The Shark (Movie Version)

**The Shark** is the main antagonist in the movie Jaws. It is a great white shark, portrayed by the animatronic Bruce.

## Appearance and Personality

Not much is known about the shark prior to the events of *Jaws*, but what is known about it is described as it goes along. It is 25 feet long, weighs 3 tons, is very intelligent and is easily angered. A single tooth was described to be the size of a shot glass. The shark is also known to be somewhat cowardly, only singling out meals that are alone and isolated and only going after groups of prey when it's threatened by them. The shark is stated by Matt Hooper as being a nocturnal predator that feeds at night.  Unlike most sharks who dislike the taste of humans, this shark seems to revel in it hence why along with the local fish, it singles out human beings whenever they go swimming.  Due to it's abnormally large size, the shark has also shown immense strength. It's capable of both pulling and breaking boats with ease.

## Biography

### Arrival

Little is known about the shark piror to Jaws, but it arrived in Amity in 1975. Why it arrived is unknown, but what was known, was it has claimed the beaches as it's territory.  It's first victim was Chrissie Watkins, who decided to go on a leisurely skinny dip with a potetnial boyfriend, Tom Cassidy.  Had Tom not passed out drunk, he would have either been the next meal, or witnessed the carnage that took Chrissie's life. Her remains were later found washed up on the beach the morning after by Deputy Leonard Hendricks and Chief Martin Brody. While it was the true culpirt, Chrissie's death was blamed on a boating accident by Mayor Larry Vaughn, who didn't want to lose tourists during the Fourth of July and lose summer dollars. Its next sighting was at the beach the afternoon after, where it snuck up on and killed Alex Kitner who was playing on a rubber raft. Unlike Chrissie's demise, Alex's body was not found and there were plenty of witnesses to confirm that it was indeed a shark that did the killing.

### The Bounty

A bounty was placed on its head by Mrs. Kitner which caused a frenzy that involved the implication, killing and capture of a tiger shark.  While it wasn't shown, it was believed to also be responisble for the death of fisherman Ben Gardner.  The only evidence left behind, other than the corpse and the destroyed boat, was a large tooth lodged in the hull.  However Matt Hooper, who discovered the tooth, dropped it in a panic upon stumbling upon Gardner's corpse.

### Horror On The Fourth Of July

The Fourth of July festival begins, with Brody and Hooper on Shark watch.  After a false alarm invovling two kids with a cardboard fin, the shark was later spotted heading into the Estuary, where Michael Brody and his friends are playing with their boat as well as a local rower. The shark knocks both boats over snatching the rower along the way, leaving only his severed leg behind.  As the shark flees it passes by Michael leaving him in a state of shock.  After persuading Vaughn to sign the charter, Brody, Hooper and Quint set sail on the Orca, to hunt the shark.

### The Hunt

The shark wasn't sighted on the beaches since the events of the Fourht of July. However on the first day of sailing it catches Quint's fishing line while following the orca's chum line; a tactic he uses to trick sharks up in the surface.  The shark however, goes under the boat and bites through the piano wire causing Brody and Hooper to fall over, cutting the former's head. The shark isn't seen until later in the day, when Brody meets it face to face during another round of chumming. As the shark circles around the boat, Hooper incorrectly guesses it to be a 20-footer, but Quint corrects him saying 25 and that it weighs three tons. Quint prepares his spear gun while Hooper takes pictures of the shark, trying and failing to convince Brody to move at the end of the pulpit for scale.  Quint tells Hooper to tie the line of the spear to one of the barrels, hoping to get a good shot to the head. However Hooper instead stalls it so he could place a tracking device on the barrel.  Quint fires and the first shot hits the shark on the fin dragging the barrel with it.  While the barrel was meant to keep it from going under, it also served as a crude way to track the shark's movements.  Unfortunately due to its massive size, the shark had the advantage of dragging the barrel underwater as it flees.

### Night Attack

After a night of comparing scars, telling stories and singing, Brody, Hooper and Quint are met again with the shark, who proceeds to ram their boat, causing the lights to sputter out and a leak in the hull. Armed with a rifle, Quint tries to shoot the shark as it tries to flee.

