Question: In real life, would it have been possible for a fully-grown great white shark to smash through the metal cage that Hooper was in like it does in the movie, or is that just Hollywood nonsense?
raywest
21st Apr 2024
Jaws (1975)
21st Oct 2023
Jaws (1975)
Question: Does anyone know what Quint caught with his fishing line? Quint is adamant it's a shark, whereas Hooper, who's a shark expert, doesn't believe it is. Quint managed to reel it in somewhat, and given that Bruce was able to pull the entire Orca later on, I'd say there's no way Quint would be strong enough to reel Bruce in, so that kinda rules him out. So what on Earth was it that they actually caught?
Answer: It was Bruce. Quint doesn't reel him in as such, rather just reels in some of the line that was slacking. Bruce even pulls the line with sufficient force to frighten Quint, making him exclaim "Jesus Christ...!" The piano wire had been cleanly bitten through, and as Quint points out no small fish could do that. Further, the soundtrack kicks in when the line is tugged. Spielberg specifically stated he only ever used music to indicate the presence of the shark, hence no music during the earlier fake shark scare.
Answer: It was never revealed in the film exactly what it was. It's possible that it was another shark or some large game fish that broke the line. Mostly it's a plot device to foreshadow the coming encounter with "Bruce," and it creates suspense and tension. It also highlights the growing conflict between Quint and Hooper as to who knows more (college educated vs blue-collar smarts).
28th Jul 2023
Jaws (1975)
Question: Why didn't they bring stronger ammunition on the Orca to kill on-site when the shark is surfaced, instead of using barrels and playing the slow game?
Answer: Agree with the other answers, but would add that both Quint and Hooper underestimated how big and powerful the shark would be. Until they were at sea, the shark wasn't fully seen and was likely expected to be about 15 feet and easier to kill with the weapons they had. As mentioned, the barrels were intended to slow down and exhaust the shark, keep it nearer the surface, and allow them to track and kill it.
Answer: The barrels were also used to slow or even stop the shark from leaving. They were heavy, but it didn't slow him down. Quint said, "The shark can't go down with two barrels on him." When it did, Matt Hooper asked, "Have you ever seen a shark do that?" Quint replied, "Never."
Answer: They didn't want to lose it. If the thing surfaces and you start shooting at it or use explosives and you don't kill it, you will just scare it off and won't see it again. That is, until there is someone eaten again. They wanted to be sure to kill it, so you lure it, get it to surface with the barrels and then kill it properly. It's still just a fish.
24th Sep 2022
Jaws (1975)
Question: Why is Quint's belt buckle undone and he is zipping up his pants as Hooper talks about his girlfriend who broke his heart. Was he showing off another scar, and they cut that scene out?
Answer: Yes, that part was edited out. As I remember it from the theatrical version, Quint had shown Hooper and Brody a scar below his waist, then was buckling his belt just as Hooper started talking about his "broken heart." This scene and others were likely edited to fit a TV time slot and allow for commercials.
10th Jul 2022
Jaws (1975)
Question: When Hopper asks the men in the boat if there are any hotels nearby, they say "Walk straight ahead" and Hooper's response to that was to laugh and say "They're all gonna die" - Why were the men going to die exactly?
Answer: The entire town went into a frenzy after Mrs. Kintner offered a reward to kill the shark. People who knew nothing about boats or seamanship were heading out on the ocean, armed with shotguns and explosives. When Sheriff Brody saw that the men were dangerously overloading the small outboard boat, he asked Hooper to warn them, which he did. The men ignored Hooper, then made the sarcastic remark about him walking straight ahead, which would lead Hooper off the end of the pier. They were idiots who Hooper believes will probably drown or blow themselves up.
13th Dec 2021
Jaws (1975)
Question: When Brody and Hooper find Ben Gardner's boat why does Hooper dive into the water to examine the bottom of the boat when he already knows there's a man-eating shark in the water? How does Hooper know the shark won't swim up behind (or underneath) him and devour him?
Answer: Because he is under the impression the shark has recently eaten and the digestive system of a shark works really slow so it won't be out hunting for a while. With a normal shark anyway.
Answer: Hooper wanted to inspect Gardner's boat as soon as possible to see what caused it to sink, and before the town locals towed it and possibly destroyed any evidence. As the other answer noted, Hooper knew the shark's eating habits. He was willing to take a calculated risk and which he was quite nervous about.
5th Mar 2021
Jaws (1975)
Question: I know that during the filming Richard Dreyfuss and Robert Shaw often argued. What caused them to dislike each other so much?
Answer: Agree with the other answer but would add that while the entire cast thought Robert Shaw was a charming and pleasant man, his chronic alcoholism caused problems and tensions on the set. I remember a TV interview with Richard Dreyfuss saying he once lost his patience with Shaw during the production, strongly telling him to just stop drinking after Shaw commiserated about his problem. That may have been the source of the feud rumor.
Answer: Simply put, they didn't; rumors of a feud between them got blown out of proportion over the years. Richard Dreyfuss himself said that he and Shaw got on famously throughout the shoot, and that there was one altercation between them that was an isolated incident. "It's not true, and where that started I don't know, but trust me, Robert Shaw wouldn't countenance that idea of a feud, forget it." You can read the interview with Dreyfuss from 2019 here: https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/celebrity-interviews/jaws-legend-richard-dreyfuss-reveals-17325959.
