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: When Quint slowly clips his harness to the fishing reel, the reel has a brushed chrome dull finish. However, in the previous and following shots, although the reel style is the same, the reel has a highly polished mirrored chrome finish. (01:15:25)
Continuity mistake: When the pump is given to Brody, Quint says, "Pump it out, Chief," and then Quint, with his long blue sleeves, thrusts his machete into the side of the boat. However, in the close-up Quint's arm has no sleeve whatsoever, as the machete meets the wood. (01:45:30)
Continuity mistake: When the shark slams into the cage and makes Hooper drop his weapon, it shows the underside of the shark; look at the its mouth. When the shark is about to slam into the cage again its mouth isn't the same size as it was before. You can tell that they used a real shark when they showed the underside. (01:54:15)
Continuity mistake: The knots on the supporting rigging lines aboard Orca keep changing in consecutive shots, within the same scenes. (01:41:20 - 01:43:20)
Continuity mistake: When Brody yells for everyone to get out of the water after Alex's attack, the position of all the adults and children as they run differ greatly depending on camera angle, regardless of the ensuing mayhem. (00:17:25)
Continuity mistake: When Quint slides down the deck towards the shark, there is a shot that shows Brody's legs sliding right behind Quint. However, Brody is still back up in the cabin in the next shot.
Continuity mistake: When the barrel comes over the top of the boat Brody ducks to his left and it just misses him - in the next shot Quint is standing immediately to his right, so he should have been hit by the barrel, knocked out or even killed.
Continuity mistake: At the end Brody throws the diving tank into the shark's mouth with the bottom first. When he shoots the tank it has turned round with the fat end facing out.
Continuity mistake: When Jaws jumps onto the back of the Orca, the Orca tilts to the right. After Quint gets killed Brody goes inside, and the Orca is tilting to the left without sinking anymore.
Continuity mistake: When Hooper tries asking the fishermen about a restaurant or hotel on the island, he makes a motion with his right hand. But between shots, his hand grabs onto the wood piling. (00:29:10)
Continuity mistake: At the hospital, where Larry waits for Brody to approach, Larry quickly moves his left hand away from the front desk between frames. (01:04:50)
Continuity mistake: Before Alex Kintner is attacked, Sean Brody is shown sitting on the beach singing. After Alex is attacked and people are running out of the water, Sean can be seen standing on the beach, and in one shot, Chief Brody can be seen grabbing him. But a couple of seconds later, Sean is shown sitting on the beach in the same spot he was before, as if he hadn't moved. (00:16:55)
Continuity mistake: When Sheriff Brody is tossing chum to attract the shark, the cigarette between his lips is not lit but when he backs into the bridge of the boat, there is smoke trailing from the cigarette.
Continuity mistake: When all 3 men are putting the shark cage together for Hooper, and they move the cage over to the side of the boat, Brody is shirtless. Then the next shot where the cage is going into the water, Brody's black T-shirt is back on.
Continuity mistake: When Jaws leaves the pond after the attack its fins go below the water as it approaches the bridge, the scene immediately changes to the bridge, the woman is shouting "shark" and we see the fins go below the water again.
Continuity mistake: When the man gets attacked the long shot shows two of the three boys on top of the upturned boat, then we see the leg sink to the bottom with a trainer on, even though the man was bare footed. Then the camera passes the boy in the water and the other two boys are only just climbing up onto the boat.
Continuity mistake: When the Kitner boy was attacked, the underwater shots show the swimmers treading water in fairly deep water, but the above shots show the kids standing in shallow water.
Continuity mistake: When Brody is on the mast of the Orca with Quint's rifle, preparing to shoot the shark, the shark emerges from the water and there is blood on the end of its nose, but after a quick cut to Brody, we return to the shark and blood has disappeared. (01:59:20)
Continuity mistake: When the shark is attacking Hooper in the cage, what happened to the the lines to the barrels they have shot into the shark?
Answer: Although the 1995 documentary "The Making of Jaws" claims that the shooting star was real, the fact is that the shooting-star background effect is a Steven Spielberg trademark in most of his films (first noticed in "Jaws," but also appearing in "Close Encounters," "E.T. The Extraterrestrial," "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom," "Saving Private Ryan" and others). Spielberg has always had a fascination with shooting stars, dating back to his childhood, and he works them into almost every film. Http://americanprofile.com/articles/steven-spielberg-shooting-stars-movies/.
Charles Austin Miller