"Bob! You jerk! You totally played me!"
As soon as the scene wrapped, Depp stormed over to confront Bob, fuming.
"You're so naive, man. Did you really think I'd use a hollow board? If we had to reshoot multiple times, swapping out boards would've taken forever. Use your brain!" Bob shot back confidently, not missing a chance to poke at Depp's intelligence.
"Alright, alright, Bob was just trying to get a better shot. He'd never actually put your safety at risk," Director Verbinski chimed in, playing peacemaker.
"Look, the take turned out great, didn't it? One and done—saved us a ton of time," Bob added, not letting up.
"Fine, fine! Since the final shot was solid, I'll let it slide," Depp grumbled. He knew when to pick his battles and decided to drop it, finding an easy way out.
"Bob's been stepping up his game big time lately. Congrats, looks like you've got another star player on your team," Annie whispered to Luke, giving him a playful nudge.
"I'm definitely giving him a raise when we get back. If someone poaches him, I'm screwed," Luke agreed, already thinking about securing Bob's loyalty.
No matter how tight their friendship was, money talks—and skimping on it would be tempting fate.
"Next scene, we're shooting H2-5," Director Verbinski announced, signaling the crew to prep for the next setup.
H2-5 was the scene where Captain Jack escapes from the roasting spit.
It picked up from the previous scene: Jack gets captured and tied to a spit over a fire by the cannibal tribe.
Why the cannibals didn't strip him down or gut him like a proper roast? Doesn't matter—nobody in the audience was going to nitpick that.
No one's eating people in real life, so who cares about the "proper" way to cook someone?
The focus was on Jack's hilarious antics, and that's all the audience needed.
For this scene, Depp would be tied to a bamboo pole, suspended horizontally over a fake fire.
Of course, the logs weren't actually burning—the flames would be added in post-production.
Jack seizes the moment when the cannibals are distracted, frantically wiggling the pole until he uses its springiness to fling himself off the spit.
It was a funny scene, but pretty straightforward to shoot, so Luke wasn't all that invested.
"I'm gonna take a walk. The cliffs over there look kinda cool," Luke said, standing up.
"I'll come with you," Annie said, getting up to join him.
They hadn't gone far when Annie's face turned pink. "I just chugged a whole coconut. I, uh, need to step away for a sec," she mumbled.
Luke pointed to some nearby bushes. "Guess you'll have to make do with those. Looks like a good spot."
"Stay with me. Don't go too far," she said.
Asking a guy to stick around while she handled her business? For Annie, raised with strict manners, it was mortifying.
"Huh?" Luke blinked.
"I'm worried about snakes," she explained.
Luke nodded. This tropical island jungle was crawling with snakes, some of them highly venomous.
So, he followed her to the edge of the bushes, keeping a respectful distance.
He turned away, keeping an eye on the surroundings to make sure no one wandered in and made things awkward.
Soon, he heard the faint rustle of liquid hitting the ground, followed by the sound of fabric as she adjusted her clothes.
Annie stood up, her face still flushed. "I'm done. Thanks."
"Let's check out what's up ahead," Luke said casually, acting like nothing had happened to spare her any embarrassment.
"Help!"
A piercing scream suddenly rang out from the direction of the set.
"That sounded like Depp," Annie said, alarmed.
"Something's wrong. Let's go!" Luke took off running toward the set.
When they got there, the crew was in a frenzy, trying to calm Depp down.
"Depp, don't move!" Director Verbinski shouted.
"I'll grab a stick to get it off—just stay still!" Bob said, rushing off to find something useful.
"Stay still? I can't even move!" Depp wailed, tied up tightly and completely helpless.
A black-and-white snake had slithered out from who-knows-where.
It was climbing up the roasting spit, heading straight for Depp.
Sure, not every brightly colored snake is venomous—but this one definitely was.
It was a krait, easily recognizable by its black body with dozens of white or silvery bands, now slithering toward Depp like a grinning reaper.
"Don't come any closer!"
"Help! Somebody save me!"
"Why am I always the unlucky one?" Depp's cries grew more desperate.
The krait reached him, opened its mouth, baring venom-filled fangs, and sank them into his right arm.
"Ahh!" Depp let out a scream that could've shattered the sky.
Luke, sprinting from a distance, flicked his right hand. A flash of silver shot through the air.
Thwack!
The krait's head was sliced clean off, its fanged jaws falling from Depp's arm.
Blood from the severed snake sprayed across Depp's face.
"Pfft! Blech! Ugh!" Depp sputtered, spitting out the snake blood that had gotten in his mouth.
The crew rushed forward in a panic, scrambling to untie Depp from the pole.
Luke tore open the sleeve at Depp's shoulder, revealing deep puncture wounds oozing dark blood.
No question about it—Depp had been bitten by the krait, and it had injected a serious dose of venom.
Krait venom is packed with proteins and peptides, primarily neurotoxins.
A single krait can deliver 4.6 mg of venom, but just 1 mg is enough to kill a grown man.
If Depp didn't get treatment fast, the bite would swell, attack his nervous system, cause muscle weakness, throat paralysis, nausea, vomiting, coma, breathing difficulties, and eventually respiratory failure.
The whole process could take anywhere from 6 to 50 hours.
The crew worked together to lay Depp flat on the ground. Luke quickly grabbed a rope and tied it tightly around Depp's right arm to slow the venom's spread.
"Luke, tell me I'm not gonna die!" Depp's voice trembled, his eyes wide with panic as he clung to Luke's hand.
"Relax! Panicking will only make the venom spread faster. Trust me, Depp, you're gonna be fine," Luke said, trying to calm him.
"Really? You're not messing with me?"
"I'm serious. You'll be okay," Luke reassured him.
Then he turned to Bob. "I know the crew brought emergency antivenom, right? Go grab it."
"Yeah, we've got it! I'm on it!" Bob replied, bolting toward the medical kit.