Damn. Jaws is one of my favorite movies ever. I’ve watched it in whole or in part maybe 100 times over the last 25 years. Watching it again last night it occurs to me that there’s a huge plot hole right gaping in the center of it and it’s so big that I don’t know if I’ll be able to get past it to really enjoy the movie again.
Why did Hooper and Brody go on the boat with Quint? Hooper has a state of the art boat with state of the art equipment. So why didn’t he and Brody take Hooper’s boat while Quint took his own? Presumably Hooper’s boat is better outfitted to handle equipment like the shark cage. Had they had a second boat, Quint probably wouldn’t have died.
So it took me a quarter-century to notice this, but now that I have the whole second half of the movie just doesn’t work for me any more. Jaws was the one Spielberg movie I could watch without feeling like I was being completely and transparently manipulated. Now I do. Bastard.
That sequence of Hooper & Brody finding Ben Gardener’s boat was a reshoot done after the rest of the movie was finished. Originally Hooper, Brody and that fat, Mayor’s assistant guy (from the early scene on the ferry) went out in a small runabout and found it. I think the fat guy fell overboard while they were shooting and almost drown. Later they correctly realized that there was no reason for him to be there.*
So it is sort of a plot hole. Never really bothered me though.
*This info is from a making-of book I read years ago (which was written by said fat guy actor).
Hooper had a boat there? It never dawned on me. I know the first time we meet the Hooper character is on the docks, but I always thought he went there looking for Brody.
Are they in Hooper’s boat when they find Ben Gardner’s body? Not that it matters, since that boat didn’t seem any larger or better suited for shark-hunting than Quint’s.
I’ll have to watch this again (not that I mind at all or anything…)
You can’t let things like this ruin the movie for you, Otto. Almost every movie has plot holes if you look close enough. As far as movie plot holes go, this one is pretty minor.
The real reason they all went on the same boat was so that we, the audience, could watch and enjoy the interaction of these three characters. To me, that was the best thing about the movie. If they’d gone on separate boats, we wouldn’t have had that, would we?
This is only a plot hole if you have the benefit of hindsight. If the characters had known what was going to happen, they would have taken a bigger boat. But at the time they left, they didn’t known exactly how big the shark was and thought Quint and his boat would be enough.
Accoring to the special edition DVD, the entire sequence wasn’t a reshoot. Just the portion where Ben’s head actually pops out of the hole. Spielberg realized it was mistimed so he spent $3000 of his own money to reshoot it in the film editor’s swimming pool.
Crunchy Frog
Yes, they were. Brody asks who pays for all the equipment and Hooper says he does. Brody asks if he’s rich and Hooper says yes. Brody asks how rich and Hooper asks just him or the whole family.
Whether Hooper’s boat was any larger wasn’t my point. Two boats are better than one, especially if one of those boats is specifically outfitted to handle the equipment we’re loading on the other boat, is.
Spoonbender
Exactly, which is why I now feel so manipulated. Logically they should have taken both boats if Hooper was going to go with them. The only reason not to is so the characters can bond so that we care more about them, which is why I now feel so manipulated. Yes, of course every movie manipulates the viewer, but I generally prefer the manipulation to be a little more subtle (although I suppose if it took me 25 years to pick up on it, it could be argued the manipulation was pretty subtle).
Robot Arm
They had a rough idea how big the shark was. They’d seen it in the pond and they knew what its bite radius was and so could have calculated a rough size for the beast. Even if they didn’t know exactly how big it was, they still should have taken the other boat.
And yet still that rough idea obviously wasn’t enough to clue them in on the size of the shark. Hence the famous line uttered by Brody, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
Maybe not enough to clue Brody in, but the experienced shark hunter and the marine biologist can’t figure out that a bite radius of a certain size equals a shark of a certain approximate size? Come on.
Which is the very line which finally made me think “they have a bigger boat, or at least another boat. Why don’t they have Hooper’s boat out here?” Why not have the police launch out there too? And the Coast Guard? Why not attach Hooper’s strycchine (sp?) needle to one of Quint’s harpoons and fire it into the shark, instead of sending him down in the cage?
[self-hijak] I also noticed in that scene that when Brody is chumming his cigarette isn’t lit. He backs into the cabin after the shark surfaces, not lit, then when he’s in the cabin to deliver that line (ad-libbed per the DVD) it’s lit. [/self-hijak]
The making-of book had stills from the original sequence. It had the three of them in a small boat and it was shot during the day (though maybe they were shooting day-for-night).
It told how even though his character was supposed to be this hot-shot marine biologist, ironically Richard Dreyfuss had never piloted a boat in his life. So when the chubby guy fell overboard Dreyfuss nearly ran him over fumbling with the controls.
It also said that the sequence seen in the film was shot last (though maybe not after production had wrapped).
Ah, now I remember the scene (it’s been a while since I’ve seen it, which is why I was so fuzzy on the details). Point taken.
