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37. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl - Sparrow Meets Turner

“Do you think this wise, boy? Crossing blades with a pirate?”

It’s one thing to invest your fight sequence with compelling choreography. It’s another thing entirely to make it essential to the plot and character development of your leads.

In practice, character and action tend to be antithetical, with the former ensconced in drama and the latter reserved for plot-driven narrative. However, with the heart of drama residing in conflict, it only makes sense to bring these crazy kids together, and this sequence from Gore Verbinski’s unlikely 2003 gem understands that well. There’s a very basic acting exercise that gives two characters opposing goals which are revealed through a situation that forces a confrontation. This is that with swords.

The very fighting styles of our two leads are informed by their characters. Depp based Jack Sparrow’s approach in part on Muhammed Ali, holding his arms to his sides almost as if he didn’t truly wish to fight, whereas Bloom’s Will Turner is all eager, classic form, chomping at the bit to prove himself and make the gentlemanly kill.

Screenwriters Ted Elliot and Terry Rossio’s commentary during this scene is one of the most instructive for scribes looking to make action sequences with a purpose. They should know. Their screenplay was one of the key factors that kept Pirates from becoming what a movie based on a theme park ride by all rights should have been.

They attest that all great action sequences demonstrate plot and character, and this one is no exception. The scene serves, at the most basic level, to get Sparrow out of a jam (being cuffed) and ultimately introduces him to Turner. They meet fight instead of meet cute and trade barbs that reveal their motivations and set the tone for how they’ll interact for the rest of the film.

They also point out that there are basically two ways to write an action sequence. Write “they fight” and leave it up to the choreographers, or write it out beat for beat, and take the opportunity to develop all that character and plot crap. They mention another scene that will appear on this list which employed the latter method to great effect, so maybe don’t listen to the commentary just yet.

Embed is being uncooperative, so click here to watch the scene.

See also: The rest of Pirates, Luke vs. Vader in Empire, Morpheus vs. Smith in The Matrix

Next: A sequence from one of the best animated films of all time.