Universal Pictures original film Jaws was released June 20th, 1975.
#Jaws made $477.9M at the international box office.
rottentomatoes: 97%
metacritic: 87
imdb: 8.1
oscars: 3 wins
Martin Brody
Martin Brody is a police chief in New England, Massachusetts.
“How come the sun didn’t use to shine here? Right. They must be in the backyard. They’re in the ‘yard,’ not too ‘far’ from the ‘car.’ You were playing on this swings, weren’t you? Those swings are dangerous. Stay off there. I haven’t fixed them yet. Hello. Yes. What do they usually do? Wash up, or float up, or what? Oh, no. Keep them there. I’ll be out in about 15, 20 minutes. All right? Got to go. Missing person. Season hasn’t started. Nobody’s even here yet. In this town? Wait a minute. Let me get on. You’ll get it.” — Martin Brody
“Nobody saw her go into the water? You mean, she ran out on you? You live here? Your folks were born here, right? No. New York City. You here for the summer? Come on. Hold it. Oh, Jesus. If this new filing system is to work, you must keep outdated stuff of my desk. Just the pending, all right? Polly, I want a list of the water activities that the city fathers are planning for today. Hendricks! Where do we keep the ‘Beach Closed’ signs? No. Just have him fill out the form. Just fill it out.” — Martin Brody
“Yeah, glasses. I’ll call you later in the afternoon. I promise. Okay. Come on, get out of here. Take this stuff back to the office and get to work on those signs. ‘Beaches Closed. No swimming. By order of the Amity P.D.’ Let Polly do the printing. Charlie, take me out to those kids, will you? What other authority do I need? What does that mean? That doesn’t mean we serve them a smorgasbord. What else could’ve done that to that girl? A boat propeller? That’s not what you told me over the phone. And you’ll stand by that? Larry, I appreciate it. I’m just reacting wo what I was told.” — Martin Brody
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s all right. Let them go. That’s some bad hat, Harry. Everybody out! Get them out! I have to talk to Mrs. Kintner. Because this is turning into a contest. I’m responsible for public safety here. I just want to tell you what we’re planning so far. We’re going to put on the extra summer deputies as soon as possible. And then we’re going to try and use spark spotters on the beach. Yes, we are. We also plan to bring in experts from the Oceanographic Institute on the mainland. I didn’t agree to that.” — Martin Brody
“Oh. You know, Ellen, people don’t even know how old sharks are. I mean, if they live 2,000, 3,000 years… they don’t know. Thanks. Oh. Oh, yeah. Where is he? Good God. All right, Michael, out of the boat! Get out of that boat! I don’t want him on the ocean! All right, now don’t say that. I don’t want that to happen, you know that. I want him to read the boating regulations, the rules, before he goes out on his own.” — Martin Brody
“That’s not funny. That’s not funny at all. Looks more like The National Inquirer. All right, hold it. Hold everything. I said, hold it! The Weetock boats gotta move out first. You have to move out or he can’t get out at all. How many guys are you going to put aboard that boat? Yeah, well that ain’t safe. What are you doing with that? Where are you going with that? Please, help me get those guys out of the boat, will you? Come on. Listen to me. We’ve got some road black signs outside. You’ve got to get somebody to help us. Yeah, get those road block signs out on the highway. Because we’ve got more people down here than we can handle. What’re you doing there? These are your people. Go talk to them. It’s not until the Fourth of July. Till then, it’s you and me. That’s what I’m saying. You know their names. Talk to those clowns. Tell me about it. Poly, I’ll get back to you. Who are you?” — Martin Brody
“Oh, for Christ’s sakes. You’re the guy we called. I’m Brody. Me, too. What can we do for you? Okay, fine. Just bear with me, will you? Let’s show Mr. Hooper our accident. And here’s the way we have it. No. It was only local jurisdiction. No. Ben Gardner get this? That’s swell. It’s a beauty. Larry, you won’t believe it. Oh, you bet he is. I want you to meet Matt. This is Larry Vaughn, our mayor. Matt’s from the Oceanographic Institute. There are no other sharks like this here. It may be the only way to confirm it. Yes? No, she’s not.” — Martin Brody
“Come here. Give us a kiss. Because I need it. Get out of here. Swell. Why do you have to tell them that? Drowning. Is it true that most people get attacked by sharks in three feet of water about 10 feet from the beach? And that before people started to swim for recreation… I mean, before sharks knew what they were missing that a lot of these attacks weren’t reported? Now this shark that swims alone what’s it called? Rogue, yeah. This guy, he keeps swimming around in a place where the feeding is good until the food supply is gone, right? Then why don’t we have one more drink and go down and cut that shark open? I can do anything. I’m the Chief of Police. What? He didn’t eat a car, did he?” — Martin Brody
