94 Fun Facts About Jaws

Who directed Jaws?

Jaws was only Spielberg's second theatrical feature, and its success made him one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood.

The film was adapted from a 1974 novel by which author?

Benchley's novel was a bestseller before the film existed. He later regretted how it shaped public fear of sharks.

What is the name of the fictional New England beach town terrorised in the film?

Amity Island is the fictional resort town of Benchley's novel and the film; the mayor's line is that Amity, as you know, means friendship.

What is the name of the police chief played by Roy Scheider?

Brody is a transplanted city cop who is afraid of the water — a detail that pays off in the final act.

What does Richard Dreyfuss's character Matt Hooper do for a living?

Hooper is a marine biologist from the Oceanographic Institute, a wealthy young specialist whose modern equipment puts him at odds with Quint's old-school methods.

What is the name of the boat the three men take out to hunt the shark?

The Orca is Quint's own vessel, named after the one animal a great white genuinely fears.

What nickname did the Jaws crew give the three malfunctioning mechanical sharks?

Bruce: three full-size pneumatic props were built, and all of them broke down in salt water, forcing Spielberg to keep the shark off screen, which made the film scarier.

Amity's officials refuse to close the beaches ahead of which holiday weekend?

The Fourth of July weekend is Amity's make-or-break payday, so the mayor keeps the beaches open for it, and the shark strikes the crowded holiday beach.

What is the surname of the mayor who insists on keeping the beaches open?

Mayor Larry Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton, spends the film in an anchor-print blazer denying there is a problem.

What is the name of the young woman killed in the film's opening scene?

Susan Backlinie played Chrissie, whose night swim opens the film. Alex Kintner is the boy killed on the beach soon after.

Jaws won three Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Original Score and which other?

Verna Fields took the editing award. Her cutting is a large part of why the unseen shark works.

Which film beat Jaws to Best Picture at the 1976 Academy Awards?

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest swept the 'Big Five' at the 48th Academy Awards in March 1976: Picture, Director (Milos Forman), Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay.

Who composed the film's score, including its two-note shark motif?

John Williams won the Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy for it; Spielberg reportedly laughed when he first heard the theme.

The film's shark motif is an ostinato alternating between which two notes?

The motif alternates E and F, a semitone apart, played low in the basses and speeding up as the shark closes in.

Jaws was the highest-grossing film in history until which 1977 release passed it?

Star Wars overtook Jaws in 1977 after roughly two years at the top; between them the two films taught studios the summer wide-release model.

Principal photography was scheduled for 55 days. How many days did it actually run?

Shooting at sea nearly tripled the schedule and the budget, and the crew took to calling the production 'Flaws'.

Which Massachusetts island stood in for the film's fictional setting?

Martha's Vineyard's shallow, sandy-bottomed sound made the shark rigging just about possible; onlookers watched filming in Edgartown in 1974.

Which publishing house commissioned Benchley to write the novel back in 1971?

Doubleday commissioned the book while Benchley was freelancing as a journalist. Bantam later paid $575,000 for the paperback rights.

Quint's big monologue reveals he survived the wartime sinking of which US Navy ship?

Quint says he survived the USS Indianapolis, torpedoed by a Japanese submarine in July 1945 after delivering parts of the Hiroshima bomb, leaving the crew adrift among sharks for days.

The real cruiser behind Quint's monologue was torpedoed in July 1945 by which Japanese submarine?

Submarine I-58, under Mochitsura Hashimoto, fired two torpedoes just after midnight on 30 July 1945; the cruiser sank in about twelve minutes.

In Quint's monologue, how many men does he say came out of the water?

Quint says 316 men came out of the water, the real survivor count, after telling Brody and Hooper that eleven hundred went in and the sharks took the rest.

The novel's author turns up on screen in the film playing what?

Benchley's cameo is as the television news reporter delivering a beach report to camera in the middle of the holiday media scrum on Amity's sand.

What is the scientific name of the shark species the film depicts?

Carcharodon carcharias is the great white shark. The film and novel turned it into cinema's most feared animal, which Benchley spent his later years trying to undo.

In which year was Jaws selected for the United States National Film Registry?

Jaws entered the National Film Registry in 2001, the Library of Congress's list of films judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

The mechanical sharks were nicknamed after which person in the director's life?

Bruce Ramer was the director's lawyer, and the name stuck to every prop shark that followed.

Which song do Quint, Hooper and Brody sing together aboard Quint's boat?

All three sing 'Show Me the Way to Go Home' in the cabin after comparing scars, the last calm moment before the shark rams the hull.

What does Quint do when Brody tries to radio the Coast Guard for help?

