Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

By 2017, the Pirates of the Caribbean series had already sailed through four films and a decade of shifting blockbuster tastes. The fifth entry, Dead Men Tell No Tales, arrived with a $230 million budget and the weight of a franchise on its shoulders. Norwegian director Espen Sandberg, working alongside Joachim Rønning (though only Sandberg is credited here), steered the ship, while Johnny Depp returned as the perpetually rum-soaked Jack Sparrow. The supporting cast brought fresh faces and old favorites: Javier Bardem as the vengeful ghost captain Armando Salazar, Geoffrey Rush back as Hector Barbossa, Brenton Thwaites as young Henry Turner, and Kaya Scodelario as astronomer Carina Smyth. The story sends Jack on a hunt for the Trident of Poseidon, a relic that can break every curse on the sea. Hot on his heels is Salazar, a Spanish navy officer turned spectral menace who escaped from the Devil's Triangle with a crew of undead sailors. The film leans hard into dark fantasy, with ghost ships, cursed waters, and a tone that occasionally dips into horror-adjacent imagery. It is still a swashbuckler at heart, but the stakes feel heavier than in previous outings. Critics were split, and the film holds a 6.665/10 rating from over 13,000 votes on this platform. Still, audiences turned out: the movie grossed nearly $796 million worldwide, proving the series retained its commercial pull even as reviews grew more mixed. For fans of the franchise, it offers a closing chapter of sorts for several long-running threads, while leaving just enough room for more.[edit]