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** A deleted scene from the end of ''Dead Man's Chest'' shows that when he brought Beckett the heart, he fully expected that Beckett intended to kill Jones right then and there; it never occurred to him before then that he intended to ''work'' with that monster. Granted, all pf this may have more to do with naivete regarding his trust in the honour of the higher authority figures in particular, rather than any belief in the goodwill of all men in general as his distrust of Jack can attest.
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** A deleted scene from the end of ''Dead Man's Chest'' shows that when he brought Beckett the heart, he fully expected that Beckett intended to kill Jones right then and there; it never occurred to him before then that he intended to ''work'' with that monster. Granted, all pf of this may have more to do with naivete regarding his trust in the honour of the higher authority figures in particular, rather than any belief in the goodwill of all men in general as his distrust of Jack can attest.
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/captain_jack_sparrow.png]]
The main character of the series, and the only one aside from Hector Barbossa and Gibbs to appear in all five movies. Loves freedom, rum, his hat, and the ''Black Pearl''. [[Characters/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanCaptainJackSParrow See here for tropes relating to him.]]
The main character of the series, and the only one aside from Hector Barbossa and Gibbs to appear in all five movies. Loves freedom, rum, his hat, and the ''Black Pearl''. [[Characters/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanCaptainJackSParrow See here for tropes relating to him.]]
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[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.
The main character
[[caption-width-right:300:''"Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!"'']]
!!!'''Played By:''' Creator/JohnnyDepp, Anthony De La Torre (young) [[labelnote:Other Languages]]Creator/RicardoTejedo (Latin American Spanish), Creator/BrunoChoel (French), Marco Antônio Costa (Brazilian Portuguese -- Jorge Lucas in the fifth film), Creator/HiroakiHirata (Japanese)[[/labelnote]]
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTalesOfTheCodeWedlocked Tales of the
->''"You will always remember this as the day that you '''almost''' caught Captain Jack Sparrow!"''
An on-off pirate captain, who is or isn't mad due his ObfuscatingStupidity. His [[LovableRogue fondness of freedom]], love of rum and
Added DiffLines:
* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: Despite his charisma, Jack isn't popular among his crewmates and has been abandoned by them ''at least'' once per film. This is less for personal reasons than the fact that Jack is a pirate InNameOnly. While he likes the more romantic aspects of piracy like the freedom, the endless alcohol, and the search for treasure, he dislikes the things that actually make piracy a lucrative profession: killing, pillaging, and kidnapping. This tends to leave his crew without a single coin by the end of every adventure.
* TheAce: Despite his apparently constant drunkenness and bad luck, he is in reality a feared and respected Pirate Lord, a ManipulativeBastard who can consistently outplay several key characters, a BenevolentBoss who actually cares about his crew and is HeterosexualLifePartners with his first mate Master Gibbs, [[TheCharmer a silky-smooth talker]], [[ImprobableAimingSkills an expert marksman]], a DitzyGenius who is an omnipresent SpannerInTheWorks for the villains, and a [[MasterSwordsman master swordsman who bested Davy Jones.]]
* TheAlcoholic: He ''loves'' his rum. When stranded on an island with Elizabeth in the first film, he was more upset about her destroying the rum in a huge bonfire than the shade or the food.
* AmbiguouslyBi: He's shown on screen to be interested in women and has considerable HoYay with other male characters, and Johnny Depp [[WordOfGay has said that he's bisexual]].
* AntiHero: He will ''always'' do the right thing in the end, and he doesn't like unsavory methods of living forever, but he is still a manipulative, treacherous and at times even ''rude'' fellow.
* TheArtfulDodger: His first scene in the first movie ends with him bribing a dock worker to get out of giving his name, and then stealing the bribe and more before leaving. The guy had no idea.
* AttentionWhore: He has a tendency towards this. When James Norrington calls him the worst pirate he ever heard of, he just replies gleefully: 'But you have heard of me'.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Jack is eaten by the Kraken at the end of the second film, and his resurrection is a major plot point in the third film.]]
* BadHabits: "Impersonating a cleric of the Church of England." He must have fond memories of that scheme because it's the only one he chuckled at before his hanging.
* BadassLongcoat: Often wears a knee-length leather coat, and is both a competent swordsman and an excellent marksman.
* BadassNormal: He holds his own against supernatural beings through a combination of fighting skill, guile, and a little bit of luck.
* BeingGoodSucks: One of the patron saints of this trope, as NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished when you're Captain Jack.
** Rescue Elizabeth from drowning? Sentenced to hang for being a pirate.
** Refuse to {{Just Shoot|Him}} Will because he's blocking the door and unarmed? Get bashed in the head by his drunk, loser boss... and then get imprisoned to be hanged.
** Come back to save his crew from [[spoiler:the Kraken]]? [[spoiler:Get left behind and devoured by it.]] Though, granted [[spoiler: him trying to slither out of a deal with Davy Jones was the only reason it was following them in the first place]].
** Save a friend, [[spoiler:Will]], from a fatal wound? [[spoiler: Lose a chance for immortality because it was used to save the friend.]]
** Stage a rescue for [[spoiler:Gibbs]] who's about to hang? [[spoiler:Be captured and sentenced to hang yourself.]]
** A deleted scene from the third movie suggests that the whole reason he ended up branded a pirate in the first place was because he refused to transport slaves and set them free instead. If one takes the novels as Canon, [[spoiler: he knew that Beckett would enslave the people of the lost island.]]
-->'''Jack:''' People aren't cargo, mate.
** In the first movie, it's implied that his morality is part of the reason Barbossa mutinied against him in the first place. When he suggests peacefully meeting with the crew of the ''Interceptor'', Barbossa has this to say:
-->'''Barbossa:''' Now, y'see, Jack, that's ''exactly'' the attitude that lost you the ''Pearl''. People are easier to search when they're dead.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Many of his past lovers slap or attempt to kill him.Though Jack does lampshade it when he feels like he deserves it, such as stealing a former lover's ship.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't mess with his favorite ship. When Barbossa tells Jack that the Pearl was sunk, Jack drops his usual quips and lunges at him from across the table.
--> '''Jack:''' ''[being restrained]'' If that ship be sunk properly, you should be sunk with it!
** Disloyalty is another -- especially since his former first mate Barbossa instigated a mutiny against without any provocation.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He is only questionably sane and often humorously bumbling; other pirates have dismissed him as being ''too nice''. Nevertheless, he is one of the more formidable minds on the sea as well as a Pirate Lord, and smarter characters take note of this. While he generally avoids killing, he has made exceptions for those he believes ''deserve'' to die (a fate that is usually earned). [[spoiler:Barbossa (though he came back and had a HeelFaceTurn), Davy Jones, Cutler Beckett, and Blackbeard all met their ends when they crossed him]]. Messing with Jack is generally a very bad idea.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: His moral code revolves around freedom. If stabbing someone in the back leads to greater freedom, then it is a moral action. He later explains this to Will. The only things that matter in the world "are what a man can do and what a man ''can't'' do", and points out that if he'll die in fair combat, "well then, that's not much incentive for me to fight fair, now is it?"
** It does lend more significance to his statement about people not being "cargo", because to be a slave is to be denied one's freedom.
** He's an ImmortalitySeeker, but when he learns that the Fountain of Youth will mean that someone else will die from it, Jack hesitates. It's less the idea of killing someone that holds him back as it is taking away someone else's freedom of choice that bugs him.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: Not mindset-wise - he certainly would not be fitted to any era where piracy has ended (or at least, where there are no unexplored frontiers) - but skillset-wise. Jack is the single best marksman in the series, pulling off shots that would be impressive with ''modern'' firearms, nevermind smoothbore blackpowder guns... which takes place in an era where the number of shots you can fire in succession is equivalent to the number of guns you're carrying at the time.
* BornLucky: A trait often remarked about him is that he has a lot of luck when pulling his stratagems. It's why even his {{Indy Ploy}}s work. This trope is inverted at the beginning of ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. There, Jack has had a streak of bad luck. When denying it, [[ToiletHumor a seagull shits on his shoulder.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Would you believe that Jack ''wasn't'' intended to be the lead character of the films as of ''Curse of the Black Pearl''?
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite coming across as a total idiot, he is probably the best pirate around.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: It's honestly kinda hard to tell if it's this or [[InsaneTrollLogic something]] [[ImplausibleDeniability else]] considering it's [[CloudCuckoolander Jack]] we're talking about, but in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd World's End]]'', when Barbossa reminds Jack that he ''shot him'' the last time they met, Jack looks at him with a vaguely bemused smile and cheerfully responds, [[RefugeInAudacity "No, I didn't!"]] before moving on.
* ByronicHero: Intelligent, adaptable, seductive, introspective, struggles with integrity, and an outlaw. [[ItsAllAboutMe Utterly self-serving]], but will NeverHurtAnInnocent.
* CardCarryingVillain: Despite feeling like BeingGoodSucks, whenever Jack has to do something unsavory, he usually revels in it. When Jack and Will swordfight in the first film, Jack openly cheats in the fight. Not only does he not mind that he cheated, but he points out that he doesn't have much incentive to fight fair.
-->'''Will Turner:''' You cheated!\\
'''Jack Sparrow:''' Pirate.\\
''[Later...]''\\
'''Will:''' In a fair fight, I'd beat you.\\
'''Jack:''' Then there isn't much incentive for me to fight fair, isn't there?
* CareerRevealingTrait: The brand on his wrist, which immediately reveals that he's a pirate to anyone who cares to look - as it does to Commodore Norrington in the first film.
* CatchPhrase: "You shall always remember this as the day that you ''almost'' caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" At least that's what he tries to say; [[RunningGag he rarely gets to finish it]]. And the one time he does, [[{{Irony}} he gets caught anyways]].
* TheChessmaster: As lampshaded in the third film, it's hard to tell if Jack plans everything out in advance or [[IndyPloy makes it up as he goes along.]] In the same film, he sets into motion a plan to get aboard the ''Flying Dutchman'' during the final battle by manipulating the other characters, but it's also clear that he didn't have control of everything and was [[XanatosSpeedChess quickly improvising at the Brethren Court]], and it's implied that he and Elizabeth came up with the plan together.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He manipulates Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and the entire Royal Navy during just the first film alone, playing every side off of each other in order to get the best possible outcome for himself. Throughout the series, Jack proves himself to be a WildCard simply because of how unpredictably his allegiance is going to shift. Lampshaded in ''Curse of the Black Pearl''.
