Jaws
Jaws mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: After Brody buys the sign supplies, when Hendricks shows up Brody places the box in the front seat, and as Hendricks tells Brody about the Boy Scouts, pay attention to the left window across the street, where we can see one of the local residents holding a camera and looking out the window facing the location shoot, taking pictures of the actors and film crew. The filming took place at the corner of Main St and S. Water St, Edgartown. (00:10:50)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: When Quint is doing his speech at the town meeting the camera slowly moves towards him. When the camera passes the man in the grey suit you can see a moving shadow near Quint. Everyone in the room is stationary in this scene apart from the cameraman and film crew. (00:20:55)

Jaws mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: When the fishermen start out on the hunt, Ben Gardner appears in a close-up leaning on the windshield at forward deck, while talking to his boatmate about how stupid some of the others are. In the next wide shot of the boats, Ben's green boat is towards the left of the screen, and the large reflector screen and camera, that are mounted to the bow of his boat, are visible in front of the forward window where Ben was seen in the previous shot. (00:30:25)

Super Grover

Jaws mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: Aboard the Orca, Brody accidentally causes the cage bars to fall over, and as both air tanks roll forward the multiple head set lights are reflected on the two tanks. (01:13:35)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: When Quint hears the clicking fishing reel, he puts on the harness and slowly lifts the rod. At the start of the shot facing the reel, a crew member's hand and the top of his head are reflected in the circular chrome. (01:15:25)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: When the three guys first see the shark, it shows a shot of the shark swimming past and there are shadows of equipment and about three crew members just watching the action. It's not eqiupment from the Orca because nothing is there that looks similar to this shadow. (01:22:00)

Visible crew/equipment: After spotting the shark, which Quint declares is a twenty five footer, Brody asks, "How do we handle this?" and the crew's swaying vessel is visible in the reflection on the starboard windows. (01:22:20)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: After Quint smashes up the radio, the shark re-appears. In the shot of Quint, as he walks along the side of the boat, the clear reflection of the filming crew's vessel is visible in the nearest window. (01:39:10)

Super Grover

Jaws mistake picture

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene where Quint shoots the shark with a harpoon gun, when the harpoon hits the shark you can see the shadow of the cameraman. (01:39:25)

Visible crew/equipment: Just after the two barrels pop up, Hooper comes down from the bridge deck and quips, "Now what?" In the next shot as the two barrels bob up and down, Orca is in the distance with Quint still up on the bridge deck, and Hooper and Brody standing on deck at the stern, but we can see there's someone else aboard who's moving around inside the cabin, beside the hanging net. (01:41:50)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: Hooper and Brody grab a couple of poles as the Orca pulls alongside the two floating barrels. When Quint says, "Watch those barrels, boys. Watch them," the crew's vessel is clearly reflected in the cabin's side glass window. (01:42:15)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: After tying off the cleats, the shark pulls Orca causing it to tip. As Hooper and Brody fall backwards onto the deck, in this close-up the white tape mark is visible on the black anti-slip mat - where Quint will land the machete in a subsequent shot. (01:43:00)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: Just before the barrel smashes the cabin window, as Quint shouts, "Untie us! He'll pull out the transom!" the reflection of the crew's swaying vessel is visible in the window of the cabin, behind Hooper. (01:44:00)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene after the shark has pulled out the stern cleats and the three men are kneeling down in the boat; look at the window of the cabin door of the Orca, and you can see the crew on a separate boat being reflected in the glass. (01:45:10)

Visible crew/equipment: After Quint walks on deck and tosses the life vests to Hooper and Brody, Quint asks, "Hooper, what exactly can you do with these things of yours?" Just as Hooper turns around, the clear moving reflection of a boom mic and pole are visible on the glass of the door to the cabin, just behind him. (01:50:15)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: After hoisting up the damaged cage, when Quint walks over to stand beside Brody in the close-up the reflection of a male crew member's head is visible in the window, behind the ladder, until Brody lets go of the line. The crew's moving shadow is also visible under the cabin window, just after Quint passes it. (01:56:40)

Super Grover

Visible crew/equipment: After losing Quint, Brody is in the flooded cabin as the ship tips. Just before the shark bursts in, there is an exterior shot looking into the cabin through the window with the shards of glass. A crew member wearing a jacket and hat is visible in the reflection of the triangular piece of glass, at the top right of the screen. (01:57:55)

Super Grover

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)

Super Grover

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

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

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: There are two scenes on the boat after they have seen the shark and Brody has a panicked look, while in the background a shooting star passes right behind him. This happens twice, but it's in the day time. Was it real?

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

More questions & answers from Jaws

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.