whoopdido

Plus, Brody only says that there were 2 deaths in the last week (Chrissie and Alex) and completely forgets the body he and Hooper found the night before. At that point, the shark was responsible for 3 deaths. I suppose it was possible that Ben could have died from something else, but given the fact that his boat was chewed to pieces and his head had been severed (bitten off?), I'd say the shark was a prime suspect.

devilshalo

Ben said it himself, that boaters could run aground on the rock pile. The shark tooth is more to establish that it was indeed a shark attack. Granted, Ben Gardner was a known local fisherman like Quint and his likelihood of doing that is slim to none.

devilshalo

Well, considering that Spielberg added that shot after they wrapped in Martha's Vineyard, I can see where there were continuity errors. Brody only mentions that Gardner's boat was 'all chewed up' and Hooper just explained he had an 'accident'. There was no mention of the head when they were talking to Vaughn.

whoopdido

I didn't want to make another Jaws question thread so I'll just put it here. This is another line of dialogue that's always bothered me about Jaws.

Right after Hooper and Brody cut open the shark on the dock and find that it wasn't the shark that killed Chrissie and Alex, Hooper says that they're going to go out right now (I don't know...maybe 10 pm or so) and look for him because "he's a night feeder". Why would he say that? At that point, only 2 deaths were known to be caused by the shark. Alex was killed in broad daylight and Chrissie was killed in the early morning hours. It was still very dark out, but the sun was definitely starting to come up. Where did Hooper get the idea that the shark was a night feeder? In fact, I'd say he was dead wrong. The dude in the pond was killed in broad daylight and most of their contact with the shark while on the Orca was also during the day. The shark appeared to be very inactive during the night.

jeffkjoe

I always assumed Chrissie was killed at sunset, judging by the fact that she had just left a beach bonfire party, and those things usually happen at sunset, not sunrise.

So Bruce could've had himself a night meal in that sense.

Adam Tyner

I doubt the party started anywhere near dawn, but I figured it had been going most of the night, to the point where it was approaching the sunrise. It's always read as not-quite-dawn to me.

FWIW, the copy of the screenplay I have just refers to it as "night".

Ky-Fi

Huh, that's funny you guys mentioned that. I just watched Jaws the other night, and as I was watching it I was wondering if that was supposed to be dawn or dusk. It felt more like dawn to me---not sure they would have had a roaring bonfire before the sun went down.

An aside---that's one of my favorite lines in cinema, when they're loading up the boat and Quint sees all of Hooper's gear: "What are ye, some kind o' half-assed astronaut?"

Trout

OK, someone explain this part: Hooper and Quint are exchanging scar stories and drinking to their legs and Brody lifts his shirt and looks at his abdomen before putting his shirt back. What was he looking at?

CharlieK

^I always imagined that it was a wound he got as a NYPD cop, and why they moved to Amity. And since it was a crime and maybe a bit traumatic for him, it wasn't in keeping with the other 2 swapping their stories so he kept it to himself.

I'm not exactly sure why Quint won't wear a life jacket ever again. Is it because if he goes over he wants to hurry up and die so he's not shark food? A life jacket saved his life last time.

Ky-Fi

That was how I took it---that he'd just rather drown quickly.

devilshalo

I always thought it was an appendicitis scar and he was embarrassed that it was all he had.

CharlieK

Oh shit, all this time I never thought of that. I bet you're right and it makes perfect sense.

whoopdido

That's exactly what I thought too.

By the way, Quint, being such a badass lifelong fishermn, didn't really have many scars to share. I think he only had the one scar from the Thresher shark. His other injuries were due to some kind of fight at a St Patrick's Day parade, an arm westling match and somewhere along he line he got his front tooth knocked out. Hooper, although he wa city boy that counted money his whole life, was bitten by a moray eel and was also injured by a Bull shark.

jeffkjoe

Getting back to the Chrissie dawn/dusk issue:

Another reason I thought it was sunset was b/c Chrissie's date was drunk, so I always assumed he slept the whole night on the shore to overcome his inebriated state.

GoldenJCJ

^ That's what I always thought. It was dusk, Chrissie went into the water and her date drunkenly collapsed on the beach, then by early morning when Brody is called to the scene Chrissie's date had had enough time to sleep it off, wake up, notice Chrissie was missing, and call the police. The next time we see him he's sober in the morning talking to Brody.

Though I'm not sure why he came to the conclusion she drowned considering it looked like they didn't really know each other and Chrissie would have most likely just gotten out of the water, seen this stranger she tried to fool around with passed out on the beach, and then just went home.

Adam Tyner

My guess: because her clothes were still scattered all over the beach.

whoopdido

I can't remember. Was it stated that Chrissie washed up on shore that same day? Maybe she was killed say at dawn on Monday and then her body didn't wash up until Tuesday morning. They found her a full day after she died.

chris_santucci

Love the discussion thus far.

Retreading back to the initial question: I think the reason the length was apparently shorter was probably because Bruce was submerged deeper. He seems like the kind of brute who will only surface when he's right beneath you. I imagine he stopped well before the foolish fisherman clawed his way back on top of the dock and the inertia brought the floating wreckage back to shore.

As far as the latter discussion, the documentary indicated that Brody had an appendix scar and probably thought it was too tepid to even boast.

Also, it would make sense for the Chrissie death to occur at dusk. I know they're young college kids, but I couldn't get drunk and make it all the way to dawn, but maybe I'm just old at heart.

P.S. I would imagine Quint had only one shark scar because he would be the sorta soul to kill the bastards well before he got his hands on em'. Until he ran across Bruce--all three tons of em'.

GoldenJCJ

Good call!

I don't think they explicitly state that it was the very next morning so I suppose it could have been a day or two later. Was Chrissie's date wearing the same clothes when he was with Chirssie as he was when he was talking to Brody? That might indicate whether it was immediately after or not.



How about this one. Why is it that when we first see Hooper (when Ben Gardner helps him onto the dock) we see Hooper step off a tiny little motor boat. Yet later we learn that Hooper owns a large hi-tech yacht. Did he dock the yacht somewhere else and just use his little boat to navigate around Amity or did the filmmakers forget his character owned a yacht when they had him arrive for the first time?

islandclaws

I'd assume he couldn't dock it there, or didn't want to, so he came in on a smaller vessel.

whoopdido

He already got enough crap for being a rich, city boy. Just think how much more crap he would have received had he be-bopped in on a luxury yacht.

jeffkjoe

"Sure you walk straight ahead.....(laughter)"

Abob Teff

There was a deleted scene that answers this question. In the scene Hooper is preparing to pull into the bay in his yacht. His butler/man-servant asks him if he doesn't think it is a little garish. Hooper looks at him and says "I think I'm going to need a smaller boat." Scene cuts to Hooper in the motor boat.