-->'''Elizabeth:''' Whose side is Jack on?\\
'''Will:''' At the moment? ''[shrug]''
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mildly in the first two, with Will wondering in ''Curse of the Black Pearl'' if his being marooned and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation going mad from isolation and deprivation]] was why he was... Jack. Per Gibbs, "Reason's got nothing to do with it." He's very much so in the third movie - [[GoMadFromTheIsolation being dead and in Limbo/Hell all alone will do that to you.]] This gets another lampshade at the beginning of ''Dead Man's Chest'', when he can't figure out his own heading.
-->'''Marty:''' Have you noticed lately, the captain seems to be acting a bit strange?\\
'''Gibbs:''' ''[silently stares at him]''\\
'''Marty:''' ...-er.
* CombatPragmatist:
** The only thing that saves him from defeat at the hands of Will Turner, a technically superior swordsman, is his willingness to cheat. He'll use low blows, the environment, and hostages if he thinks it'll get him the upper hand in a fight.
--->'''Will:''' You ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight, I'd kill you.\\
'''Jack:''' Not much incentive for me to fight fair, is it?
** In a more subtle example, Jack's sword of choice is a sabre, which is slightly longer than the typical sword, giving him the advantage of having more reach.
* ConfusionFu: Quite possibly his biggest strength is how damn unpredictable he is; no one has any idea what he's doing at any given time. Those that ''think'' they do are the ones that lose the most. Just before the climax of the first film, Jack looks like he's played all the angles just for the sake of getting a brief upper hand, which gets Barbossa to drop his guard. That's exactly what Jack was hoping for, because he does it just to get the curse broken and kill Barbossa.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: During the climax of ''Dead Man's Chest'', he abandons his crew to the Kraken to save his own hide. However, he ultimately can't leave them to die and returns to help fight the Kraken off.
* CrazyIsCool: [[invoked]]Jack's plans run on the idea that they're CrazyEnoughToWork, and he's confident in them to do so while everyone just thinks he's nuts. In just the first movie, he holds a boat upside-down underwater to have air to breathe, noting to Will that there's often a very thin line between brilliance and madness. Invoked and promptly lampshaded in the third film.
-->'''Beckett:''' You're mad! \\
'''Jack:''' Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn't, this would probably never work.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Belated example in the third film. While discussing with the rest of the Brethren Court what course of action they should take to deal with Beckett and Davy Jones, he points out that releasing Calypso is just as likely to result in her destroying them as retribution for the first Brethren Court imprisoning her in human form as it is for her to aid them. During a brief conversation with Jones only a few minutes earlier, [[spoiler: Tia Dalma]] outright admits this is exactly what she plans on doing to the Brethren Court once they release her. Were it not for Will figuring out that Davy Jones was the one who taught the Brethren Court how to imprison her in the first place and passing that knowledge onto her before she could follow through with her plans, she would have dragged every pirate there to a watery grave.
* CulturedBadass: When he first encounters members of the Black Pearl's cursed crew, he warns them that the deepest part of Hell is reserved for traitors and mutineers, suggesting at least a passing familiarity with ''Dante's Inferno''. During ''At World's End'', he's shown to have a full poem tattooed across his back, and later on manages to effortlessly go from English to Latin and back in the space of a single sentence.
* DeadpanSnarker: Jack enjoys making a wide variety of witty quips whenever the opportunity presents itself.
* DealWithTheDevil: According to [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]], Cutler Beckett had Jack's ship, the ''Wicked Wench'', razed and sunk when Jack refused to transport slaves. Jack struck a deal with Davy Jones to raise his beloved ship and renamed it the ''Black Pearl''. Then Barbossa mutinied him for ten of the thirteen years Jack had bargained for.
* DeathGlare: He directs an icy glower at his target when he [[spoiler:shoots Barbossa,]] and then again as he watches [[spoiler: Blackbeard get torn apart by the Fountain of Youth]].
* {{Deuteragonist}}: PopCultureOsmosis has ensured that Jack is the most popular character. And he's certainly the most memorable part of all of the movies. But he's arguably not the main protagonist of the first film. Or at least wasn't intended to be. That would be Will Turner. However, by ''Dead Man's Chest', the character's popularity fuelled by Johnny Depp's iconic performance assured that he would be the main focus of the series moving forward. The first trailer for the sequel implied as much.
* DoNotGoGentle: When face to face with the Kraken at the end of ''Dead Man's Chest'', he knows he's trapped and is doomed, but nonetheless draws his sword and faces off against the Kraken as it drags the ''Black Pearl'' down.
* TheDogBitesBack: Those that aren't out to simply kill him often try to exploit him for their own gain, confident in their ability to ditch or betray him when the situation calls for it. They're often sadly mistaken, but given who they're dealing with, it's more of a case where the dog was going to bite them regardless.
* DreadlockRasta: He wears his hair in dreadlocks, and he's quite outspoken for freedom.
* EatenAlive: He dives headlong into the Kraken's mouth at the end of ''Dead Man's Chest''.
* EnemyMine: With practically ''everyone''. In the third film, he amusingly notes that everyone who has come to rescue him from Davy Jones' Locker has attempted to kill him at some point, with Elizabeth as the only one among them to have actually succeeded.
* EscapeArtist: On multiple occasions, he's escaped from cuffs, cells, enemy ships out at sea, you name it. He's even escaped from being dead after being sent to Davy Jones' Locker. The man just cannot be kept down.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdrCPr3gDQ In his big introduction scene]], Jack is sailing majestically into Port Royal atop of a ship, like some magnificent sea dog, but it turns it's a tiny dingy boat that's slowly beginning to sink. His attempts to dump out the water are proving to be futile, so he stops to pay respects to some skeletons outside Port Royal. Noticing the sign that states "Pirates, Ye Be Warned", he gives a quick look of exasperation. He arrives at Port Royal among astonished onlookers, on top of the boat, proudly, just as his ship sinks to the bottom of the harbor he casually steps onto the docks like this is nothing. [[TheArtfulDodger Then he promptly bribes the dock owner and steals his money at the same time.]] All this establishes a ridiculous, drunk-appearing {{Pirate}}, master of staying-alive who'll [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor betray anyone]] and [[CrazyIsCool that reality bends over backward to make him look awesome.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** While presenting himself as a ruthless pirate, when faced with a choice, Jack has shown a strong reluctance to kill anyone who is not actively trying to kill him as Captain Jack Sparrow but just going after him because he's a pirate. His first duel with Will only lasted so long because Will 'insisted' on the fight as Will was only fighting a pirate rather than out of a grudge against Jack, and Jack avoided killing any of the soldiers pursuing him during his escape from Buckingham Palace. When he first learned that the Fountain of Youth only 'worked' by taking the years from someone else to sustain the life of the drinker, Jack explicitly stated that his desire for the Fountain had significantly lessened.
** On a more personal note, Jack has [[spoiler:given up two different chances at prolonged (if not eternal) life in order to save Will and Angelica from imminent death]].
** He's also disgusted by slavery and refuses to have any part in it as a trader or moving captives and a deleted scene from the third film reveals his grudge with Beckett is borne from Jack being hired to run cargo for him but upon finding out that he was moving slaves, he freed them instead.
-->'''Jack:''' [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil People aren't]] [[SincerityMode cargo, mate.]]
* EurekaMoment: When William tells Jack he's named after his father, Bill Turner, you can ''see'' the gears moving in Jack's head. Towards the film's climax, Jack even admits he was playing all the angles ever since he learned what Will's name was.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: While he'll pull every dirty trick he knows to cheat his impending death, when he's trapped with no way out and he knows it, he doesn't face his end like a coward.
-->'''Jack:''' Hello, Beastie.
* FamedInStory: Jack has carefully cultivated his own legend. It comes back to bite him in the arse in the fourth film, where he keeps being mistaken for an imposter, after [[spoiler: Angelica]] raised a crew under the name of "Jack Sparrow".
* FatalFlaw: [[ImmortalitySeeker His fear of dying]] is what drives much, ''much'' of the plot and then some.
* AFriendInNeed: When it matters most, Jack will do the right thing but don't count on it before that point.
* FriendlyEnemy: In spite of Jack and Barbossa having butted heads and crossed swords for ''decades'', their undeniable respect and understanding of each other makes them lifelong friends in all but name. Jack's respect for his first mate is shown by his ''genuine'' grief for his [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice to save his long lost daughter]].
* FriendlyPirate: The first pirate in the series to be depicted as such, being a NobleDemon who abides by a code of honor as he does his pirating. After getting marooned, Jack allies with Will Turner out of circumstance, but later permanently adopts a LovableRogue nature. Yes he's a pirate who will still steal and cheat, but he's also one of the good guys and pretty good company at that.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Even those who do call him a friend are perfectly aware that Jack is the sort of person who'd steal all their cash, drink all their rum and abscond to Tortuga with their ''mum'' if given half the chance. This is why none of the main characters reply when he asks, "Did no one come to save me ''just'' because they missed me?" Only Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti and Jack the Monkey raise their hands.
* AGirlInEveryPort: [[InsistentTerminology Captain]] Jack Sparrow returns to a port he'd visited before and immediately receives a slap from one of his spurned exes, Scarlett. He insists that he didn't deserve that. Then another exe turns up, Giselle, and also slaps him. That time, he begrudgingly admits, "I probably deserved that." It's implied that she is far from the only such woman. By the end of the original trilogy, he's somehow managed to seduce the same women once more... until his ship is stolen.
* GirlyRun: The arms-flailing variety.
* GuileHero: Objectively speaking, he is a very good fighter. He's also overshadowed by many other characters and tends towards fighting with words when his sword fails him.
* TheGunslinger:
** While Jack is able to compete with and even occasionally dominate the best swordsmen in the series, the creators state that he's actually much better with a pistol than a sword. In ''Dead Man's Chest'' he manages to [[spoiler:shoot and ignite a falling barrel of gunpowder]] with a musket at a range that would make the shot hard even with rifling, and in the same movie he chucks a coconut at one of the ''Dutchman's'' crewmen and easily nails him in the head, despite the guy running full-tilt ''and'' being a good distance away.
** More impressive still: in the third movie he [[spoiler:shoots the chest from Davy Jones' hand, on the first try, whilst swinging amongst the ship's rigging, ''during a maelstrom'', '''''while the ship is caught in a whirlpool.''''']] Radio/TheLoneRanger couldn't have done better.