“I’ve got to close the beach. Call the Mayor. How do we confirm that by morning? Where are you going? On the water. I’m not drunk enough to go on a boat. No, I’m not. I can’t do that. I’m telling you, the crime rate in New York will kill you. There’s so many problems, you never feel like you’re accomplishing anything. Violence, rip-offs, muggings. The kids can’t leave the house. You’ve got to walk them to school. But in Amity, one man can make a difference. In 25 years, there’s never been a shooting or a murder in this town. Where are we? Can you get The Late Show on this thing? Who pays for all this stuff? The government? The Institute? This stuff costs a lot of money. You’re kidding. You rich? How much? Doesn’t make any sense. They pay a guy like you to watch sharks? It’s only an island if you look at it from the water. What is that thing doing? What is it? That’s Ben Gardner’s boat. It’s all banged up. Sure I know him. He’s a fisherman. What happened? Wait. Why don’t we just tow it all in? Let’s tow it in. What am I supposed to do while you’re gone?” — Martin Brody
Ellen Brody
“We bought the house in the fall, and this is summer. Somebody feed the dogs. Do you see the kids? In Amity you say ‘yard.’ How’s that? Like you’re from New York. I think you’re going to live. It’s not the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen. Yeah, but let me clean this thing off first. Dry you off. Okay. Go on, get a Band-Aid. Listen, Chief… be careful, will you? I want my cup back! Wave goodbye. Bye.”
“All I want to know… I just want to know one simple thing. When do I get to become an Islander? Honey. Come here a minute, please. Are you okay? Listen, if the kids going in the water is worrying you they can play out here on the beach. Chief Brody, you are uptight. Come on. That’s it.”
“Oh, God, you scared me. Oh. Enough. Enough. You’re not going to even be able to go to sleep tonight. Here. Come on. Oh. Want to get drunk and fool around? Mikey really loves his present. Sitting in it. It’s his birthday. He’s not on the ocean, he is in a boat. He’s not gonna go in the water. I don’t think he’ll ever go in the water again, after what happened yesterday. Michael, did you hear your father? Out of the water now! Now!”
“Can I help you? Oh, hi. Ellen Brody. Yes. Yes, so would I. Come in. Can I get you some coffee? Oh, wine. How nice. Oh, that’s nice. No. My husband tells me in you’re in sharks. You love sharks? I’m sorry, I thought that… you told me the shark was caught. I heard it on the news. I heard it on the Cape station. Where are you going? The Aurora? What is that? Martin hates boats. Martin hates water. Martin sits in his car when we go on the ferry to the mainland. I guess it’s a childhood thing. There’s a clinical name for it, isn’t there? Martin? Can you do that?”
Quint
“You all know me. Know how I earn a living. I’ll catch this bird for you. It ain’t going to be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down to the pond and chasing bluegills or tommy cods. This shark, swallow you whole. Shaking, tenderizing. Down you go. And we got to do it quick. Got bring back the tourists that’ll put all your businesses on a paying basis. But it’s not going to be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than $3,000, Chief. I’ll find him for $3,000, but I’ll catch him and kill him for $10,000. You got to make up your minds. Gonna stay alive and ante up, gonna play it cheap and be on welfare the whole winter. I don’t want no volunteers. I don’t want no mates. There’s too many captains on this island. $10,000 for me, by myself. For that, you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing. Mr. Mayor, Chief, ladies and gentlemen.”
Matt Hooper
“Hello. Don’t raise sail, you’re going to luff it. You got a paddle? Scull it out of here. Officer, wait a second. Watch it, that’s dynamite. Sure. Gentlemen, the officer asked me to tell you that you’re overloading that boat! Can you tell me if there’s a good restaurant or hotel on the island? They’re all going to die. You know those guys in the fan-tail launch? None of them are getting out of the harbor alive. Everyone’s having a good time today. Could you tell me how I could find Chief Brody? Matt Hooper. I’m from the Oceanographic Institute. Oh. I’m glad to meet you. I know you got a lot on your hands. The best thing for me to do is to see the remains of the first victim, the girl on the beach. Sure.”
