Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 American fantasy swashbuckler film, the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series and a standalone sequel to At World's End (2007). It is the first film in the series not to be directed by Gore Verbinski, replaced by Rob Marshall. Jerry Bruckheimer again served as producer. The film stars Johnny Depp, Kevin R. McNally and Geoffrey Rush who reprise their roles from the previous films, and they are joined by Penélope Cruz and Ian McShane. In the film, which draws its plot loosely from the 1987 novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers, the eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) is forced into a shaky alliance with Angelica (Cruz), a mysterious woman from his past, as they embark on a quest for the Fountain of Youth, contending with the infamous pirate Blackbeard (McShane) and outrunning Jack's old foe Barbossa (Rush).

Plot

In the mid-18th century, a man rescued from the ocean is brought to King Ferdinand of Spain, where he claims to have sailed with Ponce de León, who died 200 years ago searching for the Fountain of Youth. Years after Captain Jack Sparrow lost the Black Pearl to Hector Barbossa and uses Sao Feng's map to find the Fountain, Jack rescues his first mate, Joshamee Gibbs, from execution in London only to get captured. Gibbs takes Jack's map, while Jack himself is brought before King George II, who wants him to guide an expedition to the Fountain before King Ferdinand's Spanish Navy can locate it. Captain Barbossa, now sporting a peg leg and having lost the Pearl, is also part of the expedition as a privateer. Jack escapes, leading Barbossa to later recruit Gibbs, who memorizes Jack's map before burning it.