Bite Me! Which Jaws movie has the most kills?
‘This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis.’
So says Cap’n Quint in just one of his famous soliloquies from Jaws. But just how many kills were there in Jaws and its sequels?
Well, funny you should ask.
Jaws (1975)
Chrissie Watkins - dragged under by the as yet unseen ‘bad fish’ whilst out skinny dipping.
She was the first: Chrissie Watkins (Susan Backlinie) was the first victim in the Jaws movie franchise
Alex Kintner - the boy with the pruned fingers who begged and pleaded to go out ‘just a little longer’ on his raft. And got turned into a fountain of claret for his trouble.
Shark attack victim Alex Kintner (Jaws, 1975)
Pipit the dog - oh dear, now this for me is a bit of a sore point, but by now you probably know that. Let’s just say that maybe she did get eaten, maybe she didn’t.
A Tiger Shark - harpooned by a bunch of ‘yahoos’ and paraded as the shark responsible for the deaths thus far. But then Hooper comes in with some ‘bite radius crap’ and ruins everyone’s day. Scientists? What do they know?!
Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) examines a Tiger shark caught by local fisherman (Jaws, 1975)
Ben Gardner - found dead in his wrecked boat by Matt Hooper.
Hunter becomes the hunted. Ben Gardner being stalked by the massive Great White shark (by Lee Hartnup)
Estuary Victim - knocked out of his boat by Bruce and has his leg bitten off before being eaten. This was a great reveal of the shark. It’s still a shock when you see just how big and scary it is.
Stuntman Teddy Grossman played the hapless ‘estuary victim’ in Jaws (1975)
Quint - the man who thought he could kill the shark all by himself. Oh dear. Quint was a living legend. He survived being torpedoed by the Japanese and fought off countless attacks from ravenous Tiger sharks, but was sadly no match for big Bruce.
Quint (Robert Shaw) fights back as he is devoured by the shark in Jaws (1975)
The shark - dies at the hands of the Chief. Stabbed, shot and eventually explodes.
The shark in Jaws sinks to the ocean floor after being killed by Chef Brody (Jaws, 1975)
Jaws total deaths: 7 (or 6 if you don’t count Pipit)
Jaws 2 (1978)
Scuba diver 1 - the shark claims its first victim just off Amity.
Scuba diver 2 - comes back for some desert.
Terry - just out for a day’s waterskiing and then wouldn’t you know it, gets eaten. It’s a good scene actually. Everyone’s seen the first movie, you know the shark’s huge and they probably figured people wanted to see it straight away this time. So you get some god shots of real sharks and the fin really motoring along, cutting through the waves. Then it just bites down and Terry’s gone. There’s a bit of bubbly screaming but that’s your lot.
Diane - driving the boat that’s pulling Terry. Diane gets attacked in the boat, tries to throw some fuel at the shark (but just tips it over her head) and then makes the classic mistake of mixing a highly combustible material with…a flare gun. Diane goes up in flames, Brucette gets a burnt nose and then the speedboat goes boom.
An Orca. Not The Orca, this is a Killer Whale (or dolphin, if you’re being strictly correct) that’s had a big chunk taken out of it and is found by locals.
Eddie Marchand - boyfriend of soon-to-be-severely-traumatised Tina. A nice enough kid who’s knocked overboard when Brucette slams into the boat (ironically called Tina’s Joy), grabs him and then uses Eddie as a battering ram, smashing him into the side of the boat. Eddie hangs around for a few seconds, jibbering and reaching out to the horrified Tina, before vanishing beneath the waves in a cloud of blood and bubbles. It’s all pretty brutal.
Helicopter Pilot - trapped in the cockpit and dragged to his death. By this point in the movie, Brucette is literally eating anything. People, boats, more people, more boats, and now…helicopters. Everyone knows it’s a bit silly but I guess if the shark was big enough it might well be attracted to the sound of the rotor blades and try its luck but Brucette really goes for it. She grabs hold of the floats and pulls the entire thing under water in a matter of seconds. There’s an uncut version of this doing the rounds where you see the pilot underwater trying to fend off Brucette as she moves in for the kill. It reminds you quite a bit of Hooper in his cage in the first movie - not least because I;m pretty sure they lifted the sounds effects from that scene and put it over this second one.
Marge - great name. Straight after the helicopter (and pilot) gets eaten, Brucette starts in on the kids in their boats. She just batters them left right and centre until little Sean Brody falls in and there’s lots of screaming for him to get out (no sh*t Sherlock) which he does but only after he’s helped by unfortunate Marge. This is, for my money, one of the best shots in the entire franchise. The way the shark is photographed looming up out of the water, how it looks like its smiling in this really evil way with its scarred face and how Marge isn’t screaming but just quietly frantic as she’s trying to get back on the boat. It’s effective when she gets eaten but also quite cruel of the script. She shows a maternal protection towards Sean, she put herself in danger to help a child and she pays the price.
