Jaws

Continuity mistake: On the dock, as the Tiger shark is being raised there is an arrow above its gills, a second arrow below its dorsal fin and a broken arrow shaft in the wound just beside that dorsal fin. When Hooper tells the three fishermen that it's a Tiger shark, the broken arrow beside its dorsal fin is now a nice, long, whole arrow. All of the arrows change their degree of penetration in the shark's hide throughout these shots. (00:32:55 - 00:34:20)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When the Tiger shark is displayed on the docks, the blood stains in and around the mouth and its body, either change significantly between shots or completely disappear. (00:33:00)

Super Grover

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)

Jaws mistake picture

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: On the Fourth of July, Sean (the youngest Brody kid) is wearing a white t-shirt with orange around the collar, and green shorts. But after Michael goes into shock and Sean is seen crying, he's suddenly wearing darker shorts and a plain white shirt with no orange. Later at the hospital, he has his orange and white shirt and green shorts on again. (01:01:55)

Krista

Continuity mistake: When the shark enters the Estuary, he passes Sean playing on the sand. After the attack Michael is pulled ashore and there is a close-up of Sean crying. Behind Sean the orange and white stripe cabanas are visible. However, there are no cabanas at the shores of the pond; these cabanas are located at the main beach area. The footage of Sean, with the cabanas behind him, is from the earlier scene of Alex's attack. (01:02:00 - 01:03:30)

Super Grover

Continuity mistake: When Michael and his two friends are sitting in their boat, in the pond, in the first close-up they sit on the white wrinkled up sail, but in the next wideshot two of them sit on the spread out blue tarp. (01:02:00)

Super Grover

Jaws mistake picture

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)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Jaws

Hooper: You know those eight guys in the fantail launch out there? Well, none of 'em are gonna make it out of the harbor alive.

More quotes from Jaws

Trivia: Quint's boat is named Orca. The orca is the only natural predator the great white shark has (besides humans).

More trivia for Jaws

Question: When Quint and Hooper are comparing leg scars, they are sitting near each other with legs overlapping. The shot moves to Brody, then back to Quint and Hooper at the table, sitting apart. Quint is fastening his pants, buckling his buckle, and zipping his zipper. He obviously showed them something that was edited out of the movie. What was it?

Rick Neumann

Answer: Possibly a scar from having his appendix removed, I've been told.

The appendix shot is Brody - he is feeling inferior as the other two share tales of the sea and the only scar he has is from his appendix being removed.

Chosen answer: I just watched this on DVD. As the men were supposed to be comparing their body scars to one another, it appears that Quint had just shown one that was hidden beneath his pants. Whatever this was, it was edited out. When movie scenes are originally filmed, they are usually much longer in length than what is in the final version. After editing, some actions, dialogue, and character movements are deleted either to shorten the running time, for better storytelling flow, or the action was considered unnecessary to the scene. Also, film censorship at this time (mid-1970s) was far stricter than it is today, and it may have been that a review board deemed it inappropriate to have a character unzipping his pants in that manner and insisted it be removed from the final version.

raywest

I believe it was Brody, not Quint that was looking down his pants. And I believe that he was embarrassed that his (maybe appendix) scar was not as big or impressive as Quint and Hoopers.

Watch it again and as Quint is scooting back over to his spot he's fastening his pants, but no explanation is given.

I thought Brody had been shot as a cop in the big city (and that was why he took the job in a quiet, small town) and that in this scene he was looking at the scar and comparing it in his mind to the scars the other guys were showing but not saying anything to them about it.

Answer: After Brody looks down at his abdomen scar (probably an appendix scar) the camera switches back to Quint and Hooper. As Hooper starts talking, watch Quint. He is buttoning his pants and then struggles to zip them up. He leaves his belt unbuckled. I've seen Jaws more times than I can count - starting the year it premiered in 1975 - and I didn't notice this weirdness until a few years ago.

More questions & answers from Jaws

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