13th Oct 2020
Jaws (1975)
Question: Why did the boat's engine explode exactly? Hooper says he had burnt out the bearings, but how is this possible? It's not like a car engine where if you hold it at max revs for ages it'll seize up, this was a marine engine, they are designed to run at max revs all day. Hooper also didn't have any issues going at full throttle the previous day when they first got a barrel on the shark, so what changed?
Answer: It was most likely going full throttle that caused the engine to burn out. Besides, the boat isn't brand new, from the look of it, it should have been put in the scrap yard years ago.
Answer: There were many contributing factors in the demise of the engine. When Quint and Hooper are working on the engine the day previously, Hooper says "The injectors have been scorched by the saltwater in the fuel" and then Quint mentions something about the housing being bent. Working it too hard was just simply too much for her and she blew.
Answer: This is a Hollywood movie, and Hollywood loves explosions in their movies. The Mythbusters tested a number of explosions in movies (mostly involving cars), showing it was highly improbable they would blow up as depicted in a film. I suspect this is the case in "Jaws." Spielberg was going for dramatic visual effect rather than reality. The same could be said about the scuba tank blowing up in the shark's mouth when Brody shot it with a rifle. The tank would never explode like that just from a gun shot and was yet another fallacy the Mythbusters debunked.
7th Feb 2020
Jaws (1975)
Question: What was the reason behind Quint blowing up the engine? Hooper told him "Don't put that much pressure on it" and he revs it up some more. The shark isn't getting any closer at slower speeds so was there really any need to try and outrun him?
Answer: Quint had become so obsessed with killing the shark that he was completely irrational. He was stubborn, combative, single-minded, and determined that no-one knew more than him about catching sharks and was not going to listen to anything that Hooper or Brody said or did, to the point of sabotaging his own boat.
7th Aug 2014
Jaws (1975)
Question: The other night me and some friends were arguing whether or not the shot that Brody makes to blow the tank up to kill Bruce was possible, or would it be too hard to make?
Chosen answer: It would certainly be very difficult, with the shark moving and hitting the tank while slightly underwater. But it wouldn't be impossible.
Answer: This theory was tested on "Mythbusters" and the myth was "busted", twice. https://mythresults.com/mythbusters-vs-jaws.
14th Sep 2017
Jaws (1975)
Question: As Matt Hooper is analyzing the dead body, he yells at Martin not to smoke. Why does he follow that up with "this is what happens" while holding up her severed arm? What does that line refer to?
24th May 2017
Jaws (1975)
Question: Here's a question that's never been answered. After Captain Quint addresses the Amity city council, he bids them good day and leaves, and a dog and a little guy wearing a cap obediently follow Quint down the hall. For a split-second, we also see this little guy's cap pass before the camera inside Quint's dock-front quarters. Who was this little guy, Quint's first mate? We don't know, because that little guy is never seen again after the dock quarters scene.
Answer: I believe you see the same person helping prepare the Orca before it starts setting out. He has Quint's M1 slung over his shoulder.
Chosen answer: The man is never identified. It is never stated in the movie that he is Quint's first mate or that he works for him. He could be or may just casually know Quint, and is probably also a local fisherman.
He is Quint's deckhand/first mate. The fellow who was cast was not an actor, just a local character, whose dog followed him everywhere (Spielberg got a kick out of him and cast him). This was clarified in a scene where he quits rather than go on the boat after Jaws, which was cut out of the film but can be found on YouTube.
20th Feb 2009
Jaws (1975)
Question: When the swimmers are running out of the water, why does Brody shout: "No whistles?"
Answer: Brody didn't want to panic all the beach goers and cause a splashing commotion which would excite the shark.
Answer: When the shark attacks fist began, Brody began reading up on shark behavior. It is believed that vibrating sounds can attract sharks. Brody believes that multiple people blowing loud whistles could bring the shark closer into shore.
On the contrary, high frequency noises (such as those produced by whistles) barely penetrate into the water and seem to have no effect on sharks or any other fish. Low-frequency noises (such as concussive splashing) travel a great distance in water and are a definite attraction for marine predators. Ultra-low-frequency noises (such as the songs of whales) can travel hundreds of miles through water. The U.S. Navy even uses extremely-low-frequency (ELF) transmissions for communicating with submarines far out at sea. So, no, there is no documented scientific reason for Brody to think that high-frequency noise would attract sharks. Either the movie's screenwriters were badly mistaken in their assumption that whistles attract sharks, or the character of Chief Brody was deliberately written to be mistaken in that assumption.
In a study, sharks were attracted to low-frequency pulsed sounds resembling those of struggling fish. Sharks appearing in close to wounded or struggling fish has often been observed by fishermen and scuba divers. That type of shark behavior is probably what Brody read about, though his scientific knowledge or understanding about it was limited. He was just reacting in an excited manner.
11th May 2015
Jaws (1975)
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?
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.
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.
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Answer: Most shark cages are reliably safe and strong enough to withstand sharks chomping the bars or butting into them. Of course, individual cage quality is an issue and there have been instances of sharks getting jammed into the cage and destroying it as they attempted to free themselves. In the movie, the fictional premise is that "Jaws" is an exceptionally large and powerful shark that can demolish a cage other sharks could not damage.
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