Licence plate to kill: James Bond joke in Jaws

Have you spotted the James Bond in-joke in Jaws?

You know the name, you know the number...plate, it's the one that Hooper fishes out of the belly of the tiger shark to prove it doesn't contain the remains of Alex Kintner.

He doesn't spill out all over the dock, but a licence plate from Louisiana does, so where is the James Bond significance?

Jaws was shooting in 1974 - initially for a Christmas 1974 release but the mechanical shark and tide put pay to that - and although there was a new 007 film out later that year, The Man With The Golden Gun (1974), the most recent Bond adventure up to that point was Live And Let Die (1973).

That film saw the James Bond debut of Roger Moore, following in the well-tailored footsteps of Sean Connery and the single outing by George Lazenby.

One of the key settings of the film was Louisiana, with Sheriff J W Pepper, the speedboat chase and the alligators. Louisiana features on the plate, as does the slogan 'sportsman's paradise', which also features in Live And Let Die, as well as it boasting the 007 prefix as the first three numbers on the plate. Coincidence?

It's said that Spielberg was a long time James Bond fan and even harboured a desire to make a 007 feature and the inclusion of the very specific licence plate was a homage to that.

And did the makers of the James Bond family return that playfulness in The Spy Who Loved Me with the naming of the steel-toothed assassin as Jaws?

And that licence plate has gone onto have a life of its own it appearing in everything from Deep Blue Sea (1999), Finding Nemo (2003), Sharknado 3 and Ralph Breaks The Internet.

In Louisiana, one man can make a difference

And that isn't the only Jaws and James Bond link. Before he played Quint in Jaws, Robert Shaw was on full villain duties in the second James Bond film to hit the big screen, From Russia With Love (1963), where he played Red Grant who had a still taut and exciting fisticuffs with James Bond (Sean Connery). Here’s our look back at how Shaw almost steals the movie: From Russia With Love Still Leaves You Shaken And Stirred — The Daily Jaws

After Spielberg had wrapped filming on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) - with Jaws actor Richard Dreyfuss - and George Lucas had returned from shooting Star Wars (1977) in a galaxy far, far away the pair retreated to Hawaii and talked about what they wanted to do next.

Spielberg said that he’d always wanted to make a James Bond film (he was turned down by then Bond producer Albert R. Broccoli as being too expensive), but Lucas had a better idea. They would create their own action hero, Indiana Jones (who really is named after Lucas’s dog).

The result was Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones would return in (the prequel) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984), which also featured Key Hue Quan as Short round.

The young actor was also to appear in the following year's Spielberg Executive Produced The Goonies (1985), which saw the James Bond theme feature in its opening sequence. The film also saw Ted Grossman play a stiff in a freezer, he is better known as the Estuary Victim in Jaws.

Jumping back to Indy, the archaeologist would bring his dad along for the ride in the (then) final adventure, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

So, who to get to play Indy’s dad? Who else than the spiritual father of the cinematic Dr Jones, the original James Bond, Sean Connery.

Words by Dean Newman

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