The Shark, sometimes erroneously referred to as Jaws, is the titular main antagonist of the 1975 summer blockbuster film, Jaws, and its three sequels and the franchise.
The main antagonists of the franchise, they are all shown to be ravenous Great White Sharks of abnormal size and ferocity that terrorize Amity Island (and SeaWorld in Jaws 3-D). None of the sharks have official names, but many nicknames have arisen from them, mostly derived from the production names for them.
Depiction[]
Each Jaws film showcases a giant Great White Shark (scientifically called "Carcharodon carcharias") in Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3-D and Jaws: the Revenge. Each shark is a different shark in every film although the race is the same, and all have a size of about 20 to 30 feet in length. Jaws first appeared in the novel by Peter Benchley before Steven Spielberg adapted it into a motion picture. In the movies the sharks are much larger than the real animal and during the course of the series they show to have a certain amount of intellect. The shark is the playable character in the video games Jaws Unleashed and Jaws: Ultimate Predator.
Though none of the sharks have official names, all of them have been given monikers to differentiate them from each other. The animatronic sharks in the first film was nicknamed "Bruce" by the film crew, after Steven Spielberg's lawyer. Whereas the sharks in Jaws 2 were nicknamed "Brucette" by fans. On the set, keeping in tradition with the first film, the two puppet sharks made for the production were known as Bruce Two, "Fidel" (unburned) and "Harold" (burned), the latter after David Brown's Beverly Hills lawyer. The mother shark from Jaws 3-D was nicknamed "Brucetta". The juvenile shark from Jaws 3-D has no such official or unofficial nickname. The shark in Jaws: The Revenge also has no official nickname, but has been dubbed "Vengeance" by fans. Additionally, the name "Jaws" has been attributed to the sharks (though this is technically incorrect, as this is the title of the films and the sharks are never referred to as such in the films).
Sharks[]
- Bruce (Jaws) - (25 feet in length and weighs in at 3 tons. Hooper claimed it to be a 20 footer. Apparently 12 years old.)
- Brucette (Jaws 2) - (24 feet in length and three tons in weight, apparently ten years old. Is implied to be the mate of Bruce in the novel adaptation.) Brucette also had the highest body count of any of the sharks, killing eight, not counting Bob in a deleted scene.
- Brucetta (Jaws 3-D) - (Somehow 35 feet in length, weighing 5 tons and apparently 14 years old. The juvenile's size is unknown, but likely closer to fifteen feet in length.)
- Vengeance (Jaws: The Revenge) - (25 feet in length and weighed 2,500 pounds, apparently 10 years old. It is supposedly the child of the first two sharks, as said in the novel based on the film.)
All have a size of about 20 to 30 feet in length.
Victims[]
Jaws[]
- 1: Chrissie Watkins
- 2: Pippit (dog)
- 3: Alex Kintner
- 4: Ben Gardner
- 5: Estuary Lifeguard
- 6: Captain Bartholomew Marion Quint
Jaws (Novel)[]
- 7: Chrissie Watkins
- 8: Alex Kintner
- 9: Ben Gardner
- 10: Matt Hooper
- 11: Quint
Jaws 2[]
- 12: Scuba diver at Orca wreck
- 13: Scuba photographer at Orca wreck
- 14: Terry the water skier
- 15: Diane the boat driver (indirectly)
- 16: Killer Whale
- 17: Eddie
- 18: Amity Harbor Patrol helicopter pilot
- 19: Marge
- 20: Bob (deleted scene)
Jaws 3-D[]
- 21: Grouper fish
- 22: Shelby Overman
- 23: Randy the coral thief
- 24: Ed the coral thief
- 25: Philip Fitzroyce
- 26: Fred
Jaws: The Revenge[]
- 27: Sean Brody
- 28: Mrs. Ferguson (banana boat)
- 29: Jake (alternate ending)
Deaths[]
- Jaws: (Bruce) Chief Brody placed a scuba tank in his mouth and then shot this tank with an M1 Garand .30-06 caliber rifle, blowing the shark's head apart and resulting in the remainder of its carcass sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
- Jaws 2: (Brucette) Electrocuted by Brody after she bit into a undersea power cable, lit on fire and then sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Only shark not to be blown up.
- Jaws 3-D: (Brucetta) Blown up after Michael Brody pulls the pin of one of Phillip's grenades in his mouth.
- Jaws: The Revenge: (Vengeance) (alternate endings) Impaled by Jake's boat and bled to death, or impaled by the boat then (unintentionally comically) somehow blows up.
Appearances in other media[]
- The Shark appears in numerous episodes of Family Guy.
- In the episode, The Father, the Son and the Holy Fonz, he stars in Jaws V: Fire Island.
- In a DVD exclusive scene in Play It Again, Brian, he eyes Lois and Brian Griffin after they tell Peter there are no sharks in Martha's Vineyard.
- In Brian Griffin's House of Payne, Jaws appears in Peter's television series Big Jaws, where he and the other humans team up to fight the antagonist Big Jaws.
- He is voiced by Mike Henry (who played one of Peter's best friends Cleveland Brown) in all appearances. He is one of the many anthropomorphic creatures that uses the voice of Bruce, the very flamboyant Southern gay man who was also voiced by Mike Henry. Interestingly, "Bruce" was the name given to the mechanical shark prop used in the making of the film.
- In the novel It, Jaws is one of the disguises of Pennywise.
- The Shark appeared in the computer game called Fisher Price Pirate Ship.
- Jaw from Amagi Brilliant Park is based off of Jaws being virtue of similar name and appearance and even has a Jaws like head when he is on water.
- In The Lego Batman Movie, Bruce appears as one of the numerous Phantom Zone Criminals who teams up with The Joker to defeat Batman and destroy Gotham City. This incarnation of Bruce is shown to be super-humanly intelligent, to the point of being a parody, as he is shown piloting a plane without assistance.
Trivia[]
- Jaws is the only animal character (in fact, the only villain not portrayed by a human) to occupy any slot in the Villains' half of "AFI's 100 Years... Heroes and Villains", coming in at #18.
- It is unknown why the sharks attack humans, especially in the second to fourth films.
- In the novelization of Jaws 2 and Jaws 4: The Revenge - which, belonging to minor differences, are in continuity with the book of Benchley, ignoring the events of Jaws 3-D - explains that sharks are all related to each other: the shark's first book would have impregnated one of the second book, and that of the third book would be their son. This particular is not mentioned in the film. It then suggests that the reason why attack the family of Martin Brody would be tied to a voodoo curse hurled by a shaman enemy Brody. This detail does not appear in the film, however, in the film version of the story is a phrase uttered by Michael Brody that references this subplot of the book: "Come on, sharks do not commit murder. Tell me you do not believe in what voodoo."
- Brucetta is the only mother shark in the Jaws-series.
- Although not confirmed by either the book nor the movies, it is thought that the sharks are no ordinary great white sharks but rather mutated white sharks. That would make sense for their abnormal size, appearance, strength, and the crave to devour people.
- The way in which they are killed is almost the exact way that the mako sharks in Deep Blue Sea are killed.