“‘Victim identified as Christine Watkins, female Caucasian.’ ‘Probable boating accident.’ The height and weight of the victim can only be estimated from the partial remains. The torso has been severed in mid-thorax. There are no major organs remaining. May I have a glass of water? The right arm has been severed above the elbow with massive tissue loss in the upper musculature. Thank you very much. Partially denuded bone remaining. This was no boat accident. Did you notify the Coast Guard about this? The left arm, head, the shoulders, sternum and portions of the rib cage are intact. Do not smoke in here. Thank you very much. This is what happens. Indicates the non-frenzy feeding of a large squalus possibly longimanus or Isurus glaucus. The enormous amount of tissue loss prevents any detailed analysis however, the attacking squalus must be considerably larger than any normal squalus found in these waters. Didn’t you get out a boat and check these waters? Well, this is not a boat accident. And it wasn’t any propeller. It wasn’t any coral reef. And it wasn’t Jack the Ripper. It was a shark.”
“Thank you. Tiger shark. All I’m saying is that it may not be the shark. It’s just a slight… nice to meet you. Martin, there are all kinds of sharks in the waters. Hammerheads, white tips, blues, makos. And the chances that these bozos got the exact shark… it’s 100-to-1. I’m not saying that this is not the shark. It probably is, Martin. It’s a man-eater. It’s extremely rare for these waters. But the fact is, the bite radius on this animal is different than the wounds on the victim. I want to be sure. You want to be sure. We all want to be sure, okay? What I want to do is very simple. The digestive system of this animal is very slow. Let’s cut it open. Whatever it’s eaten in the last 24 hours is bound to still be in there. And then we’ll be sure.”
“The door was pen. Mind if I come in? I’m Matt Hooper. Your husband’s home? I’d really like to talk to him. No. Nothing, thank you. How was your day? I got red and white. I didn’t know what you’d be serving. Is anyone eating this? Excuse me. Yes. I’ve never heard it quite put that way. But yes, I am. I love sharks. Yeah, I love them. When I was 12 years old, my father got me a boat and I went fishing off of Cape Cod. I hooked a scup and as I was reeling it in I hooked a 4.5 foot baby thresher shark who proceeded to eat my boat. He ate my oar, hooks, and my seat cushions. He turned an inboard into an outboard scared me to death, and I swam back to shore. When I was on the beach, I turned around and actually saw my boat being taken apart. Ever since then, I have been studying sharks and that’s why I know that I’m going to go to the Institute tomorrow and tell them that you still have a shark problem here. Sorry. They caught a shark, not the shark. Not the shark that killed Chrissie Watkins. And probably not the shark that killed the little boy. Which I wanted to prove today by cutting the shark open… you may want to let that breathe… nothing. You know, you’ll be the only rational man left on this island after I leave tomorrow. I am going on the Aurora. It’s a floating asylum for shark addicts. It’s pure research, 18 months at sea.”
“Yeah. That’s right. Rogue. That’s called territoriality. It’s just a theory that I happen to agree with. We start in the alimentary canal and open the digestive tract. Just like I thought. Came up in the Gulf Stream, from southern waters. No. Tiger shark’s like a garbage can. It’ll eat anything. Somebody probably threw that in the river. That’s it. You got a bigger problem than that, Martin. You still got a hell of a fish out there with a mouth about this big. If he is a rogue, and there’s any truth to territoriality at all we got a good chance of spotting him between Cape Scott and South Beach. To find him. He’s a night feeder. We’re not gonna find him on the land. Yes, you are. Yes, you are. Yes, you can.”
“No kidding? Want a pretzel? We’re right in the stretch where he’s been feeding. No, it’s a closed circuit TV system. I have underwater cameras fore-and-aft. I paid for this mostly myself, actually. No. Yeah. Personally, or the whole family? Well, it doesn’t make sense for a guy who hates the water to live on an island either. That makes a lot of sense. Well, it’s a fish finder. It’s probably just a school of mackerel or something, all clumped together. Wait a minute. There’s something else out there. About 100 yards, south-southwest. You know him? Martin, I gotta go down and check their hull. We will. I just got to check something out. Hit the lights for me. Don’t worry, Martin. Nothing’s going to happen. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Don’t touch any of the equipment. I’ll be back in two minutes.”