Brucette - continuing with her ‘f*ck it, I’ll eat anything now’ rampage, she chomps down on a big electrical cable that Martin Brody has been walloping with a paddle to attack her. It’s a good ending to a fairy decent - if almost entirely predictable - sequel. And sharks are attracted to regular impulses so maybe it’s not entirely infeasible that she’d try to eat the cable.
Jaws 2 total deaths: 9
Jaws 3/3D (1983)
A fish - yep, just a fish.
Shelby Overman - starts with a nice sunset shot of Overman on a barrier out at sea. He jumps in wearing a scuba mask and we find out he’s got to lock a gate. Underwater… He proceeds to do this but starts to get spooked by…something. He keeps turning round and we hear some odd floaty music and then - CHOMP! There’s a weird sort of POV shot from inside the shark’s mouth, although it’s not a POV as how could it be, its from INSIDE THE SHARK. Really makes no sense at all but then you see his arm floating towards the camera (thank you old-timey 3D effects) and that’s it, over and out for Overman. The start of the scene closely foreshadows Deep Blue Sea with the gates and fences of the facility’s deep water pens too.
Randy was a thief. A coral thief, no less. He made the mistake of breaking into Sea World and of course gets eaten by the shark. We don’t see him die but rather there’s a just a shot of his torch going out. His no-good buddy Ed gets pulled/falls (its not too clear) into the water and he also never comes back up.
Philip FitzRoyce - swallowed whole. Just like Quint said. The lead up to the scene is a bit clunky and it’s all really slow (sharks are fast in reality) and the shark does look like its being towed along and its mouth is stuck in this big dumb grin but when you start to think about the scene it’s really nasty. FitzRoyce doesn’t just get bitten, he’s swallowed in one big gulp and has to endure being crushed by the shark’s jaws. There’s another shot from inside the mouth as we see what Philip sees (this time it actually makes sense) and it’s horrible.
Fred - the last human to get be eaten, Fred is a technician. When the shark smashes through the window of the control room (in slow motion) Fred’s not quick enough to escape.
Brucetta the shark. Blown to bits by a grenade that’s still in FitzRoyce’s hand cuz he’s still stuck in the shark’s mouth, stuck between its teeth like a big bit of spinach. Even though this same shark just ate Fred. Where did Fred go? Anyway, Michael Brody (played in a seemingly constant state of blind panic by Dennis Quaid) sees the (bright yellow, just like the barrels) grenade and decides that’s how he’s going to get rid of the fish. And he does.
Jaws 3D total deaths: 7
Jaws The Revenge (1987)
Sean Brody - youngest son of Ellen and Martin still lives in Amity and works as a deputy in the police department. He’s dragged down to his death by a great white while the rest of the town sing Christmas carols so fail to hear him scream for help.
Marla Ferguson is the next victim. Marla is enjoying the Bahamian sunshine, riding a banana boat when the shark (recently arrived from Amity after following what’s left of the Brody family from the Eastern Seaboard of the United States…) pops up and grabs her. Marla’s final actions are very similar to the much more developed character of Marge in Jaws 2 who went to the rescue of Sean Brody. Here Marla saves Thea Brody but sacrifices herself.
Jake - MacGyvers up a device that he claims will emit electively impulses and kill the shark. He climbs out onto the end of the boat and drops it into Vengeance’s open (and growling) mouth. But the shark has other ideas and grabs Jake, pulling him into the water, biting down and clearly killing him. There’s gallons of blood and then the shark disappears still holding Jake in its mouth.*
Vengeance the Shark - gets stabbed by Michael Brody’s boat after being zapped by the electrical impulse gizmo and dies, sinks to the bottom. **
In the INTERNATIONAL/DVD release of the movie, Jake turns up at the end of the movie, floating on his back - he’s alive! He’s still leaking blood into the ocean at an alarming rate but yet is well enough to have chummy bit of banter with Sean about researching snails from now on.
** Also in the INTERNATIONAL/DVD release, when the shark is skewered by the boat it inexplicably explodes. The boat flips all the characters into the sea and what remains of the shark sinks again. Although this time, footage from Jaws of Bruce drifting down from the surface is spliced in as well. This does two things.
It shows up just how terrible the quality of the fourth film is when you compare lighting, effects and editing.
There is no continuity between the two shots if they’re pretending to be from the same story. It could maybe be argued that this is another one of Ellen’s ‘psychic flashbacks’ to events from the first film (which she took no part in so could not have any memory of) but that’s really stretching it.
One final problem is if the shark blew up, how is that Jake turns up again?
Jaws The Revenge total deaths: 4
Words by Tim Armitage
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