The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise is one of the most popular and successful things that Disney has ever produced in live-action. We've seen five films in the series so far and odds are that, one way or another, there will be another at some point down the road. When that happens, the new film will have a high bar to clear when it comes to action.
The Pirates of the Caribbean movies have always had fun and exciting action sequences. From Jack Sparrow and Will Turner's very first sword fight, to massive ship-to-ship battles, there has been plenty for action fans to enjoy, but Orlando Bloom's stunt double on the latter films of the first trilogy, Zach Hudson, says that the Wheel Fight from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men's Chest was one he specifically remembers, because he came onto the movie late, and thus was thrown into it with essentially zero time to prepare, though it all turned out pretty well. According to Hudson....
The wheel fight, I had not rehearsed or had time on it. I literally had about a week to prep for it. Gore Verbinski was the director and it was very much a baptism by fire!’ ‘I had to do all the wire work involved on top of the wheel and the whole fight actually won the Taurus award for best fight.
The Taurus is the award that has been given for stunt performances since 2001. In 2004, the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie won the award for the blacksmith shop fight between Jack Sparrow and Will Turner. Then the wheel fight won the award in 2007. It's little surprise that it did looking back on it. It's an incredibly well put together sequence. Check it out.
That wasn't the only memorable part of filming the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Zach Hudson tells Metro that one moment during the battle with the Kraken was one he will literally never forget.
Later we did the whole Kraken attack sequence, which I’ll probably remember on my deathbed! ‘I’m on top of the sail mast about 150-feet up in the air as it’s breaking…I jump with a single safety wire into the sail across the way. ‘It ended up being about a 300, 400-foot drop and jump across. It was the first shot that day, we were docked in this bay…it was one of those very surreal moments.
While one can certainly be critical of some aspects of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, it's difficult to find much fault with the action. It's always been impressive, and the fact that so much it, especially in the early films, was still done practically is part of why it worked so well.
If there is a sixth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, regardless of who ends up in it, one can only hope that the action will remain on par with those that came before.