Michael Brody / Sean Brody
“Mum, I got cut. I got hit by a vampire. Can I go swimming?”
“Hi, Dad. Michael, get out of the water!”
“Tied up to the jetties, sitting in the boat. I’m helping Michael. Hi, Dad. Just a little longer. Please?”
“Why?”
Cassidy
“What’s your name again? Where are we going? Slow up. Slow down. I’m not drunk! Slow down! Wait. I’m coming. I’m coming. I’m definitely coming. Whoa. Hold on. Whoa! I can swim. I just can’t walk or undress myself. Take it easy. I’m coming.”
“Somebody could’ve. I was sort of passed out. No, sir. She must’ve drowned. Look, I reported it, to you, didn’t I? No. Hartford. I go to Trinity. My folks live in Greenwich. Yeah, I’m an Islander. They moved off when my dad retired. You an Islander?”
Chrissie
“Chrissie. Swimming. Come on in the water! Oh, God, help! Please help me! It hurts.”
Amity, Massachussets
“There’s a dead truck with New Hampshire plates in front of my store.”
“Look what the kids did to my fence. 8 and 9-year-olds… glasses? This stuff ain’t going to help me in August. The summer ginks come down here in June. You haven’t got one thing on here I ordered. Not a beach umbrella, not a sun lounger, no beach balls. If I can’t get service…”
“Albert, come on, you kook. Keep your arms up. Technically, you need a civic ordinance or a resolution by a board of… but we’ve never had that kind of trouble in these waters. I think possibly, yes, a boating accident. I was wrong. We’ll have to amend our reports. I’ll stand by that. It’s happened before.”
“Here’s mommy, here. I’m going to get my raft and go back out in the water. Let me see your fingers. Alex Kintner, they’re beginning to prune. Just let me go out a little longer. Just 10 more minutes. Thanks. There are no Islanders. None of them are from the island. It’s just a big bother. They’re bringing in… Ellen, never. Never. You’re not born here, you’re not an Islander. That’s it. Come back here. But don’t bother him. Come right back. Okay. I won’t.”
“Hey, Marty. I know you got a lot problems downtown but I’ve got problems at the house I wish you’d take care of. One, I’ve got some cats parking in front of the house, I can’t get… and that garbage truck next to the office, that’s terrible. What I need is a red zone. It’s a simple thing you can’t take care of. You’ve done it before.”
“It’s cold. We know all about you, Chief. You don’t go in the water at all, do you? Oh, do you know the muffin man the muffinm man. Tippet! Did you see that? Blood! Alex?”
“We don’t even know if there’s a shark around here. I can’t argue with you. I can’t talk to you. It’s not just the Gazette. She’s advertising in out-of-town papers. It’s a small story. I’ll bury it as deep as I can. The ad will run on the back along with the grocery ads.”
“I have a point of view and I think it speaks for many of the people here. Not only me, because I have the motel. How do you feel about it? Is that $3,000 bounty on the shark in cash or check? I don’t think that’s funny. I don’t think that’s funny at all. What about the beaches, Chief? Are you going to close the beaches? Twenty-four hours is like three weeks!”
“I’m tired. Let’s stop before someone reports us. Don’t worry. The Chief lives on the other side of the island. Am I coming in straight? Don’t worry about it. Just keep rowing. We better catch something, this is my wife’s holiday roast. Don’t worry about it. $3,000 buys an awful lot of roast. Come and get it. The tide’s taking it right out. Can’t we go home? Hey. He’s taking it. Go! Charlie, take my word for it, don’t look back. Swim, Charlie! Come on! To me, boy! Come on, Charlie! Swim! Come on, Charlie, keep coming. Keep swimming. Come on, a little more. Atta boy. I can’t get up. Give me your hand, Charlie. Help me! Get your feet out of the water! Can we go home now?”
“Hello back, young fellow. How are you? Say, I hope you’re not going out with those nuts, are you? I got a paddle. Whatever’s safe, right? I’m going on the boat. Go on, get out of here. You ain’t going. What do you care? Yeah, you walk straight ahead.”
