Heartwarming / Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

"JUST KISS!"

• Barbossa marrying Will and Elizabeth with Pintel, Ragetti, and Jack (the monkey) acting as witnesses.
  • Hector "I'M A LITTLE BUSY AT THE MOMENT!" Barbossa is understandably caught very flat-footed at first by being asked to officiate in the middle of a battle, but went along with it anyways. He knew there was a very high chance they were all going to die, so might as well now then never.
• Captain Jack Sparrow riding his ship across the desert back to his beloved oceans. He's been stuck in his personal hell for who knows how long and he reacts to the sight of the ocean with uncharacteristic solemness and a stiff upright stance on the mast of his ship.
  • Just afterwards, there is something heartwarming about the fact that - despite having no qualm about leaving Barbossa, Will, Elizabeth (and Pintel and Ragetti) - he willingly accepts not only Gibbs but both Marty and Mr. Cotton (the parrot he deliberates on for a moment, though) back onto the Black Pearl. It shows that they're not just background extras to him, but his crew.
• It's slightly undercut by the fact that Jack turns his guns on them, but when Barbossa aims his gun at Jack, Will and Elizabeth (and Gibbs) immediately pull their guns on Barbossa in his defense.
• After Barbossa has failed to release Calypso from her human bonds, Ragetti says, "You didn't say it right! You have to say it right!" And then he leans in, brushes hair away from Tia Dalma's ear and whispers, "Calypso? ...I release you from your human bonds."
  • Keep in mind, the rite stipulates that the line must be said as if to a lover and his bashful way of saying it "like a lover" is really cute. Almost as if he really means it...
• The brief but noticeable grin of relief on Jack's face when he sees Will emerging as the Captain of the Dutchman, alive and well.
• The fact that Jack clearly had problems dealing with the moral dilemma of whether to stab the heart and become immortal himself or to allow a dying Will to stab the heart for the same chance. He chooses the latter. Despite not seeing the immediate effect and knowing that Will would ultimately survive, Jack's next immediate move is to get Elizabeth off the sinking ship and keep her safe. Say what you will about Jack for all his manipulations of everyone and everything to get what he wanted, but he gave up the one thing he was working for in the last film for the sake of giving Elizabeth and Will another chance.
• This bit:
  Tia Dalma/Calypso: And what of your fate... Davy Jones?
  Davy Jones: My heart will always belong to you.
• When Big Bad Cutler Beckett is finally beaten, and everybody is celebrating. This is doubly so with Captain Teague (aka Jack's father) throwing his own hat up with a smile as if to say, "You did great, son."
• At the very end of the credits, we see that Elizabeth kept her word and waited for Will for ten years. And as a bonus, they have a son now.
• "Mrs. Turner" and "Goodbye, poppet." Nice to see Elizabeth parting on good terms with Barbossa and Pintel.
• "What makes you think she's alone?"
  • Even though Elizabeth doesn't need the rescuing, given everything Barbossa put her through in the first film, it's a nice touch. It's also the first hint we have of how many former enemies will end up banding together during the course of the film.
• In an ironic way, Barbossa gets one despite the fact that he stole the Black Pearl again. But this time he left Jack safely on Tortuga with money, food, salty wenches, and Mr. Gibbs. Yes, he still stole the Pearl, but he didn't do it in a vindictive way like last time.
  • Hell, some of the crew even felt bad about it!
  • And when said crew bring up their dissatisfaction with leaving Jack behind, they ask to see the map so as to ease their feelings of guilt. Rather than coldly dismiss them as you'd come to expect from Barbossa, he understands and instead allows them to see the charts. This is quickly negated by the fact that Jack cut out the only part of the map that actually mattered, but it's the thought that counts.
• Maelstrom! Elizabeth's immediate reaction? "Captain Barbossa! We need you at the helm!" And her subsequent smile as he takes the helm and starts barking orders. The heartwarming part comes when you contrast it with her "You've doomed us all!" reaction to the waterfall earlier and realize just how much these two have come to respect and trust each other.
• In this film, more so than Curse, we get to see Jack and Barbossa interact, and we get an idea of how they worked together as Captain and First Mate, and as friends. It's Jack who hatches the insane plan of rolling the ship over and puts it in motion; it's Barbossa who keeps it going and orders the cannons and cargo loosed, seeing it through. Then there's their conversation in front of the dead Kraken —you can hear real affection in Barbossa's voice when he calls Jack "lad".
  • When the group find Jack in the locker, he mistakes them for hallucinations, and he is notably friendly towards Barbossa, even calling him by his first name, Hector. This is incredibly jarring for him to behave this way towards a man he shot dead in a previous film, and even going so far as to deny doing so. Of course, as it's his hallucination (or at least he thinks so), he'd most likely imagine the Barbossa he'd prefer.
  • A small moment, but after Jack goes sailing through the air while escaping from the Endeavour, the crew starts looking for him in the water. Barbossa, in particular, nearly flings himself over the side of the Pearl looking for Jack. While it could have been for more practical reasons of needing Jack's piece of eight, the act itself can still come as quite heartwarming.
• Barbossa and Jack the monkey at the end of the film. At some point over their decade of being undead pirates, Barbossa apparently taught his monkey accomplice how to use a gun. If they do become mortal and do get captured, Jack can go down fighting and/or use the gun to free them as who the hell would ever check a tiny capuchin monkey for a gun?
• While, sadly, a deleted scene and its place in canon is debatable, the reveal of what Jack did that got him branded a pirate: Beckett states that Jack was assigned cargo and Jack mutters that humans aren't cargo. Jack was supposed to ship slaves for the East India Trading Company but instead set them free. He sacrificed a lawful life to do the right thing.
  • A cherry on top of Jack's virulent hatred of slavery. Word of God has it that Gentleman Jocard, the African Pirate Lord, is in fact, a former slave himself. Who rescued him? None other than Jack, who made him cook of the Pearl (this was before Barbossa took over) and then allowed him to become captain of his own ship. They later teamed up again a few months later to take down the Pirate Lord who had sold Jocard into slavery, which is how he became one. This is also hinted at in the video game adaptation, where you, as Jack, have to save Jocard from Davy Jones' Locker. Jocard is more than pleased to meet his friend and savior again, which is saying something considering Jack's (less-than harmonious) relations with other pirate captains.
    • This friendship is hinted in the movie itself when Jack gives his vote for Elizabeth to be elected as the Pirate King; when the Court participants start voicing their outrage, the first thing Jocard does is to frantically tell Jack to give his vote for him instead.

---