** In fact, each of the first three movies includes a crucial moment where Jack has to make [[OneBulletLeft one shot count]]... which he always does. Probably what's most awesome about all of this, is that it's all from Jack training himself. As additional books and material point out, Jack simply took a bucket of shot, a keg of powder, and several empty bottles of rum. When he was through, he could hit 9 out of 10 that he threw out there.
* HandsomeLech: He's had several lovers, allegedly (all of which inevitably slap him) and flirts with Elizabeth.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Gibbs. Through all five movies, Gibbs is the only person he's never betrayed. He even put himself in danger to bust him out in the fourth movie. {{Subverted}} come the fifth movie where Gibbs and the few other crewmen abandon Jack for being such a sad excuse of a captain, but by the end he's at Jack's side once again, so {{Double Subverted}} all in all.
* HiddenDepths:
** Deleted scenes and ExpandedUniverse materials show that Sparrow tried to become [[spoiler:an honest sailor with the East India Company]]. However, Beckett branded him a pirate and destroyed his ship when he [[spoiler:was ordered to transport slaves but freed them instead]].
** There are hints that maybe Captain Jack isn't quite so happy go lucky as he at first seems.
--->'''Barbossa:''' The world used to be a bigger place.\\
'''Jack:''' The world's still the same size, mate. There's just... less in it.
* HistoricalInJoke: Calico Jack, whom Sparrow is loosely based on, was BornUnlucky and was considered one of the ''worst'' pirates in history, making Jack Sparrow a {{Foil}}.
* HonorBeforeReason: Because even if it may not seem so, when he says IGaveMyWord.
* IdiotBall: In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', when he is tied to a pole, dangling above firewood, a few sparks from a dropped torch fall near the tinder and wood. Jack's attempt to douse the flames is to blow into the sparks. Do you think it helps?
* IGaveMyWord: And he ''will'' keep it, in word ''and'' spirit. It just may take a while.
* ImmortalitySeeker: His primary goal in the films, other than maintaining captaincy over his beloved ''Black Pearl'' is finding a means of indefinitely extending his life, be it cursed Aztec gold, becoming captain of the ''Flying Dutchman'', or drinking from the Fountain of Youth. None of them have worked out thus far. Note that in all of these cases, he ''had'' the opportunity to achieve his goal. He just [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold didn't find the tradeoffs to be worth it]]. [[note]]The cursed gold would make him unable to enjoy drink, food, or sex -- and would cost him his revenge on Barbossa. Davy Jones' post would imprison him on the guy's ship, with his job (and if he didn't do it, he'd turn into a HumanoidAbomination) -- and would have been at the cost of Will's life. The Fountain of Youth would tie him to the Fountain -- and also demand a sacrifice once or twice a century, starting with a woman he cared for (even if he didn't trust her). [[/note]]
* ImNotDoingThatAgain: His response to blowing up a lighthouse and nearly himself with it and then diving off to the ground several feet below.
-->'''Jack:''' Did everyone see that? Because I will NOT be doing it again!
* ImprobableAimingSkills: See TheGunslinger. Practicing on [[WeNamedTheMonkeyJack Jack]] probably helped.
* ImprovisationalIngenuity: Is this to a tee. Despite often finding himself in over his head, he is able to hold his own against armies of supernatural beings, legal authorities and other pirates using anything he can use to his advantage.
* IndyPloy: Jack does this so much there's a good argument to be made for renaming the trope after him instead. He usually has no better idea of what he's about to do next than anyone else and tends to rely more on his wits, guile and usually just blind luck to sort things out than any kind of tactics.
* InsistentTerminology: That's ''Captain'' Jack Sparrow, thank you very much. It bites him on the ass when Davy Jones points out that even though he lost his ship through mutiny, he kept calling himself ''Captain'' Jack Sparrow, therefore the deal ''was'' honored.
-->'''Davy Jones:''' You have a debt to pay. You've been captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement.\\
'''Jack:''' Technically, I was only captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon.\\
'''Davy Jones:''' Then you were a '''poor''' captain, but a captain nonetheless! Have you not introduced yourself all these years as "''Captain'' Jack Sparrow"?
* {{Irony}}: He plays by his own rules and follows his own agenda, but people often don't tend to realise that he's actually surprisingly trustworthy (albeit, as he himself admits, in a rather dishonest sense -- "a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest"). Several times throughout the movies, he actually keeps his word to the other characters entirely, only for them to end up backstabbing ''him'' under the belief that he's going to backstab them eventually and they'd better get in first. The problem is that he's only trustworthy in the long term, not the short term - or the medium term, come to that. He even lampshades how people always keep distrusting him in the second film after finding the titular Dead Man's Chest:
-->'''Norrington:''' You actually ''were'' telling the truth.\\
'''Jack:''' I do that quite a lot, yet people are always surprised.\\
'''Will:''' ''With good reason!''
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Whether it's in a platonic or romantic sense, Jack gave up what was probably his only change at immortality to ensure that Elizabeth wouldn't become a widow.
* JadedWashout: By ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. The ''Pearl'' is still trapped in Blackbeard's bottle, so he's reduced to slumming it around the Isle of St. Martin and is so bad at that that even Gibbs abandons him because he's too drunk to even pull off a bank heist. Heck, even the British government doesn't consider him a threat -- offering only a measly pound for his capture.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For all his scheming and plundering, there ''is'' a good heart somewhere in there and you can always rely on Jack to do the right thing, even if it's usually only after he's tried everything else first:
** Gives up the chance for immortality to save Will when he is mortally wounded by Davy Jones.
** Notes that his desire for the Fountain has significantly lessened when he learns that it 'works' by taking the years from someone else to sustain the drinker.
** Stops fighting seriously when [[spoiler:he is told Henry actually receives the wounds he's given even though Salazar is possessing the body.]]
** A deleted scene reveals that upon finding out that he was unknowingly running slaves for Beckett, he immediately freed them.
* KnowsTheRopes: He can manipulate and hitch a ride on ship riggings with the same ease he uses to open bottles of rum.
* LadykillerInLove: Despite his so called and mostly fabled promiscuity, there was one woman he ''did'' love: Angelica. Subverted in that it didn't stop him from leaving her -- twice. To be fair, the second time she'd spent most of the film trying to kill him - or in league with someone who would.
* LargeHam: Loud and gesturing and fond of theatrics.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The most prominent in the series - and in fact accompanies many funny or actiony scenes featuring many other characters as well simply because they only vaguely involve him.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: His relationship with Barbossa has evolved into that by the fourth film. According to Creator/JohnnyDepp and Geoffrey Rush, they would be unstoppable together, if they put away their constant bickering and past grievances. Creator/JohnnyDepp thinks that Barbossa secretly enjoys his unique role in Jack's life and would be [[GreenEyedMonster annoyed]], if someone tried to take over that role.
* ListOfTransgressions: His list is so long that only the 'most egregious' need to be recited to justify his hanging.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: He certainly believes it. The main thing stopping him from successfully living forever isn't the consequences of immortal life, it's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold what he has to pay (and who he has to step on) to get it]]. When he finds out that the Fountain of Youth drains the life from someone else to sustain the drinker, for example, Jack's willingness to find the Fountain plummets.
* LoopholeAbuse: In ''Dead Man's Chest'', he tries to invoke this to avoid paying for his DealWithTheDevil with Davy Jones; the deal was that he would be captain of the ''Black Pearl'' for thirteen years and then serve Jones on the ''Flying Dutchman'', and Jack points out that technically, he was only captain for two years before Barbossa mutinied against him. Jones doesn't go for it:
-->'''Jones:''' Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Have you not introduced yourself all these years as]] ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard Captain]]'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Jack Sparrow]]?
* LovableRogue: An affable pirate whose popular with the ladies (who eventually slap him), though not as much as Will.
* MadeOfIron:
** In ''Dead Man's Chest'', Jack freefalls what looks like several hundred feet down a canyon and lands little more than dazed at the bottom.
** During another fall, he is wrapped in ropes, so when he falls the ropes unravel and spin him like a yo-yo unwinding, allegedly slowing his descent enough that the impact didn't kill him. During a filming accident, the stunt man who performed this scene was half-crippled and very nearly died: in reality, the centripetal force resulting from being spun around that fast by a rope attached to your waist ''shatters your hip bones''.
** Likewise in ''Curse of the Black Pearl'' where he falls off of a hundred foot high cliff, without the handwave applied to Elizabeth that her ''enormous'' gown acted as a parachute to slow her descent.
** Given that he has to be alive to pay his [[DealWithTheDevil debt to Davy Jones]], one interpretation is that his deal might be what allowed him to survive these falls.
* MacGuffin: Holds one of the nine pieces of eight needed to free Calypso from her bonds. His are Moroccan beads he got from a French woman with a questionable reputation and a Siamese coin, one of the first two bits he ever pirated. As for the second bit, he bought his iconic tricorn hat with it.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulates everyone by using what they want.
* MarriedAtSea: He proposes that he and Elizabeth do this in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest''. He had the right idea, but he's not the one who marries Elizabeth.
* MemeticBadass: Invoked. Jack treats himself like one, explaining away anything he does or plans to do, no matter how improbable or amazing, as "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow".
* MysteriousPast: The movies only give small, plot-relevant pieces of Jack's backstory. The creators' words go a bit farther, describing the precise circumstances of how he became an outlaw and made a deal with Davy Jones [[spoiler:(Jack freed a cargo of EITC slaves, for which Beckett branded him a pirate and sank his ship)]], but it's still far from the complete story.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent:
** Other pirates better stay out of his way. Dogs of the [[NGOSuperpower East India Trade Company]] better not even ''glance'' at him. But if you're an honest, good-hearted (wo)man, he's practically at your mercy. It's cost him immortality ''three times.''
** On a more general example, Jack has never been shown fighting to kill anyone who wasn't actively trying to kill ''him'' as 'Captain Jack Sparrow', going to great lengths to evade and escape soldiers who were just chasing him because he was a pirate rather than because they had some vendetta against Jack himself.
* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: In-universe example. If anyone ever tells Jack that he's the "worst pirate I've ever heard of" he is quick to respond with "but you '''have''' heard of me."
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Why do people with bad breath always wanna tell you secrets?
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: When he saves Elizabeth in the first film it almost leads to Norrington having him hanged.
* NoodleIncident: During his ListOfTransgressions, he seems awfully fond of the time he posed as a member of the clergy. One has to wonder what he did during that time -- odds are it involved a ''lot'' of sex. In ''On Stranger Tides'', when he meets Angelica:
-->'''Angelica:''' What were you doing in a Spanish convent, anyway?\\
'''Jack:''' Mistook it for a brothel. Honest mistake.