“Wait till we get them silly bastards down in that rock pile. There’ll be some fun. They’ll wish their fathers hadn’t met their mothers when they start digging the bottoms out and slamming into them rocks, boy. Get away from there, you goddamn fool! What’s the matter with you? You want to swamp us, you crazy son of a bitch? What are these guys doing out here? What are they doing back there? They’re chumming right now. What the hell is that? They’re tracking the shark. $3,000 divided four ways is what? Watch your starboard. Jesus!”
“I wanna go AP and UPI. I want to get on the state wire services. See if Boston will pick it up and go national. Call Dave Axelrod in New York and tell him he owes me a favor. This is the shot I want with everybody and the fish in it. Guys, could we please get organized? I want to get a picture for the paper. Now, can we just have the… no, we caught it. Guys, please, I need a picture for the paper. Clear out of the way, please. Just the guys that caught the fish. Open it up a little bit. I want to get a picture of the guy with the fish. Come on. I need a picture for the paper. Could we get the sign, please? Kneel down, just like in high school. One row kneeling, one row standing. Come on, just get out of the way. Young fellow, could you step out of the picture? Take your rake with you. We’re ready. Can you get that, please. How’s that?”
“What kind of a shark is that? I don’t know. I think it’s a mako. It’s got a deep throat, Frank. Yeah, but what kind? what kind of shark? A what? What is this bite radius crap? That is a big mouth. You stuff your frigging head in there, man, and find out if it’s a man-eater.”
“Chief Brody? I just found out that a girl got killed here last week. And you knew it. You knew there was a shark out there. You knew it was dangerous. But you let people go swimming anyway. You knew all those things, but still my boy is dead now. And there’s nothing you can do about it. My boy is dead. I wanted you to know that.”
Mayor Vaughn
“Chief Brody! What have you got there? Martin, you’re going to shut down the beaches on your own authority? That’s just going by the book. We’re really a little anxious that you’re rushing into something serious here. This is your first summer, you know. I’m only trying to say that Amity is a summer town. We need summer dollars. If they can’t swim here they’ll be glad to swim at the beaches of Cape Cod, the Hamptons, Long Island. Martin, a summer girl goes swimming, swims out a little far. She tires, fishing boat comes along… I don’t think you appreciate the gut reaction people have to these things. Martin, it’s all psychological. You yell, ‘Barracuda!’ and everybody says, ‘huh? What?’ You yell, “Shark!…’ we’ve got a panic on our hands on the Fourth of July. Okay. You can take us back now.”
“I suggest we move back to council chambers where we’ll have more room. Then go out tomorrow and see that no one gets hurt. Right in here, please. Move on in, please. Why do you insist on playing on the heavy? Let’s have some order. Let’s have order, please. Any special questions? All right. That’s private business between you fishermen and Mrs. Kintner. Martin, would you please… Chief Brody. Only 24 hours. Only 24 hours. Thank you very much, Mr. Quint. We’ll take it under advisement.”
“We can start breathing again. Is Ben getting plenty of pictures? Look, fellows, let’s be reasonable. This is not the time or the place to perform some kind of a half-assed autopsy on a fish. And I am not going to stand here and see that thing cut open and see that little Kintner boy spill out all over the dock. I’m sorry, Martin. She’s wrong. All right, fellows let’s cut this ugly son of a bitch down before it stinks up the whole island. Harve, you and Carl take it out tomorrow and dump it in the drink.”
Amity PD
“Well, you’re up awful early. Is the Chief in there? Chief, what have you got on? Yes, Chief. We got a bunch of calls about that karate school. It seems that the 9-year-olds from the school have been karate-ing the picket fences. Chief Brody’s office. The medical inspector. The Fire Chief wants you to go over the Fourth of July… right away. We never had any.”
“Chief. Chief, Polly sent me to tell you that there’s a bunch of Boy Scouts out in Avril Bay doing the mile swim for their merit badges. I couldn’t call them in, there’s no phones out there. What’s the matter with printing. Listen, we had a shark attack at South Beach this morning, Mayor. Fatal. I have to batten down the beach.”
“So then Denherder and Charlie say there trying to catch their breath and figure out how to tell Charlie’s wife what happened to her freezer full of meat. Mrs. Kintner must’ve put her ad in Field & Stream. Those aren’t my people. They’re from all over. You see all the license plates? Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey. I’m all by myself out there. What happened to the extra help…”
“Terrific, huh, Mayor?”
