches the seafloor, it emits a pulse.

Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) arrives in Port Royal to commandeer a ship. He rescues Elizabeth, but Norrington recognizes Jack as a pirate and arrests him. Jack briefly takes Elizabeth hostage in order to escape and ducks into a blacksmith shop, encountering Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), now a blacksmith's apprentice. Jack is knocked unconscious and jailed, to be hanged the next day. That night Port Royal is besieged by the Pearl, answering the medallion's pulse. Elizabeth is captured and invokes parley. She lies to Captain Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) telling him that her surname is Turner. She negotiates for the pirates to stop attacking Port Royal in exchange for the medallion. Barbossa agrees but exploits a loophole to keep Elizabeth prisoner, believing she is the key to breaking a curse they are under.

Will, who loves Elizabeth, suggests that they make a deal with Jack Sparrow to lead them to the Black Pearl, but Norrington refuses as "the pirates who invaded this fort left Sparrow locked in his cell, ergo they are not his allies". He instead says they'll establish the pirates' most likely course, to which Will bangs his axe on the table map saying,"That's not good enough!" Norrington says Will has no say in the matter as he's just a blacksmith. Will then persuades Jack to help him rescue her in exchange for freeing him. Jack agrees after learning Will's surname is Turner, believing he can use Will to reclaim the Pearl. Will and Jack commandeer the HMS Interceptor and recruit a crew in Tortuga with help from Jack's old friend, Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally). They set sail for Isla de Muerta, as Jack knows the pirates will go there to break the curse.

Will learns Jack was once captain of the Pearl, but when he shared the bearings to a chest of Aztec gold, First Mate Barbossa mutinied and marooned him. Jack escaped three days later. The pirates spent the treasure but learned it was cursed, turning them into skeletal beings whose true forms are revealed in moonlight. The curse can be lifted if the coins and each pirate's blood is returned to the chest. William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, Jack's only supporter, sent a coin to his son, Will, believing the crew should remain cursed. Barbossa had Bootstrap tied to a cannon and thrown overboard only to learn his blood was needed to break the curse; a Turner relative must take his place.

At Isla de Muerta, Barbossa, believing Elizabeth is Bootstrap's child, anoints the last coin with her blood and drops it into the chest— the curse remains unbroken. After reaching the island, Will suspects Sparrow may betray him and knocks him out. He rescues Elizabeth and they escape to the Interceptor leaving Jack behind. Jack barters with Barbossa—he will reveal Bootstrap Bill's child in exchange for the Pearl. Jack's negotiations come to naught when Barbossa reminds him that it was his easygoing attitude was what lost him the Pearl. Barbossa pursues the Interceptor, and a battle ensues. Barbossa's crew is victorious, sinking the Interceptor and imprisoning the crew. Will reveals he is Bootstrap Bill's son and demands that Elizabeth and the crew be freed, or he will shoot himself and fall overboard, foiling Barbossa's plan to break the curse. Barbossa agrees but applies another loophole, marooning Elizabeth and Jack on the island Jack was on ten years earlier. Will is taken to Isla de Muerta, where Barbossa plans to kill him to break the curse. On the remote island, Elizabeth discovers how Jack escaped: the island was used as a cache by rum runners.

Elizabeth burns the cache of rum to create a signal fire that Norrington's ship spots. She convinces Norrington to rescue Will by accepting his marriage proposal. Returning to Isla de Muerta, Norrington sets an ambush while Jack persuades Barbossa to form an alliance. He tells him to delay breaking the curse until they have taken the Dauntless. Jack's plan goes awry when Barbossa orders his crew to infiltrate the Dauntless from underwater. Elizabeth infiltrates the Pearl and frees Jack's crew. She tries enlisting the crew's help, but they make off with the Pearl while Elizabeth heads to the island to aid Will. Elizabeth saves Will while Jack battles Barbossa.

Norrington spots his ship under attack and orders his men to return. They make it to the ship in time, while Jack and Will return the last two medallions to the chest, breaking the curse. When Barbossa attempts to kill Elizabeth, Jack shoots Barbossa. Barbossa thinks Jack just wasted his shot, but Will then shows himself standing over the chest with the last two pieces and a knife with his blood on it. He then drops them in. No longer immortal, the wounded Barbossa collapses. The now-mortal pirates outside surrender.

At Port Royal, Jack is to be executed. Believing Jack deserves to live, and after seeing Cotton's parrot, Will attempts a rescue. Both are captured, and Norrington says Will has forgotten his place, to which Will and Elizabeth say it's between him and Jack. Jack falls backward and swims to the newly repaired Black Pearl. Will is pardoned and allowed to marry Elizabeth as he made a great sword and Norrington expects him to show that same devotion in every aspect of his life. When asked about Jack, Norrington thinks they can afford to give him one day's head start before giving pursuit. The crew rescues him and despite his promise to Annamaria to replace her ship, she gives him the captain's position. The film ends with Jack looking at his compass while singing A Pirate's Life for Me.

In a post-credits scene, Captain Barbossa's body is seen and his monkey, Jack, finds him. After seeing the chest, Jack looks into it and picks up the coins which have blood on them. The monkey becomes a skeleton again and looks at the screen smiling and screams as he jumps toward it.