Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

April 1805. Captain Jack Aubrey's British frigate HMS Surprise is ambushed off Brazil by the French privateer Acheron, a bigger and better-armed ship. Aubrey slips away into a fog bank and, instead of heading back for repairs, decides to hunt the enemy down. In the Galápagos, Aubrey's best friend, the doctor and naturalist Stephen Maturin, is shot by accident and operates on himself. Disguised as a whaler, the Surprise lures the Acheron in and takes her by boarding. At the end, Aubrey realizes the French captain had posed as the ship's surgeon, and he turns back to the chase.

1. Behind the scenesThe ship lives in San Diego

   Most of the sea scenes were shot aboard Rose, a replica of an 18th-century ship. After the film she was renamed HMS Surprise, and today she is moored at the San Diego Maritime Museum.

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2. Behind the scenesFirst fiction shoot in the Galápagos

   It was the first non-documentary production to film in the Galápagos. Other scenes used a full-size replica in a huge tank in Mexico, built for Titanic.

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3. ReferenceThe Acheron has American DNA

   The French privateer's hull was designed from digital scans of USS Constitution. Fitting, since in the book the enemy was an American frigate.

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