Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is a 2011 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Rob Marshall. It is the first film in the series not to be directed by Gore Verbinski. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, the film is suggested by the 1987 novel On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers as a standalone sequel to At World's End (2007) and the fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, and Kevin R. McNally, who reprise their roles from the previous films, alongside Penélope Cruz, Ian McShane, Sam Claflin and Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey. The story follows the eccentric pirate Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp) 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. Jack is forced aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, contends with the infamous pirate Blackbeard (McShane), and enters an uneasy alliance with rival Hector Barbossa (Rush).

Swashbuckler films are a subgenre of the action film genre, characterised by swordfighting and adventurous heroic characters, known as swashbucklers. While morality is typically clear-cut, heroes and villains alike often follow a code of honour. Some swashbuckler films have romantic elements, most frequently a damsel in distress. Both real and fictional historical events often feature prominently in the plot.