Continuity mistake: In the scene where Hooper is measuring the bite radius of the Tiger shark, he puts his measuring tape away more than once. (00:33:30)
Continuity mistake: There is a scene where Chief Brody and his wife are talking about their son's birthday present. She says that he probably won't go in the water after what happened yesterday (the attack on the Kintner boy). The next day is when the shark is caught and Hooper makes a comment about the shark's digestive system being very slow and anything he's eaten within the last 24 hours would probably still be in there. From the earlier scene it would make it 48 hours since the Kintner boy was killed. (00:35:20)
Continuity mistake: Hooper wears rimless eyeglasses, with the arms either attached at the upper corners of the lenses or at the sides of the lenses. If this didn't happen between shots within the same scenes, it could be presumed that Hooper has two different pairs of glasses and switches between the two, but they do indeed change between shots, such as when Mrs. Kintner slaps Brody, or even later, on the Orca. (00:36:05)
Continuity mistake: When Mrs. Kintner confronts Chief Brody on the dock, in the shots facing her the veil blows away from her face, but in the shots facing Brody, the veil blows towards her face. (00:36:10)
Continuity mistake: When Sean mimics his father, Brody's glasses are lying upright on the table. However, when Hooper sits down the glasses are upside down and other things on the table change position, etc. (00:38:10 - 00:39:50)
Other mistake: In the scene at the dinner table, when Brody's son is copying his movements, after Brody puts down his glass to cross his fingers, you see his son cross them before Brody does. (00:39:20)
Continuity mistake: At his home, after Brody uncorks the bottle of wine he begins to peel the top label. In the following shots the top label changes, as well as the position of his hands, depending on camera angle as Hooper and Brody speak. (00:42:45)
Revealing mistake: At the boathouse, when Hooper cuts open the tiger shark, it is very noticeably a fake shark (note its sewn seams) in contrast to the real tiger shark hanging on the dock earlier. (According to "The Jaws Log," by Carl Gottlieb the local fishermen had been unable to catch a big enough shark for the dock scene, so they found a freshly caught 13-ft tiger shark in Florida then flew it to Massachusetts on a private plane, but by the time the scene was filmed the shark was already decomposing and had a foul stench). (00:43:40)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper cuts open the shark and empties the contents, the amount and position of the fish changes between shots. (00:44:00)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper is gutting the Tiger shark, the order of things he pulls out does not match the order that they land at Brody's feet, as Hooper throws them towards him, and some things just appear at Brody's feet. (00:44:05)
Continuity mistake: After Hooper cuts open the Tiger shark, when he throws a license plate towards the Chief the area to Brody's left is clear, but in the shot facing Brody there are lines and equipment lying on the ground beside him, to his left. (00:44:10)
Factual error: When Hooper sees the hole in the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, he uses his knife to pry out the shark tooth. The tooth is located at the bottom of the hole, with its flat root side stuck deep in the wood and its pointy side facing up. It is completely impossible for the shark's tooth to become wedged in the wood this way, while he takes a nice bite out of the wood hull. (00:49:15)
Revealing mistake: When Hooper encounters Ben, the shape and size of the hole in the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, as well as the paint stripes on the hull, all change in this shot. (The close-ups of Ben's appearance were shot later in pick-ups after principal photography wrapped.) (00:49:30)
Continuity mistake: After Hooper pulls the tooth from the hull of the boat, in the shot just as Ben first pops out, the knife Hooper holds has a protective sheath on the blade, yet in the previous and following shots the pointy serrated blade is not covered. (00:49:30)
Continuity mistake: When Hooper pulls the tooth from the hull of Ben Gardner's boat, he wears his watch and ring on his left wrist and hand. However, in the close-up as he drops the flashlight, knife and tooth, he wears them on his right side. Flipped shot. (00:49:35)
Plot hole: When Hooper and Chief Brody are trying to get the Mayor to re-close the beach after finding Ben Gardner's boat, they fail to mention they also found Ben Gardner's severed head. The Mayor would be forced to re-close the beach if yet another confirmed shark fatality had been mentioned, but Hooper and Brody never bring that important detail up. [This is still a mistake, but the explanation for this is that the scene where they find Ben Gardner's head was not in the original script. Originally, they just found his boat. Spielberg felt the scene needed a little more shock value so they shot the part with the head in a swimming pool long after the main filming had been completed.] (00:50:20)
Suggested correction: First off, it wasn't a severed head as you can still see the body attached to it, and second, what difference would that make? Two people and a dog already died, with the death of the Kitner boy being witnessed by several people, and the beaches still stayed open because the mayor was too stupid to close them. Not only that, but during the scene you mentioned, I believe it was Hooper who said that THREE incidents had occurred BEFORE the third killing takes place on-screen.
And not only that, but the mayor witnessed Hooper saying that the shark they caught was not the same one, or at least it was possible that it wasn't. Either way, shark attacks were happening, but the mayor did nothing about it.
Continuity mistake: As the Mayor walks over to the couple on the beach, to persuade them to go into the water, the back of the woman's lounge chair is visible. In the following shot from behind, as they stand up, suddenly a yellow towel is leaning over the back of her chair. (00:56:05)
Character mistake: When Brody waves at his wife Ellen she says "I've got Shawn." In the next shot he's running after his brother Michael going to the pond, so she has not got him at all. (00:57:50)
Continuity mistake: When the 'shark fin' (boys playing a trick) approaches a woman she shouts, "My God!" and turns to swim towards the family with three children on a yellow raft, surrounded by other swimmers. In the next shot of a man's reaction, he too swims towards the very same family, but this time the children are in different order and no others surround them. (00:59:10)
Continuity mistake: When the man swims away from the 'shark fin' towards the family, in the shot from behind he swims between the older girl and young boy. However, in the next shot facing him he swims between the older and younger girls, causing the raft to tip. (00:59:10)
Suggested correction: When Hooper uses the knife to pry to tooth out, it took very little effort, suggesting that the tooth wasn't wedged into that spot, but merely just resting in that spot.
The shark tooth was inserted into the wood by the prop crew with its flat root side down, which would have been impossible to have occurred during the attack on the hull. As to the statement that the tooth was "merely just resting in that spot" then Hooper would not have needed to use the blade to remove it from the wood, plus the fact that since it was underwater it would have floated away during the hours after the attack. But it did not float away, so it must have been at the very least snugly fit into the wood hull. Still impossible.
Super Grover ★
The original mistake says that the root of the tooth was embedded In the wood. Not possible since it should be the sharp end in the wood and the root showing on top (as described in the mistake).
Ssiscool ★