HOW JAWS 3-D PAYS HOMAGE TO CLASSIC ORIGINAL

Jaws 3D, naturally, has a Great White shark in it, and sees the return of Mike and Sean Brody, but the film - directed by Joe Alves - also has several call backs to the original Jaws.

The coral reef thieves scene has several echoes of Steven Spielberg's Jaws.

The beach fence they have to clamber over is the same style to the one that poor Chrissie Watkins runs across during the opening of the original film.

Their scene also plays like a dark version of the holiday roast scene in Jaws. It probably didn’t help them much that they were in a yellow dinghy, as that - Mrs Kintner's hat, Alex's lilo, Pipit's owners t-shirt and those yellow barrels - is often a signifier of the shark in the first film.

Kelly’s scene in the lagoon also has plenty of echoes with the Chrissie opening from the original, her coaxing of Sean into the water, even practically saying ‘c’mon in the water’ – with the parallel events of the coral thieves unfolding we initially wonder whether that shark will make it over to them and filmic history will repeat itself.

There may not be any yellow barrels being fired into the shark this time around but those same barrels – this time painted blue – make a cameo appearance when we first meet Mike Brody (played by Dennis Quaid).

There are several nice echoes for Mike Brody back to the original, including a blink and you’ll miss it that same frightened look on his face when he see the 35 foot monster announce itself through the bubble screen to the entire underwater restaurant.

It’s that same look as when the shark glided past him in the pond, fusing the two films and franchise closer together than ever.

Mike also gets to be just like his old man, his firing a crossbow akin to Chief Brody’s finale at the end of Jaws. Of course, it’s also Mike who gets to make the shark go boom at the end of Jaws 3D as well, just by slightly different means.

There’s also a lovely little ‘in joke’ when the baby shark is on display in the pool, the makeshift sign says ‘sh sh shark’ which is exactly what Director Alves’ then girlfriend shouted when she saw Bruce slinking into the pond in the original Jaws.

And then we have the timely reappearance of the decomposed Shelby Overman in a porthole, which is this film's version of the Ben Gardner's head sequence.

Have you spotted any other call backs to Jaws in Jaws 3D?

Words by Dean Newman

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