* NotMeThisTime: A rare heroic example in the fourth movie: In the beginning of the movie, Jack was told many times by both friends and enemies that he was trying to get a ship as well as recruit various people into attempting to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. Turns out that Jack, for once, wasn't responsible for this, and gets into a fight with the one who did the deed: Angelica disguised as Jack.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: In ''On Stranger Tides'', Jack organizes a mutiny, later betrays another pirate and maroons her on an island with a pistol and one shot. His motivation is far more understandable and less selfish than Barbossa's (he liked the woman, but couldn't trust her), but one would assume his grim outlook on mutineers has acquired an asterisk. It is this: (as one character points out) those pirates had signed up to sail under "Captain Jack Sparrow", so [[RulesLawyer technically it's not a mutiny]]. Besides, ''this'' island was right on top of a well-travelled trade route.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: He comes off as TheFool... or is he?
* OneBulletLeft: During the mutiny, he was given a pistol with a single-shot. He carried it for over 10 years, intending to use it kill Barbossa.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** It's easy to miss, but when Jack shoots a newly mortal Barbossa in the first film, it's the only time in the ''entire series'' in which he's grimly serious. (It was less obvious when the film was first released, but thanks to {{Flanderization}} of the character, it's now striking.)
** In a deleted scene in ''At World's End'', it's revealed that Jack became a pirate not because of some zany scheme involving booze and women, but because he set slaves free. When Beckett reminds him of this, Jack ''without a hint of humor,'' states, "People aren't cargo mate."
** Also from ''At World's End'', but a scene that made it in, when the crew of the Black Pearl is sailing back from Davy Jones's Locker, they see the deceased souls passing by in small boats. When Elizabeth sees her father among the departed, she is overjoyed and takes it as a sign that they've returned to the living world. ''Jack'' is the one, in a solemn but gentle tone, to tell her that they haven't returned. When Elizabeth, in her grief, desperately tries to cast a line out to her father and then try to go to him, Jack is just as silent as the rest of the crew.
* OpportunisticBastard: While in the first film Jack Sparrow was shown to rely on the BatmanGambit quite a bit, the other films have also shown him to be quite the opportunist as well, and sometimes, it's not clear which one he is, this or TheChessmaster.
-->'''Groves:''' Do you think he plans it all out, [[IndyPloy or just makes it up as he goes along?]]
* PetTheDog:
** In ''On Stranger Tides'', he claims credit for standing watch during the mutiny in order to spare the man who chose not to raise a cry. Blackbeard, however, has him pegged, and discovers it to be the cook. Five minutes later, the crew is missing one cook.
** In ''At World's End'', he's spent the entire movie trying to take over the ''Flying Dutchman'' and inherit Davy Jones' immortality. When Jones [[spoiler:fatally stabs Will, Jack is obviously horrified. He puts a knife in the dying Will's hand and has ''him'' stabs Jones' heart, ensuring that Will would survive, and giving up his own chance at immortality.]]
* PinballProtagonist: In ''On Stranger Tides'' and ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. Whereas in the previous three movies he had been a proactive character whose agenda helped drive the plot, here he's unwillingly dragged along on adventures that mostly center around other people, with there being nothing for him to gain in the end.
* PragmaticHero: After returning from [[spoiler: Davy Jones' locker]], he's ''merely'' willing to lie, cheat, and steal to deal with Beckett, Davy Jones, and Blackbeard, as opposed to his former UnscrupulousHero ways.
* PrettyBoy: Angelica notes that he was the easiest pirate captain for her to impersonate. Even more so when he was younger; the Jack in Salazar's flashback could almost pass for a young woman.
* RedBaron: According to Salazar, Jack became known as Jack ''the'' Sparrow after how he taunted Salazar into chasing him from the crow's nest "like a little bird." Presumably it got shortened to just "Jack Sparrow" over time.
* RedOniBlueOni: The blue to Will's red in the first trilogy in terms of motivation. Jack keeps focused on what he wants and what he has to do to get it while Will tends to get carried away in brief fits of brashness. Will's stakes in the adventures are also purely emotional (Elizabeth and his father) compared to Jack seeking more practical rewards. By personality Jack's unpredictable nature makes him more Red and Will's upbringing makes him more Blue. Jack also wears a Red Bandana, and Will gets a blue one [[spoiler: when he becomes captain of the Flying Dutchman]].
* RunawayBride: {{Gender Flip}}ped in ''Tales of the Code: Wedlocked''. He promised to both Scarlett and Giselle to marry them, then doesn't show up on the wedding day, as both women were preparing for it and find out they've been duped and put on auction. It's the very reason he gets slapped when they meet him again on the isle of Tortuga in ''Curse of the Black Pearl''. And it is also the reason why the small boat he took to travel to Port Royal had holes that made it take water.
* SanitySlippage: [[BunnyEarsLawyer Not that anyone else notices,]] but his time in Davy Jones' Locker takes its toll on his mind, and he suffers from ([[PlayedForLaughs admittedly amusing]]) hallucinations throughout the third film, though he seems to get better by the end.
* ScrewYourself: ''On Stranger Tides'' has Jack Sparrow locked in an intense duel with [[spoiler:Angelica disguised as]] Jack Sparrow. It ends when one kisses the other and says "I've always wanted to do that."
* ShroudedInMyth: Many tales have been told about him, several of which have been embellished by Jack himself. For example, when Gibbs tells Will the story that Jack escaped a deserted island by strapping two sea turtles together to use as a raft, Jack proceeded to claim the rope he used to do so was his own back hair.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Jack splices a lot of fancy sentences into his standard speech before switching back to normal.
* StoryboardBody: He has the poem,''The Desiderata'' tattooed on his back.
* TalkingYourWayOut: He did no less than ''three'' times in the first film: Will to get him out of jail, Barbossa to give him the Pearl in exchange for Norrington and Norrington to backstab Barbossa.
* TechnicianVsPerformer: As opposed to Barbossa, sort of PlayedWith.
** Barbossa is a smart, but somehow slow-thinking strategist who plans his steps ahead. Jack is a quick-witted improviser.
** Regarding sword-fighting, Jack is said to be one of the weakest swordsmen in the franchise despite his proper education by a professional Italian swordsman. Barbossa, on the other hand, had to learn on his own way.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: His backstory, given in ExpandedUniverse materials and deleted scenes, reveal that Jack initially didn't want to be a pirate and tried to find legitimate work as a merchant for the East India Trade Company. However, one day he discovered his cargo was slaves, and he promptly freed them. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished For this, Cutler Beckett sank his ship and branded him a pirate, leading Jack to embrace it and vow to care only for himself from that point forward.]]
* {{Took A Level in Dumbass}}: By the time of the fifth movie, Jack has really been hit with this. He's drunk out of his skull all the time, clearly is in way over his head and only survives through dumb luck. Considering that he's a) drunk out of his skull all the time, b) implied to have been like that, even by his standards, for quite some time, this is not entirely surprising.
* UnscrupulousHero: In the first trilogy, he's willing to go so far as conning people into selling their souls to Davy Jones in order to get free of his debt. His brush with [[spoiler: death and Davy Jones' locker]] changes that a bit.
* VerbalTic: Tends to end many sentences with a particular word, especially if he's explaining something, savvy?
* VillainousCheekbones: This unpredictable, barely-trustworthy pirate has high cheekbones despite being an good guy.
* VitriolicBestBuds:
** In the original trilogy, with [[TheHero Will]]. The two betray each other multiple times each throughout the three movies, and Jack takes any opportunity he can to disparage Will's ''equipment'' (even telling an entire tribe of cannibals he's a eunuch), yet each clearly has a level of admiration and respect for the other (and both of them try to think like the other on at least one occasion each). When it counts, they're also each willing to make sacrifices to save each other's lives. [[spoiler: Will risks being hung himself by rescuing Jack from the gallows, and Jack gives up the immortality he desperately wants to save Will's life]].
** By the fourth film, he and Barbossa seem to have reached this kind of relationship, in a pirate sort of way.
* WildCard: You can generally trust Jack to do the right thing in the end. What he does ''leading up to that'', on the other hand, ranges from the heroic to the bastardly to the just plain ''weird''. Lampshaded by Will and Elizabeth during the FinalBattle of ''Curse of the Black Pearl''.
-->'''Elizabeth:''' Who's side is Jack on?
-->'''Will:''' At the moment?
* TheWonka: He's the strangest ship captain you'll ever meet and it's ''because'' he's so strange that he is good at what he does.
* XMarksTheHero: As of ''On Stranger Tides''.
* YouNeedABreathMint: Jack seems to have caught onto his own brand of knock-out gas -- breath described by Gore Verbinski as smelling like "a donkey's ass" that is so bad, it can flatten people. To put it in perspective, his breath is so foul that [[spoiler:being inches from the maw of the Krakken, whose breath is noted to be one of the most foul, putrid stenches to ever exist]], he barely even shudders at it.
----
* TheAce: Despite his apparently constant drunkenness and bad luck, he is in reality a feared and respected Pirate Lord, a ManipulativeBastard who can consistently outplay several key characters, a BenevolentBoss who actually cares about his crew and is HeterosexualLifePartners with his first mate Master Gibbs, [[TheCharmer a silky-smooth talker]], [[ImprobableAimingSkills an expert marksman]], a DitzyGenius who is an omnipresent SpannerInTheWorks for the villains, and a [[MasterSwordsman master swordsman who bested Davy Jones.]]
* TheAlcoholic: He ''loves'' his rum. When stranded on an island with Elizabeth in the first film, he was more upset about her destroying the rum in a huge bonfire than the shade or the food.
* AmbiguouslyBi: He's shown on screen to be interested in women and has considerable HoYay with other male characters, and Johnny Depp [[WordOfGay has said that he's bisexual]].
* AntiHero: He will ''always'' do the right thing in the end, and he doesn't like unsavory methods of living forever, but he is still a manipulative, treacherous and at times even ''rude'' fellow.
* TheArtfulDodger: His first scene in the first movie ends with him bribing a dock worker to get out of giving his name, and then stealing the bribe and more before leaving. The guy had no idea.
* AttentionWhore: He has a tendency towards this. When James Norrington calls him the worst pirate he ever heard of, he just replies gleefully: 'But you have heard of me'.
* BackFromTheDead: [[spoiler:Jack is eaten by the Kraken at the end of the second film, and his resurrection is a major plot point in the third film.]]
