The Medallion Calls is an instrumental score heard in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. It is used to serve as Jack Sparrow's first onscreen appearance in each of the film series, except for the fourth and fifth films. It is one of the film series' memorable scores heard in Disney history since the success of the first film as well as in film history.
Background[]
The Curse of the Black Pearl[]
The score is heard during the opening of the film where Jack Sparrow is introduced just as he sails on the Jolly Mon across the Caribbean Sea arriving at Port Royal just as his boat sinks. The score then ends with a waltzing melody where he encounters a harbormaster who wants Jack to identify his name to which he pays him three shillings to avoid being on the harbormaster's list.
Dead Man's Chest[]
A portion of the score is heard during the opening of the film during the Turkish prison sequence where crows kill prisoners on cages, followed by Jack Sparrow rising out of the coffin he is hiding at after shooting a crow with his pistol, killing the crow pecking the coffin. It then ends when Jack uses a skeleton's leg as a paddle to reach a ship to meet Joshamee Gibbs on board the Black Pearl.
At World's End[]
A portion of the score is heard during the part where Jack Sparrow is shown to have survived his encounter with the Kraken while in Davy Jones' Locker, managing to escape with the rest of his crew via Black Pearl. It is heard again at the end of the film where Jack seeks the Fountain of Youth alone while leaving Tortuga, which then transitions to the credits playing "He's a Pirate".
Other appearances[]
The Ride[]
In the post-2006 revamp as part of the attraction having characters being added to the ride, the score is heard during the scene where guests pass through Hector Barbossa firing cannons against the Spanish fort in Isla Tesoro. There was no musical score in the background in the original attraction during the aforementioned scene.
The version in Disneyland Paris was the only one to not use this score since it remained unchanged until the ride was heavily revamped to add characters from the film series in 2017. Despite adding the score during the revamp, the scene where the original pirate captain fires cannons against the Spanish fort remains intact instead of him being replaced by Barbossa.
LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game[]
The score is heard during the main menu of the game. It is also heard in the opening cutscene in the Curse of the Black Pearl campaign as well as during the opening scene of the very first level. This version does not include the full score unlike in the original film which the first level is based on.
Trivia[]
- This score is also called "Jack Sparrow" on the first film's complete soundtrack.
External links[]
