Jaws the Revenge: a shark tale multiverse with two endings
Jaws The Revenge (1987) is the final instalment in the Jaws franchise, which started with Steven Spielberg's classic original in 1975.
In the opening of the film we learn that Chief Brody (Roy Scheider) has died and soon one of his sons, Sean (Mitchell Anderson) will be following him, taken by a great white shark. If the opening of the film gets you with that double whammy, then wait until you get to the endings....endings?
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That's right, the Lorraine Gary and Michael Caine killer shark sequel is the tale of two endings, and we don’t mean like Clue (1985) did – which also happened to feature Jeffrey Kramer who played Hendricks in Jaws and Jaws 2 (1978) – and had multiple endings to see depending on which screening you went to.
This giant fish sequel had its ending changed after it had been released in the US, meaning that the Jaws The Revenge seen on US cinema screens was different to the one released internationally, and when it surfaced on TV and DVD.
The original theatrical ending
Michael Brody (Lance Guest) and his marine biologist colleague Jake (Mario Van Peebles) try and lure the great white to the boat they are on to feed it a device that will send a huge electrical impulse through its body when swallowed and triggered by the surviving Brody boy.
The shark not only swallows the electronic gizmo but also takes Jake (Jaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake) down with him; stunning Ellen Brody (Lorraine Gary), Hoagie (Michael Caine) and Michael into silence as we hear the heartbeat of the shark through the device.
Thankfully Jake’s apparatus works, and the shark is shocked into coming to the surface – it being such a mighty shock that it roars. Lots. Ellen then rams the front of Neptune’s Folly onto the shark, impaling it like a knight with a lance, not Lance Guest though, that would just be silly.
The boat breaks up on impact, throwing its crew into the water (obviously taking hints from Quint as they aren’t wearing any lifejackets). The shark bleeds from its mouth and sinks – echoing the demise of Quint (Robert Shaw) in the original Spielberg classic, although it isn’t wearing a bandana - and then people fly home – Hoagie’s insurance premiums go through the roof - The End.
Apparently, this ending didn’t get much love on its US theatrical run, to quote Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss), I can’t imagine why, so cue Universal ordering hasty reshoots ahead of its international release and calling key cast – and the shark back – for more water-based action (filmed mostly on the Universal backlot, and it shows, the sea even lapping against the sky in one shot) and a more (checks notes), er explosive ending for its release in the rest of the world.
Jaws The Revenge – the international release ending
Sadly, this alternate ending now seems to be the one that Jaws The Revenge is largely screened (or should that be saddled) with and that alternate ending really may have been an alternate reality where – inexplicably - the shark explodes on contact when it is pierced by the bow.
And, boy, were they scraping the barrel – yellow or otherwise - in those not so special effects shots where what is left of the shark looks like a partly melted lolly. Like said lolly, it sucked.
On paper, blowing the shark up must have seemed like a smart move, after all that was how Chief Brody and Mike Brody despatched the great white sharks in Jaws and Jaws 3D (1983).
Explosion over, cue crew falling in the water (which doesn’t really match that shot on location), with newly inserted shots of the shark sinking to (new) depths.
And if that footage looks familiar, it is the same shot of the sinking shark taken from the end of Jaws. But wait, we then get Jake somehow surviving his shark attack ordeal, tis but a flesh wound!
No wonder everyone is surprised, what next Shelby Overman in a post end credit sequence going back to his girlfriend in Jaws 3D? It would have been far more plausible.
It turns out viewers liked Jake, so it was deemed that he would live to collect giant snails another day. Yeh man!
Although this ending is the one now seared onto our retinas in all home releases, the bluray does at least have that original ending as an extra. And, if like me, when you first saw the film on BBC One in the UK, we got that original US theatrical ending.
The film got such a mauling that both the shark (Jaws 19 in Back To The Future Part 2 aside) and Lorraine Gary never appeared in a film ever again. Michael Caine bought a nice house and Mario Van Peebles would go on to direct Nic Cage in USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage.
Which of the two Jaws The Revenge endings do you prefer, or should that be hate the least?
Words by Dean Newman
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