Quint smashes the radio with a bat to stop Brody calling the Coast Guard, refusing outside help and leaving the three men alone with the shark.

Producer David Brown put the budget at $4 million, so what did Jaws actually cost?

$9M in the end, about $3 million of it on the troublesome effects alone.

What was stirred into a swimming pool to make its water look like murky sea?

Powdered milk was stirred into a backyard swimming pool to cloud the water for the reshoot of the wrecked-boat scene, and a tarpaulin kept the light out.

What does Quint scrape down a chalkboard to silence the Amity town meeting?

Quint drags his fingernails down the chalkboard to silence the town meeting, then offers to catch the shark for a fee.

How much does Quint charge to hunt the shark?

Quint names $10,000 at the town meeting — 'I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten' — and the mayor eventually pays.

How long does Quint estimate the shark to be when he first harpoons it?

Quint calls it 25 feet — 'Twenty-five. Three tons of him' — correcting Hooper's 'twenty-footer', and the shark promptly drags his flotation barrel under.

Which earlier film did Jaws overtake as the highest-grossing movie in North America?

Jaws passed The Godfather's domestic record in just 78 days, becoming the first film to earn $100 million in US theatrical rentals.

What was the name of the second, motorless copy of Quint's boat, built to sink on command?

Orca II was the engineless stunt copy rigged to sink on cue; the real Orca once began to sink for real with the actors still aboard.

On the AFI's list of the 100 most thrilling films, Jaws came second behind which movie?

Psycho took first place on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills list, with Jaws second; the shark itself ranked 18th on the AFI villains list.

Who does the shark kill in the estuary while Brody's son watches?

A man in a small boat is killed in the estuary, his severed leg sinking to the bottom, while Michael Brody watches from feet away and goes into shock.

Jaws 2 arrived in 1978 with which much-parodied tagline?

'Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water' sold Jaws 2 in 1978 and has been parodied endlessly since.

Which star joined the cast of the widely panned 1987 sequel Jaws: The Revenge?

Michael Caine played Hoagie, the pilot who romances Ellen Brody, in Jaws: The Revenge (1987); he was still shooting it the night he won his first Oscar.

Which comedy writer rewrote the script on set and played newspaper editor Harry Meadows?

Gottlieb was hired for a one-week dialogue polish and ended up rewriting nearly the whole script, often the night before each scene was shot.

Local fishermen catch which species, prompting the mayor to declare the beaches safe?

The fishermen land a tiger shark; Hooper doubts its bite radius and, cutting it open that night, finds no human remains, so the real killer is still out there.

What does Hooper pull from the hull of Ben Gardner's half-sunk boat on the night dive?

He drops the tooth in shock a moment later, which is why he has no proof to show the mayor the next day.

What does Brody shoot to finally kill the shark?

A scuba tank in its mouth; the explosive finish was Spielberg's change, as the novel's shark simply dies of its harpoon wounds.

Producer David Brown first came across the novel in which magazine, edited by his wife?

A card from Cosmopolitan's book editor summarised the plot and ended with the note 'might make a good movie'.

Director Dick Richards lost the job partly for his habit of calling the shark what?

Richards kept calling the shark 'the whale', which irritated the producers; with one credit, The Culpepper Cattle Co., he was dropped before 26-year-old Spielberg was signed in June 1973.

Spielberg had just directed which theatrical film for producers Zanuck and Brown?

The Sugarland Express (1974) was Spielberg's first theatrical feature, made for Zanuck and Brown; he spotted their unpublished copy of the novel at the end of a meeting and was hooked.

The shark's death roar reuses a truck-crash sound from which earlier Spielberg film?

Duel's truck-crash roar is reused for the shark's death; Spielberg saw both as 'leviathans targeting everymen' and worried about being typecast as the truck-and-shark director.

Which novel subplot was cut to protect the camaraderie of the men aboard the boat?

Ellen Brody's affair with Hooper, a major thread of the novel, was dropped so the three men on the boat could be allies rather than rivals.

Which Pulitzer-winning playwright's uncredited rewrite gave Quint his wartime backstory?

Sackler's three-quarter-page speech was expanded by John Milius and then reworked again by Robert Shaw himself.

Lorraine Gary, cast as Ellen Brody, was married to which Universal president?

Sidney Sheinberg, president of MCA/Universal, was Gary's husband; she and Murray Hamilton were the first actors cast, and she returned for Jaws 2 and Jaws: The Revenge.

Which actor was offered Brody but was interested only in playing Quint?

Robert Duvall was offered Brody but was interested only in Quint; Charlton Heston also wanted Brody, but Spielberg felt his persona was too grand for a small-town chief.