**
This I think I can answer. The needle needed to be injected into the shark’s mouth IIRC, and wouldn’t go through the shark’s skin. Even if it was on the harpoon, which could’ve pierced the shark’s skin, injecting it into the shark’s mouth was the only way to be sure and they only had one shot at it.
As for the other stuff, Quint wanted to do everything his way, and didn’t even like Hooper at first, so I don’t think he would’ve taken too kindly to Hooper showing him up in another boat outfitted with all that expensive equipment. Maybe this way was the only way Quint would agree to do it.
See, that’s another thing. When Hooper first pulls out the poison Quint asks him about the tiny needle and Hooper says it won’t go through the skin. But then we see him putting the poison into a large pointed metal stick that looks about the same size as a harpoon and is called a “shark dart.” I bet that would’ve gone through Bruce’s skin, especially if you fired it like a harpoon. Even if they couldn’t fire the dart for some reason, why would a machete and a harpoon wielded by hand penetrate the shark’s skin but not the dart?
There’s an earlier scene where Quint objects to something and Brody says “It’s my party, my charter.” And Quint folded. Had Brody said “let’s take both boats” and Quint said he wasn’t going, then fine, let Quint stay behind without the $10,000 killing fee. Brody and Hooper can go out in Hooper’s boat, shoot Bruce up with the strycchnine and be home in time for supper.
I don’t know what the machete would do, but I was under the impression he was trying to inject the shark inside its mouth, not through the skin, hence the long pointed metal stick, so his hands wouldn’t be any nearer to the teeth than necessary.
(flashback to a Monty Python skit: “What if 'e’s got a poin’ed stick?”)
You got me there. I longer have any more reasons why they wouldn’t have taken both boats. But come on, it was worth taking one boat. Quint’s monologue about the USS Indianapolis (is that the right ship?) is classic.
Actually, Hooper’s equipment is just confusing. After Quint burns out the motor trying to lead Bruce to shore, he hands the life jackets to Brody and Hooper, then picks up Hooper’s shark dart and asks what Hooper can do with them. Hooper pulls out a syringe and bottle and says he can pump 20cc of strycchnine nitrate into him. Quint takes the little syringe and asks if Hooper can get the needle through the shark’s skin. Hooper says no, but if he gets close enough he can stick the shark in the mouth. Cut to preparations of the cage. Hooper draws the strycchnine into the small syringe. He then caps the shark dart with a cork and puts the syringe into the opposite end of the dart. You can’t tell from the editing whether he somehow mounts the small needle into the dart or whether he fills the dart. When he goes in the cage he carries the dart and we never see the small syringe again.
Oh, you’re a Monty Python fan? That’s unusual for these boards!
Per the DVD, Robert Shaw wrote most of the Indianapolis speech from a one or two-line mention in the original revised script. And I agree it’s a classic moment and an amazing speech. But that’s exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about in terms of the manipulation. Why do we come to care about Quint? Why do Hooper and Brody care about him, since he’s been pretty much a two-dimensional asshole throughout the movie? We care because of that speech, which should never have happened because Hooper and maybe Brody should have been on Hooper’s boat. Hell, they could’ve even put in a scene with Hooper coming over to Quint’s boat for supper before the shark attacked it, with Hooper then being trapped on Quint’s boat. Or something. It just now seems so STUPID to me that they don’t have both boats, and the only reason for not having both boats is for cinematic effect.
I haven’t read the complete book Jaws, only a Reader’s Digest condensed version shortly after I saw the movie the first time. Does Hooper have a boat in the original? How much of this is Spielberg’s fault?
FTR, the “fat mayor’s assistant guy” is the screenwriter of the movie, Carl Gottlieb. It isn’t made terribly explicit in the movie, but his character is the editor of the Amity newspaper; in the scene in which the tiger shark is caught, he tells the girl from his office that he wants the story and the photo run on the AP wire and all the other newswires.
I doubt that the characters thought that they would actually be in danger while going after the shark. Until things got hairy, they had a very relaxed attitude, maybe some tension between the guys, but they were not exactly nervous about the shark.
They were figuring a couple of days out in the ocean hunting, bag the critter, and back home to the adulation of the Amity masses. No muss, no fuss, no need for a second boat.
Peter Benchley’s novel is nothing like the movie. The film is pure Spielberg. The book is, well, kind of a taudry, trashy bit of pulp fiction. With a shark. The local mob are trying to extort the mayor into keeping the beaches open. Hooper is not witty & lovable but an arrogant asshole who screws Brody’s wife and gets eaten by the shark.
Benchley isn’t a great writer, he just got lucky. None of other books have done much. A few years ago I saw him promoting the TV movie they made from his Jaws-retread novel, “The Beast” (giant squid this time). It had been over twenty years but he must have dropped Spielberg’s name a dozen times.