Why Steven Spielberg was right to change the ending of Jaws

When Jaws author Peter Benchley heard that Steven Spielberg planned on blowing up the shark at the end of Jaws, he balked at the idea, claiming it wouldn’t work and was entirely unrealistic.

MythBusters – who tested the theory in 2005 on Shark Week – would tend to a agree, but it makes for a crowd-pleasing and triumphant ending, which is exactly what audiences wanted and got.

Jaws director Steven Spielberg on location with his star, Bruce the animatronic shark

And Spielberg knew that having controlled the emotions of the audience for the last two hours, that he’d carry the audience with him as the shark is blown to smithereens. I dare anyone to not smile like a son-of-a-bitch at that ending, and audiences still clap and cheer, as the remains of the shark rain down after the release of two hours of shark-shaped tension.

Jaws author Peter Benchley has a cameo in Spielberg’s movie adaptation as a news reporter

It’s a far cry from the ending of the Jaws book by Benchley, which basically had the shark tire from its injuries and die. Not exactly the crowd-pleaser we have with Roy Scheider, is it?

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So, how could Steven Spielberg be so sure that the ending of Jaws would work, it wasn’t just a leap of faith, it was all about the foreshadowing, a foreshadowing in the shape of a killer shark movie.

Foreshadowing is giving a hint that something is going to happen, by showing certain events or information – which may not seem important at the time - that will prove intrinsic later in the story. And everything is written or shown in a film for a reason, Jaws is no exception.

Cannily, Spielberg had already planted all the seeds that we needed to know that the oxygen tank would work, and the trail of breadcrumbs was littered throughout the film.

Brody looking through a shark book

Trying to find out more about sharks, there is a scene at the Brody residence where the Chief is flipping through a shark book, showing us a mix of illustrations and photos of sharks and shark attack victims. In one image we see a shark with what looks to be an oxygen tank in its mouth, an image which Brody clearly remembers when he launches one of Hooper’s tanks into the shark’s mouth at the end of the film. Setting him up with a moving target for the gripping finale.

Kids on the beach playing the Killer Shark game

And to hit that moving target, Brody uses Quint’s rifle. The shooting of the shark as it swims ever closer to him is foreshadowed on an Amity Island beach where a group of children are seen huddled around a video game, Killer Shark, where the player has to shoot the approaching shark with a gun.

Hooper shouts at Brody

When Chief Brody isn’t knocking over paint brushes or nearly slipping into the ocean, he is pulling the wrong ropes on board the Orca, which according to Matt Hooper could have cut their trip short, when he sends his oxygen tanks rolling down the deck.

Hooper:
Dammit, Martin! This is compressed air!

Brody:
Well, what the hell kind of a knot was that?

Hooper:
You pulled the wrong one. You screw around with these tanks, and they're gonna blow up!

Quint:
Yeah, that's real fine expensive gear you brought out here, Mr. Hooper. 'Course I don't know what that bastard shark's gonna do with it, might eat it I suppose.

And once Brody had shoved that oxygen tank in that shark’s mouth it was eating it (heck if sharks had eaten a numberplate and a rocking chair, then we’ll buy an oxygen tank in its mouth).

As he shoots, Brody even underlines it by uttering “blow up” each time he cracks off another shot.

So, there we have it, the suggestion to Brody and the audience that a shark will carry an oxygen tank in its mouth, the videogame planting the notion that you can kill a shark with a gun, and Hooper underlining that if you aren’t careful – like say piercing it with a bullet – that oxygen tanks will go kaboom!

And that is exactly how Spielberg’s ending to Jaws works as it is meticulously set up throughout the film. Peter Benchley needed have worried.