* BadHabits: "Impersonating a cleric of the Church of England." He must have fond memories of that scheme because it's the only one he chuckled at before his hanging.
* BadassLongcoat: Often wears a knee-length leather coat, and is both a competent swordsman and an excellent marksman.
* BadassNormal: He holds his own against supernatural beings through a combination of fighting skill, guile, and a little bit of luck.
* BeingGoodSucks: One of the patron saints of this trope, as NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished when you're Captain Jack.
** Rescue Elizabeth from drowning? Sentenced to hang for being a pirate.
** Refuse to {{Just Shoot|Him}} Will because he's blocking the door and unarmed? Get bashed in the head by his drunk, loser boss... and then get imprisoned to be hanged.
** Come back to save his crew from [[spoiler:the Kraken]]? [[spoiler:Get left behind and devoured by it.]] Though, granted [[spoiler: him trying to slither out of a deal with Davy Jones was the only reason it was following them in the first place]].
** Save a friend, [[spoiler:Will]], from a fatal wound? [[spoiler: Lose a chance for immortality because it was used to save the friend.]]
** Stage a rescue for [[spoiler:Gibbs]] who's about to hang? [[spoiler:Be captured and sentenced to hang yourself.]]
** A deleted scene from the third movie suggests that the whole reason he ended up branded a pirate in the first place was because he refused to transport slaves and set them free instead. If one takes the novels as Canon, [[spoiler: he knew that Beckett would enslave the people of the lost island.]]
-->'''Jack:''' People aren't cargo, mate.
** In the first movie, it's implied that his morality is part of the reason Barbossa mutinied against him in the first place. When he suggests peacefully meeting with the crew of the ''Interceptor'', Barbossa has this to say:
-->'''Barbossa:''' Now, y'see, Jack, that's ''exactly'' the attitude that lost you the ''Pearl''. People are easier to search when they're dead.
* BelligerentSexualTension: Many of his past lovers slap or attempt to kill him.Though Jack does lampshade it when he feels like he deserves it, such as stealing a former lover's ship.
* BerserkButton:
** Don't mess with his favorite ship. When Barbossa tells Jack that the Pearl was sunk, Jack drops his usual quips and lunges at him from across the table.
--> '''Jack:''' ''[being restrained]'' If that ship be sunk properly, you should be sunk with it!
** Disloyalty is another -- especially since his former first mate Barbossa instigated a mutiny against without any provocation.
* BewareTheSillyOnes: He is only questionably sane and often humorously bumbling; other pirates have dismissed him as being ''too nice''. Nevertheless, he is one of the more formidable minds on the sea as well as a Pirate Lord, and smarter characters take note of this. While he generally avoids killing, he has made exceptions for those he believes ''deserve'' to die (a fate that is usually earned). [[spoiler:Barbossa (though he came back and had a HeelFaceTurn), Davy Jones, Cutler Beckett, and Blackbeard all met their ends when they crossed him]]. Messing with Jack is generally a very bad idea.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: His moral code revolves around freedom. If stabbing someone in the back leads to greater freedom, then it is a moral action. He later explains this to Will. The only things that matter in the world "are what a man can do and what a man ''can't'' do", and points out that if he'll die in fair combat, "well then, that's not much incentive for me to fight fair, now is it?"
** It does lend more significance to his statement about people not being "cargo", because to be a slave is to be denied one's freedom.
** He's an ImmortalitySeeker, but when he learns that the Fountain of Youth will mean that someone else will die from it, Jack hesitates. It's less the idea of killing someone that holds him back as it is taking away someone else's freedom of choice that bugs him.
* BornInTheWrongCentury: Not mindset-wise - he certainly would not be fitted to any era where piracy has ended (or at least, where there are no unexplored frontiers) - but skillset-wise. Jack is the single best marksman in the series, pulling off shots that would be impressive with ''modern'' firearms, nevermind smoothbore blackpowder guns... which takes place in an era where the number of shots you can fire in succession is equivalent to the number of guns you're carrying at the time.
* BornLucky: A trait often remarked about him is that he has a lot of luck when pulling his stratagems. It's why even his {{Indy Ploy}}s work. This trope is inverted at the beginning of ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. There, Jack has had a streak of bad luck. When denying it, [[ToiletHumor a seagull shits on his shoulder.]]
* BreakoutCharacter: Would you believe that Jack ''wasn't'' intended to be the lead character of the films as of ''Curse of the Black Pearl''?
* BunnyEarsLawyer: Despite coming across as a total idiot, he is probably the best pirate around.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: It's honestly kinda hard to tell if it's this or [[InsaneTrollLogic something]] [[ImplausibleDeniability else]] considering it's [[CloudCuckoolander Jack]] we're talking about, but in ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd World's End]]'', when Barbossa reminds Jack that he ''shot him'' the last time they met, Jack looks at him with a vaguely bemused smile and cheerfully responds, [[RefugeInAudacity "No, I didn't!"]] before moving on.
* ByronicHero: Intelligent, adaptable, seductive, introspective, struggles with integrity, and an outlaw. [[ItsAllAboutMe Utterly self-serving]], but will NeverHurtAnInnocent.
* CardCarryingVillain: Despite feeling like BeingGoodSucks, whenever Jack has to do something unsavory, he usually revels in it. When Jack and Will swordfight in the first film, Jack openly cheats in the fight. Not only does he not mind that he cheated, but he points out that he doesn't have much incentive to fight fair.
-->'''Will Turner:''' You cheated!\\
'''Jack Sparrow:''' Pirate.\\
''[Later...]''\\
'''Will:''' In a fair fight, I'd beat you.\\
'''Jack:''' Then there isn't much incentive for me to fight fair, isn't there?
* CareerRevealingTrait: The brand on his wrist, which immediately reveals that he's a pirate to anyone who cares to look - as it does to Commodore Norrington in the first film.
* CatchPhrase: "You shall always remember this as the day that you ''almost'' caught Captain Jack Sparrow!" At least that's what he tries to say; [[RunningGag he rarely gets to finish it]]. And the one time he does, [[{{Irony}} he gets caught anyways]].
* TheChessmaster: As lampshaded in the third film, it's hard to tell if Jack plans everything out in advance or [[IndyPloy makes it up as he goes along.]] In the same film, he sets into motion a plan to get aboard the ''Flying Dutchman'' during the final battle by manipulating the other characters, but it's also clear that he didn't have control of everything and was [[XanatosSpeedChess quickly improvising at the Brethren Court]], and it's implied that he and Elizabeth came up with the plan together.
* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: He manipulates Will, Elizabeth, Barbossa, and the entire Royal Navy during just the first film alone, playing every side off of each other in order to get the best possible outcome for himself. Throughout the series, Jack proves himself to be a WildCard simply because of how unpredictably his allegiance is going to shift. Lampshaded in ''Curse of the Black Pearl''.
-->'''Elizabeth:''' Whose side is Jack on?\\
'''Will:''' At the moment? ''[shrug]''
* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: Mildly in the first two, with Will wondering in ''Curse of the Black Pearl'' if his being marooned and [[GoMadFromTheIsolation going mad from isolation and deprivation]] was why he was... Jack. Per Gibbs, "Reason's got nothing to do with it." He's very much so in the third movie - [[GoMadFromTheIsolation being dead and in Limbo/Hell all alone will do that to you.]] This gets another lampshade at the beginning of ''Dead Man's Chest'', when he can't figure out his own heading.
-->'''Marty:''' Have you noticed lately, the captain seems to be acting a bit strange?\\
'''Gibbs:''' ''[silently stares at him]''\\
'''Marty:''' ...-er.
* CombatPragmatist:
** The only thing that saves him from defeat at the hands of Will Turner, a technically superior swordsman, is his willingness to cheat. He'll use low blows, the environment, and hostages if he thinks it'll get him the upper hand in a fight.
--->'''Will:''' You ignored the rules of engagement. In a fair fight, I'd kill you.\\
'''Jack:''' Not much incentive for me to fight fair, is it?
** In a more subtle example, Jack's sword of choice is a sabre, which is slightly longer than the typical sword, giving him the advantage of having more reach.
* ConfusionFu: Quite possibly his biggest strength is how damn unpredictable he is; no one has any idea what he's doing at any given time. Those that ''think'' they do are the ones that lose the most. Just before the climax of the first film, Jack looks like he's played all the angles just for the sake of getting a brief upper hand, which gets Barbossa to drop his guard. That's exactly what Jack was hoping for, because he does it just to get the curse broken and kill Barbossa.
* ConscienceMakesYouGoBack: During the climax of ''Dead Man's Chest'', he abandons his crew to the Kraken to save his own hide. However, he ultimately can't leave them to die and returns to help fight the Kraken off.
* CrazyIsCool: [[invoked]]Jack's plans run on the idea that they're CrazyEnoughToWork, and he's confident in them to do so while everyone just thinks he's nuts. In just the first movie, he holds a boat upside-down underwater to have air to breathe, noting to Will that there's often a very thin line between brilliance and madness. Invoked and promptly lampshaded in the third film.
-->'''Beckett:''' You're mad! \\
'''Jack:''' Thank goodness for that, because if I wasn't, this would probably never work.
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Belated example in the third film. While discussing with the rest of the Brethren Court what course of action they should take to deal with Beckett and Davy Jones, he points out that releasing Calypso is just as likely to result in her destroying them as retribution for the first Brethren Court imprisoning her in human form as it is for her to aid them. During a brief conversation with Jones only a few minutes earlier, [[spoiler: Tia Dalma]] outright admits this is exactly what she plans on doing to the Brethren Court once they release her. Were it not for Will figuring out that Davy Jones was the one who taught the Brethren Court how to imprison her in the first place and passing that knowledge onto her before she could follow through with her plans, she would have dragged every pirate there to a watery grave.
* CulturedBadass: When he first encounters members of the Black Pearl's cursed crew, he warns them that the deepest part of Hell is reserved for traitors and mutineers, suggesting at least a passing familiarity with ''Dante's Inferno''. During ''At World's End'', he's shown to have a full poem tattooed across his back, and later on manages to effortlessly go from English to Latin and back in the space of a single sentence.
* DeadpanSnarker: Jack enjoys making a wide variety of witty quips whenever the opportunity presents itself.
