Captain Jack Sparrow may be the protagonist of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, but
he's definitely no hero.
Cannibal capers, dastardly double-crossings, and the creepiest seduction in the franchise
— these are the most terrible things Jack Sparrow has ever done.
The daughter of the fearsome pirate Blackbeard, Angelica forsook her father's life of piracy,
clung to her Catholic faith, and decided to become a nun instead.
Before taking her vows, however, Angelica is seduced by a young Jack Sparrow, who whisks
her away from the nunnery and leads her into a life of crime.
After their time together, frustrated by a string of betrayals, Angelica is left heartbroken
by Jack — but she has no way back to her old life, either.
Because of this, she eventually joins her father's quest to find the Fountain of Youth,
which Jack also manages to ruin by contributing to the death of Blackbeard himself.
At the film's end, rather than apologizing for his mistakes or even just taking her back
to civilization, Jack strands Angelica on a deserted island, ruining her life yet again.
Jack Sparrow and betrayals go together like ships and the sea.
No matter who you are, your relation to him, or how aligned you think your goals might
be, Jack will always find a way to twist the scenario to his own benefit — at your expense.
In Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack convinces Commodore James Norrington to engage with
Captain Barbossa and his men on the Isla de Muerta in a "surprise attack," only to immediately
reveal said plan to Barbossa in exchange for his own life.
"Robert's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt, there you are with two ships."
This results in the slaughter of many of Norrington's men as Barbossa's skeleton army takes them
out one by one, nearly overtaking their ship.
Much of the blood spilled during this attack is directly the result of Jack's meddling,
but it is later revealed to be part of his master plan.
Soon after, Jack and Will Turner lift the skeletal curse and Barbossa's army are returned
to their normal human forms — just in time for the British to overtake the pirates, sparing
the rest of their lives.
This little stunt still cost the lives of countless men, however, and it's fair to say
that Jack really doesn't seem all that cut up about it.
If Dead Man's Chest taught us anything about Jack, it's that he's definitely not an innocent
man.
Both earthly authorities and supernatural beings have pursued him across the Caribbean.
After meeting back up with Will Turner, Jack sends the boy off to the Flying Dutchman to
join Davy Jones' crew in an effort to save his own skin.
He has no problem telling Jones that Will's soul should count towards his own mystical
debt.
Of course, nothing is quite that simple in the Pirates universe: Jones demands more souls
than just Will — but he's happy to take the young pirate nonetheless.
So Jack happily leaves Will to his fate, heads to Tortuga, and tries to collect ninety-nine
more souls — innocent people who will be condemned to servitude so that Jack can escape
a promise he once made.
It's not exactly his finest hour.
Earlier in Dead Man's Chest, Will finds Jack and his crew run aground on a tribal island
somewhere in the Caribbean.
On this island, Jack was somehow able to become the tribe's leader — but what he doesn't
know is that the members of the tribe have planned to eat him.
He eventually escapes, although he seems to be fully aware that the tribe has been saving
Will and his crew for a fleshly feast.
(Crunching) (grunt of pain)
When Will meets up with Jack, rather than telling Will to free the crew and help them
get him out of there, he begs Will to save him alone, with no consideration for the crew
at all.
Now sure, Jack was as much a prisoner of the cannibal tribe as anyone, but, when Jack and
the crew first arrived on the island, he probably could have convinced the locals not to lock
up his friends.
Knowing Jack's inherent selfishness, it's clear he was only thinking of himself — and
if Will hadn't arrived, there's no telling what would have happened to the crew.
After being resurrected in At World's End, Jack quickly makes a deal with Lord Cutler
Beckett, the governor of the East India Trading Company.
Beckett wants information about the Brethren Court, the Pirate Lords, and the Nine Pieces
of Eight.
Jack does him one better: he tells Beckett that he'll lead him to Shipwreck Cove, the
meeting place of the Pirate Lords.
Then, at Shipwreck Cove, Jack plans to convince the pirates to go to war so that they can
be annihilated by Beckett and his vast armada.
Why would Jack do this?
Well, his original endgame was to flee Shipwreck Cove and sail the seas forever as the last
of his kind.
"Quite like the sound of that.
Captain Jack Sparrow… the last pirate."
And so Jack makes his deal with Beckett and leads him to the meeting place of the pirates.
Then, true to his word, he convinces them to sail out and fight.
While Jack Sparrow clearly works in mysterious ways, and Beckett is eventually defeated,
it's easy to imagine that Jack's plan to betray his fellow swashbucklers was genuine — even
just for a little while.
A recurring thread throughout the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is that Jack
has a bit of a crush on Elizabeth Swann.
Unfortunately for Jack, Elizabeth is strong, confident, and fearless, meaning she's really
not the type of girl who would be interested in him.
Knowing full well how Will feels about her, however Jack constantly attempts to take advantage
of and seduce Elizabeth — including by getting her drunk on a beach.
Naturally, Elizabeth is a bit too smart for Jack, and she manages to use her feminine
prowess against him at the end of Dead Man's Chest.
By the time Jack sees Elizabeth again, he doesn't seem to trust her, but eventually
comes around and supports her as the new "Pirate King" when the chips are down.
Still, his constant pursuit of Elizabeth earlier in the series provides an unsettling glimpse
into Jack's womanizing ways.
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