How the sharks from the Jaws movies are related - yes really!

If we’re talking about the sharks in the stories as actual real sharks, then bizarrely there does appear to be a few claims that each Great White is part of the same big fishy family. The helpful folk over on the Jaws Fandom site have laid it out for all to see.

‘Bruce’ (Jaws, 1975)

Swims, eats, makes little sharks (and that’s all) related to BRUCETTE (mate). Offspring is VENGEANCE.

‘Brucette’ (Jaws 2, 1978)

Seeks revenge for loss of her mate (pathological hatred of teen sailors). Offspring is VENGEANCE.

‘Brucetta’ (Jaws 3-D, 1983)

Seeks revenge for loss of offspring, Baby Shark (cue song)

‘Vengeance’ (Jaws: The Revenge, 1987)

Seeks revenge (again) on the Brody family for killing his dad, Bruce. In the novelisation the shark was actually possessed by voodoo to kill the family (which doesn’t work with the family connections but then this movie barely works on so many levels, what’s one more?)

Meanwhile, if we’re talking about the real world, where we’re viewing the sharks as animatronic, the family tree starts off solidly enough but peters out towards the end.

For Jaws, the original shark was built by Bob Mattey and designed by Joe Alves. Mattey was the man who gave the world the giant squid in ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’ so it seemed reasonable that he knew what he was doing. And he did. Mattey worked from sketches provided by production designer Alves and both men were careful to never over-exaggerate the shark - everything had to be in proportion - so no foot-long ‘carrot teeth’ like the 1970s Universal Theme Park ride shark.

Bruce the mechanical shark from Jaws (1975)

Famously, the shark was nicknamed Bruce by Spielberg and worked like a dream on dry land. But when Bruce got so much as a sniff of salt water, he went all to pieces. His eyes fell out, his jaws wouldn’t close and eventually he gave up and sank.

But like all great stars he finally rallied, putting in a bravura performance. And he’s been scaring the hell out of us ever since.

Brucette the mechanical shark from Jaws 2 (1978)

In Jaws 2, the shark was 25 ft long but in the novelisation description clocked in at 30 ft - that’s near-as-damn-it two Audi Q7s sitting end to end. Again it was built by Bob Mattey and Roy Orbagast but they had a lot to deal with. Mattey wanted to up his game design-wise for the sequel, so set to work refining the process. He used the same body as before but had a new head made to differentiate the shark from Bruce. Brucette had an all-new mouth mechanism but was still built around the original tube skeletons. Around the workshop, the sharks for the sequel were known as - rather unimaginatively - Bruce 2 but on set they were referred to as "Fidel" and "Harold", this time after David Brown's lawyer as opposed to Spielberg’s.

Brucetta the mechanical shark from Jaws 3-D (1983)

For Jaws 3D the production went bigger again. Brucetta came in at a mind-boggling 35 feet long and weighed 13.5 tons. Does this make it a better shark? Or a superior movie? Well, that’s up to the viewer I guess.

There’s little or no information on who made the sharks for Jaws 3D so we don’t know if the same human ‘family members’ were involved behind the scenes but a good deal of the shark footage was achieved by using just the fin and lots of model work. There are also quite a few shots of real sharks in the movie which only made the plastic ones look all the more ropey.

Vengeance the mechanical shark from Jaws The Revenge (1987)

Vengeance, in Jaws: The Revenge, was only given that name by fans with no nickname coming from the crew. Again, no details seem to be online or in print about who put the shark together but by all accounts it was a rush job and even people involved with the film said it didn’t look anywhere near convincing enough.

These days, franchises have to be loaded with connections and homages and references. As though a story cannot possibly exist on its own. Nearly everything is connected with entire plots and character arcs being mapped out well in advance. It’s a canny method of pulling audiences back to watch sequels if nothing else.

But did the original story of Jaws need to be franchised and did there need to be a family of sharks? In 1975 we were given a perfectly crafted story that was much more than a big shark movie. Sadly, the movies that trailed in its wake dumbed down the legacy to such a degree, it’s hard to equate Spielberg’s original with them. For the sake of a bit of fun, it’s ok to draw a line from Bruce to Vengeance, but really, do you need to?

It’s just one of those conversations people have after too many shots of apricot brandy and a quick bit of ‘My scar’s better than yours’.

In the final analysis it comes down to a few cold truths: Sequels will always be green lit by studios if there’s even a sniff of money to be made. Some of these films will be serviceable, while others will be gimmicky and others still will have giant roaring fish. Connections between characters will be written (either retroactively or from the inception of the story) and ideas will be thrown back and forth by people concerning clues and plot points dotted through the different stories. Lots of people enjoy that kind of thing in their movies, and in the end, that’s ok.

Words by Tim Armitage

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