* DealWithTheDevil: According to [[AllThereInTheManual supplementary material]], Cutler Beckett had Jack's ship, the ''Wicked Wench'', razed and sunk when Jack refused to transport slaves. Jack struck a deal with Davy Jones to raise his beloved ship and renamed it the ''Black Pearl''. Then Barbossa mutinied him for ten of the thirteen years Jack had bargained for.
* DeathGlare: He directs an icy glower at his target when he [[spoiler:shoots Barbossa,]] and then again as he watches [[spoiler: Blackbeard get torn apart by the Fountain of Youth]].
* {{Deuteragonist}}: PopCultureOsmosis has ensured that Jack is the most popular character. And he's certainly the most memorable part of all of the movies. But he's arguably not the main protagonist of the first film. Or at least wasn't intended to be. That would be Will Turner. However, by ''Dead Man's Chest', the character's popularity fuelled by Johnny Depp's iconic performance assured that he would be the main focus of the series moving forward. The first trailer for the sequel implied as much.
* DoNotGoGentle: When face to face with the Kraken at the end of ''Dead Man's Chest'', he knows he's trapped and is doomed, but nonetheless draws his sword and faces off against the Kraken as it drags the ''Black Pearl'' down.
* TheDogBitesBack: Those that aren't out to simply kill him often try to exploit him for their own gain, confident in their ability to ditch or betray him when the situation calls for it. They're often sadly mistaken, but given who they're dealing with, it's more of a case where the dog was going to bite them regardless.
* DreadlockRasta: He wears his hair in dreadlocks, and he's quite outspoken for freedom.
* EatenAlive: He dives headlong into the Kraken's mouth at the end of ''Dead Man's Chest''.
* EnemyMine: With practically ''everyone''. In the third film, he amusingly notes that everyone who has come to rescue him from Davy Jones' Locker has attempted to kill him at some point, with Elizabeth as the only one among them to have actually succeeded.
* EscapeArtist: On multiple occasions, he's escaped from cuffs, cells, enemy ships out at sea, you name it. He's even escaped from being dead after being sent to Davy Jones' Locker. The man just cannot be kept down.
* EstablishingCharacterMoment: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvdrCPr3gDQ In his big introduction scene]], Jack is sailing majestically into Port Royal atop of a ship, like some magnificent sea dog, but it turns it's a tiny dingy boat that's slowly beginning to sink. His attempts to dump out the water are proving to be futile, so he stops to pay respects to some skeletons outside Port Royal. Noticing the sign that states "Pirates, Ye Be Warned", he gives a quick look of exasperation. He arrives at Port Royal among astonished onlookers, on top of the boat, proudly, just as his ship sinks to the bottom of the harbor he casually steps onto the docks like this is nothing. [[TheArtfulDodger Then he promptly bribes the dock owner and steals his money at the same time.]] All this establishes a ridiculous, drunk-appearing {{Pirate}}, master of staying-alive who'll [[HeelFaceRevolvingDoor betray anyone]] and [[CrazyIsCool that reality bends over backward to make him look awesome.]]
* EveryoneHasStandards:
** While presenting himself as a ruthless pirate, when faced with a choice, Jack has shown a strong reluctance to kill anyone who is not actively trying to kill him as Captain Jack Sparrow but just going after him because he's a pirate. His first duel with Will only lasted so long because Will 'insisted' on the fight as Will was only fighting a pirate rather than out of a grudge against Jack, and Jack avoided killing any of the soldiers pursuing him during his escape from Buckingham Palace. When he first learned that the Fountain of Youth only 'worked' by taking the years from someone else to sustain the life of the drinker, Jack explicitly stated that his desire for the Fountain had significantly lessened.
** On a more personal note, Jack has [[spoiler:given up two different chances at prolonged (if not eternal) life in order to save Will and Angelica from imminent death]].
** He's also disgusted by slavery and refuses to have any part in it as a trader or moving captives and a deleted scene from the third film reveals his grudge with Beckett is borne from Jack being hired to run cargo for him but upon finding out that he was moving slaves, he freed them instead.
-->'''Jack:''' [[SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil People aren't]] [[SincerityMode cargo, mate.]]
* EurekaMoment: When William tells Jack he's named after his father, Bill Turner, you can ''see'' the gears moving in Jack's head. Towards the film's climax, Jack even admits he was playing all the angles ever since he learned what Will's name was.
* FaceDeathWithDignity: While he'll pull every dirty trick he knows to cheat his impending death, when he's trapped with no way out and he knows it, he doesn't face his end like a coward.
-->'''Jack:''' Hello, Beastie.
* FamedInStory: Jack has carefully cultivated his own legend. It comes back to bite him in the arse in the fourth film, where he keeps being mistaken for an imposter, after [[spoiler: Angelica]] raised a crew under the name of "Jack Sparrow".
* FatalFlaw: [[ImmortalitySeeker His fear of dying]] is what drives much, ''much'' of the plot and then some.
* AFriendInNeed: When it matters most, Jack will do the right thing but don't count on it before that point.
* FriendlyEnemy: In spite of Jack and Barbossa having butted heads and crossed swords for ''decades'', their undeniable respect and understanding of each other makes them lifelong friends in all but name. Jack's respect for his first mate is shown by his ''genuine'' grief for his [[spoiler: HeroicSacrifice to save his long lost daughter]].
* FriendlyPirate: The first pirate in the series to be depicted as such, being a NobleDemon who abides by a code of honor as he does his pirating. After getting marooned, Jack allies with Will Turner out of circumstance, but later permanently adopts a LovableRogue nature. Yes he's a pirate who will still steal and cheat, but he's also one of the good guys and pretty good company at that.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: Even those who do call him a friend are perfectly aware that Jack is the sort of person who'd steal all their cash, drink all their rum and abscond to Tortuga with their ''mum'' if given half the chance. This is why none of the main characters reply when he asks, "Did no one come to save me ''just'' because they missed me?" Only Marty, Cotton, Pintel, Ragetti and Jack the Monkey raise their hands.
* AGirlInEveryPort: [[InsistentTerminology Captain]] Jack Sparrow returns to a port he'd visited before and immediately receives a slap from one of his spurned exes, Scarlett. He insists that he didn't deserve that. Then another exe turns up, Giselle, and also slaps him. That time, he begrudgingly admits, "I probably deserved that." It's implied that she is far from the only such woman. By the end of the original trilogy, he's somehow managed to seduce the same women once more... until his ship is stolen.
* GirlyRun: The arms-flailing variety.
* GuileHero: Objectively speaking, he is a very good fighter. He's also overshadowed by many other characters and tends towards fighting with words when his sword fails him.
* TheGunslinger:
** While Jack is able to compete with and even occasionally dominate the best swordsmen in the series, the creators state that he's actually much better with a pistol than a sword. In ''Dead Man's Chest'' he manages to [[spoiler:shoot and ignite a falling barrel of gunpowder]] with a musket at a range that would make the shot hard even with rifling, and in the same movie he chucks a coconut at one of the ''Dutchman's'' crewmen and easily nails him in the head, despite the guy running full-tilt ''and'' being a good distance away.
** More impressive still: in the third movie he [[spoiler:shoots the chest from Davy Jones' hand, on the first try, whilst swinging amongst the ship's rigging, ''during a maelstrom'', '''''while the ship is caught in a whirlpool.''''']] Radio/TheLoneRanger couldn't have done better.
** In fact, each of the first three movies includes a crucial moment where Jack has to make [[OneBulletLeft one shot count]]... which he always does. Probably what's most awesome about all of this, is that it's all from Jack training himself. As additional books and material point out, Jack simply took a bucket of shot, a keg of powder, and several empty bottles of rum. When he was through, he could hit 9 out of 10 that he threw out there.
* HandsomeLech: He's had several lovers, allegedly (all of which inevitably slap him) and flirts with Elizabeth.
* HeterosexualLifePartners: With Gibbs. Through all five movies, Gibbs is the only person he's never betrayed. He even put himself in danger to bust him out in the fourth movie. {{Subverted}} come the fifth movie where Gibbs and the few other crewmen abandon Jack for being such a sad excuse of a captain, but by the end he's at Jack's side once again, so {{Double Subverted}} all in all.
* HiddenDepths:
** Deleted scenes and ExpandedUniverse materials show that Sparrow tried to become [[spoiler:an honest sailor with the East India Company]]. However, Beckett branded him a pirate and destroyed his ship when he [[spoiler:was ordered to transport slaves but freed them instead]].
** There are hints that maybe Captain Jack isn't quite so happy go lucky as he at first seems.
--->'''Barbossa:''' The world used to be a bigger place.\\
'''Jack:''' The world's still the same size, mate. There's just... less in it.
* HistoricalInJoke: Calico Jack, whom Sparrow is loosely based on, was BornUnlucky and was considered one of the ''worst'' pirates in history, making Jack Sparrow a {{Foil}}.
* HonorBeforeReason: Because even if it may not seem so, when he says IGaveMyWord.
* IdiotBall: In ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest'', when he is tied to a pole, dangling above firewood, a few sparks from a dropped torch fall near the tinder and wood. Jack's attempt to douse the flames is to blow into the sparks. Do you think it helps?
* IGaveMyWord: And he ''will'' keep it, in word ''and'' spirit. It just may take a while.
* ImmortalitySeeker: His primary goal in the films, other than maintaining captaincy over his beloved ''Black Pearl'' is finding a means of indefinitely extending his life, be it cursed Aztec gold, becoming captain of the ''Flying Dutchman'', or drinking from the Fountain of Youth. None of them have worked out thus far. Note that in all of these cases, he ''had'' the opportunity to achieve his goal. He just [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold didn't find the tradeoffs to be worth it]]. [[note]]The cursed gold would make him unable to enjoy drink, food, or sex -- and would cost him his revenge on Barbossa. Davy Jones' post would imprison him on the guy's ship, with his job (and if he didn't do it, he'd turn into a HumanoidAbomination) -- and would have been at the cost of Will's life. The Fountain of Youth would tie him to the Fountain -- and also demand a sacrifice once or twice a century, starting with a woman he cared for (even if he didn't trust her). [[/note]]
* ImNotDoingThatAgain: His response to blowing up a lighthouse and nearly himself with it and then diving off to the ground several feet below.
-->'''Jack:''' Did everyone see that? Because I will NOT be doing it again!
* ImprobableAimingSkills: See TheGunslinger. Practicing on [[WeNamedTheMonkeyJack Jack]] probably helped.
* ImprovisationalIngenuity: Is this to a tee. Despite often finding himself in over his head, he is able to hold his own against armies of supernatural beings, legal authorities and other pirates using anything he can use to his advantage.
