Continuity mistake: Just before the Kintner boy is attacked, when Chief Brody is sitting on the beach watching the water, he speaks with the old man called Harry. In the close-up shot of Harry the chin strap of his rubber cap hangs down loose at his chest, but in the side shots the chin strap is tucked up at his ear (seen when Harry stands up). (00:16:00)
Continuity mistake: After the first barrel pops up, Hooper and Quint gather up the rope while at the stern. The existence of rope in each of their hands changes abruptly between shots. Particularly when Quint holds the rope only in his left hand in the wide shot, but in the next dramatic close-up as it leaves a rope burn, he grips it in both hands. (01:37:30)
Continuity mistake: At the hospital, when Ellen walks away carrying Sean, Brody turns to face the Mayor and the countertop of the nurses' station is visible. In the next shot, a black ashtray suddenly appears on the counter as Brody walks over. (01:04:45)
Revealing mistake: When the Orca is sinking and the shark smashes through the glass to get Brody, the mechanical shark's eyes are too obviously fake-looking in these close-ups.
Continuity mistake: After the first shot of Hooper's shark dart falling, in the next shot of the shark swimming away, the cage top is wide open, yet in the previous shots and following close-up the top of the cage is closed, until Hooper actually opens it. (01:54:15)
Visible crew/equipment: While Quint tells of his experience with the U.S.S. Indianapolis, in the close-ups of Brody a crew member's arm with a watch is clearly visible moving in the reflection on the window, just behind Brody, particularly when Quint says, "Anyway, we delivered the bomb." (01:32:55)
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)
Revealing mistake: When Hooper has found Ben Gardener's head, he screams and drops the tooth and the light. Watch at the bottom of Ben's boat, a wire can be seen to anchor it down.
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)
Revealing mistake: When Chief Brody starts shooting the shark, his cartridge is missing.
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.
Revealing mistake: When Quint begins singing 'Ladies of Spain' while Bruce is chasing the Orca into the shallows, he turns slightly to his left and looks over his shoulder. When he does, you can see that the barrels are actually being towed by the Orca, due to the wake of the line doing the towing.
Revealing mistake: When the boy is attacked at the beach a man says "did you see that?" The woman behind him wearing the hat sits up with everyone else then looks directly at the camera and smiles instead of looking at the attack.
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)
Character mistake: Captain Quint tells Hooper and Brody that the USS Indianapolis delivered "the Hiroshima bomb" in 1945. This is a myth that has persisted for decades and right up to the present. To prevent it from being lost in one piece, the Hiroshima bomb was actually delivered in pieces by various means to Tinian Island, where the parts were reassembled before it was carried aboard the Enola Gay to its target in Japan. The USS Indianapolis delivered only the detonator for the bomb. (01:29:00)
Suggested correction: This isn't a mistake since even you say it is a commonly believed and spoken of myth, so how is the captain repeating a commonly held myth a movie mistake? That would be like calling it a movie mistake if the character of King Arthur said the world was flat.
I agree with Jason, that it was correct for the character of Quint to have truly believed it. This was submitted as a "character mistake" which is appropriate. According to MM's guidelines a character mistake is "something a character wrongly states as fact... Something more significant than a minor error anyone could make."
Suggested correction: Quint likely believed the ship carried the bomb. It's unlikely he would know the details of an intricate plan to deliver the pieces separately. It may not have been factually correct, but it was correct for the character to have believed it.
Revealing mistake: When Brody is stabbing Jaws at the end with the harpoon, you can see air bubbles under the rubber skin on top of Jaw's head - air bubbles or the blood bags.
