They sail off on a patched-together junk. No sequel was ever made. But on DVD forums in 2006, fans wrote hundreds of pages of fan-fiction. And if you listen closely, you can still hear them arguing: Who would win in a fight—Jack Sparrow or Raya Malikai?

What follows is a cascade of practical, salt-stained adventure. No magic. No sea monsters. Just wet ropes, rusty culverins, and betrayal.

A disgraced British naval officer must team up with a fierce Indonesian pirate queen to find a mythical galleon before a ruthless East India Company commander can use its treasure to start a war.

Thorne catches them at the reef. He doesn't want the letter. He wants to sink it. "A free Sunda," he says, standing on Ashworth's surrendered sword, "is a Sunda that sells to the French. To the Dutch. To anyone. I'm not a villain, Captain. I'm a grocer. And grocers hate chaos."

It was 2005. Pirates weren’t cool yet. Not really. Then The Last Galleon of the Sunda Sea hit theaters—and vanished. It wasn’t a blockbuster. It wasn’t even a hit. But for those who caught it on the bottom shelf of Blockbuster, wedged between Cutthroat Island and The Master of Ballantrae , it was magic.

The answer, of course, is Raya. She'd have his compass, his ship, and his rum before he finished his first slurred sentence.