### More Barrels

As Hooper and Quint make repairs on the boat, Brody spots the barrel.  Quint and Hooper try to reel it in with the rope, but the Shark pops up, pulling the rope out and cutting Quint's hands in the process. Hooper later spots the shark after Quint smashes the radio. On Quint's orders, Hooper hooks up another barrel for him to shoot into the shark hitting it in the fin again. Hooper steers the boat, giving chase as Brody prepares his pistol. Hooper rams the boat into the barrel and the shark as Quint hooks another barrel into it.  Brody empties his gun firing at the Shark only managing to hit it once, before it goes under taking the two barrels with it. The barrels pop up not too long later as Brody and Hooper reel them in with poles. They tie the barrels to the stern Cleats. The shark pulls the ropes nearly crushing Hooper's legs in the process and dragging the boat. Quint moves the throttle up, trying to tug the shark back. The shark, in retaliation, pops up, eating its way through the line and loosening the cleats with it. Quint fires one more barrel, with the spear lodged into the shark's lower jaw. The barrel ends up flying off the boat, knocking Brody's glasses off in the process. The shark splashes them before trying to drag the cleats again, breaking them off and splashing water into the engine. The shark manages to go underwater even with the three barrels attached to it, a feat that stuns Quint to no end. The shark nudges and batters the boat, enraged from the constant attacks. When Quint starts heading for shore, the shark gives chase, prompting him to try to lead it into the shallow waters. The engine gives out and the boat is stuck as the shark goes under once more.

### Cage Match

In a last ditch effort, Hooper goes under water in the shark cage armed with a hypodermic spear full of poison in an attempt to kill the shark.  As Hooper is lowered into the cage, the shark cricles him at first.  When Hooper prepares to use the spear, the shark attacks the cage from behind bending the bars and making Hooper drop the spear.  When he tries to retreive the spear, the shark attacks again breaking through.  Hooper defends himself stabbing the shark's head with a knife and escaping the cage through the top, while it's tangled up. The shark struggles to free itself from the cage, breaking the holdings. Once freed, the Shark leaps up onto the stern of the boat breaking it and tipping it over.  Quint is caught feet first into the shark's mouth desperately trying to fight it off with his machete. However the shark bites down on him below the waist, killing him before dragging him down to eat him.

### Final Battle

When it's finished feeding, it attacks the cabin going after Brody, who bashes his head with the spare scuba tank before throwing it in it's mouth causing it to flee.  The shark goes after Brody again as he's climbing the mast, forcing Brody to jabe at it with a spear until it goes away. It comes back for one more pass, still with the tank lodged in its mouth. After missing several times, Brody shoots the tank, blowing it up. The last of the shark is seen with the remaining half of its body sinking into the ocean while a faint roar can be heard while the remaining pieces float up to the surface to be fed upon by the seagulls.

## Victims

### Successful:

Chrissie Watkins

Alex Kitner

Ben Gardner

Estuary Victim

Quint

### Failed:

Michael Brody

Matt Hooper

Martin Brody

## Trivia

* Real great white sharks rarely get to a size approaching the shark in Jaws. Only large females grow to 20+ feet, and no white shark has ever been seen to reach 25 feet.
* Great whites do not often hunt at night like the shark in Jaws does. They are generally diurnal (daytime feeders).
* The shark's live action scenes were shot off Australia by veteran filmmakers Ron and Valerie Taylor. Shark expert and conservationist Rodney Fox, also had a hand in the filming of the live action scenes, as he was the guide for finding the sharks.
* During one incident in filming the underwater scenes, the midget stunt diver that was Richard Dreyfuss' stand-in for the shark cage scenes was quite terrified of getting in the cage with the sharks circling around, particularly after one large shark grabbed ahold of the boat's propeller and physically shook the boat. As Rodney Fox tried to get him in the cage for the filming, Dreyfuss' stunt double panicked and began refusing to get into the water.