jeffkjoe

Question that's been buggin' me about one of my favorite movies:


In the nighttime scene where the 2 fishermen try to catch the shark with the holiday roast,


Is the shark attached to the pier when it turns around and starts to chase Charlie, or is it not?

Cuz, when the pier washes up on the beach - surprise - no shark. Is that the punchline?

(I'll delete this thread once the answer is given if you all want, btw).

whoopdido

I think we're to believe that the hook fell out of the shark's mouth sometime before the dock washes up on the beach and the shark swam away while the dock continued to shore. But the shark is definitely attached to the dock when it turns around and starts chasing the guy.

It's a very tense scene and actually it's my favorite scene in the whole movie. When the dock slowly turns around and the music kicks in...that's just awesome.

However, the thing that always bothered me is that when the shark initially takes the bait, it takes it a pretty long ways before the dock breaks. There was a good 20-30 feet worth of line attached to the hook. So, when the dock turns around and the shark is presumably chasing the guy, once the shark gets up to full speed, the shark should be at least 20-30 feet in front of the dock with the chain attached to the dock trailing behind the shark. We're watching the dock chase the guy, but the dangerous part (the shark's mouth) is well out in front of the dock and considering how close the dock got to shore before the guy got out of the water, the shark would have easily got him.

jeffkjoe

I agree about the score being just absolute kickass in that scene.

The sound effects of the pier creaking as it turns around + the strings of John Williams' orchestra kicking into full gear = full blown-out awesome.


I also agree that the shark should've taken Charlie as well, given how close the dock was to Charlie's feet - BUT - I would guess Spielberg was using the floating dock debris as a visual aid (i.e., the yellow barrels), of how close the shark is to where Charlie's kicking legs were.

devilshalo

Who's to say it was Bruce? jeffkjoe, there are all kinds of sharks in the waters, you know. Hammerheads, white tips, blues, makos, and the chances that these bozos got the exact shark...it's a hundred to one...a hundred to one.

jeffkjoe

Speaking of which, how the heck were they gonna catch a large fish with just a hook attached to the pier?

Would the shark get tired and drown or something?

jeffkjoe

lol!!!

devilshalo

Sharks on long lines do tire at some point and drown.

Solid Snake

a shark drown?

jeffkjoe

Yeah - sounds weird, but at one point Quint says he was gonna lead the shark into shallow waters and drown him.

devilshalo

Yes, it can.

whoopdido

Like all fish, sharks breathe by water and oxygen passing through their gills. With only a few exceptions, all fish need to keep moving forward in order to keep water and oxygen flowing through their gills. That's why fish need to constantly be swimming forward. When sharks get tangled up in nets and can't swim forward and can't get water to pass over their gills, they suffocate and die.

I assume Quint's plan was to draw the shark into water so shallow that it wouldn't be able to swim and would drown.

Mr. Cinema

jeffkjoe

Hahahaha - not to get real literal with your statement - but what other shark could rip a pier off its foundations besides ol' Brucie-boy?

Solid Snake

this guy:

whoopdido

Maybe it was Bruce Jr from Jaws 2. He was so pissed that he couldn't catch Charlie that he swam out to sea to train and when he came back for revenge he was a lean, mean eating machine.

Giantrobo

I think its the opposite right? Most fish pump water over their gills so there's no need to keep moving forward. Sharks are the ones that, with a few exceptions, need to keep moving.

Numanoid

Well, you can try.

whoopdido

You might be right about that. Some sharks, like those ones that just sit on the bottom, can pump water on their own so they can be still. Most sharks have to keep moving though. You might be right about other fish.

devilshalo

That wasn't the sturdiest of piers and the water would most likely have been too shallow for a shark the size of Bruce. Anything over a 1000lbs could have ripped it from the pier with enough force. As to why it turned around, it could also be any number of things like the chain snagging along the bottom with a combination of the tide partly washing it back in. It's not clear that it was Bruce, only that it could possibly be Bruce.

And I haven't read the book since I was a child to remember if it was something mentioned or added by Spielberg and Gottlieb.

islandclaws

I wish it'd been Joe Spinell on that pier.

Charlie Goose

Somewhat related note, Hooper and Brody find Ben Gardner's boat and corpse. Did we see Gardner earlier in the movie? Did he have any dialogue?

TomOpus

Yes and yes. He was the first fisherman to greet Matt Hooper: "Hello to you too." He was also the fishermen during the shark-catching frenzy who said "They will wish their fathers had never met their mothers."

jeffkjoe

Ben Gardner is often forgotten as being part of the body count b/c it's off-screen.

Trevor

Speaking of Gardner, why didn't Hooper talk more about seeing him dead? Use that as more evidence to close the beach, etc?

jeffkjoe

Good point. Considering Hooper dropped the shark tooth, I would suspect a DEAD CORPSE to be sufficient evidence to show Mayor Vaughn that something fishy is up.