Before Shaw was cast, Quint was turned down by Sterling Hayden and which other actor?

Lee Marvin declined Quint, as Sterling Hayden had; nine days before production began neither Quint nor Hooper had been cast.

Shaw modelled Quint on which local fisherman, cast in the small role of Ben Gardner?

Spielberg called Kingsbury 'the purest version' of Quint, and some of his off-screen remarks ended up as lines in the script.

Which director recommended Richard Dreyfuss to Spielberg for the role of Hooper?

George Lucas, who had just directed Dreyfuss in American Graffiti, recommended him; Spielberg had initially wanted Jon Voight for Hooper.

Dreyfuss took the role after a disappointing screening of which film he had just made?

Dreyfuss had just made The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz and thought his performance terrible at a screening, so he took Jaws fearing nobody else would hire him.

The island was chosen partly because its seabed stays shallower than what for 12 miles out?

The island's sandy seabed stays about 35 feet deep for 12 miles out, so the mechanical sharks could work on their platforms while the boat stayed out of sight of land.

Effects chief Bob Mattey was best known for building what for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea?

Bob Mattey built the giant squid for Disney's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954); up to 40 technicians then worked under him on the three pneumatic sharks in Sun Valley, California.

How many flotation barrels does Quint harpoon into the shark?

Quint gets three barrels into the shark, which still manages to dive with all three attached, something Quint insists no fish could do.

How did Ron and Valerie Taylor make the real sharks they filmed off Australia look huge?

A short actor in a miniature cage — stunt double Carl Rizzo in a scaled-down shark cage — made the real great whites filmed off Dangerous Reef, South Australia, look outsized.

Why does Hooper live in the film when the novel kills him off?

Real-shark footage of an empty cage was too good to waste: the Taylors' great white tangled in the unmanned cage, so the script was changed to let Hooper escape.

Why did Spielberg skip the shooting of the final scene in which the shark explodes?

Spielberg stayed away because he thought the crew would throw him in the water once the last shot wrapped; being absent for the final shot has since become his tradition.

The reshoot of Hooper discovering a severed head was filmed in whose swimming pool?

Editor Verna Fields's backyard swimming pool hosted the reshoot; Universal refused to pay, so Spielberg funded it himself, wanting 'one more scream'.

Which brass instrument carries the melody of the shark theme in Williams's score?

The tuba carries it: player Tommy Johnson asked why the part sat so high and not on French horn, and Williams said he wanted it 'a little more threatening'.

Spielberg played which instrument, slightly out of tune, for the film's town band?

Spielberg played clarinet, slightly out of tune, on the recording of Amity's town band, which Williams wanted to sound like enthusiastic amateurs.

Who painted the famous poster image, originally created for the paperback cover?

Kastel photographed a stuffed shark at the American Museum of Natural History for reference; it was actually a mako, not a great white.

In Ideal's tie-in The Game of Jaws, what did players have to do?

Tie-ins ranged from beach towels and water pistols to shark's tooth necklaces and sleepwear.

What US rating did the film receive, to the dismay of critic Charles Champlin?

Champlin called it 'too gruesome for children'; the PG-13 rating did not exist until 1984.

Which Academy Award nomination did Spielberg greatly resent not receiving?

Best Director: Jaws got a Best Picture nod, but the 1976 directing slate left Spielberg out, and he was filmed complaining he had been 'beaten out by Fellini'.

In 1978 the film became the first title sold in North America in which home-video format?

Jaws was the first LaserDisc title, released by MCA DiscoVision in December 1978 in Atlanta, two years before its first VHS edition in 1980.

Which 1979 science fiction film was famously pitched to executives as 'Jaws in space'?

Alien was sold to Fox as 'Jaws in space'; Ridley Scott's film borrowed the keep-the-monster-hidden playbook that Spielberg had been forced into.

Spielberg called which 1978 film 'the best of the Jaws ripoffs'?

Piranha (1978), written by John Sayles, earned Spielberg's praise as the best of the Jaws rip-offs; Dreyfuss later cameoed in the 2010 remake Piranha 3D as a Hooper-like fisherman.

The 1976 Brazilian Jaws parody replaced the shark with which fish?

A cod: the Brazilian spoof Bacalhau (1976) takes its title from the Portuguese word for the fish; Italy's Great White later drew a plagiarism suit from Universal.

In the 2006 video game Jaws Unleashed, who does the player control?

The player controls the shark: Jaws Unleashed (2006) turns Amity Island into an open-world hunting ground where a great white eats swimmers, boats and divers.

Which son of the actor who played Quint co-wrote and starred in The Shark Is Broken?

