Disney released the trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales during the Super Bowl, and against all odds, it was actually great! But will the fifth film be able to rescue the franchise after a disappointing fourth movie? The trailer gives us some hints of what’s to come.
On Stranger Tides was intended as a break from the fast-paced, emotionally intense trilogy that came before it. And maybe it succeeded at that a little too much. In the end, it’s almost easy to forget that it ever happened; it still feels like Pirates finished on At World’s End.
But clearly, Disney is confident that the franchise is worth investing in, because here comes Dead Men Tell No Tales, which has already been termed a reboot by Orlando Bloom himself. And the trailer certainly feels like a reboot, with all the elements Disney knows will fill seats in theatres around the world.
Here’s the official synopsis of the movie again, to keep in mind:
“Thrust into an all-new adventure, a down-on-his-luck Captain Jack Sparrow finds the winds of ill-fortune blowing even more strongly when deadly ghost pirates led by his old nemesis, the terrifying Captain Salazar (Bardem), escape from the Devil’s Triangle, determined to kill every pirate at sea…including him. Captain Jack’s only hope of survival lies in seeking out the legendary Trident of Poseidon, a powerful artifact that bestows upon its possessor total control over the seas.”
It’s not exactly a new plot. Once again, Jack is on the run from an old-time enemy with an accent, whose distinguishing trait is the amount of CGI invested in making him scary. Once again, all hope rests on finding a legendary magical artifact. Once again, we have an army of non-humans involved.
And yet, they really managed to make this trailer exciting.
Firstly, we get our first glimpse at Dutchman Will Turner… who seems like a very different man.
The main thing about Will Turner in the original trilogy was that he constantly seemed to be stuck in an in-between role. In the first three movies, he’s the audience’s eyes, and a character for Jack Sparrow to play off of. His role in the trilogy has been to follow Elizabeth, then follow his father, and then switch sides a lot, not really having much in the way of authority until the very last few seconds of At World’s End. It’s at that moment, when Jack makes Will stab Davy Jones’ heart, that Will Turner becomes really interesting. It’s the moment when he fully transforms from a follower to a leader, and becomes someone more than ‘Bootstrap Bill’s son.’
Until now, that was the last we saw of him. (Unless you count the few seconds of the after-credits scene in At World’s End, when we see him emerge from the waters to meet Elizabeth and his son for the first time in 10 years.)
Now we might be faced by a more mature, hardened captain, and one who has not been faithful to his vow to ferry the souls of the dead, judging by the transformation that is taking place on his face, which we’ve seen on Davy Jones and his crew before. Perhaps this Will Turner will pose more of a challenge, although whether or not he’ll be an ally or an enemy remains to be seen.
A woman we don’t know says, “The dead have taken command of the sea,” in a manner that is very reminiscent of Tia Dalma. Perhaps her character was born out of regret on the studio’s part, after realizing that Tia Dalma and her mysterious nature was one of the best parts of the original trilogy, now unfortunately gone after the revelation that she’s actually Calypso. This woman may prove to be a fascinating character – she certainly looks interesting – but it would be great if she’s not just there for the benefit of witty mysticism.
Henry, played by Brenton Thwaites, has already been seen in the teaser trailer. He’s widely speculated to be Will’s son (although many of us expected him to be called William, or Bill, or Billy… come on, Elizabeth: it’s family tradition!). Keira Knightley is not going to be in this movie, but maybe we should hold out for a cameo, knowing how much studios like to surprise their audiences. Maybe we’ll get an after credits scene?
Or maybe Elizabeth Swann is dead, or near death. That would certainly explain Will’s sudden transformation. It would also explain what Henry is doing on his own, if he is her son.
Carina, played by Kaya Scodelario, can be seen briefly in this trailer. Maybe she’ll be a love interest for Henry, although it would be refreshing to have a female character on board who is not a love interest for anyone, and pursues her own mission without being pulled into a love story – or worse, a love triangle. According to Scodelario:
“[Carina] is an astronomer, and she is an academic. She’s fighting for the right to study at university, because women couldn’t at that time. So she’s on her own journey – looking for the trident of Poseidon – and she has a diary with clues, and she encounters Jack Sparrow along the way, and he messes everything up.”
She certainly sounds like a unique and interesting character.
Hector Barbossa can be seen too, looking older and more tired than ever, missing one leg since the last movie. He’s gone from being a pirate, to a dead man, to a pirate, to a privateer, to a pirate again, and now it’s not certain what side he’s on. Geoffrey Rush himself, in an interview with Parade, said: “He could lose that power or compound that power. His megalomania could explode in horrific ways.”
We’ve seen him die a few times before already in this franchise, but a real death has the potential to pack an emotional punch at this point, if his love-hate relationship with Jack continues in this movie.
And of course, the big villain, whom we’ve seen in the teaser trailer: Captain Salazar, played by Javier Bardem. He’s the leader of the ghost army that’s hunting for Jack (because everyone always is). Unfortunately, despite the good CGI work, it’s somehow hard to be impressed by him. Davy Jones, in his time, was suitably impressive but he was also a complex character; he wasn’t the real villain – Cutler Beckett was.
After Blackbeard failed to instil appropriate fear in audiences, Captain Salazar will have to do something truly new to cause an impression.
The music for this trailer is a pretty good fit, playing on the title of the film. It’s a skillfully done combination, given that it’s modern music with a fantasy 18th century setting. But it’s important to note that we’re losing Hans Zimmer as a composer in Dead Men Tell No Tales. Instead, we’ll have Geoff Zanelli, who worked in collaboration with Zimmer in On Stranger Tides.
It’s a hard blow to lose Zimmer, as his music is one of the best parts of the Pirates films. Hopefully his history with Zanelli means that a great deal of the original theme music we’ve come to love will remain in the franchise, but just how different the score will be from previous films remains to be seen.
A few more things worth noting:
- A ghostly bird, this time. Maybe it’ll become friends with the zombie monkey?
- David Wenham, who played Faramir in the Lord of the Rings movies, will also star in this film!
- Some pretty epic ship shenanigans, which we haven’t seen in this style since At World’s End.
All in all, Disney is certainly gearing up for an epic return.
Dead Men Tell No Tales will be released on May 26 this year.