In the dark of a tavern, a dark-skinned femme pirate looks is LAUGHING AND DRINKING GROG. The tavern is FULL! We hear the lively voices of rowdy pirates from behind. The femme pirate is at first talking and laughing with someone just off-camera, but the camera keeps slowly zooming on her as she addresses the viewer.
STORYTELLER PIRATE
You! (turning to camera) Hey, yes, you!
As she does so, we hear the start of musical stings coming from disparate instruments on the back of the bar, as if a band was preparing to play but not yet quite.
STORYTELLER PIRATE
Yes! Come here.
As a bystander walks in front, camera cuts quickly — zoomed a little closer. The pirate addresses the screen now. We hear the instruments readying, then falling quiet. The camera slowly tightens on her face as she speaks.
STORYTELLER PIRATE
You’ve come at just the right time, my friend! I was about to tell… THE tale. About the pirate who inspires all of us, the one and the only…
CROWD (Off-camera to the side)
(Whoops and whistles!) Hell yeah!
STORYTELLER PIRATE
The Master of Pirates! The Fingers of Gold! He Who Found The Ultimate Treasure! Him indeed!
CROWD
Who-hooo!
The orchestra starts playing, licks of violin and marimba notes in the chaos of the tavern.
STORYTELLER PIRATE
(At this point, close on her face.)
The one and the only.
(Pause for effect, smiling broadly.)
Guybrush.
Threepwood.
CUT to EXT NIGHT
Dutch angle; GUYBRUSH THREEPWOOD is COMMANDING a GALLEON! We don’t see much of it but we make the mast and at least someone behind him. He brandishes a sword and smiles easy as he uses it to point somewhere forward for his crew to follow. Ahoy!
The orchestra plays one, two beats, and then coalesces into THE THEME OF MONKEY ISLAND. It’s the only sound from the tavern that remains.
We see different cuts of GUYBRUSH hopping around! Holding onto ropes! Hugging his crew and pointing ahead! Lanterns and lights swipe in front of him and cause each cut. The camera zooms back a little each time as it reveals that there are… people in tourist attire sitting on his bridge, looking at him and the crew.
… and as we zoom out, we find that Guybrush isn’t on a galleon. He’s on a rickety 1800’s equivalent of a duck boat that just looks like a galleon, being powered by the ‘rowing’ of his incensed crew, riding on the streets of tiny, beautiful Scabbard Island. As the theme kicks in, we cut back and see its tiny light in the distance, shimmering in the darkness between two towns, the silhouette of the island — and its obligatory observation bonfire at the top — against the deep dusk of the sky. As the theme swells, wee see a subtitle:
Deep in the Caribbean
and then a beat, it fades, and the title card appears:
THE LAST NIGHT
OF
MONKEY ISLAND
Parchment and leaves interrupt the camera as the theme comes to a gentle conclusion. It’s a SWIPE CUT to the Guybrush Galleon docking (parking) at the end of its touristy ride. Guybrush OVERDOES IT by grabbing a rope to do a graceful jump and getting snagged in it — rather than jump off the boat and on the road, he gets sent briefly flying out by the snag before unceremoniously crashing down as the theme ENDS. This sequence starts over the galleon, cuts to follow the action and then anticipates with a shot from the ground, GUYBRUSH’S FACE filling the screen as he falls.
He gets up as if nothing had happened. The camera straightens up with him. He’s looking up at the ship, addressing the tourists.
GUYBRUSH
… Ahem. Et voilà! Tuh-daaaah.