According to screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, Sparrow is a trickster who uses wit and deceit to attain his goals, preferring to end disputes verbally instead of by force.[57] He walks with a slightly drunken swagger and has slurred speech and flailing hand gestures. Sparrow is shrewd, calculating, and eccentric. He fools Norrington and his crew to set sail on the royal ship Interceptor, which compels the admiration of Lieutenant Groves as he concedes: "That's got to be the best pirate I have ever seen". Norrington himself acquiesces to this praise: "So it would seem", in sharp contrast to what he had previously proclaimed: "You are without doubt the worst pirate I have ever heard of". In the third film, while he leaves Beckett's ship stranded and makes off, Lieutenant Groves asks him: "Do you think he plans it all out, or just makes it up as he goes along?"[4]
Though a skilled swordsman, Sparrow prefers to use his superior intelligence during combat, exploiting his environment to turn the tables on his foes, reasoning "Why fight when you can negotiate?" He uses strategies of non-violent negotiation and turning his enemies against each other.[3] He invokes parleys and tempts his enemies away from their murderous intentions, encouraging them to see the bigger picture, as he does when he persuades Barbossa to delay returning to mortal form so he can battle the Royal Navy.[2] He often uses complex wordplay and vocabulary to confound his enemies,[2][3] and it is suggested that his pacifism may be one reason Barbossa and the crew of the Black Pearl mutinied.[2]
"Gentlemen, m'lady, you will always remember this as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow."
—Jack almost escapes another sticky situation[2]
The character is portrayed as having created, or at least contributed to, his own reputation. When Gibbs tells Will that Sparrow escaped from a desert island by strapping two sea turtles together, Sparrow embellishes the story by claiming the rope was made from hair from his own back, while in reality, Sparrow escaped the island by bartering with rum traders. The video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow bases itself on these tall tales, including the sacking of Nassau port without firing a shot.[2] Depp has likened pirates to rock stars in that their fame preceded them.[57] Sparrow insists on being addressed as "Captain"[2] and often gives the farewell, "This is the day you will always remember as the day that you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" which is sometimes humorously cut off.[2][3] When Norrington accuses him of being the worst pirate he has ever heard of, Sparrow replies, "But you have heard of me."[2] In a deleted scene from The Curse of the Black Pearl Sparrow ponders being "the immortal Captain Jack Sparrow",[58] and during At World's End he again is interested in immortality, although his father, Captain Teague, warns it can be a terrible curse. Sparrow ponders being "Captain Jack Sparrow, the last pirate," as the East India Trading Company purges piracy.[4]
Despite his many heroics, Sparrow is a pirate and a morally ambiguous character.[14] When agreeing to trade 100 souls, including Will, to Davy Jones in exchange for his freedom, Jones asks Sparrow whether he can, "condemn an innocent man—a friend—to a lifetime of servitude in your name while you roam free?" After a hesitation Sparrow merrily replies, "Yep! I'm good with it!"[3] He carelessly runs up debts with Anamaria,[2] Davy Jones, and the other pirate lords.[4] Sao Feng, pirate lord of Singapore, is particularly hateful towards him.[4] In a cowardly moment, Sparrow abandons his crew during the Kraken's attack, but underlying loyalty and morality compel him to return and save them.[59] Sparrow claims to be a man of his word,[2] and expresses surprise that people doubt his truthfulness;[3] there is no murder on his criminal record.[1][2]
Depp partly based the character on Pepé Le Pew, a womanizing skunk from Looney Tunes.[8] Sparrow claims to have a "tremendous intuitive sense of the female creature,"[3] although his conquests are often left with a sour memory of him. Former flames, Scarlett and Giselle, usually slap him[2] or anyone looking for him.[3] His witty charm easily attracts women, and even has Elizabeth questioning her feelings.[3] Verbinski noted phallic connotations in Sparrow's relationship with his vessel, as he grips the ship's wheel.[21] The Black Pearl is described as "the only ship which can outrun the Flying Dutchman".[4] The Freudian overtones continue in the third film when Sparrow and Barbossa battle for captaincy of the Black Pearl, showing off the length of their telescopes, and in a deleted scene, they fight over the steering wheel.[60] Sparrow claims his "first and only love is the sea,"[3] and describes his ship as representing freedom.[2] Davy Jones's Locker is represented as a desert, symbolizing his personal hell.[12]
Impact on pop culture[edit]
When Dead Man's Chest grossed over $1 billion worldwide, Ian Nathan attributed this to Sparrow's popularity: "Pirates, the franchise, only had to turn up. There was a powerful holdover from the cheeky delights of its debut, something we hadn't felt since the Clone Wars called it a day."[61] Empire in 2006 declared Depp's performance the seventy-fourth "thing that rocked our world" and later named him the eighth greatest movie character of all time.[62] In 2015, a new poll of the 100 greatest film characters of all time placed him as the fourteenth greatest.[63] A survey of more than 3,000 people showed Jack Sparrow was the most popular Halloween costume of 2006,[64] and a 2007 poll held by the Internet Movie Database showed Sparrow to be the second most popular live action hero after Indiana Jones.[65] In a 2007 Pearl & Dean poll, Jack Sparrow was listed as Depp's most popular performance.[66]
Todd Gilchrist feels Sparrow is the only element of the films that will remain timeless.[67] According to Sharon Eberson, the character's popularity can be attributed to his being a "scoundrel whose occasional bouts of conscience allow viewers to go with the flaws because, as played to the larger-than-life hilt by Depp, he owns every scene he is in".[68] Film history professor Jonathan Kuntz attributed Sparrow's popularity to the increased questioning of masculinity in the 21st century, and Sparrow's personality contrasts with action-adventure heroes in cinema. Leonard Maltin concurs that Sparrow has a carefree attitude and does not take himself seriously.[69] Mark Fox noted Sparrow is an escapist fantasy figure for women, free from much of the responsibility of most heroes.[70] Sparrow is listed by IGN as one of their ten favorite film outlaws, as he "lives for himself and the freedom to do whatever it is that he damn well pleases. Precious few film characters have epitomized what makes the outlaw such a romantic figure for audiences as Captain Jack Sparrow has."[71] Entertainment Weekly put it on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Part Keith Richards rift, part sozzled lounge lizard, Johnny Depp's swizzleshtick pirate was definitely one of the most dazzling characters of the decade."[72] In June 2010, Sparrow was named one of Entertainment Weekly's 100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years.[73]