Ian Shaw, Robert Shaw's son, co-wrote the play with Joseph Nixon and played his father; it imagines Shaw, Scheider and Dreyfuss stuck on the Orca while the shark refuses to work.

Who ended up directing Jaws 2 after original director John D. Hancock was fired?

Jeannot Szwarc, a television director, took over Jaws 2 after John D. Hancock's firing; Joe Alves and Verna Fields had offered to co-direct, but the Directors Guild refused.

Roy Scheider agreed to Jaws 2 to settle his Universal contract after quitting which film?

Scheider quit The Deer Hunter shortly before shooting; Universal released him from that commitment on condition that he star in Jaws 2, with a raise and a profit share.

Jaws 2 opened on June 16, 1978, the same day as which hit musical?

Grease opened the same day, 16 June 1978; both posted huge numbers, and Jaws 2 briefly held the record as the highest-grossing sequel ever made.

Why did the French title of Jaws 2 get a 'Part 2' suffix instead of a plain '2'?

A swear word: 'Les Dents de la mer 2' said aloud gives 'mer deux', uncomfortably close to 'merde', so France got 'Les Dents de la mer, 2e partie'.

Which Florida marine park is the setting for Jaws 3-D?

SeaWorld Orlando is the setting; the film follows the grown-up Brody sons, with Dennis Quaid as Mike, the park's chief engineer.

Producers first pitched the second sequel as a spoof with what title?

Jaws 3, People 0 was the spoof pitch from the original producers, with National Lampoon's John Hughes hired to write it; Universal dropped the idea and made a straight sequel instead.

Jaws 3-D's Razzie nomination for Worst New Star went to whom?

Cindy and Sandy, the dolphins, got the Worst New Star nod; the film drew five Razzie nominations, including Worst Picture, and won none.

What was the tagline of Jaws: The Revenge?

'This time, it's personal.' sold Jaws: The Revenge in 1987; Back to the Future Part II later riffed on it with a hologram shark ad: 'This time it's REALLY REALLY personal!'

According to Jaws: The Revenge, how did Chief Brody die before the story begins?

A heart attack: Roy Scheider declined to return, so the script killed Brody off-screen.

Filming Jaws: The Revenge stopped its British co-star collecting his Oscar for which film?

Caine later said the film paid for a house and gave him a great holiday: 'Not bad for a flop movie.'

In Jaws: The Revenge, the shark follows the Brody family to which islands?

The Bahamas: Ellen joins her son Michael there, and critics noted a great white would have to swim about 1,200 miles in under three days to follow her.

Hank Searls' novelization of The Revenge blames the shark's vendetta on what?

Searls said he never pretended the shark was thinking, which is why he 'got the voodoo guy standing in for him'.

Back to the Future Part II shows Marty attacked by a hologram ad for which sequel?

Jaws 19, 'directed by Max Spielberg', is the hologram that lunges at Marty in 2015 Hill Valley; his verdict is that 'the shark still looks fake'.

Before writing the novel, its author worked as a speechwriter for which US president?

Benchley wrote speeches for Lyndon B. Johnson in the late 1960s after stints as a Washington Post reporter and Newsweek's television editor, then went freelance.

Benchley's next novel, filmed in 1977 with Nolte and Jacqueline Bisset, was called what?

The Deep (1977) adapted Benchley's second novel, with Robert Shaw alongside Nolte and Bisset, and finished among the top-grossing US films of 1977.

In the novel, where is the resort town located?

The novel's Amity sits on Long Island; the producers found the real Hamptons 'too grand' for a town a shark could ruin, so the film moved it to a New England island.

How does Quint die in the novel?

Quint is dragged under by a harpoon line looped around his foot as the dying shark sinks, a deliberate echo of Captain Ahab's death in Moby-Dick.

In the novel, why is Mayor Vaughan so desperate to keep the beaches open?

Mob money is tied up in Amity real estate, and Vaughan stands to lose everything if property values fall.

Susan Backlinie spoofed her opening-scene death in Spielberg's 1941 by being lifted by what?

A submarine periscope hoists her out of the water in 1941's opening, a direct spoof of her Jaws death; it is often called the best joke in one of Spielberg's least loved films.

How many times did Lee Fierro say she slapped Roy Scheider filming Mrs. Kintner's scene?

Fierro put the count at 17 slaps across the takes; she had refused the scene's original profanity, so the line was rewritten the day before shooting.

Production designer Joe Alves, who designed the sharks, later directed which sequel?

Joe Alves directed Jaws 3-D (1983), his only feature as director, after serving as second-unit director on Jaws 2 and offering to co-direct it with Verna Fields.