25 Fun Facts About Jaws

Who directed Jaws?

Jaws was only Spielberg's second theatrical feature, and its success made him one of the most powerful directors in Hollywood.

The film was adapted from a 1974 novel by which author?

Benchley's novel was a bestseller before the film existed. He later regretted how it shaped public fear of sharks.

What is the name of the fictional New England beach town terrorised in the film?

Amity was named after a real town on Long Island. The name means friendship, which is the joke.

What is the name of the police chief played by Roy Scheider?

Brody is a transplanted city cop who is afraid of the water — a detail that pays off in the final act.

Which actor played Quint, the grizzled professional shark hunter?

Shaw's Quint is the film's most quoted character, and his monologue about a wartime sinking is its quietest scene.

What does Richard Dreyfuss's character Matt Hooper do for a living?

Hooper is the young oceanographer with money and equipment, which puts him at odds with Quint's old-school methods.

What is the name of the boat the three men take out to hunt the shark?

The Orca is Quint's own vessel, named after the one animal a great white genuinely fears.

What nickname did the crew give the malfunctioning mechanical sharks?

Three full-size pneumatic props were built, and all of them broke down in salt water. Their failures forced Spielberg to keep the shark off screen, which made the film scarier.

Amity's officials refuse to close the beaches ahead of which holiday weekend?

The town's whole year of income depends on that weekend, which is the engine of the plot.

What is the surname of the mayor who insists on keeping the beaches open?

Mayor Larry Vaughn, played by Murray Hamilton, spends the film in an anchor-print blazer denying there is a problem.

What is the name of the young woman killed in the film's opening scene?

Susan Backlinie played Chrissie, whose night swim opens the film. Alex Kintner is the boy killed on the beach soon after.

Jaws won three Academy Awards: Best Sound, Best Original Score and which other?

Verna Fields took the editing award. Her cutting is a large part of why the unseen shark works.

Which film beat Jaws to Best Picture at the 1976 Academy Awards?

Milos Forman's film swept the major categories that year, taking Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay.

Who composed the film's score, including its two-note shark motif?

Williams won the Oscar, a Golden Globe and a Grammy for it. Spielberg reportedly laughed when he first heard the theme.

The film's shark motif is an ostinato alternating between which two notes?

A semitone apart, played low in the strings, and speeding up as the shark closes in.

Jaws was the highest-grossing film in history until which 1977 release passed it?

Two years at the top, then George Lucas took the record. Both films rewired how studios released movies.

Principal photography was scheduled for 55 days. How many days did it actually run?

Shooting at sea nearly tripled the schedule and the budget, and the crew took to calling the production 'Flaws'.

Which Massachusetts island stood in for the film's fictional setting?

Spielberg shot in the open ocean rather than a tank, and the island's shallow sound made the shark rigging just about possible.

Which publishing house commissioned Benchley to write the novel back in 1971?

Doubleday commissioned the book while Benchley was freelancing as a journalist. Bantam later paid $575,000 for the paperback rights.

In his most famous monologue, Quint reveals he survived the wartime sinking of which US Navy ship?

The speech was worked up during production and gives Quint's obsession with sharks its origin.

The real cruiser behind Quint's monologue was torpedoed in July 1945 by which Japanese submarine?

Two torpedoes struck just after midnight on 30 July 1945 and the ship went down in minutes.

Of the roughly 900 men who went into the water after that sinking, how many were rescued alive?

They spent four days and five nights adrift before a patrol aircraft spotted them by chance.

The novel's author turns up on screen in the film playing what?

Benchley's cameo puts him in the middle of the media scrum on Amity's sand.

What is the scientific name of the shark species the film depicts?

The great white. The film and novel between them turned it into cinema's most feared animal, which Benchley spent his later years trying to undo.

In which year was Jaws selected for the United States National Film Registry?

The Library of Congress preserves films judged culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.