Here I am again as Ship Weekend continues. After last looking at Pirates of the Caribbean, Part 1, I am ready to move on. We have Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. That would be Parts 2 and 3, respectively.

Seeing the title of this post, you may have an inkling of the Enneagram discussion that is to follow. Every movie, as you know, if told in an organized fashion, will sport an Enneagram. Such a movie is satisfying to watch and remember. Just because a movie may be part of a trilogy does not mean the movie should toss away an Enneagram. Think of Back to the Future. I will not sidestep into an Enneagram for that trilogy, but I feel sure that each movie would have a complete arc. A problem is confronted, addressed and overcome, while playing a role in the larger arc of the trilogy.

After watching Pirates, Part 2 I was completely stumped as to its Enneagram. A 3 and 6 were impossible to identify, which is a warning, but so was the Switch, which is a death knell. Stuart suggested that Parts 2 and 3 had to be viewed as a complete Enneagram, and he was exactly right. The following is an overview of the two movies combined. I in no way endorse this arc as an acceptable solution. This is bad storytelling. However, the movies are still a wonderful watch when combined. As we shall see, a six hour movie (which is what these two become) can be enjoyable and problematic at the same time.

1

The establishing of the world, typical 1 behavior, is not here. You saw the first Pirates, didn’t you? Well, then you know the world and the characters.

Just to be clear, this is not kosher behavior, even in a trilogy.

I really want to laugh at this short cut. Sometimes I hate part twos for having to recap what we already know from part one. This is too much, though. Let me grab my first handful of popcorn and settle in my seat, for crying out loud, before you smack me over the head with the plot.

2

Therefore, Pirates, Part 2 begins at the 2. Cutler Beckett (horrible weasel) comes in with trouble falling off him like powder off his white wig. He arrests Elizabeth and Will while ignoring Papa Governor’s authority. Eventually we will learn the point of Beckett’s machinations: he wants the heart of Davy Jones, immortal captain of the Flying Dutchman.

One way we know this is the trouble is because the battle for the heart is the climax of the Enneagram (the 8, which happens to take place at the end of Part 3). It’s so confusing!

3

We are thrown into the movie with no 1, an over-weighted 2 and a rushed 3. In the midst of understanding the Beckett threat we learn that Will and Elizabeth were about to get married until the arrest thwarted the ceremony. The 3 moment we can hold onto involves Elizabeth in jail with Will visiting and promising to free her by working for Beckett. Goodness, it’s a smash of information. However, here’s our life line:

Will says something like, “I’ll have you out of here in no time.”

And Elizabeth replies, “If we were married I’d have you already.”

Only in retrospect does this exchange become important. At the time it feels like an easy double entendre the screenwriters threw in.

Again, as in Part 1, the Enneagram is going to be about the love story between Elizabeth and Will. Let all the action wash over you and slide away. These two people are the focus of the arc. When you think about it, it’s very sweet. Much of the turmoil Elizabeth causes is a result of her longing for a wedding night that never happened. I celebrate the chastity at the core of this series and laugh at how subtle it is.

4

I also laugh when I say to you that the entire rest of the movie is the 4. We’re talking about two hours and change of a single Enneagram number. I can’t even begin to recount all the fight sequences this includes.

The movie has many highlights, especially Bill Nighy as Davy Jones. The Flying Dutchman is a wonderful piece of scenery, with the rules of the magic again well-told. However, I am not here as your highlight reel. Watch the movie for yourself. Just slow down at the moment when Elizabeth kisses Jack and chains him to the ship. That is our Switch.

Switch

Jack is eaten by the kraken and a hole is left in the movie. Clearly this cannot stand. At the end of Part 2 Barbossa is brought back from the dead. Everyone is united in their determination to get Jack back. That is the set up heading into the third movie.

5

And here we are in Part 3, the bulk of which constitutes the Enneagram’s 5. Again, much action is delivered that I will not recount for you. Geoffrey Rush is back chewing scenery with a style and force Johnny Depp secretly longs for. Bill Nighy is acting through a layer of makeup that Lon Chaney couldn’t even imagine. And the miniature ship builders have created the best battle in a maelstrom ever devised. Go and watch. Slow down when Captain Barbossa marries Will and Elizabeth in the middle of a shipboard sword sequence.

6

Yes, marriage! This is the moment when I knew that Stuart was right about the two movies following only one arc. The 3, a thwarted marriage, reaches culmination right here. After all the disappointments and misunderstandings, our lovebirds are finally united. Hooray!

7

Now that the movies are back on their Enneagram track, things happen fast. Will rope-swings over to the Dutchman. It has always been his objective to free his father from the ship’s clutches. However, he ends up clashing swords with his father, who has been absorbed so much by the Dutchman that he can’t recognize his son. In a small but important decision moment, Will lets his father live, stabs his father’s dagger into the ship’s railing and walks away.

8

This climax is what makes watching both movies worthwhile. Jack has been fighting with Davy Jones over the chest that holds his beating heart. Can Jack stab the heart and become the captain of the Dutchman? Does Jack even want the job?

Meanwhile, Will is fighting Jones for the right to free his father. Jones is, however, a magical and immortal creature. He beats back Jack and then knocks aside Elizabeth and pins Will. They are only saved by the intervention of Will’s father, who remembers his son and joins the fight. (See how that 7 worked out?)

Now Jack has the beating heart in his hand, knife poised to stab. Jones will die if his heart is pierced, so he does the only thing he can: he runs his sword through Will’s chest.

Will is going to die. Elizabeth is weeping. Jack holds the heart.

We see the dagger go through Jones’ heart, and then we pull back to see that Jack has directed Will’s hand to do the stabbing. Will has killed Jones just before he dies of his chest wound.

It’s so emotionally thrilling!

Jack takes Elizabeth away as Will’s father, family dagger in hand, approaches Will with the chant: the Dutchman must have a captain.

All the while, Cutler Beckett waits on his ship, watching the battle. When the Dutchman sinks to the depths, the Pearl is left alone to fight. All seems hopeless.

The Pearl chooses to fight, though. Beckett senses victory. Up rises the Dutchman! Will, fresh seam on his chest, is at the helm. The two ships catch Beckett in a cross fire and the whole shebang is won.

9

Multiple story lines are resolved, but the most important arc for our Enneagram is the consummation of the marriage of Will and Elizabeth. As the captain of the Dutchman, Will can only come ashore for one day every ten years. Our lovebirds get their honeymoon day, and away he goes. If you watch the movie through to the end of the credits you will see Will returning, ten years later, to a waiting Elizabeth and a nine-year old son.

And that’s the complete Enneagram. If I’d told you (or realized myself before today) that the popcorn-laden, action-popping blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean was actually a love story displaying the moral value of chastity, faithfulness and the honor of marriage, would you have believed it? Enjoy this movie with your children, knowing that you are providing for them an excellent example of fidelity.

How utterly delightful!