* IndyPloy: Jack does this so much there's a good argument to be made for renaming the trope after him instead. He usually has no better idea of what he's about to do next than anyone else and tends to rely more on his wits, guile and usually just blind luck to sort things out than any kind of tactics.
* InsistentTerminology: That's ''Captain'' Jack Sparrow, thank you very much. It bites him on the ass when Davy Jones points out that even though he lost his ship through mutiny, he kept calling himself ''Captain'' Jack Sparrow, therefore the deal ''was'' honored.
-->'''Davy Jones:''' You have a debt to pay. You've been captain of the Black Pearl for thirteen years. That was our agreement.\\
'''Jack:''' Technically, I was only captain for two years, then I was viciously mutinied upon.\\
'''Davy Jones:''' Then you were a '''poor''' captain, but a captain nonetheless! Have you not introduced yourself all these years as "''Captain'' Jack Sparrow"?
* {{Irony}}: He plays by his own rules and follows his own agenda, but people often don't tend to realise that he's actually surprisingly trustworthy (albeit, as he himself admits, in a rather dishonest sense -- "a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest"). Several times throughout the movies, he actually keeps his word to the other characters entirely, only for them to end up backstabbing ''him'' under the belief that he's going to backstab them eventually and they'd better get in first. The problem is that he's only trustworthy in the long term, not the short term - or the medium term, come to that. He even lampshades how people always keep distrusting him in the second film after finding the titular Dead Man's Chest:
-->'''Norrington:''' You actually ''were'' telling the truth.\\
'''Jack:''' I do that quite a lot, yet people are always surprised.\\
'''Will:''' ''With good reason!''
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Whether it's in a platonic or romantic sense, Jack gave up what was probably his only change at immortality to ensure that Elizabeth wouldn't become a widow.
* JadedWashout: By ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. The ''Pearl'' is still trapped in Blackbeard's bottle, so he's reduced to slumming it around the Isle of St. Martin and is so bad at that that even Gibbs abandons him because he's too drunk to even pull off a bank heist. Heck, even the British government doesn't consider him a threat -- offering only a measly pound for his capture.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: For all his scheming and plundering, there ''is'' a good heart somewhere in there and you can always rely on Jack to do the right thing, even if it's usually only after he's tried everything else first:
** Gives up the chance for immortality to save Will when he is mortally wounded by Davy Jones.
** Notes that his desire for the Fountain has significantly lessened when he learns that it 'works' by taking the years from someone else to sustain the drinker.
** Stops fighting seriously when [[spoiler:he is told Henry actually receives the wounds he's given even though Salazar is possessing the body.]]
** A deleted scene reveals that upon finding out that he was unknowingly running slaves for Beckett, he immediately freed them.
* KnowsTheRopes: He can manipulate and hitch a ride on ship riggings with the same ease he uses to open bottles of rum.
* LadykillerInLove: Despite his so called and mostly fabled promiscuity, there was one woman he ''did'' love: Angelica. Subverted in that it didn't stop him from leaving her -- twice. To be fair, the second time she'd spent most of the film trying to kill him - or in league with someone who would.
* LargeHam: Loud and gesturing and fond of theatrics.
* {{Leitmotif}}: The most prominent in the series - and in fact accompanies many funny or actiony scenes featuring many other characters as well simply because they only vaguely involve him.
* LikeAnOldMarriedCouple: His relationship with Barbossa has evolved into that by the fourth film. According to Creator/JohnnyDepp and Geoffrey Rush, they would be unstoppable together, if they put away their constant bickering and past grievances. Creator/JohnnyDepp thinks that Barbossa secretly enjoys his unique role in Jack's life and would be [[GreenEyedMonster annoyed]], if someone tried to take over that role.
* ListOfTransgressions: His list is so long that only the 'most egregious' need to be recited to justify his hanging.
* LivingForeverIsAwesome: He certainly believes it. The main thing stopping him from successfully living forever isn't the consequences of immortal life, it's [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold what he has to pay (and who he has to step on) to get it]]. When he finds out that the Fountain of Youth drains the life from someone else to sustain the drinker, for example, Jack's willingness to find the Fountain plummets.
* LoopholeAbuse: In ''Dead Man's Chest'', he tries to invoke this to avoid paying for his DealWithTheDevil with Davy Jones; the deal was that he would be captain of the ''Black Pearl'' for thirteen years and then serve Jones on the ''Flying Dutchman'', and Jack points out that technically, he was only captain for two years before Barbossa mutinied against him. Jones doesn't go for it:
-->'''Jones:''' Then you were a poor captain, but a captain nonetheless. [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Have you not introduced yourself all these years as]] ''[[HoistByHisOwnPetard Captain]]'' [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Jack Sparrow]]?
* LovableRogue: An affable pirate whose popular with the ladies (who eventually slap him), though not as much as Will.
* MadeOfIron:
** In ''Dead Man's Chest'', Jack freefalls what looks like several hundred feet down a canyon and lands little more than dazed at the bottom.
** During another fall, he is wrapped in ropes, so when he falls the ropes unravel and spin him like a yo-yo unwinding, allegedly slowing his descent enough that the impact didn't kill him. During a filming accident, the stunt man who performed this scene was half-crippled and very nearly died: in reality, the centripetal force resulting from being spun around that fast by a rope attached to your waist ''shatters your hip bones''.
** Likewise in ''Curse of the Black Pearl'' where he falls off of a hundred foot high cliff, without the handwave applied to Elizabeth that her ''enormous'' gown acted as a parachute to slow her descent.
** Given that he has to be alive to pay his [[DealWithTheDevil debt to Davy Jones]], one interpretation is that his deal might be what allowed him to survive these falls.
* MacGuffin: Holds one of the nine pieces of eight needed to free Calypso from her bonds. His are Moroccan beads he got from a French woman with a questionable reputation and a Siamese coin, one of the first two bits he ever pirated. As for the second bit, he bought his iconic tricorn hat with it.
* ManipulativeBastard: Manipulates everyone by using what they want.
* MarriedAtSea: He proposes that he and Elizabeth do this in ''Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest''. He had the right idea, but he's not the one who marries Elizabeth.
* MemeticBadass: Invoked. Jack treats himself like one, explaining away anything he does or plans to do, no matter how improbable or amazing, as "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow".
* MysteriousPast: The movies only give small, plot-relevant pieces of Jack's backstory. The creators' words go a bit farther, describing the precise circumstances of how he became an outlaw and made a deal with Davy Jones [[spoiler:(Jack freed a cargo of EITC slaves, for which Beckett branded him a pirate and sank his ship)]], but it's still far from the complete story.
* NeverHurtAnInnocent:
** Other pirates better stay out of his way. Dogs of the [[NGOSuperpower East India Trade Company]] better not even ''glance'' at him. But if you're an honest, good-hearted (wo)man, he's practically at your mercy. It's cost him immortality ''three times.''
** On a more general example, Jack has never been shown fighting to kill anyone who wasn't actively trying to kill ''him'' as 'Captain Jack Sparrow', going to great lengths to evade and escape soldiers who were just chasing him because he was a pirate rather than because they had some vendetta against Jack himself.
* NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity: In-universe example. If anyone ever tells Jack that he's the "worst pirate I've ever heard of" he is quick to respond with "but you '''have''' heard of me."
* NoSenseOfPersonalSpace: Why do people with bad breath always wanna tell you secrets?
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: When he saves Elizabeth in the first film it almost leads to Norrington having him hanged.
* NoodleIncident: During his ListOfTransgressions, he seems awfully fond of the time he posed as a member of the clergy. One has to wonder what he did during that time -- odds are it involved a ''lot'' of sex. In ''On Stranger Tides'', when he meets Angelica:
-->'''Angelica:''' What were you doing in a Spanish convent, anyway?\\
'''Jack:''' Mistook it for a brothel. Honest mistake.
* NotMeThisTime: A rare heroic example in the fourth movie: In the beginning of the movie, Jack was told many times by both friends and enemies that he was trying to get a ship as well as recruit various people into attempting to find the legendary Fountain of Youth. Turns out that Jack, for once, wasn't responsible for this, and gets into a fight with the one who did the deed: Angelica disguised as Jack.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: In ''On Stranger Tides'', Jack organizes a mutiny, later betrays another pirate and maroons her on an island with a pistol and one shot. His motivation is far more understandable and less selfish than Barbossa's (he liked the woman, but couldn't trust her), but one would assume his grim outlook on mutineers has acquired an asterisk. It is this: (as one character points out) those pirates had signed up to sail under "Captain Jack Sparrow", so [[RulesLawyer technically it's not a mutiny]]. Besides, ''this'' island was right on top of a well-travelled trade route.
* ObfuscatingStupidity: He comes off as TheFool... or is he?
* OneBulletLeft: During the mutiny, he was given a pistol with a single-shot. He carried it for over 10 years, intending to use it kill Barbossa.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness:
** It's easy to miss, but when Jack shoots a newly mortal Barbossa in the first film, it's the only time in the ''entire series'' in which he's grimly serious. (It was less obvious when the film was first released, but thanks to {{Flanderization}} of the character, it's now striking.)
** In a deleted scene in ''At World's End'', it's revealed that Jack became a pirate not because of some zany scheme involving booze and women, but because he set slaves free. When Beckett reminds him of this, Jack ''without a hint of humor,'' states, "People aren't cargo mate."
** Also from ''At World's End'', but a scene that made it in, when the crew of the Black Pearl is sailing back from Davy Jones's Locker, they see the deceased souls passing by in small boats. When Elizabeth sees her father among the departed, she is overjoyed and takes it as a sign that they've returned to the living world. ''Jack'' is the one, in a solemn but gentle tone, to tell her that they haven't returned. When Elizabeth, in her grief, desperately tries to cast a line out to her father and then try to go to him, Jack is just as silent as the rest of the crew.
* OpportunisticBastard: While in the first film Jack Sparrow was shown to rely on the BatmanGambit quite a bit, the other films have also shown him to be quite the opportunist as well, and sometimes, it's not clear which one he is, this or TheChessmaster.
-->'''Groves:''' Do you think he plans it all out, [[IndyPloy or just makes it up as he goes along?]]
* PetTheDog:
** In ''On Stranger Tides'', he claims credit for standing watch during the mutiny in order to spare the man who chose not to raise a cry. Blackbeard, however, has him pegged, and discovers it to be the cook. Five minutes later, the crew is missing one cook.
** In ''At World's End'', he's spent the entire movie trying to take over the ''Flying Dutchman'' and inherit Davy Jones' immortality. When Jones [[spoiler:fatally stabs Will, Jack is obviously horrified. He puts a knife in the dying Will's hand and has ''him'' stabs Jones' heart, ensuring that Will would survive, and giving up his own chance at immortality.]]
* PinballProtagonist: In ''On Stranger Tides'' and ''Dead Men Tell No Tales''. Whereas in the previous three movies he had been a proactive character whose agenda helped drive the plot, here he's unwillingly dragged along on adventures that mostly center around other people, with there being nothing for him to gain in the end.
* PragmaticHero: After returning from [[spoiler: Davy Jones' locker]], he's ''merely'' willing to lie, cheat, and steal to deal with Beckett, Davy Jones, and Blackbeard, as opposed to his former UnscrupulousHero ways.
* PrettyBoy: Angelica notes that he was the easiest pirate captain for her to impersonate. Even more so when he was younger; the Jack in Salazar's flashback could almost pass for a young woman.
* RedBaron: According to Salazar, Jack became known as Jack ''the'' Sparrow after how he taunted Salazar into chasing him from the crow's nest "like a little bird." Presumably it got shortened to just "Jack Sparrow" over time.
* RedOniBlueOni: The blue to Will's red in the first trilogy in terms of motivation. Jack keeps focused on what he wants and what he has to do to get it while Will tends to get carried away in brief fits of brashness. Will's stakes in the adventures are also purely emotional (Elizabeth and his father) compared to Jack seeking more practical rewards. By personality Jack's unpredictable nature makes him more Red and Will's upbringing makes him more Blue. Jack also wears a Red Bandana, and Will gets a blue one [[spoiler: when he becomes captain of the Flying Dutchman]].
* RunawayBride: {{Gender Flip}}ped in ''Tales of the Code: Wedlocked''. He promised to both Scarlett and Giselle to marry them, then doesn't show up on the wedding day, as both women were preparing for it and find out they've been duped and put on auction. It's the very reason he gets slapped when they meet him again on the isle of Tortuga in ''Curse of the Black Pearl''. And it is also the reason why the small boat he took to travel to Port Royal had holes that made it take water.
* SanitySlippage: [[BunnyEarsLawyer Not that anyone else notices,]] but his time in Davy Jones' Locker takes its toll on his mind, and he suffers from ([[PlayedForLaughs admittedly amusing]]) hallucinations throughout the third film, though he seems to get better by the end.
* ScrewYourself: ''On Stranger Tides'' has Jack Sparrow locked in an intense duel with [[spoiler:Angelica disguised as]] Jack Sparrow. It ends when one kisses the other and says "I've always wanted to do that."
* ShroudedInMyth: Many tales have been told about him, several of which have been embellished by Jack himself. For example, when Gibbs tells Will the story that Jack escaped a deserted island by strapping two sea turtles together to use as a raft, Jack proceeded to claim the rope he used to do so was his own back hair.
* SophisticatedAsHell: Jack splices a lot of fancy sentences into his standard speech before switching back to normal.
* StoryboardBody: He has the poem,''The Desiderata'' tattooed on his back.
* TalkingYourWayOut: He did no less than ''three'' times in the first film: Will to get him out of jail, Barbossa to give him the Pearl in exchange for Norrington and Norrington to backstab Barbossa.
* TechnicianVsPerformer: As opposed to Barbossa, sort of PlayedWith.
** Barbossa is a smart, but somehow slow-thinking strategist who plans his steps ahead. Jack is a quick-witted improviser.
** Regarding sword-fighting, Jack is said to be one of the weakest swordsmen in the franchise despite his proper education by a professional Italian swordsman. Barbossa, on the other hand, had to learn on his own way.
* ThenLetMeBeEvil: His backstory, given in ExpandedUniverse materials and deleted scenes, reveal that Jack initially didn't want to be a pirate and tried to find legitimate work as a merchant for the East India Trade Company. However, one day he discovered his cargo was slaves, and he promptly freed them. [[NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished For this, Cutler Beckett sank his ship and branded him a pirate, leading Jack to embrace it and vow to care only for himself from that point forward.]]
* {{Took A Level in Dumbass}}: By the time of the fifth movie, Jack has really been hit with this. He's drunk out of his skull all the time, clearly is in way over his head and only survives through dumb luck. Considering that he's a) drunk out of his skull all the time, b) implied to have been like that, even by his standards, for quite some time, this is not entirely surprising.
* UnscrupulousHero: In the first trilogy, he's willing to go so far as conning people into selling their souls to Davy Jones in order to get free of his debt. His brush with [[spoiler: death and Davy Jones' locker]] changes that a bit.
* VerbalTic: Tends to end many sentences with a particular word, especially if he's explaining something, savvy?
* VillainousCheekbones: This unpredictable, barely-trustworthy pirate has high cheekbones despite being an good guy.
* VitriolicBestBuds:
** In the original trilogy, with [[TheHero Will]]. The two betray each other multiple times each throughout the three movies, and Jack takes any opportunity he can to disparage Will's ''equipment'' (even telling an entire tribe of cannibals he's a eunuch), yet each clearly has a level of admiration and respect for the other (and both of them try to think like the other on at least one occasion each). When it counts, they're also each willing to make sacrifices to save each other's lives. [[spoiler: Will risks being hung himself by rescuing Jack from the gallows, and Jack gives up the immortality he desperately wants to save Will's life]].
** By the fourth film, he and Barbossa seem to have reached this kind of relationship, in a pirate sort of way.
* WildCard: You can generally trust Jack to do the right thing in the end. What he does ''leading up to that'', on the other hand, ranges from the heroic to the bastardly to the just plain ''weird''. Lampshaded by Will and Elizabeth during the FinalBattle of ''Curse of the Black Pearl''.
-->'''Elizabeth:''' Who's side is Jack on?
-->'''Will:''' At the moment?
* TheWonka: He's the strangest ship captain you'll ever meet and it's ''because'' he's so strange that he is good at what he does.
* XMarksTheHero: As of ''On Stranger Tides''.
* YouNeedABreathMint: Jack seems to have caught onto his own brand of knock-out gas -- breath described by Gore Verbinski as smelling like "a donkey's ass" that is so bad, it can flatten people. To put it in perspective, his breath is so foul that [[spoiler:being inches from the maw of the Krakken, whose breath is noted to be one of the most foul, putrid stenches to ever exist]], he barely even shudders at it.
----
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* BigGood: Arguably of the third film. He's the one leading the crew on their journey to save Jack and is concerned with the welfare of all pirates, being the one who convened the Fourth Brethren Court. In the climax, even with Elizabeth being elected king, she asks him to take command of the ''Pearl'' so he can man the ship during the battle.
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* KilledOffForReal: [[spoiler:His death in the fifth film is for keeps, especially given how Tia Dalma said in the third film she couldn't bring back somebody who was at peace with their death. Barbossa, having just reconciled and saved his daughter, is more than at peace.]]
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* IGaveMyWord: Zigzagged, he does keep his word when he tells Elizabeth he'll leave Port Royal, and agrees to Will that he'll set Elizabeth free and not harm the crew. However, he doesn't let Elizabeth leave and points out her terms never included her release, and mocks Will that he never said ''where'' he had to let Elizabeth go. In essence he keeps his word to the letter, but not the spirit.
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* IGaveMyWord: Zigzagged, he does keep his word when he tells Elizabeth he'll leave Port Royal, and agrees to Will that he'll set Elizabeth free and not harm the crew. However, he doesn't let Elizabeth leave and points out her terms never included her release, and mocks Will that he never said ''when'' or ''where'' he had to let Elizabeth go. In essence he keeps his word to the letter, but not the spirit.
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* TooSpicyForYogSothoth: In the first film, it is established that he is "so evil that Hell itself spat him back out," which turns out to be ironic once he actually comes back to life in the sequel.
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* HeroicBastard: [[spoiler:Margaret and Hector]] weren't married when she was born.
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* LifeOrLimbDecision: The reason why he has a peg leg in movie 4. [[spoiler:Blackbeard took the Pearl from him and did his thing that made the ship attack the sailors, with the result that Barbossa's leg was caught in the rigging. He sliced it off to show he was master of his own fate.]]
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* LifeOrLimbDecision: The reason why he has a peg leg in movie 4.''On Stranger Tides''. [[spoiler:Blackbeard took the Pearl from him and did his thing that made the ship attack the sailors, with the result that Barbossa's leg was caught in the rigging. He sliced it off to show he was master of his own fate.]]
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->'''Played by:''' Creator/GeoffreyRush\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PatrickFloersheim (European French, 2003-2011), Creator/PhilippeCatoire (European French, 2017), Creator/JesseConde (Latin American Spanish)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/PatrickFloersheim (European French, 2003-2011), Creator/PhilippeCatoire (European French, 2017), Creator/JesseConde (Latin American Spanish)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Voiced by:'''
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
Changed line(s) 161,163 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played By:''' Creator/OrlandoBloom\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
Changed line(s) 228,230 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played by:''' Creator/KeiraKnightley\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
Changed line(s) 296,300 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played By:''' Creator/JackDavenport\\
->'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/JeanPierreMichael (European French)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]''
to:
->'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/JeanPierreMichael
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]''
Changed line(s) 384,386 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played by:''' Creator/BrentonThwaites; Lewis [=McGowan=] (12 years old); Dominic Scott Kay (9 years old)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
Changed line(s) 398 (click to see context) from:
* EarlyBirdCameo: He gets this in TheStinger of "At World's End."
to:
* EarlyBirdCameo: He gets this in TheStinger of "At ''At World's End."End''.
Changed line(s) 413,415 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played by:''' Creator/KayaScodelario\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
Changed line(s) 450,453 (click to see context) from:
->'''Played by:''' Creator/KevinMcNally\\
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JacquesFrantz (French), Creator/HumbertoVelez (Latin American Spanish)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JacquesFrantz (French), Creator/HumbertoVelez (Latin American Spanish)\\
'''Appears in:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
to:
'''Voiced by:''' Creator/JacquesFrantz
'''Appears in:'''
!!!'''Appears In:''' ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanTheCurseOfTheBlackPearl The Curse of the Black Pearl]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMansChest Dead Man's Chest]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanAtWorldsEnd At World's End]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanOnStrangerTides On Stranger Tides]]'' | ''[[Film/PiratesOfTheCaribbeanDeadMenTellNoTales Dead Men Tell No Tales]]''
